Multiple Perspectives In and On Batman
I have too many things I want to write about when it comes to Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. This is not the first time I have read this comic, and I have also read Miller’s sequel, Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, so in the back of my mind when re-reading this book I was always thinking (not intentionally, exactly) about where I knew the story was going. Batman is also my hands-down favorite masked crusader, I could talk about him all day … but I will restrain myself.
Reading the comic, I was thinking about the question of Batman’s position – Is he really as crazy as the villains he fights? Does he have a psychological condition? Is he guilty of crime (But not murder! As Lana Lang makes clear, Batman doesn’t kill!) like other criminals in Gotham? This side of the argument (the anti-Batman side) is well-represented in the book, some of Wayne/Batman’s internal monologues not entirely disconfirming suspicions of mental instability or Wayne’s dependence on the Batman’s personae, his costume, his mission – although this “dependence” can also be viewed as commitment. The line between the two is not always clear.
I am also interested by the ways that the different storylines in the book are juxtaposed, the parallel combination of Batman’s missions, newscasts, and other characters (Carrie’s story, Gordon’s story, Superman’s story, etc.) and how this affects the reader’s understanding of the “bigger picture.” The pacing of the story is also changed by the rapid layering of multiple elements (seen on pp. 14, 44-45, 71, as a few of many examples) versus extended scenes in one location and from one perspective (most of which are “fight scenes”), accelerating or decelerating the pace of the storytelling. This all has an effect on the perspective of the reader, given insight on Batman, Gordon, Carrie, even briefly the Joker and Superman (used as a sort of counterpointed characterization to Batman) while also seeing newscasts, debates, political goings-on … Miller develops a more panoramic view instead of staying glued to Wayne/Batman, always circling around the Dark Knight’s storyline and using tangents to inform the reader’s views on the Batman.
The thing I found the most interesting on this read – something I had not taken note of before – was the frequent and often glaring similarities between Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. Dark Knight was originally released in 1986, as was Watchmen, both by DC Comics, placing the two works in identical historical context. This is perhaps why the overarching political theme of the threat of nuclear war is seen clearly in both works. There are large, thematic connections between the two pieces: nuclear war; the idea of a superhero working for the government (Dr. Manhattan/Superman; the president in Dark Knight says on page 119 “Meanwhile, don’t you fret … we’ve got God on our side … or the next best thing, anyway” calling to mind the Dr. Manhattan-as-God quote; additionally, the idea of the hero versus the vigilante); the decrepit, has-been, retired superhero coming out of retirement; cities taken over by gangs of kids (the Mutants versus the Knot Tops). There are also details connecting the two pieces: Batman going down to the Bat Cave late at night (and in the nude!)(p. 19) calls to mind Nite Owl’s identical action. There are moments when Batman resembles Nite Owl, Rorschach, and even the Comedian. Was one comic influenced in a more direct way by the other? How do these structural similarities – the political context, the positions of the superheroes/vigilantes – lead to the very different endings? Both comics end with a sacrifice, but while Watchmen sacrifices most of New York City, Batman sacrifices (and reveals!) himself to save his city.
Well, I feel like it draws together around the idea of the hero in crisis. Of two books that questioned why a hero was even needed, though very differently, for all the similarities you draw. Watchmen is about whether people should be manipulated by their heroes into doing something for their own good, if at great cost to the world in human life. Dark Knight Returns is about remaking oneself in the face of the destruction of even the idea that you were good, much less what you believed in. Both are about the United States at that time. Which is to say, Moore was asking, Who is there to make sure our heroes toe the line of the law? And while this is a theme of the Dark Knight returns, what is central to that story is, Who can the hero be to help his people, when his world changes in a way that it seeks his destruction?
Thinking about the story is hard, as separate from all of the other Batman stories, but it does reach into every part of the myth, and delivers something that feels both familiar and new at the same time. But I do think if you look at all of the pieces, you’ll see the hero in crisis, fighting about even the idea of what a hero is.