Dark Knight Strikes Again, the - Volume 2

Great comic. I lowered my rating bc “like new” isn’t accurate to the copy I received. Pretty obvious bend across the horizontal center of the book. Classic though. Easy sale for any Miller fan

I ordered both the Dark Knight Returns and the Dark Knight Strikes Again at the same time and my excitement at reading them was bursting through the roof. I read DKR first and I was blown away I loved the story and character interpretation, it was amazing. Then I got around to reading DKSA and the first couple of pages were great I thought it would only get better, it did story wise but the artwork couldn't compare to DKR because it got a little sloppier and rushed it seemed, but I still throughly enjoyed the story, even though I thought it focused more on other super heroes than Batman i.e. Superman and Wonderwoman. Nevertheless I like Frank Miller's writing and I still throughly enjoyed the book, I recommend it to all fans of the Dark Knight Returns, it's a bold interpretation of a dark world and a damn good story.

I devoured TDKR when I first got my hands on it and desperately hoped there was more. More thankfully came in the form of this fantastically stylized book. I can understand why old school comic fans are disappointed with this as a follow up, but personally, I prefer it. The art is about as colorful as I've ever seen Miller get, and it's gorgeous. The story, while continuing similar themes as its predecessor, takes them to new outlandish heights. It's the ultimate dystopian fantasy. Instead of leaving you sick to your stomach with this screwed up society of ours, it leaves you cheering on your feet for the old man bringing it all down around him. Miller takes all the old DC characters and flips them on their heads. It's a madhouse of color, conspiracy, and contradiction. I love it.

The Batman is Dead! So it begins with Frank Miller's latest exegesis into the infernal, night-gaunt machinations of Gotham's great Detective: the Black Prince, the Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne, billionaire socialite turned night-stalking Vigilante. Rebel, anarchist, crypto-fascist, psychopath, Terror that stalketh by Night. The Batman. RIP, no less. Anyway, when "Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again" lurches into garish, gory life, the Great Detective is no more: hounded to earth by the Feds, hunted as an unsanctioned rogue, scourged from the streets of the City he defended, cleansed, purified, ruled by Terror and Justice. Heart exploded. Vicki Vale writes up his society page epitaph, which means The Batman's death must be real: former Commissioner Gordon sputtering about how the City itself murdered Bruce Wayne, the Penguin blubbering, Selina Kyle telling Gordon to 'preach it', the Mayor, grabbing for a barf bag, bolting for the door. But what, really, is Death? If you're a bat, a creature of the Night and Justice and Vengeance, a scorned Rebel Angel, buried deep, waiting and plotting? DK2 is just plain twisted, warped, wonderful sick brilliance. Some---fans of the original Frank Miller masterpiece, even---have hurled acid barbs at this psychedelic little act of defiant genius, and declared it a contradiction of the Dark Knight Returns's neo-Gothic darkness. Get serious. Next to this little kaleidoscopic funhouse of Hell and High Water, "Dark Knight Returns" is a Boy Scout Jamboree. The Dark Knight Returns---don't get me wrong, a brilliant, wicked-lean piece of work---was an epic of pure, aged, smoldering Rage: Rage at a City whose works were rotten and clogged with Crime. Rage against the Predators tearing the flesh of the Innocent. But this: this, my friends, is a work of Pure Madness. It's something like---the Dark Knight Ends the World. No Deus ex Machina here---just pure Deus Ex. But let's back up for a second and talk about the vision: let's say you're Frank Miller. You---more than anything that came before---are pretty much single-handedly responsible for bringing The Batman back to life. So whaddya do for the second outing? More of the same? Not if you're Frank Miller. You go a little mad: you take risks. You retain colorist Lynn Varley, and you unleash a kind of psychotic aurora borealis of color into your pages, the darkness struck through with screeching greens, purples, reds, the colors of Armaggedon. And you spike this new world with the underpinnings of the Last Days: The Batman striking from Hell's Dark Heart at the Criminal Rulers of a not-so-Brave New World. So in a nutshell: it has been 10 long years since anything has been heard of the Dark Knight---and then, suddenly, his epitaph. Alfred's grave grows thick with weeds: his former Robin, Carrie Kelley, has doffed the cap and elf-boots and taken up the mantle of Catgirl. Crime is way down! Consumer confidence is way up! Democracy is on the March, batting dow

Don't listen to the detractors, Dark Knight Strikes Again is great comic. Sure the art is a little off, but that wasn't sloppiness on Miller's part, after reading the comic I'm convinced that he was trying to change his style. You'll get used to it, besides, the story is so good that you just can't help but want to finish the book. And you should. It should be on your shelf right next to the DKR (which is this books only real problem, it had the rotten luck of being a follow up to the greatest comic ever written, Dark Knight Returns.) Now, about those detractors. Some people were saying, "oh it's such a bad book and fuh-fuh-fuh nonsense." It's not, it's a great book, their is action and reason in this book. It's as deep, if not slightly deeper than DKR, even if it's depth isn't coded and hidden as well. And at some points, I think that may work against the book, because the political and social commentary is constantly in the reader's face to the point that it becomes difficult to seperate the two levels of writing (the simple, action story level, and the social commentary level), and I think being able to seperate the readings is important in the upper echelons of writing, where this book most certainly is. If you're expecting all Batman action, you may be a bit surprised, this is more of a JLA story, but what's really interesting about this book is that it seems to answer many questions Alan Moore's Watchmen asked. Some say Frank Miller was influenced by Watchmen by about the second part of his Dark Knight Returns. I'm just reporting rumor, but I think it's certainly true that he was influenced by Watchmen in writing this book because it's an answer to it. Frank Miller shows when superheroes actions are good and when they are bad, and he works at uncovering and enshrining the human spirit, the attitudes that drive us towards the good rather than the bad and whatever it is inside us that makes us want to grow and live and overcome (this is a common Frank Miller theme actually, in the same way Alan Moore can't seem to avoid politics, Frank Miller always looks at the human spirit. "Oh look, there goes Frank Miller exmaming how man over comes circumstances and chaos, again." Dark Knight Strikes Again is not DKR, but it is worth owning in it's own right. I really hope I've defended this book well because it's taken a beating in some circles but it really is a tremendous effort by a tremendous writer. Each time Frank Miller writes he shows why he is the greatest comics writer in the business. It's just not true that he lost steam after Dark Knight Returns. And yes, All-Star Batman and Robin will be good.