Batman and Frank Miller

Throughout childhood, 4-5 of us would cloister ourselves in my best friend's basement playing one of the many incarnations of the Marvel Super Heroes roleplaying game (the one we played was the classic, and still the best, TSR version in the yellow, and later, blue box),acting out comics in our head that would never see print, and often wondering aloud "Why is it that so many movies based on comic books SUCK?" It seemed no one was capable of making a decent superhero movie, with few exceptions.

It wasn't until the late 80's with the release of the blockbuster Batman that this would change. The 1988 release of Tim Burton's movie would usher in a renaissance of superhero films (certainly not all of the same caliber, as proven by Batman's many craptacular sequels) and show the Hollywood execs that super can sell.

Despite months of hype, Burton's Batman came as a surprise to many whose sole exposure to the Caped Crusader was the 1960's TV show and various cartoons, including Superfriends, and that long-overlooked classic of animation, Scooby-Doo meets Batman and Robin. Burton took his inspiration from the Batman comics of the decade, most notably Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Batman: Year One. Miller's was a much darker version of Batman; as a result the mid-80's saw Batman change from a crimefighter to a vigilante. Gone were the days of Bats being a team player-his was the image of the solitary hero. Fans approved of this revolutionary change and Robin disappeared from the comics scene soon afterwards, a casualty of the Joker in one of the darkest Batman stories to date: A Death in the Family. This story has the distinction of being the only tale in which the readers themselves were given a vote on the outcome; they overwhelmingly voted to have Robin die. While I didn't vote, I would have held my thumb firmly in the down position too, as this Robin (Jason Todd, the first was Dick Grayson, who later became Nightwing)was far too annoying. Robin is back in a third incarnation, Tim Drake, for those who don't know; it seems Bruce Wayne has a soft spot for orphaned young boys who look just like him.

Towards the end of the 80's and throughout the 90's, a floodgate of darker Dark Knight stories saw publication, among them: Batman: Son of the Demon, Batman/Dracula: Red Rain (in which Batman is a vampire), Batman: The Killing Joke (in which the Joker abducts and tortures Commissioner Gordon after crippling his daughter, Barbara, aka Batgirl), and the Andrew Vachss novel Batman: The Ultimate Evil, in which Batman uncovers and destroys a child pornography ring (a long way from Adam West, old chum).

Comic books as a whole owe a debt to Frank Miller, for without question he was one of the first to write material for mainstream comics that wasn't just for kids. From his work in the early 80's on Daredevil and the original Wolverine limited series, Miller staked a claim on the gritty style of storytelling he would epitomize in The Dark Knight Returns and later, Sin City. It would be enough if he was simply a great writer, but Frank Miller is a comic artist as well, and while he has always been good, his stuff nowadays, particularly his Sin City work, is nothing short of amazing. Miller's style is a paradox of simplicity and complexity; anyone who has seen his Batman, for example, can remark how few lines he uses to sketch an uncanny depth of realism in Batman's facial expressions.

The Daredevil movie, while based almost entirely on Miller's run of the comic, really didn't come together very well. It tried unsuccessfully to cover 3 years of storyline in 2 hours. You can actually see Miller himself in the film, a casualty of Bullseye's uncanny aim with a pencil. Sin City, in contrast, is a masterpiece of Film Noir, due in large part to Miller's involvement from the start. Miller is no stranger to film, he wrote the screenplay for several, including Robocop 2 (hardly a great picture I know, but it's the only one I remember).

As with everything good and different, Miller's success writing gritty comics caused a glut of similar stories to choke the comics industry with the sad result that while comics weren't just for kids anymore, now there aren't any for kids anymore. Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but not by much; if I had children, there aren't too many comics I'd want them reading today. Miller shares similar views to myself, namely that the parents should be the first and last line of defense when it comes to censorship, but he's a bit more militant about it than me. I, for one, support a ratings system for comics like the one we have for movies, because I don't feel that a parent needs to read every page in a comic to make a decision and a ratings system gives information at a glance. I don't think a "parental advisory" label is a bad thing, it lets parents know there's material in the book they may not want kids to see. Miller opposes this system for one of the same reasons I gave for opposing DVD sanitizing: who is to decide what is offensive? Miller is very active with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of creators and retailers in the comic book industry who are the targets of censorship and "indecency" lawsuits.

You can hear Frank Miller on National Public Radio's Fresh Air from time to time. Check WBUR.org and do a search for Miller under the Fresh Air archives. In his most recent appearance he discusses Sin City from comic to film, his inspirations and his ideas. In earlier shows he discusses his work on Batman and talks about the comics industry. Check him out-he's an interesting guy.