Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
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The Dark Knight Strikes Again (also referred to as DK2) is a Batman mini-series by Frank Miller with Lynn Varley. It is a sequel to Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and the ending (so far) of the "Dark Knight Universe".
Overview
Originally published as a three-issue limited series (November 2001 - July 2002) by DC Comics, and since collected into hardcover and paperback one-volume editions and Absolute Dark Knight edition (which also features The Dark Knight Returns). Like its predecessor, this story takes place in a timeline that is not considered canonical in the current continuity of DC Comics[citation needed]. The story also doesn't follow any of DC's continuity after Crisis on Infinite Earths as Barry Allen (the Silver Age Flash who died in Crisis) is still alive.
DK2 is considered controversial by a number of comics fans and critics, as it was considered to be a repudiation of the effects that the original Dark Knight Returns had on American superhero comics (the creation of the so-called "grim n' gritty" movement), and a celebration of the surrealist and high-energy eccentricity of the superhero tradition. Colorist Lynn Varley used DK2 as a platform to experiment with computerized coloring, partially influenced by the art deco movement, and generally used a much bolder palette than in the darker Dark Knight Returns, a departure that was criticised as well[citation needed].
Synopsis
After going underground, Batman (Bruce Wayne) and his young sidekick, Catgirl (Carrie Kelly, Robin from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), train an army of "batboys" to save the world from a "police-state" dictatorship led by Lex Luthor. In a series of raids on government facilities, Batman's soldiers release from captivity aging superheroes including The Atom, The Flash and Plastic Man. Elongated Man is recruited from his job as a commercials spokesman, and Green Arrow was already working with Batman (as seen in the end of TDKR). Superman, working for the government, is ordered by the "President" (a front for Lex Luthor and Brainiac) to stop Batman. He confronts Wayne at the Batcave, but is defeated by Batman and the other superheroes.
Meanwhile, Batman's raids have not gone unnoticed by the media. After being banned for years, the freed superheroes have recaptured the public imagination, becoming a fad among youth. At a concert for the pop group "The Superchix", Batman and the other heroes make a public appearance, urging their fans to rebel against the oppressive government.
During this time, rogue vigilante The Question spies on Luthor's plans, scribbling out a journal to record the misdeeds of those in power. He attempts to convince the Martian Manhunter, now an aged, bitter, near-powerless figure with his mind filled with Luthor's nanotechnology, to stand up against Superman and the powers that be. The two are soon attacked by a figure who physically resembles the Joker but is seemingly invulnerable to injury, and the Martian Manhunter sacrifices his life as The Question is rescued by Green Arrow. The villain escapes, and is depicted throughout the three issue series killing The Guardian, The Creeper and likely other heroes who came out of retirement.
An alien monster lands in Metropolis and begins to destroy the city, but Batman, convinced that it is a way to lure him and his allies out of hiding, does not respond in spite of Flash's claim that they are supposed to save lives. Batman's attitude is that the the stakes are too high to worry about preserving life at all cost, whether it applies to men, women or even children.
Superman and Captain Marvel come out of hiding to fight the monster, but it is revealed to be Brainiac, who coerces Superman (using the bottled Kryptonian city of Kandor as leverage) into losing the battle in order to crush the people's faith in superheroes. Captain Marvel is killed defending citizens from the carnage, but Superman is saved by his and Wonder Woman's daughter, Lara, who has been carefully hidden by the pair until now. She destroys Brainiac's monster body, but now that the government knows she exists they demand she be handed over.
Realizing Batman was right after all, Superman, Wonder Woman, and their daughter join him and assist in his plan, destroying
the power source of the dictatorship and inciting
Returning to the Batcave, Batman receives a communication from Carrie: she is being attacked by the same psychopath who dispatched the Martian Manhunter and other heroes. Batman recognizes the assailant as Dick Grayson, the first Robin, who has been genetically manipulated and is criminally insane. Batman shows nothing but contempt for his former sidekick and plans his death the moment they face each other. Batman hurls himself and Grayson into a miles-deep crevasse filled with lava and blows up the entire cave, igniting an underground volcano and destroying everything -- only to be saved by Superman at the last minute and brought to Carrie in the Batmobile.
Characters
- Batman: Bruce Wayne faked his death three years ago to operate underground as Batman. He leads the rebellion against the corrupt regime headed by Lex Luthor which now rules America. He is still a master strategist, albeit a controversial one who makes decisions which result in the loss of lives, but which he sees as necessary for the ultimate defeat of his enemies.
- Catgirl: Carrie Kelly, formerly Robin, is now Catgirl (after Catwoman) but still Batman's able second-in-command.
- Lex Luthor: now runs America, and uses a hologram of what the people think is the real President as a figurehead. He controls the more powerful heroes like Superman, Captain Marvel and Flash by keeping their loved ones hostage.
- Brainiac: provides Luthor with much of the means to rule America, and hence the Earth.
- Superman: now a puppet of an America run by Lex Luthor who is holding the miniaturized city of Kandor hostage. Pushed on by his daughter and Batman, he finally fights back and even starts taking lives.
- Wonder Woman: the Queen of the Amazons hasn't aged a day and has had a daughter with Superman.
- Lara: the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, with the powers of a Kryptonian and the warrior attitude of an Amazon. She has a poor opinion of people less powerful than herself and tries to persuade her father to rise above the "humans" and maybe even take over the world. He himself is torn between this and his adopted parent's view that he should use his powers to help rather than to dominate, but she soon brings him round.
- Captain Marvel: an old man now with wispy white hair (similar to that of Uncle Marvel), he still stands by his equally powerful peers Superman and Wonder Woman. Like many of the other heroes he is limited in what he can do because Luthor holds his beloved sister Mary hostage.
- The Joker: a mysterious and apparently indestructible figure who kills off old superheroes. He appears as the Joker and wears recognizable suits of former heroes & villains — including Cosmic Boy and Mister Mxyzptlk. His victims include Martian Manhunter, Creeper, and the Guardian. He later turns out to be none other than Dick Grayson, driven insane after years of radical gene therapy by Luthor and others. When he confronts Batman, the Dark Knight states that he sacked him "For incompetence. For cowardice"; in fact he shows no sympathy for Grayson whatsoever and contemptuously organizes his death there and then.
- The Atom: Ray Palmer is trapped inside one of his own Petri dishes for over two years during which he battles dinosaur-like bacteria. He is rescued by Carrie Kelly, becoming one of the first of the old heroes to join Batman's cause.
- The Flash: coerced by threats to his wife Iris, Barry Allen is forced to run in a giant electrical generator supplying a third of America's electricity before being freed by Catgirl and the Atom.
- Elongated Man: Ralph Dibny commercializes sex drugs for men on TV before joining Batman.
- Plastic Man: rescued from Arkham Asylum, the somewhat demented and eccentric fun-loving Eel O'Brian joins Batman's group and has something of a rivalry with the similarly-powered Elongated Man.
- The Superchix: an all-girl pop/superhero group consisting of Black Canary, Bat Chick, and Wonder Chick.
- Green Arrow: an activist with a mechanical arm, Oliver Queen has been part of Batman's forces ever since the Dark Knight returned. A left-winger, he often engages in fierce argument over ideology with the more right-wing Question.
- The Question: although he is also fighting the same cause as Batman, Vic Sage appears to work mainly on his own, though he does try to recruit the former Martian Manhunter. His main task is to spy on and collect information about Luthor and his associates. He distrusts technology and municipalization.
- Martian Manhunter: a victim of nanobots, courtesy of Luthor, which have deprived him of most of his powers including the ability to appear human, J'onn J'onzz has become a heavy drinker and smoker. He frequents seedy joints and has lost the will to fight back.
- Green Lantern: Hal Jordan now lives with his own family in a distant part of the galaxy. He returns to Earth at the request of Batman, the only one he trusted enough to leave with a way to get in touch with him.
- Hawkboy: Hawkman's son, he and his sister were brought up in the
rain forests of Costa Rica. When their parents are killed by a military strike ordered by Luthor, Hawkboy makes it clear that he will go all the way to get revenge. Knowing all too well what he has gone through, Batman encourages him to do so.
- Saturn Girl: here she is young thirteen-year-old who can see into the future. She adopts the name and outfit of the 31st-century Legionnaire who has not yet been born. At first tempted by Carrie's offer to join Batman's forces, she then turns it down, unsettled upon foreseeing Carrie's brutal attack by the Joker.
- Hawk and Dove: Hank and Don Hall, in a humorous sidenote, try to take up the tights again in their old age. It is hinted that they are gay lovers rather than brothers.
- Bat-Mite: Batman's old antagonist briefly returns as co-founder of the lunatic fringe movement dedicated to worshipping Superman, The First Church of The Last Son of Krypton.
- Big Barda: is in fact a former porn star called Hot Gates who, when America descends into chaos and anarchy, takes up the mantle in order to declare herself dictator of Columbus, Ohio.
- Lana Harper-Lane: a reporter for a TV news station who appears when Catgirl leads the attack to free Flash. She is presumably the daughter of Lois Lane and Jim Harper (aka The Guardian), and named after Lana Lang.
Batman and Grayson — A New Spin
Although critics and fans took a generally poor view of The Dark Knight Strikes Again (see Overview), it is notable for introducing a new spin[citation needed] on the relationship between Batman and his original Robin, Dick Grayson.
In the previous Dark Knight Returns, Dick Grayson is noticeably absent, Bruce Wayne simply saying that they are not on speaking terms. He does reminisce about Dick when confronting the street gangs known as the Mutants in the tank-like Batmobile, and before meeting Carrie Kelley who has taken up the Robin mantle of her own free will. Thus it is with some irony that Grayson only turns up at the very end (so far) of the Dark Knight saga[citation needed]. When he confronts Batman it is revealed that the latter sacked him "For incompetence. For cowardice", but he also shows Grayson little in the way of sympathy, understanding or affection and sets about arranging his death there and then[citation needed].
In Miller's Dark Knight Universe the connection between Wayne and Grayson is changed from the "usual image of Batman and Robin as an idealized father-son relationship (unless you are the late Dr. Fredric Wertham) into an Oedipal nightmare" [1].
(In his book Seduction of the Innocent, published in 1954, Wertham described Batman and Robin as "a wish dream of two homosexuals living together".)
After completing The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller launched a series of what he referred to as prequels with All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder [1]. In this series, Batman takes the young pre-teen acrobat in as a potential sidekick, but berates and abuses him[citation needed], preventing the boy from coming to terms with the recent killings of his parents and keeping him a virtual prisoner in the Batcave[citation needed]. He even withholds food from Dick and suggests that the boy catch rats and eat them instead![citation needed] He is also furious with Alfred for later showing a more humane treatment towards the boy[citation needed].
(In Bob Kane and Bill Finger's original meeting of Batman and Dick in 1940, the Caped Crusader was much more friendly and sympathetic towards him and only jokingly threatened to put him across his knee when Robin took a risk-too-many while dealing with those who had killed his folks [2].)
It's therefore quite "easy to see how Grayson might end up hating Batman after the way that he is treated in All-Star Batman and Robin #2." [1]. Batman could be held responsible for Grayson's madness of which the "radical gene therapy" provided by Luthor is just an extra feature.
References
- ^ a b c Comics in Context #119: All-Star Bats on IGN analysis by Peter Sanderson
- ^ Detective Comics #38, published in April 1940, "Robin — the Boy Wonder"
External links
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