Scott McCloud’s idea that comics are a medium in which the audience is a willing and conscious collaborator is a compelling one. I love the idea of a participatory audience and taking the fact that we are not static readers into account. In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the audience is quite literally that, as we are dropped right into our couches watching a Gotham news telecast. I was pretty annoyed every time I had to read (or watch?) the newscasters or the debates on Point vs. Point, mainly because the questioning of the validity of Batman continues to live on through the media, but I thought that it was a great example of the closure McCloud talks about in our reading. A great example of this that comes to mind is the black frames on page 67, where Batman and one of the Mutant gang members are talking. The simplicity of the gray and purple speech bubbles leaves a lot to the imagination–where are they? What does the Mutant look like? And then as Batman takes his hands off the Mutant’s eyes, we are immediately placed in his (the Mutant’s) shoes, about to fall off of Gotham Towers. The ease in which the reader is able to become any character in the comic is a spectacular feat. Reading other literary texts doesn’t allow for much of that–I can see myself in the shoes of Holden Caulfield or Mrs. Dalloway, but here I am Batman looking into the eyes of my new Robin.