THE DARK KNIGHT REBORN (1987): REVIEW EXCERPT

As a preface to my impending review of THE DARK KNIGHT: MASTER RACE, I decided that the short mythcomics review I posted for the 1986 DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was insufficient for my needs. That blog-review was short in part because many years previous I’d already written a longer piece for COMICS JOURNAL #114 (Feb 1987). During that period I was not yet a word processor convert, so I sent the JOURNAL typed pages at the time. If I say so myself, this was one of my best essays for the JOURNAL, as well as being the only essay of mine selected for reprint in a scholarly volume, CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM (also the most remunerative). I considered retyping the original review for a blogpost, but it’s just too damn long. Therefore I’m opting to post only a portion that will tie into the MASTER RACE review.

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The heroic role of Batman as a parental protector and spiritual "father" to his children is glibly oversimplified by Cindy Carr's review in the VILLAGE VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT. She parodies the book thusly: "Dammit. Someone has to stand up to the subhuman cretins who terrorize innocent law-abiding citizens." Said review then goes to characterize the first two volumes as "neoconservative propaganda" and Batman as "Rambo in a cape."

This is a significant criticism, not because it is true, but because it shows that Miller did not quite succeed in distinguishing his product from the trashy level of RAMBO, though there are numerous subtleties to DARK KNIGHT that RAMBO and its ilk do not possess. It's hard to see how a critic could label the work "neoconservative," insofar as Book I contains a panel juxtaposition in which a TV interview asks two men-on-the-street for their opinions on Batman and gets a favorable review from a conservative bigot who hopes "[Batman] goes after the homos next" and an unfavorable verdict from a liberal hypocrite, who preaches reforming the socially disadvantaged but would "never live in the city..."

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Of course the very concept of a vigilante summons up images of Nazi storm troopers and the Ku Klux Klan, so knee-jerk negative reactions are to be expected. by seeming to identify Batman with such reactionary forces, by not clearly setting Batman apart, Miller has perhaps left himself open to such criticisms, thus obscuring the real essence of his thought-- that is, to provoke debate of the issues, without allowing his personal authorial voice to intrude, by using Batman as a "wild card" who fits none of our standard categories.

END EXCERPT

END NOTE: Since writing the above, I have come to see the RAMBO franchise to be something more than simple "trash." However, there's no question in my mind that Batman is both a better conception and has had a much greater impact upon popular culture.