Related
Warning : pillager for Absolute Batman # 6 ahead !
We ’re all familiar with Frank Miller ’s classical cover ofThe Dark Knight Returns , featuringBatmanleaping into activeness , silhouetted by the brainy grim lightning bolt that tears through the sky behind him . Frank Miller ’s work on Batman is iconic and revolutionized an era , but I ’d like to reason that the constant stream of references to his work — and this image in particular — is getting pretty stale .
Let Absolute Batman severalise its own story , create its own iconic moments , and win on its own merits .
The mirthful page below from Scott Snyder , Nick Dragotta , and Frank Martin’sAbsolute Batman # 6is one of the major moments that stands out in the issue . assay to prune off Black Mask ’s reign of terror over Gotham , Batman sequestrate the gangster ’s radical on a boat in Gotham Harbor and send away on him like a squash racquet out of pit , over with the lightning backdrop , chunky armor , giant boots , and all .
While it ’s certainly an appropriate look-alike for the no - holds - barred , henchman - back , smorgasbord of ferocity that follows , it come off asa reductive choice for theAbsoluteUniverse ’s supposed fresh startfor DC ’s lineament .
Frank Miller’s Legacy Has A Stranglehold On The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight ReturnsChanged Fan Perception of Batman With Its Darkness And Grit
The Dark Knight Returnsholds a fabled place in comic book history — and for good intellect . At a clock time when Batman was still defined bythe campy joke of Adam West’s“old chum”era in the 1966BatmanTV serial , Frank Miller ’s gritty , noir aesthetic and 1980s cynicism revitalise the fibre . The write up of Batman ’s war on crime in a mankind that has blend diffuse and spineless hearkens back to Batman ’s dark parentage while simultaneously elevating the character to a level of military capability , determination , and barbarism that had never been seen before .
Where Batman plump , the intact comics industriousness followed . The Dark Knight Returnsis largely credit for launching the"Dark Age"of comics , where violence and moral equivocalness ruled the day . In the long run , this earned run average proved healthy for the diligence , giving ascension to sports fan - best-loved characters like Venom and Lobo . hoagy were no longer enclose to being stock“good guys”—they set out questioning their own efficacy and lesson . However , the late ' 80s and 1990s were anything but nuanced . Grim and gritty became the standard , and in that era , you either got cynical or got out .
The Dark Knight Returns is one of the greatest Batman stories , and it seems that a raw universe is going the reverse of this iconic storyline .
The Dark Knight Returns Gave Fans a Batman Of Strength & Cynicism
Publishers Have Long Started Questioning This Vision of The Dark Knight
I , for one , am not especially a buff of Frank Miller ’s body of work . While I do n’t question its impingement , I disagree with much ofThe Dark Knight Returns ' worldview : gild is seen as soft and permissive , with politicians palter and excuse the rampant population of crook , who are depict as literal monster . Batman is presented as the one human who is strong enough to take action instead of talking about problems , the one human being who can do what we all dream of doing and resolve society ’s complaint with utmost violence . I personally see this as a reductive , bootleg - and - lily-white perspective .
Miller ’s cynical outlook has n’t hightail it the placard of comical Good Book publisher , either . InBatman ( 2016)#140 — by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez — it’sFrank Miller ’s version of Batmanthat ends up embodying Batman ’s sadistic " Zur - En - Arrh"alternate persona , playact as the ringleader for the other aspects of Zur inside Batman ’s judgement . Likewise , inThe Immortal Thor : Annual#1 — by Al Ewing , David Baldeón , and Federico Blee — Miller ’s iconic lightning dash ground is used to convey that the Italian sandwich Powerstone is an ultraviolent,“might - shuffle - right"buffoon . Miller ’s depiction of Batman is now used to turn down this sword of strongman superhero , not lionise it .
Batman’s Lightning Bolt Backdrop Is Overused
Absolute BatmanDeserves a New Vision, Not a Rehash of the Past
I was frustrated to see the lightning bolt scope inAbsolute Batmanbecause the series is supposed to be about new takes . DC ’s AbsoluteUniverse has been a smash collision , subverting what we eff about DC ’s authoritative heroes and giving them a new first . Writer Jason Aaron referred tothe AbsoluteUniverse as a placewhere " a basically different story than the DC Universe " can be secernate , cater newfangled viewpoint that are n’t bogged down by decades of traditional knowledge . If this is the end , why define this new interlingual rendition of Batman through a visual language that is nearly four decades dusty ?
Batman contains multitudes , and there ’s muckle of room across DC for different reading of the character , including gritty and hyperviolent rendition . But if the Absolute Universe is mean to provide a raw take on Batman as the one man hard enough to face the world ’s corruption , then allow it be just that — a fresh interpretation that support on its own . allow Absolute Batman tell its own report , create its own iconic moments , and succeed on its own deservingness . Batmanhas long since go past this unique visual sense of the eccentric from the 1980s , so please — permit ’s leave the lightning deadbolt backdrops in the past times .
Absolute Batman # 6is useable now from DC Comics !
