Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
Writer: Frank Miller
Artists: Frank Miller (Penciler), Lynn Varley (Colorist)
Just a huge mess that starts out descent, but turns out unpleasant. No sense of story or emotion at all!
Ranking: 2 stars
Parodying a joke Stephen Hawking once made about Sheldon Cooper on his second guest appearance in THE BIG BANG THEORY, “What do Frank Miller and an egg have in common?”
Answer: “They both rot, as they grow older” (laugh; that one’s good enough for the Riddler or the Joker)!
Frank Miller is one of the most phenomenal comic book writers in history. He revolutionized the comic genre, with his seminal work BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, which not only proved that comics were capable of being a literature, but also was my second favorite Batman comic of all time. The reason it was such an astonishing success, was because it abandoned the Adam West version of Batman, and reinvented the character into the vision Bob Kane had on the character when he first created him in 1939. Batman was never meant to be a campy, goofy, and cartoonish crime buster who had action bubbles accompany him whenever he beat up bad guys. No, he was meant to be a dark and tragic figure, who had lost his parents to crime, and now fights to eliminate the crime that murdered his parents, and preys on the innocents of Gotham City. Frank Miller understood who Batman was supposed to be when he wrote THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, a story where a 55 year old Batman returns from retirement to fight against the scum of Gotham, in a society plagued by corruption, sin, and despair. That work not only portrayed the dark knight’s true nature, but also displayed how the public and government would respond to vigilantism in real-life, done through the use of talking news heads (reporters) who debate Batman’s every move. I also enjoyed his work on BATMAN: YEAR ONE and 300, but THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN, the infamous sequel to TDKR, fails to meet the grandeur of its predecessor, as well as his other works
This wasn’t the first book by Frank Miller I’ve read, that showed a decline in the quality of his work, as ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN: THE BOY WONDER, purely damages the image of Batman that Miller once knew. But that book was bad enough to the point of enjoying it, as you could laugh at its flaws. This one however, can be just plain horrible at several points. The execution of the book is awful, not that it’s absolutely terrible, but it’s definitely not matching up to the work of a man once considered to be, “a Shakespeare of Comic Books.” The divided into three acts (unlike it’s four act predecessor), and while it starts out decent in the first act, the writing just goes falls flat from the second act onward. I wanted to avoid reading this at first, due to the negative criticism I’ve seen towards this book, but I decided to borrow a copy from my local library in order to see how awful it could be. After reading this book, all I can say is that I understand where negative reviewers are coming from, and this book deserves their criticism.
The story takes place three years after the events of TDKR, where Batman’s army of former mutants (gang members from the first book) are being led by Carrie Kelly (once Robin, now Catgirl) to recruit superheroes for a dangerous mission. The mission is to overthrow a corrupt government that dominates the USA, ruled by Superman’s arch foes Lex Luthor and Brainiac. The idea for the plot is well set up, and Miller’s writing on the first chapter is reminiscent to his days on TDKR. Even though I found the first chapter to be relatively exciting, it still some “what the heck was that?!” moments. For one thing, how on earth does Jimmy Olsen find out that the President isn’t real, but just a hologram created by Luthor? Did he sneak in to their head quarters, or have the CIA keep tabs on him (but that’s unlikely as America is a totalitarian police state in this reality). Kind of plot hole if you ask me, but that’s only an appetizer for the mess of plot holes this book rapidly transforms into. Once the second chapter, all of the focus in the book is regulated to random fights and news reports that appear to serve no purpose. Batman is rarely seen in the book, as he works behind the scenes, using others to do his work for him, which by itself isn’t a bad thing, but the heroes that work for him provide scenes that are pointless and distracting for the reader.
The second and third acts make no sense, and are extremely disorienting for the reader. New superheroes continuously appear out of nowhere on page after page, and interrupt the part of the story I was already reading. This just added on more and more individual stories for me to read, and I honestly don’t want to go back and try to understand them. They were just headache inducing, and got boring after a while. The narration and dialogue is awful in comparison to TDKR, and it makes the reader wonder what was going on in Miller’s head when he wrote this. The dialogue continuously bounces around the page, and makes the characters act like the opposites of themselves. When Batman rallies his army against Luthor, he exclaims, “Children, put on your tights and give them HELL.” Seriously, that’s the best line Batman would come up with to end a speech? Also, when Superman and Wonder Woman make out in the air, Wonder Woman thinks to herself, “I’m pregnant again,” which I felt was where the book truly went downhill.
As for the superheroes Miller puts into his story, they are all completely out of character. Acting as an omen for “the gosh darn Batman” Miller would later bring lose in ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, the dark knight comes off as a jerk in this story. Batman casually enjoys striking terror in his enemies, kills corrupt gov. agents, and is willing to let millions of innocents die in order to bring down Luthor’s reign of terror. Also (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT), when Dick Grayson returns, Batman openly announces his hatred for him, and is prepared to kill him (why Dick becomes a villain is explained in ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN). These traits make Batman look less noble, and somewhat of a psychopath who enjoys bringing pain to others. Plus, the Dick as a villain scenario comes out of nowhere, and has little leading up to it, undermining the seriousness of the plot twist. I hate the relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman, as it they are not meant to be a couple. Wonder Woman is traditionally an Amazon, and considers herself independent from the world of men, but Miller makes her look bipolar, as one moment she hates men, and the next she’s making out with Superman. Their relationship was disrespectful towards Lois Lane in my opinion, and Superman appears to love her as equally as Wonder Woman (what a cheater).
As for the artwork, I’m a bit mixed. In TDKR, Miller used a gritty, yet effective style that was blended with watercolors, which worked perfectly with the setting. But in TDKSA, Miller’s illustrations seem to fall downhill along with the writing (though not as steeply). The characters can either appear to be too gritty, ugly, cartoonish, or just plain weird looking. The illustrations started off with potential, and I particularly liked his drawings of Catgirl. However, the artwork appears to be more rushed as the story progresses, as Luthor looks like a withered fat slob in his underwear, and Wonder Woman has the appearance of a man. There are no backgrounds, which makes it difficult to tell what location the characters are in. The art also aids in disorienting the already jumbled up plot, because you can’t even tell who some characters are. Another bone I have to pick with the art is that Miller over sexualizes the appearance of almost every woman in the book. All the costumes worn by women appear to either be too skin tight, or spray-painted on, making their appearance almost anatomically correct. That, along with an inappropriate news channel, felt sexist towards women in my opinion. It’s all right that women are sexy in comics, but what Miller does here was pushing the limits of how far comics should go with that matter.
I didn’t hate the book, but I cannot call it a book I enjoyed. The opening act was passable, but for the rest of the book, it’s like a tornado comes in and mixes the plot up beyond repair. I don’t recommend this for people who found BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS to be a masterpiece, as you’re likely to find this book disappointing. However, if you still want to check it out, I strongly suggest borrowing a copy from the library, rather than buying it. It’s not worth buying, even as a collectible in my opinion, as there is no sense of plot or emotion in this story whatsoever. Reading this is starting to make me cautious about reading other books by Frank Miller, as misses the hoop by a long shot here. This is most likely my least favorite of the books of his I have read. Misses the mark of being a worthy sequel to TDKR.
“[Frank Miller] was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be [TDKR Miller] and became [TDKSA Miller]. When that happened, the good [writer] who was [Frank Miller] was destroyed.”
-Parody of Obi-Wan’s statement about Darth Vader in RETURN OF THE JEDI
