World Famous Comics: Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
By: Frank Miller, Lynn Varley Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: January 01, 2004 Release Date: January 01, 2004
Product Description: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is Frank Miller's follow-up to his hugely successful Batman: the Dark Knight Returns, one of the few comics that is widely recognized as not only reinventing the genre but also bringing it to a wider audience.Set three years after the events of The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Again follows a similar structure: once again, Batman hauls himself out of his self-imposed retirement in order to set things right. However, where DKR was about him cleaning up his home city, Gotham, DKSA has him casting his net much wider: he's out to save the world.The thing is, most of the world doesn't realize that it needs to be saved--least of all Superman and Wonder Woman, who have become little more than superpowered enforcers of the status quo. So, the notoriously solitary Batman is forced to recruit some different superpowered allies. He also has his ever-present trusty sidekick, Robin, except that he is a she, and she is calling herself Catwoman. Together, these super-friends uncover a vast and far-reaching conspiracy that leads to the President of the United States (Lex Luthor) and beyond.The Dark Knight Strikes Again is largely an entertaining comic, but much of what made The Dark Knight Returns so good just doesn't work here. Miller's gritty, untidy artwork was perfect for DKR's grim depiction of the dark and seedy Gotham City, but it jars a bit for DKSA, which is meant to depict an ultra-glossy, futuristic technocracy. Lynn Varley's garish coloring attempts to add a slicker sheen, but the artwork is ultimately let down by that which worked so well for DKR--this time around, it just feels sloppy and rushed. The same is true of the book's denouement, which happens so quickly that it leaves the reader reeling and looking for more of an explanation. Moreover, DKSA is packed full of characters who will mean little to those unfamiliar with the DC Comics universe (e.g., the Atom, the Elongated Man, the Question).Perhaps the book's biggest failing is that where The Dark Knight Returns gave comic book fans a base from which to evangelize to theuninitiated, The Dark Knight Strikes Again is just preaching to the converted. Comic book superhero fans will find much to enjoy here, but others would be better off sticking with the original. --Robert Burrow
Amazon.com Review: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is Frank Miller's follow-up to his hugely successful Batman: the Dark Knight Returns, one of the few comics that is widely recognized as not only reinventing the genre but also bringing it to a wider audience.Set three years after the events of The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Again follows a similar structure: once again, Batman hauls himself out of his self-imposed retirement in order to set things right. However, where DKR was about him cleaning up his home city, Gotham, DKSA has him casting his net much wider: he's out to save the world. The thing is, most of the world doesn't realize that it needs to be saved--least of all Superman and Wonder Woman, who have become little more than superpowered enforcers of the status quo. So, the notoriously solitary Batman is forced to recruit some different superpowered allies. He also has his ever-present trusty sidekick, Robin, except that he is a she, and she is calling herself Catwoman. Together, these super-friends uncover a vast and far-reaching conspiracy that leads to the President of the United States (Lex Luthor) and beyond.
The Dark Knight Strikes Again is largely an entertaining comic, but much of what made The Dark Knight Returns so good just doesn't work here. Miller's gritty, untidy artwork was perfect for DKR's grim depiction of the dark and seedy Gotham City, but it jars a bit for DKSA, which is meant to depict an ultra-glossy, futuristic technocracy. Lynn Varley's garish coloring attempts to add a slicker sheen, but the artwork is ultimately let down by that which worked so well for DKR--this time around, it just feels sloppy and rushed. The same is true of the book's denouement, which happens so quickly that it leaves the reader reeling and looking for more of an explanation. Moreover, DKSA is packed full of characters who will mean little to those unfamiliar with the DC Comics universe (e.g., the Atom, the Elongated Man, the Question). Perhaps the book's biggest failing is that where The Dark Knight Returns gave comic book fans a base from which to evangelize to theuninitiated, The Dark Knight Strikes Again is just preaching to the converted. Comic book superhero fans will find much to enjoy here, but others would be better off sticking with the original. --Robert Burrow
From brilliant to beyond mediocrity This book is on par with Joel Schumacher's last Batman film. That movie may well be better than this book. The artwork (incredibly gets worse as the story progresses such as no backgrounds) and story (plots go nowhere such as Dick Grayson/Robin as a would be killer, what happened to Nightwing?) comes across rush and lazy leaving the book impossible to read and just plain awful to look at. Lastly, this is more of a JLA book than a Batman book. It is hard to believe that the same person that was so brilliant with TDKR and Year One produced this same work. I miss the old Frank Miller.
Awful! Wow, this was complete crap. After I read the fantastic The Dark Knight Returns I read this, what a letdown! The artwork is simply terrible. I did not enjoy this at all. The story was stupid and to me the whole graphic novel was a mess. Nothing really made any sense. It seemed like Frank Miller hurried to get it done, it just doesn't look professinally done. I only recommend reading it because it's the sequel and just to see how bad it is.
... huh? Is there a reason why this is rated so highly? Could it be that Frank Miller has so many rabid fan-boys and girls that come to praise whatever s**t comes out of his frakked up mind that they can't properly criticize the work? Frankly, this "follow-up", if one could properly claim it such, reminds me of what so many have said about George Lucas's Star Wars Prequels (I don't, but I can see where they're coming from for sure): the supposed master of his domain, so to speak, has lost his mind.
Hell, I wasn't even the hugest fan of Dark Knight Returns, which is ranked as being the Citizen Kane of modern comic books (I prefer Batman Year One and especially his book Robin). Compared to this though, maybe DKR is really great... because frankly, Miller, this is just... it's hard for words to describe what this book really is. It's like if the Frank Miller of old took a whole lot of mescaline, hooked up a pen and pencil and water-color inks or digital art or whatever to his brain, and just let it go hog-wild. And the results are just what you'd expect - a total, unadalterated mess.
Does it make it unreadable? Not entirely; there are some pages, some panels, where Miller's artistry can be seen in all of its wicked and wild glory. But he also has gone so off the deep end that he can't tell a f****g story properly. The news segments, which worked up to a point in DKR, are just sporadic and placed in so much randomness throughout the story that it becomes the very thing he thinks he's parodying: useless nonsense and noise. It's also cluttered with FAR too many characters, and his Batman doesn't even make an appearance until well into (if not at the end) of chapter 1! Do we really need to see sub-par renditions of the Flash and his hooker version of Wonder Woman? At least his burned out Superman is interesting, for two pages. And then it too gets completely repetitive.
But really, it's just comic-vomit, and it wont make sense- didn't make sense- to those who don't follow Batman so regularly that they know who that character in the leopard costume is or who the Bat-boy teenagers are, or what the tangents have to do with the whole of an asteroid hitting earth. To say that this is for diehards is putting it mildly, since I thought I considered myself a die-hard. This is just.... well, if you want an idea, take a look at Miller's pet-film project, The Spirit, and you'll get an idea of what's happened to him in the 21st century.
Where's the Miller that made me want to be a telepathic ronin in New York?
My expectations were rivaled only by my disappointment. After reading Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, I couldn't wait to read B:tDKSA. As I said, my expectations could only be rivaled by my utter and complete disappointment. In this novel, it seems that Frank Miller enlisted the help of others, which was a collosal mistake. There are portions of the novel that are obviously done by Frank Miller (I say "obviously" because those parts of the novel are FREAKING AMAZING!) and other parts that look like they are done by some hobo Miller just took home with him one day. I could be wrong, but it seems like there is a vast portion of this novel that Frank Miller had nothing to do with, and those parts suck. The two stars were only given because there are some really great aspects of this novel, but they are generally buried by a mound of total and utterly annoying crap.
ouch. You would have never guessed that Frank Miller would have been a great writer if not for his previous works. This graphic novel lacks depth, lacks a good plot, lacks good artwork, and lacks spirit. In comparison to his other works, this is a piece of crap. Dont waste your time reading this.
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