Suicide Squad Review

            I think that it’s pretty clear by now that I am not the biggest fan of the DC Extended Universe.  Man of Steel was easily one of the most crushingly disappointing films that I ever saw and actually caused me to rethink my then hostile attitude towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Then Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came along and somehow ended up worse and felt like some kind of negative antithesis to the MCU; as if the gods had decided that for having one overall pretty good comic book movie universe we had to have one that was truly and utterly awful.  Because of this and that low Rotten Tomato score, I went into Suicide Squad with about the biggest chip on my shoulder one could have.  This was a film that I went into expecting to utterly despises and to be the final nail in the coffin that was the DC Extended Universe. As it turned out though, the film wasn’t all that bad.  Before I continue, however, I need to make one thing clear; the film is not great.  On the whole, it doesn’t amount to being much then being an average action movie at the tail end of summer nor does it even begin to compare to most of the efforts of the MCU.   But as far as the DCEU goes, it’s a breath of fresh air that helps clear the stunk of Batman v Superman away and feels like the first step in the right direction for these films.

            The film begins sometime after the end of BVS with a government official named Amanda Waller convincing her superiors to form a group known as Task Force X; a team that is primarily made up of C and D list supervillains who will perform whatever task Waller requires in exchange for reduced sentences.  Not long after, an ancient witch with a personal connection to squad leader Rick Flagg manages to get free of Waller’s control after freeing her brother from his ancient prison.  Soon after, they being to construct a doomsday machine powered by her magic and it’s up to our team of supervillains to save the day while the Joker harasses the squad in an attempt to get Harley Quinn from their hold.

            One thing that can be said in the films favor is that the initial premise is pretty good and when it finally picks up, it delivers the goods.  While the actual plot involving Enchantress and her plot to destroy the world isn’t the most novel, it does do the job of providing our protagonists with a heavy foe to unite them all against.  It also does a great job of establishing just why it is a group like this is needed.  As Waller puts it, Superman is dead and who is to say that the next Superman to come along will be a good guy?  And if they don’t weaponized these people and try and use them for something good, someone else will.

            The big problem with the plot is pacing and direction.  David Ayer is a decent enough writer/director but his work here sometimes has trouble pulling out the right emotion out of an audience.  Sometimes a moment that is meant to make us cry fails to pull that emotion out of us.  Sometimes the jokes fall flat and some moments that are meant to make us cheer just…don’t.  The second problem is pacing.  The film literally spends the first third of its running time as set up before the inciting event of the main plot even occurs.  Up until that point, the entire movie is made up of montages and flashbacks that explains the backstories of all of these characters and how it was they were captured.  As a result, the first hour or so feels extremely clunky and can’t help but draw attention to itself as the exposition act of the film that does nothing to move the actual plot along.

            Unfortunately, this contributes to the film’s biggest problem: the character development.  For the most part, the film fails to properly develop the characters in what was obviously supposed to be an ensemble piece or give them any fully realized arcs.  For better or for worse, it’s pretty clear that it was going for a Guardian’s of the Galaxy feel; i.e. a band of morally compromised thieves and killers coming together and forming a deeper friendship and comradery that surpasses their own selfish interests.  The problem is that we really don’t get this impression up until the very end and there seems to be a lack of a middle act for their developments.  One moment they barely know or trust one another and the next thing we know they all pull a 180 and start going on about thinks like family, friendship, honor among thieves and sacrifice.  What makes it even worse is the fact that it’s pretty clear that they have only known one another for about a day and really stretches one’s suspension of disbelief.  Minor spoilers in the rest of this paragraph but the best example of this come at the end of the second act of the film.  During this scene The Joker successfully gets Harley away from Waller and the rest of the squad.  In response, Waller orders Deadshot to kill her in exchanged for his freedom as well as full custody of his daughter.  Yet when he has Harley in is sights, he “misses”.  The idea is that he has grown to like Harley and feels a loyalty to her that surpasses his personal interests.  But again, he has known this woman for less than a day and he is giving an otherwise fantastic deal to kill her and he just doesn’t.  The film is full of head scratching moments like this and can’t help but call attention how poorly structured and paced the whole thing is. 

           

         On the whole, however, the cast is actually the film’s biggest strength.  Will Smith’s Deadshot might not be the self-loathing sociopath of the comics but the man does manage to bring a level of likeability and charisma to a character who ruthlessly kills people for a living and is one of the few who gets a fully realized story arc.  Margot Robbie is about as perfect as one can get to being a live action Harley Quinn.  Sure she doesn’t have the character’s classic outfit but her personality and backstory perfectly match that of the source material; a mentally unhinged nutball with an extremely dangerous, unhealthy relationship with an even more mentally unhinged nutball who is all at once annoying, charming, tragic and horrifying.  Joel Kinnaman doesn’t have that much to work with as Rick Flagg, but he does do a decent job as the straight man in a group full of psychos.  Like Deadshot he is also one of the few who gets a fully realized character arc in gaining an increasing amount of trust and respect for his team as the film goes on.

Jai Courtney probably gives the best performance of his career as Captain Boomerang.  The character doesn’t really have anything resembling an arc but Courtney does a great job of playing this character who is completely and utterly despicable and probably deserves to be in prison more than any other.  Likewise, Jay Hernández’s El Diablo lacks a believable arc but he is believable as a guy who has clearly done bad things but no longer wishes to.  Killer Croc brutally kills people and throws in some good one liners.  What more can you want?  By far the best, however, is Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.  The woman manages to perfectly encapsulate everything that it both great and horrible about the character, showing us a woman who is undoubtedly a horrible person who does bad thing for a greater good.  She is an overall commanding and intimidating presence and you fully buy Davis as this woman who would kill everyone in a room if she thought it was for some hypothetical greater good. 

           

          The one main weak length in the cast is Jered Leto’s Joker.  Now to be fair, this may not have entirely been the actor’s fault.  By now it’s common knowledge that a big chunk of the character’s scenes were cut out of the film and when watching it, it’s pretty clear that he was meant to be a reoccurring pest for the team that caused Harley to question where her loyalties were.  But ignoring this, this version of the character just made me feel...dirty to watch.  Unlike Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger or Mark Hamill, this version of the Joker just isn’t scary.  If anything, the character comes off more as a sexual predator than anything else.  After getting out of the theater, I felt like I needed a shower after watching this character on screen and I just can’t buy this version as Batman’s greatest nemesis.  And then we have the look of the character.  To be fair, the majority of the characters don’t look like their comic book counterparts but the design of this one is simply ridiculous.  It is a look that I could see the Joker trying out at some point but the “jailhouse gangster in his 20s appearance” is one that comes off as some idiot’s idea of modernizing the look of the character and is most distracting aspect of the film.

            What one cannot deny, however, is that the film is fun.  The characters might be underdeveloped but they all have great chemistry with one another and helps sell the humor.  They all get in good one liners and the situational humor really hits even if it’s clearly not the director’s strong suite.  The action, though nothing special, gets the job done and manages to be entertaining by playing to all of the characters’ unique abilities.  The special effects are also pretty good with the enemy army coming off as convincing and the work on Killer Croc being perhaps the most convincing makeup job ever done on a comic book movie character and really goes to show what can be pulled off through practical means. 

            In the end the film is okay.  It’s not great and doesn’t amount to being much more than an average action film with above average cast at the tail end of summer.  However, it really feels as if DC and Warner Brothers are finally taking this movie universe in the right direction.  It’s a good way to spend a couple of hours and an otherwise decent way to spend a summer that has been mostly flooded by disappointments.  I say give it a watch.

            So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, and follow me on Twitter.  Until then let’s hope that D.C. can keep the momentum up with Wonder Woman.

Batman: The Killing Joke Film Review

            Holy Mother of God people!  I’m honestly not sure where to start with this one.  For the first time since I started this blog, I am at a complete loss as to where I should go with a post.  Such is the magnitude of the failure I have witnessed.  This film version of Batman: The Killing Joke is, to put it simply, an utter catastrophe on nearly every conceivable level and I can honestly say that I would rather do just about anything then having to suffer through it again.  It fails to be a faithful adaptation of the comic.  It fails to be its own thing.  It fails to entertain.  But worst of all, it feels like an overall waste of time that craps all over the legacy of one of the most influential comics in the history of the medium.

            But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The plot of the film of the film is more or less the same as the comic.  The Joker has once again broken out of Arkham Asylum and kidnaps Commissioner Gordon after shooting his daughter and subjects him to extreme physiological torture in order to prove that all it takes is one bad day for someone to become like him as the film flashes back to the events that turned him into The Clown Prince of Crime.  Now before I go any further, you should know that this article will contain significant spoilers for both the film and the comic.  If you haven’t already read the comic, it is one that I would highly recommend, especially if you’re interested in how the modern version of The Joker came to be in our popular culture.  If you’re trying to see the movie without any spoilers, again you should just go and read the comic as it’s an overall better way to spend both your time and money.

            Now that we have that out of the way, there was always going to be three major problems with directly adapting The Killing Joke into a feature film format.  The first is that the influence of the comic can quite literally been seen in everything The Joker has been in and has far overshadowed the comic that it is based on.  You can see a more through breakdown of this in an article that I did at The Nerd Hub, but the basic idea is that, when all is said and done, everyone has already adapted some part of this comic in some way or another.  It can be seen in parts of The Animated Series, the films, the video games and even stretches all the way back to the comics, making a direct adaptation of it feel redundant at best.  The second major problem is the plot itself, as it doesn’t really lead itself well to a feature length format and is surprisingly simple.  The third is the crippling and implied sexual assault of Barbara Gordon which has garnered a lot of controversy in recent years and something that has always been an undeniable flaw with the book.  Now in theory, none of these are insurmountable obstacles and a clever creative team could have found a way to deal with these problems while still staying true to the source material.  Unfortunately, the creative team on hand decided to tackle these problems in the worst possible way.

           

          First, let’s get the Barbara Gordon thing out of the way.  In hindsight, this is easily one of the worst things that Alan Moore has done.  On the whole, the man’s books have a tendency to be some of the most sexually charged in the medium.  In his better works it adds layers of subtext to what is on the page and helps further develop the characters in books like Watchmen and Miracleman.  In other cases, it’s gratuitous and just in place for shock value, most notably in books like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Lost Girls.  Unfortunately, in The Killing Joke it’s clearly a case of the latter.  It’s an unmistakable case of a major female character being victimized and violated for the sake of shock value and to further the storylines of the male characters of the story.  The whole thing is an undeniable flaw in the story and was something that the film was going to have to address and was more than likely going to draw controversy regardless of what direction that it took.  Unfortunately, the way they address it by adding an extended section where Batgirl is the main character that ultimately does nothing to solve the problem or even contribute anything meaningful to the overall plot.

            The section in question is effectively an extended prologue that goes on for about thirty minutes of the film’s ninety-minute runtime that feels more like an episode of the animated series that Bruce Timm couldn’t get green lit in the 90s.  The intent was obviously to flesh out Batgirl so that when the inevitable shooting scene came it would have more of an impact.  Unfortunately, the way they flesh out the character is by her coming to terms with the fact that she is more or less useless as a crime fighter and that she may or may not be involved in this whole thing because she has the hots for Batman.  By the time it ends, it ultimately contributes nothing to the main plot outside of sort of giving an explanation as to why Batman went to visit The Joker at Arkham Asylum in the first place.  What makes it even worse is that by the time the iconic shooting scene comes, none of the problems of the comic are properly addressed or dealt with.  Barbara is still just a plot point in someone else’s story and her injury and implied sexual assault is still just in the story for the sake of shock value.  And quite frankly, it’s 2016 and that way of writing female characters is outdated and just wrong by today’s standards.

            The we have the rooftop sex scene.  Outside of the fact that it’s wrong in about a dozen different ways, like the rest of the Batgirl prologue, it contributes nothing to the rest of the story.  I get that Bruce Timm really wants to ship Batman and Batgirl together for some God unknown reason but if you’re going to do something like this and not piss people off it needs to actually contribute to the story.  After the Batgirl prologue, it’s never mentioned again.  Batman continues to pursue the Joker with the same stoic attitude that he has maintained throughout the entire film and shows no indication that the encounter meant anything to him.   As a result, it just comes off as some misogynist’s idea of what it means to flesh out a female character and it’s just offensive.  

           

           The second problem is the plot.  As mentioned earlier, one of the key problems with adapting The Killing Joke is that the plot itself is surprisingly simple and would be difficult to adapt directly onto film.  To the creative team’s credit, they did try.  For the most part, the film is a page to screen version of the story, as it uses nearly all the dialog and locations from the comic.  It’s just that, when all is said and done, the plot of The Killing Joke isn’t a very elaborate or interesting one.  There aren’t any mass murders or complex obstacles for Batman to overcome.  It doesn’t really dig that deeply into the phycology of the characters and doesn’t say as much about the relationship between the two as other comics have.  As a result, the writer’s slavish adherence to the text of the story becomes the film’s undoing.  As mentioned before, the influence of the comic can quite literally be seen in every story involving The Joker.  We’ve seen the influence in the 1989 Batman film, the 2008 masterpiece, The Dark Knight, a bit in The Animated Series and probably the best version of it in the Arkham Games.  Each one of these shows the influence of the comic but ultimately tells their own and often story and are often more interesting because of it.  Because of this, the plot of the film ends up coming off as a by the numbers Batman Vs Joker story that’s been seen a million time before.

            It’s not at all helped by the fact that while the included all the text of the comic they completely forgot about the book’s visual splendor and the subtler things that left lasting impressions on the people who read the book.  The comic, for example, jumps from the past and the present through images that mirrored one another in each point in time that made the transition smooth.  The film simply lacks these and, as a result, the transitions from the present to the past just feel random.  It’s made all the worse by the fact that the past segments are visually repulsive.  Whereas the comic used beautiful shades of black, white and gray to highlight the difference, the film just desaturates all the color, making the whole thing look lifeless and depressing.  As a result, some of the subtler things were colored in the past segments were lost, such as the colors of red, purple and green being the only colors to pop up in the past.  Because of this, the full impact of the final transformation of The Joker is completely lost.

            Even from a technical side, this film seems inept.  The animation often seemed off, the color pallet for the main plot is bland, and the scenes aren’t as well directed as the could have or should have been.  The biggest example of this is the ending.  At the end of the comic the Joker tells the big Killing Joke at its end; one that final gets Batman to laugh as the rain comes down on the two.  The two continue to cackle as Batman puts his hands on The Joker’s shoulders looking far more sinister and threatening then he had in the rest of the book, the police arrive and the image shifts to where their feet are and finally a puddle, leaving it ambiguous as to whether or not Batman finally snapped and killed The Clown Prince of Crime.  Unfortunately, in the film, it just kind of stops.  It lacks the arrival of the police and the sinister edge to Batman’s design and can’t help but lack the ambiguity of the original comic and feels more like an abrupt ending to the story more than anything else.

            The voice work in the film is also pretty lackluster.  Tera Strong’s Batgirl comes off as whiney and Gordon’s voice is very high pitched and lacks the authority other actors have brought to the role.  Even Kevin Conroy seems like he’s just in the voice booth to collect a paycheck.  Granted he doesn’t have a lot to work with, but it’s pretty clear that the man wasn’t as invested in the material as he usually is.  The only real exception to this is Mark Hamill as The Joker.  As usual, the man’s voice manages to be funny and menacing at the same time, giving the character far more charisma than any other actor has ever managed.  He also does some fantastic voice work as the “before” Joker, giving as a character who is sympathetic but still an utter looser and we could easily see getting into a situation like this.  But even Mark Hamill’s voice work isn’t enough to save this whole thing.

            In the end, The Killing Joke is easily the most disappointing animated film that DC has put out and the second worst comic book film to come out this year.  It doesn’t do the comic justice, utterly fails to address or improve upon the comic’s problems and is just an all-around bore to watch.  Honestly, you would be better off reading the comic or just revisiting the various works that have been inspired by it.  It’s a far better way to spend your time and money.  But this film is one joke that completely missed the punchline.

            So until next time please follow the site, like the Facebook page, and follow me on twitter.  Until then, let’s hope that the Suicide Squad film turns out better than this.

            Oh that’s just great….

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition Review

            Of all the films that were due for release this year, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice was probably the one that I anticipated the most.  Man of Steel was a film that I absolutely despised but the prospect of seeing Batman and Superman on the big screen for the first time was too good of a selling point for me not to ignore.  It also helped that the trailers for the film looked really good and promised sprawling, epic fights between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel, ending with a climactic battle with a big bad in Doomsday.  Unfortunately, the critical reception to the film was overwhelmingly negative and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone that isn’t a complete D.C. fanboy to give the film a glowing review.  Everyone seemed to agree that the first 10 minutes or so were good along with Ben Affleck’s performance as Batman but that the film as a whole was a boring, incoherent mess.  This, coupled with some personal problems, resulted in me deciding to pass on seeing the film and just wait for the inevitable directors cut to come out. 

Earlier this week I was able to see this version of the film.  And, despite all the negative receptions to the film, despite all of the crap talked about, despite having nearly all the major plot points being spoiled for me, somehow it was far worse than I ever imagined.  The Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition is perhaps one of the most boring and lifeless big budgeted summer blockbusters that I have ever seen put to film and fails spectacularly on nearly every level.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The film starts during the climax of Man of Steel with Superman and Zod brawling and destroying half of Metropolis.  After his building in the city is destroyed and killing several people he knows, Batman decides that a creature with as much power as Superman needs to be destroyed.  At the same time, through an overly complicated series of events, Lex Luthor begins to taint the public’s perception of Superman as well as push Batman to kill Superman. 

If there is one positive thing that I can say about the writing of this film, it’s that the initial setup is very well executed.  When you look at what happens in Metropolis at the start of the film, particularly with one child caught up in the mix, you see that not only are Batman’s motives justified through Superman’s actions but that the whole thing affected him on a deeper, personal level and was a brilliant character moment that kind of blew me away.  In fact, most of the stuff that deals with Batman is all around pretty good.  The intro that shows the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents is probably the best version of it ever put to film and Ben Affleck really did defy my initial expectations as the Caped Crusader.  Jeremey Irons performance was simply perfect and may actually be the best live action version of Alfred.  His condensing demeanor and dry sense of humor had me laughing every time he dropped some negative remark about Batman and his life choices and I hope that future Batman films take full advantage of this.  On the same note, Superman is actually pretty good in this as well.  He still isn’t great and it’s obvious that the filmmakers still have trouble deciding what to do with him but he is a big improvement over the version that was portrayed in Man of Steel.  In this film he actually goes out of his way save people instead of endangering them and they really do a great job of establishing why it is he has a beef with Batman.  Unfortunately, the film manages to piss away this otherwise great setup with a film that is not only needlessly grim, but just boring.   

The first major problem with the film is Lex Luthor.  Ignoring the fact that this version of the character has nothing in common with its comic book comic book counterpart, the character has far too big of a role in the film and the vast majority of it has little to contribute to the overall narrative of the film beyond needlessly padding out the runtime.  For example, the character is revealed towards the end to be one who pushes Batman into fighting Superman, mainly though the manipulation of a former Wayne Enterprises employee who was hurt during Superman’s fight with Zod in Man of Steel.  Unfortunately, from a writing standpoint it makes no sense as to why they would include this subplot when Batman’s motivations are made abundantly clear the prologue section of the film.  Supposedly he’s also trying to defame Superman through these actions as well but outside of making him mope over the fact that he can’t always save everyone for a few minutes it really doesn’t have any effect on the character overall.  In fact, the only meaningful things that the character contributes to the plot overall is the importing of the kryptonite rock, the kidnapping of Martha Kent, and the creation of Doomsday and just about everything else involving this character could have easily been cut from the film.  In fact, the creation of Doomsday just adds another problem to the overall narrative of the film.  If, for example, Luthor knew that Batman would more than likely kill Superman, why did he create Doomsday to begin with?  Why did he start the whole thing without a way to take Doomsday down himself?  Better yet, WHY IS DOOMSDAY EVEN IN THIS MOVIE?!?!?

What makes the whole Lex Luthor narrative problem even more infuriating is that it could have been solved with a simple rewrite or a few tricks in post-production.  Lex Luthor fears what Superman could do so he gets the Kryptonite.  Batman catches wind of this and wants it for himself.  Luthor realizes he no longer has the Kryptonite and creates Doomsday to take Superman down so he can serve as the third act monster that unties the heroes together.  How would that have been so hard?

It’s not at all helped by the fact that the film is very grim with an unexpectedly high body count.  Iconic characters like Jimmy Olson and Mercy Graves are unceremoniously killed off in very grizzly fashions with little to no acknowledgement of their legacy in comic book history.  Perhaps what threw me off the most, however, was just how high of a body count Batman had under his belt.  I had heard beforehand that Batman killed a few people in this film but I had always assumed it was similar to the way he “killed” people in the Dark Knight films; where the deaths were either ambiguous or brought on by the actions of others.  HOLY.  MOTHER.  OF.  GOD!  WAS.  I.  WRONG!  He massacres people by the dozens in any way he can.  He uses machine guns, grappling hooks, missiles, his fists, guns and even a wooden crate at one point.  And those that he doesn’t kill he effectively marks for death by branding them with a bat and making them a target for a good shanking in prison.  And I cannot lie.  This really bothered me as a Batman fan.

One of the core rules of Batman, (or at least the modern one), is that he does not kill people.  It is the one line that he refuses to cross because he knows that once he crosses that line he is no better than those he hunts.  While I am aware that this hasn’t always been the case, for a long time it has been and is often a key component between Batman and his relationships with fellow heroes and villains.  What we have on display in this film, however, is that Batman is in fact no better than those he hunts.  In fact, the argument could be made that Superman’s beef with the Bat might actually be more than justified given just how much brutality is on display here.  While he doesn’t quite go into Crazy Steve territory, he gets dangerously close and if this is the direction that they’ll continue with the character I’m not sure I want anything to do with it.

Now all of this could be forgivable is the film was any fun.  Plenty of films have poor narratives and character writing but they can sometimes get away with them by the sheer amount of spectacle and humor that they throw on screen.  But Batman V. Superman offers none of this.  Say what you will about Man of Steel, (lord knows I have plenty to say), but it did offer some pretty cool action sequences that really showed how destructive and over the top a battle between kryptonians would be.  But this film offers none of that.  Outside of one admittedly kick ass fight involving Martha’s kidnappers, not a single action sequence shows any kind of imagination or manages to thrill.  At least half of the film passes before we get our first action scene that amounts to a boring car chase between Batman and Luthor’s goons and then we have to wait another hour before we finally get our battle between the two characters for the first and last time.  Unfortunately, all it amounts to is Batman using some kryptonite gas on the Man of Steel before pounding the crap out of him with his fists and grappling hook and offers none of the imagination or spectacle that was on display in either Man of Steel or The Dark Knight Returns animated film.  And quite frankly, if an animation team working with maybe a tenth of the budget can do a better battle between Batman and Superman that the big budgeted film version something is very wrong. 

Likewise, the final battle with Doomsday is completely unmemorable.  While it is cool to finally see Wonder Woman on the big screen for the first time the fight itself is completely unremarkable.  The whole thing consists of Wonder Woman going after Doomsday with a sword while Batman runs from its heat blasts, as it cuts back to Superman grabbing one of Batman’s kryptonite spears and taking to Lois and utterly fails to choreograph/animate an interesting battle and I found myself wondering if this was really made by the same man who did 300.   

From what I have been told, the theatrical version of this film was an incoherent, boring mess of a movie that appeared to be the negative antithesis to the MCU and any good comic book films that have come out over the past decade.  This Ultimate Edition isn’t quite that.  It is a coherent, boring, mess of a film that appears to be the negative antithesis to the MCU and any of the good comic book films that have come out over the past decade.  The film does have an admittedly good start but is bogged down by a pointless subplot with Luthor, fails to give us any decent action scenes and is just so grim without any real point to it.  I hated Man of Steel when it came out three years ago but this film registers little to no emotion with me.  The whole thing bored me to tears and by the time the credits rolled I was just glad it was over. 

Supposedly the overwhelming negative reception has caused Warner Brothers to realize that they need to rethink the way they do these films.  The Justice League film, for example, is apparently set to have a lighter tone then BVS due to the extremely negative reaction to the film.  Ben Affleck, who was visibly upset at the reception of the film, is promising a Batman film full of sardonic, dry humor and is determined that the project will not move forward until the script is perfect, release dates be damned.  Warner Brothers has also decided to restructure the way it goes about making the films, creating the DC Films Division that will be headed by DC writer Geoff Johns and Warner Brothers Executive Vice President, Jon Berg, so it is obvious that they are at least taking steps to fix the errors that have been made.  However, only time will tell if they have taken the correct steps.

So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page, follow me on twitter and come back next time.  Until then, let’s just hope that Suicide Squad proves better.  

The Dark Knight III: Frank Miller Strikes Again!

            In all honesty, I think that the title of the article would have been a better title for the upcoming book because at least then I would know that DC had a sense of humor.  But instead we have a title of an upcoming comic book by Frank Miller that only fills me with dread at the prospects of just what it might be about; The Dark Knight III: The Master Race.

Official Press Release
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2015/04/24/superstar-writerartist-frank-miller-returns-to-batman

            Today it was announced by D.C. in an official press release that Frank Miller was returning to D.C. comics in order to write a sequel and conclusion to his Dark Knight Returns series he started nearly thirty years ago and like everyone else, the prospect filled me with dread, especially given Miller’s recent track record and title of the book.

            You know, it seems today as if every fandom has its own little boogieman that everyone jumps on the chance to attack for ruining whatever franchise the person was associated with.  With Star Wars it’s George Lucas.  With Star Trek, it’s J.J. Abrams.  With Doctor Who, it’s Steve Moffat.  And with Batman, (and really comics in general), it’s Frank Miller.  However, one has to remember that once upon a time that Frank Miller was once as celebrated and praised as highly other comic book writers like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Scott Snyder, and Geoff Johns.  This is, after all, the man who redefined Daredevil, writing what have been some of the most definitive arcs of the character and wrote Batman: Year One; a story that is not only often referred to as the definitive origin story of Batman but hailed as one of the greatest Batman story arcs of all time, often above other classic arcs like The Killing Joke or Miller’s own The Dark Knight Returns; a book that helped reshape the entire superhero genera and geared it towards a more adult audience in a medium that was almost exclusively marketed towards children.  

                                      

            Unfortunately as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.  After this point in his carrier, Miller would go on to write the Sin City series that’s quality varied depending on what book you were reading and after finishing his work on the series the man seemed to have lost his mind.  No one is entirely sure when or why it happened but some time in-between finishing his work on Sin City and starting work on The Dark Knight Strikes Again, (the first sequel to The Dark Knight Returns), the man’s writings began to resemble what can only be described as homophobic, misogynistic, Islamaphobic fan fiction of Frank Miller’s earlier work by a sexually repressed fifteen year-old who fully embraced the Post 9/11 Paranoia.  The Dark Knight Strikes Again was his first work in what you might call the “modern Miller” period and was such an un-engaging mess that I remember next to nothing about it outside of the ridiculousness and sheer hilarity of Superman being the man that “tamed” Wonder Woman and a sequence where the two had sex and it caused earthquakes, tidal waves and tsunamis, (OUR HEROES EVERYBODY!). 

Then came All Stars Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder; a story that featured Batman as an insane, arrogant psychopath who physically and emotionally abused a traumatized Dick Grayson right after his parents died, is a complete jerk to other superheroes for no apparent reason, seems to take joy in causing extreme pain and crippling injuries to the criminals he fights, is only in the story when Miller felt like putting him in, as well as containing healthy dose of misogyny and something else we hadn’t seen before but continues to infect Miller’s work to this day; laziness.  This is something that a lot of people seem to forget but around this time Miller got increasingly lazy.  During its run the series would produce 10 issues that took over three years to finish, with the book featuring several unwarranted splash pages that required Miller to so significantly less writing and leave the heavy lifting to artist Jim Lee.  This laziness would continue into his book Holy Terror, a book that actually was bad Batman fan fiction, featuring Batman and Catwoman knockoffs fighting terrorists, once again, full of inept storytelling, misogyny, some of the most sadistic torturing of characters ever done in a Miller comic, unwarranted splash pages and a massive helping of Islmaphobia that had yet to be featured in Miller’s works and completely destroyed any credibility Miller had as a writer and annihilated any goodwill he had left over from his earlier days .

The cover should tell you all you need to know...

With all of this in mind, it begs the question as to why DC is producing a new book for such a disgraced writer.  One could make the argument that the people in charge at DC remember the man as the promising young writer who reshaped the medium into what it is today.  Perhaps he made a good pitch for the story and the man is gearing for a comeback, however unlikely.  Unfortunately, the answer that I have is a bit more cynical; money.  Like it or not, whenever Miller’s name is brought up people pay attention and people will automatically generate free press for DC whether it’s good or not.  Just the announcement of a sequel to the work will probably have people read or re-read the original and its sequel and in all likelihood, boost sales for the older books.  As for the upcoming book itself, odds are that, despite Miller’s recent track record it will sell fairly well for various reasons.  Some will probably pick it up because they are genuinely curious as to how the story is going to end, (which tend to be the audience sequels go after).  Some will pick it up simply because it’s a Batman comic and they tend to be the best sellers at DC.  And some like myself will probably read it just to discover what a train wreck it is or might be.

The strange thing about this whole endeavor is that I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.  With a title like The Master Race one can only assume that Miller has gone from misogyny and Islampobia to straight up Nazism and I’m almost eager to see what madness he concocted.  You see, in spite of his fall of grace, Miller has become something of a novelty act in comics.  People go through similar falls in the film, novel and videogame industry all the time but you don’t see it that often in comics and never to such an extreme degree.  So if nothing else, I can enjoy the novelty of seeing the continued decay of comic’s former greats and laughing at the sheer insanity that he produces.  But there is part of me that is thinking and hoping that the book might actually be good.  I remember reading The Dark Knight Returns and enjoying it and thinking how untouchable Batman: Year One was as a Batman origin story and I kind of want the old Miller back.  For the first time, Miller has a co-writer in the form of Brian Azzarello who has a decent, if not flawless, track record and I’m curious to see what he brings to the table.  The book is due for release this fall and I for one cannot wait to see what it turns out to be.

So until next time, please follow the site and follow me on twitter and come back next time.  Until then, this is Griff the Ghost, signing off.