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« on: August 11, 2006, 10:37:PM » |
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Dark knight strikes again
Dark Knight stikes again is to the Batman mythology what Godfather 3 is to the Godfather trilogy. A disgrace to the very memory of the original that spawned it. An unnecessary, and quite frankly, unneeded addition. It does nothing to enhance the intrigue of a character loved by many, in fact, it tarnishes the image of Batman making him an egomaniac, a dominant eccentric under the guise of a nobel superhero.
What is strange about the book is that Miller's tone is knowing. He understands what he is doing with the book, it is not an uncalculated result. The graphic novel is divided into 3 chapters (as opposed to the originals 4 chapters) and each is a whopping 80 pages long. The first chapter starts out promisingly enough, there is only one page where Batman is shown (the very last panel of the chapter) but his presence lingers throughout. My reaction to the book shifted from gladness (in chapter 1) to disgust (in chapter 2) to finally understanding (in chapter 3). That understanding was the acceptance of Miller's vision in creating this book. In repeated interviews since the dynamic popularity of his original Dark knight returns nearly 2 decades ago, he has insisted that the way comic books have taken on a strange, unnatural seriousness/grimness since the 1986 classic, has puzzled him. To him comics should not be serious at the cost of being entertaining, hip, funny etc. Take that as you may, but I call it the Sin City effect. Ever since Miller worked on those books (themselves great works of pulp comic art) his work has taken on a shift in tone that has dismayed fans like myself. Sin City itself is a different kind of animal, one devised as a homage to noir and the excesses of violence. To bring that same tone to Batman does not work. This is similar to the way Alan Moore became a parody of his own seriousness in the lacklustre League of extraordinary gentlemen books.
Dark knight strikes again exists as a work of collectively paradoy. Its working title - DK2 - is a parody of Hollywoods love for sequels with abbreviated names, its characters exist in a world that is a satirical parallel of our own. Here we have a president who is really a hologram, an America that has abused the freedom of information act, a society more concerned with the breaking up of a pop group that dresses like big bossomed female superheroes. There is so much happening here, but little of it has anything to do with Batman directly. The tone isn't really funny, but its neither serious nor sober. The art, credited to Miller himself and painted by his wife Lynn varley, is blindingly bright. What hurts most of all is splash pages....splash pages, in a Frank Miller Batman book!
In my critique of the book I have overlooked the storyline, but there is one, and it is pretty splendid. The events take place 3 years after those of the original in a world gone from bad to worse. Notice the use of the word 'World', not 'Gotham'. Here Batman is out to save the world, from none other than its own menace, and a yuppy Superman who has now become a complete government stooge. The book is chock full of guest characters - every familiar face from the DC universe is here, The Flash (the original Barry, who died later), Green Lantern (the original and much loved Hal Jordan), Green Hornet, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor even The Joker. So overwhelming are all these appearances that Batman becomes a guest in his own book and features only in a few panels. Minor (yet very interesting) characters such as The Atom are more heroic than the dark knight. Add to this the fact that there is also no appearance by Bruce Wayne (since in this world everyone know's who he is).
Miller has always been an anti establishment, anti authority person and that stance is clearly present here. His vocal criticism of the way the Comics code authority has always run the Comic publishing world is well known to frequent readers of his work, and this book seems to be taking out that collective hate via its storyline. Had this been a pet project of another writer, I might have really enjoyed it - but it is not. This is a sequel of the greatest Batman story ever told and it is comparitively a failure.
Rating: 3/5
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