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Title: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Series: The Dark Knight Saga #1
Author: Frank Miller, et al
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comic
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
| Synopsis: Spoilers |
Batman has retired, all of the other superheroes have been forced into retirement by Superman, who is now a secret stooge of the United States Government.
But with Gotham getting worse and worse, Batman comes back. Lots of things happen, the Russians nuke a south american ally of the United States and Superman kills Batman, who has in turn killed the Joker. Except obviously Batman doesn’t die but goes on to become the worlds biggest boyscout to a bunch of misfits. Oh the irony.
| My Thoughts: |
If you’re not a fan of Reagan, you might like this more. If you’re not a fan of Superman, you might like this more.
I own this and have read it before, but never logged it or reviewed it. I remembered up through part II where Batman takes down a gang leader to stop them from taking over Gotham. Everything else I did not remember.
There is a reason I blacked it out.
Superman being a collaborator to shut down super powered heroes. I didn’t buy it for a minute. Superman being stupid enough to detonate a nuclear missile in the earth’s atmosphere. I didn’t buy that for a minute. If this had just been about an old Batman, I would have bought that a lot more. But screw Miller. You don’t mess with my Superman.
I also apparently own the sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again. I’m already dreading it. If it’s like this one, I’ll be looking into giving these away somehow.
Also, this is the first comic where it is apparent that I’m getting old. I had to take OFF my glasses several times and bring the book close to read the bloody text. There were quite a few times where the text was very squiggly, cursive’y, irregular and it made it bloody hard to read. Goodness, I’m in fine fettle with this book.
I’m being very generous with my star rating here. If I was just judging this on enjoyment alone, it would have gotten a HALF star.
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Glasses–I’m not that far off. I find the text size on my Kindle spends more time being bigger than smaller these days…
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I went over to my younger brother’s the other week and he had gotten a new kindle [paperwhite?] that had lighting. I tried it out and immediately had to up the font size 🙂
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Getting older…sigh.
I read on a Kindle Oasis. Expensive for an eReader but by far the best reading experience.
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Good to know. I’ve got one of the 4th generation basics, the last model that had physical buttons. Unfortunately, the buttons are starting to act up, so I have a bad feeling I’ll be replacing it in the next year or so.
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I can’t recommend the Kindle Oasis enough. If you’re willing for spend the bucks, it’s brilliant.
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I don’t read as many comics/graphic novels as I’d like these days, but I used to read a lot and back then I was a huge fan of Frank Miller. Even then I thought this one was only okay, not one of my favorites of his works.
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I don’t know enough about specific artists and writers for me to pay attention, MOST of the time. And it always comes back to bite me…
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oh dear- I don’t buy that about superman either- it just doesn’t sound like him *at all*! (Side point: after the whole Batman Vs Superman thing, is it still ok to like both of those characters?)
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I’ve read enough Supe hating comics that I can spot someone who doesn’t “like” Superman and takes out their dislike in various ways.
As for liking both of them, Absolutely! I really enjoyed the directors cut edition of BvS and am looking forward to more Justice League.
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ahh how annoying!! Ah I heard that was actually good- which was surprising, cos before that I heard it was a botched mess. Might check that out- cos I didn’t actually bother cos of all the bad reviews. I do want to see more justice league, I’m just a little sceptical
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Everything bad about BvS I heard was about the theatrical release. I heard nothing but good about the Directors Cut. Of course, if someone hated the theatrical, why would they waste their time watching the directors cut? I only watched the directors cut and I’m kind of hesitant to watch the theatrical.
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Ahh that’s really good to know- that makes a lot of sense- thanks so much for this tip!
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Got to admit that Frank Miller definitely shows how much he doesn’t like Supz in this (well.. pretty much anywhere he puts the Man of Steel). Although, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It was also one of my first experience of graphic novels. If you had read my review you’d probably see a huge contrast in enjoyment between your experience and mine hahah But with Superman not given a proper representation, one that would please a Superman fanboy, this was definitely going to be hard to enjoy!
The sequel is COMPLETE and ABSOLUTE trash. There’s no way that you could possibly find any joy in that unnecessary sequel (I’ll be impressed if you do enjoy it more than this one, like… really impressed). Hopefully you’ll come out mentally unharmed by reading The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
The third volume, The Master Race, however sounds like a return to form for Frank Miller (with the help of Brian Azzarello). I haven’t collected all the released issues for that one though (it still has 2 more issues to release), but I’m definitely looking forward to checking that out.
– Lashaan
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Good to know about the sequel. Between my experience with this and your non-recommendation, I shall adjust my already low expectations down one more notch 🙂
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While I’m not a fan of these two books, particularly the art, I clearly enjoyed them more than you. The main things I took away from the stories was that Miller was doing a big social commentary and also tearing down the idea of superheroes a decade or so before Garth Ennis, and two decades before the excellent Irredeemable (Mark Waid from memory).
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I agree with your assessment. And that is also part of why I didn’t enjoy it. Not a fan of the “is it popular? Let me tear it down and ruin it” thinking. And his hammer handedness instead of a deft touch didn’t help at all either 🙂
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