Review by Aaron Cooper

While it is true that I prefer DC products over many others, they can produce substandard, even downright hideous books that never should have seen the light of day. Prepare yourself for a journey into a book that never should have published.

There were many fine Batman books that were developed in the mid to late Eighties. This of course was in preparation for Batman’s 50th Anniversary and the movie directed by Tim Burton. It was astounding how many really good books came out during that time period, and though a few have a dated approach to them, many are considered downright classics. One of these was Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns from 1986, featuring an older, jaded Batman. It was a brilliant story that infused Miller’s world viewpoint, politics and black humor. It is still an awesome read.

Fast forward 15 years later. Fans are foaming at the mouth to read the sequel to one of the greatest epics of all time. Unfortunately, for this reviewer, the publishing schedule is so erratic that the story seems disjointed, the art seems rougher even by Miller standards, and it comes off as disappointing after far too long a wait. The epitome of everything that is wrong with a sequel. I’ll let you imagine the critical backlash. Not one to give up so easily, a beautiful hardcover was produced for this series. I was hoping that reading it as a whole and after the dust had settled on the hype, that perhaps this story could be redeemed. I really hate it when I’m wrong. Or in this case, I really hate it that I was correct on the first impression. There is nothing to be redeemed here, even though I really wanted to find it. In fact, I may be even more disappointed now then in the book’s initial run.

I won’t bore you with the details of ‘the story’, which is a disjointed mess and full of gaping plot holes, especially in reference to its predecessor. This is a sequel in the loosest terms. Batman is hardly in it, and it really does feel like 15 years have passed, not 3 as the story attempts to explain. The story focuses much more on Superman, Wonder Woman, plus many of the other heroes and where and what they had been doing while Batman is still being…well, Batman. While this doesn’t sound half bad, Frank Miller’s approach to these heroes makes them nothing more then glorified patsies, with many of them having none of the characterization established by decades of other writers. One wonders if Miller, since moving on to other critically acclaimed projects such as Sin City or 300, has developed such a hatred for the superhero genre that he can’t help but take the cynical approach, even though he was put under contractual obligation, or was offered a lot of cash, whatever his reason was for doing this series.

This leads me to the next point. While the original Dark Knight Returns saw Frank Miller telling a darker Batman tale infusing his 80’s politics, it seems as if Dark Knight Strikes Again is Frank Miller telling his own current opinion, just using Batman and buddies as the backdrop. Every page weaves a bleak depressing outlook on all aspects of technology, politics, and life in general. This unfortunately reveals that the same world viewpoint and black humor that worked so well back in 1986 has somehow evolved into dark cynicism and bitterness. It’s like watching a beloved relative with a quirky, ornery personality grow into a wretched and just plain mean old man. Not a pleasant thought!

This bleak approach unfortunately translates into the art. It’s as if he didn’t care what his approach was. While some of the panels are nicely rendered, others are nothing short of indecipherable, the reader having no clue what is transpiring. The hardcover edition features some black and white sketches that in all honesty were better then the final pages! I refuse to put any of the blame on Lynn Varley’s coloring, as some have. She has moved into the digital age of computer coloring, and it works. Her vibrant colors render the heroes as noble as they should be. Too bad Frank Miller couldn’t write them that way.

All in all, The Dark Knight Strikes Again should never have been written. It could have been what Aliens or Terminator 2 or what you consider to be a really good sequel, to a respective franchise. Instead, it’s the ‘Bogus Journey’ to what was the Dark Knight’s ‘Excellent Adventure’.