3. The Dark Knight Returns
The great frustration with comics is that they rarely afford their readers a definitive conclusion of any kind. The hero will defeat the villain only for the villain to return again, time after time until an inevitable reboot happens. Yet what Frank Millers visionary The Dark Knight Returns offered fans was a definite and brutal end to the Dark Knights many story threads over the years (not counting the much lamented sequel, Dark Knight Blah, which we wont go into here). Two Face, Robin, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, relationship with Superman All these crucial parts of the Bat mythos were included and concluded, leaving fans in awe of how satisfying a pulp hero could be when his story actually ends. Yet no moment left fans jaws more agape than the inevitable showdown between Bats and the clown prince of crime. For many a year fans had wondered why Batman never just killed his rival, ending his mad reign of terror. Well, here was the answer, the unimaginable made real on the comic page. Though the outcome has long been debated by fans, few can escape the chill that rises up their spine at the last image of the Joker, laughing in the face of his foes rage and impotence, fans heads spinning at the knowledge that maybe even in losing what is seemingly most important, the Joker won after all.