It’s bad enough that the DCAU is dominated by Batman and Superman titles. It’s bad enough that they saw fit to do an adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns, surely a graphic novel that needs no wider fan base, while splitting it up into two releases. Fifth harmony mp3. But now, as somewhat expected, they’ve now reissued a “deluxe” edition of the same title, forcing those who bought the prior two separate releases for $20-$25 a pop to now consider buying one more version, with just enough new bonus materials to make fans consider the double, nay, triple-dip. 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, and published by DC Comics. Frank Miller's seminal graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns is adapted for the small screen with a sprawling Warner Premiere animated film series that finds an old and weary Bruce Wayne (voiced by Robocop himself, Peter Weller) donning the cape and cowl once again after a long retirement. Covering the first two issues of the series, Part 1 pits the masked crusader against once-reformed Harvey. If you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know my issues on Batman being basically the go-to crutch in the DC universe at the cost of actually growing and establishing their lesser-known characters as commercial properties of their own. But for now, let’s just concentrate on this relatively good adaptation of a groundbreaking graphic novel. Since Warner Bros. Saw fit to reissue this two-part film, previously released as two separate releases in June 2012 and January 2013, I suppose it’s only fair that I merely reprint my old reviews of the prior releases in conjunction with being sent this review copy of the “Deluxe Edition”. For those who only want to know if this upgrade is worth buying, skip to. Part I review - I don’t know if an animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s groundbreaking satire was entirely necessary. There is little ground in this 1986 graphic novel that hasn’t been covered in other mediums or other comic book stories in some form or another, be it The Dark Knight Rises or the Batman: The Animated Seriesepisode “Legends of the Dark Knight”. At heart, this project seems predicated merely on the idea of ‘well, we might as well adapt it because we’ve adapted Batman: Year One. But this new film, which covers the first two chapters of the four part story, is a genuine improvement over the prior Frank Miller adaptation. It is less beholden to the source material and willing to make small changes for the sake of the film as a stand-alone entertainment. The script is 90% faithful to the original, and the changes have an unusual effect of making the story feel less like an Elseworld (which it of course was) and more like a somewhat plausible ‘What If?’ final Batman story. ![]() As for the plot, I’m guessing 99.5% of you reading this have already read the graphic novel or at least are aware of its basic idea. In short, Batman has been retired for ten years, arguably due to the death of Jason Todd while in the line of duty as Robin (something that was written two years before it happened in the actual “Death in the Family” storyline). But the emergence of a heartless and vicious street gang known as the Mutants propel Bruce Wayne, now in his fifties, back into action. The big hook of the story back in the day was its the sheer darkness and cynical narrative. While I’ve long argued that the real ‘return of the Dark Knight’ occurred in 1969 when Denny O’Neil; and Neil Adams returned the Caped Crusader to his roots, there is little doubt that Miller’s story took it even further. And while I’ve long disputed Miller’s quote that “I gave Batman his balls back.”, Miller does get credit in this story and Batman: Year One for making Commissioner Jim Gordon into a worthwhile supporting character. Watching this story, and re-reading the source material, one is struck at how much of the most grotesque violence is either completely offscreen or merely referred to in past tense via news reports (“This just in, The Mutants have murdered Santa Claus and have kidnapped the Easter Bunny!”). Thus, with a few (very small) narrative changes that occur in this film (for example, Batman no longer guns down a mutant with a machine gun during a rescue), The Dark Knight Returns actually functions as a plausible end-time for any number of established Batman universes (although probably not the Adam West 60s television show).
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