Frank Miller's 1980's Batman tale The Dark Knight Returns is the graphic novel responsible for redefining the depth, tone, and range of storytelling possibilities for the entire super-hero genre, in the process paving the way as primary influence on the filmic universe that has taken over worldwide popular culture. The dystopian future-epic was the lightning strike that revitalized the Caped Crusader's place in the DC Universe, and any original artwork from this series is highly prized. To find a key page introducing a key character in costume as his introductory page, being Superman, is a "Grail" type page for any collector. This page is our first look of Miller's "Dark Superman", for the first time Superman is viewed in a dark light, the government's lethal weapon as seen on the bottom panel, exploding two Soviet fighter jets, a shocking moment in the series. Miller wanted to create an impact on this 4 panel page, outside of the 10 full splash pages, this is one of only three 4 panel or less pages out of nearly 200 pages in the Acclaimed 4 issue miniseries. Most of the pages from the series are at least 10 to 20+ panel packed pages with both imagery and content.
This high impact introductory page of the major antagonist to Batman being Superman, is closely similar to Batman's entry to the cover of #1 (see collage right images). When I did a Google image search for the Superman image, the Batman image came up as a match. Both images have the left hand pointing out, right hand in a fist behind the body, also both in Miller's distinctive silhouette form. While the differences are stark, Batman as a "man" is leaping or falling down so the cape flows back, while Superman portrayed as a "God-Like" figure, flies and in this case "floats" so his legs are positioned forward along with the cape. As far as image size, based on the same board size, both images are roughly the same dimensions, again creating an impact, while artistically creating negative space on both boards. Thus, it seems Miller wanted to create a very similar impactful image in silhouette introducing "Dark Superman", similarly to how he introduced "The Dark Knight" on the cover to #1!
As you can probably tell by my write up I'm thrilled to have acquired this page a while back. :)
