10 Best Fakeout Endings In Comics

Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic book tales in the history of the medium.

Picking things up ten years after Bruce Wayne has hung up the cape 'n' cowl, the battered, broken, older Bruce is forced to suit up once more when the brutal Mutants gang surfaces to terrorise Gotham. But with the re-emergence of the Caped Crusader, the US government sends Superman to politely talk Wayne out of returning from retirement.

Of course, once the threat of the Mutants is finally quelled - not to mention a battle with the Joker that would see the Clown Prince of Crime take his own life and frame Bats for his 'murder' - readers got the inevitable match-up of Batman vs. Superman. In a war that saw both men beat the tar out of each other, this legendary fight was only brought to a halt once Bruce's heart failed on him.

Here, we get the image of the Man of Steel cradling the dead body of his long-time friend/foe, before the scene cuts to Wayne's funeral. As Clark Kent, Selina Kyle and Jim Gordon stand at the grave of Gotham's greatest protector, it's then that Clark and his super-hearing picks up the murmurs of a heartbeat.

This led to the revelation that Bruce had slowed his heart down by using certain chemicals, and that Carrie Kelley - his new Robin - was to dig up Wayne's 'dead' body.