http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25020634/the_legend_of_master_legend

This is a long article (definitely worth the read) from Rolling Stone about masked crime fighters in real life. The article features Master Legend and his sidekick Ace, who wage war against the powers of evil, in the Orlando, FL area, specifically. Master Legend reminds me of the “self-made” heroes from Watchmen like Nite Owl or Silk Spectre.

 “Like other real life super-heroes, Master Legend is not an orphan from a distant dying sun or the mutated product of a gamma-ray experiment gone awry. He is not an eccentric billionaire moonlighting as a crime fighter. He is, as he puts it, ‘just a man hellbent on battling evil.'”

Master Legend’s crime fighting uniform is made of puncture proof rubber, although he admits a knife has never been close enough to test the material. His “Batmobile” is his trusty 1986 Nissan pickup truck. There are other heroes like Master Legend, living in our midst, many of them are listed on the “World Superhero Registry”. Some heroes are even police-sanctioned and in communication with police officers and chiefs all over the country.

“If there existed a Master Legend Issue 1, it would flash back 26 years to his origin story in New Orleans, where the teenage hero’s identity was forged in poverty and abuse. ‘My momma and daddy were not good people,’ he says. ‘Through them, I saw how cruel the world can be.’

To be honest that last line made my stomach hurt, I wish Master Legend would publish an auto-biography.

Th[is] blog is mostly a review which is boring, but not the reason I posted it. Instead I wanted to bring attention to the quotes that are in bold face throughout the blog. One thing I noticed about The Dark Knight Returns is that there is a lot of text everywhere. Someone or something is always talking on each and every page. With just the sheer volume of dialogue it can be a bit overwhelming picking out some of the best lines and quips. Aditya Mani Jha does a good job of picking out some of the best bits of dialogue in the book. My favorite would have to be what Bruce says to himself as he gets ready to become Batman again.

“You are puny….you are small….you are a rusty trap which cannot hold me……feel me within your soul……for I am your soul….smouldering, I burn you….burning you, I flare, hot and bright and fierce and beautiful.”

There are plenty of other good lines in the book, but this one is just so raw, and powerful. It really gets at what is going on inside of Bruce at the time and the word choice is very poetic.

Sean Ferguson

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/929/

Above is a link to an uber-fan’s fantastic blog about the ever so popular debate of Super vs. Batman. Since this is a large and very memorable part of The Dark Knight Returns, I figured this was a good page to include. This blogger goes deep into the history of both heros acknowledging that one is forged and powered by the light (Superman) and the other thrives in the dark (Batman) – the classic light against dark scenario. He also notes the irony of Superman trying to “apprehend the ‘outlaw’ Batman” when he himself in his history is was “Public Enemy #1” at one point! Although the blog is mostly for stating the reasons as to why a Batman vs. Superman movie would be phenomenal to watch, it is an entertaining read by someone who clearly enjoys and respects the legends of both superheroes.

In Tuesday’s class, Professor Sample mentioned that The Dark Knight Returns wouldn’t have even been possible if there hadn’t been a few changes in the industry. These changes included the creation of a writer/artist celebrity system, writers gaining more control over their work and writers receiving royalties and shared rights. With more rights and freedoms, writers grew more creative. Recently, however, I think there has been another change that has changed the world of comics again– the advent and consequent invasion of the internet. The internet has started a new brand of comics altogether: Web comics.

I noticed that Batman is so pervasive that he has even entered this realm. The most interesting web comic I stumbled upon was this: Batman and Sons.

Like Miller, this portrays Batman as being older and yet…it is absolutely nothing like Miller. “Batman and Sons” is a nod at Grant Morrison’s graphic novel, Batman and Son, which also features a “gritty” Batman. Yet in this web comic, even though Batman has to deal with dirty diapers and hyperactive children, his character is no less curmudgeonly (well, most of the time). The comic itself may not be dark, but it doesn’t go back to being campy; it definitely continues in the tradition of Miller’s angry, grim Batman.

Something like this couldn’t be sold in stores without incurring a whole lot of lawsuits. It’s similar to the comics that newsstands wouldn’t sell if they weren’t approved by CCA. While the internet was a societal change (as opposed to a change the comics industry instigated), it still provoked creativity among artists and writers. But then we get into the idea that anybody with any opinion can say or draw anything on the internet even if the rest of the world doesn’t care about said opinion– but that’s a story for another time.

Other web comics that incorporate Batman:

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1543

http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/comics/batman.shtml

http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/comics/batfriend.shtml

http://snipurl.com/rptb1

The above link is a blog post by one author concerning alleged fascist undertones in the work of Frank Miller with some substantial back and forth in the comments.  The presence of fascist attitudes has been a popular accusation with regards to Miller, Batman, and superhero comics in general. For this reason, I think it is valuable to examine the post and comments as a typical discussion of this issue. It is, in my opinion, safe to say that Miller’s work occasionally incorporates fascist ideals (300 being the big example).  (I am definitely not saying that Miller himself is fascist / loves fascism and fascists / wants everyone to be fascist or that his work is one big hurrah for fascism.)  Ultimately, however, the post and comments shed a certain amount of light on the underlying politics and themes of Frank Miller’s work, and reader reception to those perceived politics, if not to the actual politics of Miller himself.

(I also do not vouch for how competent or articulate the blogger and commenters are… some points are poorly argued, or operate within a definition of fascism that is excessively broad.)

http://henryjenkins.org/2009/06/an_interview_with_mary_borsell.html

This link is to an interview with Mary Borsellino who authored Boy and Girl Wonders: Robin in Cultural Context. The interview explores the conception of Robin, who has been played by a girl twice in the Batman series, the first time by Stephanie Brown, who even sewed her own red skirt to match her costume.  The first time Robin was played by a “Girl Wonder” the idea was “handled clumsily with obvious institutional sexism” (Borsellino). Stephanie Brown was controversially tortured with a drill, killed and promptly forgotten by Batman. Borsellino makes some interesting points about the concept of the “Side-Kick”….often the side-kick represents a group already marginalized by society, whether it’s through gender, race, or physical ability.  Robin, played by Carrie Kelley in The Dark Knight Returns becomes a “transgender” figure, as she is even more androgynous in costume than civilian life, she’s even referred to as a “boy” on the news.  Stephanie Brown’s Robin was quite androgynous as well, before becoming Robin she was “Spoiler” who even fooled her own father into believing she was a boy. However, Borsellino seems hyper-sensitive to the gritty and realistic dialogue in The Dark Knight Returns; I think the salty language matches Miller’s vision of Gotham City and it’s inhabitants.  Her feminist criticism The Dark Knight Returns can only accomplish so much, although her theories about Robin are worth taking a look at.

We were talking in class today about  Frank Miller’s inherent cynicism/bitterness after the whole debacle with DC. This brief interview is, well, uber brief. Miller has about two quotes, and the MTV correspondent spends more time dwelling upon the flop of The Spirit rather than the genius that is The Dark Knight Returns.  Nonetheless, the snippet is about the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight and what Miller thought about it. And yes, it should have been called The Joker. But perhaps Heath Ledger’s death contributed to a lot of hype before the movie’s release. I would love to see a film version of The Dark Knight Returns under these stipulations: 1.) No Christian Bale. 2.) Frank Miller has a heavy hand in it. 3.) Elijah Wood is nowhere to be found.

Anyways, take a gander at the article here: http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/01/16/frank-miller-on-the-dark-knight-they-should-have-called-it-the-joker/

I found an interesting link so I decided I might as well post it: http://bit.ly/zJYrk

This link should lead to an interesting article I came across; if the link fails, searching for “Dark Knight Returns” on JSTOR or Google Scholar should take you to it. The article is called “Splash Panel Adventures!” by W. Robert Johnson, published in 1989. I chose it because it relates to a lot of what we’ve discussed in class; the first half analyzes certain comic books based on criteria that are specific to the medium, like how panels are shaped and how the words relate to the pictures. The second half offers a short history of major and underground comic book companies. I think it the author’s tone is interesting given the year it was published. I feel like he still needs to defend the study of comics itself, giving them a criteria for analysis and a history. The second paragraph on the third page basically declares, “it’s not just adolescent boys reading/writing/publishing these things, really!”

Page 43 and 44 (don’t worry, it doesn’t start on page one) are especially interesting because he uses cinematic terms to describe The Dark Knight Returns, but goes on to describe panels and coloring specifically. His comparison of one scene to a “flip book” is, I think, the same concept that McCloud calls “Moment-to-Moment” and “Action-to-Action” progressions (McCloud, pg. 70). Of course, as the title suggests, Johnson focuses on the uses and importance of splash panels: individual pictures that take up most or all of the page.

A few more notes: if you want to see an actual comic by Scott McCloud, Johnson includes some panels from Zot on page 48. And if you haven’t read Watchmen yet, for goodness sake don’t read page 51, left column. He gives away the entire twist for no real reason.

http://plover.net/~bonds/comics.html#batman

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted up, but I hope the article is worth it.  I figured since we have a class with many a fan in attendence, a piece that challenges DKR’s place as a seminal work would be the best way to go.  Bond makes the case that Miller’s portrayal of society, crime, and art are all equally skewed by a fervently fascistic bent.  This is a pretty common question about comics from the eighties and ninties; as the works go “darker and edgier”, the shadow of Nazis and other horrifying groups are always raised, and often with good reason.  Is Batman portrayed as a fascist in a positive light by Miller?  Probably.  We just have to figure out what that means for ourselves as readers.