The Dark Knight Returns

It’s the 50th regular episode of the podcast, and to celebrate, we’re finally doing a deep dive on a comic that helped ushered in the Iron Age and still stands as one of its most enduring accomplishments: Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight (better known in collected form as The Dark Knight Returns), aided and abetted by inker Klaus Janson, colorist Lynn Varley, and letterer John Costanza. But after 39 years of attention from the comics industry and mainstream media alike, is there anything left to say about arguably the most celebrated Batman comic ever published? Rather than try to reduce this landmark comic to a tidy message or thesis about “what it means,” we embrace the glorious messiness of DKR. By examining all the complexities and contradictions of the series, we try to foster an honest and true appreciation of this landmark work.

Thanks to everyone who's listened to us over the past two years and 50 episodes. There's a lot more great stuff to come. You can help us out in our endeavors by pledging support at patreon.com/ironageofcomics