It will take ages to read this all the way through .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel is really the Holy Grail of comic books as this stirred up the Batman legacy in such a sufficient manner that it changed to an extent it is what it is today. At the time of its release in February 1986 the sales of the Batman comic started to dwindle, the movies were not even released and the only time Batman was seen was if cartoons and shows were re-run on TV which was damaging the sales potential of the Batman product.
The book itself completely rejuvenated Batman as a whole as this was really the first time that a graphic novel had departed from the normal passage of a character and gone off on a completely new tangent, telling a story that for the mid-eighties had an awful amount of violence and involved 13 year old characters who would accompany Batman as his sidekick Robin.
The story revolves around a totally different world than what we are used to, gone is the clean cities and bright colours to be replaced with a dark, lonely world that is full of corruption and dumbing down. Superheroes such as Batman are now illegal and cannot patrol or protect. Millionaire Brice Wayne who is now well on his way reaching sixty years old has retired from life as the Caped Crusader and is concentrating on charity work and in particular rehabilitation of Harvey Dent, who is better known as Two Face. Dent escapes and returns to a life of crime, seeing no other alternative Wayne decides that the only person that can stop him is Batman as most of the other heroes have been murdered or incarcerated, and therefore Batman is reborn and stops Dent from his crime spree. With the media reaction somewhat undeceive the media twist the story so that Batman is portrayed as an enemy to the public which the public react to.
Due to the raw savageness of society breaking down the world is shown going through a whole host of bad times. Gotham City is depicted as a lot darker and a lot more dangerous than before as it is being overrun by a group of teenagers called the 'The Mutants' who attack Batman early in the story., but thanks to a lone 13 year old girl called Carrie Kelley who assists Batman, The Mutant leader is arrested. In return for her help Carrie becomes the new Robin, when political negotiation with the Mutant fail and the Mayor of Gotham is executed the escape of the Mutant leader is arranged by Commissioner Gordon, Batman was headed off about this and takes the Leader out in front of the rest of The Mutant gang who change allegiance to become 'The Sons Of Batman'.
After an encounter with The Joker who commits suicide by breaking his own neck, the newly appointed Police Commissioner, Ellen Yindel, issues an arrest warrant for Batman for the murder of The Joker… and this just the first half of the story, the second involves Superman who is the only remaining 'legal' superhero. He is now nothing more than a political puppet that is sent in to win wars and defeat any threat to America, which in this case would be Russia. The two story lines merge together in quite an unexpected way.
So where do I start with the artwork? Simple I start with the cover. The cover shown here on this review is the 15th Anniversary edition, the original cover showed Batman swinging across the sky in total silhouette against a crack of pure white lightning. The inside is now less dramatic as what artist and writer Frank Miller has achieved is slow the reader down so they capture every single detail of the story. To do this Miller has done a one page drawing, for example lets take the page where Batman has just from a roof, and this could quite a static illustration. What he has done is to place sound bites of people talking who in this case would be the President or the Newscaster and break the static up so that even though you know what is happening you are kind of sent out elsewhere from the main story to a sideline event which will take you back when you turn the page. This also allows a deeper injection of characterisation and allows the story to breathe whilst the reader is just following the story.
In some pages in the book the page is split up in as many as 16 frames, which again allows different angles to be taken and makes the drawings play as a film and allows a greater sense of suspense to be built upon with minimal effort. In fact no two pages are exactly alike, so there are no frame structures being repeated at all throughout the book itself, the effect of overlapping the frames to give a montage effect which works very well and manages to keep hold of your attention throughout and works in the same way as a voiceover in a film or a narrator. A very clever approach has been taken.
The look of Batman is completely different; when this was published the Batman in the conics was a tall slender, muscular built man. In the Dark Knight Returns he is virtually the size of Arnold and is drawn in a rough manner that makes him look gritty as well as violent. The costume is alot darker than before mainly grey and black. This Batman is huge and stands well over six and a half feet in height. His attitude is totally different as well as he discusses now that he has returned that whether he should take lives to keep up with how Gotham has changed, a very different and 'out of character' Batman as he is more vigilante than detective in the story and use violence to address violence. The same reversal is done with Superman, as he is now a 'yes' man for the American government and doesn't question anything and just does it, a complete 180 degrees for both characters and something that the fans and readers of both Batman and Superman were not accustomed to at the time. Other things such as the Batmobile became a radically designed tank and Robin was a girl, which does work on some levels but necessarily on others.
One thing you may notice is that the characters first appearance throughout the story are all in silhouette form, this does make you think after seeing it as to exactly who you've just read about.
As I said at he beginning the influence that this book had on the DC world of comics was huge if not groundbreaking. Not only did this kick start the production of the first Batman film since 1966 with the release of Batman in 1989, where Batman was played as a more tougher and brutal character by Michael Keaton, but was also absorbed into the DC universe so that storylines would be drastically altered, relationships would become dysfunctional. For example the friendship between Superman and Batman is well known, after this the relationship was altered to be cold to say the least. Mainly because it was high lighted that the two characters are complete opposites and although both lost their parents, they believe they have nothing in common which is still used in the DC storylines today. Most notably the Batman Beyond animated series where a 80 year old Bruce Wayne is mentor to a new and younger Batman.
The Dark Knight Returns the first story of a well known hero to be released in the form of a graphic novel, there had only been a handful of such similar publications such as MAUS and Watchmen by Alan Moore, which got peoples attention. It was only when a known property such as Batman was used that the graphic novel really took off and the medium of graphic novels got noticed and I have to say got noticed for the right reasons. This book was not only original but also took something that was well known and turned it upside down, which not only re-invented the genre but also meant that longevity had been give to the subject in hand.
I hope you do read this as the artwork and the story will blow your mind, and over 20 years later the story will have strong comparisons with today's society. The satirical level that has been approached with the renditions of the President and the TV show host who seem to resemble Ronald Regan and David Letterman is still very funny as the story seems to give a big two fingers to the media and politicians in general.
Please note that there is a high amount of violence in the book, it should really come with a 15 certificate as the gore is quite frightening to see. However seeing as this is aimed at the mature reader then this is a damn fine read and a breath of fresh air.
Returns by Frank Miller--known recently for his excellent Sin City series and, previously, for his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil--is probably the su...
Returns by Frank Miller--known recently for his excellent Sin City series and, previously, for his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil--is probably the su...
