Better Than List Pt. 2 Batman: Year 100 > Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

When Batman: The Dark Knight Returns came out, it was an instant success. It changed the way people look at the Batman character and comics in general. It solidified Batman as a dark character closer to his 1930s incarnation, and helped usher in the era of "dark and gritty" super heroes. Other than it’s importance to the history of comics though, Dark Knight just really isn't that good. The story telling is blunt and Miller focuses too much on needless narration. Batman: Year 100 has many of the same themes but complicates them further.

In many ways Year 100 is almost a direct response to Dark Knight. Year 100’s title is a reference to Batman: Year One, another Batman work by Miller. The cover of the trade paperbacks are also strikingly similar. There are visual cues mimicking Dark Knight like panels of lightning strikes and Batman hanging from wires and ropes. Pope probably meant these to be an homage to Miller but the book's themes and style are closer to a critique than a homage.

The critique begins with how the two books deal with Batman and Bruce Wayne. Dark Knight has Bruce Wayne as a man who is deeply disturbed to the point of insanity. It’s an easy route to take with the character. Of course, someone who suffered such trauma as a child and dresses up like a bat must be insane. Realistically, Miller is probably right, but he plays it for a gimmick and handles it poorly. He shows Wayne constantly having bat-related flashbacks and has him talk about exactly what he is feeling through internal narration.


Miller tears down the myth of Batman by making Bruce Wayne's psychology the central focus of the story and by pinning his psychological problems all onto the pains of the past. Wayne's response to a flood of emotional pain is to become Batman again, and as Batman, Wayne goes looking for physical pain to dull the emotional. Miller ignores Batman’s roots as a detective and has him only focused on the next fight or stewing about his personal demons. Pope uses Batman the detective as an integral part of the story and celebrates his intelligence.

Instead of focusing on the psychological aspect of Batman, Pope looks at the meaning of the Batman mythos in our culture. Pope takes Bruce Wayne mostly out of the equation. In every panel where Batman isn’t wearing his mask, Pope obscures his face. He makes it obvious that it's an intentional choice by going almost to Austin Powers-like lengths to do so. He makes Batman look thirty-something and perform outrageous physical feats but at the same time, he implies that he’s over a hundred years old. It doesn't matter who is behind the mask. What matters is Batman the icon. He's someone that can never get old and remains entirely a mystery in a future world where everyone's life history is stored in a database.

Pope doesn’t focus on it, but the psychology of the character shines through. He makes it clear that Batman doesn’t feel comfortable without his costume on and takes a joy out of putting in fake teeth and looking grotesque. The big difference between their psychologies is that Miller’s Bruce Wayne is focused on himself while Pope’s is focused outwardly. When Pope’s Batman makes demands of Robin and his support team, it’s always on what he needs to get the job done and not because of the trauma of his past. Batman even meditates in a scene in Year 100 and when he does, it's not to calm his spirit but to recall events of the crime scene that he's witnessed.


Miller seems concerned with taking-on and destroying all aspects of the Batman continuity. He shows us all the minor Bat characters and how they’ve become old, cynical, or dead. Even Superman makes an appearance as a poster boy for the United States government. Each comic deals with the character of Superman in a different way. In many ways, the treatment of Superman symbolizes the thematic core of each book even better than Batman. Dark Knight takes the stance that one might argue in middle or high school: "Superman is lame because he can never be hurt and Batman is cool because he’s a real guy like you and me!". It takes a kind of smug, fanboy glee in seeing Superman defeated and outmatched at the hands of Batman.

Although he doesn’t have a large role, Year 100 shows Superman as an icon of hope. A child hands Batman a toy of Superman seemingly passing that hope along as Batman is left speechless by the gesture. Having Superman appear as a child’s toy still subtly hints that maybe the character is a little childish and that Batman makes a more interesting character, but this is a secondary point to Pope's point that Superman is a symbol of hope unlike Miller whose interest is cynically tearing-down Superman.

The books are opposites when it comes to layout and design. Dark Knight tends to read more like a book than a comic and is a mess of words and panels floating in space. It’s layout and verbosity makes it difficult to read, something non-comics readers tend to confuse with depth. It uses language to pretend to be intellectual and confuses a dark tone with complexity. Its pretensions to intellectualism are a big reason why it’s popular with critics and fans that were desperate for more complicated super hero comics. Pope knows how to use the page layout to his advantage and doesn’t use excessive text to slow down his stories. The first line of dialogue isn’t spoken until page seven. He uses a cinematic style that shows the reader just as much as pages of dialogue could. Miller's layout calls attention to itself being needlessly dense and heavy handed much like his writing. Pope makes his layout focused on the art and simply shows you the images and lets you decide where to stand.