Superhuman Man Resembles Joker the Dark Knight Strikes Again

"I'grand much more than able to approach it like I'thou seven years one-time than I used to be able to," Frank Miller told the AV Club back in 2001 while doing press for The Dark Knight Strikes Again. With that statement, Miller inadvertently, if not prophetically, encapsulated the harshest criticisms DKSA (or DKII) would soon face.

As the November 25 release date of Dark Knight III: The Principal Race approaches, it's worth reflecting on the last time DC attempted to recapture the spark of The Dark Knight Returns—one of the few pop civilisation artifacts that deserves the frequently-abused adjective, "seminal." DKII arrived not quite 15 years after its predecessor tag teamed with Alan Moore's Watchmen to legitimize the comic medium'south potential for developed high art. Equally he had washed previously with Daredevil, Miller used Batman to illustrate that an private who devotes his or her life to costumed vigilantism may not exist especially well-adjusted. In 1986, this was a fresh perspective, and its masterful execution garnered justified commercial and disquisitional acclaim while inspiring a litany of unfortunate imitators. (Remember Spawn?).

In 2001, Miller professionally reunited with DKR'southward colorist and his then-wife Lynn Varley for the long-put-off sequel. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace stands as the closest analogue to the apprehension and subsequent backlash surrounding a sequel to a hallowed property, making DKII a polarizing, just atypical, touchstone in the history of superhero comics.

As a sixteen-twelvemonth-former in 2001, I rather enjoyed DKII, and didn't fully embrace the ire it provoked. Fifty-fifty setting aside unrealistic expectations on the part of audiences and critics, I understood that the three-result mini-series lands far short of its namesake's legacy. Attempting to equal DKR would've been an exercise in futility, but Miller and visitor didn't fifty-fifty try to produce a book that felt like it belonged in the same continuity. Adjacent to DKR'due south perilous, doomed, urban environs and harsh dismantling of superhero tropes, DKII plays out like a Pokemon anime.

If judged as the heir apparent to DKR, DKII is a sad exercise in failure. Merely what if information technology had a dissimilar title? Frank Miller's Justice League: The Electrical Elseworld, or The Brave, The Assuming, and The Badass, or Joel Schumacher's Batnipples, Ahoy!, or annihilation that hinted at satire? What if DKII had been marketed every bit a non-canonical, standalone story, instead of a progression of DKR? From that bending, DKII scans equally just a flawed lark, every bit opposed to a borderline blasphemy.

Granted, the barbs aimed at DKII'southward artwork hold water, if we indulge the instinct to cherry pick. Throughout the series, Miller inexplicably depicts the typically stylish Lex Luthor as a lumbering, pot-bellied oaf with disproportionately massive hands (and by that, I mean his hands are much bigger than boilerplate within the reality of DKII, where normal-sized hands are the same size every bit heads). When Catgirl leaps out of the Batmobile to assault the President'due south cabinet, the soles of her anxiety appear attached to her rear. Not often, but every now and again objects appear so tactlessly smooshed together that it'southward hard to determine what's supposed to be happening in a given console. Similar in this one:

That's supposed to be "The Joker" murdering Creeper. I had to stare at it for an hour to figure that out.

Overall, DKII presents a hyperbolic, kitschy Gotham and City. It as well presents a trio of ultra-sexualitzed teenage Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera proxies (it'south 2001, go on in listen) dubbed the "Superchix." The President of the U.s.a. gets outed as a hologram, and George Stephanopoulos doesn't care. Catgirl inadvertently swallows The Atom when he hides in her oral cavity during a rescue attempt, and during a climactic boxing, Superman fights a robot dinosaur. The book reads as though a 7-year-old boy woke upwardly 1 morning with the body and mass media awareness of a l-something comic book artist, and set most crafting a Batman saga based loosely on a scenario he concocted with his box of activeness figures the previous 24-hour interval.

DKII looks somewhat garish and overstylized, not due to laziness, only as a result of a calculated, deliberate choice for garish overstylization; a completely appropriate approach for realizing the script. While a significant departure doomed to alienate devotees of the the original DKR, the art in DKII delivers the vulgar, neon-bombast of its apparent mission statement.

And while sacrosanct among comic nerds, DKR isn't perfect, either. Back in '86, Miller wrote Superman as the Reagan Administration'southward passive lackey, whose near-omnipotence has been nullified past terminal utilitarianism and/or deference to authority. Superman says, "'Yep' to anyone with a badge or a flag," every bit Batman puts it. While Kal-El, the well-intended, pro-institution antagonist, serves Miller's indicate nearly the virtue of anti-establishmentarianism, the notion that Superman would attack his closest ally considering Ronald Reagan asked him to is a ridiculous load of plot-eclipsing mischaracterization. Grant Morrison managed a more probable Superman, while also making Superman a Nazi, in The Multiversity: Mastermen.

Why it made sense to double down on this "Superman is useless government stooge" trope is anyone'due south judge, but such label persists in DKII. The Last Kryptonian, once again, takes his marching orders from those in power. This fourth dimension he answers to a shadow regime cabal consisting of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, who've won The Man of Steel's obedience past holding the Canteen City of Kandor hostage. The fact that, over the years, countless villains have unsuccessfully tried to one-up Superman by kidnapping and threatening Kandor, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and enough of his other near-and-dears never gets mentioned. The same plan has failed many, many times before, but this time it worked, for no reason.

And the gross mischaracterizations in DKII don't stop with Superman. I can't tell you what Miller did to Dick Grayson without spoiling the twist ending. Wonder Woman functions principally as Superman's manic pixie dream girl. Hawk and Dove stop by for a panel considering Miller but can't resist an offensive fifty-fifty-by-2001-standards gay joke. About egregiously, the troubled, conflicted Bruce Wayne of DKR disappears, giving way to the sadistic boyish male person power fantasy Miller fully realized, to the dismay of all, in All-Star. Sadly, DKII marks the commencement appearance of the goddamn Batman.

And withal, DKII as well treats a few of the Justice League's bottom-knowns with reverence and imagination. Lots of people who only purchase a comic book one time every 20 years were destined to read DKII due to its pedigree, and it'south not without merit that the volume presents novices with glowing introductions to some of the DCU's venerable supporting cast members. The Atom does or says something clever every time he's on panel. The Question, a right-wing conspiracy nut (who simply happens to be correct, this time), trades philosophical jibes with communist Oliver Queen, without either character succumbing to parody (surprising, given Miller'south post-nine/11 shift to the far-correct). Shazam gets a resonate, downright poetic death, despite the sometime Captain Curiosity appearing in a scant few panels before parting the mortal scroll. Hal Hashemite kingdom of jordan shows upwards as a deus ex machina moreso than a grapheme, only boy hi, what a deus ex machina.

Ultimately, DKR and DKII share 1 indisputable nugget: both are utterly unique and invulnerable to replication. Neither owes a tremendous amount to anything that came before, aside from the characters themselves. Innumerable attempts to imitate the quondam embarrassed themselves, and inappreciably anyone bothered to rip off DKII.

DKII is non equally practiced equally DKR, information technology'due south non even in the aforementioned league, except that it'due south every bit as weird. Maybe weirder. And that's a lot more than anyone tin can say for the Phantom Menace.

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Source: https://www.pastemagazine.com/comics/batman/in-defense-of-batman-dark-knight-strikes-again/

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