Frank Miller did a lot of good to Batman, as both Year One and The Dark Knight Returns were books that helped revitalize the character, turning him a bit more gritty and less cartoony. Both books have great moments in them, helping capture Batman at his beginnings and towards his end.
Unfortunately, many of his other attempts at the character did nothing more than turn him into a walking edgelord who was as much a villain as the bad guys he was trying to bring down. He's easily the most unlikable character in All-Star Batman & Robin.
10 Drafting Dick Grayson Into The War On Crime
It's one thing to take an orphan under your wing as Batman has in the canon comics, and quite another to draft them into war as he did here with Dick Grayson. There's no nurturing attitude, and it's made even worse during the subsequent police chase when Batman is ramming police cars without any thought to their lives.
When Dick is understandably shaken up by this, he slaps the boy in the face, reprimanding him for it. It's a jarring scene that makes Batman look like a villain worthy of being chased.
9 Telling Dick He Can Eat Vermin If He's Hungry
For as bad as slapping Dick was, this moment is even worse. After Bruce drops Dick off at the Batcave, the boy rightly asks what he can eat. He isn't being sassy in the slightest, yet, Batman instantly becomes aggressive, telling him his "food will present itself."
It makes him unnecessarily cruel and far from the hero you're meant to cheer for. It's one of the many examples of Frank Miller making the character edgy for the sake of it in All-Star Batman & Robin.
8 Reprimanding Alfred For Giving Dick Basic Amenities
Everything surrounding Dick and Batman's relationship in All-Star Batman & Robin is awful. It may have explained why Dick turned evil in The Dark Knight Strikes Again but did it in a way that makes Bruce look horrible.
The fact he reprimanded Alfred for giving Dick clean clothes, food, and a blanket lacks any sort of sense. Even if it was trying to toughen the boy up, it went above and beyond what was necessary, made even worse by the fact this leads to Bruce putting his hands on Dick again.
7 Blackmailing Superman
Batman and Superman have always had an awful relationship in Frank Miller's universe, the two coming to blows in Dark Knight Returns. That at least made sense considering that Lex Luthor was using Superman as his strong arm.
It makes less sense that Batman would blackmail Superman, especially since it's the same thing Lex does in the aforementioned Dark Knight Returns. He should be above holding Superman's secret identity against him.
6 Throwing The Killer Of Dick Grayson's Family In The River
Jocko-Boy was the man who took out Dick's parents, and when Batman ran into him, he was in the process of fighting Black Canary. There's nothing wrong with the fact that Batman came to her aid. It's what came after that's an issue.
Not only did he help her stave off her attackers, but he also threw Jocko-Boy in the trunk so the two could get romantic together. Not only that, when it came time to deal with the man, Batman just tossed his body into the water like he was just taking out some trash.
5 Fighting Green Lantern
Most of this battle is Robin being unleashed on Green Lantern and nearly killing him in the process. Batman ends up saving Hal's life, but he's completely culpable for what happened. His methods of training and pushing Dick are what led to this moment.
He forced him into becoming a hardened killer that saw almost everyone else as an enemy, be they, villain or hero. The fact he tries to wash his hands of it makes him a massive hypocrite.
4 Repurposing The Mutants For His Own Needs
For the most part, The Dark Knight Returns doesn't turn Batman's edge factor up to 11 like Frank Miller's future work does. It's a genuinely good read, but there is one instance that makes reader scratch their heads.
Batman is dedicated to helping clean up the streets— yet, after the defeat of the Mutant leader, he adopts most of the leader's followers as the Sons of Batman. Considering the leader wasn't the only one committing heinous crimes, you'd think Batman would want to bring them to equal amounts of justice.
3 Unwillingness To Protect Innocent Lives
By the time of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Batman seems to have given up all hope of saving innocent lives and only sees everything as open warfare. He only saves Atom and The Flash because they would be valuable cogs in his army, rather than it being the right thing to do.
He's given up all reason of right and wrong by this point. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the alien attack on Metropolis. Batman refuses to get involved, thinking it's all a ploy to draw his forces out.
2 Revenge Is The Only Thing That Matters To Him
A big trait with Frank Miller's Batman is that he's consumed with a need for revenge— not just for him, but those around him as well. His forms of revenge go well beyond the law as well, only focused on one thing: The death of whoever he's up against.
It's done by his own hand plenty of times, but he notably lets others get their hands dirty, too. Towards the end of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, he lets Hawkman's son kill Lex Luthor in cold blood, something that horrifies Flash.
1 Showing Contempt For Dick Grayson
For once, Bruce is more than justified in going for lethal measures as his battle with Dick Grayson is a kill or be killed scenario. What's less justified is the utter contempt he has for his former protégé.
He acts as if he didn't drive Dick to the brink of insanity, pretending he was some upstanding caretaker. It's a glimpse into the megalomania of the character, rivaling even villains like Lex Luthor in that regard. Bruce had as big a hand in what made Dick a villain as Dick himself did.