It tells an alternative story of Bruce Wayne who, at 55 years old, returns from a decade of retirement to fight crime while facing opposition from the Gotham City police force and the United States government.

The story also features the return of classic foes Two-Face and the Joker, and culminates in a confrontation with Superman, who is now a pawn of the government.

A one-shot prequel, Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, takes place ten years before the original series.

In a dystopian version of 1986, Bruce Wayne, aged 55,[2] has given up the mantle of Batman after the death of Jason Todd 10 years prior.

He stops multiple assaults – including one on two young girls, Carrie Kelley and her friend Michelle – and targets the Mutants.

Batman's return is reported on the news and stimulates his archenemy, the Joker, to awaken from catatonia at Arkham Asylum.

Clark Kent talks with Wayne and is then deployed by Washington to the Latin American country of Corto Maltese, where he fights Soviet combat forces in a conflict that may escalate into World War III.

Elsewhere, Superman diverts a Soviet nuclear warhead which detonates in a desert, nearly killing him in the process, and survives only by absorbing the sun's energy from the plants in a nearby jungle.

Some time afterward, Bruce Wayne leads Robin, Queen, and the rest of his followers into the caverns beyond the Batcave and prepares to continue his war on crime.

[3] In the early 1980s, DC Comics promoted Batman group editor Dick Giordano to editorial director for the company.

"[5] "With Batman, you've got a character that you can describe in just a few seconds: His parents were murdered by criminals; he's warring on crime for the rest of his life," Miller explained in the documentary Comic Book Confidential.

Comics historian Les Daniels wrote that Miller's idea of ignoring deadlines was "the culmination of the quest towards artistic independence".

During the MCM London Comic Con 2018, Miller revealed that in his original plans for the ending of The Dark Knight Returns, Batman was going to be gunned down by the police while fighting them, but the story got away from him and changed his mind.

[10] The issues of The Dark Knight Returns were presented in packaging that included extra pages, square binding, and glossy paper to highlight the watercolor paintings by colorist Lynn Varley.

[11] Pricing it at $2.95 an issue, DC Comics promoted The Dark Knight Returns as a "thought-provoking action story".

Time said the series' depiction of a "semi-retired Batman [who] is unsure about his crime-fighting abilities" was an example of trying to appeal to "today's skeptical readers".

Slayton wrote, "[t]here is no central plot to the comic, leaving only a forced fight scene between Superman and Batman as an out of place climax to the story."

[19] The grim, seedy versions of Gotham and Batman updated the character's identity from the campy Adam West version from the 1960s Batman TV series, and proved critically and commercially successful enough that a new wave of "dark" superheroes were either created or re-popularized, and preexisting heroes were redesigned or retooled to fit this new trend.

In 2018, it was announced that this version of Robin, Carrie Kelley, would receive a spin-off in the form of a young adult graphic novel to be written by Miller with art from Ben Caldwell.

There was also a limited edition slipcased hardcover that included mini poster prints, collected media reviews, and a sketchbook by Miller.

DC Direct released a series of Batman action figures based on The Dark Knight Returns in 2004.

[citation needed] In 2022, Cryptozoic Entertainment released a Batman: The Dark Knight Returns board game[47] designed specifically for solitaire play.