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Comic books from several discrete decades get mashed up in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, while swaths of real estate — uninhabited swaths, we’re repeatedly assured — just get pulped. But no text is quoted more directly than The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller’s influential 1986 tale of an over-the-hill Batman coming out of retirement to clean up a Gotham gone to hell. It was the greatest Batman story ever told, and it had the unforeseen side effect of draining every particle of sunlight out of superhero stories for years to come. But it hit far beyond the normal comics readership, foretelling our current era of superheroes as mainstream entertainment for grownups, and it helped publisher DC Comics briefly eclipse its chief rival, Marvel.
‘Batman V Superman’: Superheroes Adrift In A Grim Sea Of Studio Money
Photo: Clay Enos/Courtesy of Warner Brothers