The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Batman: 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 1986 miniseries, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

Overview

The series was 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.^[1]

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 other superheroes including: The Atom (trapped for years in a petri dish), Flash (forced to run on a treadmill to provide America with free power), and Plastic Man (now insane and trapped in Arkham Asylum). Elongated Man is recruited from his job as a commercial spokesman and Green Arrow is already working with Batman (as seen in the end of The Dark Knight Returns).

Other heroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel have been forced to work for the government since their loved ones are being held hostage and/or are under threat. Superman is even ordered by the "President" (in fact a computer generated 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, typing 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, but proceeds to kill other heroes such as The Guardian, Creeper and likely others who have come out of retirement.

An alien monster lands in Metropolis and begins to destroy the city. Batman, however, is convinced that it is a way to lure him and his allies out of hiding and does not respond, callously dismissing Flash's claim that they are supposed to save lives. Batman's attitude is that the stakes are too high to worry about preserving life at all cost, whether this applies to men, women or even children.

Superman and Captain Marvel 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 when Lara, his daughter by Wonder Woman, appears. She has been carefully hidden since birth, but, now that the government knows she exists, they demand that she be handed over.

Deciding that Batman and his methods are the only way, Superman, Wonder Woman and their daughter join him. By having Lara pretend to hand herself over to Brainiac, the Atom is able to slip into the bottle and free the Kandorians who use their combined heat vision to destroy Brainiac, the heroes subsequently destroying the power source of the dictatorship and inciting revolution. Batman allows himself to be captured and tortured by Luthor in order to learn his plan: Luthor has launched satellites to destroy most of the world's population and leave them with a more manageable number of people. The satellites are destroyed by the now god-like Green Lantern who wraps a giant fist around the Earth, destroying Luthor's several trillion dollars-worth of weapons. Luthor is subsequently killed by the son of Hawkman, whose parents had been killed earlier on. This is an action Batman planned and approves, much to Flash's horror.

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 to possess a powerful healing factor 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. Robin falls in the lava, but Batman is saved by Superman at the last moment and brought to Carrie in the Batmobile. Both Bruce and Carrie survive.

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: 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 Wonder Woman by keeping their loved ones hostage.
• Brainiac: Brainiac provides Luthor with much of the means to rule America, and hence the Earth.
• Superman: Superman is now a pawn 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 breaks his own vow not to take 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 and villains — including Cosmic Boy and Mister Mxyzptlk. His victims include Martian Manhunter, Creeper, and the Guardian. He is revealed to be 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. Iris is also freed.
• Elongated Man: Ralph Dibny sells Gingold based sex drugs for men on TV before joining Batman, "the years have not been kind to him."
• Plastic Man: Rescued from Arkham Asylum, the completely insane 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 a Black Canary look alike, Bat Chick, and Wonder Chick.
• Green Arrow: An activist billionaire with a mechanical arm, Oliver Queen has been part of Batman's forces ever since the Dark Knight Returns. 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 (with reason) 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 does retain a precognitive sense, which he does use to assist the Question. He frequents seedy joints and has lost the will to fight back. He no longer is the barman he was said to be in The Dark Knight Returns (in the article, at the beginning of the novel).
• Green Lantern: Hal Jordan now lives with his own alien 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. Batman encourages him to do so.
• Saturn Girl: Here, she is a 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.
• Rick Rickard: The holographic puppet-President of the US, who is the public face of the government, run from behind-the-scenes by Lex Luthor.
• Secretary of State Ruger-Exxon and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Starbucks: members of Luthor's government. (In the mainstream DC comics world, Luthor is the head of a world-spanning conglomerate who actually becomes US President himself.)
• Hawk and Dove: Hank and Don Hall, in a sidenote, try to take up the tights again in their old age but do not go through with it as before they used to argue all the time.
• 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: 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. It has been suggested that she is presumably the daughter of The Guardian (aka Jim Harper) and Lois Lane, friend of Lana Lang.^[2]

Critical reception

The Dark Knight Strikes Again has gained mixed to negative reception. Lewis Lovhaug, aka Linkara of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, gave an exceptionally negative review of the miniseries, criticizing the overuse of unnecessary satire, the inaccurate and idiotic story, the strange emphasis on the words featured in the speech bubbles, horrid art style, and incredibly unlikeable characterization of the characters. He ends his review by tossing the third and final issue of the miniseries in a trash bin and setting it ablaze. Grovel.co.uk gave the miniseries two stars out of five, and states that it "reads as a thunderous artillery barrage, all smoke and noise, lacking in nuance". Infinity.co.uk gave a mixed review of the miniseries, and ultimately ended the review by stating that the comic "has considerable chutzpah, but its careless execution is regrettable".

Batman and Grayson

The Dark Knight Strikes Again also explores the relationship between Batman and his original Robin, Dick Grayson.

In Dark Knight Returns, Dick Grayson is noticeably absent, which Bruce Wayne explains by 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 Kelly, who has taken up the Robin mantle on her own volition. When Grayson eventually confronts Batman in DKSA, it is revealed that Batman sacked him "For incompetence. For cowardice". He shows Grayson little in the way of sympathy, understanding or affection, and sets into motion the means of killing him there and then.

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 into an Oedipal nightmare.^[3]

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, preventing the boy from coming to terms with the recent killings of his parents and keeping him a virtual prisoner in the Batcave.^[4] He even withholds food from Dick and suggests that the boy eats the rats and bats that "present" themselves to him. He is also furious with Alfred for later showing a more humane treatment towards the boy.^[5]

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 parents.^[6]

Comics historian Peter Sanderson states, "It is 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]

Sales

The second issue of DK2 was ranked third in sales for the January 2002 period with pre-order sales of 155,322.^[7]

References

External links

• Flak Magazine: Review of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, 11.08.02
• Peter Sanderson's indepth analysis