5 Reasons The Dark Knight Is Still One of the Most Popular Batman Stories Ever

Frank Miller’s 1986 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns stands as one of the most towering and influential Batman comic book stories of all time, with several of the graphic novel’s core traits helping to explain its popularity. In The Dark Knight Returns, all superheroes have been outlawed by the U.S. government, save for Superman, with the Justice League broken up and Bruce Wayne having spent the last decade retired as Batman. Despite this, a series of unexpected events in Gotham City spur the aging Bruce out of his retirement, leading him to don the cowl once more and leap back into action as Gotham City’s sworn protector Batman.

Ask most Batman fans what their favorite Batman comic book stories are, and there’s an excellent chance that The Dark Knight Returns will be right at the top for many of them, and with good reason. The Dark Knight Returns is not only a seminal Batman story, but one which all but set the standard of public perception of Batman himself ever since. Additionally, The Dark Knight Returns also introduced some new elements and characters into Batman’s canon that fans have been continually enamored with and which have helped define Batman as a character. Here are 5 major reasons why The Dark Knight Returns is so popular to this very day.

1) The Dark Knight Returns Took Batman Back to His Dark Roots

Prior to The Dark Knight Returns‘ debut in 1986, the public perception of Batman was largely synonymous with the Adam West-led Batman TV series of the 1960s. While the show was admittedly a tonally accurate representation of Batman comics in the post-Seduction of the Innocent era of the ’50s and ’60s, Batman had also become far removed from the dark, foreboding creature of the night he began as in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. With The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller sought to take Batman back to his roots and Miller, in his own words “gave Batman his b–ls back”.

With the immediate popularity of The Dark Knight Returns, Batman was once again seen in the public consciousness as dark, aggressive, and menacing, striking terror into the hearts of Gotham’s evildoers, and bringing a lot of grit and Bat-style gadgetry to the game. In turn, the success of The Dark Knight Returns helped producer Michael E. Uslan finally convince Warner Bros. to green-light the dark and moody big-screen Batman film he’d spent years pushing for, which eventually became Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989. With that movie’s monumental success, it’s fair to say that Batman’s return to the dark tone of his origins is directly attributable to the influential impact and success of The Dark Knight Returns.

2) Old Man Batman Is a Unique Angle

As one of the senior most heroes of the DC superhero community, Batman is a veteran of crime-fighting, but his age in both comics and live-action and animated adaptations tends to show him either in the ’30s to ’40s range or just starting out in his mid-20s. This helped The Dark Knight Returns stand out even more by not only centering on a 55 year-old Bruce Wayne, but one just coming out of a decade-long retirement as Batman.

Compared DC’s metahuman heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman who age far more slowly than humans, Batman’s human aging process places emphasis on both his strengths and weaknesses. In donning the cowl again at a rather advanced age after 10 years on the bench, Batman is subject to human frailties and mortality in a way the both metahuman heroes and younger human heroes aren’t. At the same time, Batman’s exceptional drive and determination more than compensate for the effects that age and retirement have had, with the Caped Crusader having no difficulty returning to his crime-fighting life, and The Dark Knight Returns giving Batman fans a real novelty in Miller’s Batman story.

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3) Batman Inspires a New Legion of Crimefighters (Who Were Once His Enemies)

One of Batman’s first big confrontations in The Dark Knight Returns is battling a gang known as the Mutants terrorizing Gotham City, and it takes a surprising and very unexpected turn. After Batman soundly beats the Mutant’s leader, the Mutants break apart, with one faction being greatly inspired by Batman to change their looting and gangster activities to a life of crime fighting like their new hero. They even take on the name of the Sons of Batman, but they still have a lot to learn about the Dark Knight’s ways.

As The Dark Knight Returns progresses, Batman takes the Sons of Batman under his wing, mentoring them in his crime fighting philosophy and methods and guiding them away from the reckless hooligans they once were. Moreover, after Batman fakes his death, the Sons of Batman continue to operate under his leadership, showing the greatest power of Batman and of any superhero will always be to inspire people to become the best versions of themselves.

4) The Dark Knight Returns Is a Robin Origin Story As Much as a Batman Returning Story

The Dark Knight Returns may mark a resumed superheroic career for Bruce Wayne, but it is also a superhero origin story for a new Robin, Carrie Kelley. Coming from a broken home and already in deep admiration of Batman, the 13 year-old Carrie ends up saving the newly returned Batman’s life during one of his early conflicts. Recognizing Carrie’s capacity for crime fighting even at her young age is already on the level of his previous apprentices Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, Bruce takes Carrie under his wing as the new Robin.

With The Dark Knight Returns being an Elseworlds tale, Carrie is somewhat of a one-off Robin who, with a handful of exceptions, is largely only featured on Earth-31 (the specific DC Universe in which The Dark Knight Returns and its follow ups take place), but she’s nonetheless become as iconic a Robin as any to precede or follow her. Carrie even goes on to become Catgirl in The Dark Knight Strikes Again and Batwoman in The Dark Knight III: Master Race, exemplifying the story told over the three books is as much hers as it is Batman’s. For as much canonical jewel as The Dark Knight Returns is to Batman, it is also just as significant in acting as a Robin origin story for Carrie Kelley.

5) Batman vs. Superman – Enough Said

The World’s Finest, the two greatest superheroes of all time, the core founders of the Justice League who comprise two-thirds of DC’s iconic superhero Trinity – Batman and Superman finally come to blows in The Dark Knight Returns. Admittedly, the story isn’t the most flattering one ever told for Superman, with the Man of Steel the only superhero still permitted to operate by the U.S. government and acting as their personal weapon, summoned to put a stop to Batman’s renewed activities (along with being responsible for Green Arrow losing his arm, the embittered, aging Oliver Queen becoming Batman’s ally in the story for that reason). That being said, in terms of superhero slugfests, Batman vs. Superman just had to happen sooner or later, and The Dark Knight Returns finally made it happen on the pages of a classic comic book story, with Batman emerging victorious and delivering his iconic warning to Superman to “remember the one man who beat you” before faking his death (which Superman later learns about and plays along in covering up).

The Dark Knight and the Man of Steel’s smackdown is one of the most iconic battles of two superheroes in comic book history, and one that has been adapted multiple times. Jay Oliva’s animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns pays tribute to Miller’s story while capturing the battle in all its glory, while Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice acts as a cinematic adaptation of sorts of the story, modifying certain elements while delivering on the epic fight itself as a foundation for the Justice League’s formation. Comic book fans, of course, understand the importance of Batman and Superman’s alliance and don’t want to take sides or see either one harmed. With that said, a good old slugfest of icons is hard to say no to, and The Dark Knight Returns is the embodiment of exactly that in its Batman vs. Superman showdown.