Why The Dark Knight Strikes Again Doesnt Suck!(that much)

What’s that old quote? “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” How does this apply to Frank Miller? In the 80s Miller was a profound comic book writer and illustrator with his critically acclaimed work on daredevil and later changed comics forever with The Dark Knight Returns. Then Miller Continued to make ground breaking indie books like sin city, Martha goes to Washington, 300 etc. And now what do people think of him? Nowadays people regard Mr. Miller as a fallen hero considering most of his work in the last ten years (the dark knight strikes again, all-star batman and robin, holy terror, the spirit) mediocre at best. I find it truly ironic that the character that made him popular a has-been Bruce Wayne is what he embodies in the eye of the public now I believe that just like in his stories he wrote all those years ago, he needs to return or even strike back to his former glory. But for now There are still good things to say about his writing one of his books I enjoy that over people hate is The dark Knight strikes again and his is why it doesn’t suck that much.

How It Began

After the dark knight returns for years many fans speculated and asked for a sequel, for many years Miller said he was not interested.  Until about 2000 Miller in an interview with CBR Miller said” I came up with some ideas and got the itch to play with DC's toys.” And what followed was hated by critics and fans alike. TDKSA was written and draw by Frank Miller with Lynn Varley coloring. The story was spread out into three issues the first came out on November 2001, then January 2002, and the last September 2002. When it came out it was regarded as trash for its strange art and its story.

Why it’s awesome!

Have the political climates of today have you bummed out do you wish that real change would come to the world in its time of need? Are you sick and tired of big corporations running our lives and treating us as Jimmy Olson said it “well paid slaves” Do you wish and hope for revolution that one day things would be set right? How about a revolution led by Batman and his new justice league? That’s what this book is the revolution of the superheroes!

Dissecting the Dark Knight 

The story picks up 3 years after TDKR. It starts much like the previous book with different media outlets commenting on society mostly Jimmy Olson who is speaking angrily against the president claiming that we are well paid slaves and that the heroes that protected us are gone. He asks “where have our heroes gone?” It turns out that all the old Heroes have either been killed or black mailed by the government so that they would not interfere with their plans. In TDKR the U.S President is Ronald Reagan in the comic it’s obvious that he is just a puppet, working for some higher evil it’s the same in this story but in the future they have done away with the puppets now it’s just a computer generated image that is shown on TV. While the computer generated president is giving a speech he starts glitching and people notice, Jimmy Olsen responds” the president of the united states is a computer animated image!” It is then reveled that Lex Luthor and Brainiac are the ones pulling the strings and have been since the TDKR using Kandor as blackmail to keep superman in line with what they want. .” I'll have Superman who's in a very compromised position, to say the least. You'll finally understand why he was playing along all that time in the first Dark Knight.”-Frank Miler not only did they blackmail superman after they gained control of the government they also blackmailed the flash saying that they would kill Iris if he didn’t run on a hamster wheel that would give the electricity to a third of the country, they also cut off green arrow arm, imprisoned the atom in a Petridis, killed the hawks, jailed plastic man in Arkham, put Nano bots inside Martian man hunter head to control him cause him to become a sad drunk. So what happens after the events of TDKR batman wants to get the band back together to free the world from tyranny. So he starts to free his former league members including the flash, the atom, plastic man   and elongated man who wasn’t prisoned he was just selling boner pills and with what after identity crisis the book where his wife is murdered and raped this makes sense for this character. Superman and the remaining members of the old justice league (Wonder women and Captain Marvel) have a meeting to discuss the break out but are interrupted by Luthor yelling at them saying that they need to find out what was going on. So Superman goes to have a talk with Bats and gets the crap beat out of him by the newly formed justice league! Then batman says  After they give Supes a beating they fly the bat wing into Lex Luthor building which is strange considering it came out right after 911 and it has a four page spread of a plane flying into a building. So batman beats up Luthor and marks him with a z for Zorro the movie he saw right before his parents died. In this story Superman and wonder woman are together and have a daughter that they raised in secret fearing that she would become a slave to brainiac, which is crazy because in the new 52 they are also an item.  Shortly after this Superman is called into fight an alien invasion but just a ruse by brainiac saying “Were going to nip this little fad in the  bud with a big splashy spectacle a show stopper if you will…were cashing you in Kent!” Supes replies. Brainiac then destroys metropolis making it look like ground zero.

Bruce and The flash have a conversation and Bruce lets him know how things have changed.  

In the midst in the destruction of metropolis Superman’s daughter comes to save the day and fights Brainiac back she proclaims “father you are wrong this time is ours, this world is ours, the power is ours, the power has always been our". This a response what superman told wonder woman.   After Brainiac is defeated he and Luthor decide to bring the hammer down at the Superchix concert. The Superchix a play on the over sexualized society we live in millers also states this concept with all the news anchor having them be half naked women basically saying that they are nothing more that distraction from the real problems people face. During the Superchix concert Luthor And Brainiac’s plot is foiled by the newly formed justice league and batman say this shortly after batman convince Superman to join his cause So Supergirl and the atom go to kill Brainiac and save Kandor. The atom then frees the kryptonians and they all kill Brainiac. Meanwhile Batman sets up Luthor and has him killed by the son of Hawkman who wants retribution for Luthor killing his parents. While this is happening he convinces Hal Jordan to destroy all the weapons they built in outer space.    After all the bad guys are dead the world is free from tyranny once more thanks to the new Justice League! In final panel batman says this to Catgirl while he is seeing his cave die.

9/11 influenced this book greatly there are many scenes from the book that directly from news casts and famous pictures. I could imagine this is one of the reasons the second and third books were delayed. But honestly this was the best time for this book to come out.

MY Favorite Parts:

What went wrong? The art and the coloring is what this book is hated for the coloring is computer generated and everyone looks like caricaturas of the real thing and there is Also the Joker it was out of left field and executed poorly plus no backgrounds in most of the panels.. It’s like read a dc acid trip about how corrupt and evil our government is and we are too distracted to see it.

What was he trying to say? In every art there Is a message some are right in front of you and others you have to look hard for but there is always a message what I believe miller was trying to say is what happen to freedom? Where are our rights going? When will all human beings be on even playing fields? When will we recognize tyranny for what it is? When will we stop being well paid slaves and gain our freedom once more!