After five or so years of gestation , the in writing novel that was once titled Holy Terror , Batman ! is finally in stores . Was it worth the delay ? Goodness , no .
Even though Holy Terror was conceived as an uncompromising propaganda art object by The Dark Knight Returns source Frank Miller , it betray even at that incredibly canonic job . This book does n’t titillate or grind away up righteous craze . All it does is prompt us of how good Frank Miller used to be .
When Holy Terror , Batman ! was first harbinger , the high - concept selling dot was Batman clobbering Osama bin Laden with a right hook . Readers were promise a throwback to World War II , whenCaptain America would sock Hitlerand everyone would urge their lungs out . Back then , it was unclear if HTB ! would be self - cognisant kitsch , staring polemicist , or at least an acknowledgement of the historic tradition of superheroes intervening in real - populace conflicts .
Holy Terror , Batman ! was supposed to be crafted under the breastplate of DC editor Bob Schreck , but Schreck was lay off from DC and became the editor - in - chief of Legendary Comics . Miller keep abreast Schreck , and HTB ! was forced to jettison its Battiness . Not that this change of imprint mattered . For all intents and purposes , this is a Batman story — you just necessitate to use your imagination .
For example , “ The Fixer ” is the goddamn Batman from All - Star Batman and Robin and “ Natalie Stack ” is Catwoman — it ’s the reader ’s business to picture the petty triangle above their head . likewise , “ Dan Donegal ” is “ Jim Gordon ” and “ Empire City ” is Gotham . Given that these are DC character with pseudonym , Miller does n’t bother with word picture . He also pitch in a Mossad mercenary and two ninja assassins ( dark glasses of Miho from Sin City , Miller even compose a metatextual throwaway argumentation recognize this link ) .
This is familiar dominion for Miller . It ’s so intimate that it feels recycled . The curtain raising make - out seance between the Fixer and Nataliefeels cribbedfrom All - Star Batman and Robin . Miller ’s depiction of Al - Qaeda is so cartoonish — razor blade bombs and corrupted police commissioners ! — that it could be any one of the shadowy cabals from Sin City .
This fictionalisation of Al - Qaeda guts Holy Terror of any emotional resonance . Miller does n’t draw the terrorists as any tangible - world terror . No , they ’re James Bond scoundrel who materialize to yell “ Jihad ! ” a mass . The goofiness of the baddie make the Fixer a piss - wretched avatar for retaliation — you might as well be exhort him on as he fights COBRA or Goldfinger ’s henchman .
The art further chipping aside at any propaganda note value . recall , this is a city eviscerate by late Frank Miller , so look theatrical role with fists the size of it of fax machines leap through inkblots and chiaroscuro rainstorm . It ’s an intentionally muddled , scritchy - scratchy book .
I infer Miller was attempting to depict the firsthand chaos of a terrorist attack , but barring a control panel in which an substitute Statue of Liberty is knock over , the reader has no clew what ’s happening spatially . It ’s hard to be terrorized by black - and - livid geometry ball up up .
The thing is , Miller can soak up cities . Anyone who ’s read his running on Daredevil know this . And Frank Miller has written good comics , so why he chose to write an incoherent superhero story that equates Islam wholesale with act of terrorism and ( literally ) undercover secret societies is beyond me .
Holy Terror could have succeeded as either a punch intoxicated , sarcastic update of World War II propaganda comics or a superhero conspiracy tale in the vein of Sin City . Instead , Miller ’s mixed the two and confuse in a reek dollop of “ war of civilizations ” rhetoric . Insultingly price ( $ 30 for a plotless wafer of a vivid novel ) , ideologically troglodytic , and way less sport than Ronnie James Dio’s“Holy Diver,”Holy Terror is a goddamn mess .
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