For years , a piece of art has been circulating on the internet that testify theThe Dark Knight Returns’Batman in a confrontation with Rorschach fromWatchmen . While fans may look at the work as a prescient glance in the years before the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ' epic poem was integrated into the DC Universe , the trueness is anything but .

It was years before Geoff Johns and Gary Frank ’s sequel serial , Doomsday Clock , broughtWatchmeninto the DCU proper . However , an image made its means through forums and societal media post years before the crossover voter was even conceived . The epitome depicting the Old , gruffer Bruce Wayne from Frank Miller’sThe Dark Knight ReturnsbackhandingRorschach was long assumed to beearly concept art for the miniseriesCountdown : Arena . As it turns out , someone familiar with the artwork step in to set the record straight quite some time ago .

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In anarchived post on Comic Book Resources , formerWizardmagazine employee Sean T. Collins pen a response to a report that DC was project to launch a raw line of comics in the wake of theWatchmenmovie ’s discharge . Collins was specifically responding to a line that claimed that the image , which originally appear inWizard , indicated thatWatchmencharacters were meant to feature in theCountdown : Arenaminiseries . Collins clarified that the while by artist Art Adams was   meant to just think over on an upshot Wizard saw “ internally as a glorified “ Last Man Standing . ” ” Collins corroborate that other standardized pieces were done “ without the approval or coordination of the company involved , ” declaring the image “ simply Wizard ’s Proto-Indo European - in - the - sky sight ” ofwhat   the comic could be .

Without the setting of the originalWizardarticle , it ’s well-fixed to look at Adams ' artwork and usurp thatWatchmenwas at one distributor point plan to crossover with the DC Universe to begin with than look . While Collins definitively confirms the image was not official , think how DC has used theWatchmenproperty in the years sinceCountdown : Arena , it makes good sense in retrospect . For one , DCdidexpand the world ofWatchmenwith a serial of prequels in 2012 . And of class , several sequels were finally made to stick to - up the original comic , such asDoomsday ClockandRorschach . The popularity ofWatchmennotwithstanding , it ’s perceivable how readers could get the haywire estimation . away fromThe Dark Knight ReturnsandWatchmenbeing passing beloved serial publication , their two central fibre are in a tableau with other well - known alternate versions of DC heroes , such astheRed SonSupermanorGotham By Gaslight’sBatman . Even the professionalism of the mental image only added to the theory that the artworkhadto be from an official generator .

Sean T. Collins credits the total   mistake   on a   label that that was removed " prior to publication for space reasons . " While it ’s too recent for that , at least fans ofThe Dark Knight ReturnsandWatchmenno longer have to question   about the artwork ’s origin .

A man with nuclear explosions going off behind him in The Far Side.

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reservoir : Comic Book Resources

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Comci book art: haggard looking Dark Knight Returns Batman (left); Rorschach from Watchmen (right)

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