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Is it me, or is this ongoing thing about homophobia in Miller's work getting tiring? Has Miller ever supported anything vaguely homophobic or anti-gay? Or is it, because a character says something, it must be the author's opinion? Does this mean he'd like his boyfriend to burn his bullet-hole decorated corpse someday? Orgasm at a piano in front of well-dressed audience? Eat a woman's hand while she watches?
Seriously, if there's a real, Miller himself, backing for this sort of thing, than I'll shut up, sit down, and... mumble under my breath about how I'm right anyway - but, there doesn't seem to be.
Are we to assume Millar hits NYC like a fratboy from hell? Moore guts prostitutes for religious purposes? Morrison does acid on a mesa and talks about bats keeping insects from taking over the world? Ellis likes transhumanist ideas, just because some pink annoying cloud of smart dust hypes a Canadian technofetishist?
Yeah, okeh, there's some cross-over, but still...
To cull this back to what I really wanted to post on: Dammit, I loved this book! Issue one really didn't sell me, but I got the other two for ridiculously cheap in NY, sometime later, and it was so fun! Big, loud, silly... and every time something important is brought up (Political scandal! Child abuse! The change in the world Bats brought on!) it is instantly brushed aside for a big flashy splashpage! Flash's bunny ears, 'children pull on your tights!', the S-shield over ass, the inane popstar newscoverage and commentary... how is this not cool?
But, but, this was already done, with superheroes fighting government, right? Like four times!
And superheroes haven't been beating up muggers and some poor idjit hitting a bong, over and over again? How come there's a limit on how many times one thing happens, but not another?
I even liked the Robin bits at the end. I was probably the only one, but yeah, I liked it. It was funny, poignant, and I mean... if Batman can run with the gods with no powers, nothing other than his brain, his determination, and his shitloads of cash, why can't we all? Aside from the cash, which I don't think Bats absolutely needs, anyway. Like Dane says, in the Invisibles 'I can think of loads better ways to get cash'. And then we get Robin, Dick, who tried to run with the gods and fell behind. He gets modified and enhanced (and let's not turn this into a U-Man-style, is he critiquing/insulting body mod types) and he still can't hack it. Batman demands the best out of everyone, and it's not entirely about doing as he says, either. If someone disobeyed but did better (Robin/Catgirl/Carry/Batmanima to Batman's Batmanimus), I think he'd be proud, rather than ticked. Well, ticked at himself, but that's because it's all his game, his war, his agenda, his duty to save.
The Robin thing was funny, tragic, and involved beheading, so was I sold on it. Batman doesn't want worshipers, he wants a world of equals, and Grayson just couldn't cut it.
And I loved the art! The shapes, the colors, the big loud nonsense of it all! Flash's stupid black running shorts, and Wonder Woman's warrior side coming out in the costume, Superman's continued evolution of shapes and presentation throughout the whole, the bit with The Atom early on... the cover to the third book is the best Batman image I can cull to mind. Purest Batman, I mean. |
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