Batman - Part Two

By Virgil The Storyteller


Though the stories took on a more serious tone, this did very
little to help the failing Batman books. Batman was in very real
danger of cancellation by the time writer Frank Miller came
along and wrote The Dark Knight Returns. The story, which
features a future Batman coming out of retirement to take on
Superman, the government and anyone else that dares to get in
his way, featured a much darker Batman than before and the
financial success of the comic inspired DC to use the Frank
Miller style of Batman in the ensuing years.

The darkness of the Frank Miller influence extended to
Batman’s supporting cast, as well. In 1988, the one-time campy
Batman villain the Joker, shot Batgirl Barbara Gordon, crippling
her. Also in 1988, DC hosted their infamous 1-900 telephone poll
where readers were able to call in and vote on whether or not
Jason Todd survived an encounter with the Joker. While the
validity and appropriateness of the phone poll is in dispute,
Jason lost the poll and was killed on panel after a brutal
beating with a crowbar and having a building blown up around him.

DC has since corrected the decision to kill Jason Todd by
bringing him back to life. The Jason Todd that came back to life
was a darker, angrier version of the character because he blames
Batman for his death and is angry that Batman never bothered to
“avenge” his death. Killing primarily villains, Jason Todd
post-resurrection is best categorized as an anti-hero, and
sometimes an outright villain, depending on the writer’s whim.

The darker direction of Batman also made Batman a more insular
hero. Batman was recast as an “urban legend,” despite the
decades of public service with the Justice League. Thanks to the
characterization by Miller, the long-running friendship with
Superman was shown to be a suspicious tolerance at best. The new
Batman forbade any other heroes from operating in his city, even
in times of great need. 

The height of Batman’s paranoia and darkness was reached when
his superhero monitoring project Brother Eye project was stolen
and used to kill and harm innocent people. After this incident,
Batman took Dick Grayson and the current Robin, Tim Drake, on a
cruise to bond and rethink things through. 

As a result, the current direction of Batman seems to be a
lighter one than in recent years. Batman recently adopted Tim
and can be seen being chummy with Superman and Wonder Woman in
the Justice League of America and Superman/Batman. At the same
time, however, DC is publishing All-Star Batman and Robin, an
out of continuity tale written by Frank Miller where Batman is
verbally and physically abusive to a young Dick Grayson. Thus,
the two main archetypes of Batman comics are readily available
in the books currently being published.

Essential Storylines:

~ The Killing Joke ~ A Death in the Family ~ Year One ~ The Dark
Knight Returns ~ Identity Crisis ~ Knightfall ~ Under the Hood ~
The Long Halloween ~ JLA: Tower of Babel and JLA: Divided We
Fall