ARC REVIEW Frank Miller's Batman The Dark Knight: The Master Race

Batman

The Dark Knight

The Master Race

 

DC Comics

By: Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello

Art: Frank Miller, Andy Kubert, Klaus Janson, Brad Anderson, John Romita Jr., Alex Sinclair, Edwardo Risso, Trish Mulvihill,

Story: A lot happens, it’s just shy of 400 pages and has almost ten different characters it follows, each with their own section so yeah a lot happens. Three years after the events of Strikes Again Carrie is masquerading as Batman and proclaiming he’s dead. Superman is frozen sitting on a chair in the fortress. Wonder Woman is raising yet another offspring of Superman’s while their daughter Lara acts like a spoiled child. Green Lantern went back to his weird dimension place. The Flash is off running around and the Atom soon gets tricked by Lara and the tiny Kryptonians living in the tiny city of Kandor. And Batman is not dead just really, really old. Ray Palmer works on a way to use this tech to make the Kandorians back to normal size unfortunately the ones that worked with Palmer were part of a weird cult and as soon as they were normal size destroyed Kandor, messed with Palmers suit and make him microscopic, and then proceeded to take over the Earth because they think are gods compared to the lowly humans of Earth. The leader demands our unconditional surrender, Batman comes out with an astounding Go to Hell. They destroy Moscow, threaten Gotham, and think they can defeat the Wonder Woman and the other Amazons, ha! Lots of fighting a shocking appearance by Aquaman and Green Lantern gets his hand cut off. Like I said so much happens and a really good ending.

Art: Okay so here’s the deal I really do not like Frank Miller’s style of art. I think Strikes Again would have been exponentially better if he hadn’t of done the art for it. Thankfully he doesn’t do all of it in this one and what he does do is better than what was in Strikes Again. Miller’s artistic contributions are Batgirl #1, Lara #1, Green Lantern #1 with John Romita Jr., World’s Finest #1, Strange Adventures #1, and Detective Comics #1 all with Alex Sinclair doing coloring. Edwardo Risso and Trish Mulvihill do the Wonder Woman #1 and Andy Kubert, Klaus Janson and Brad Anderson illustrate, very nicely, the rest of the Master Race series. Kurbert and Risso manage to keep the look and the feel of the characters in Miller’s style without it looking like trash.

Review: Aside from it being the whole evil Kryptonian trying to take over the world story line I enjoyed it even though it reminded me of that episode of Supergirl and that one of Lois and Clark except darker, much darker and better because this one has Batman. I like Miller’s writing a whole heck of a lot more than his art. I love how dark it gets, and Carrie who goes from Robin to Catgirl, to Batgirl and ends with Batwoman. I love her character she has an unwavering loyalty and love for Batman and along with Superman she knows him best. The ending, no spoilers, but I loved how it ended. Oh my. The Green Lantern story was weird and I don't think it was all that necessary it just seemed like filler.