TDKR - Not Getting the Buzz!

[Enigma]

Hey!

I read the first TDKR book and thought it was ok but not amazing. I've just finished book two of the second TDKR book and, well, I feel like not bothering to finish it. I understand that these books are considered some kind of monument in the Batman community (and I really like Batman!), but I just don't get it. What makes them special? They seem pretty mediocre to me. I wasn't going to get the second book originally, but with all of the hype I was sure that I was just missing something and that something would surely click at some point. What makes them so special (or not) to YOU?

Thanks!

[HellHere]

What makes them special is how different they are from what was coming before it.

I read them and enjoyed them (the first way more than the second) but the THING about them isn't something that I'm ever going to get because I'm just not old enough. I wasn't around when TDKR was a game-changer. I can appreciate that they were, but...

[thefiresky]

For that Era it was amazing. Batman hadn't been portrayed in that kind of gritty darkness before. Miller kind of shaped Batman for what he is today. I get it though. I wasn't alive when it first came out either, but it'd be like getting an IPhone 1 now and being like "what's so special about it playing music etc. All phones do that." But back then, obviously IPhone helped shape the smartphone in a big way.

[Enigma]

That does make sense actually. I don't think that I will get the others, though.

P.S. OT, but great to see somebody pulling Curse Words - love it already!

[JBatmanFan05]

I was hooked when I first read DKR. It's a typical western where the old gunslinger comes back to save his town. So many great moments, big ones with gripping battles and little ones with some moment that really makes you think about a character or feel for one. But DKR is also perhaps enhanced by appreciating its many contexts. One context is America in the 80s, particularly the crime problems (gangs, drugs, other vice crimes...some of these topics really hit the news in a bigger way in the 80s) in NYC before NYC cleaned itself up, the Cold War, etc. Another context is Batman's history, which had never seen anything quite like DKR, this more subversive and mature and bold and different kind of tale. I myself loved Frank Miller's art in it too (and I'm sure some out there maybe don't).

[batnbreakfast]

Many ideas are presented for the 1st time (the Jason Todd costume I think??, Robin being referred to as soldier) and if you've read the more modern stuff... its already canon there

[BruceWayneJr.]

It's pretty solid as a "Last Batman Story", and it helps if you're familiar with the elements already.

Try the animated movie instead. It cuts out a lot of the purple prose while still being faithful to the comic.

[batnbreakfast]

It's pretty solid as a "Last Batman Story", and it helps if you're familiar with the elements already.

Try the animated movie instead. It cuts out a lot of the purple prose while still being faithful to the comic.

I love Miller's ending and Nolan's spin of it. The animated movie is the best animated Batmovie for me (the score!). Did you like the Last Crusade prequel (no spoilers please)

Edit: The mutants did not age very well, Killer Croc or Bane instead of their Leader could have been something

[dancj]

I love TDKR hugely.

I do think it's a bit of an acquired taste though. Especially the art.

[jjcool]

I totally get where the OP is coming from. I too came to TDKR late in the game. Specifically meaning after having seen the Nolan and Burton films and known Batman as this dark brooding figure for years. That being said, the book was the beginning of all of that. Once you realize that, then it takes on this mantle, or cowl if you will, of bringing Batman from this slapsticky, almost corny caricature of a superhero, to this dark avenger that isn't afraid to get down in the gutter with his foes. I liked it for what it was. I really dug the art, and thoroughly enjoyed the story. That being said, I definitely think my mind would have been blown had I read it when it originally came out. To simplify it, that 4 issue book has shaped Batman since it was published. And that goes right up to Batman v Superman.

[Mace Dolex]

I love TDKR hugely.

I do think it's a bit of an acquired taste though. Especially the art.

I was confused on first reading but I finally got it with multiple readings. I read it first not in single issues but collected as a tpb in 1990, back then the price tag of $12.95 was expensive for me but worth it.

When it came to the art I was not even remotely familiar with Frank Miller or his prior work on Daredevil that I couldn't understand why he drew certain things in a certain way but you learn to apprieciate it as you get older.

[Aioros22]

The artwork is just suberb. Comic Book drafmanship is not just drawing a pretty face. That`s the easy part.

The storytelling, the sound effects, the narrative, the pacing, every element works on the greater whole and is glorious.

[Scott Taylor]

Its about more than just Batman. Like Alan Moore's Watchmen, DKR had a lot to say about the Cold War and the culture at the time. This is a culture full of people who grew up constantly worried about Nuclear War, commies, and a culture that had grown up to idolize its heroes but had been seriously shaken by the death of the Kennedys, the Vietnam War, and the (impossible to overstate) disillusionment that came out of the fall of the Nixon Administration.

Watchmen and DKR came out in the midst of a society that distrusted its heroes. Think of them both as grittier versions of the Incredibles, if you want to look at it that way.

[dancj]

The artwork is just suberb. Comic Book drafmanship is not just drawing a pretty face. That`s the easy part.

I first saw the art flipping through the TPB in a comic shop at about 14-15 years old. At the time my favourite artist was Curt Swan and I was shocked that such ugly art could get into the comic.

By the time I'd finished reading I was completely won over - and these days I don't really care for Swan's art at all.

[Metamorphosis]

Read it for the first time probably in the mid-1990's, after hearing heaploads of praise for it (which has seemingly just grown in the intervening decades).

I thought it was slightly overrated at the time. For me, I loved book 1 the most. Bruce comes out of retirement to deal with Two Face. This is the most "traditional" part of the saga. Watching the animated version recently, it was similar in that I liked the beginning the most.

The story just gets crazier and crazier from there. But for a work dealing with a costumed superhero, there are many elements I love. The working in of political satire (such as the jabs at Reagan), plus the David-and-Goliath aspect of Batman fighting Superman.

I think the genius of this work is how Miller distilled a lot of very elemental kind of images and emotions onto the page, like the panel of Batman riding a horse into battle near the end. Despite the overuse of slang and the sheer overload of the TV talking heads (which predicted our current era to a "T"), he can say and do more with an image than whole other comics full of words and stories.

TL/DR: I appreciate it more for what it is and what it means culturally than as the best Batman story. But it's a good one that has informed many other takes (like the Nolan-verse).

I thought The Last Crusade really reached back to the vibe of the original much more than Dark Knight Strikes Again.