3. Annihilating the Mutant Leader
If youre a Batman fan and you havent read Frank Millers absolutely seminal Dark Knight Returns, then youve got a serious gap in your Bat-Lore knowledge that needs to be addressed immediately. In it, an elderly, recently un-retired Batman is easily bested by the leader of a new and deadly Gotham gang known only as The Mutants. In their second clash, Batman forces himself to remember what made him such a great crime-fighter in the old days, and employs possibly the purest plan you might ever see in a Batman book. You see, he doesnt just want to defeat the Mutant leader; he wants to annihilate him, and in front of his entire gang no less, so that theyll know
exactly what happens when you commit to injustice in Batmans city. I hadnt read much Batman when I picked up Millers Dark Knight Rises all those years ago. But the very instant I witnessed Bats ingenious defeat of Mutant leader as the dominant force in Gotham was the very instant I never looked back. True, with the recent Warner Bros. animated adaptation of Dark Knight Returns, you could say that this is old hat but remember, just because youve seen it, doesnt necessarily mean its not still niche, especially to a cinema-going audience. And this animated version was very close to what can be seen in the panels, acting more as a companion to the book than an adaptation; a film version would be an entirely different beast. Suffice it to say, this throwdown is to my mind one of the finest in Batmans illustrious history of awesome throwdowns. And with the right director, the right cinematographer, the right choreographer and the right performer, it could easily be made into one of the purest, most visceral fight sequences ever witnessed in a comic book movie.