The Dark Knight Returns

The Dark Knight Returns is set in a dystopian future where a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne has been retired from being Batman for ten years. He returns to the cape and cowl when a new wave of crime overwhelms Gotham City, eventually facing a violent mutant gang, a newly-freed Joker, and a government-sanctioned Superman.

In the climactic sequence, Batman fakes his own death after a brutal fight with Superman, who has been ordered by the U.S. government to bring him down. Bruce Wayne then retreats underground and secretly recruits followers to continue his mission, suggesting that Batman's war on crime will continue even without the public figure.

Along with Alan Moore's Watchmen (also published in 1986), The Dark Knight Returns is credited with fundamentally changing the comic book industry by proving that superhero comics could tackle mature, politically charged themes for adult readers. Its success helped launch the 'grim and gritty' era of comics in the late 1980s and 1990s and directly influenced Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film.

Frank Miller wrote and illustrated 'The Dark Knight Strikes Again' (also known as DK2), a three-issue miniseries published in 2001–2002 set three years after the original. A third installment, 'The Dark Knight III: The Master Race,' was published from 2015 to 2017, co-written by Miller and Brian Azzarello.