Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is often regarded as one of the most influential Batman stories of all time.
It tells the tale of an old-age Batman struggling to continue his battle against crime and his battle against a Superman who has become nothing more than a government lackey. It features some of the most iconic images of Batman ever seen in a comic and has become an important part of Batman's long history.
The nearly two decades-later sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again? Not so much. It received brutally negative reviews when it released back in 2001, and it happens to feature some of the ugliest depictions of Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin and the Flash to have ever graced the pages of a DC Comic. Even by Frank Miller standards, it's painful to look at, and that's not even diving into the baffling plot.
So, when DC's official Batman Facebook page started posted images from The Dark Knight Strikes Again using the #darkknightatdawn hashtag to celebrate the release of The Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1 this week, fans weren't having it — at all.
The images from The Dark Knight Strikes Again started appearing on Nov. 19, after DC apparently ran out of pictures to post from the original Dark Knight Returns. The first image posted from was that of a comically-disproportionate Superman.
Fans were immediately confused and angry.
"I haven't read this is there a reason his anatomy is so messed up," one commenter asks, while another says he refuses to read past The Dark Knight Returns thanks to Miller's complete disregard for what actual human beings look like.
However, that was just the beginning. Despite almost universal hate for the first post, DC continued to post images from Miller's most hated work. Next up? The Flash, with DC asking fans what they thought of Flash's new look.
"The new look was as good as the portrayal of Grayson in this story ... Spoiler alert: it was horrible," replies one reader to the image, while another is more straight forward with their answer: "Everything in The Dark Knight Strikes Again is terrible."
That, too, didn't derail DC's marketing train. The publisher was determined to post more images, and soon came the worst image of them all: Frank Miller's Wonder Woman.
"What 7 year old drew this? my god," asks one commenter, while others compared the look of Miller's Wonder Woman to that of Michael Jackson. They aren't wrong.
Cringe-worthy doesn't begin to describe it. However, DC doesn't appear to be swayed. It is still posting images from the comic, with the most recent being an image of Captain Marvel, aka Shazam. Even though Miller's Shazam is probably one of the better drawings of the bunch, fans weren't letting the post off easy.
"DKSA was horrendous," the top commenter reads. "Any time you post panels from it, the soul of Batman dies a little inside."
It seems most of DC's fanbase would agree.
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