Batman - The Dark Knight Returns - Comics by Frank Miller

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a Batman comic book miniseries written and drawn by Frank Miller and published by DC Comics from February to June 1986. It reintroduced Batman to the general public as the psychologically dark character of his original 1930s conception and helped to usher in an era of "grim and gritty" superheroes from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.



Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is set twenty years into an alternate future. In the absence of superheroes, ordinary criminals run amok (all the super-villains having been incarcerated or otherwise killed), and a gang called the "Mutants" made up of schoolchildren terrorize Gotham City. Batman has been retired from crime fighting for ten years following the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Wayne funds the rehabilitation of Harvey Dent ("Two-Face"), leading to his release from a mental hospital, but upon re-entering society, Dent returns to crime. Wayne dons the Batman costume again and apprehends Dent, but in an increasingly media obsessed society, the populace debates publicly whether Batman is a savior or a menace.