Guess who's back, back again: Oldman Batman!

Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns brings a satirical and conclusive end to the otherwise chaotic and very loud examination of the masked vigilantly of Gotham City, The Batman. Like the third and final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, this thrilling (and at times very confusing) comic sees the return of the beloved Batman some time after his retirement. While the movie is arguably more visually appealing, I’m not going to spend my last 200 words or so talking about that, instead, I have to speak exclusively about the comic and it’s deep moral and ethical questions. 

(But really, the book is way better anyways).

10 years after the B-man takes his final bow after Jason, Robin 2.0, was killed Gotham is a city that has seen better days. Crime is ramped through out the city, instead of doing typical rebellious teenager things like drinking and staying out past the time that the street lights come one, the teens of Gotham are joining the dreadful Mutant Gang. The gang, like everything in the artwork of this comic, looks like an 80’s dream, filled with Clockwork Orange-esk slang and techno-colour clothing. But besides having incredibly colourful outfits the gang is plaguing Gotham, filling the citizens with fear and dread. 

All because the Batman is gone, a myth, a tall tale parents tell their children to scare them into obedience. Add that to that fact that Harvey Dent has been “rehabilitated” at Batma- I mean Bruce’s expense, and that it’s hot, you’ve got the perfect recipe for a moody, alcoholic, and very lonely Bruce Wayne.

 

As exciting as it would be to base an entire comic around an angst-y Bruce, the Batman eventually comes out of retirement in a spectacular array in which he complains about his sore body and gets beaten up, a lot. “But why?” you ask Mr. Edwards. Well, you see, that whole rehabilitation thing that happened to Harvey, yeah, it didn’t really work. You can fix his face all you want, but he’ll still be the same two-faced jerk who threatens the bomb the whole city. So much for that big, brainy idea Bruce.

So what do we know kids? The city is in shambles, Dent is still a loony even with a pretty face, teenage rebellion is more colourful (and more dangerous), the police still suck at doing their job, and it’s hot! This looks like a job for the Batman!!

 

Or is it?

As much as Gotham needs the Bat more then ever, could the real reason for him ending his retirement be more selfish? I mean, as much as Gotham needs the Bat more then ever, through his years of isolation Bruce and the Bat have become more selfish. In his prime, Batman and his villains meant something. Harvey, both of his sides, visually showed audiences the duality that Bruce himself has. And even after all of those years of rehabilitation and isolation and he still can’t resist or even attempt to control that dark side, isn’t that motivation enough? Dent is truly Bruce’s last chance at attempting to fit into society after years of being so involved in a life a crime. And no matter who may surgeries or bottle of wine the characters go through, they will always be their true identity, because he's the goddamn Batman 

Besides, who cannot love this panel symmetry?!

 But perhaps that’s the beauty of literature, the true motivation of characters is always up for different interpretation, leaving us, the willing consumer to devour more and more in hopes of understanding a world that we see so much of in our own.