The backstory behind the greatest Batman epic.
DC Comics announced DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: THE LAST CRUSADE. This is a one-shot set before the events of Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.
Nearly three decades ago, Frank Miller told the story of an older Batman who comes out of retirement in the influential epic. Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, will take us back to over ten years before this classic work, when Batman was still actively fighting crime with his previous Robin, Jason Todd.
This one-shot will reveal the previously untold story of how Jason met his end in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight universe and featuring the first appearance of Miller’s Joker since his death in The Dark Knight Returns.
Co-written by the DARK KNIGHT III: The Master Race team of Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello, Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade will be a 64-page prestige format one-shot drawn by artist John Romita, Jr.
Jason Todd was killed by the Joker in in Death In the Family but was resurrected years later. The fate of the second Robin will be a factor in the Miller’s Dark Knight verse and how it turned Bruce Wayne into the man we met the first epic.
“I can’t say much, but I can say this book’s a prequel to Dark Knight Returns and it’s got a lot to do with Jason Todd and what happens to him at the hands of the Joker. All this was only touched on in Dark Knight Returns. We know Jason Todd met his end, but this is going to tell the story of how he met his end and what transpires up to that point.” Romita told DC Comics.
Romita, Jr. revealed he worked on new designs for this version of the sidekick.
“Since he’s still Robin at that point, I told our editor that I’d like to make it slightly distinct or at least different from the Dick Grayson version. But at the same time, it’s can’t be too different. And we also have to keep his look different from Carrie Kelley’s. But once we establish the year that it is, maybe his hairstyle will be distinct to what it is at that time. Bruce Wayne can’t have all grey, but he has some. He’s not an older guy, he’s middle aged. But being Batman for all those years, it’ll wear on you. You beat the body up. So there are little those considerations that I like to take into effect. With Jason, he’ll be in a Robin costume, but it’ll be a little different.”
Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade arrives February 16, 2016.
By Editor