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This is a great book and a wonderful, expressive, ambitious followup to TDKR. People complain about the lack of Batman in this story, but it's not about how much time you actually see him in the panels, it's about his influence on the story and setting; which is utterly pervasive.
Sure, when held up against The Dark Knight Returns it doesn't stand in the same light, but coming into a new work by an artist with the intent of comparing it against everything else they've done is lame--people grow and change. After re-reading this title and seeing what some people had to say about it, I was shocked at the number of people bashing this book; it's great.
The scope of this story has quadrupled in size from the relatively grounded story of TDKR, and for the art to not loosen up and follow in suit would only constrain the story. Where other people see a sloppy, loose, nonsensical story and horrible artwork, I see an artist blooming and shedding the constraints of the traditional form (like Picasso or Coltrane).
Miller's writing and art have turned into a kaleidoscopic, multicolored and expansive expression. It's a testament to Miller's writing that you don't have to see him in every panel; he's still there.
Hopefully Miller returns eventually with a new Batman book that is even more woolly and wild than this one.
It comes off as really lazy. This book is terrible. A few pieces of art will appeal to you, but especially the females, are rendered horribly. Its art is ugly at best, its action is choppy, it barely manages to cameo its titular character, and its story is a complete cluster of refuge.
what strategy. The shining point of this book confused canon is when Elvis appears, and his relevance to the story is about equel to tThis shames the good name of the Dark Knight Returns. The first was stylized, but beautiful and easy on the eyes. Lets begin with the art. Now out of those 250 pages, Batman appears in exactly 41.
Batman is now a complete ***hole instead of a misunderstood hero. When Superman (who is arguable the main character of this heap of junk) comes to speak to Batman. Its a mess. Strikes Again, takes the stylization and turns it into pure junk. The coloring is even worse.
I would've much preferred not only black and white, but the sketchiness of the first title. Let me begin by saying that in whole, this book is almost 250 pages long. He uses a rag tag band of heroes, a robot, and a dinosaur to beat Superman half to death. Than Batman prides himself on "strategy".
Its possibly the worst thought out fight scene in Batman history. All of this goes without saying that Batman isn't even present for 84% of the book. Don't tell yourself it will be okay.
I loved the first but everywhere The Dark Knight Returns popped this book disappoints. I loved the first title in this now tarnished series, and though no matter how lesser this one could be it would be a pleasure to read. While the first book was colored in watercolors, this one is done on a computer and looks like a flash obsessed 12 year old colored it.
This book is impossible to read, the art puts you off that much, it hurt my eyes to push myself through this ordeal.Next is the story. It's not even passable in its own right. Don't make my mistake, its not worth 1$, in fact, I deserve the asking price of this "book" just for struggling through it.What has happened.
I guess I didn't think I'd be given a BATMAN title written by FRANK MILLER one lousy star, but.it almost doesn't even deserve that. Yay, fun, right. Doesn't work. Was Frank high on meth when he wrote this book. Well, go ahead, but nobody is lying to you. I like when people try new things and it actually kept my attention through the middle of the second issue but this thing totally falls apart. Good luck figuring out what is going on in this comic. No.
If trying something new means not trying then bravo. This feels like 20 other comics Frank was working on, cut up into pieces, put into a hat and drawn out panel by panel. Awful.If you're like me, you've heard this was terrible but you'll read it anyway because you're curious. It is seriously horrendous.
kick-start the war by springing former super-heroes held prisoner by a rogue puppet government under the control of Lex Luthor and Brainiac (and a mysterious figure in the guise of some half-assed Joker whose reveal at the end is an even more unsatisfactory climax than The English Patient), including: Ray Palmer/the Atom and Barry Allen/the Flash. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is the sequel to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by famed comic writer Frank Miller (Batman: Year One, Sin City). Other heroes pop-up throughout including: the Question, Wonder Woman (with whom Superman has a daughter), J'Onn J'Onzz the Martian Manhunter, Plastic Man, Elongated Man, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, and Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. Following what was a fake death at the hands of Superman in the prequel, Bruce Wayne/Batman, Carrie Kelly (Robin in TDKR, now Catgirl) and a band of former mutant gang-bangers now known as the 'Sons of Batman' have gone underground where they spend the next three years training for a climactic battle on the order of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Final Crisis, but far more convoluted and by virtue of that alone, harder care about the outcome (SPOILER WARNING: it almost makes you wish what happened in Final Crisis would happen here to kill this book a little faster than letting it go on suffering). Batman, Catgirl, and the SoB's (HA). All these heroes and the fate of the world nearly comes down to whether-or-not Superman has the 'moxie' to stand up to Luthor whilst Brainiac threatens the lives of some 10-million Kryptonians in the bottled city of Kandor. This story seems so concerned with including as much of the known DC Universe in it that it seems to loose track of what it initially set out to do in the first place; everything else gets lost in the jumble and thats just how I describe the story, to say nothing of the rickety artistic style that seems haphazardly thrown on the page like each panel was drawn/inked separately, ingested and then thrown up onto the page and was just purposeful enough to string even some semblance of a story together.If you could handle much of these same flaws that plagued TDKR and you want to known how it ends, then by all means, head to your local Borders of Barnes & Noble and kill a couple of hours with this sequel that falls, amazingly, even shorter than it's predecessor.
Seinfeld impersonation over. Not to use a trite expression, but this book takes you for a ride, and you're either on it, or you're not. Good book, but very political, and almost avantgarde in it's approach to it's art style. If you don't like to be pushed outside of your comfort zone, AND if you don't like to think all that much about the sub-text, you probobly won't like this book. I think this is a fitting conclusion to the 'dark knight returns' novel-and I liked it. It wasn't exceptional, but it's symbolic, true to it's themes, and realised fully.
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