The Dark Knight Returns # 1 - The Dark Knight Returns

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is set 20 years in the future. In the absence of superheroes, criminals run amok, and a gang called the Mutants terrorize Gotham City. Bruce Wayne has been retired from crime fighting for ten years following the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Despite Wayne's funding of the rehabilitation of Harvey Dent (Two-Face), Dent returns to crime. Bruce, overcome with the grief of what Gotham has become, as well as being unable to resist his true identity as Batman, dons the costume again and apprehends Dent, and the populace debates whether Batman is a savior.

Carrie Kelley, a 13-year-old-girl whom Batman rescues, buys a Robin costume and searches for Batman to join him. Kelley finds Batman at the city dump, where he is fighting the Mutants. The Mutants' leader defeats Batman in hand-to-hand combat, but Kelley distracts him allowing Batman to incapacitate him. Kelley returns with Batman in the tank-like Batmobile to the Batcave. Once home, Batman takes Carrie on as the new Robin against Alfred's objections. While incarcerated the Mutant Leader kills Gotham's mayor. With Gordon's cooperation, the leader is allowed to escape from jail and Batman defeats him in a rematch in front of the assembled Mutants gang, which then disbands.

The Joker convinces his psychiatrist that he is sane and regrets his misdeeds. Seeking to discredit Batman, the psychiatrist appears with the Joker on a late-night show. While the police attack Batman, the Joker murders everyone in the television studio and escapes. Batman and Robin find the Joker at a county fair, where Batman defeats Joker in a violent showdown. Batman has come to the realization that if he had indeed killed the Joker earlier instead of putting him in jail, where he would escape again and again (a common superhero theme), many innocent lives would have been saved. Batman comes short of killing the Joker by merely paralyzing him, who is disappointed in Batman for not killing him. He twists his own broken neck effectively killing himself, intending for the police to charge Batman with murder.

Superman redirects a nuclear missile from its intended target to a remote desert where it detonates, causing millions of tons of dust and debris to fill the atmosphere. It also briefly incapacitates Superman who regains his strength only by drawing directly on his power source: Sunlight. Gotham descends into chaos due to the resulting blackout. Batman and Robin train former Mutants who now call themselves the Sons of the Batman in non-lethal fighting to stop looting and ensure the flow of needed supplies. Gotham becomes the safest city in America, and the U.S. government, seeing this as an embarrassment, orders Superman to take Batman down. Having been warned of the government's plans by Green Arrow, Batman confronts Superman at the very same place where Wayne's parents were murdered decades earlier. Aided by a powered armor suit and various gadgetry, Batman defeats Superman in this final battle but appears to die of a heart attack. Alfred destroys the Batcave and Wayne Manor but suffers a fatal stroke. In the end it turns out that Wayne faked his own death and now Batman leads Robin, Green Arrow, and the rest of his army into the caverns beyond the Batcave and prepares to continue his fight against crime.