The Talking Heads
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is by far the darkest comic book that I’ve read in class thus far. Pitting an aged Batman against Superman, here a government lackey, Miller’s comic is a serious and nihilistic work. With Commissioner Gordon retiring, an arrest warrant is issued to take Batman into custody. Batman, here, apparently left his vigilantism after the brutal slaying of former-Robin, Jason Todd. As Gotham is hit with the warlike crimes of the criminal army, the Mutants, Batman returns to crime fighting.
Amidst this, the comic is interspersed with segments of TV screen-esque panels, featuring news anchors. Televisions can also be heard in many panels wherein characters go about their business. I found this to be a unique and interesting method of critiquing the events of the story. While perhaps heavy-handed in some places, I found it to be a good way for Miller to get his readers thinking and engaging with the comic.
What I found most interesting about Miller’s decision to include the “Talking Head” panels (as I will be calling them), was the seeming uselessness of the discussion at first. Lana Lang, in favor of Batman, verbally spars with Dr. Wolper who insists that Batman is a menace, with other chiming in occasionally. Interviews with random citizens, such as those on page 45, especially made me believe in the uselessness of the arguing back and forth. One man says in support of Batman, “He’s kicking just the right butts—butts the cops ain’t kicking, that’s for sure. Hope he goes after the homos next,” while a man against Batman quips, “Makes me sick. We must treat the socially misoriented with rehabilitative methods. We must patiently realign their—excuse me--? No, I’d never live in the city…” (45, 7-8). Both sides, had in my mind had been marred by the failings of their supporters, and at first I did not realize the point that Miller was pushing.
In the end, I found that the opinions discussed in the Talking Head panels were more influential to the story than anything else. In a way, they forced the confrontation between Batman and Superman by painting Batman as a criminal. In this manner, Miller made the media and popular opinion the most dangerous tool within the story. Miller is suggesting that media is Batman’s true enemy in this comic. Unable to garner the support of the country, they try to purge him from the city.
However, rhetoric like that espoused in The Dark Knight Returns is important. Crime, war, social issues, they all must be discussed and debated on a large forum. There will be idiotic tripe that is thrown about, but discourse seems to be the only method for arriving at the truth. Sometimes the truth loses out to popular opinion, and the media can force dangerous situations, but I don’t believe in the dark pessimism of Miller’s comic.
