The Dark Knight Returns Cover Debate / Lightning Strikes With Batman Debate

About

The Dark Knight Returns Cover Debate refers to a viral debate about the Lightning Strikes With Batman illustration by Frank Miller in which Twitter / X users are asked to identify if Batman is posing in front or with his back turned against the viewer. The debate started on November 2023, inspiring fan art and ironic memes in which people tried to prove the correct perspective on The Dark Knight Returns art angle.

Origin

One of the earliest mentions of Frank Miller's Batman illustration debate was posted on November 28th, 2023, by X^[1] user @Cakes_Comics, who shared the iconic artwork of The Dark Knight Return graphic novel (shown below), paired with the caption "Is Frank Miller’s Batman front or back facing?" The post amassed roughly 1,500 likes and 472 retweets in three days.

Spread

@Cakes_Comics's tweet ignited a debate on the platform as to whether the Batman with a lightning backdrop artwork was front vs. back facing. For instance, on November 28th, 2023, ^[2] user @KrakenKaptain shared two Frank Miller rough sketches of his iconic Batman drawing (shown below) from the The Dark Knight Returns Gallery Edition^[3], which shows that he designed the hero with his back facing the lightning. The post received 379 likes and 93 retweets in three days.

On November 29th, 2023, @IGN's^[4] X account posted two versions of the Batman artwork paired with the caption "Which way is Batman facing in The Dark Knight Returns cover?" The post (shown below, left) received more than 10,000 likes and 605 retweets in a day. On the same day, X^[5] user @Lexfett posted a fan art version of what position he thinks Batman is facing (shown below, right), which garnered roughly 59 likes and 1 retweet.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References