The Dark Knight Returns #1

[history79]

A.V. CLUB: So you actually consciously set out to change things in the comics industry?

FRANK MILLER: Well, I set out to remark upon them. And seeing how all these heroes had been castrated since the 1950s, and just how pointless they seemed to be... In this perfect world of comic books, which was what it was back then, why would people dress up in tights to fight crime?

A.V. CLUB: Because there wasn't anything bad enough going on back then to justify that extremism?

FRANK MILLER: It was just a bunch of goofy villains. It was 1985 when I started working on this, and I thought, "What kind of world would be scary enough for Batman?" And I looked out my window.




15.5 pages of 48

Comments

[lego_joker]

Actually, I think it started slightly earlier, with Mike W. Barr's Outsiders. The whole reason the Outsiders were founded was because Bruce was frustrated with the JLA knuckling under to international politics and whatnot.