Superhero comics are deeply political. Comic book movies are getting there.
This Friday’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice draws on the symbolism-heavy 1986 comic book The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. As the film is about to come out and the comic it draws inspiration from turns 30 years old, the political allegory of Batman vs. Superman is more poignant than ever.
The Dark Knight Returns has been called the best Batman story of all time. It ushered in an era of darker comics and paved the way for the gritty reboot. (For better or worse, it also inspired Comic Sans.) And it’s all about the power of the federal government versus the individual.
Here are three things you should know about Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns:
- If Batman were dropped into the real world, where he actually aged from the ‘40s, he’d be in retirement. In TDKR, he comes out of retirement because… gangs. Also, inner demons. But in this future, the public doesn’t appreciate rogue superheroes and Superman has submitted himself as a government utility. Eventually, Batman’s heroics become too violent, and a Reagan-esque president orders Superman to stop him.
- Nolan cites TDKR as one influence for The Dark Knight Rises (2012), but in Dawn of Justice, the inspiration is everywhere.
- Writer and artist Frank Miller told The Hollywood Reporter this month that Batman would probably be a libertarian. Miller himself is known for his right-wing politics. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Miller started work on a Batman vs. al Qaeda storyline called “Holy Terror, Batman!” that Miller himself described it as propaganda. What eventually came out—which didn’t feature Batman and wasn’t published by DC—has a cover with the “Fixer,” a weakly-disguised Batman ripoff, punching out a wrapped-up mummy-looking jihadi holding a scimitar.
Illustration courtesy of Matt Schumacher.
To Miller, a Superman-versus-Batman fight is nothing if not symbolic. Superman can overhear private conversations, appear across the world in an instant, and kill someone with his vision. Batman just has gadgets and his wits.
It’s the same for Snyder. Batman v Superman’s trailers are riddled with federal symbolism. Superman appears as a Saddam Hussein-esque statue, saves a family from a Katrina-like flood, confronts a bound Batman in a dusty Abu Ghraib-like prison, and—most uncomfortably—stands looking compassionate in a pleading crowd of Latinos. At one point, Lex Luthor says: “You know the oldest lie in America, Senator? It’s that power can be innocent.”
It’s obviously a question Snyder wants to ask. Where should power rest?
Here’s the problem with the pairing: The Dark Knight Returns’ Batman is violent, sadistic and borderline fascist. Adam West’s Batman was a detective working with the police. Miller’s is a military man usurping them. “These men are mine!” he tells police as they close in on criminals they’ve been chasing.
At one point, social order breaks down across the country and Batman imposes martial law on Gotham with a small army made of his own personality cult. He rides a horse and uses a whip. I’m not kidding.
During this whole book, Batman embodies the angst of a society angry with criminals who are afforded civil liberties. The police are castrated in Miller’s Gotham; Batman—in his tank-like Batmobile, with guns and bombs—is the only one willing to do what’s actually needed.
That’s where the politics transcend 1980s comics.
In that same Hollywood Reporter interview earlier this month where Miller called Batman a libertarian, he called Donald Trump a “buffoon.”
“The fact that he thinks he can be president of the United States is one of the best jokes I’ve heard in a long time,” Miller said.
But it’s hard not to see a resemblance between Miller’s Batman and the self-funded billionaire with a personality cult who’s going to fix everything. Both disregard civil liberties. Both go further than the authorities will go. Both seem obsessed with revenge and turning back the clock to another time in history, when things were greater.
Zack Snyder’s film probably won’t delve into this concept too much, but here’s what we can take from a matchup of Batman versus Superman: If there’s inherent danger in Superman—all-powerful but moral to a fault—then there’s inherent danger in Batman, the one person willing to do whatever it takes.
