In 1986 Frank Miller changed Batman forever with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  In this book Batman is old and has retired.  Gotham has just gotten worse and worse without Batman to protect it. Finally Batman can take no more and returns darker and more violent that we have ever seen him before.

After Batman: The Dark Knight Returns success Frank Miller retells Batman’s origin in Batman: Year One.  In this re-telling, a darker and more violent Batman is born as we learn about Bruce Wayne’s childhood, the brutal slaying of his parents and how Bruce Wayne became Batman.

Batman: The Killing Joke is not one of the stories that comes up a lot when talking about Alan Moore, but is another example of the great adventures Alan Moore takes readers on. Originally published in 1988, the book came in a deluxe format that had a very strange color pallet in side it. After recently reading the hardback version I was surprised to find out that artist Brian Bolland just didn’t have time to color the book and someone else was brought in to color it. In the hardback version Brian Bolland has gone back and re-colored the whole the whole thing. Batman: The Killing Joke reboots the Joker just as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns rebooted Batman two years earlier. Throughout the book Batman and the Joker are locked in a psychological battle, though some scenes are quiet brutal like the kidnapping of Commissioner Gorden and the shooting of Barbara Gorden. Just like all good Alan Moore stories readers are led through twist and turns that come neatly together at the end leaving readers with a darker Joker to go along with our now darker Batman.

These three book completely updated Batman to the modern character we see today. Though many long time readers of Batman hated the changes, many more new readers started reading the series from this point on.  Both of the last two Batman Movies (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) seem to based on this modern version of the character.