Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is the best graphic novel featuring a super hero. Well, that's arguable, but many would vote in favor of that notion. The Dark Knight Returns shows a much darker Gotham City and a much darker Batman. Batman is older, he is darker and he punishes the criminals, not just with fancy gadgets, but with sheer brute force.

Here is a review of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller from amazon.com:

If any comic has a claim to have truly reinvigorated the genre, then The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller--known also for his excellent Sin City series and his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil--is probably the top contender. Batman represented all that was wrong in comics and Miller set himself a tough task taking on the camp crusader and turning this laughable, innocuous children's cartoon character into a hero for our times. The great Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, the arguably peerless Watchmen) argued that only someone of Miller's stature could have done this. Batman is a character known well beyond the confines of the comic world (as are his retinue) and so reinventing him, while keeping his limiting core essentials intact, was a huge task.

Miller went far beyond the call of duty. The Dark Knight is a success on every level. Firstly it does keep the core elements of the Batman myth intact, with Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, and the old roster of villains, present yet brilliantly subverted. Secondly the artwork is fantastic--detailed, sometimes claustrophobic, psychotic. Lastly it's a great story: Gotham City is a hell on earth, street gangs roam but there are no heroes. Decay is ubiquitous. Where is a hero to save Gotham? It is 10 years since the last recorded sighting of the Batman. And things have got worse than ever. Bruce Wayne is close to being a broken man but something is keeping him sane: the need to see change and the belief that he can orchestrate some of that change. Batman is back. The Dark Knight has returned. Awesome. --Mark Thwaite

Batman The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is the uncredited source for the new movies that people are raving about. The things that happen in this book mirror The Dark Knight movie that people are raving about. Sure it's not the same exact thing, but it's worth reading. I really enjoyed reading this one and I'm sure that you will too, even if you're not a Batman fan. It's dark, it's serious, and yet it's a superhero comic book; odd.



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