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nightshade1218 Since: Nov, 2011
01/27/2016 11:48:09 •••

The Most Overrated Piece Of Garbage In Comic Book History

Frank Miller isn't exactly what you'd call revered when it comes to Batman, and why not? Because he "blessed" us with All Star Batman and Robin, and the surprisingly okayish Batman: Year One, which no matter how okayish it was, paled compared to its legendary pseudo-sequels The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and even Catwoman: When in Rome (of which he had nothing to do with any of them, thank god).

Onto the book itself: It's main flaw are the characters. While this interpretation of Batman stands out as being the most grizzled, square-chinned and impressively good at inner-monologues yet to be matched, it's about the only redeemable aspect concerning the character field. On the heroes side, you have the new Robin who feels more like a half-assed self-insert than an actual sidekick; Det. James Gordon, who, as expected, is the shining beacon in a den of corruption, but has absolutely no character value except just being there to show how awful this Bad Future is (which is more than Supes can say, who's just there for no good reason other than to have yet another pointless fight with Bats) and Alfred, who dies like a bitch at the end. Oh, and Catwoman is a prostitute who provides nothing to the story except being beaten up viciously.

On the villain side, Two-Face could be called the one villain worth reading about (even if his story was sorely predictable). The Joker is laughable, and not in a good way. The mutants are the evil version of Gordon's issue: there to show how much the world sucks. ...And what else is there? Bruno? Pffffhahaha.

What else to say? The art is atrocious even for 80s comic standards, one need only look at the most recent cover. The story is one heinous crime after another with Strawman Political rants not-so-subtly hidden between the lines.

In short, it's an utter travesty how revered this supposed "masterpiece" is, and how its credited for bringing in the Dark Era of comic (which, considering the state, is not as big an achievement as it sounds).

Go read The Long Halloween instead, or better yet, Watchmen. Released the same year, and actually worth a damn.

RyochiMayeabara Since: Apr, 2014
04/08/2015 00:00:00

"Frank Miller isn't exactly what you'd call revered when it comes to Batman, and why not? Because he "blessed" us with All Star Batman and Robin,"

-I almost couldn't get past this part. I seriously couldn't stop laughing (NOT a bad thing)

"The art is atrocious even for 80s comic standards, one need only look at the most recent cover."

-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! (I completely agree actually)

While I do think that this is kinda overrated, I still recommend people to read this as a decent deconstruction of the Dark Knight Mythos. But the amount of useless characters still stand though and the fight with Superman was.....kinda BS and pointless.

I don't think that the art is atrocious............sometimes. I'd recommend people to watch the animated movie version of this if they want better art...

Sigh, its been a while since I read this...

Bastard1 Since: Nov, 2010
04/08/2015 00:00:00

Though I completely agree that TDKR is an exploitative, narmfully grimdark take on the Batman by a creepy guy who should never be allowed to work on any other I Ps than his own, the opinions given aren't very good. They just seem too heat-of-the-moment and flippant. I can't blame you for reacting the way you did, but for your own sake you might try and clarify your points of contention.

Elmo3000 Since: Jul, 2013
04/09/2015 00:00:00

I know that a lot of 'legendary' comic books have varied reactions but most of them are at least worth reading in my opinion. I came out of The Dark Knight Returns feeling like it only existed to satiate the appetites of the Batman fans who wanted a book they could refer to where he beats Superman in a fight.

OnlyHereToComment Since: Jul, 2015
01/27/2016 00:00:00

Someone's a bit salty, are we?


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