Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank MillerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s an absolutely brilliant graphic novel. Dark, gritty, satirical. The art is beautiful, the writing is as Frank Miller as it gets. It’s a book one consumes in one sitting, then stops and reconsiders with the desperate desire to absorb it better. There’s so much happening in it, between the different issues, but combining them makes it a true Batman story.
I think this is the one that got to the heart of what Batman is and why fans love him, yet also stands as an anti-thesis to that primal powerful spirit that earlier novels represent. It has the detective, the crime-fighter and the tactician, traits that make Batman a hero worth rooting for. At the same time, the Batman has lost some of the morality, the brute force that made him feel like an almost-otherworldly being, replaced by a throbbing pragmatism that is terrifying. Between these ideas is the spirit, the force of nature that shatters criminals through sheer will.
This ambiguity and tension, combined with the backstories and the interruptions that show other characters and areas, make a beautifully introspective novel that questions the nature of vigilantism, heroism and power.
For all my praise, I couldn’t bring myself to give it five stars. It is terrific, but I think it’s missing just a little bit more that would bring it home. A tiny bit more depth, more closure, more exploration. The satire, sometimes, falls just a tiny bit short. I think that might be because I’m a modern reader commenting on a very old book, but that has been my experience regardless.
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