The Dark Knight Returns

[The Dark Knight]

Regarding the animated movie, there are so many good tracks, but The Signal is one of my favorites.

I love the melancholic atmosphere. It brings to mind the weight of a long career and the sadness Batman has endured over the years. To me, it also communicates the weary responsibility on his shoulders in the present day, because he's STILL really the only man capable of rescuing the hellhole that is Gotham City. A short track but a work of art, as far as I am concerned. I'll have to read the graphic novel with this soundtrack on in the background.

[thecolorsblend]

Regarding the animated movie, there are so many good tracks, but The Signal is one of my favorites.

I love the melancholic atmosphere. It brings to mind the weight of a long career and the sadness Batman has endured over the years. To me, it also communicates the weary responsibility on his shoulders in the present day, because he's STILL really the only man capable of rescuing the hellhole that is Gotham City. A short track but a work of art, as far as I am concerned. I'll have to read the graphic novel with this soundtrack on in the background.

That whole score is great. But yeah, that's one of the standout tracks. As you say, the weariness of the responsibility he bears really gives that track a lot of emotional heft. Great choice from a great score.

[The Joker]

Time capsule 1996: Wizard Magazine casts "The Dark Knight Returns".

[The Laughing Fish]

Something tells me I doubt Ronald Reagan would've portrayed himself had a DKR movie got made. He wasn't exactly portrayed in a very good light, from what I could tell.

I saw an artist doing a 3D render of how Batman could look like if a live-action adaptation ever got made. The mouth appears to resemble George Clooney.







Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OylDgb

[The Joker]

Something tells me I doubt Ronald Reagan would've portrayed himself had a DKR movie got made. He wasn't exactly portrayed in a very good light, from what I could tell.

Yeah, Wizard's dream casting was sometimes not remotely realistic, and even flat out laughable. The most amusing example that comes to mind, is Wizard fan casting Fabio, yes, Fabio as Thor!

Pretty much tells you right there that Wizard would fan cast someone based entirely on someone looking vaguely like a comic book character. "Well, Fabio's blonde. Has long hair. He'd make a fantastic Thor!" 

Apparently, whoever wasn't watching WWF in 1996. Otherwise, I'm sure Triple H would have been fan casted instead. I remember when that was sorta of a thing on the internet. 

[thecolorsblend]

Wizard casting was sometimes a little tongue in cheek, esp when that column first got started. Casting the irl Dr. Ruth is a good example.

Iirc, it got a little more serious in subsequent columns.

Still, I remind all of you that Wizard magazine's bread and butter was in appealing to junior high boys in the Nineties. Speaking as one of them, you can all probably guess how sophisticated our sense of humor was back in those days.

[The Laughing Fish]

Something tells me I doubt Ronald Reagan would've portrayed himself had a DKR movie got made. He wasn't exactly portrayed in a very good light, from what I could tell.

Yeah, Wizard's dream casting was sometimes not remotely realistic, and even flat out laughable. The most amusing example that comes to mind, is Wizard fan casting Fabio, yes, Fabio as Thor!

Pretty much tells you right there that Wizard would fan cast someone based entirely on someone looking vaguely like a comic book character. "Well, Fabio's blonde. Has long hair. He'd make a fantastic Thor!" 

LOL. Well, if we're merely judging by looks and not acting talent then yes, Fabio would've been perfect as Thor.

I figured these magazine fan castings were mostly made in jest. I'd like to know what David Letterman thought of the idea that a satirical version of himself was killed off in DKR. I can't imagine the idea of playing himself in a movie with his sidekick Paul Shaffer dying of Joker venom would've made him comfortable, haha!

That might be another reason why Conan O'Brien voiced him in the animated movie, and why David Endocrine bore no resemblance to the comic. It wasn't the only time Conan played a talk show host who died in a cartoon, I remember he played a version of himself in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, where he committed suicide.

[The Dark Knight]

Watching the masterpiece that is the animated adaption, what struck me is how inherently good Batman is, even in one of his most alpha male, brooding incarnations. Sometimes I think people lose sight of this in the push towards always going darker.

At the start of TDK Returns, Bruce is haunted but he's still a man of standards and pride. There's something inside him that keeps him from being swallowed up by the abyss completely. Part of it is the desire to feel alive by skirting close to death, namely the racing car incident. But the real driver is knowing how far Gotham has fallen, and how things should and could be. Batman can retire but for that period of time he is likely to be restless.

When he puts on the suit again you feel he's at peace, and the mental worry of the past melts away. He's very much an assertive man of positive thinking and hope. The tragedy of Jason happened, but the war goes on. Setbacks don't matter and victory is just a matter of time. He functions as a role model to others and doesn't want kids to use bad language. The spirit of Adam West is definitely there and it's the heart and soul of the character.

[The Laughing Fish]

I read Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear awhile ago, and while I was reading the final chapter where Matt Murdock fights off those child traffickers to rescue Mickey, I noticed him making a jumping pose similar to Batman in TDKR.

That jump from the TDKR was also replicated in one of the proposed movie posters made for B89, as drawn by John Alvin.

[The Joker]

From 1999, Wizard Magazine takes a quick look back at "The Dark Knight Returns".