Frank Miller: "I love Superman."

[DochaDocha]

Supes Homepage clipped an excerpt from a Miller interview by Playboy. What do you guys think?

I think it's generally not a good sign when a creator has to convince others that he likes a character. In fact, as a Supes fan, I kind of get tired of having to read writers explain after the fact how much they love Superman, but for whatever reason it doesn't show in the fiction they actually write.

[Kid A]

I mean Miller doesn't have to explain anything. DKR is a dystopian story where Superman ends up in an unfortunate position, but it's not like his characterization itself is bad at all.

[AJBopp]

Frank Miller has never demonstrated any love for any character except for the version he writes himself, which is almost always nothing like any previous version. He is his own best example of the bad sign he alludes to.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I love most of Miller's comics including his Dark Knight stuff. He might love Superman, but he loves seeing Batman put him in his place. Miller came up with what has become the definitive Superman Batman dynamic.

[daBronzeBomma]

The next sympathetic portrayal of Superman that Frank Miller writes will be his first.

Frank Miller loves Frank Miller.

And really really has issues with Islam and Muslims in general.

http://www.wired.com/2011/09/holy-terror-frank-miller/

So forget him. His time is clearly over.

[LoneNecromancer]

Frank Miller has mostly written Batman stories for DC and as such Batman has to be the leading man, as he's said. I don't believe he hates Superman in the slightest.

Miller on Superman:

"Superman is such a great character. Superman was created during the Depression in response to a feeling of powerlessness, as a statement by the boys who made him up, that we do have power! Superman was the common man, he fought battles for the rights of people. Many of his stories are anti-war statements. They make the very strong point that in war, men are murdered by their own government! Superman would drag generals to the front line of battlefields so that they'd be in danger and realize that their men were. Superman fought corrupt employers, robber barons, he actually represented something -- the common man. What I discovered is that when you're working on a character like Superman -- that legend is really what's in control.

Sure, most people remember this:


But they also forget images like these:

[Jphu8414]

Hehehe I got a good chuckle over that one...

[butterfingers158]

I mean Miller doesn't have to explain anything. DKR is a dystopian story where Superman ends up in an unfortunate position, but it's not like his characterization itself is bad at all.

All-Star Batman and Robin?

[Pharozonk]

If only Kurosawa was here to see this.

[ABH]

Sure, most people remember this:

Yeah, and they also forget how much Bruce had to stack the deck to even get to that point.

I might be missing some pieces, but Supes was:

1. Hit by a nuke, that also blotted out the sun.
2. Hit with a Kryptonite Arrow
3. Batman sends all of Gotham's electrical grid through Supes' body.
4. and at the end, Bruce "wins" by faking his death.

Now, I don't know how much of a fan of Superman Miller really is, but he at least understood the awesome power of the character and knew that Bruce never really stood a chance.

[Johnny Thunders!]

This was where "BatGod" was born, in Strikes Again, it's pure comedy how Bats kicks Supes out of his cave.

[The Red Monk]

I don't know what Miller thinks now, and frankly don't care.

Back when he wrote The Dark Knight Returns, though, I don't think he hated Superman. Some of what he writes about Superman in that comic is pretty damn respectful, and he had some good ideas in there, like Superman's relationship to the Earth, which I wish he'd have expanded more upon.

[Sacred Knight]

I'm not one to gainsay what a guy says about who he likes and who he doesn't like. I understand of course why people come away from certain stories thinking maybe he doesn't think much of the character, but if he says otherwise, again, I don't really feel I have room to point a finger and call him a liar.

[Kuwagaton]

He never came across to me as being one way or the other about the character. I think Unchained would have been way better if he was the writer, actually.

[exile001]

This was where "BatGod" was born

Not at all. As ABH-1979 points out, Batman stacks the deck, gets lucky that Supes was massively de-powered and he wins by faking his death. Even then, Supes is barely injured and refuses to fight back.

The Batman comics did not reflect this at all and, although Batman planned, he wouldn't pull wins out of his ass (Bat-Godding) and often fell foul of enemies and even common crooks.

It was Morrisson in JLA, and more importantly subsequent writers stealing this schtick, that was the birth of Bat-God. Morrisson felt he needed to introduce a reason for Batman to be worthy of being in the JLA, a reason he could stand with Superman, Wonder Woman and co. He pulled it off brilliantly, but other writers stole this and then we got Bat-God. To be fair, Loeb was probably the worst perpetrator in the Batman books, everyone knows about the Hush fight, but mostly Bat-God is from various JL books.