Zack Snyder is a huge fan of Batman, and he explains how Frank Miller’s comic book Batman: The Dark Knight Returns had a profound impact on him.
Sharing his thoughts in Inverse, he said the different approach the writer took in the said comic made the superhero character larger-than-life.
“One of the most transformative moments for me was in ‘The Dark Knight Returns,’ with the line, ‘The rain on my chest is a baptism… I’m born again,'” the Justice League director said about the comic where Batman hung up his hat for a long period.
“This moment transformed Batman into something larger than life, a mythic figure whose struggles were not just physical but deeply emotional. Yet, at the same time, Miller made him profoundly human,” he shared.
Zack continued, “He wasn’t just a superhero defying pain, he was a man confronting the very real toll of time and struggle, determined to rise above it and find his own relevance in the world.”
After retiring, Bruce Wayne realized, as the comic book story goes, that crime in Gotham did not abate but spiked.
So, he decided to come back and fight the miscreants in ways that disregarded some of his codes because he was exhausted, and a new generation of criminals employed new violence and cruelty.
