The Dark Night Returns Part 1 and Part 2
For any comic geeks on here, you'll know that The Dark Night Returns is seen as one of the defining comics on Batman. It supposedly turned him from campy and ridiculous into a gritty, angry Clint Eastwood type of Batman. I have a lot of problems with the series. It's incredibly misogynistic, homophobic and generally shows batman as little more than a petty thug. It's art style was also really not to my taste.
I've been going through a binge of animated DC movies (they are so much better than the live action right now) and so I decided to see if a fresh take on the comic could shed off some of the problematic areas. And the answer is "kind of". The homophobic and sexist elements are removed with most female characters a bit more than simply window dressing. It doesn't use as many strawman tactics as the books and while Batman is still a bit of a thug, his amoral actions are questioned a bit more. It still depicts him as righteous in brutalizing both criminals and the police, still shows crime in very much black and white terms and still has Superman play the patsy.
I found the ending most troublesome though. It's basically ends with (obvious spoilers) Batman creating his own League of Shadows. And this is portrayed as generally a good thing. Despite how it ended with Ra's Al Ghul, despite how easily it could be turn from non violence to death as a necessity (he's already murdered once in the film), it's suppose to be justified. Of course that's just my interpretation of it, perhaps it was meant to be shown as Batman taking a step down a dark path.
Nerd rant ends.