This week, 'Favorite Comic Runs' shined its spotlight on writer/artist Frank Miller's iconic work with Bruce Wayne. One limited series painted a bleak picture of a Gotham City's future. It's a time where Batman has hung up his cowl and Superman is commanded by the U.S. Government as it faces war. The other story (with artist David Mazzucchelli), reimagined Batman's tragic origin story and revealed James Gordon's first year in Gotham City. Both are without question must read stories for any Batman fan, but this week, we wanted to see which tale the Comic Vine community prefers more. After five days of voting, BATMAN: YEAR ONE has been selected as the winner.
The origin story received 58% of the votes, and THE DARK KNIGHT earned 37%. Meanwhile, 4% shamefully admitted they haven't read either. Hopefully this will motivate those people to finally jump into these books sooner rather than later.
Honestly, it's safe to assume quite a few will be surprised that YEAR ONE toppled the massively popular DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. It is, however, an understandable and well-earned victory. We all know what motivated Bruce to transform himself into Batman, but Miller sheds so much more light on Bruce becoming Batman. He presents a city that is in dire need of someone like the Caped Crusader and does so while also juggling the story of Gordon's start in Gotham. Even if you prefer Miller's commentary on politics, heroes and so much more in TDKR, there's just no denying that YEAR ONE is a mandatory reading experience for any Batman fan and basically his definitive origin story. Anyway, let's see what two Comic Viners had to say about these epics.
Viner Post for BATMAN: YEAR ONE is by Jphu8414
"This is a tough choice as both are some of the best, most ambitious, and most influential Batman stories ever created. I'm going to give the slight edge to Year One just because I see it as more of the definitive Batman and the definitive Batman origin story. I find myself enjoying Year One's story and artwork more as well."
Viner post for THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS is by Saren
"The Dark Knight Returns is better in the sense that there's never really been another story like it. There have been many revisits of Batman's origin, and whether they match up to Year One or not is up for debate, but no one has ever really looked at the other end of Batman's career and what his universe could be like in the distant future with as much insight as Miller in TDKR.
Fairly sure this will come up a lot in this thread, but "Batman beating Superman is stupid" is an idiotic reason to dismiss the story in its entirety. All the commentary on society, politics and culture in the future of the DC Universe as it relates to contemporary issues cannot possibly just be swept aside because Batman beats up Superman."
A NEW TEASER APPEARS! There will be an all-new match-up on Monday and we're kind enough to give you a hint. Okay, it'll be a pretty obvious hint if you're a fan of both stories, but hey, at least that'll give you the weekend to re-read them and motivate others to purchase the two storylines before Monday. The first person to get both covers correct will receive a little bit of praise in the upcoming article. Let the guessing games begin!
Don't forget to check the homepage on Monday to vote in an all-new edition of 'Favorite Comic Runs.' If you do forget, Batman will randomly show up at your door and punch you right in the face. You don't want that, do you? Of course not, so you better return on Monday! Also, want to suggest a writer and two of their stories for the segment? Go ahead and tell us below or send it via Twitter. Don't be shy, we welcome the input.