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 All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder #2
REVIEW by Dave HowlettMiller’s latest interpretation of the Dark Knight is puzzling at best, and infuriating at worst.
No one would deny that Frank Miller is responsible for much of how Batman has been portrayed since he left his indelible stamp on the character. Miller’s version of the Caped Crusader, first unleashed in his “last” Batman tale, “The Dark Knight Returns” in 1986 and followed closely by “Batman: Year One”, has not only influenced the way the hero’s four-color adventures have been written and drawn for the last twenty years; echoes of Miller’s gritty, tormented interpretation can be found in Tim Burton’s film version and the excellent animated series masterminded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini throughout the nineties. After a lengthy hiatus from the character, Miller has turned his eye to Batman once again—in 2001, he wrote and illustrated the now-infamous “The Dark Knight Strikes Again” miniseries, and now he is providing scripts for fan-favorite artist Jim Lee on “Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder” (the first in DC’s new series of out-of-continuity “All-Star” titles). With a clean, continuity-free slate in front of him and a fan-favorite artist at his side, Miller seems hell-bent to reinvent the character once more…however, it remains to be seen if anyone will want to follow Miller’s example this time around.
In the first issue, twelve-year-old circus aerialist Dick Grayson watched as his parents were gunned down in front of him during a Gotham City performance. The boy was then abducted by corrupt Gotham cops, who whisked him away to the woods to brutalize him for some reason—a confusing plot point interrupted by the appearance of the Batman, who then also kidnapped the already-traumatized youngster. Issue two sees the duo speeding away in the Batmobile with the cops in hot pursuit, as Batman does his best to terrorize Dick into forgetting his grief… even as the boy begins to see glimpses of the man behind the grim vigilante façade. The issue ends as Dick, still trying to figure out who killed his parents and why, agrees to join Batman’s crusade against evil.
An element of humanity that was sorely lacking in the first issue of “Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder” is fleshed out here, with Dick seeing a hint of the loneliness that Batman’s psychotic behavior is designed to conceal. We also see Batman’s conflict over his own psychological and physical abuse of the boy, as he tries to convince himself that this approach is the only way that Dick will survive the coming ordeal. Jim Lee has clearly been waiting his whole professional career to work with Miller (his own “Deathblow” comic from the early nineties was drawn in a style that paid obvious visual homage to Miller’s “Sin City”), and his enthusiasm shows; the car chase and its fiery, outlandish conclusion allows the artist to cut loose in a way that his recent twelve-issue “Superman” run never brought about (artistic enthusiasm aside, one still wonders how Batman, who was clean-shaven only minutes before in the first issue, has sprouted wild facial stubble by the beginning of this episode).
Unfortunately, Miller’s latest interpretation of the Dark Knight is puzzling at best, and infuriating at worst. Miller has stated in interviews that he considers this series to be an unofficial sequel to his own “Batman: Year One”, but the Batman he gives us here owes more to the older, crazier vigilante of “The Dark Knight Returns”, or, more disappointingly, “The Dark Knight Strikes Again”. This is a Batman who laughs like a maniac as the police give chase, slaps a traumatized small boy for crying about his parents’ murder, and who relishes in the apparent incineration of a phalanx of corrupt cops in his Batmobile’s afterburners (is this really supposed to be the same young crimefighter who pulled a couple of crooked cops out of a burning car after they shot him and denied him medical attention in “Year One”?). The overall impression of this series is that Miller has taken the hard-boiled sheen of his “Sin City” comics and placed it over a Batman story like a transparency; the result is a confusing combination of repetitive dialogue, gratuitous soft-core porn antics (courtesy of a scantily clad Vicki Vale, in a subplot that is nearly forgotten in this issue), one-dimensional, stone-faced stormtrooper cops, and as much vulgarity and brutality as a mainstream superhero book will allow. At one point, Batman says of Dick’s predicament, “…once I’ve put you through holy hell, it’ll make sense. A lot of sense.” Miller, it seems, is determined to put readers through holy hell as well, but it remains to be seen if the opening arc of “Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder” will make sense at the end.
Available: 2005-09-14
Publisher: DC
Price: $2.99
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: Jim Lee
giant picture
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I'm still willing to give this a chance - though ish one wasn't quite as good as it had been hyped to be...
 Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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this issue was unreadable.
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I haven't gotten ish 2 yet - was it really that bad?
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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cookie monster 7500+ posts
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Uh-oh. As bad as say, DKSA? Cause that was awful.
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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living in 1962 15000+ posts
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it's all Spike's fault. ever since he bought Miller's beer bottle and had him sign it, Miller's been insane.
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Um, I think you might be confused... *grin*
Seriously, after reading DKSA - and the luke warm reception that ASBR seems to be getting, you kinda haveta wonder what happened to the man who wrote Y:1, DKR and Sin City...
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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Quite simply: Miller's a one trick pony. And after the trick did its thing, he ran out of ideas and his writing went down the drain. It also became...Hippy-ish. He seems to have this hang up with fem-superiority.
Anyway, he could only do stuff like Batman, so he fell into a niche with the Dark Knight, but after that, his penchant for drama became redudant. It's like everything he writes has to be.....Symbolic. His monologue and dialogue are filled to the brink with archaicly(sp) dramatic rhetoric.
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living in 1962 15000+ posts
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Quote:
harleykwin said:
Um, I think you might be confused... *grin*
how so?
Quote:
Seriously, after reading DKSA - and the luke warm reception that ASBR seems to be getting, you kinda haveta wonder what happened to the man who wrote Y:1, DKR and Sin City...
no, I know what happened. Spike bought his beer bottle in Chicago one year and had him sign it. this was in '99. he then went crazy. Miller, not Spike. Spike was already crazy. but that's another story.
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Quote:
Grimm said:
Quote:
harleykwin said:
Um, I think you might be confused... *grin*
how so?
Quote:
Seriously, after reading DKSA - and the luke warm reception that ASBR seems to be getting, you kinda haveta wonder what happened to the man who wrote Y:1, DKR and Sin City...
no, I know what happened. Spike bought his beer bottle in Chicago one year and had him sign it. this was in '99. he then went crazy. Miller, not Spike. Spike was already crazy. but that's another story.
 WTF? Ok, what's the "other" story? 
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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 lemme see if I can splain better. my friend who sometimes posts here as Spike and I went to Chicagocon a few times. one year, Miller was there and he was doing this limited signing thing. we both got in and had some stuff signed. Miller kept taking smoke breaks periodically, and the guy running the signing (it was sponsored by the CBLDF) would auction off books and posters and stuff during the breaks. well, he was running out of stuff to sell off, and Spike goes "I know what you could sell. His beer bottle." so the guy sells off Frank's not quite empty beer bottle to Spike for five bucks. so Spike goes up and gets Frank to sign the not quite empty bottle. (and in the process, spills the remnants of Frank's beer and backwash on my backpack) I later found out from CBLDF guy that this weirded Frank out quite a bit. but everything Frank's done since that time (DKSA, All Star Batman, yadda yadda) has pretty much sucked. thus, he obviously went insane after Spike bought his beer bottle. as for Spike, I don't think we have enough bandwidth to go into his story. 
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Quote:
Grimm said:
lemme see if I can splain better.
my friend who sometimes posts here as Spike and I went to Chicagocon a few times. one year, Miller was there and he was doing this limited signing thing. we both got in and had some stuff signed.
Miller kept taking smoke breaks periodically, and the guy running the signing (it was sponsored by the CBLDF) would auction off books and posters and stuff during the breaks.
well, he was running out of stuff to sell off, and Spike goes "I know what you could sell. His beer bottle." so the guy sells off Frank's not quite empty beer bottle to Spike for five bucks.
so Spike goes up and gets Frank to sign the not quite empty bottle. (and in the process, spills the remnants of Frank's beer and backwash on my backpack)
I later found out from CBLDF guy that this weirded Frank out quite a bit. but everything Frank's done since that time (DKSA, All Star Batman, yadda yadda) has pretty much sucked.
thus, he obviously went insane after Spike bought his beer bottle.
as for Spike, I don't think we have enough bandwidth to go into his story.
Ahhhh, it all makes sense now....
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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living in 1962 15000+ posts
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It's all Spike's fault. 
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Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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Quote:
"All-Star" Batman said:
“Are you RETARDED or something? Who the hell do you THINK I am? I’m the goddamn BATMAN.”
For the love of God, will someone at Warner Brothers or someplace grow a set of balls and make the editors at DC DO THEIR GODDAM JOBS?!?!?!!?!!?!
This is supposed to be DC's flagship Batman book right now, the one that will attract casual fans to the character by distilling the essential, classic, elements of Batman into a single book....AND THEY HAVE BATMAN TALKING LIKE "as manic eighth grader"?!!?!!
GodDAMmit, do these idiots want to go out of business or what?
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Banned from the DCMBs since 2002. 15000+ posts
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I'm sure Miller is laughing all the way to the bank, and using the money to work on projects like "300" which have real artistic merit as opposed to being franchise extensions.
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Sounds like someone is afraid to tell Miller he's fuckin' up again...
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Quote:
theory9 said:
Sounds like someone is afraid to tell Miller he's fuckin' up again...
I've said it before, I'll say it again: editors used to be guys like Julie Schwartz, who would work with the writer to bring out the writer's best. They would work with the writer to throw out the crap, emphasize the positive and shepherd the character's "good name" through varying writers.
Today, editors are nothing but talent scouts who throw money at hot prospects and do nothing to develop the talent.
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100+ posts
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Quote:
harleykwin said:
Um, I think you might be confused... *grin*
Seriously, after reading DKSA - and the luke warm reception that ASBR seems to be getting, you kinda haveta wonder what happened to the man who wrote Y:1, DKR and Sin City...
Not to mention Daredevil: Born Again...and part of The Friday Review's...uh, review for said story makes it even more ironic:
Quote:
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN can be considered one of the cornerstones of what might be termed the Class Of 1986 - a group of books that changed the face of American comics from that point on. (Think of MAUS, WATCHMEN, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, PUNISHER: CIRCLE OF BLOOD, SQUADRON SUPREME and THE SHADOW: BLOOD AND JUDGEMENT.) It helped kick-start the 'grim and gritty' trend, and marked a shift away from the traditional Marvel manner of storytelling initiated by Lee, Kirby, Ditko, et al.
The review G-Man quoted cited part of the problem, at least in my eyes:
Quote:
It’s all straight from the SIN CITY school of beating the reader over the head with a hardboiled cadence...I can’t help but feel but Miller’s been around this same block so many times he’s worn a groove into the road...
The other part is...well, I'll get into that another day. That's a whole other rant I'll save for a DKSA thread.
"I'm the goddamn BATMAN." Everytime I read that, I don't know wheter to wince or ask some "punk" if he feels "lucky."
"Boasting is not courage. He who boasts much cannot do much. Much gesticulation does not prove courage."
"Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." Aristotle
"Honor is like a steep island without a shore: one cannot return once one is outside." Nicholas Bouleau
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Quote:
the G-man said:
Quote:
theory9 said:
Sounds like someone is afraid to tell Miller he's fuckin' up again...
I've said it before, I'll say it again: editors used to be guys like Julie Schwartz, who would work with the writer to bring out the writer's best. They would work with the writer to throw up the crap, emphasize the positive and shepherd the character's "good name" through varying writers.
Today, editors are nothing but talent scouts who throw money at hot prospects and do nothing to develop the talent.
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This makes a fucking load of sense. People keep buying Frank Miller shit 'cause it's "Frank Miller" so DC keeps wanking off and signing Frank Miller for more comics and Frank Miller is playing around and writing stuff the way he wants it rather than the way it is because (are we RETARDED?!) he's goddamn FRANK MILLER! I doubt Frank Miller has lost any talent, he just sees an oppertunity to make a buck and have a laugh at the expense of us retards who buy Frank Miller (TM)
Old men, fear me! You will shatter under my ruthless apathetic assault!
Uschi - 2
Old Men - 0
"I am convinced that this world is of no importance, and that the only people who care about dates are imbeciles and Spanish teachers." -- Jean Arp, 1921
"If Jesus came back and saw what people are doing in his name, he would never never stop throwing up." - Max von Sydow, "Hannah and Her Sisters"
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The first issue was not so good, the second made me wanna puke..'nuff said.
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Regenerated 15000+ posts
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Prometheus's post about this issue will be written by Frank Miller:Quote:
I read the issue at hand...pages flipping and slipping...like bugs made of mud, hitting my windshield. The comic...the book...the comic book....it was brutal, brutal.....brutal. It was brutal.
I sighed and belched and waited for the backwash of acid to coat my throat in a veil of discomfort....I waited for the glass of drama and terror to cut into my brain..reading...soaking in the sharp contrast of Lee's leaded beauty...all cluttered and rapid with the spittle of haste and faint praise to an era that never existed.
It was brutal. Brutal. Brutal.
Someone tried to speak to me as I read the twenty-two pages of someone's sidestep into an aneurism disguised as noir. I smacked the bastard across the cheek.
"Swallow it! I don't need the grief!" I rasped through teeth clenched with a glare that defined the early 80's.
Save it....save it....save it...I had to know. I have to know. I will know. Does it make sense? Will it make sense? Should it make sense? I have to know. I have to know. Brutal. The next issue...will they climb out of the flying car? Will the last page be wasted on a symbol? Again? Again? Again? Brutal.
I clenched the book closed. Tight. Solid. Alone. So alone. It's not part of the DCU, I tell myself. It's alone. Out of continuity. Alone. Alone. It's in it's own world. It's world. A world that's hell. A hell that's hell to get to. You have to go through hell to get to the hell. I tell myself to throw it from my balconey. I tell myself to pinch fistfuls of feces, and smear it against the cover.
I tell myself I shall not be fooled. Not again. Not this way. Never again. I won't know this grief. I won't share in this joke.
I laugh hard, scaring myself, and...others....I tell myself...throwing it to the wind, and watching as gravity will not even accept it. Tossing it away....away....away...like me. Like myself. I tell myself it's like me. Alone. Tossed away. Gravity unaccepting.
We are the same. Going through hell to get to hell.
I laugh hard and loud. Mainly hard. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal............alone...............brutal.....
"RULE NUMBER ONE!" I scream to the terrifed three-year-old on the sidewalk. "NEVER READ FRANK MILLER! NOT AT DC! NEVER AT DC!"
The child begins to cry, and I slap it....I slap it hard.
"Are you retarded, punk?!! Who the hell do you THINK I am?!!"
...brutal.....brutal....brutal...
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Nice, Pro...
Dear, sweet Harley Kwink...I'm madly in love with you. Marry me! We can go to Canadia. Or Boston or something. It'll be grand...You know the cookies are a given. They are ALWAYS a given. You could dump me tomorrow and you'd still get the cookies. Boston..shit, wherever dyke weddings were legalized. And where better to rub their little piggie noses in how bad they suck than right on their doorstep? What are they gonna do? Be jealous of you? Stare furiously at your tah-tahs? Not willingly give you cookies, but instead begrudgingly give you their cookies? Woman, time to wake up to the powers you wield - Uschi
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The conscience of the rkmbs! 15000+ posts
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Quote:
Prometheus said:
Prometheus's post about this issue will be written by Frank Miller:
Quote:
I read the issue at hand...pages flipping and slipping...like bugs made of mud, hitting my windshield. The comic...the book...the comic book....it was brutal, brutal.....brutal. It was brutal.
I sighed and belched and waited for the backwash of acid to coat my throat in a veil of discomfort....I waited for the glass of drama and terror to cut into my brain..reading...soaking in the sharp contrast of Lee's leaded beauty...all cluttered and rapid with the spittle of haste and faint praise to an era that never existed.
It was brutal. Brutal. Brutal.
Someone tried to speak to me as I read the twenty-two pages of someone's sidestep into an aneurism disguised as noir. I smacked the bastard across the cheek.
"Swallow it! I don't need the grief!" I rasped through teeth clenched with a glare that defined the early 80's.
Save it....save it....save it...I had to know. I have to know. I will know. Does it make sense? Will it make sense? Should it make sense? I have to know. I have to know. Brutal. The next issue...will they climb out of the flying car? Will the last page be wasted on a symbol? Again? Again? Again? Brutal.
I clenched the book closed. Tight. Solid. Alone. So alone. It's not part of the DCU, I tell myself. It's alone. Out of continuity. Alone. Alone. It's in it's own world. It's world. A world that's hell. A hell that's hell to get to. You have to go through hell to get to the hell. I tell myself to throw it from my balconey. I tell myself to pinch fistfuls of feces, and smear it against the cover.
I tell myself I shall not be fooled. Not again. Not this way. Never again. I won't know this grief. I won't share in this joke.
I laugh hard, scaring myself, and...others....I tell myself...throwing it to the wind, and watching as gravity will not even accept it. Tossing it away....away....away...like me. Like myself. I tell myself it's like me. Alone. Tossed away. Gravity unaccepting.
We are the same. Going through hell to get to hell.
I laugh hard and loud. Mainly hard. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal............alone...............brutal.....
"RULE NUMBER ONE!" I scream to the terrifed three-year-old on the sidewalk. "NEVER READ FRANK MILLER! NOT AT DC! NEVER AT DC!"
The child begins to cry, and I slap it....I slap it hard.
"Are you retarded, punk?!! Who the hell do you THINK I am?!!"
...brutal.....brutal....brutal...
This deserves a fuckin' RACK!
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devil-lovin' Bat-Man 15000+ posts
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This is by far the best interpretation of The Bat-Man I've ever read, ladies.
Not long ago we were pointing out how little sense it makes for Bats to risk a kid's life by taking him as his sidekick. This book not only makes THAT make sense, it makes the character itself make sense for about the first time in its history. All by revealing one single yet crucial detail: he's nuts.
Why else would a man DRESS UP AS A BAT and go out to the street to fight crime on his own? BAT SHAPED CARS AND BOOMERANGS, PEOPLE. This Bat-Man is insane in a way that makes me think he always should have been insane. I confess I haven't read many Bat-Man comics, but in none of the comics I read (not in DKR or Year One or Killing Joke) did the character have his own voice like in this comic.
Of course it's received like crap: it's original. It's drastically different from what has become the accepted Bat-Man, so a reaction like this is to be expected. But I get the feeling this is gonna make a fine graphic novel when it's collected as a TPB, one that will be rediscovered eventually, if not by today's fanboys then by tomorrow's.
This is far more interesting for someone not entirely familiarized with the character than the stale and mediocre (from what I hear) monthly Bat-Man comics. The distance between this interpretation and the current Bat-Man is the same as the distance between the Adam West show and DKR. We're not just seeing Bats smack some sense into Robin, we're witnessing Frank Miller smacking some sense into Bat-Man for the second time in his career.
I do agree with one of the critics: this is definitely something to show people outside comics, but in no case should it be a flagship title aimed for kids. This isn't a DCU title in any sense (and that's a good thing): it's closer to Vertigo and it should be marketed as that. Kids expecting a "Ultimate The Bat-Man" title are in for a shock.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 480
At Risk Youth 400+ posts
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At Risk Youth 400+ posts
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Eh...we already have Year Two, year Three, Long Halloween and Dark Victory. This latest "interpretation" was not needed.
Voted "Biggest Waste Of Space" On The Bat-Boards For "Multiple Reasons" Jerry Falwell On Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer:"Those hollywood, homosexual, jewish types making a show about a reindeer who is 'different' and just cant 'hide it'. Everyone knows if he tries hard enough he can convert himself to a normal, black-nosed reindeer." I am 95% addicted to Porn. What about you?
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Joined: Sep 2003
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The conscience of the rkmbs! 15000+ posts
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The conscience of the rkmbs! 15000+ posts
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Posts: 30,833 Likes: 7 |
Quote:
Im Not Mister Mxypltk said:
This is by far the best interpretation of The Bat-Man I've ever read, ladies.
Not long ago we were pointing out how little sense it makes for Bats to risk a kid's life by taking him as his sidekick. This book not only makes THAT make sense, it makes the character itself make sense for about the first time in its history. All by revealing one single yet crucial detail: he's nuts.
I've been saying this for 3 years now. 3 BLOODY years! But did you guys listen? Nooooooooo! You all wanted to stay in your cubicle of delights with your gay-ass Batman who's "mentally balanced" an-an-and likes Morgan Freeman. Well you ingrates can go fuck yourselves! And that goes double for the DC board pecker-checkers who know only the garish blue of Robbermeister's domain!
Miller's a wad. The end.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 4,948
4000+ posts
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4000+ posts
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Posts: 4,948 |
Thing is- I can’t spell or type. I spell so badly my spell check doesn’t even know what I was trying to spell. And I have five Eisners HAHAHAHHA!!
-Brian Michael Bendis
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3000+ posts
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3000+ posts
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 3,405 |
Quote:
Prometheus said:
Prometheus's post about this issue will be written by Frank Miller:
Quote:
I read the issue at hand...pages flipping and slipping...like bugs made of mud, hitting my windshield. The comic...the book...the comic book....it was brutal, brutal.....brutal. It was brutal.
I sighed and belched and waited for the backwash of acid to coat my throat in a veil of discomfort....I waited for the glass of drama and terror to cut into my brain..reading...soaking in the sharp contrast of Lee's leaded beauty...all cluttered and rapid with the spittle of haste and faint praise to an era that never existed.
It was brutal. Brutal. Brutal.
Someone tried to speak to me as I read the twenty-two pages of someone's sidestep into an aneurism disguised as noir. I smacked the bastard across the cheek.
"Swallow it! I don't need the grief!" I rasped through teeth clenched with a glare that defined the early 80's.
Save it....save it....save it...I had to know. I have to know. I will know. Does it make sense? Will it make sense? Should it make sense? I have to know. I have to know. Brutal. The next issue...will they climb out of the flying car? Will the last page be wasted on a symbol? Again? Again? Again? Brutal.
I clenched the book closed. Tight. Solid. Alone. So alone. It's not part of the DCU, I tell myself. It's alone. Out of continuity. Alone. Alone. It's in it's own world. It's world. A world that's hell. A hell that's hell to get to. You have to go through hell to get to the hell. I tell myself to throw it from my balconey. I tell myself to pinch fistfuls of feces, and smear it against the cover.
I tell myself I shall not be fooled. Not again. Not this way. Never again. I won't know this grief. I won't share in this joke.
I laugh hard, scaring myself, and...others....I tell myself...throwing it to the wind, and watching as gravity will not even accept it. Tossing it away....away....away...like me. Like myself. I tell myself it's like me. Alone. Tossed away. Gravity unaccepting.
We are the same. Going through hell to get to hell.
I laugh hard and loud. Mainly hard. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal............alone...............brutal.....
"RULE NUMBER ONE!" I scream to the terrifed three-year-old on the sidewalk. "NEVER READ FRANK MILLER! NOT AT DC! NEVER AT DC!"
The child begins to cry, and I slap it....I slap it hard.
"Are you retarded, punk?!! Who the hell do you THINK I am?!!"
...brutal.....brutal....brutal...
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 956
500+ posts
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500+ posts
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 956 |
Quote:
Prometheus said:
Prometheus's post about this issue will be written by Frank Miller:
Quote:
I read the issue at hand...pages flipping and slipping...like bugs made of mud, hitting my windshield. The comic...the book...the comic book....it was brutal, brutal.....brutal. It was brutal.
I sighed and belched and waited for the backwash of acid to coat my throat in a veil of discomfort....I waited for the glass of drama and terror to cut into my brain..reading...soaking in the sharp contrast of Lee's leaded beauty...all cluttered and rapid with the spittle of haste and faint praise to an era that never existed.
It was brutal. Brutal. Brutal.
Someone tried to speak to me as I read the twenty-two pages of someone's sidestep into an aneurism disguised as noir. I smacked the bastard across the cheek.
"Swallow it! I don't need the grief!" I rasped through teeth clenched with a glare that defined the early 80's.
Save it....save it....save it...I had to know. I have to know. I will know. Does it make sense? Will it make sense? Should it make sense? I have to know. I have to know. Brutal. The next issue...will they climb out of the flying car? Will the last page be wasted on a symbol? Again? Again? Again? Brutal.
I clenched the book closed. Tight. Solid. Alone. So alone. It's not part of the DCU, I tell myself. It's alone. Out of continuity. Alone. Alone. It's in it's own world. It's world. A world that's hell. A hell that's hell to get to. You have to go through hell to get to the hell. I tell myself to throw it from my balconey. I tell myself to pinch fistfuls of feces, and smear it against the cover.
I tell myself I shall not be fooled. Not again. Not this way. Never again. I won't know this grief. I won't share in this joke.
I laugh hard, scaring myself, and...others....I tell myself...throwing it to the wind, and watching as gravity will not even accept it. Tossing it away....away....away...like me. Like myself. I tell myself it's like me. Alone. Tossed away. Gravity unaccepting.
We are the same. Going through hell to get to hell.
I laugh hard and loud. Mainly hard. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal............alone...............brutal.....
"RULE NUMBER ONE!" I scream to the terrifed three-year-old on the sidewalk. "NEVER READ FRANK MILLER! NOT AT DC! NEVER AT DC!"
The child begins to cry, and I slap it....I slap it hard.
"Are you retarded, punk?!! Who the hell do you THINK I am?!!"
...brutal.....brutal....brutal...
The mental image of the screaming and abuse hurled at the 3 year old will stay with me always, and for that, I thank you
"Now TV's all about format these days isn't it, and I've got a new type for you right here.
Its me and Paris Hilton driving around in a car.... Now I know what you're thinking, but she's in the boot!"
"So you see, 'Ring around the Rosey' refers to the horrible symptoms of a terrifying disease, a disease which.....a disease which....ZIM! Theres a Pigeon on you're head. You have 'Head Pigeons'. get to the Nurse before they spread to the other children."
"Get off my lawn Cookie Beast!"
--Invader Zim
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 33,920
devil-lovin' Bat-Man 15000+ posts
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Quote:
Pariah said:
I've been saying this for 3 years now. 3 BLOODY years! But did you guys listen? Nooooooooo! You all wanted to stay in your cubicle of delights with your gay-ass Batman who's "mentally balanced" an-an-and likes Morgan Freeman. Well you ingrates can go fuck yourselves!
I do remember that, I mentioned it to Disco last night while we were chatting about this. I can't remember if I said you were wrong back then (I usually have no opinion on Bats), but I can say now that you were right.
However, I got the impression from your last post that now that you got what you wanted, you can't take it.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 33,920
devil-lovin' Bat-Man 15000+ posts
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Quote:
Anonymous One said:
Eh...we already have Year Two, year Three, Long Halloween and Dark Victory. This latest "interpretation" was not needed.
Are you saying those are similar to this one, or that we don't need new interpretations ever? I think the opposite: new interpretations should be something regular and not sporadic. We're so used to getting the same repetitive shit over and over that when something original happens we automatically label it as shit.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 43,952 Likes: 6
Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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Quote:
Im Not Mister Mxypltk said:new interpretations should be something regular and not sporadic
I don't think the problem is "new interpretations," its that the "new interpretation" is always of, basically, the origin of Batman and/or Robin.
How many times do we need that particular story retold?
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Posts: 33,385 Likes: 3
Regenerated 15000+ posts
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Regenerated 15000+ posts
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Posts: 33,385 Likes: 3 |
Mxy : While I agree with you in principal, I think there is a difference of opinion and taste that has to be taken into account. Just because something is "original" does not, a good story make. And, just because something is similiar to what has gone on before, does not make it neccessarily crap. However, I think it comes down to differing tastes. It's not the angle of The Bat-Man being insane that turns me off of this material. It's Miller's writing. It's not the concept, it's the narrative.
And, in the end, I think it comes down to personal opinion. For some....and especially those that buy into or enjoy the faux-noir that Miller fails to capture....this will be a gem among stones. For those that want a good story, and don't neccessarily enjoy getting metaphors cigarette-burned across their mental tastes buds with haphazard prose, it's not a very appealing comic. And, for those that must have the "Prep-Time-God with Kung-Fu Grip" Bat-Man....well, I'm pretty sure they'll gnaw their own tongues off in despair...
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Quote:
Im Not Mister Mxypltk said:
I do remember that, I mentioned it to Disco last night while we were chatting about this. I can't remember if I said you were wrong back then (I usually have no opinion on Bats), but I can say now that you were right.
However, I got the impression from your last post that now that you got what you wanted, you can't take it.
I wasn't mentioning you in particular, just the majority who decided that there's nothing wrong with scaling sky-scrapers in a Bat-suit.
Anyway, while your description is interesting enough, I don't think it was very accomplished. i.e. If that's exactly what Miller meant, he did a horrible job of showing it. Moore/Morrison/DKR-Miller did it a whole lot better.
I want some clarification though: Are you saying that Miller's trying to say that this Batman isn't as crazy as the in-continuity one and therefore, his actions are more......Normal/Sane?
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Quote:
the G-man said:
I don't think the problem is "new interpretations," its that the "new interpretation" is always of, basically, the origin of Batman and/or Robin.
How many times do we need that particular story retold?
The setting of the story is a detail. The important part is to redefine the characters, not the story (it would be nice if it was both, but I suspect the reaction to the comic would be even worse is Miller dared to change the smallest detail).
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