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Title: The Dark Knight Strikes Again Vol. 3 by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley ISBN: 1563898721 Publisher: DC Comics Pub. Date: 31 July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.9
Rating: 2
Summary: What a complete and total letdown.
Comment: This book was supposed to break all the rules and make everyone geek out. This book was supposed to be the next step in comic book storytelling. This book was hyped to be maybe the best graphic novel of all time.
Do you know what we got instead?
A played-out plot about governmental conspiracy that has more to do with the DC universe than it has to do with Batman, followed by sloppy art with various sorts of digital colors thrown messily onto the pages.
What the hell????
Frank Miller's drawing style has evolved since his first big drawing gig on Daredevil. He started off a bit normal, then went to the Dark Knight grittiness and then to where he's at now -- cool black-and-white Sin City formula. The problem with his drawings in this book, however, is that he's using the Sin City formula instead of the Dark Knight style. And he's not even using the formula correctly; the art seems rushed (and it's not in black-and-white. Miller plays off the shadows in this book, but it's contradicted by the coloring).
Speaking of the coloring, it is perhaps the worst part about this book. Rather than using colors that make sense for a book, the colorist takes rather normal computerized colors -- a lot of them, at that -- and seems to just put them in various places on top of the artwork, hoping that it'll look good. Sometimes the colorist likes to make a design here and there, thinking that it'll be pretty.
It doesn't work. And it's not pretty.
Avoid this book, I'm begging you. Don't give DC more money for this "effort." This is an insult to their customers and to their fans. For making this book, Frank Miller and all involved should be ashamed of themselves. They've delivered awesome works before...but they just got lazy this time around. This gets two stars for the decent plot.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not what I expected
Comment: Just to let you know where I stand, I'm a former comics collector who tired of the excesses of the medium and its perpetual recycling of characters and storylines. However, I admired Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns" for its cinematic storytelling, sharp wit and unexpected vision of a world that no longer wanted superheroes. Set three years later, "The Dark Knight Strikes Again" presents this world in an even more nightmarish fashion that I found both intriguing and repellant. Here, a grotesque Lex Luthor has quietly siezed control of the presidency (for what ends, we're not yet sure), Superman plays his pliant pawn, and the exiled Batman decides he must upend this future society drunk on prosperity and a soft form of fascism. This first chapter begins as Batman and a band of Bat-themed revolutionaries free several imprisoned heroes. And as an old fan, I found Miller's reimaginings of stock DC characters fascinating. The Flash now is bitter and cynical. The Atom, long a third-tier character, is recast as a gutsy tough guy. And I was pleased that Miller allowed Superman to state a convincing case for siding with the despots (which still fit the character's more simplistic, utilitarian philosophy). What I found even bolder--and, in the end, most difficult to swallow--was Miller's deliberately crude drawing style. He no longer delineates characters as much as simply suggests them with scratchy etches and thick blotches of shadow, and pays only lip service to realistic perspective. At its best, this style brings a weighty and disquieting quality to the book that you rarely find in comics. I occasionally was reminded of Picasso's late-period pen-and-ink work. And it certainly is appropriate for capturing the corruption of this future world and the moral ambiguity of these characters. But I also found that this jarring style impeded the storytelling; I often had to puzzle over panels to figure out what I was looking at or how one image related to the next. (And I don't even know how to address Miller's apparent fetish with humungous shoes.) However, I have to admit that I want to pick up the next issue. To find any work in the superhero medium so original and deeply unsettling is, in the end, a compliment.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beneath the surface, the Last Batman story
Comment: Admittedly, this book was too expensive, but I liked it, it was so much fun (PLASTIC MAN, etc.) despite some unanswered questions. I'm sure that the big orphanage home that genetically experimented on orphans was commentary on Batman's parenting of Robin, setting the stage for Robin's appearance (where he mentions being genetically altered), and that's why we don't hear the entire orphanage story, because we've just heard the crucial metaphor (it may feel like the story has gone on a tangent, but it didn't). When the orphans say 'they poked us, and touched us', it seems like a funny inside joke on the Batman/Robin 'relationship'. ... .
...
Miller has stated that this story is not how the DCU and Batman should end up, it was supposed to be a little more out of character, bleak, and realistic in areas (while still very fantastic-looking and acting). the realism isn't all darkness, it can be funny like in Watchmen. In my humble opinion, DK is about what would happen if Batman let the emotions that keep him fighting every night get the best of him... in an apocalyptic world of tomorrow. This book inspired a lot of thought for me about these classic characters and political differences, it makes me want to create something. I think it's had a greater positive effect on me than DK1, which told a great, though less complex story.
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Title: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley, Bob Kahan, John Costanza ISBN: 1563893428 Publisher: DC Comics Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli ISBN: 0930289331 Publisher: DC Comics Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Origin: The True Story of Wolverine by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, Paul Jenkins, Andy Kubert ISBN: 078510965X Publisher: Marvel Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Watchmen by Alan Moore, Barry Marx, Dave Gibbons ISBN: 0930289234 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Kingdom Come (Graphic Novel) by Mark Waid, Alex Ross, Bob Kahan ISBN: 1563893304 Publisher: DC Comics Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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