Frank Miller is a comic book writer and artist, most famous for returning Batman 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
Heroic Sociopath. Pretty much all of his work is incredibly violent and bloody, sometimes to the point of
Refuge In Audacity.
Miller has recently been the center of controversy and has earned the hatred of a very vocal sector of the Internet population, mostly due to his over-representation of prostitutes, sadistic violence (seen as violence for the sake of it), and right-wing political views. However, his long list of awards speaks for itself: Multiple Eisner, Kirby and Harvey Awards, as well as a nomination for the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for
Sin City.
Nobody does blood splatter like Frank Miller.
Frank Miller has written the following comics, amongst others:
Frank Miller is also known for writing
Robocop 2 and 3. He also co-directed and wrote the film adaptation of
Sin City. And he's directed a movie adaptation of
The Spirit, 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.)
Do not confuse him with the crook that tries to kill Will Kane in
High Noon.
His work contains examples of:
- Adaptation Decay: Sure, The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One were good, but All Star Batman and Robin is considered so bad to the point where some reviewers have said Joel Schumacher is forgiven for Batman and Robin. The story feels less like an actual Batman story and more like one of Miller's typical 'Sin City'-esque plots.
- All Women Are Lustful
- Author Appeal: Frank Miller seems to be a big fan of whores, 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 heroes.
- Badass Normal: Batman, most of the Sin City main characters.
- Black And Grey Morality
- Charles Atlas Super Power
- Darker And Edgier: It (arguably) works with the The Dark Knight Returns and fails miserably in All Star Batman and Robin - so miserably, it's a suspected Stealth Parody.
- Department Of Redundancy Department: "I'm having a date with Bruce Wayne". "Dick Grayson, Age Twelve". In fact about half the dialogue in the All Star Batman and Robin consists of people repeating themselves repeatedly.
- Determinator: Marv, among others.
- Executive Meddling: Robocop 2 and 3 underwent a metric ton of this, and convinced Miller to be a director, not a writer, in Hollywood.
- Fallen Hero
- Flanderization - Cheifly of himself. His recent work reads like a parody of earlier Frank Miller works, in particular All-Star Batman and Robin.
- Heroic Sociopath: Pretty much all his protagonists, Sin City's Marv in particular.
- Inner Monologue
- Memetic Mutation: "Whorewhoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhores...
"
- Monster Misogyny: Frank Miller just loves to graphically depict the torture, killing and maiming of naked or partially dressed women. It's portrayed as a bad thing, intended to maker you hate the bad guys more, but the prevalence of such images are still a little disturbing.
- He makes up for it with the four-page short story And Behind Door Number Three..., where a Monster Misogynist who's been cutting up girls in old town is caught by Gail and Wendy, and subjected to punishment at the hands of Miho.
- Moral Dissonance - There's a reason All Star Batman and Robin is so hated. This is but one of them.
- Narm: "I'm the Goddamn Batman."
- Nice Hat: Never seen without one.
- Only Six Faces
- Psycho For Hire
- Refuge In Audacity
- Running The Asylum: Any Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny that involves Batman.
- Signature Style
- Take That: 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 Tim Burton's Batman movie.
- The Egregious Trope Man: Created the first DC example.
- This Is SPARTA: He wrote the Trope Namer - sort of. In the comics, it wasn't the dramatic Large Ham yell that it was in the movie. The same goes for "tonight, we dine in hell."
- Vice City: Sin City, Gotham, Hell's Kitchen, etc.
- Wretched Hive: See above.
