Book report: Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
This is the 3-issue sequel to Miller and Varley’s 1986 masterpiece “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”. At the end of that 4-issue work, Batman, after defeating the Joker and a nameless anarchical criminal leader, pretends to be dead to escape the notice of Superman and the authorities.
Now, 3 years later, the world is a wonderful place. The Dow is at 50,000. Congress passes laws unanimously. Everyone is happy.
Well, not everyone. In fact, most people have it pretty crappy in this world. Wealthy and powerful people and corporations have the world in their pocket. Dissent is outlawed. The President is revealed to be a CGI creation – and nobody cares much. Except for Batman.
Enough about plot. It is the style of DKSA that smacks you in the eyeball. It’s like a comic gone berserk. There are almost no settings. Just the people, ma’am. Sometimes just a chin or a finger. It’s like Dark Knight Returns on peyote. Some panels look as if someone put a gun to the artist’s head and said, Draw a complete comic in the next 10 seconds or die. Some panels are utterly gorgeous graphics that could hang in a gallery. But it all works, it all hangs together.
Carrie Kelley is back from DKR as Batman’s teenaged sidekick and protégé. So are Rob and Don: don’t shiv! Turns out Superman and Wonder Woman have a super teenaged daughter whose debut includes a battle with Brainiac. Many other DC characters appear, including Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and a trio of Spice superGirls called the Superchix. As with DKR, Society itself is a character, with little headshots giving their tweets, and not-beyond-the-realm-of-possibility TV like News in the Nude and emergency broadcasts by GIANT MANGA ANIME.
Batman is Batman. He has a plan to stick it to the Man, and if that plan happens to require him getting the snot beat out of him by Lex Luthor, or risking the annihilation of entire cities, oh, well. He also gets some of the best lines, like “So much treason to commit, so little time” and “Striking terror: best part of the job.”
If you want a roller coaster read where you’d better keep your hands in the car at all times, take a look at Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Balls nasty.
This is the 3-issue sequel to Miller and Varley’s 1986 masterpiece “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”. At the end of that 4-issue work, Batman, after defeating the Joker and a nameless anarchical criminal leader, pretends to be dead to escape the notice of Superman and the authorities.
Now, 3 years later, the world is a wonderful place. The Dow is at 50,000. Congress passes laws unanimously. Everyone is happy.
Well, not everyone. In fact, most people have it pretty crappy in this world. Wealthy and powerful people and corporations have the world in their pocket. Dissent is outlawed. The President is revealed to be a CGI creation – and nobody cares much. Except for Batman.
Enough about plot. It is the style of DKSA that smacks you in the eyeball. It’s like a comic gone berserk. There are almost no settings. Just the people, ma’am. Sometimes just a chin or a finger. It’s like Dark Knight Returns on peyote. Some panels look as if someone put a gun to the artist’s head and said, Draw a complete comic in the next 10 seconds or die. Some panels are utterly gorgeous graphics that could hang in a gallery. But it all works, it all hangs together.
Carrie Kelley is back from DKR as Batman’s teenaged sidekick and protégé. So are Rob and Don: don’t shiv! Turns out Superman and Wonder Woman have a super teenaged daughter whose debut includes a battle with Brainiac. Many other DC characters appear, including Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and a trio of Spice superGirls called the Superchix. As with DKR, Society itself is a character, with little headshots giving their tweets, and not-beyond-the-realm-of-possibility TV like News in the Nude and emergency broadcasts by GIANT MANGA ANIME.
Batman is Batman. He has a plan to stick it to the Man, and if that plan happens to require him getting the snot beat out of him by Lex Luthor, or risking the annihilation of entire cities, oh, well. He also gets some of the best lines, like “So much treason to commit, so little time” and “Striking terror: best part of the job.”
If you want a roller coaster read where you’d better keep your hands in the car at all times, take a look at Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Balls nasty.
Comments