The Dark Knight Returns

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "The Dark Knight Returns" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Cover of Issue #1
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	February – June 1986
No. of issues	4
Main character(s)	Batman Jim Gordon Carrie Kelley Two-Face Mutants Joker Superman
Creative team
Written by	Frank Miller
Penciller(s)	Frank Miller
Inker(s)	Klaus Janson
Letterer(s)	John Costanza
Colorist(s)	Lynn Varley
Editor(s)	Dick Giordano Dennis O'Neil
Collected editions
Trade Paperback	ISBN 0930289137
Hardcover	ISBN 0930289153
Trade Paperback (Warner Books)	ISBN 0446385050
Trade Paperback (Titan Books)	ISBN 0907610900
10th Anniversary Edition	ISBN 156389341X
2002 Edition	ISBN 156389341X
Absolute Edition	ISBN 1401210791
Noir	ISBN 1401255140
Deluxe Edition	ISBN 1401256910
30th Anniversary Edition	ISBN 1401263119
Book with Blu-ray & DVD set	ISBN 1401264271
Gallery Edition	ISBN 1401264433
Collector's Edition	ISBN 1401270131

The Dark Knight Returns (alternatively titled Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) is a 1986 four-issue comic book miniseries starring Batman, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, with color by Lynn Varley, and published by DC Comics. It tells an alternative story of Bruce Wayne, who at 55 years old returns from a decade of retirement to fight crime while facing opposition from the Gotham City police force and the United States government. The story also features the return of classic foes Two-Face and the Joker, and culminates in a confrontation with Superman, who is now a pawn of the government.

When originally published, the series was simply titled Batman: The Dark Knight, with a different title for each issue (The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Triumphant, Hunt the Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Falls), but when the series was collected into a single volume, the title of the first issue was applied to the entire series. Some of the earliest collected editions also bore the shorter series title. The story introduces Carrie Kelley as the new Robin and the hyper-violent street gang known as the Mutants. In the Pre-Flashpoint DC Multiverse, the events of The Dark Knight Returns and its associated titles were designated to occur on Earth-31.^[1]

The miniseries has since been followed by a number of sequels: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, and Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child. A one-shot prequel, Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, takes place ten years before the original series. Both Batman: Year One and All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, are considered by Miller to be canon. Likewise, Superman: Year One takes place in the Dark Knight universe.

The Dark Knight Returns is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential Batman stories ever made, as well as one of the greatest works of comic art in general, and has been noted for helping reintroduce a darker and more mature-oriented version of the character (and superheroes in general) to pop culture during the 1980s. Various elements of the series have since been incorporated into depictions of Batman in other media, while a direct animated adaptation of the story, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, was released as a two-part film across 2012 and 2013.