DC releases 'The Dark Knight Returns' Part 1.

As the police radio announces that a robbery is in progress at the Gotham City trust, the arriving officers are met with a hail of bullets while the robbers make for a getaway in their cars. Tires screeching. Crime has never been so high. A high speed chase follows. 'You see that other car? It just went the other way' The younger officer says to his much older partner, who's driving like crazy.  'Forget it,' he replies, 'We're gonna lose this one as it is...'  'What the hell is that?' the younger officer sees a shadow moving across the building top. 'Up there...freakin' weird!' When the masked figure jumps through the air, lightning strikes. 'Holy...!'

The older police officer now sees it too. He hits the breaks and the robbers go for it. It's been ten years since Bruce Wayne retired and Batman has become not much more than a legend since. But the older cop still recognizes the dark figure coming to their rescue. It's Batman...the Dark Knight has returned! 'You're slowing down?' the younger officers asks. 'Yeah,' his partner replies laughing...'we're in for a show kid!' And that's exactly what we get. The Bruce Timm produced animated feature of Frank Miller's epic graphic novel was released on Blu-ray yesterday.

The image of Batman jumping through the storm with the lightning striking behind him, revealing him as he returns to Gotham City to bring justice to a corrupted city, is almost Iconic. It was the cover image for Frank Miller's graphic novel that I got such a long time ago. It gives me the chills when I think about it again.  The Dark Knight returns isn't your average Batman good-guy-catches-bad-guy fairy tale. Miller introduced a completely different Batman than we ever saw before. With one story, Miller single-handedly changed the DC Universe for ever. It's gritty, it's brutal and yes, it's terrifying. With his graphic novel, Miller brought Batman closer to reality than ever. It took DC 25 years before they dared to bring it to the screen (Miller's novel dates back from 1986) and the release couldn't have been timed better, with the TV screaming stories of corruption, fueled by an end-of-the-world-type of economic disaster, night after night.

Above and below: great artwork for the exterior scenes showing Gotham City, darker than ever. A city turned into a cesspool of corruption during Batman's ten year absence, until his sign is seen once again over the night sky, notifying that justice is coming once again.

Plugging comics: While an army of mutants are waging a personal war against him, Commissioner James Gordon enters a grocery store and gets into a gunfight. All the while he might as well have picked up some comics, as the backdrop clearly shows some of DC's finest.

Below (click to enlarge): the four issue story DC published in 1986 that went all the way to the top of the chart. 'The Dark Knight Returns' was created by Miller with inks by Klaus Janson, coloring by Lynn Varley and lettering from John Costanza. The second issue was titled 'Dark Knight Triumphant'. Part three, 'Hunt the Dark Knight' and four, titled 'Batman, the Dark Knight falls' will serve as the follow-up of this animated feature, to be released by Warner near the end of 2013.

What's Batman without Robin? Just like in the comic, A young girl named Carrie Kelley buys a cheap lookalike costume, puts on the outfit and saves Batman's life when he fights the Mutant's leader. She is then accepted by Bruce Wayne and becomes his sidekick.

Above: Caroline Keene aka Carrie Kelley as Robin in the animated feature. Below: Frank Miller's introduction of Carrie as Batman's aid.

Below: Introducing the Mutant leader, a scene from 'The Dark Knight Returns', and the equivalent scene from Miller's graphic novel.

One of the things I loved greatly about this animated feature was the score, which was one of the best I've heard this year so far. Composed by Christopher Drake, the soundtrack compliments all the action and flying bullets perfectly with some nice dramatic touches. The voice cast includes talents like Peter Weller as Bruce Wayne, known for his leading role in Paul verhoeven's 'Robocop' and currently often taking on the role of director on 'Sons of Anarchy'. If you pay attention you'll also be able to catch producer Bruce Timm himself as Thomas Wayne.

And please let's not forget the extremely talented group of artists working at Moi Animation Studios in South Korea, providing all the animation artwork for this feature (they also work on animated shows 'Young Justice' and 'Ultimate Spiderman'). Check out Lesean Thomas' 'Seoul Sessions' videos. He's an American animator living in Seoul and working with Moi Animation on all the shows we love to watch.