Frank Miller’s seminal graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns presents a relatively innovative and unprecedented interpretation of Bob Kane’s Caped Crusader, Batman. Instead of the heroic, principled crime fighter in his prime found in most DC comic versions of the character, Miller’s Batman is a terrifying, fearful middle-aged man dealing with both his own obsolescence and the conservative anxieties he has about the implications of Superman’s powers and abilities. On top of that, Batman has a much more absolutist, black-and-white version of justice, in which Batman’s inherent vigilantism is taken to its furthest conclusion. Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, in its depiction of Batman, demonstrates vigilantism as a viable strategy to achieve justice in a world where the law has failed its people – while also acknowledging the emotional and psychological toll that can take on the vigilante himself.
The dark, gritty version of Batman in Dark Knight Returns has an incredibly complicated relationship with the law and justice. Having seen his parents killed mercilessly right in front of him, Bruce Wayne was driven to fight crime in Gotham City when he saw that the law (in the form of the police force and the court system) could not help bring his parents’ killer to justice. However, a life time of crime fighting, as well as the loss of his Robin, Jason Todd, to the Joker, hardened Batman and encouraged him to take darker measures toward criminals. Even the most devoted idealist will see his beliefs break down with enough discouragement. This led to Bruce developing control issues, which fuels his absolutist philosophy toward justice: “the world only makes sense when you force it to” (Miller 192). He frequently refers to his fight against crime as a “war,” even implying Jason Todd was a “good soldier” in that war – this perspective runs counter to the idea that the law can address crime (Miller 93). One could find agreement to this line of thinking in the increased militarization that local law enforcement departments have demonstrated in the years since the September 11 attacks. The Department of Homeland Security has sent everything from tank-like vehicles to automatic weapons to mobile command centers to municipalities small and large across the land, as though those items would have kept the 9/11 attacks from happening. All this has really done is build a sense of fear and cynicism among the population, much like what Batman was feeling in the lead-up to this comic book.
The reaction of Gotham City to Batman also points out many of Miller’s overall discussion of Batman’s vigilantism as something controversial. During many of the book’s depiction of talk shows debating public policy and the Batman, pundits discuss whether or not Batman is a hopeful indicator of the “rebirth of the American fighting spirit” or “an aberrant psychotic force, morally bankrupt, politically hazardous, reactionary, paranoid, a danger to every citizen of Gotham!” (Miller 41). These elements make Batman’s methods and purpose questionable, as he is shown to be a divisive figure even among the people he is meant to save. Clearly Batman believes his definition of justice is absolute, but the people for whom he is ostensibly carrying out these actions do not necessarily agree. That is the same problem that justice has always presented in shows that are not set in an idyllic setting such as Andy Griffith’s Mayberry. When people commit crimes, the victims want something to be done. Sometimes they want vengeance, and at other times they want justice. When they are angry, justice and vengeance can seem like one and the same thing, but then once the anger dissipates, it becomes clear that acting in vengeance robs us of any moral authority that we might have had in our anger in the first place. There is a difference between anger and vengeance, of course; while anger provides the impulse, vengeance is the action that we either take or allow to pass without happening. That unease about the overlap between vengeance and justice doubtless explains some of the fear that Gotham feels when contemplating Batman.
Amongst all of these discussions, the toll that vigilantism takes on Bruce is clear. Making this Batman middle-aged highlights the physical beating that Batman takes at all turns, and makes him seem more vulnerable and pitiable. While he is still tremendously powerful, he admits to Commissioner Gordon that his own actions will get himself killed one day: “for all my tricks I’ve been getting by on luck. It’s all a game of odds, you said. All it will take is one bullet” (Miller 43). That being said, he still acts out of a sense of justice that defies any appeal to authority; as he says to Superman late in the comic, he is critical of people who simply bow to authority without asserting their own sense of justice: “You always say yes – to anyone with a badge – or a flag” (Miller 190). In this respect, Batman feels contempt for those who do not see justice in as black and white a way as he does; Miller’s perspective ultimately rewards him for this, as his ultimate gesture is to prove to the optimistic Superman that his methods work, faking his death to start crime-fighting anew. When this sort of anger eats away at our heroes, it also eats away at our own morals, creating an atmosphere in which the unthinkable slowly becomes true. The German populace went from being an angry group going through poverty in the aftermath of the Great War to the supporters of Adolf Hitler. There is a growing part of the American population today that finds the vitriol of Donald Trump ideally suited to their own inner id that has spilled over, wanting things to be better but not exactly sure where to begin, and so the storm of anger that has apparently carried Trump to the Republican nomination could threaten American civil liberties in a very real way.
Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns takes an incredibly fascist, authoritarian view of justice, as Miller turns Batman from an optimistic crime-fighter working to help Gotham into a bitter old man who is more focused on carrying out his inflexible ideas of justice. While this clearly takes a physical and mental toll on the Caped Crusader, Miller’s inability to truly subvert or refute the Caped Crusader’s points, even making him win his ultimate fight against Superman in a symbolic manner, showcases a clear preference for vigilantism and extremely violent solutions to crime and wrongdoing. In this sort of cultural milieu, it becomes difficult to sympathize with Batman because of the boundaries he becomes so willing to push in order to sate his own inner demons, rather than simply looking to bring evil to an end.
Works Cited
Miller, Frank, Janson, Klaus and Lynn Varley. The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1984.
