The Dark Knight, in color.
Not sure what prompted it, but the two Frank Miller Batman (The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again) graphic novels recently popped into my head, so got them from the library. I had read the first one (DK Returns) not long after it came out in the late 80’s, but hadn’t read the second one (DK Strikes Again) which came out around the 9/11 timeframe, I think. These were both miniseries in the original comic format, then were condensed into larger ‘graphic novel’ type format by the time I got around to reading them.
Like the recent Dark Knight Batman movies (which were obviously heavily influenced by DK Returns) these comics show a much grittier, far more vigilante side of Batman than say, Superfriends or more vanilla Batman stories (and the first 4 Batman movies only the first of which has *any* merit). I think it’s safe to say that Batman directly appeals to the crusader in all of us – especially men – when you wish you were that offbeat rich scientist guy who could right the world’s wrongs by virtue of your own smarts, kick-ass fighting skills and crazy-good technology. Batman doesn’t care about making money – he inherited it and uses it to his own ends. He uses his own sense of what’s right and is willing to pay for that perspective with everything he has, including his fortune and even his own life.
And these books spell out far more dramatically the tension Batman causes to those around him (who tolerate his ‘activities’ but often barely) while they admire his clarity of purpose. Here Commissioner Gordon is the guy who often has to apologize for Batman’s over the top action – but he not-so-secretly wishes he could be doing the same thing if given the chance.
In DK Returns, Batman ultimately sees the opportunity for one more ‘crusade’ – both against a crazy ‘mutant gang’ trying to take over Gotham, and the rebirth of The Joker. And Mr. Miller takes obvious potshots at the stupid psychotherapist who of course certifies Harvey Dent (Two-Face) and The Joker as clearly sane and ready to rejoin society – the Joker proves him very, very wrong (they don’t really do anything with Two-Face, strangely enough). Of course, Batman wins in the end but at a pretty steep price. I also liked the intro of yet another Robin (a very young teenage female admirer) who is played very straight as simply a novice who wants to help, not some stupid anime-style fantasy chick.
Which leads to the second series, DK Strikes Again. Here we see other DC superheroes enter the picture. In the previous series, Superman made a brief appearance as not much more than a presidential toadie, but here we see The Atom, Wonder Woman (with an interesting small side plot and new character involving Superman) Green Lantern and The Flash appear again too (there are other DC heroes popping up throughout too but these are the major ones). Nearly all take Batman’s side in trying to ‘clean up the country’, excepting Superman, who takes the side of ‘law and order’ and tries to stop them. And an almost unrecognizable Lex Luthor plays the central villain with his henchman Brainiac. Miller even includes some scenes to actually slam the original Robin here again (hinted at in the first series) as mostly a helper Batman had to bail out more often than not when confronted with their deadly opponents.
I have to say I liked the second series far less. On the one hand, the involvement of the other heroes with Batman was well done and likely even inspired stories like The Incredibles (readjustment of superheroes to modern boring society, refusing to go quietly, etc.). But there were far too many distractions (most notably the silly/useless inclusion of ‘The SuperChix’ – some sort of fake superhero team composed of anime-style models who do nothing but get on TV in crazy outfits) and the plot is far too muddled – hard to figure out what’s really going on after the first book? Here it seems like Miller was trying to include too many dystopian touches at the expense of a good story and well-rounded characters – You definitely still see the vendetta aspect of Batman but it’s just not a focused narrative like the first series. I’d advise reading the graphic novel and THEN reading the Wikipedia article (linked above) so you can see what you missed.
On the whole though, definitely worth checking out – and your mileage may vary of course.
candybowl
Tags: 00's, 80s, books, comics, fantasy, freaks, fun!, malevolence