>>My relationship with The Dark Knight Returns is similar to my
>>relationship with Watchmen in many ways, but with one important
>>difference. Whereas I regret, not to say deplore, the continuing
>>effect that both of them have had on the genre as a whole, I found
>>much to enjoy in DKR itself.
>
>That's fair. I have a similar reaction, except in my case it's
>enhanced by my fondness for certain 1970's stories that have been
>eclipsed thanks to the polarizing effect DKR has had. So many fans
>assume "anti-Miller" equates to "pro-campy".

Yeah, it's weird how people forget that there were badass Batman stories before DKR. Just off the top of my head I can think of two from the late '70s that still stick in my mind today. One was an issue of Justice League of America, back in the "satellite headquarters 22,300 miles above the Earth" days, in which some kind of global catastrophe was going on. I forget what it was exactly - the sun was engulfing the Earth and everything was on fire, or something similar - but the League was absolutely up against the wall just trying to stop the world from ending outright, and they left Batman on the satellite 'cause, well, you know, whole planet literally on fire, guy without any superpowers needs to stay out of the way.

Nowadays, of course, everyone knows intuitively that what happens next is that Batman saves the entire planet at stupendous personal risk while everyone else is busy holding up collapsing bridges long enough for school buses to get across and whatnot, but at the time, that was amazing, and I remember being profoundly struck by the message there - that the guy without superpowers is the one member of the League who actually has both the smarts and the balls to save the day.

Aha, here we are - Justice League of America #170, cover dated September 1979. So I was... five or six, depending on how far off the cover date the actual publication was.

The other was probably the first issue of Batman I ever saw, which a quick hunt around that same site reveals as #306, December 1978. Again, well before DKR - even earlier than JLA 170 - and again, not in any way campy. Pretty heavy stuff, actually. Admittedly, I was well outside the target demo, being five, but even so, the Black Spider... dang, man. I'm pretty sure that guy would still be considered fairly dark today. And check out that cover. Jim Aparo's Batman and no dialogue (the latter quite unusual for a DC cover of the period). And they say '70s comics weren't art. :)

Nostalgia is rose-tinted, of course, and I imagine there was plenty wrong with those comics that would make me headslap now, but still. The people who look back now and perceive DKR as some kind of K/T boundary between Adam West and Kevin Conroy are all wet.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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