The Batman (he strikes again)

Hello Chums,

When the name Frank Miller comes up (in the world of comics not movies), I find that most people either love him or (with his later work) hate him. This can probably be traced back to his most recent run on Batman (All Star Batman and Robin the boy wonder) and his Batman Limited series Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Okay so All Star Batman and Robin the boy wonder is very different than what's came before. But wasn't Batman: The Dark Knight Returns really different than what we'd seen before? At least we have Jim Lee drawing All Star.

What really pissed off the fans with Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again were two main things: The three issues shipped very late (which doesn't matter now) and the artwork. Remember Miller was still drawing in his Sin City style.

When the first issue came out, I heard nothing but negatives about it (mostly because of the artwork). So I didn't pick up the individual issues. Later on, I did pick up the trade, but I never bothered to read my copy until now. One thing I can say is the artwork didn't bother me like I thought it would.

So what's this story about? It's a Batman story right? Yes and no. It's more of a what if the Justice League left us regular people all alone and didn't help us anymore. But of course something has to happen to get the "gang" back together again. That's where Batman comes in. Even though he's not suppose too, one by one he gets the team together again.

Did I enjoy the book? Mostly. A couple of nice fanboy moments were: Superman and Wonder Woman having a child together (this always made since to me, who needs homely Lois Lane?) and Batman kicking Superman's ass using Kryptonite gauntlets (this needed to be done years ago). What I really didn't care for was the constant news reporter and man on the street comments. This is something that is done to death in the Spawn monthly comic. And I HATE it!

Give this trade a shot.

Rating: B+

K.R.C.

D.L.