TDKR - Not Getting the Buzz!

[Browncoat Alex]

I like a lot of it's ideas but honestly I wish Miller had just planned out the story and then given it to someone else.

I honestly hate the way he writes characters/dialogue/narration. The Miller-isms ruin it for me. I find even Miller's good works before the dark times to be cringe-fests to read.

Also I think I'm starting to retroactively resent TDKR more because of how many hundreds of times I've heard "We want to make this interpretation of Batman like the Dark Knight Returns!". It's just frustrating to me that this is the only Batman story people ever talk about.

[Mace Dolex]

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.

Funny story I had this art class in high school and the teacher had brought some random stacks of comic books of all kinds with TDKR among them so I see a kid flipping through its pages disgusted at the art and saying why was Wonder Woman fat. LOL!

[Aioros22]

P.S: I love both Swan`s and Miller`s artwork. They just aim different tones. Swan was the Dave Gibbons of his generation, he didn`t have a wacky, cartoon or "new" sort of line but almost nobody could make superheroes look realistically real and this is decades before Alex Ross made a name with that staple (but with painting instead).

[Aioros22]

Edit: realistically alive.

But you get the idea.

[borntohula]

I like lots about it. Everything from the Batman persona taking over Bruce to the consequences of him coming out of retirement (with the Sons of Batman gang, to Joker). There's something sad and dangerous about the book that makes it a joy to read.

What's more, I also quite like Dark Knight Strikes Again. Different from Returns. Gives me a good laugh each time I read it, everything from the kryptonite boxing mits to the lengths he goes to be able to drop a Robin in a volcano and still stick to his "I don't kill" rule. I also find it interesting to think that Frank Miller was half way through it when 9/11 happened outside his window, somewhere in that he managed to write a story that more or less sums up today's media climate.

Recently I'v enjoyed The Master Race as well. A brilliant mix of DKR and SA as well bringing it's own voice. IMO worthy being part of the saga.

I read Year One, Last Crusade, Returns, Strikes again and Master race up to issue 7 recently, and to me it's simply the Batman I want to read.

If it's not your cup of tea, then I hope you got some other fav stories with the dark knight

[JBatmanFan05]

I honestly hate the way he writes characters/dialogue/narration. The Miller-isms ruin it for me.

Those Millerisms are basically Mickey Spillane-isms. Spillane was a rude crude pulp private dick crime writer. Best known for his private dick Mike Hammer (whose first 6 novels are classics in dirtier hardboiled fiction).

[batnbreakfast]

I've just finished the Last Crusade, had it sitting on my desk for some time now, fearing i might not enjoy it. Guys, I'm buzzing. Miller/Azzarello/JRJr bring the pain and make me feel it. We all know how it ends but for me it was a homerun nonetheless.

[Aioros22]

We`ve been saying it for ages, Connor!

Glad you enjoyed it xD

[Great O.G.U.F.O.O.L.]

It's the same thing with all great old works of art, those who follow them are so influenced that later generations can't see what made them so special. Just think of the Beatles, Hitchcock etc. Still I'll quote myself from a past thread:

I first read it around 1998 in a local reprint and I was blown away. I was lucky in that I had read very few superhero comics at the time (most of them unremarkable) and most of my superhero experience was from TV and film so I got to experience its grounbreaking nature as if it was the time of its release. There was an attention to character that I had rarely seen before in superheroes and the basic concept, a children's hero (that's what Batman was to me at the time) growing old and coming back for one last hurrah in a world that's changed, felt soo epic! And there was a sense of sweet nostalgia when old Batman fires up the Batmobile and starts "talking" to an absent Robin (Dick Grayson) "like it was yesterday".

Another thing that made a strong impression to me at the time was Miller's use of several storytelling techniques throughout the story, like when Batman covers a Mutants' member's eyes with his hands and we see that through the thug's eyes (I really thought they were just in a dark room) or when he "hides" Superman and we experience his coming through the descriptions of bystanders and many more such instances. I remember finding those very clever.

In conclusion, I am sure some comics enthusiasts who had read other great works in the genre would have a more restrained reaction when they first read it. Still, in my mind it remains a very strong work in the field, and on a personal level it is one of the 2 comics (the other being Daredevil: Born Again) that is responsible for me still reading comics. It showed me that comics were a valid storytelling medium that had techniques all their own, worthy of discussion and with characters that deserved an adult's attention (I was an adolescent at the time) and for that it will always have a special place in my heart.

edit: I forgot the satire. I also loved the satire!