Batman has always been a dark character

Rush Limbaugh had it all wrong yesterday blaming the Tim Burton movies (and the ones following) for making Batman a dark character.

Batman has *always* been a dark character.

You can find scans on the web from the 1930's of Batman breaking a criminal's neck. The modern interpretation of Batman as a dark character was popularized with "The Dark Knight Returns" in 1986 in the comics, not the movies.