"Why So Serious?" That's a famous line from Heath Ledger's Joker in the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight . As a long-standing comic book fan myself, I feel that a more appropriate question would be, " Why So Dark?" Comics darker and darker of late, so dark in fact that at least to this reader, they're hardly enjoyable or relatable anymore. I'm aware I've been gone for a while; forgive me, life happens. I'm also aware that this isn't an art post, per se. But as almost anyon