Line #64 Creator/FrankMiller


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frank_miller_barcelona.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The man who "gave ComicBook/{{Batman}} his balls back"... and then some.]]
3
4	-> ''"Can you imagine Batman cackling and blowing up a bunch of cop cars while Robin weeps in the passenger seat? Well, it happened in a book penned by Frank Miller, which just made about half of you nod knowingly."''
5	-->-- '''Website/{{Cracked}}''', ''[[https://www.cracked.com/article_24798_the-6-most-insane-batman-scenes-ever-written.html The Six Most Insane Batman Scenes Ever Written]]'', on ''[[ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder All Star Batman and Robin]]''
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7	Nobody does blood splatter like Frank Miller.
8
9	Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book writer and artist, most famous for helping to popularize Batman's return to his dark and gritty roots. He specializes in gritty, over-the-top noir, and usually draws in an immediately recognizable style - replete with stark black-and-whites and often no color at all. Most of his work is narrated in first-person, usually by a macho SociopathicHero. Pretty much all of his work is incredibly violent and bloody, sometimes to the point of RefugeInAudacity. Could be described as the "Patron Saint of Badass." His heroes ''will'' be brutalized to the point of HeroicBSOD, but they will also ultimately prove that a single [[RightMakesMight Righteous]] Badass is superior (or at least equal) to [[ConservationOfNinjutsu any number of evil mooks.]]
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11	Miller has been the center of controversy and the hatred of a very vocal sector of the Internet population, mostly due to his perceived over-representation of prostitutes, sadistic violence (seen as violence for the sake of it), and his conservative and hawkish political views, although many people alternatively like his works [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools for exactly those reasons]]. Hence the [[BrokenBase fan conflicts]]. For instance, many people think his portrayal of prostitutes and female heroes implies a form of misogyny; ''however'', fans will point out that not only are these prostitutes portrayed as sympathetic and strongly independent characters (except when they die), but that two of Frank's most famous creations are ComicBook/{{Elektra}} and [[ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty Martha Washington]]. Others will point out that many think Elektra's best writing came after Miller, that Martha Washington ended up tangled up in Miller's [[AuthorTract personal views]] and that Miller tends to fall back on the same tropes when it comes to writing women. As you can see, it is not an easy topic.
12
13	He has won multiple Eisner, Kirby and Harvey Awards, as well as earned a nomination for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for ''Film/SinCity''.
14
15	Frank Miller has worked on the following comics, amongst others:
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17	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' in general - ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' and ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', famously. ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', ''ComicBook/DarkKnightIIITheMasterRace'', and ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturnsTheGoldenChild'', infamously.
18	* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' - Whatever Frank Miller did for Batman, he did twice over for Daredevil, or so the saying (roughly) goes. Introduced nearly all of the major elements we associate with the character today, apart from the costume, the blindness and [[ArchEnemy Bullseye]], though the latter got some defining moments under his run too. In his run, Miller created ComicBook/{{Elektra}} and the Hand, [[RoguesGalleryTransplant turned former]] ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain the Kingpin into Matt Murdock's ArchEnemy, made Catholicism a fundamental part of the character of Matt Murdock, added a bigger focus on martial arts in the combat and brought a noir sensibility to the storytelling that's stayed with the series ever since. See ''ComicBook/BornAgain'' for the magnum opus of the run.
19	* ''ComicBook/Ronin1983''
20	* ''ComicBook/SinCity''
21	* ''ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty'' and the various ''Martha Washington'' sequels (with Dave Gibbons)
22	* ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred ''
23	* ''Comicbook/TheBigGuyAndRustyTheBoyRobot'' and ''ComicBook/HardBoiled'' (with Creator/GeofDarrow)
24	* ''ComicBook/Wolverine1982'' - ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s first limited series (written by Creator/ChrisClaremont)
25	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' - Handled the art in two annuals of ''Amazing'' as well as a multi-part storyline in ''Spectacular Spider-Man'' in which a temporarily blinded Spider-Man teams up with Daredevil. This wound up being Miller's first work on the Man Without Fear.
26	* ''ComicBook/HolyTerror''
27
28	Frank Miller is also known for writing ''Film/RoboCop2'' and ''Film/RoboCop3'' (though is at pains to point out both suffered from extensive ExecutiveMeddling). He also co-directed and wrote the film adaptation of ''Film/SinCity''. And he's directed a movie adaptation of ''Film/TheSpirit'', which it may or may not have turned out well, depending on who you ask and whether or not they're fans of the Spirit's comics and Frank (the comics are actually very over-the-top like the movie, though Frank did add some of his signature grittiness). Miller and Tom Wheeler co-wrote the young adult novel ''Cursed'', which was turned into [[Series/{{Cursed\|2020}} a Netflix series]] of the same name.
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30	He's recently indicated he'd like to [[PlayingAgainstType go against type]] and tackle ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, exploring Cap's idealism contrasted with the dark post-9/11 world. Considering how his previous major use of the character (''ComicBook/BornAgain'', ironically enough) had Miller write some of Cap's most memorable moments (and lines, such as the immortal "I'm loyal to nothing, General... except the Dream.")... that might not be too bad of an idea.
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32	Not to be confused with fellow comic book author Creator/MarkMillar, or with the crook that tries to kill Will Kane in ''Film/HighNoon'' (incidentally one of Miller's favourite films).
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34	----
35	!!Frank Miller's works contain examples of:
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37	* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: Created the first DC example with the God Damn Batman in ''[[ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder All Star Batman and Robin]]''.
38	* AllWomenAreLustful: Or at least a member of TheOldestProfession. This has gotten Miller a lot flak in recent years.
39	* ArtEvolution:
40	** Went from drawing in a somewhat generic way, to take more and more on to an original style. From ''Comicbook/SinCity'' onwards, his style would contain mostly large shadows and blocky figures, with a lot of large splash pages. His art has evolved, as now he's mostly known for large black and white ink brushes in his art. Mostly consider his art has become better, original and memorable. Others just find it plain horrible.
41	** His more recent works do show he may have gone downhill a bit as they are more scribbly, sketchy, and not very clean. It is not known if this is due to old age or if this is the direction his recent comics have wanted to go.
42	* AscendedMeme: The use of the word "goddamn" has seen a significant increase in his work since he gave us the Goddamn Batman.
43	* AuthorAppeal:
44	** Frank Miller seems to be a big fan of prostitutes, casting them in a few of his works. However, they are usually portrayed as sympathetic characters, albeit often homicidal and mentally unstable - not uncommon traits in Miller's male heroes either.
45	** He is a big fan of crime stories, particularly the FilmNoir genre. These elements can be found in all of his work.
46	** He is also a Japanophile. His Daredevil and Wolverine runs are responsible for adding the ninja-elements to these characters. Meanwhile, ''Ronin'' and ''Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot'' were huge homages to Japanese pop culture. Then there is Miho from ''Sin City''.
47	** And most recently, '''[[PatrioticFervor Patriotism]].''' He credits the anniversary of 9/11 for creating his desire to write ''ComicBook/HolyTerror''.
48	* BadassBoast: "It was up to my generation to basically give Batman his balls back."
49	* BadassNormal: Batman and Martha Washington to name a couple.
50	* BlackAndGrayMorality: He has very few good guys in his stories and has stated that [[PetPeeveTrope he finds them a little boring]]. The villains are even worse.
51	* CharlesAtlasSuperPower: Many of his characters have few, if any superpowers but that doesn't stop them from doing the impossible any way.
52	* ContinuitySnarl: The man couldn't be bothered to remember that Sgt. Reed's first name was already established to be "John" in ''Film/RoboCop1987'' when he wrote the scripts for ''Film/RoboCop2'' and ''Film/RoboCop3'' as the former features a post-tampered by Faxx Murphy address Reed as "Warren" before he rids himself of the additionally programming and the original script for the latter, adapted into a comic as ''[[ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop RoboCop: Last Stand]]'' sees the now-retired Reed called to his face "Sgt. Warren Reed" with Reed's only rebuttal being he was no longer a cop, so Miller did intend for "Warren" to be Reed's given name and Murphy calling him as such wasn't meant to be the result of Faxx's reprogramming driving him crazy.
53	* CreatorBacklash: [[invoked]] [[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/27/frank-miller-xerxes-cursed-sin-city-the-dark-knight-returns In 2018, he admitted]] to letting anger and hatred override his thinking when making ''ComicBook/HolyTerror'' and expressed regret over making it and comments he made around the same time related to it.
54	* DarkerAndEdgier: The general opinion is it worked with the ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' and did not work so well in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', though some people have suspected the latter is a StealthParody.
55	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: "I'm having a date with ''Bruce Wayne''". "Dick Grayson, Age Twelve". In fact about half the dialogue in ''[[ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder All Star Batman and Robin]]'' repeatedly consists of people repeating themselves repeatedly.
56	* {{Determinator}}: [[ComicBook/SinCity Marv]], Martha Washington, and many others.
57	* EmphasizeEverything:
58	** '''Rare''' is the work by '''Miller''' that doesn't '''emphasize''' certain '''words''' and '''phrases''' for '''dramatic effect'''.
59	** His characters repeat themselves. ''They repeat themselves.''
60	* EveryoneHasStandards: He was absolutely disgusted with the call-in vote to kill off Jason Todd in ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily''[[note]]despite killing him two years prior in ''The Dark Knight Returns''[[/note]]:
61	-->An actual toll-free number where fans call in to put the axe to a little boy's head...to me the whole killing of Robin was probably the ugliest thing I've seen in comics, and the most cynical.
62	* FilibusterFreefall: ''ComicBook/HolyTerror'' and ''ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty''.
63	* [[SociopathicHero Heroic Sociopath]]: All his protagonists, ''ComicBook/SinCity'''s Marv in particular.
64	* HollywoodAtheist: Averted, actually. Despite being himself an atheist, he has [[http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/comic_book_religion.html#heroes been noted]] as generally writing all religions (except for Islam) or lack thereof, with as much respect as anything else. Some religious heroes (Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}), some villains (''Comicbook/SinCity''). Daredevil is notable since Miller was the first writer to portray him as overtly Catholic, and made it a major part of his character.
65	* IDieFree: That's pretty much the {{Aesop}} of most of his independent work, particularly ''Bad Boy''.
66	* IndecisiveParody: Much of his more recent work can come across as this, especially ''[[ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder All Star Batman and Robin]]''.
67	* InnerMonologue: Due to his ''noir'' roots.
68	* MonsterMisogyny: Most of his villains in his ''Crime Stories''. It usually ends with a KarmicDeath so bad you almost feel bad for the bad guy. Almost.
69	* PsychoForHire: Many of his villains have been assassins and hitmen. He is the man responsible for turning Dardevil villain Bullseye into the man he is today.
70	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Or at least influences the setting; Miller was mugged twice on the streets of New York before beginning his Daredevil run. This probably helps to explain why the city is often seen as a crime-ridden pit.
71	* RefugeInAudacity: Particularly in his later works.
72	* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Very much on the Romantic side. His works glorify individual will, initiative and the greatness of unique events and acts over that of collective and larger scale historical and social forces. Miller is a fan of Creator/AynRand and frequently sprinkles references to Objectivism in his work, most notably in ''ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty''
73	* SelfPlagiarism:
74	** In his story-arc ''Daredevil: Born Again'', one of the Kingpin's lieutenants speaks with an excessive amount of SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, which is played for laughs. He would later use the same type of gag when writing Shlubb and Klump (a.k.a. Fat Man and Little Boy) from ''ComicBook/SinCity''.
75	** This may be a case of actual plagiarism, as there was an incredibly similar character in Creator/DashiellHammett's ''Literature/RedHarvest''. Much like Miller's character, he was a criminal with DelusionsOfEloquence. Miller has, on more than one occasion, cited Hammett as an influence.
76	** He ripped some of Batman's internal monologue from ''ASB&R'' #5 from the first part of ''Dark Knight Returns''. Similarly he ripped dialogue from the last page of ''Born Again'' for use in his ''Spirit'' movie ('It was a nice piece of work, Kingpin/Saref. You shouldn't have signed it').
77	** The final version of ''ComicBook/HolyTerror'' still reads like it was part of the Dark Knight-verse.
78	* ShoutOut:
79	** We know he likes ''Film/TaxiDriver'' because there are tons of subtle references to the movie in his work, from stuff like ''All-Star Batman and Robin'' to ''Elektra: Assassin'' and ''The Dark Knight Returns''
80	** We also see the UnfortunateImplications of making Batman too much like Travis Bickle in ''All-Star''.
81	** The basic premise of Batman: Year One, from Gordon's side at least, is that of Film/{{Serpico}}, one honest cop trying to do good in a system full of corrupt cops. In fact, one might call it [[RecycledInSpace Serpico with Batman]].
82	** ''Sin City'' contains numerous shout outs and even an {{expy}} or two to pulp fiction and crime-noir stories.
83	** ''Ronin'' also contained shouts outs to samurai movies and anime.
84	* SignatureStyle: Usually BlackAndGrayMorality and a BittersweetEnding at best. Artistically, he tends towards large expanses of black with just enough white and occasional splashes of color. He's one of the more recognizable comic artists out there.
85	* SuperDetailedFightNarration
86	* TakeThat: Some have speculated that ''All Star Batman and Robin'' is a big insult to the people who complained that the ''Dark Knight'' Batman was too crazy, as perhaps evidenced by the line "You want nuts?! I'll show you nuts!" A close variant of this line occurs in both Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/Batman1989'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie''.
87	** Frank also seems to have little, if any, respect for Superman.
88	*** ''Dark Knight Returns'' was a fairly respectful Superman treatment. Took the view of "Superman is a good guy, but won't step outside the law / civilian authority structures like Batman will". Which isn't too unfair. [[spoiler: Then Superman breaks his ThouShallNotKill rule to kill dirty communists, nearly gets killed by a nuke *even though he's been surviving nukes since ''1947'', and basically turning Superman into an ''energy vampire''...]]
89	*** However, he does seem to have softened on the Man of Tomorrow a bit in his old age. His miniseries ''Superman: Year One'' was overall a very respectful retelling of Superman's early years and gives back much (but not all) of the humanity that was missing from his characterization in ''Returns'' and its sequel ''The Dark Knight Strikes Again.'' In fact, during their inevitable meeting, it's ''Batman'' who comes across as the unsympathetic and borderline-villainous one. Ultimately it seems Miller's opinion of Superman is shifting from 'ineffectual alien stooge' to 'ineffectual and alien, but by God he's ''trying.'''
90	*** He also stated that he dislikes Green Lantern and thinks of him as useless. It becomes quite apparent in his "All-Star Batman And Robin" comic series, when [[spoiler: Hal Jordan is treated like crap by Batman and Robin almost kills him by accident]].
91	* ThoseWackyNazis:
92	** He seems to love making them look as stupid as possible, then killing them off in various brutal ways. Not that they don't deserve it...
93	** ''ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty'' features the Aryan Thrust, a group of militant gay white supremacists.
94	* UltimateUniverse: The Dark Knight Universe, officially known as Earth 31.
95	* VerbalTic: Frank Miller loves his THROWBACKS to pulp DIALOGUE where people emphasize certain WORDS to make it sound IMPORTANT usually expressed in his characters' INNERMOST THOUGHTS along with REPETITION. Along with repetition.
96	* ViceCity: ComicBook/SinCity, Gotham, Hell's Kitchen, etc.
97	* WretchedHive: See above.
98	----
99	->''"With bloody hands, I say good-bye."''
100	-->-- '''Frank Miller''', when asked to imitate [[Creator/ErnestHemingway Hemingway]]

Context Creator / FrankMiller