History ComicBook / TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain

* [[spoiler:HamsterWheelPower]]: This is what the Flash has been up to lately.

* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler: Dick Grayson has become a NighInvulnerable MonsterClown super-assassin that can survive all attacks, but is finally destroyed once and for all when he falls into the LavaPit that formed in the destruction of the batcave]].

* {{Gonk}}: There are some seriously ugly character designs here, especially Lex Luthor, an iconic DiabolicalMastermind, {{Ubermensch}} and ManofWealthandTaste who for some reason is depicted as a cigar-chomping, hulking neanderthal with huge hands and a hunchback, to the point that it looks as though his hands are physically weighing him down, forcing him to walk with a hunch and thereby making him a literal knuckle-dragger, causing one to wonder if he [[DisabledintheAdaptation is actually meant to be physically deformed]]. The Gonkishness is mostly limited to the elderly males of the cast (which there are a ton of) but even the ostensibly pretty females have weirdly angular faces.

* OurWormholesAreDifferent: A throwaway line during Hal Jordan's jour ey back to Earth about the wormhole being where he still left it implies he can create or move them.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Luthor's nanites removed all the Martian Manhunter's powers except his ability to see the future. A power he's never actually had before.

* PhysicalGod: Wonder Woman calls Superman this. Hal Jordan actually ''is'' this.

* WillfullyWeak: This is apparently Batman's (and Miller's) main problem with Superman, as he stops being treated as a ButtMonkey once he starts taking the attitude to match his power as a PhysicalGod. He even makes a WorldOfCardboardSpeech (though it's not quite on the same level as the trope namer).

** the sex work industry becoming more or the mainstream, especially among the sexy Cosplay of superheroes, seemed ridiculous for the time both in and out of universe.

* {{Gonk}}: There are some seriously ugly character designs here, especially Lex Luthor, a DiabolicalMastermind, {{Ubermensch}} and ManofWealthandTaste who for some reason is depicted here as a cigar-chomping, hulking neanderthal with huge hands and a hunchback, to the point that it looks his hands are physically weighing him down, forcing him to walk with a hunch and thereby making him a literal knuckle-dragger, causing one to wonder if he [[DisabledintheAdaptation is actually meant to be physically deformed]]. The Gonkishness is mostly limited to the elderly males of the cast (which there are a ton of) but even the ostensibly pretty females have weirdly angular faces.

* {{Gonk}}: There are some seriously ugly character designs here, especially Lex Luthor. This is mostly limited to the elderly males of the cast (which there are a ton of) but even the ostensibly pretty females have weirdly angular faces.

* BadassGrandpa: The majority of the superheroes are really ''really'' old in this book. They can still kick the crap out of you and each other.

* TheCameo[=/=]ShoutOut:

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Luthor's nanites removed all his powers except his ability to see the future. A power he's never actually had before.

* {{Expy}}: A weird inversion, or something. This story's ComicBook/TheQuestion is basically Rorschach from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', and Rorschach himself was a CaptainErsatz of the original Question, so this makes this version of the Question closer to the original Ditko Question and [[Film/AustinPowers oh no, I've gone crosseyed]].

Overall, it goes further off the deep end than ''The Dark Knight Returns'', almost to the point of being a {{Deconstruction}} of the DarkerAndEdgier nature of the first story though, naturally, not everyone thinks that makes it any good. The color palette is much more varied than ''The Dark Knight Returns''' muted colorization, taking it to an almost garish degree, that takes a little getting used to (many reviewers termed it ugly). It is followed by ''ComicBook/DarkKnightIIITheMasterRace''.

''Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again'', also known as ''Dark Knight 2'', was a three issue {{Franchise/Batman}} mini-series written and illustrated by Creator/FrankMiller with Lynn Varley in 2001–2002, the sequel to 1986's ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns''.

** ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' could be interpreted as Bruce Wayne being older, wiser, and struggling to hold on to his humanity and/or sanity. By ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', Bruce Wayne probably reverted back to his personality in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder''. In short, what you have here is one seriously messed-up man who is ''not'' as rational and logical as he thinks he is.

** Hot Gates, the porn star who dresses as Big Barda, is a shout out to the recurring theme of Thermopylae that appears in Frank Miller's work. She was also name dropped in ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'', so it's also a CallBack.

* {{Retcon}}: Of sorts. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' treats the absence of superheroes (and Superman having "sold out") as a consequence of a SuperRegistrationAct, with the unnamed president strongly implied to be UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, who's super-aged and losing his sanity. Here, it's revealed that the whole scenario is due to Lex Luthor and Braniac holding the world (and Kandor) hostage via orbiting cannons and a hologram of the president (whose name is stated to be "Rickard", a reference to the comic ''ComicBook/{{Prez|1973}}'').

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_dark_knight_strikes_again_9568.jpg]]

Set three years after the events of ''The Dark Knight Returns'', the world has managed to go downhill since then--the President is a fake, and the police state of a world is run by ComicBook/LexLuthor and Brainiac, who has many a hero enslaved.

* BigBadDuumvirate: New Joker, Lex Luthor and Brainiac.

''Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again'', also known as ''Dark Knight 2'', was a three issue {{Franchise/Batman}} mini-series written and illustrated by Creator/FrankMiller with Lynn Varley in 2001-2002, the sequel to 1986's ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns''.

Set three years after the events of ''The Dark Knight Returns'', the world has managed to go downhill since then- the President is a fake, and the police state of a world is run by ComicBook/LexLuthor and Brainiac, who has many a hero enslaved.

Overall it goes further off the deep end than ''The Dark Knight Returns'', almost to the point of being a Deconstruction of the DarkerAndEdgier nature of the first story though, naturally, not everyone thinks that makes it any good. The color palette is much more varied than ''The Dark Knight Returns''' muted colorization, taking it to an almost garish degree, that takes a little getting used to (many reviewers termed it ugly). It is followed by ''ComicBook/DarkKnightIIITheMasterRace''.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: At least [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall one commentator]] regarded ''News in the Nude'' with incredulity, apparently being unaware of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_News Naked News.]]'' At the very least though, the latter's a paid subscription service.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Hawkman and Hawkgirl, ingloriously nuked off-panel. Captain Marvel had a longer sequence where a giant building was dropped on him.]]

* [[spoiler: HamsterWheelPower]]: This is what the Flash has been up to lately.

* InvincibleHero: Batman. By the time anyone comes up with anything he's already twelve steps ahead of them. Superman heading for the Bat-Cave? No problem! Just use the gigantic Kryptonite gloves over there! Got captured? No biggie! It was part of Batman's plan all along. It gets so bad that Batman can literally storm into Luthor's base of operations, beat him up, cut his face, and just leave with absolutely zero consequences. In the page image, he spells out why -- he wanted to inspire terror in Luthor, to let him know that his empire was crumbling. [[spoiler: And he wanted to give Hawkboy the honor of killing Luthor.]]
* KryptoniteRing: More than a ring - try Kryptonite napalm, Kryptonite [[PowerFist power fists]]...
* LosingYourHead: [[spoiler: Dick Grayson. He reattaches it.]]
* MonsterClown: [[spoiler: For once, there was a reason to highlight this. It's not the Joker, it's Dick Grayson.]]

** FalseDichotomy. Both characters are shown to be ridiculously over the top in their antics. [[spoiler: The Question refuses to use anything more technologically advanced than a typewriter (though that could be ProperlyParanoid given the setting), and Green Arrow is a hypocritical billionaire Marxist hippie who presumably spent a fortune to get a cybernetic arm when the world is in the throes of a nuclear winter.]]

* WifeHusbandry: [[spoiler:Dick Grayson]] implies that this is what Batman is doing with Carrie, though [[WordOfGod Word of Miller]] denies this vehemently. Also, [[spoiler:Dick Grayson]] was [[IncrediblyLamePun bat]]shit insane at that point, and had just spent a good amount of time [[spoiler:[[ColdBloodedTorture mutilating Carrie]] out of [[AxCrazy psychotic jealousy.]]]] [[spoiler:He]] is an unreliable source, to say the least.

* BestHerToBedHer: Wonder Woman.
* BewareTheSuperman: At the end of the series[[spoiler: Superman rules the world with his daughter, Lara.]]

* TheCameo[=/=]ShoutOut: [[Magazine/{{MAD}} Alfred E. Neuman]] appears as one of the talking heads in issue 2.

** The President has the last name Rickard, as in ''ComicBook/{{Prez}}''.

* {{Retcon}}: Of sorts. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' treats the absence of superheroes (and Superman having "sold out") as a consequence of a SuperRegistrationAct, with the unnamed president strongly implied to be UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, who's super-aged and losing his sanity. Here, it's revealed that the whole scenario is due to Lex Luthor and Braniac holding the world (and Kandor) hostage via orbiting cannons and a hologram of the president (whose name is stated to be "Rickard", a reference to the comic ''ComicBook/{{Prez}}'').

-->'''Catgirl:''' "The Boss leaves his mark. ''[we see Batman use a batarang to make the three quick slices]'' It must mean something to him... "