The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Characters

Characters

• Batman: Bruce Wayne faked his death three years ago to operate underground as Batman. He leads the rebellion against the corrupt regime headed by Lex Luthor which now rules America. He is still a master strategist, albeit a controversial one who makes decisions which result in the loss of lives, but which he sees as necessary for the ultimate defeat of his enemies.
• Catgirl: Carrie Kelly, formerly Robin, is now Catgirl (after Catwoman) but still Batman's able second-in-command.
• Lex Luthor: Lex Luthor now runs America, and uses a hologram of what the people think is the real President as a figurehead. He controls the more powerful heroes like Superman, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman by keeping their loved ones hostage. He is the main antagonist of The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
• Brainiac: Brainiac provides Luthor with much of the means to rule America, and hence the Earth.
• Superman: Superman is now a pawn of an America run by Lex Luthor who is holding the miniaturized city of Kandor hostage. Pushed on by his daughter and Batman, he finally fights back and breaks his own vow not to take lives.
• Wonder Woman: The Queen of the Amazons hasn't aged a day and has had a daughter with Superman.
• Lara: The daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, with the powers of a Kryptonian and the warrior attitude of an Amazon. She has a poor opinion of people less powerful than herself and tries to persuade her father to rise above the "humans" and maybe even take over the world. He himself is torn between this and his adopted parent's view that he should use his powers to help rather than to dominate, but she soon brings him round.
• Captain Marvel: An old man now with wispy white hair (similar to that of Uncle Marvel), he still stands by his equally powerful peers Superman and Wonder Woman. Like many of the other heroes he is limited in what he can do because Luthor holds his beloved sister Mary hostage.
• "Joker"/Dick Grayson: The original Robin, Dick Grayson is the final antagonist of the story. Here he is depicted as having been emotionally abused by Batman. Having been sacked by Batman years before for "cowardice and incompetence", Grayson has submitted himself to radical gene therapy by Lex Luthor and other villains, gaining a powerful healing factor and shapeshifting ability but at the same time being driven criminally insane. For the majority of the story, in order to hide his true identity, Grayson takes on the appearance of the Joker, Batman's archenemy who killed himself in The Dark Knight Returns, also inexplicably adopting the costumes of members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. His victims include Martian Manhunter, Creeper, the Guardian, and almost Carrie Kelly. While attempting to torture the latter to death, he is confronted by Batman, and it is here when Grayson finally reverts to his original form and costume to reveal who he truly is.
• The Atom: Ray Palmer is trapped inside one of his own Petri dishes for over two years during which he battles dinosaur-like bacteria. He is rescued by Carrie Kelly, becoming one of the first of the old heroes to join Batman's cause.
• The Flash: Coerced by threats to his wife Iris, Barry Allen is forced to run in a giant electrical generator supplying a third of America's electricity before being freed by Catgirl and the Atom. Iris is also freed.
• Elongated Man: Ralph Dibny sells Gingold based sex drugs for men on TV before joining Batman, "the years have not been kind to him."
• Plastic Man: Rescued from Arkham Asylum, the completely insane Eel O'Brian joins Batman's group and has something of a rivalry with the similarly-powered Elongated Man.
• The Superchix: An all-girl pop/superhero group consisting of a Black Canary look alike, Bat Chick, and Wonder Chick.
• Green Arrow: An activist billionaire with a mechanical arm, Oliver Queen has been part of Batman's forces ever since the Dark Knight Returns. A communist, he often engages in fierce arguments with the objectivist Question.
• The Question: although he is also fighting the same cause as Batman, Vic Sage appears to work mainly on his own, though he does try to recruit the former Martian Manhunter. His main task is to spy on and collect information about Luthor and his associates. He distrusts technology (with reason) and municipalization.
• Martian Manhunter: A victim of nanobots, courtesy of Luthor, which have deprived him of most of his powers including the ability to appear human, J'onn J'onzz has become a heavy drinker and smoker. He does retain a precognitive sense, which he does use to assist the Question. He frequents seedy joints and has lost the will to fight back. He no longer is the barman he was said to be in The Dark Knight Returns (in the article, at the beginning of the novel).
• Green Lantern: Hal Jordan now lives with his own alien family in a distant part of the galaxy. He returns to Earth at the request of Batman, the only one he trusted enough to leave with a way to get in touch with him.
• Hawkboy: Hawkman's son, he and his sister were brought up in the rain forests of Costa Rica. When their parents are killed by a military strike ordered by Luthor, Hawkboy makes it clear that he will go all the way to get revenge. Batman encourages him to do so.
• Saturn Girl: Here, she is a young thirteen-year-old who can see into the future. She adopts the name and outfit of the 31st-century Legionnaire who has not yet been born. At first tempted by Carrie's offer to join Batman's forces, she then turns it down, unsettled upon foreseeing Carrie's brutal attack by a superhuman resembling the Joker.
• Rick Rickard: The holographic puppet-President of the US, who is the public face of the government, run from behind-the-scenes by Lex Luthor.
• Secretary of State Ruger-Exxon and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Starbucks: Members of Luthor's government (In the mainstream DC comics world, Luthor is the head of a world-spanning conglomerate who actually becomes US President himself).
• Hawk and Dove: Hank and Don Hall, in a sidenote, try to take up the tights again in their old age but do not go through with it as before they used to argue all the time.
• Bat-Mite: Batman's old antagonist/nuisance briefly returns as co-founder of the lunatic fringe movement dedicated to worshipping Superman called The First Church of The Last Son of Krypton.
• Big Barda: Big Barda is in fact a former porn star called Hot Gates who, when America descends into chaos and anarchy, takes up the mantle in order to declare herself dictator of Columbus, Ohio.
• Lana Harper-Lane: A reporter for a TV news station who appears when Catgirl leads the attack to free Flash. It has been suggested that she is presumably the daughter of Guardian (aka Jim Harper) and Lois Lane. She is named after Lana Lang.