The Dark Knight returns
1986
- pictorial works
- fiction
- graphic novels
- nyt:paperback_graphic_books=2011-07-23
- comic books, strips
- good and evil
- heroes
- nyt:paperback_graphic_books=2012-01-07
- juvenile fiction
- comics & graphic novels
The story
"Together with inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley, writer/artist Frank Miller completely reinvents the legend of Batman in his saga of a near-future Gotham City gone to rot, ten years after the Dark Knight's retirement. This masterpiece of modern comics storytelling, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, brings to vivid life a dark world and an even darker man. The Dark Knight returns in a blaze of fury, taking on a whole new generation of criminals and matching their level of violence. He is soon joined by a new Robin--a girl named Carrie Kelley, who proves to be just as invaluable as her predecessors. But can Batman and Robin deal with the threat posed by their deadliest enemies, after years of incarceration have made them into perfect psychopaths? And more important, can anyone survive the coming fallout from an undeclared war between the superpowers -- or the clash of what were once the world's greatest heroes? Celebrate thirty years of one of the most influential stories ever told in the comics medium with the undisputed classic BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, now with a new cover and introduction"--
What it’s like
Hard-edged, saturated graphic-novel pages: heavy black ink, dense crosshatched shadows, and flat blocks of hot red, sickly yellow and cold blue that Lynn Varley's colouring lays over Mazzucchelli's and Janson's inks like a warning. Panels are often cramped and aggressive, with tilted angles, stark silhouettes against the night skyline, and TV-screen interludes that break the page into fragments of news static and talking heads. The sound is implied rather than heard: sharp punctuated lettering, bursts of onomatopoeia, long silent spreads of a grey city in decay. Vibe: bleak, pulpy, operatic, a noir-tinged mood of rot and reckoning. It suits a late-night read alone, or a stormy evening when you want something heavy with momentum. Pacing lurches between brooding quiet and sudden kinetic brawls. Intensity is high: frequent brutal fistfights, gunfire, bloody injuries, a menacing cruelty in the villains, and some sexual and grim adult material; not gentle. Fitting for adult readers who like mythic, politically charged, violent superhero stories and an older, hardened hero who is far from comfortable company.
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