The legendary Frank Miller was in attendance at the MCM Comic Con in London this weekend, exclusive coverage of which should be appearing on DKN and DCN shortly. Please stay tuned for that.
Being the writer and artist behind one of the most seminal Batman books in modern history, the Dark Knight Returns, you best believe that he was welcomed to appear at the convention’s Batman panel. There, he revealed something fairly jaw-dropping in the creation of DKR: a different ending.
While there was a different ending planned as revealed in the 10th anniversary reissue of DKR, Miller revealed something entirely different. The original ending as revealed in the reissue showed Bats being defeated by Supes. It eventually ended with Bruce Wayne outed as the Batman, who then faked his suicide.
The final Batman story
No, this is not that ending. In front of large of crowd of dedicated Batfans sitting for Mass, Miller revealed yet another ending that he had considered originally. However, as it tends to be the case when drafting and editing stories, these things change. This ending would have been far more final being a true “last Batman story,” with Batman actually meeting his demise, shot down while fighting a police force.
Klaus Janson, who was in attendance, known for inking Miller’s pencils on the iconic tome, corroborated Miller’s anecdote, explaining that Miller was changing the story as he was writing it.
It would have been an interesting ending. If I know Bats, he knew that he could not survive and allowed it to happen. However, it’s certainly hard to judge without any thematic context. I’m certain that Miller would have woven into it a beauitful poetic end for the Dark Knight rather than just a story to kill him off once and for all.
What do you think? Would this have been a more fitting ending that what was eventually published? Or even the alternate ending presented in the reissue? Let me know.
Be sure to check back on DKN for the entire exclusive conversation with the legendary creator himself, Frank Miller! You won’t want to miss that, Batfans.