Word: superheroism
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Satisfying your superhero jones can be tough when you're a comix snob like me. Finding a book with the right combination of highbrow intelligence and lowbrow kicks has gotten nearly impossible. Fortunately the world still has Alan Moore, the English comicbook writer who first achieved stateside acclaim in the 1980s with "The Watchmen." For the last couple of years Moore has been the principle writer of multiple titles under the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm Productions (an imprint of DC Comics, a subsidiary of TIME.com's parent corporation, AOL Time Warner). Out of the various projects, "League...
...still stunned by my childhood superhero, especially when I consider her deftness in the art of multi-tasking. In her world of non-reality, Jem did more for orphans than most dedicated volunteers. But even with these achievements, Jem inspires my adoration for a different accomplishment—namely, being the best female role model in the rock industry I’ve seen to date. Her personal life was intact and PG—we all knew that Jerrica/Jem would be forever faithful to her hunky boyfriend-cum-stage-manager Rio. Even when Jem whipped out the overly-skimpy...
...only has the focus shifted from the first "Dark Knight," but the tone as well. Incredibly, Miller has become more cynical. The theme of the book seems to be peoples' need for "heroes," or rather, their mindless need for leaders. There are few heroics in this supposedly "superhero" book. Even Superman, famously incorruptible, undergoes a massive change of character that, at the end, turns him into a fascist. Seeing Miller handle characters this way has the same empty appeal as watching a sandcastle get kicked over. The Batman of the first series personified a man on edge: cruel yet tempered...
...always enjoy the art. As with the first "Dark Knight," Miller does the pictures as well as words. His style has gotten goofier in the intervening years. He mixes traditional superhero tropes like broad shoulders and rippling muscles with absurd caricature elements like giant feet and hands. Lex Luthor looks like a Mr. Potato-Head who wears nothing but boxer shorts and hi-top Converse sneakers. Miller shares top billing with the colorist, Lynn Varley, who mixes digitized effects with traditional coloring in clever ways. One scene has Superman standing amid the ruble of Metropolis, where even the colors have...
...Were it not for the importance and maturity of "Dark Knight Returns," "The Dark Knight Strikes Again," could get away with merely being a superior superhero book. It has all your favorite characters presented in fun new ways with exiting, dynamic action scenes. But where the first series gave a new vision of the superhero in the time of Reaganomics, its follow-up doesn't match that boldness. It's too bad since in this post-9/11 world, the time is ripe for a re-examination of our heroes...