History ComicBook / TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain

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Overall it goes further off the deep end than ''The Dark Knight Returns'', almost to the point of being a Deconstruction of the DarkerAndEdgier nature of the first story though, naturally, not everyone thinks that makes it any good. The color palette is much more varied than ''The Dark Knight Returns''' muted colorization, taking it to an almost garish degree, that takes a little getting used to (many reviewers termed it ugly).

** The President has the last name Rickard, as in ''Prez''.

* {{Retcon}}: Of sorts. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' treats the absence of superheroes (and Superman having "sold out") as a consequence of a SuperRegistrationAct, with the unnamed president strongly implied to be UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, who's super-aged and losing his sanity. Here, it's revealed that the whole scenario is due to Lex Luthor and Braniac holding the world (and Kandor) hostage via orbiting cannons and a hologram of the president (whose name is stated to be "Rickard", a reference to the comic ''Prez'').

* ZeerustCanon: published 15 years later, but only takes place two years later.

* SacrificialLion: The Guardian, the Creeper, and the Martian Manhunter all die in horrible ways to prove how dangerous this "New Joker" ([[spoiler: Dick Grayson]]) actually is.

** The President has the last name [[ComicBook/{{Prez}} Rickard"]].

* InvincibleHero: Batman. By the time anyone comes up with anything he's already twelve steps ahead of them. Superman heading for the Bat-Cave? No problem! Just use the the gigantic Kryptonite gloves over there! Got captured? No biggie! It was part of Batman's plan all along. It gets so bad that Batman can literally storm into Luthor's base of operations, beat him up, cut his face, and just leave with absolutely zero consequences. In the page image, he spells out why -- he wanted to inspire terror in Luthor, to let him know that his empire was crumbling. [[spoiler: And he wanted to give Hawkboy the honor of killing Luthor.]]

* DepravedHomosexual: it's implied that [[spoiler:Dick Grayson]] had the hots for [[spoiler:Batman]], but was rejected by him, which led to [[spoiler:Dick]] becoming a villain. At the end of the comic [[spoiler:Batman]] taunts him with all sorts of quasi-homophobic euphemisms relating to his supposed "sissiness". And since [[spoiler:Dick]] is the villain, apparently Miller thinks we're supposed to side with [[spoiler:Batman]] here.

* DecoyLeader

* InvincibleHero: Batman. By the time anyone comes up with anything he's already twelve steps ahead of them. Superman heading for the Bat-Cave? No problem! Just use the the gigantic Kryptonite gloves over there! Got captured? No biggie! It was part of Batman's plan all along. It gets so bad that Batman can literally storm into Luthor's base of operations, beat him up, cut his face, and just leave with absolutely zero consequences. In the page image, he spells out why -- he wanted to inspire terror in Luthor, to let him know that his empire was crumbling. [[spoiler: And he wanted to give Hawkboy the honor of killing Luthor.]]

-->'''Catgirl:''' "The Boss leaves his mark. ''[we see Batman use a batarang to make the three quick slices]'' It must mean something to him... "

Set three years after the events of ''The Dark Knight Returns'', the world has managed to go downhill since then- the President is a fake, and the police state of a world is run by SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor and Brainiac, who has many a hero enslaved.

* {{Retcon}}: Of sorts. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' treats the absence of superheroes (and Superman having "sold out") as a consequence of a SuperRegistrationAct, with the unnamed president strongly implied to be UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, who's super-aged and losing his sanity. Here, it's revealed that the whole scenario is due to Lex Luthor and Braniac holding the world (and Kandor) hostage via orbiting cannons and a hologram of the president (whose name is stated to be "Rickard", like a reference to the comic ''Prez'').

* MythologyGag: Hot Gates, the porn star who dresses as Big Barda, is a shout out to the recurring theme of Thermopylae that appears in Frank Miller's work. She was also name dropped in ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'', so it's also a CallBack.

* {{Retcon}}: Of sorts. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' treats the absence of superheroes (and Superman having "sold out") as a consequence of a SuperRegistrationAct, with the unnamed president strongly implied to be RonaldReagan, who's super-aged and losing his sanity. Here, it's revealed that the whole scenario is due to Lux Luthor and Braniac holding the world (and Kandor) hostage via orbiting cannons and a hologram of the president (whose name is stated to be "Rickard").

* {{Expy}}: A weird inversion, or something. This story's ComicBook/TheQuestion is basically Rorschach from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', and Rorschach himself was a CaptainErsatz of the original Question, so this makes this version of the Question closer to the original Ditko Question and [[Film/AustinPowers oh dear, my eyes have crossed]].

* ArtShift: [[spoiler:When searching the ruins of Metropolis, Superman discovers a locket containing [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] pictures of him & ComicBook/LoisLane.]]

* {{Retraux}}: Superman looks more like his [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] version than the one used in DKR.

* CharacterDevelopment : Of a sort. In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' he was a gruesome individual. He treated everyone in the story like dirt, insisted that Dick eat a rat for dinner, threatens Alfred for feeding him a proper meal, slaps Dick for crying over the loss of his parents, and gleefully killed(dirty, some willing to murder kids) cops chasing him and was overall a deranged, loathsome maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson.\\\
''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' could be interpreted as Bruce Wayne being older, wiser, and struggling to hold on to his humanity and/or sanity. By ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', Bruce Wayne probably reverted back to his personality in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder''. In short, what you have here is one seriously messed-up man who is ''not'' as rational and logical as he thinks he is.

* TakeThat: WordOfGod says the book as Frank Miller's reaction to the [[TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] DorkAge he helped inspire.

* BigBadDuumvirate: Lex Luthor and Brainiac.

* {{Retcon}}: Of sorts. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' treats the absence of superheroes (and Superman having "sold out") as a consequence of a SupersRegistrationAct, with the unnamed president strongly implied to be RonaldReagan, who's super-aged and losing his sanity. Here, it's revealed that the whole scenario is due to Lux Luthor and Braniac holding the world (and Kandor) hostage via orbiting cannons and a hologram of the president (whose name is stated to be "Rickard").

** The film that young Bruce Wayne had just seen with his parents before their demise was "The Mark of Zorro" starring Tyrone Power. Also a CallBack to ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns when the now retired Wayne breaks down in tears after seeing the movie on TV for the first time in fifty years.
** Depending on who you ask, much of Batman's mythology was either inspired by or shamelessly ripped-off from Zorro. Don Diego Rivera was rich and acted like an effete douchebag most of the time, but operated as a vigilante out of a cave beneath his mansion with the aid of his butler. Not exactly unfamiliar.
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* CharacterDevelopment : Of a sort. In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' he was a gruesome individual. He treated everyone in the story like dirt, insisted that Dick eat a rat for dinner, threatens Alfred for feeding him a proper meal, slaps Dick for crying over the loss of his parents, and gleefully killed(dirty, some willing to murder kids) cops chasing him and was overall a deranged, loathsome maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson.\\
\\

* CharacterDevelopment : Of a sort. In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' he was a gruesome individual. He treated everyone in the story like dirt, insisted that Dick eat a rat for dinner, threatens Alfred for feeding him a proper meal, slaps Dick for crying over the loss of his parents, and gleefully killed(dirty, some willing to murder kids) cops chasing him and was overall a deranged, loathsome maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson.

** Which leads to some FridgeLogic when combined with ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder. For instance, this comic lauds ComicBook/GreenLantern (Hal Jordan) specifically as a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything noble hero exiled by the petty people of Earth]], but who [[EmeraldTwilight is shown to be absolutely worthy of godlike power.]] In contrast, the Goddamn Batman once lured Hal into an ambush and beat him savagely with little provocation. The beating occurs canonically before he entrusts Bats with a means to summon him, but was written afterward.

* TooSoon: Yeah, having half a major city reduced to a smoky ruin not even a year after 9/11? This was unintentional though. The comic was written and drawn before 9/11 but it wasn't published until very little afterwards.
** Frank mentioned in documentary on comics that aired on the History Channel that Superman [[spoiler:finding that Lois died in Luthor's KillSat attack]] was his way of coping with 9/11.

* MythologyGag: Hot Gates, the porn star who dresses as Big Barda, is a shout out to the recurring theme of Thermopylae that appears in Frank Miller's work. She was also name dropped in ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns, so it's also a CallBack.

* CharacterDevelopment : Of a sort. ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' hinted that Bruce Wayne was sexually abused as a child by his mother and/or father, that he is a DepravedBisexual, that he is a pedophile who may have sexually abused Dick Grayson, and that he is a psychopathic cop-killer and maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' could be interpreted as Bruce Wayne being older, wiser, and struggling to hold on to his humanity and/or sanity. By ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', Bruce Wayne probably reverted back to his personality in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder''. In short, what you have here is one seriously messed-up man who is ''not'' as rational and logical as he thinks he is.