From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

Boundless Utopia
Whatever stories I write have to do with my reactions to what’s
going on around me, with the world I live in right now, with 1980s
America, which is a very frightening, silly, place.
Frank Miller, talking about The Dark Knight Returns
in Comic Book Confidential
A highly influential comic book creator, Frank Miller has produced some of the most widely distributed
comic and graphic novels in contemporary popular culture, ranging from Watchmen and 300, to his 1980s
adaptation of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns. Miller is part of an emerging group of writers, artists,
filmmakers, musicians, and game designers who interprets current experiences and transforms them into
narratives critical of our global society. in many ways, the concept of utopia has extended its boundaries,
and can no longer be confined to works of literature or various social movements. Numerous literary
genres such as science fiction, and media such as video games, have been influenced by the concept of
utopia, transforming not only the direction of these media, but also altering language and culture in the
process. These last cases take us beyond the walls of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, where utopia
penetrates modern life.
76. Frank Miller (1957–). The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, Feb-Jun 1986.
Four-part series.
in this four-part epic series, Bruce Wayne, and his alter ego Batman, have been in retirement
for almost a decade. in one powerful moment in the opening scenes to the first part of this
comic series, Wayne flicks through television channels only to find news reports of rising crime,
increased murder rates, growing poverty, the emergence of a new city-wide gang called ‘the
Mutants’, containing thousands of disenfranchised youth, and the release of one of Batman’s foes
from Arkham Asylum, Two-Face. in a moment of consuming rage, Wayne decides to come out
of retirement, and gives free rein to Batman to combat the self-destructive path that Gotham City
seems bent on pursuing. Throughout the Dark Knight Returns, Wayne’s sanity comes into question,
especially when he murders his longtime nemesis, the Joker. it is only after he has recaptured
Two-Face, defeats the Mutants, and murders the Joker that the police conduct a citywide manhunt
to bring Batman down, with the help of one of his former partners, Superman. in an epic duel to
the death, the ‘caped crusader’ fakes his own death, and fools both Superman and the police into
84 Boundless Utopia