The Dark Knight Returns/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Dark Knight Returns: The Comic

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again presented Batman as a dangerously-obsessed, deeply-disturbed, paranoid control freak who is possibly a mentally ill Sociopathic Hero as opposed to the stalwart Caped Crusader of the Golden and Silver ages and the Adam West series. This interpretation is touched on Depending on the Writer and sometimes it is the basis for whole story arcs.
    • One example is his creation of the Brother Mk I satellite which was created by Batman to keep an eye on all of the meta-humans, hero and villain alike.
    • Another story, Tower of Babel, centers on Ra's Al Ghul obtaining a file containing Batman's contingency plans to cripple each and every member of the Justice League "just in case" and using them to his own ends. The existence of the files and the secrecy under which they are kept infuriates The League and leads to his expulsion.
    • This is hinted at in The Dark Knight.
      • Another issue of interpretation is whether he became a man the night his parents died, or if he never truly grew
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Batman of all people quotes Monty Python.
  • Complete Monster: The Joker.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Lots of people like to imagine that The Dark Knight Strikes Again doesn't exist. And even though Word of God confirms that All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder is this book's prequel, plenty of fans are happy to ignore this.
  • Follow the Leader: This miniseries singlehandedly ushered in the new age of Cranky Batman.
  • Genre Turning Point: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen pretty much ushered in the Dark Age of comics.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The depiction, manner and philosophy of the Mutants are frankly eerily similar to the more abusive "Anonymous" cells online. Bear in mind, this is referring to the steal-your-identity-and-send-you-death-threats type of Anonymous and not the image board type of Anonymous.
    • Two-Face trying to destroy Gotham's Twin Towers with a bomb, seven years before the same thing was attempted on the real Twin Towers with a car bomb. Later on, of course, a 747 crashes into same said towers, destroying them and setting Gotham on fire. Fourteen years before the same thing happened in Real Life.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight : This came decades before the meme actually started, but take a look at this quote:

Mutant Gang Member: (after being attacked by a bat) It's just a goddamned bat.

The Dark Knight Returns: The Film

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The fact it's getting made, for starters. The casting of Peter Weller as the voice of Batman was also met with general fan approval.
  • Complete Monster: Aside from Joker in Part 2, the Mutant Leader from Part 1 might qualify as well. Before we even see him, it's established that he leads the mutants in their atrocities such as kidnapping a child for ransom and murdering him even after getting the money. When he first appears, it's made clear that he's a brutal, animalistic thug who plans to kill Gordon and Batman in horrifyingly gruesome ways and while fighting Batman he expresses cannibalistic tendencies.
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