Oh Frank Miller, how have you fallen. It is a bad sign when your graphic novel's most famous line is ridiculed and mocked. "Are you retarded? I'm the goddamn Batman." I understand what Miller was trying to accomplish by making Batman a psychopath. This is an extreme interpretation of Bruce Wayne and his imbalances. But what doesn't jive is that Miller still retained Wayne as an amazing detective and extremely intelligent, but he talks like a street thug. I lost count of how many times he tells people to shut up. His inner monologues are simplistic in diction, and veering towards the crazy most of he time. I love re-imaginings of characters, it keeps the medium alive, but this was a misfire. The characters do not work as psychos, street thugs, geniuses, compassionate, vigilante, and wise. This cannot be contained in one character! You can't have it all Miller. It doesn't help that the story arc was left unfinished, probably because Miller realized his own misdirection here. Maybe if it was completed the appearance of Black Canary, the Joker, and Batgirl would be better explained rather than as name dropping. Well, in the case of Black Canary, it seems her only purpose was to look sexy all over the place. This is one of those depressingly bad books that make you sad because of the lost potential. having said this, a failure by Frank Miller is far more interesting than a success by a lesser writer. All that is wrong with this book, and there is a lot wrong, leaves the reader wondering at the miscues. This wondering forces the reader to deconstruct the idea of Batman and the character of Bruce Wayne. Lemonade here folks.
What a strange take on Batman.
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