The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade A Review

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Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello combine to create the The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, the prequel to Miller’s acclaimed series The Dark Knight Returns. In this gritty and dark tale, Batman exists as an aging hero looking to get out of the game. Like in The Dark Knight Returns, he recognizes that age is getting to him and that Father Time wins every time. Starting with the incarceration of The Joker and ending with an ambiguous shot of the villain’s haunting face, the authors portray a world beyond hope. Millionaires are lured into giving up their fortunes for Poison Ivy’s love and Batman’s heir apparent Jason seems to operate under an alternate moral code than his trainer.

In the end, this is a story about morals. If the Joker can convince fellow criminal convicts to rip their eyes out and consume their fingers, do we care? Do we sense the moral fracture afoot or do we move on and ignore the cruel truth of crime? In terms of Batman, can Bruce Wayne give up his crawling through the night much like his lady love Selina Kyle has done? If so, will Jason work out, or will his lack of a code and subsequent inability to embrace the fine line between becoming a hero that everyone loves or a villain that everyone hates do him in? Drawn with gaps, left with holes of ambiguity, one feels the pain, cringes, and the authors leave you wanting, waiting for that moment when Bruce says enough, looking for the fate of Jason and Joker alike.