As Time’s Lev Grossman put it when he named The Dark Knight Returns one of the best graphic novels ever written, “A major superhero had never felt this real before” - although I think what he really meant was that a major superhero had never felt that real to adults before. Once Batman wasn’t weighed down with continuity questions and the conventions of the category, it was possible to make his motivations more blurred, his personality more mature. Its success showed what was possible when one of the world’s best-known superheroes was removed from the constraints of his back catalog. The four-issue miniseries was dense and brutal, overtly political and ultraviolent. Wayne’s return to Batman’s cape and cowl seemed more driven by disgust than duty, more Dirty Harry than Don Diego de la Vega. In The Dark Knight Returns, Miller, artist Klaus Janson, and colorist Lynn Varley transformed Bruce Wayne from a seemingly ageless and good-natured playboy into a lonesome and bitter 55-year-old man who is a long hard decade removed from his crime-fighting days. The Modern Era began in 1986, the year that, as anyone who’s geeked about comics take pains to tell you, comics like Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns upended the entire industry by showing that superhero narratives could be both artistically relevant and profitable at the same time. A couple of years ago, I began systematically reading and cataloging everything written during what’s referred to as Batman’s “Modern Era” to figure out what’s actually worth reading - and in what order. The massive number of Batman stories poses a challenge for anyone looking for a toehold into that world. (The gap was even larger when it came to graphic novels: 12,696 to 3,532.) In March 2020, the last complete month the two companies used the same distributor, Comichron recorded its estimated shipments of Batman comics at more than 400,000 issues Spider-Man was second, at around 250,000. He’s appeared in more individual stories, series, and issues than any other superhero, and that dominance isn’t just because he’s been around longer than other characters: Last year, the Dark Knight appeared in roughly 100 more issues and more than twice as many series as any other DC or Marvel character. There is one place where there’s a clear winner: Comic books, where Batman is the undisputed king. Would one weigh box-office receipts against online searches? How about video games and licensed clothing? Do eBay listings count? The popularity of superheroes is almost impossible to quantify.

Batman Noir by Jeph Loeb