I had a conversation about reviewing webcomics, and it’s also a suggestion I’ve received via e-mail the past few weeks. I appreciate the suggestion, but I won’t be doing that, for a number of reasons,
1. I don’t think there’s any point in reviewing something that is available for free. A review helps you decide whether or not to make a purchase.
2. People don’t take reviews of webcomics seriously because, when it’s been done in the past, it’s been done maliciously - simply to rile people up. There’s a serious credibility deficit, unfortunately.
On to the reviews! The first one is a Frank Miller recommendation in sharp contrast to the negative review I gave last week. They’re both a little shorter than usual - apologies, it’s been a busy few weeks with all the projects on my plate.
DARK KNIGHT RETURNS
by Frank Miller
The deal: Dark Knight Returns is a miniseries from DC that has been collected into a trade paperback. The cover design is very cool, with a modern aesthetic take on the original art that speaks volumes.
The summary: Dark Knight Returns is about an aging Batman’s return to the streets and rooftops after a ten year absence. In the time since he “left”, Batman has become even more of an urban legend. Crime has proliferated and evolved; most of the old villains are locked up in Arkham, but now it’s gangs of young people that rule the streets. Something inside Bruce Wayne (although it’s argued that he’s always been Batman) claws and screams, and suddenly an aging 50 year old Batman is swinging through the city to recapture Harvey Dent (a supposedly re-habilitated Two-Face). Batman begins to systematically clean out Gotham City. His age and lack of understanding of the new generation are constantly apparent. He faces off against the Joker and even Superman, which ultimately brings the book to a dramatic conclusion. This all happens against the backdrop of the Cold War and the Reagan era, and the role that politics and the media play within the story still seem surprisingly relevant today.
The review: Dark Knight Returns is arguably Frank Miller’s break-out work. He was the one who reinvented Batman from the Adam West Superfriend to the character he is today. Even reading it now, outside of the context of the time period it was written in (and that’s very important), it’s clear that Miller was approaching the character from an entirely different viewpoint than everyone else. Why write about an aging Batman, past his prime? Because it’s damn interesting, for starters. Miller uses the book to show the dichotomy of method between Superman and Batman as well, and while it’s clear he has no real affection for Superman, his argument as to why the character is flawed is interesting. Likewise, his grounding superheroes in the context of politics and the media is also interesting, and definitely a symptom of the times - Ronald Reagan shows up more than once, and the media argues about Batman’s morality for pages upon pages. A younger Robin, an older Joker, and the new danger: gangs, represented in this story as the Mutants. The generation gap is obvious, too - Miller plays on this, making Batman out to be a sly, hardened old man outside his time, who slowly but surely begins to grasp how he can bring his own image into the new age.
It’s also worth reading Dark Knight Returns simply as evidence of pop culture during the 80s - it’s a neat view into what people thought the future when projecting off of their current events, and moreover it functions as a rather strong reactionary piece.
The recommendation: If you like comics but reading superhero comics is like pulling teeth for you, you may want to give this a shot - it is not your typical approach. I actually recommend it highly, simply because it was such a pivotal book when it came out. As a side note, don’t mix this up with Dark Knight Strikes Again - two completely different books.
from DC, American Comics, $14.99 ($10.19 on Amazon right now), 224 pages
INCREDIBLE CHANGE-BOTS
by Jeffrey Brown
The deal: Incredible Change-bots is a small format book (6.3 x 5.1″) from Top Shelf Productions. It is full-color, and printed on nice thick glossy page stock.
The summary: Incredible Change-bots is about a group of sentient machines from Electronocybercircuitron. On this planet, there are two major political parties - the Awesomebots and the Fantasticons, led by Big Rig and Shootertron respectively. They destroy their own planet and thus board a ship to Earth, where their battle continues with their new human allies.
The review: You’re either laughing after reading that summary, or you’ve already closed your browser. For those of you still with me, I just want to say, Incredible Change-bots makes me laugh my ass off. It’s a pretty direct parody of Transformers, but it’s done like a little kid would do it - all the drawings are somewhat askew and the whole thing appears to have been meticulously colored with Crayola markers. The author manages to sneak a few political/religious/social jokes in there, but for the most part it’s silly versions of typical Transformers tropes, stilted dialogue, and robots questioning their own sexuality. Epic robot fights, moments of nostalgic tribute, and bouts of morality abound. In short, it is good, dumb fun. I keep flipping through it and noticing little details in the background. The pictures alone are enough to make one laugh out loud, and the glossy stock the book is printed on makes it very nice to look at.
My one gripe would have to be that the binding is in Japanese, and that makes it hard to spot on a shelf - look for a small book with blue Japanese characters on the binding.
The recommendation: If you’re looking for something fun and easy to read, and you are or were a Transformers fan, find this book and give it a shot. The humor can be a little bizarre at times and it’s not for everyone, but there’s definitely an audience for this book and you might be it.
from Top Shelf Productions, American Comics, $15.00 ($11.70 on Amazon right now), 144 pages
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Rant, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I still have my copy of Dark Knight Returns when it first came out in paperback a long time ago. Still my favorite.
I didn’t read it until much later, but it’s been one of my favorite books since I picked it up. :D I kept hearing about it and finally gave it a shot.
I’m up entirely too early. Anyway, is Dark Knight Returns a novel, then? Or is it still a comic book? As for the incredible change bots, I approve of it so long as it doesn’t claim to be original. Other than that, one of my favorite shows is a knockoff (Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, to be precise). And anything with the word electronocybercircuitron is either stupid beyond imagining, hysterical, or both. I mean, the awesomebots and the fantasticons? Wow. Pretty brazen.
DKR is a graphic novel! And hahaha, Incredible Change-bots by no means claims to be the original. It says on the inside back cover that it is partly a work of nostalgia. XD Brazen is the word. XD
Comic - WHAM! + darker colors = Graphic Novel.
I’m proud to say I own the orignal issues of Dark Knight. Comics at that time were awesome, how writers and artists were exploring new avenues of story lines, ie the Vertigo line like Sandman. Gaimen is still my hero as a writer.
Wow, that’s very cool!
And yeah, Sandman is one of the things I want to write about, but I think I’ll have to reread it.
Ever read Good Omens? It was admittedly more Terry Pratchett than it was Neil Gaimen, but it was still awesome. Anansi Boys rocked pretty hard, too. Still haven’t gotten hold of Sandman, which apparently is the best thing ever. Go figure.
I actually haven’t … I’ve read American Gods, Fragile Things, and Neverwhere. I liked American Gods, Fragile Things was neat, but I wasn’t crazy about Neverwhere. I think Yuko has Good Omens, so I’ll see if I can’t take a look at that.
you have to read Good Omens - it is a work pure genius (although there are some very english jokes in there which might bypass anyone not from the uk)
also - Sandman is currently being re-published in huge collected volumes as The Absolute Sandman - they cost a fortune but are well worth it - most of the pages have been recoloured and they’re very high quality. only trouble is not quite so easy to read on the way to work or school any more
If you’re still looking for more great Miller writing in the superhero genre, pick up Daredevil : The Man without Fear - it probably has some of his best work with the character. He turned a lame hero into one of the darkest vigilantes during his run.
Miller has some good stuff and bad stuff - but in order to judge his work as a whole, you have to look beyond his mainstream stuff - everyone knows about Sin City and Batman and now 300, but check out his other one-offs like Ronin, and Hard Boiled.
Ronin was interesting - not familiar with Hard Boiled! His Daredevil run was a lot of fun.
The thing about Miller’s stuff is that it gets tiresome for me to read after a while. His style is very distinct, but I can only read about grit and guts and glory and whores for so long before needing a break. Sin City is actually one my most and least favorite of his works … most because it is very pure Frank Miller, and least because there’s only so much of pure Frank Miller I can take before I start to hit my head against a desk. It’s mood reading, for sure.
Agreed. I actually bought 4 of the Sin City books to get me through a bus ride, and by the time I hit the 4th book I was having a hard time getting through it - not because it wasn’t good, but mainly because it was exactly like you’ve described - too much.
If you’re looking into Hard Boiled, just note that its ultra-violent in spots and it isnt exactly his greatest work - theres a few continuity problems and some odd jumps in the story. But its different.
Noted about Hard-Boiled!
I’m glad someone agrees with me on Sin City. The movie was very cool, and it was awesome to see how well the comic moved to the big screen, but suddenly everyone couldn’t say a bad word about anything Miller. Sometimes I wonder if he isn’t doing All Star Batman & Robin to remind people to be critical …
Very nice review, although it was actually your review of the other Miller books that convinced me to look into purchasing this title. Ironic, perhaps.
I hope you will forgive me for being a history dweeb for a moment, but Frank Miller was really just a culminating point of the gritty turn in Batman. Through the 70’s other writers had been taking Batman in the noir direction. All that Miller did was write a book that the media could point to and say “here is the saviour of Batman, blah, blah, blah, now for the weather.”
I really enjoy this new review thing you have been doing for the past few months. It certainly helps bring some interesting and overlooked stuff to the surface.
No, thanks for bringing that up! It’s true what you say, but I think Miller deserves some credit for giving the media something so drastically different that they couldn’t help but latch onto it. His treatment of the Cold War and the media within DKR was pretty reactionary and negative, and people took note.
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it! I’m going to try staying away from big titles like this in favor of the little books that slip under the radar next week, if I can swing it.
Dark Knight is so beautiful. Although I’m neither a Frank Miller fan or comic/graphic novel expert, I love both history and Batman. The combination of both, along with decent plot and characterisation, made me love the Dark Knight series.
It’s hard to believe that the author who did this huge step forward from the SLAM! BANG! WANK! for Batman is the same person who provoked twenty HUGE steps back for the very same character with this GODDAMN BATMAN bull he created later on. It sounds more like a joke than the truth, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Unfortunately.
I agree, and at the same time, I’m sort of cautiously waiting to see if he isn’t pulling a fast one on us - either by developing something within the book only to knock it down, or simply with the book itself. I just get the feeling he’s too smart to do something like this and only have it work at face value.
Of course, his upcoming book Holy Terror! Batman is about him fighting Al Qaeda after they bomb Gotham City, and he’s openly admitted to that just being a propaganda peace reminiscent of the comics that came out during World War II (with Superman and Captain America fighting alongside the troops).
I actually remember the DKR series when it was brand new too. That was back when the TMNTs didn’t eat pizza and were still in black and white. It was amazing. There was something über cool about Batman being angry and cold. Now, in my old age, I find myself mumbling, “Stupid. Doddering. Useless. Lucky. LUCKY. LUCKY old man.”
Don’t get old, you guys. Keep up the good work.
Hahaha, that’s one of my favorite quotes … just when you think, hell yes, he’s back, he goes and reminds you that he’s also an old man now. I can’t imagine how cool it must have been to be reading these comics as they were coming out. I do remember when TMNT didn’t eat pizza.
I took a look at your link-through - your photography is beautiful. I liked the red sign and the girl in the gas mask - so surreal - but they all look very nice.
I’d be curious to hear your take on the sequel stuff that Miller did to the original series, DK2. I wasn’t as intrigued, but my eye is maybe getting old. And for what it’s worth, have a look at Bill Seinkiewicz’s Stray Toasters and share. I remember that as one of my all time favorite series.
And thanks for the looking!
I’ll be sure to check out Stray Toasters! As for DK2, that’s the Dark Knight Strikes Again, right? I wasn’t crazy about it … it seemed like the same ideas reappeared and got rehashed in a slightly different way. I get the feeling that since DKR was so successful, maybe DC handed a check too big to ignore to create a sequel … I just feel like everything worth saying ended up in DKR.
Loved DKR. You should probably review The Long Halloween (which is what the movie is loosely based on) or Dark Victory. Or both :3.
Also, Watchmen. Watchmen NOW!
All three of those are good! I’d have to reread them, but I’ll make a note of it … I have to get back to non-superhero, especially non-Batman stuff for a little while.
I agree, the Watchman! And possibly “V for Vendetta”.
i gots his autograph and sketch bwahahha