Because I haven't posted anything in a while and because everyone loves Batman, here's my essay on The Dark Knight Rises. I could have done a parody of Batman for my Comic Books & Graphic Novels assignment but I figured I hadn't done an essay in a while, so what the heck? It got 66% which isn't too bad for an essay, let's hope my comic book creative piece is better. What I've gathered, though, is that I need to work more on my conclusions. I have another essay due in a couple of weeks and I'm going to try really hard on that one, although I'm already feeling frustrated by it and I haven't even started!
Is Batman: The Dark Knight
Returns a successful novel?
With the
release of the final instalment of Christopher Nolen’s Batman trilogy it is clear
to see that Batman has never been so popular. It has been over 20 years since Frank
Miller wrote Batman: The Dark Knight
Returns and yet a highly respected animated version has recently been
released. Before Miller, dark and gritty protagonists fighting in a violent
world were the exception not the norm. So does this shadowy way of storytelling
make the Dark Knight Returns a
successful novel?
Bruce Wayne
has been retired from the superhero business for ten years but with the arrival
of the Mutants he dons the cape once more. Gone is the campness and humour of
the sixties and instead there is a dark anti-hero in a despairing city. Batman
has always been a crime fighter ever since his creation in 1939 but The Dark
Knight Returns involves more extreme violence, as well as plenty of blood
and gore. The Dark Knight Returns made
the New York Times bestseller list, and
the Times critic called it ‘jazzy,
offbeat, grim, shocking, nonlinear.’[1] It
also received praise in reviews from Rolling
Stone and Atlantic Monthly. However, not
everyone was ready to accept this new style of comic book. Bob Kane, creator of
Batman, was puzzled many things in the comic, including the masculine woman
Bruno who has swastikas on her breasts and buttocks; ‘I don’t understand it
fully,’ he says. ‘It’s beyond my early naïve Batman drawings, I guess.’ [2]
The Village Voice, a New York paper,
attacked the comic saying that it was ‘neoconservative propaganda’[3]
based on the fact that the Dark Knight Returns
did not offer a ‘didactic left-wing perspective’[4].
Miller found these comments ‘pretty silly’[5]
and states that he ‘couldn’t have done Batman and have been politically correct
at the same time, because the politically correct contingent won’t allow for
any character with a larger-than-life status’[6]
and that ‘violence was out’[7].
This however did not stop comics of a
similar art form being produced. Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen and Art Spiegelman’s Maus
were two comic books, as well as The
Dark Knight Returns, that would usher in the ‘modern age of mainstream
comics’.[8]
This genre is characterised by darker, more psychologically driven stories and
by anti-hero protagonists that blur the line between hero and villain.
Miller’s
use of the literary device ‘internal monologue’[9]
captures Bruce’s every thought and with this the reader can understand the
choices he makes. The reader understands why Bruce wants to go back to crime
fighting; they know that Batman misses Dick Grayson, the original Robin; and they know why he will never stop. Not only that, it helps to describe what is
going on in what might be otherwise unclear artwork. For example, the scene in
which Batman fights the Mutant leader, this device lets the reader know what is
happening specifically. ‘I make him eat some garbage. Then I help him swallow
it…Then his claws dig into my back. His filed teeth like razors in my
trapezius.’[10] This is especially
unclear in the book, and the reader certainly would not know that Batman’s
trapezius was hurt from the drawings alone. Batman is not the only character
with this interior monologue; most of the main characters have them too.
The colourist,
Lynn Varley, cleverly distinguishes between these many thoughts by using
different colours that represent the character. Batman’s is grey, which matches
Gotham’s dull and gloomy atmosphere as well as his psychological state. Robin’s
is a bright yellow, conveying her optimistic innocence, a brightness that
contrasts completely with Batman. Superman’s is a bright blue that pales when
he is in a weakened state during the nuclear attack. The Joker’s is a toxic
green, signifying his evil personality.
However,
not everyone appreciated the artistic talents. Mordecai Richler, writer for the New
York Times, was not enthralled by Miller’s work, saying that ‘the drawings
offer a grotesquely muscle-bound Batman and Superman, not the lovable champions
of old.’[11]
He added that ‘the stories are convoluted, difficult to follow and crammed with
far too much text.’[12] While it could be argued
that there is a lot of text and many smaller panels, there are no official
conventions for comic books. The Art of
Comics discusses the ‘Image-Text Complex in Comics’[13] and says that there are
sometimes cases in which there are no words in panels and that, although more
rarely, there are instances in which the panel is not filled with any image at
all.[14] Miller and Klaus Janson
were in their right to use as much image and text as they wanted.
Miller uses
many characters to highlight Batman’s own character. There are scores of people
who think he is a villain, like the civilians of Gotham city and Police
Commissioner Yindel. Not only that, Miller uses Batman’s worst enemies, Two-Face
and the Joker, against him, as well as his superhero friend, Superman.
Harvey Dent
and Batman have essentially the same ideal – to make Gotham a better place.
Unfortunately that changed for Dent when his face was disfigured by acid. Two-Face
has spent the last 12 years in Arkham Asylum but has been released with a clean
bill of health and a plastic surgery repaired face. He is however still
Two-Face and he terrorises Gotham city swathed in bandages. Two-Face is a
representation of what Bruce Wayne could become if he lets his crime fighting
obsession overwhelm him. Miller stated that ‘Two-Face is identical to Batman in
that he’s controlled by savage urges…he’s very much like Batman’[15]. At
the end of their struggles Batman admits that looking at Dent is like looking
at a mirror; ‘I see him. I see… “I see…a reflection, Harvey. A reflection”’[16]
Miller uses Two-Face like the warm
up for the main event - the Joker. He is Batman’s most prolific enemy. The same
Doctor who releases Two-Face allows the Joker to be free and claims that Batman
is the menace who would harass him. When the Joker appears on the David
Endochrine Show he is striking a powerful pose, almost resembling Superman’s a
few pages earlier. He has strong, broad shoulders, and the way the curtain is
positioned around him is similar to the movement of a cape. This is not the
clownish Joker of the Batman TV series. This is Batman’s serious rival. Miller
says that Joker is ‘a force of chaos’[17]
and that he represents the ‘chaos Batman despises, the chaos that killed his
parents.’[18]
In using the Joker Miller is also
appealing to the many Batman fans. It would not be a true Batman comic without
him.
The Dark Knight Returns is not necessarily canonical and statements
have been issued regarding the continuity: ‘BATMAN:
THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS is also NOT considered to be part of the normal
continuity. It is a POSSIBLE future for Batman, and one which may or may not
happen…it would be a shame to limit the Batman’s future to this one story.’[19]
So while Batman and the Joker have their final showdown, it is not necessarily
how the Joker truly dies. Yet it is a fitting way to end it, with the Joker
laughing to his death beside an aged Batman. This refined handling of such an
important death is what makes The Dark
Knight successful, as readers would not be satisfied with an ‘easy’ death.
As the Joker was such a notorious villain he needed a fitting death. Even after
he is dead he is still able to hurt Batman as the madness the Joker causes at
the fairground is blamed on Batman: ‘By attacking Gotham’s police, Batman has
revealed himself as an unqualified menace…the Joker’s body found mutilated and
burned…murder is added to the charges against the Batman.’[20]
None the less, the Joker is not the toughest challenge. Batman still has to
face Superman. This again refers back to the modern age comics and how the
lines between hero and villain are blurred.
Superman
and Batman are polar opposites. Superman uses Clark Kent as his secret
identity, he is not from this world, has super powers and cannot die. Bruce
Wayne, a billionaire playboy, uses Batman as his secret identity. He has no
super powers, only gadgets and strength, and he can die. Although the biggest
difference is that Superman is a well-liked and respected superhero whereas
Batman is seen as a menace and vigilante. Having Superman in this comic only
proves how different the two are. While Bruce Wayne has been retired, Superman
is now a pawn for the US government, who have asked him to stop Batman’s
violent ways. The battle between Superman and Batman at the end of the novel is
a satisfying climax; Batman may have beaten his enemies but now he must face
his friend. Despite the fact that Miller uses internal monologue throughout
this final showdown the audience does not know what the outcome will be, Batman
never gives away his plan, even to Robin. Then, it seems like Batman has been
killed. Yet the reader finds out that Bruce Wayne has left Gotham to create an
army that will finally ‘bring sense to a world plagued by worse than thieves
and murderers’.[21] This is more rewarding
for a reader than if he had just died, as they know that Batman can never truly
be stopped.
The Dark Knight Returns may not have been received well by everyone at the time of its release
but for die-hard fans it was a hit. Like with any beloved character some people
do not like it when they are changed or reimagined. But this was a much needed
change for Batman. Miller’s gritty style has outlived the fun of the sixties
and the fandom has been growing ever since. The
Dark Knight Returns was inspiration for
both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. It has been ranked
number two on IGN’s list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels, second only
to Batman: Year One.[22] It appears that
while fans of the comic are torn, it cannot be denied that Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was definitely a success.
[1]
Bob Kane, Batman and Me (USA: Eclipse
Books, 1989) p. 155
[2] Bob
Kane, Batman and Me p. 155
[3] C.
Carr, ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns’, Village
Voice, June 1986
[4] The Many Lives of Batman: Critical
Approaches to a Superhero and his Media, ed. by Roberta E. Pearson &
William Uricchio (New York: Routledge, 1991) p. 38
[5] The Many Lives of Batman, ed. by Roberta
E. Pearson & William Uricchio p. 38
[6] The Many Lives of Batman, ed. by Roberta
E. Pearson & William Uricchio p. 38
[7] The Many Lives of Batman, ed. by Roberta
E. Pearson & William Uricchio p. 38
[8] The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach
ed. by Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook (UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2012) p.xxiv
[9] Will Brooker,
Batman Unmasked: Analysing a Cultural Icon (London: Continuum, 2000) p. 267
[10] Frank
Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
(London: Titan Books, 1997) p. 78
[11] Mordecia
Richler, ‘Paperbacks: Batman at Midlife: Or the Funnies Grow Up’, New York
Times, May 03 1987. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/03/books/paperbacks-batman-at-midlife-or-the-funnies-grow-up.html [accessed 22 Oct. 12]
[12] Mordecia Richler, ‘Paperbacks: Batman at Midlife: Or
the Funnies Grow Up’, New York Times, May 03 1987. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/03/books/paperbacks-batman-at-midlife-or-the-funnies-grow-up.html [accessed 22 Oct. 12]
[13] The Art of Comics ed. by Aaron Meskin
and Roy T. Cook p.93
[14] The Art of
Comics ed. by Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook p.96
[16] Frank
Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
p. 55
[17] The Many Lives of Batman, ed. by Roberta
E. Pearson & William Uricchio p. 36
[18] The Many Lives of Batman, ed. by Roberta
E. Pearson & William Uricchio p. 36
[19] The Many Lives of Batman, ed. by Roberta
E. Pearson & William Uricchio p. 192
[20] Frank
Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
pp. 157-158
[21] Frank
Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
p. 199
[22] Goldstein, Hilary, ‘The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic
Novels’, IGN, October 25 2011 http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/10/25/the-25-greatest-batman-graphic-novels [accessed 23 Oct. 12]
