Frank Millers DC

[Doug Barr]

On the website, There are 2 excellent Superman stories written by Elliot Maggin that include the Green Lanterns Mythos. I don't know much about Green Lantern after Hal Jordan, since the early 70s I guess.
Did you guys like Frank Millers "DK2"? A lot of people didn't, I guess. I thought it was great, better than the 1st book in fact. I hear he (Frank Miller) is doing another 'Batman' book, I hope it picks up from the story-line from "DK2", with a little more of Hal Jordan's situation. For instance, was that Oa he was living on when he was contacted by Batman?
I wish there was a GL site that was similar to superman,ws , but the affordable new 'Showcase Presents' edition has most of the essential stories. But the thing that is so great about the Superman site is that whoever runs it knows what he's doing, he knows there are many people who have lost touch with comics, & he updates us with what I assume are some of the best of what we missed (Judging by the stuff he has from the 60s-70s it is safe to assume the later issues are the best from those years).
One last thing, I don't know if you ever read a book called 'The Comic Book Heroes, From The Silver Age to the Present' 1985 By Will Jacobs & Gerald Jones. As a kid I was almost exclusively a Marvel fan. This book completely changed me around. I had always thought the 'Superman' books were far more juvenile than what Marvel was doing. I pretty much stayed away from DC until Jack Kirby Moved there, so I missed a lot. That book made it clear that it was DC all along who was coming out with the original ideas, which Marvel would imitate, then have the nerve to imply that DC copied them! Remember "Not Brand Echhh? Give me a break.
But in a way I am glad I didn't read much DC back then, because with these graphic novels coming out reprinting the stories, I am able to look foreword to them NOW.
Oh well, thanks for your time Have a good day
Sincerely Doug Barr dbarr24@aol.com or, douglas_barr_24@aol.com

[Permanus]

I actually liked DK2, and thought I was the only person who did until I read your post. I still prefer the first one, but I liked the mayhem of the sequel -- it had that frenetic, relentless quality that Miller does so well (as in his Elektra series of the mid or late 80s). I especially loved the way it brought back the JLA as a bunch of seasoned, confident veterans, old hands at this saving-the-world jazz. And, like DK1 satirised the TV age so well, this made glorious fun of the internet age.

Oh yeah, and it had Kandor in it.

I don't think it was supposed to be Oa Hal was living in. The artwork was so loose, it could have been just about anywhere. Wherever it is, they seem to have pet dinosaurs, so it could be the set of The Flinstones for all I know.

[JulianPerez]

I have only read the first issue of DKSA2, but what I saw looked great: we had the aforementioned appearance of Kandor, the Atom, the Flash being saved by a cheetah-looking catgirl, and so forth. Though I dig Barry Allen wearing running shorts - it makes sense considering the Flash's speed, and it's surprising no one else thought of it before.

It looked like it had everybody: Supergirl, the Atom, the Question, Elongated Man, Green Arrow. But there was one character that usually appears in Frank Miller's work that seemed nowheere to be found:

Ayn Rand.

Didn't Winston Churchill say that if you're a conservative and young, you have no heart, but if you're a liberal and old, you have no brain?

I think that ALL-STAR BATMAN proved rather effectively that Frankie has neither heart nor brain.

Frank Miller though, seems to have wised up from the days when he had Batman whip out a tank and machine gun kids, fueled by Rambo-style flashbacks. He said in interviews that he wonders the same thing the rest of us are wondering: "where have all our heroes gone?" And that is a step in the right direction.

Anyway, the guys that love DARK KNIGHT RETURNS to death hate DKSA. And that's the greatest reason I've ever heard for buying it.

[Permanus]

Actually, later in the series, there is a pretty direct reference to Ayn Rand, which takes place during a heated argument between Green Arrow and The Question, during which it becomes clear that The Question thinks she didn't go far enough.

I have only read the first two issues of All-Star Batman, which left me with two questions: first, why did I bother finishing the first one, and second, having read the first one, why did I get the second?

[JulianPerez]

Actually, later in the series, there is a pretty direct reference to Ayn Rand, which takes place during a heated argument between Green Arrow and The Question, during which it becomes clear that The Question thinks she didn't go far enough.

While I have only read the FIRST issue of DKR2, from what I read there was nothing in there to indicate that Miller is writing a commercial for Objectivism this time around, a real improvement from the mostly unreadable Randroid pap fantasy that DKR-1 was, featuring an evil powerdressing Feminazi replacing Commissioner Gordon and making Batman a crook.

The reference to Rand shown above with the Question doesn't show that Randish themes are present in DKR2. It seems, according to the context, that Miller's just using a reference to Rand to characterize the Question and show his character.

[Permanus]

Yes, the sequel is certainly not objectivist -- there's no longer that feeling of one-man-against-the-system; on the contrary, Batman is surrounded by allies at every turn. They're still fighting a corrupt system (headed by Lex Luthor, in this case), of course, but more in a spirit of joyous revolution than the individualistic nihilism of Rand. I imagine Miller chose to underscore this by turning the uncompromising Question into a figure of fun.