Discussion on a Scene from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Bruce Wayne Rediscovers His Inner Bat

It's Kris again, coming from the batcave to bring readers an analysis of a scene from Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

Ever had an intense feeling inside, so intense that the feeling develops a life of its own? Try holding Bruce Wayne's alter ego, Batman, in your chest for ten years. This early scene from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a favorite of mine because of the symbology involved. Symbology stimulates literature and stimulates graphic novels highly and this scene is chock full of them!

Let's start with the voice that haunts Wayne while he stares out the window, his eyes glaring beyond the night:

"You try to drown me out...but your voice is weak..."

The voice is Wayne's, or specifically, Wayne's alter ego. In the early part of Book 1 in The Dark Knight Returns, the voice hammers at Wayne's consciousness. It goads him to find the old Batsuit, to break the self-imposed chains he shackled onto himself ten years ago.

The first panel on the page shown here implies a "prison atmosphere" Wayne instated himself in from becoming Batman, from becoming the force born within him the day he fell into the bat cave as a child, the night his parents were murdered...to me, it's akin to someone's long held goal that desperately needs to be reached or a sense of nostalgia that never lets go. You might have done something in the "glory days" and in old age you want to relive them again. This is Wayne's desire he was witholding for he wants to be every criminal's fear again, to continue his sacred mission of ridding Gotham City from evil, to protect the innocent where the law could not. Now in his fifties, Wayne does not want to go quietly...especially with evidence showing him surviving the car crash at the beginning of the book!

All right, back to the symbology. You see the prison bars, you see Wayne trying to break free. Then you see shadows on the bars covering Wayne's face. We know they are really the frames of the window but Miller loves to play the imagery both ways. An "X" forms on Wayne's face, like he's marked for the bat shape flying closer and closer to him. Looking deeper, the bat is the vigilante calling for him, to pounce on his psyche. Wayne stares ahead, waiting to embrace the bat, to embrace his alter ego.

As the bat comes closer, Wayne's face is viewed closer. That "X" appears to be a cross, doesn't it? Christian symbology would say Wayne is experiencing a "rebirth," a "revival" of his alter ego. The cross marks Wayne as the dark savior of Gotham City. The panel resembles Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament dying on a cross, only to rise back from the dead as the savior of humankind.

That aspect of symbology within the page was the most intriguing. Jesus was nailed onto a cross and left there to perish. His body was brought into a cave...

...if the story of Jesus can compare to Wayne's/Batman's story of rebirth, let's look at the fact that Wayne/Batman thrived in a cave yet the Wayne Manor is the bat cave for both Wayne and Batman as they are the same person with two conflicting personalites! The most impressive panel on the page is the large bat flying through, shattering the glass and breaking Bruce Wayne's metaphorical "prison cell." The bat can also shatter through Wayne's/Batman's enclosed "cave," creating an opening to escape. Going back to the comparison of Jesus, Jesus was sealed in the cave until the opening was mysteriously broken open! The comparisons match, do they not?

This took a great deal of thought on my part. I believe Miller intended for this effect to resemble parts of Christian literature to better illustrate Bruce Wayne's return to his role as The Dark Knight. The city is going downhill with rampant gangs raging, the conventional law is helpless against the onslaught...Gotham City is in need of a savior.

And Miller wants to point out that Batman, like always, is its savior.

I love doing analysis on various works. It gets stuff off my chest and does justice to the work that is being analyzed. Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a sophisticated piece of work that deserves much attention along with other graphic novels released. As the blog progresses with more comics, expect more analyses to come flying at you!

- Kristopher