A favorite graphic novel since its release in 1986, The Dark Knight Returns presents a worn down, disillusioned era that has all but discarded its ideas of heroism -- when popular distrust has pushed heroes underground or sent them packing -- and then moves the argument that Batman's willingness to work outside the law and, perhaps more importantly, public opinion makes him the most necessary hero of them all. Artistic cameos of Walter Cronkite and David Letterman and a subplot involving the Soviet Union cement the story in its 1980's point-of-origin, and Miller provides a caricature of Ronald Reagan that, while fleeting, seems as prescient as G.B. Trudeau's "Ron Headrest."
