6 Libertarian Themed Comic Book Stories You MUST Read

5. The Dark Knight Returns

Theme: monopolized power and a public disarmed

The story which changed the Batman mythos forever, writer Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” depicts a world where superheroes, who once volunteered willingly to fight for the public’s safety, are now permanently retired thanks to an order from the president, prohibiting all acts of super powered vigilantism. The only superhero still active is Superman, who is now the president’s personal weapon to use as he wants.

With the absence of superheroes to protect the streets of cities like Gotham, gangs such as the Mutants run the full gambit on super powered crime, all while the police are outgunned and outnumbered, and there are no super powered heroes to combat this overwhelming crime wave.

Seeing that Gotham will fall if the Mutants go unopposed, Batman comes out of retirement to bring an end to the threat once and for all, and in order to do that, pulls out all the stops….

Batman defeats the Mutants, and later takes care of the other gangs ravaging Gotham. What does Batman end up getting as a thank you? The president sends Superman to kill him for breaking the anti-vigilante law.

Superman and Batman face off in a climactic battle, where Batman manages to defeat Superman, but then fakes his death in order to create an underground vigilante army for when the new gangs return to ravage Gotham. What “The Dark Knight Returns” shows is a visible parallel between superheroes and gun rights. When the state banned superheroes from defending the public, they created a power vacuum where super villains would come in and abuse the innocents of Gotham city.  This is drastically similar to gun free zones in cities such as Manhattan and Detroit, where unarmed civilians are the victims of gun wielding criminals.

Lastly, the monopoly on power the government has with Superman creates a larger threat to the general public if he were ever ordered to commit an atrocity, since heroes such as Batman are labelled outlaws if they came out of retirement, therefore having eliminated the check on government force by making super heroics a crime.