Guide Note

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a comic book miniseries that was written by Frank Miller. It was published by DC Comics and released between February and June 1986. The series takes place twenty years in the future after Bruce Wayne has retired from his double life as the Batman. In the face of rapidly decaying social order in Gotham City, Wayne struggles to keep the vow he made to give up his crime-fighting after the second Robin, Jason Todd, died ten years earlier.

Fast Facts

1. Written and Penciled by: Frank Miller
2. Inked by: Klaus Janson
3. Colored by: Lynn Varley
4. Publisher: DC Comics
5. Number of Issues: 4
6. Format: Limited Series
7. Publication Dates: February - June 1986
8. All four issues collected in a 224-page trade paperback
9. Miller's foreword describes his intention to explore the Batman character in relation to his own advancing age
10. Storyline includes tension between Batman and Superman
11. Jason Todd, already dead in this storyline, would eventually be killed in an official storyline.
12. Legends of the Dark Knight, an episode of The New Batman Adventures cartoon references this storyline

Despite the characteristic intensity of the character, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was graphically violent and unexpectedly dark in tone. These features, as well as in the similarly progressive comic Watchmen by Alan Moore, helped usher in a new darkness and maturity to the comic book medium