The Spirit of the Dark Knight

(image courtesy of Topless Robot)

Our family movie post Christmas was The Dark Knight which my brother had yet to see. It brought me great joy to see him experience this for the 1st time as we are both fans of the character. There are so many perfect elements in it, perfect in the sense of film making and in representation of the character. The Long Halloween, Batman Year One, Gotham Central, The Killing Joke are all great Batman stories and you see a little of them in these moments and characters. There's also a sense of no matter how much you fight, things end up ruined and corrupt and it's certainly a reflection of the decade we're about to leave. You can start to get a sense that like the 70's, the 00's will not be all rosy nostalgia. the 1970's brought us some great cinema and it's bleak and dark tones were a reflection of the times. I believe the Dark Knight reflects our world view as well and serves as a dismal final chapter to a Superhero decade that started with the bright and happy Spider man film of 2002.

That brings me to the Spirit, which I have been recoiling at since the first teaser images. From what I've seen and heard, it serves as neither quality film making nor justice to an icon of comic books (hence the parody poster above). My venom for this movie comes from several sources.

1. I have a strong sense of respect for the old guard in any walk of life and the Spirit is a very important character in the movement of comic books. Miller has disrespected this icon. He says "I knew Will always wanted to do something fresh and new, not some stodgy old thing that aspires to be revered" Bullshit. This resembles the strip in no way imaginable. Go ahead and make this movie but call it something else. The live action of the Spirit SHOULD be revered.
2. The visual style which is Sin City through and through. I've heard the arguments that it isn't and I don't accept that. The thing looks like Sin City 1.5 and it makes Miller look like a one trick pony.
3. Why is Frank Miller ruining things!?!?!? This is the dude that created Elektra, Sin City, revived Daredevil, wrote The Dark Knight Returns AND Batman Year One which is an inspiration for The Dark Knight. More on this in my next post.

gonna end this with another quote from Miller:

"That may be a bit of a sore spot, though. Eisner's humanistic and often gentle, Capra-like approach to his character has many comics fans wondering why Miller -- famous for spilling vats of blood-red ink in his comics -- is taking the old man's winking Spirit into a Sin City. Miller welcomes all that.

"I'm sure when this movie comes out, it will stir up a fiery debate," the artist-turned-auteur said. "People have been loving the way comic books have been reaching the screen, but I don't like when everybody drinks the Kool-Aid. I like to shake things up and tell the story the best way possible. And I can tell you first hand, that's what Will Eisner liked too.""

Well Congrats, Frank. You got the several hundred people that The Dark Knight didn't work for into the theater. I'm fine with drinking this cool aid.

Batman Resting in Pieces, pt 2

OK this is my second take, I scrapped a rather long continuation of the 1st part of the article after reading a detailed article on all the past Batman stories Morrison is referencing here . I wasn't aware to the extent Morrison was referencing old Batman stories. I came to the revelation that most of the flaws in this big story Morrison attempted is that he's trying to cull together way too many wild Batman stories into a coherent narrative. He gets away with it in All Star Superman and I think that has something to do with the difference in character. But mostly Morrison took the approach he often does and he threw a lot of ideas at the wall and hoped that they'd stick. In this case they didn't but it's provided us with many great stories in the past. That reassures me but I still wish for the better story that might have been. As for my take on RIP, the final chapter, I'd like to use my comment from Geof Klock's blog:

I've been reading a lot of blogs, web reviews and message boards concerning Batman 681 and several of its supporters are trying to pass it off as being so good that it's over the heads of our casual readers. Mr. Klock is well versed in all things Morrison and has provided me insight on a Morrison story or two so I think his disapproval carries weight. I, too, am a Morrison fan and found his entire run to be disjointed and obtuse. The major issue in RIP isn't the never ending battle. I've seen plenty of modern storytellers give amazing swan songs on mainstream books. Peter David (Hulk), Brian Michael Bendis (Daredevil), Geoff Johns (Flash) and Mark Millar (Ultimates) to name a few. People are reacting to failed expectations. Expectations that Morrison and DC put in our heads to begin with. Morrison and DC promised a reveal of the Black Glove that was someone from Batman's 70 year history and it would rock his foundation to the core. Instead we were given a cliche' battle and an ambiguous ending where the identity of the Black Glove was open to your own interpretation. Ambiguous is acceptable but don't build it up like a mystery reveal. Morrison promised us a healthier 1970's hairy chested Batman. Instead we again got an obsessed maladjusted man who'd put himself in isolation chambers for days and creates backup schitzo personalities tucked within the folds of his brain (By the way, what type of stable backup personality is the Batman of Zur En Arhh?). We were told Morrison and Kubert but instead were left with Tony Daniel who just doesn't have the chops for a Morrison script. Quitely would've helped, but I still believe Morrison's story is severely flawed. Im my mind, the group that delivers the knockout punch to Bruce Wayne is the classic rogues gallery we've built up over the years. Call is the Batman revenge squad and you can even have The Black Glove run them. Instead we're treated to this lame club of villains. Where are Two-face and the Riddler? We're told Batman's magically rounded up all the criminals at the start of Morrison's run. That's a cop out. At least in New X-Men Morrison new Magneto had to be the grand finale. He does use the Joker, but after seeing Ledger's haunting performance, we're left underwhelmed. An emaciated too tall and thin joker with slick hair and a bullet scar just isn't gonna cut it.
Gonna wrap it up with this: many of the positive reviews on RIP have said that this story is a testament to the awesome power of the legend of the Batman. If that's the case, then Batman should emerge from the Gotham river, dragging Dr. Hurt with him. He throws him to the ground and with the Commissioner, Robin, Talia and Damien watching he unmasks him and explains how he had already figured out who the Black Glove really was. Morrison seems to wanna prove to us with all his inside baseball talk that he's read a lot of Batman stories. If that's the case, then he should realize that's how most those silver age Batman stories ended.

Batman, Resting in Pieces

I have a few tattoo's. In 2001 I had the Batman Symbol from 1993's Batman: Knightfall which tattooed my right shoulder muscle. I chose it because it is the image I remember from my first substantial trip to a comic book shop. It also represents the character who led me into comic books and my favorite work of pop art: The Batman Animated Series of 1992. In Knightfall, our Batman has been plagued by a new villain, Bane, who has broken out all the inmates out of the Arkham Asylum to soften Batman up for their ultimate fight. Bane breaks Batmans back and throws him down into the Gotham Streets and proclaims himself king. Regardless of the age with which I read this, that's still pretty badass. The Batman continues on with another newcomer, Azrael, taking up the mantle of the Bat with the aggressive attitude of the Image Comics heroes of that era. Az-Bats goes overboard and Bruce Wayne (with his eastern-philosophy-healed back) has to come back and reclaim the cowl. There seems to be a similar setup here at the end (for now?) of Grant Morrison's run on Batman. Again Bruce is MIA and it looks as if one of his protégé's will take over the mantle b4 a healed Bruce comes back to set the status quo. Unfortunately, the setup wasn't nearly as good as Knightfall's.


Back in mid 2006, Morrison was announced as the ongoing writer for Batman. As a Morrison follower, I was cautiously excited. His last big run on X-Men was uneven at times, But showed moments of brilliance. I really enjoyed the 1st arc, Batman and Son, which introduces Damian, the love child between Batman and Talia, one of Batman's Femme Fatales. My minor complaints would only be that Damian was quite annoying at times and it does make the Bat-cave a bit crowded with Damian and Tim Drake, our current Robin. However I liked Batman's characterization, the meta-textual aspects of the pop art museum and the rebuilding of the Bat-mobile, and the references to Zur-En-Arhh. Let’s leave Zur-En-Arhh alone for the moment.


However, Morrison would not return to the title until 5 issues later with a 1 shot prose piece concerning the Joker. The 4 month delay hurt the momentum of the book and fact that this book was prose with little action exasperated it. There was continuity in the fact that the Joker was shot in the 1st arc and we're dealing with the aftermath, but there's no mention of Damian and only a slight appearance of Batman. I don't think prose works well in what's deemed to be a "comic book". You're breaking the rules of the medium which angers decent portion of the weekly comic buying crowd and thus don't give the material a fair chance.


Next up is a three parter that introduces the idea of the black casebook. Morrison presents us with the idea that all the far-out and wild stories Batman had in the 1950's and 60's might have only been hallucinations brought on by Joker gas or the Scarecrow's fear Toxin and that these questionable stories go in his 'Black Casebook'. It's a decent trick and presented in true Morrison fashion. Morrison often unveils a new idea as established and without fanfare, which often leads the reader to feel like their two steps behind. The cop conspiracy ending didn't sit too well with me and again I feel like there's not much continuity here. There's no Damian nor Robin, and Bruce is operating out of his Penthouse rather than the cave. No discussion of the implications of Damian, no paternity test and no real impact on our Batman. Morrison claimed early on that he'd be returning Batman to a more well rounded person rather than the antisocial paranoid obsessive maniac he'd turned into in the hands of less capable writers. If that's the case, I think we should then devote a panel or two to Batman processing the idea of a long lost son with an old flame who may or may not be alive.


This is gonna be a long one so lets stop here and break this bad boy into parts.