The Dark Knight Returns: Book 2

With this week's blog I want to primarily flesh out the mythos of the Batman/Robin and how Frank Miller uses this famous partnership in The Dark Knight Returns in order to give us insight into Batman's admittedly deranged psyche.
In this story we are introduced to an older Bruce Wayne who has retired the cape and cowl altogether, presumably after the death of the second Robin Jason Todd, based on the comments Bruce and Alfred made after the first battle with the mutant leader. When he was in said battle, Batman had found himself bested. Beaten, and with his body failing him, Batman is practically all but defeated... until the brave/stupid heroics of "Carrie. Carrie Kelly... Robin."
Carrie Kelly is introduced to us as a kid who's parents really don't care about her, or they just don't remember her since they are both usually stoned. Soon though, she is inspired, like many citizens of Gotham, by the return of the Dark Knight. Carrie takes to the mantle of Robin on her own after a chance encounter with Bats when she and a friend are attacked by Mutants. Then, she spends her allowance on a Robin Halloween costume and takes to the rooftops. Later, whilst trying to discern where she can find the Bat, she overhears a conversation about something big going down at the dump and heads over in the hope that "he might be there..."
She eventually finds Batman locked in combat with the Mutant leader, taking a whopping beating from him. She sees him about to strike the finishing blow and can't take it anymore, she rushes in to try and stop him. Bruce, dazed and hallucinating, envisions the original Robin, Dick Grayson, in Carrie's place. It's at this point Bruce begins to reminisce about the days of old, whenever Robin would do something brash and stupid, and Bruce, would be forced to play one last winning move to save Dick. Grievously wounded, Batman has Carrie take him back to the Batcave, where she is officially bestowed the Robin title.
Carrie Kelly is quintessential to this book as Robin is quintessential to Batman. The role of Robin is very important for two specific purposes: It provides The Dark Knight, a motivator, a reason to keep on fighting whenever he's at the end of his rope to save the poor kid; and it reassures him that what he does is working. Robin is symbolic of the meaning of Batman, to inspire ordinary people to rally to arms for what they believe in and by having a Robin by his side Batman is constantly reminded of his own importance to the world.

Frank Miller reinforces the pathology of Batman by giving him a Robin who is symbolically relevant to the people of Gotham. She is the first of many of Batman's disciples and her appearance as Robin symbolically completes the true return of the Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight Returns: Book 1

Here, we arrive to the famous tale of Batman's rebirth. Written by Frank Miller in 1986, The Dark Knight Returns was the turn from the Adam West TV Batman, who many regarded as cheesy and campy , to the modern, dark, brooding figure we know in the current age. The Dark Knight Returns shows strong creative differences from our previous reading material, Watchmen. In Watchmen colors cascade with a warm vibrancy, the colors are strong and bright and pop in each panel, even in the darker areas. Here, though, in The Dark Knight Returns, colors are used sparingly, at best, and even in bright scenes, strong colors are opted out for pale shades. This can be taken, perhaps, as a sign of the times; of the bleak, unending, hopeless nightmare of city that Gotham has become in it's famed guardian's absence. Possibly, it is an indicator of the state of Bruce Wayne's mind. Overtime though, we start to see more colors pour in, blues and yellows, not unlike the silver age batsuit seen in this graphic novel. Undoubtedly, the return of colors, symbolic of hope, is in direct relation to the return of Batman.

Another aspect we can tell is immediately different is the change of panel structure, from Watchmen's standard 9 grid, to a little more crammed 16 grid. Though there is really a lack of consistency in terms of the 16 grid; there are only a handful of pages that actually have a full 16 panels. This graphic novel is definitely a more flexible in terms of style and structure, opposed to Watchmen. As well as sporting many "freestyle" pages The Dark Knight Returns makes use of the background of which the panels are set as a panel of it's own. Typically, the panels are set against a white background, but Miller ventures to have some scenes, expand beyond panels perhaps to provide weight or importance, subtly to whatever is happening within the background. Take for example page 31, where, from the shadows, The Dark Knight takes out a couple of baddies attacking two young girls, in the background, we are focused on a silhouette lurking, tossing batarangs and silently dealing JUSTICE.
Another aspect really expanded upon by Frank Miller in The Dark Knight Returns, is the visual use of sounds. We got little-to-none of this in Watchmen, but here Miller evokes very powerful feelings of epic scale; the primal strike of thunder is as a Que for the Dark Knight to strike his punishing blow upon the rampant criminal underworld of Gotham. It is really remarkable the ways Miller is able to give the impression of a sound through visuals. The rumble of thunder in the distance is long and low, the crack of lightning is large, the sounds of a man being barraged with batarangs "THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNKK" is heard in the mind's ear so clearly, it's as if we can actually hear it.

Watchmen The Movie

All right! So this week we talk about the comparisons between last week's blog subject and its portrayal in the 2009 film by Zack Snyder.
First of all, let us note that the film is essentially the closest thing to an onscreen adaption we will ever get. The story, barring the film's final act, is verbatim the story told within the graphic novel; in fact you can see that the film uses almost the EXACT same dialogue, as well as the exact same camera angles. For that matter, the casting was spot on, Rorschach's voice in the film was EXACTLY what I had in mind whilst reading the graphic novel.
Last week, I spoke mostly about Rorschach, what it means to be a "hero" and the thematic ramifications of the ending, and, in this regard, Watchmen lost none of this in translation to the film medium. Rorschach did exactly what Rorschach did in the graphic novel, definition of the term "hero" is still relative; Veidt saved the world but in an evil manner, but Rorschach was willing to liberate the world from this lie, albeit in the process doom it yet again.
Although, the one difference the movie had from the graphic novel that may actual have some thematic significance is the ending. In the Watchmen movie, Veidt kills a vast number of the population by using a device, that deceptively looks like Dr. Manhattan's handiwork, all around the world in massive explosions. In the graphic novel, however, Veidt used his resources to create a false alien entity, teleport it to New York, and kill half the city with a psychic shock wave, as it died.  The only reasons for this change, that occur to me, are that it gives the audience a less radical notion, and it shifts the blame of the newly united world onto Dr. Mahattan, as opposed to a totally unreal enemy. Fundamentally, this changes nothing. The world is still united, Dr. Manhattan and the gang, except for Rorschach, still acknowledge the gravity of the event and agree to keep it a secret., and Dr. Manhattan still leaves the Earth, permanently, after said events.
Besides the plot materials as well as the thematic materials, one of the chief differences from the graphic novel and the movie are the fundamental differences between any adaptation. The graphic novel provides better tone and structure because it is able to convey color schemes that affect our emotions and understanding. Also, with it's structure, it is able to convey higher literary concepts than could be done in film. My prime example is Dr. Manhattan's chapter in Watchmen. In the graphic novel, it conveys Dr. Manhattan's sense of "time" much better than it does in the film; in the film it felt mostly like narrated flashbacks. So in this regard, the book is a much better medium.