Dark Knight III: Batman to tackle Gotham police as comic series treats US racial tensions

Batman appears focused on reforming the criminal justice system – though so far he prefers to enact that reform with his fists

The first issue of The Dark Knight III: Master Race was published on Wednesday (DC Comics)

In the week that a Chicago police officer was charged with the murder of a black teenager, and a year since riots engulfed Ferguson, an unlikely figure is drawing further attention to the issue of police brutality. For the first instalment of a major new comic book series, Batman’s biggest foe is not the Joker or Two-Face, but the Gotham City Police Department.

The first issue of The Dark Knight III: Master Race was published on Wednesday, and continues a storyline started 29 years ago by the writer and artist Frank Miller, in his classic The Dark Knight Returns. The 1986 original saw an ageing Batman battle a Reaganite Superman in a dystopic Cold War Gotham. In the 2002 sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the two heroes teamed up to defeat Lex Luthor.

In Master Race, Batman appears focused on reforming the criminal justice system – though so far he prefers to enact that reform with his fists. Issue No 1 opens with a young, unarmed black man fleeing from Gotham cops, who draw their guns to shoot before Batman arrives and – kapow! – knocks them senseless. It ends with the hero being brutally beaten by a group of uniformed officers.

The Dark Knight Returns was a comics landmark, establishing a more mature, melancholic template for the future portrayals not only of Batman, but all his fellow superheroes. Without it, the camp caped crusader of the 1960s TV serial would never have evolved into the Dark Knight of Christopher Nolan’s recent film trilogy.

Miller, 58, is one of the most celebrated comics creators of recent decades, and one of the most controversial. An avowed libertarian, he is also the author of Sin City and 300, which both spawned movie adaptations.

“The world is essentially a chaotic, dangerous place where authority cannot be trusted,” he told fans as he unveiled Dark Knight III at New York Comic-Con last month. “It needs a ‘Zorro,’ a criminal who can fight for the innocent civilians. The status quo cannot be trusted.”

Miller, who says he is already planning a fourth Dark Knight series, co-wrote Master Race with another eminent comics writer, Brian Azzarello.

Azzarello also had a hand in a recent storyline for DC Comics’ flagship Batman title, in which the hero investigated the death of a black teenager, who turned out to have been shot by a white Gotham police officer.