Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Tradio #32 - Holy Terror

Welcome back to Tradio!  This week we talked about the much maligned little graphic novel by legendary creator Frank Miller entitled Frank Miller's Holy Terror, published by Legendary Comics.
Holy Terror is a through back to a bygone age of when chaste love and innocence were the norm and comics dealt with real people and their real feelings.  Holy Terror is like a Nicholas Sparks novel brought to life is full color, graphic novel form.  After reading it, you will want to hold your loved ones close and have a good cry of joy for the feelings you have for them and the love you share.

Ok...ok...that is bullshit...and so is this book.  From what it looks like, Frank Miller wrote and started drawing something that was basically another Dark Knight story, was told "Hell No!" and changed it just enough to keep himself out of hot water.  So "The Fixer" and Catwoman...err...I mean a cat burglar fight on a rooftop, make out and then get caught up in a terrorist plot to destroy Empire City, because that is what terrorists do.  The art is crap, the writing is crap, the lettering is even crap.  If someone people had never heard of wrote and drew this, it is very doubtful anyone would care.  I guess it might have made more of an impact if Miller had gotten to use Batman, but as it is, it is just a mess that is insulting and doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time.  Miller's crisp, clean art from Sin City has morphed into a sketchy, hard to follow mess and focuses on the cat burglar's eyes and shoes and nothing at all on the main character of The Fixer.  The dialogue switches back and forth between characters with little indication of who is talking in the thought balloons and don't even get me started about how unnecessary the James Gordon look-a-like is.  Overall, it is just a mess and will really leave you scratching your head as to the whys and hows of it all.


So...you might be able to tell, I didn't like this at all.  You know, I wanted to.  I have loved so much of Miller's work over the years and over the past few years his work has just been spiraling downhill.  I get it that his All-Star Batman and Robin was an ef-you to DC and the fanboys that wanted more of the same from him.  I get that The Dark Knight Strikes Again was a commentary on the culture of the time. I get that The Spirit was your "hey, I have Sam Jackson to do a movie for me".  But come on...you are better than this.  Or at least you were.  Don't leave us on this note, Frank.

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