Who first named Batman 'The Dark Knight'?

[JOE SOAP]

Dark Knight's a better name for Darth Vader than Batman, the Caped Crusader.

[Dark Jimbo]

Anyone read that nasty, sneery column in yesterday's Times bemoaning how 'dark' the new Batman film is purported to be?

The guy basically lauded the 60s Batman tv series for being the highwater mark of what superheroes should aspire to, then dismissed all modern comics as 'second rate stories drawn by second rate artists for people who spiritually (if not also physically) have never left their musty adolescent bedroom'.

Pfft. I suspect he's talking mainly about the US superhero junk Marvel and DC are still peddling, in which case, he's largely right, but this is clearly a man who's never heard of, much less read, Maus or From Hell. But, still, pfft.