Comments on: Multiple Perspectives In and On Batman http://guttersniper.com/2009/10/18/multiple-perspectives-in-and-on-batman/ ENGL 74: The Graphic Novel Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:50:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: koreanish http://guttersniper.com/2009/10/18/multiple-perspectives-in-and-on-batman/#comment-252 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:11:46 +0000 http://guttersniper.com/?p=804#comment-252 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.

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