The Multiple Personality Theme in The Dark Knight Returns
To be completely honest, I am really not that familiar with the world of comic books / graphic novels, so the nuances of the art and design of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns are essentially over my head at this point. What I can comment on, however, is the story of The Dark Knight Returns. And by far the most compelling part of the story for me was the multiple personality theme.
Bruce Wayne and Batman are far more than merely the tried and true template of the mild-mannered everyman and his superhero alter-ego. For Bruce, Batman is another character in and of himself, with his own thoughts and desires and even what seems to be a distinct personality. Bruce and Batman share the same body, but they don’t seem to really be the same person. For instance, beginning on page 13 when Bruce is mugged and relives his tragic origin story, Miller uses gray text-boxes to set aside an internal monologue that the reader can easily recognize as the thoughts of Batman, not the thoughts of Bruce Wayne.
Later on pages 25 and 26, as the temptation to return to crime-fighting has become too powerful, the internal voice returns, although now it isn’t merely a monologue but a conversation. The voice says, “ . . . I am your soul. You cannot escape me . . . You tried to drown me out . . . But your voice is weak . . .” Who is the “I” and who is the “you” in this conversation? The “I” is Batman, speaking to Bruce Wayne. Two minds inhabiting the same body. That seems like a cut and dry case of multiple personalities. And, of course, Bruce Wayne / Batman’s case of multiple personality disorder is made all the more interesting because his primary foe, at least in the first part of the novel, is Harvey Dent / Two Face. Batman and Two Face are essentially mirror images of each other. Each man has one foot in real life, existing as a normal person, while the other foot lies in Gotham’s criminal underworld where each man exists as some sort of spirit or caricature. Both Harvey and Bruce possess other selves obsessed with crime. It’s just that Two Face is obsessed with committing it and Batman is obsessed with stopping it.
The multiple personality theme is just one reason why The Dark Knight Returns is so much more compelling than the average comic book of previous eras. The primary conflict is essentially psychological. Miller does an excellent job of detailing Batman’s primary motivation, which is his deep-seated, irrepressible need to fight evil, for lack of a better term. Such a need rarely expresses itself in a neat and tidy way, and instead often leads Batman to engage in acts of violence that are barely distinguishable from those of his enemies. Perhaps this is why Bruce Wayne / Batman possess multiple personalities in the first place, as it is too difficult to remain a part of both worlds and act as the same person. Either way, the theme gives The Dark Knight Returns a depth and appeal that the average person would not expect from a Batman comic book.
This split personality that Batman projects definitely reminds the reader of the two-sidedness of everything about the Batman comics. It is not so simple as good versus evil, either, in which case it would be easy for a reader to choose a side. Neither Batman nor Bruce Wayne are clear-cut “good” or “bad” personas, they are both flawed. Bruce Wayne is a businessman and a social playboy. In Batman Hush Volume 1 we get to see more of Bruce Wayne’s personality than DKR, and he’s a smug, womanizing egomaniac. As Batman, he is a violent vigilante, punishing (corporally) villains who are construed to “have it coming.” Both personas are motivated by good intentions, yet neither allow remorse or empathy for the harm they’ve caused another living person – whether or not they “deserve it” is debatable (really, it is, that’s what our whole judiciary system is based on). The judiciary system comes to mind because we don’t just take people and throw them into jail or kill them, they’re given a chance to defend their actions. So much of the time we, the “innocent,” don’t want to give “villains” a second chance, we want brutal justice – and Batman satisfies our bloodlust, but fighting fire with fire only fuels the inferno. It is Batman’s impulse to rid his city of crime and his violent methods bring the reader to Batman’s side of the struggle, but it would be interesting to enter the perception of a criminal and see their side of the story for once.
There is duality abound in the Batman mythos, and it is especially prominent in The Dark Knight Returns. It is a theme that easily lends itself to the character of Two-Face. It is important that for the purposes of this story, Two-Face has been ‘fixed,’ which in turn only shows that he is broken beyond repair. Frequently, Batman sees aspects of himself in the enemies he face; in this story, this comes into play with Two-Face. Ultimately Harvey Dent’s complete visage is shown to be a sort of mask, as his true identity is still that of the villain he had grown accustomed to being.
In a similar way, Bruce Wayne is a mask, and Batman is his true face. At times, his monologues border on dialogue. This bothers me a little bit in context to The Dark Knight Returns, because Frank Miller’s Batman is not a well-oiled weapon, but rather a grizzled old man, and therefore the inclusion of his dichotomous nature comes off as more of a nagging impurity than as a powerful compulsive neurosis. This causes him to behave more like an unstable drug addict than a legitimate superhero.
Despite my complaints about the established character of Batman being flung to the wind in DKR, the duality mechanic works really well with what Frank Miller is trying to do with the story. When facing the leader of the Mutants, Batman only wins once he has found harmony between Wayne and Batman. His first time back in the suit, he denies his age, saying “I should be… broken, spent unable to move. And, were I an older man, I surely would…. but I’m a man of thirty — of twenty again,” because although Bruce Wayne is a much older man, The Batman is ageless. When fighting the Mutant leader in the mud, he accepts that he can no longer approach the idea of battle as a young man, and wins through the use of experience rather than brute force and youthful speed.
This is an exception, not a rule; here, and only here, Batman and Bruce Wayne are the exact same man.
The Dark Knight Returns is the first superhero comic I’ve ever read so I, too, felt a little out of my league. Upon first reading the book, I thought there were few, if any, subtleties in Miller’s representation of good vs. evil, which is actually something that I enjoyed. Being an English major requires you to read and interpret a lot of nuanced text, so it felt like a refreshing change to read something so seemingly cut and dried. I liked not having to work at it. Reading through it a second time, however, showed me that all is not as straightforward as I thought. Most of the characterizations are obvious – Gordon and Batman have a strong, noble bearing, chiseled features, etc. while the Mutant Gang are instantly marked as deviant through their dress and speech.
Yet, it goes much deeper than that. For instance, as noted above, Batman is much darker that a superhero moniker would suggest. He is a tortured, violent man who escapes easy characterization. Also, the use of color is intriguing and open to interpretation. As others have noted, Robin is bathed in color – a flash of light in an otherwise somber environment. She stands in stark contrast to Batman’s shadowy presence. Yet, the Mutant Gang is also featured in bright, happy colors – yellows, blues, greens (62-64, 95). Does this foreshadow the awesomely ironic shift of the Mutant Gang turned Sons of Batman defending the city from its (supposedly) responsible citizens? Also, the surprise twist of the priest acknowledging that he misjudged the kid carrying the radio, who ended up unselfishly helping others (184), reminds me again that there is much more nuance here than I originally thought.
One last point is the use of split panes showing one bisected image. This device is used sparingly – I only noted a few instances of it in the book. On page 15, we see Harvey Dent split in two in several different frames, starting with his room in the ward; and page 41 shows the Joker’s split smile. This seems to represent the dual personas of both villains. There is also one image of Batman split in two, as he hovers over the broken body of the criminal (39). As Emma says, he feels no remorse – in fact, he seems to delight in the man’s terror and pain. So this, too, highlights the split personality theme by underlying the good vs. evil sides of both hero and villain.