History ComicBook / TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain

** [[spoiler:When searching the ruins of Metropolis, Superman discovers a locket containing [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] pictures of him & ComicBook/LoisLane.]]

* {{Retraux}}: Superman looks more like his [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] version than the one used in DKR.

** [[invoked]]WordOfGod says the book as Frank Miller's reaction to the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] he helped inspire.

* WifeHusbandry: [[spoiler:Dick Grayson]] implies that this is what Batman is doing with Carrie, though [[invoked]][[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.

* ComicBookTime

* CreepyChild: Saturn Girl.

* GangOfHats: The Batboys.

* PunyHumans: What Lara Kent believes.

* SignatureStyle

* TookALevelInJerkass: Batman's behavior in this series is a lot like ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder''. He regularly demeans both the villains and his allies, doesn't bat an eye at his fellow heroes killing villains, and shows no hesitation about killing [[spoiler:his former protege Dick Grayson]].

* {{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.

* AmbiguouslyGay: [[spoiler:Dick Grayson of the DepravedHomosexual variety]]

** Of a sort. In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', Batman was a gruesome individual. He treated everyone in the story like dirt, insisted that Dick eat a rat for dinner, threatened Alfred for feeding him a proper meal, slapped Dick for crying over the loss of his parents, and gleefully killed (dirty, some willing to murder kids) cops chasing him and was overall a deranged, loathsome maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' 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.

** WordOfGod says the book as Frank Miller's reaction to the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] he helped inspire.
** Which leads to some FridgeLogic when combined with ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder. For instance, this comic lauds ComicBook/GreenLantern (Hal Jordan) specifically as a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything noble hero exiled by the petty people of Earth]], but who [[ComicBook/EmeraldTwilight is shown to be absolutely worthy of godlike power.]] In contrast, the Goddamn Batman once lured Hal into an ambush and beat him savagely with little provocation. The beating occurs canonically before he entrusts Bats with a means to summon him, but was written afterward.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Batman.

* 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.

* CoitusEnsues: Superman and Wonder Woman had several pages dedicated to them having sex for no reason other than to make Superman feel better.

* 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.
** 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.

* 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.
** Superman can now absorb energy from the Earth to heal himself and replenish his powers. It was always the PowerOfTheSun before.

* ButtBrand: One issue features a woman with the House of El sigil stamped on her ass.

* ArtShift: [[spoiler:When searching the ruins of Metropolis, Superman discovers a locket containing [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] pictures of him & ComicBook/LoisLane.]]

* CharacterDevelopment: Of a sort. In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', Batman was a gruesome individual. He treated everyone in the story like dirt, insisted that Dick eat a rat for dinner, threatened Alfred for feeding him a proper meal, slapped Dick for crying over the loss of his parents, and gleefully killed (dirty, some willing to murder kids) cops chasing him and was overall a deranged, loathsome maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson.

* StrawmanPolitical: The Question is a radical Libertarian, Green Arrow is a radical Marxist. Miller didn't give us any clue which he agrees with, and which, if either, is meant to be correct.
** 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.]]

* TakeThat: WordOfGod says the book as Frank Miller's reaction to the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] DorkAge he helped inspire.

* 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.