Dark Knight Recalled: Looking at Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns Six-Pages-At-A-Time

[00:00:00]Frank Miller's Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, written and drawn by Frank Miller with inking by Klaus Jansen and color by Lynn Varley, page one. A very strange way to start. I find this page in particular, the introductory page really difficult to read, really difficult to understand what's going on in it. And I I think that's very interesting. There's one philosophy about page one of your story. You're basically clearing your throat. It's a throwaway. So maybe this is out of that tradition. Bruce, this is Carol. You're going too fast. It's obviously Bruce Wayne. Carol, I finally figured out who Carol was at the end. Spectacular finish to the Newman elimination as the Ferris 6000 pin wheeled across the finish line.

[00:00:40]A flaming coffin for Bruce Wayne. That Carol apparently is Carol Ferris, Green Lantern's love interest, and boss who owned an aerospace company that made jets and rockets and apparently uses that same technology to make, you know, ultra high-speed race cars. It's not working. He's taken it apart. And the helmet he's wearing is kind of odd.

[00:00:59]Doesn't look like any racing helmet that I've ever seen before. But this story takes place in the future. The story of a 50year-old Batman. That's right, 50 years old. As the years go by and Miller talks about this comic, the age slides.

[00:01:13]So when Miller wrote this, 50 years old sounded geriatric. As he got closer and then eventually surpassed 50, it it felt a lot less geriatric. So sometimes he'll talk about it and say, "Oh, he's a 55year-old man." or oh, he's pushing 60, but um his his earliest discussions of this book, he says it's a 50-year-old Batman, a Batman as old as his legend.

[00:01:33]We have these first four panels and the verbiage is doing a lot of the storytelling. It's fractured storytelling. This isn't a big giant splash page like you would usually get in the first page of a comic. This is a page with with more panels than any comic really had back then. But anyway, about the helmet, it is supposed to be the future. So, uh, you know, those little wings on the side are a futuristic flourish. Maybe nowadays, now that we're living in the future, maybe there is some sort of racing helmet that has those kind of wings and and Miller's just proving himself to be a visionary once again. In panel three, he's looking a little bit like Robocop at the end.

[00:02:07]Spectacular finish to the Newman elimination as the Fairest 6000 pin wheeled across the finish line. A flaming coffin for Bruce Wayne. It's like, oh, I guess all that stuff we were reading in the first 13 panels of this was a car race. Paul Newman was a famous actor who was uh there in years by this point and he was a race car driver. So I'm I'm assuming the Newman elimination is named after him. There's these panels where Bruce Wayne in profile driving this car with his thick mustache doesn't really read as Bruce Wayne or the Batman. I guess those ears on the side of his helmet give a little bit of a Batman profile. The seventh panel closeup on his gritted teeth. That's a panel layout that Miller uses up to this day. the left front tire decides to turn all on its own. I laugh at it and jerk the steering wheel to the right. Miller has said that he doesn't think he's very good at drawing cars, which I disagree with. I I love the way he draws cars and obviously he's gotten better at it over the years. When you identify a weakness in your art, you can look at that as an opportunity and then really work at that. And and he worked at it, used all kinds of reference toy cars. A few years after this, you look at Sin City and and and the cars in there are just breathtaking. And then panel nine. I have no idea what that is. Like is that his helmet? I don't think so. I think that's part of the car, but again, completely illeible, but he's going for something here. And maybe the illegibility is part of it. There are few instances of illegibility in Miller's work. I mean, he's such a master. Then nose digs up a chunk of macadam. I look at it. Then straight into the eye of the sun. This would be a good death. That is Bruce Wayne. And he's the car has like completely flipped into the air and that's what he's talking about when he says looking straight into the eye of the sun. But then the panel after that, are we back to looking at the car? Is that him? This might be the first time I've ever kind of understood possibly what I'm looking at here cuz I I see seat belts and then we get this closeup of his face with the seat belt. But the most legible panel up to this point, even though, you know, there are stylistic flourishes that defy legibility. again uh going against the rules of comics of comic books of superhero comic books that have been that his forebears have have set up flouting those rules. So, in some ways, this first page is a bold declaration of intent. And yeah, as much as those first bunch of panels are completely illeible, but the the TV screens and the verbiage and the the descriptions in the last three panels, we've had this impressionistic stuff at the beginning where you're not quite sure what you're looking at, and then the last three panels tell you what you were looking at. For all his experimentation, eventually there is clarity on the page.

[00:04:41]There is communication going on. What a peculiar way to start a masterwork. Or so everyone thought. Turns out the millionaire bailed out at the last second, suffered only superficial burns.

[00:04:51]Lola, thanks, Bill. I'm surprised anyone can even think of sports in this weather. Right, Dave? And I do wonder what would happen if you took this page out. If instead [clears throat] you started with the next page, cuz the next page seems like a clearer, more conventional way of starting the story.

[00:05:07]But with this establishing shot, you'd have to just adjust the dialogue slightly. How would this read without that first page? And this page, this first page does very clearly establish a u thrillseeking, possibly suicidal, risk-taking old Batman with a mustache.

[00:05:22]I'm not advocating for the removal of this page. For all its quirks, and maybe because of that, it is an essential part of this work. Page two, at Gotham's magnificent Twin Towers. It's 97. With no relief in sight, this heatwave has sparked many acts of civil violence here in Gotham City. Beautiful atmospheric drawings of a city. And this is a futuristic story. Not quite post-apocalyptic, maybe pre-apocalyptic.

[00:05:47]Is the Earth going to die by being burned to death? This heat wave has sparked many acts of civil violence here in Gotham City. The most hideous of which has to be the brutal slang of three nuns last week by the gang known as the mutants. It's a theme in Miller's work. Catholicism, a big part of Miller's work and identity, a growing up Catholic, it looms large in his work.

[00:06:06]And if you want an image and and a line that communicates how bleak things are in Gotham City, that sort of grabs you by the lapels. Tells you all you need to know right there. Quick, concise communication emulating the quick, concise communication that news broadcasts are made of. Police found a death threat nailed to the door of the office of police commissioner James Gordon. It's interesting. Nailed to the door. It's not thumbtacked. Me think it's it was almost like done on on like a block of wood or something. We got the nuns over here. You know, this this kind of reminds me of Martin Luther posting his treatise on the church door and nails are kind of a theme in Miller's work. And he's even recently talked about how he would sometimes ink with nails. Every choice in here seems like the right choice. Gordon facing retirement on his 70th birthday next month spoke to a News2 reporter. So Gordon 70 makes him 20 years older than Bruce Wayne. Makes sense. In the comics when Bruce Wayne's got his, you know, black hair, talking to Commissioner Gordon with his white hair and his white mustache. Makes sense that there's like a 20-year age difference between the two. Miller's drawing all this great facial detail, these wrinkles. I've got four weeks to nail those bastards. There it is again. Nail the nails in the crucifixion. I've got four weeks to nail those bastards. If this means they're willing to take me on, I'm delighted.

[00:07:25]Commissioner Gordon, who's getting too old for this [ __ ] Super close to retirement. And in action cinema, police stories. When you're close to retirement, it's sort of foreshadowing that you're going to die. Something bad is going to happen to you. So, it feels like feels like Miller's using that device here to to create attention.

[00:07:41]Gordon's days are numbered, which will be interesting to see how it how it actually plays out. Ironically, today also marks the 10th anniversary of the last recorded sighting of the Batman.

[00:07:49]Dead or retired, his fate remains unknown. It sounds like Batman retired at age 40, which is the age Frank Miller was when he made the sequel to Dark Knight Returns. Our younger viewers will not remember the Batman. A recent survey shows that most high schoolers consider him a myth. Miller does seem in in this work and in Batman Year 1 to build up the mythology of Batman, turning Batman into this like semi- mythological, semi supernatural figure, at least in the minds of the criminals and in the younger generation in this story. Want to comment that again for younger viewers. Lola here has a Gumby haircut which believe it or not was a very popular haircut during the 80s. I had a teacher with a Gumby haircut. I I did a drawing of her drew her as Gumby. But this is a slightly exaggerated version of the Gumby haircut, but not too far off. But real he was. Even today, debate continues on the right and wrong of his one-man war on crime. the the rhythm you get by having, you know, four small panels side by side repeating imagery with slight changes. This first and third panel stats of each other and then this second panel with her sort of looking down for a second just kind of gives it this rhythm. She looks down, she looks up and you'll see that rhythm played out again with with other characters in the series. This reporter would like to think that he's alive and well, enjoying a celebratory drink in the company of friends. Page three. This page, we cut two close-ups. The the tinking of glass and the faces of Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne enjoying their scotch on the rocks. Even lighting up a stogy. This is a call back to Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics number 27 to Batman. It's good that he retired, isn't it? I'm grateful he survived retiring. He didn't, but Bruce Wayne is alive and well. I was thinking about the mustache on Batman that uh you know Shan Connory was wearing a mustache at this point in his career, but then when he'd go back to play James Bond, the mustache would go. So, it's kind of like you got this sort of superheroic icon, clean shaven, but then as he gets into middle age and beyond, you know, decides to have a mustache, but knows that when it's when it's action time, the mustache has got to go. Glad to hear that. You've certainly learned to drink.

[00:10:02]Remember the old days, Bruce? That Playboy routine? you with your ginger ale pretending it was champagne fooling everybody almost in that Detective Comics number 27 he's drinking ginger ale here he's he's really drinking alcohol another example of how things have changed and then uh importantly showing that he thought he was fooling Jim Gordon but that Jim Gordon knew all along this this is sort of revealed in this in this story a tantalizing little thing that Jim Gordon knew all along that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one and the same but he kind of you know played along and and kept the secret And it makes it interesting because then you want to go back and read the old Batman comics and see how that plays out, see how that bears out. It was a a tantalizing bit of adjustment to the to the mythology. And reading Batman comics in the '8s, it was there was a lot of discussion of it in the letters columns of Batman comics that Frank Miller wasn't involved in. Um, and and there'd be little uh nods to it, little hints of it in in the actual uh regular continuity. Oh, I I guess Gordon does know and and and look for, you know, clues, uh, tip offs here and there. Not fully tipping your hand and spoken to Dick lately. Not for seven years, Jim.

[00:11:12]You know that still, huh? I'm damn sorry about that. Especially with what happened to Jason.

[00:11:16]>> First mention of a falling out with Dick Grayson, the first Robin, who in the comics had become Nightwing a couple years prior to this, especially with what happened to Jason. uh Jason being Jason Todd, the brand new Robin who was a brand new character at this time to sort of insinuate that something horrible happened to this new character.

[00:11:36]It's a really effective use of a future story. Jump ahead and add some depth and some dark portents for again a brand new character. A year after this, they're saying, "Hey, what if we what if we kill Jason Todd? What if we fulfill the prophecy in Frank Miller's work?" which was just kind of this wild idea of like, oh, hey, let's say that this new character, something horrible happened to them. Let's call it a night gym. Jim Gordon mentioned the subject that Bruce Wayne absolutely does not want to talk about. He's walking through the night streets of Gotham and it looks like there's some zombies walking around holding signs. He's got kind of a Howard Chaken American flag kind of pose and he's got an 80s suit like talking heads or something of very roomy suit with big shoulders. You know, the zombies are holding these we are damned signs. more apocalyptic imagery. As we part, Jim squeezes my shoulder and grins. "You just need a woman," he says, while in my gut, the creature rides and snars and tells me what I need. "You just need a woman." Miller was recently interviewed by the Jacked Kirby podcast. Just prior to this recording, I got the news that uh Tommy Lombardozi, the the co-host of the Jacked Kirby podcast, had had passed away. So, sending love to to him and his family. They interviewed Frank Miller and Frank Miller told a story about Jack Kirby that Jack Kirby was at Frank Miller's table at a comic convention and just saw all the mania that was going on, all the long lines and and the hysteria of of his stardom. And Jack Kirby said to him, said to Frank Miller, "You need to get married." And Frank said, "Jack, I am married." And he said, "Why would you suggest I get married?"

[00:13:10]Jack said, "You seem lonely." And Frank said that was a very astute thing that Jack had sort of plugged into his loneliness. Now, that's a really interesting story and it's beautiful that that's Frank's take. I I have a different take that something in Jack Kirby, some instinct saw this young guy who was exploding having, you know, attention like he'd never seen.

[00:13:34][clears throat] And uh just without probably without even thinking about it, this gut level thing came out of how do I put this guy out of business? and you know and so say hey you know you should get married start a family have some kids you know stuff to kind of like get this uh you know this this fiery youth uh you know throw a little bit of you know cold water on that uh furnace of ambition just uh you know just you know Kirby's competitive competitive nature and I mean I I I say this jokingly but that occurred to me hearing that story but it sounds it sounds like a similar kind of moment this older friend to a younger friend you just need a woman sounds like that's kind of what Jack Kirby was saying to Frank. While in my gut, the creature rides and snars and tells me what I need. You know, Miller has made no secret of it in recent years that he's had a longtime battle with alcoholism. And these demons he's talking about, these demons that are consuming Bruce Wayne don't sound too different from the demons that consume somebody who's struggling with alcoholism. I leave my car in the lot. I can't stand to be inside anything right now. I walk the streets of this city.

[00:14:40]I'm learning to hate the city that's given up like the whole world seems to have. I'm a zombie, a flying Dutchman, a dead man 10 years ago. 10 years dead.

[00:14:47]You know, ever since he stopped being Batman, uh, he's dead. And we take it for granted this like ongoing monologue in the Dark Knight Returns. After this, it just became what we expect from a Frank Miller comic or just what we expect from superhero comics in general.

[00:15:01]All the all the comics that copied this that sort of came in its wake. But it was a new thing and it does feel very influenced by Taxi Driver, the Travis Bickl internal monologues. And when Frank Miller tells stories about his youth moving to New York, that that sort of New York of the late 70s and early 80s, Frank seems a little bit like he was a little bit of a Travis Bickle too back then. Page four. I'll feel better in the morning. At least I'll feel it less. It's the night when the city smells call out to him. Though I lie between silk sheets and a million-dollar mansion miles away. When a police siren wakes me, and for a moment I forget that it's all over. But Batman was a young man. If it was revenge he was after, he's taken it. It's been 40 years since he was born. So Batman's born when he was 10. He talks about Batman as a different person. He talks about how the city smells call out to him, not out to me. This other thing, this demon like a werewolf. And again, it sounds like addiction, like alcoholism and werewolf stories can be metaphors for addiction.

[00:16:02]And yeah, we're just getting all these different shots of them. And and even though it's this, you know, horrible heat wave going on in Gotham, you see a lot of wind, a lot of stuff blowing around. So I I almost imagine this being hot wind, not not like a like a cool breeze or any kind of relief, but just sewer vents and stuff blowing things around. You'll notice in this comic so far, there haven't been a lot of backgrounds. I think Miller does sort of, you know, these minimal backgrounds does does, you know, one background panel per page to sort of set a a sense of where you're at and then zooms in pretty close for the rest of the panels.

[00:16:36]And again, when you have small panels like this, zooming in is a nice use of those panels. This shot with the street light, it's very Eisnerian. I think about the conversations Miller and Eisner would have about decorating your comics panels like a stage where you have minimal indications of where you're at and that are focused around a light source. So this this little street light panel does remind me a lot of Will Eisner. the original art for this page, that airbrushed skyline in the background, it started as a a line drawing by Miller and then and then those lines were erased and and replaced with Lin Barley's airbrush work here, which again I I think makes a tremendous depiction of depth. I don't I don't know of a comic book prior to this where you see, you know, kind of the filth of a city, the the the litter and uh you know, trash cans knocked over and things blown around. I really like that fence.

[00:17:30]It's kind of an expressionist fence.

[00:17:32]Born here once again, he's brought me back to show me how little it has changed. It's older, dirtier, but it could have happened yesterday. It could be happening right now. They could be lying at your feet, twitching, bleeding.

[00:17:44]That's a pretty intense description. I don't imagine the twitching and bleeding of Thomas and Martha Wayne had ever been described like that. Usually their deaths are kind of depicted in in sort of like an oldfashioned Hollywood way of sort of like, you know, bang bang, you're dead kind of thing. And the man who stole all sense from your life. He could be standing right over there. He sees us. Get around behind him. Come on, honey. Slice and dice. I don't know, man. He's awful big. You have the first on camera appearance of the mutant gang.

[00:18:13]One completely in silhouette. The other, you know, really, really nice application of shadow. The only real color on the page is the red from their visor. It's just really, really nice.

[00:18:24]Have this, you know, monochrome approach and then have, you know, little little hints of color here as you're introducing, you know, sort of the villains of of this, a a new villain, you know, um Batman faces his his old rogues gallery throughout this series, but bring a little something new, a new adversary that that matches this this new context. And so this kid gang, an update of of the uh DC comics Jack Kirby, Joe Simon kid gang, except uh you know this time it's it's the mutant gang. The story ostensibly takes place in the future, although who knows if it's 30 years into the future of the DC universe back then. It it only you know takes you up into 2016. This bleak future looks very quaint, but the mutant gang is kind of a reminder that okay, this is this is this is the future. We got this sort of futuristic street gang.

[00:19:13]Again, you know, Miller talks about the movies that influenced him and I'd say with the street gangs in the mutant gang and then its spin-offs in this series, he had to be thinking of the warriors with all their colorful street gangs.

[00:19:28]You can't discount Westside Story as an influence. It is him. It is. And we know so many ways to hurt him, so many lovely ways to punish him. And the him being Joe Chill, the guy who who killed his parents. Although I don't know that Miller ever makes it a point to name him Joe Chill. For Miller's approach, it's just a completely random guy who kills uh his parents and you never and and and Batman never finds out who it is. Never gets any closure, which is part of what spurs him on. So many lovely ways to punish him. No, it's not him. Slice and dice. We got a quota. So that quota, this gang isn't isn't just some sort of, you know, loose organization of kids getting into trouble. there's some kind of structure, there's some kind of hierarchy, there's some kind of leadership that wants them to deliver, wants them to cause a certain amount of mayhem to to kill a certain number of people. That that's that's what the quota is. Um, you know, sort of like a headcount. So many I don't know, man.

[00:20:24]Look at him. He's into it. Batman being into it like uh this is this is the most excitement he's had in a while. And it is starting to wake up that demon. And and and maybe that's what they're seeing. We've seen that that demon wake up that loves this stuff that loves finding a murderer and and just taking him apart. Just a little thing I noticed looking at the the original art is that you know Miller or Jansen were going for some kind of illumination effect where the side of Bruce Wayne's nose was bleached out. There wasn't any detail on that left nostril. And it looks a little odd in in this original art. It looks like it's been inked and whited out. So I guess it was it was some kind of effect. But when it got to Lynn Varley and maybe Frank himself felt that, you know, it was a nice try, but it looks a little odd without that that nostril.

[00:21:13]So, she paints the nostril back in. Page five, Miller kind of does a thing with these where the last panel of each page hands things off to the next page in a really really nice way. No, it's not him. Not the murderer of his parents. So many. I don't know, man. Look at him.

[00:21:28]He's into it. Not him. He flinched when he pulled the trigger. He was sick and guilty over what he did. Can't do murders when they're into it. He's talking about Joe Chill or or possibly the unknown murderer of his parents. Joe Chill was the sort of inontinuity uh DC explanation of who killed Batman's parents. All he wanted was money. I was naive enough to think him the lowest sort of man. Let's hit the arcade, man.

[00:21:51]These these are his children. A purer breed. Always a good time at the arcade and this world is theirs. In the previous page, they mentioned slice and dice, but other than that, we're not really seeing the unique language of the mutant gang yet. The their their verbiage is kind other than that slice and dice line. Their verbiage is kind of just, you know, standard English and not that stylized language that that they use later in the comic. He he was naive enough to think I'll just call him Joe Chill, even though I don't know that Miller uses the name Joe Chill in any of his work. Batman was naive to think him the lowest sort of man, but these are his children, a purer breed that or sort of Joe Chill, the next generation and uh you know a purer breed. So this is sort of something that you know pops up every generation of uh grown-ups has this notion that oh you know what what's wrong with these kids today? These kids they're just out of control. They're horrible sociopaths or something. And it can get ugly in the real world in in terms of you know that that often that's used as a reason for jailing kids for I'd call it a myth this myth of these kids now they're a new breed to sort of try them as adults in court and and things like that and you know prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. It feels you know sort of tied to the carceral state. This theme in Miller's work kind of, I think, reaches its ultimate form in his RoboCop 2 script where there's a little league team of muggers. The coach kind of takes his little league team out to beat and rob and and possibly murder people. Uh, you know, so that that's kind of the ultimate form of this. Look how horrible our society's gotten. Look how bleak things are because the children are are murderers. Again, Miller's creating a world and a context for this story. He wants to tell a story where where, you know, Batman has some stuff to do. So, so he's painting a bleak picture. And then the question is always, you know, how much of this are we to take with us into the real world? You know, how much of this is is intended as as sort of a commentary on the on the real world we live in? And how much of this is just, you know, pure abstract fantasy and and and that this might as well be Middle Earth or Narnia or Tatooine. There isn't any application to to real life or to our real world. Butchery of every member of the family. The mutant organization is believed to have committed this atrocity for money the family had something under $12. This is considered a drugrelated crime at present. But surely this heatwave is a factor, right, Doc? So again, u this this is sort of a like another trope in crime fiction where this family was murdered for $12.

[00:24:29]So it's it's only the crimes are painting another bleak picture, but this this idea that the psychotic thrill of it of the murder is the point, not so much getting some school or getting some some amount of money. Absolutely, Bill.

[00:24:41]Rough month in the big town right now.

[00:24:42]The mercury is climbing to an unseasonable 103 and it looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better. These temperatures were completely outrageous and oblique apocalyptic kind of stuff. Look how hot it is in this future Gotham. But we're kind of living through it right now.

[00:24:56]This this summer when I'm recording this video, we're there. This just in. A dead cat has been found stapled to the door of the first church of Christ the Redeemer. The mutant gang is suspected.

[00:25:05]Miller is, you know, painting this picture of this bleak world that is crying out for a Batman and and yet and again we have another appearance of these these sort of, you know, church and and religious and being, you know, a part of Miller's work. I don't remember it being part of Batman, but old churches and church towers does seem to fit Batman's world pretty nicely. I don't think the religious aspects stick to Batman in the way that the Catholicism stuck to Matt Murdoch to to Daredevil, but Batman's Batman and Daredevil's Daredevil. Even though Frank is trying to construct both of them in his own image, there's maybe more resistance from Batman being a more enduring character than Daredevil was when Frank, you know, crosses his path. Although, when Frank talks about this work, he does talk about Batman as being a character who needed resuscitation. That Batman's best years were behind him. And it's almost as though there might not be a Batman comic if if things keep going the way they're going. And and uh he certainly turned Batman's fortunes around. Page six. So, it's interesting that this is page six because the number six keeps uh showing up and and we're at Arkham Home for the emotionally troubled, formerly Arkham Asylum. All the demons, all the evil creatures of Batman's world are temporarily held held prisoner. One thing I want to note looking at the page numbers on this book, it's page 15. That if you've been noticing the page numbers in the corner, it's not [clears throat] sort of comics page numbering where it's, you know, 1 2 3 4. It's book page numbering. So Miller has kind of accounted for the introductory pages and things like that uh in the same way that a novel would have. They usually account for pages of introductions and prefaces and and things. So uh just an interesting thing to note. Uh we we will continue to refer to these pages as you know sort of page 6 7 8 9 just just to make things a little easier. Arkham home for the emotionally troubled. So, we're in a new era. And also, uh, you know, it's it's the future, but it's also in Miller's mind, Batman was this character from his childhood and and and even before, you know, a character from from the ' 40s and and and maybe the ' 50s, maybe the 60s with the Adam West, whatever Miller's personal touchstone was with for this character. So, part of what he's doing here is let's bring Batman into the 80s. And so the the changing Arkham Asylum into Arkham Home for the Emotionally Troubled is kind of fits with this idea of, you know, the '8s being this more touchy feely era where we're a little more sensitive about things. And a lot of this stuff, it's interesting viewing the 80s, which we probably each have our own associations with what we think the 80s are about, but seeing it through the lens of somebody who's who's living at that time and how they perceive it and in all different ways. And that'll that'll pop up throughout this. And you have this little no smoking sign in a Frank Miller comic where everybody's got like a cigarette or a cigar in their mouth.

[00:27:59]Think about all the cigarette smoke in in Daredevil. But again, it's a hospital. It's a it's a more sensitive area. Water's out in my building, too.

[00:28:06]Couldn't even take a shower this morning. You know what I hate the most about the heat? It's the way your underwear sticks to shut up. This look at the Joker. And again, Joker, these big sort of psychotic eyes, but mouth shut. He doesn't have his RTUS grin. The only way I really know it's the Joker is just from having read this before that it's all it's very subtle. this very subtle green in his hair. Maybe just enough to pick it up. I mean, we have red. We have a tiny bit of green. Maybe uh I don't know, maybe I did pick it up, but it seems pretty subtle here. And he's just, you know, looking out of the window. 601. So, uh we you know, number six keeps popping up. Uh you know, 666.

[00:28:40]And he's, you know, Joker's number one of of Batman's ultimate evil adversaries. Yeah. Well, you don't see him sweating. Just look at him. You look at him. He makes me sick. And the way these guys are dressed and the guy's holding a chart. Sounds like these are two doctors. So uh very very sort of cynical presentation uh you know that of of this kind of horse chitchat. Yeah.

[00:29:01]Well, guess being crazy has its moments.

[00:29:04]Been a long time since any of these guys had moments. The Joker's so crazy, so divorced from reality that that he doesn't even know, you know, he doesn't even feel this this intense heat that everybody's dealing with. Uh he's not sweating. When I came here, they said I could never be cured. And then we have 602. And we see the split in the panel.

[00:29:22]And this is two-face again represented in a very subtle way. We've had this pretty rigid grid up to this point. And to sort of split it further, if you can't imagine these panels getting any smaller, but split right down the middle to depict two faces, split nature. And of course, it makes sense that he'd be in room 602. We know what they said, Harvey, but that's history. Surgical procedures have improved as have psychiatric. You're fit to return to society no matter what our septtogenarian police commissioner says.

[00:29:49]The panel is divided right in the middle of Harvey Dent. His face covered wrapped up in these bandages and a sort of you know film noir trope. On each side are two aspects of of this this cure that that's happened for for Harvey Dent. On the left is his plastic surgeon who's created the physical transformation and on the right we have Dr. Vulper who you know becomes sort of a a big character in the story being his psychiatrist who's helped him with his mental transformation. Maybe Gordon is right about me. This splits down the middle.

[00:30:19]It It This is working really nicely.

[00:30:22]Form meeting function. Nonsense.

[00:30:25]Gordon's just gone scenile. Dr. Willing isn't qualified to judge that, but I concur. Gordon is suspicious of this Harvey Dent transformation. His doctor sort of saying, Gordon's gone scenile.

[00:30:35]It's kind of unprofessional. As Vulper reminds him, that's that's outside of your specialty. That's my specialty.

[00:30:41]Leave that to me. Thank you, Dr. Vulper.

[00:30:43]And now Harvey Dent. Meet Harvey Dent.

[00:30:45]The idea of Harvey Dent meeting Harvey Dent. We got this split nature, these two faces, and that he can meet himself.

[00:30:51]Oh my god. The face is covered. We don't know what he's seeing. We're to assume he's excited about what he's seeing, but maybe he's horrified. The the way that it's obscured makes you think he's looking at something horrible. And then on the next page, what can I say? He pulls it down and we see, oh, the scarred half of his face has been healed and he's crying. And what can I say? And it'll be interesting to remember this moment later on in this chapter. It plays really nicely. Again, the structure of this whole story, the way things are woven through it, the way moments are foreshadowed and called back to, again, uh, completely foreign to the comic book medium up to this point. The only person doing anything remotely in this neighborhood would be Frank Miller's idol, Will Eisner. I'm Tom Scholley, author of Space Opera Xanodax Across the Unknown Dimensions of the Galaxy from Image Comics.