Comic Review: Superman Birthright

I've been meaning to read this story for years, and I finally got around to it last night.  In a nutshell Superman Birthright is a modern retelling of Superman's origin story, something that has since been done a lot.  At the time the mini series was meant to be a non-canon story, but was so well received it replaced the already established Superman origin story.  It was written by the Mark Waid, the man behind Kingdom Come and the current Daredevil series.  The art was done by Leinil Yu, who was also the artist of Mark Millar's incredible Superior series.

The Good

This mini-series did a lot of this well, one of the biggest highlights being that they explained the disguise, really well in fact.  Clark refused to use a mask, so his mother came up with the idea for him to wear layers to hide his muscles, bad posture and acting to seem mild mannered, keeping his hair well groomed because flying would mess it up, and very thick, strong prescription glasses to dull his otherworldly eye color.

The next strong point was Lex Luthor, everything about him was perfect.  In this story Lex is a genius in the field of...well everything really.  his origin is that he lived in Smallville, and was an outcast until an accident left him an orphan as well as bald.  After that he started his company in Metropolis, and created truly amazing technology by looking at planets and hypothesizing how something could survive on them.  His hatred of Superman is based on his obsession with alien life, and when he finally makes contact, he is treated as a lesser being.  So he decided to put together an elaborate plan to discredit Superman and eventually kill him as an alien invader.

Superman's power set was slightly altered for this mini-series as well, making him powered by multiple sources; the yellow sun charges him, but the powers themselves stem from the differences between Earth and Krypton's environment.  Basically everything about this mini-series is brilliantly written, well, almost everything.

The Bad

I have a few complaints about this series, interestingly enough it was basically everything I didn't like about Man of Steel.  The "S" shield, something that went from being a simple letter, to the El family crest, but in this series it was made into the Kryptonian symbol for hope, something I found kinda dumb, but not the biggest problem.

My biggest complaint with this series was how Pa Kent acted in the early issues.  Like the Man of Steel film, Pa Kent is responsible for for Clark hiding his powers.  And in the early issues he was very disproving of the idea of Superman, even to the point where he tried to destroy Clark's rocket to stop him.  He eventually turns into the Pa Kent we all recognize, but the whole point of Pa Kent is he helps Clark become Superman.  

The series was a bit slow in the early issues, but by part 4 the pacing got better and I ended up staying up until 3 AM because I couldn't stop reading.  But the early 3 issues were kinda disappointing, I felt like it was just an average storyline and didn't see why it was so well received.

The Verdict

The series was overall great, but it does suffer from the usual origin story problems, and this one in particular suffers a little more because it is such a well established character.  But the series proves itself thanks to the brilliant creative team of Waid and Yu.  Thus I give this mini-series an A-.

DCnU: 2 Years Later

It is hard to believe it has already been two years since DC decided to give its readers the finger...I mean reboot everything to reach out to a new audience.  And to mark this anniversary in stupidity I will do my best to give an unbiased review of the past 2 years.

The New 52, seriously we're still calling it that? Was started as a reboot that would modernize the DC universe and allow for new readers to jump in without worrying about 70 years of backstory.  At least that is how it was sold to us.  In practice however their were some problems with this.  When it all started our heroes were redesigned (in matching uniforms for some reason), made younger, and had their origins altered.  It started with Justice League and our favorite heroes were brought together to stop an enemy too powerful for them individually.  I was enjoyable enough, but then the individual titles started to come out, and they were all hit and miss (mostly miss).  For the first moth I saved up and bought everything just to try it all out.  The second moth I dropped about half of them, after the first arcs were done I dropped even more, and after about a year I made the difficult decision to drop all titles about my favorite DC hero, Superman.

As new titles were released I would try them out, usually hate them, and drop them.  Currently I only read 6 monthly titles and 2 weekly digital ones.  To put this into perspective I usually get more than that a week from Marvel.  Of these 6 titles, 1 of them is set in a parallel earth, in fact my favorite stuff DC has done in the last few years are all outside their mainstream universe.

Now onto some of the problems of the New 52, first and foremost the timeline.  DC promised a new timeline for new readers to not be confused by.  This ended up failing because they set this new universe 5 years after the heroes started showing up, and those origins were not revealed for almost a year, and the villains had to wait even longer.  So instead readers were dropped into a world where even long-time readers were lost on the timeline.  Sure there were books set at different times, like Action Comics being set at the beginning of Superman's career, but this ended up doing more harm than good because the different timelines would contradict each other.  Other times we are given multiple books set at the same time, but very different things are going on.  Also we are forced to believe that in those 5 years there has been 4 different Robins raised in Wayne Manor.

The next problem is the reimagining of characters themselves, particularly the villains.  For example Darkseid was always one of DC's biggest Baddies, born of a noble family he became a tyrant by right.  In the New 52 Darkseid was a farmer who was given the powers of a god, got tired of his oppressors, and took power.    A lot of the heroes were moved out of their iconic, albeit fake cities, and moved to one we would all know.  The most notable being Green Arrow, who was moved to Seattle a town I know well.  But Green Arrow's Seattle is more of a tourist destination rather than the hipster rich, rain plagued land I know.  The Space Needle was always present in every issue I did read, which is impossible considering it's location and the fact you lose sight of it only a few blocks away.  Then their is Nightwing, for those who wisely gave up DC before the reboot here is his new origin; Dick Grayson grew up in a circus (so far so good), but this circus was secretly used to recruit assassins for an Owl themed secret society (could be worse), and Dick's parents were killed because he was to be the next one recruited into the order (you're losing me), and did I mention the assassins are all undead zombies? (And I'm done).  The last one I'm gonna talk about is the infamous living sex doll Starfire, way to reach out to female readers guys.  Starfire was a fan favorite character for years, and her popularity skyrocketed with the Teen Titans cartoon.  So why would anyone think it was a good idea to remove all aspects of her personality and make her a character who sleeps with any man she talks to...oh right, the ever elusive horny teenage boy demographic.

The costumes are also an issue with the universe, everyone seems to have the same tailor now.  Either they have a full bodysuit with unnecessary lines and a v-shaped collar, or they have a Tron suit, which is especially weird when considering Tron is owned by Disney, and yet Marvel is staying away from the suits.  There is a small handful of costumes however that I find well made, for example Animal Man, his suit is an updated version of what he used to wear and it manages to set him apart from everyone else.  I also like the Earth-2 line of costumes, all of which are hilariously more eye-catching and original than anything the mainstream DC universe has.

Moving on we have the treatment of characters, I sort of went over this a little bit ago, but this is such a problem it needs be addressed twice.  First are the relationships, in a rebooted universe I'm OK with nullifying some marriages, but don't tell me superheroes work better when they are single *cough* Didio *cough*, sorry I had something in my throaght.  Clark Kent is no linger with Lois, and I can live with that for a while so long as they have some kind of dynamic.  Barry is no longer married to Iris, this is a bit odd considering the whole reason behind Flashpoint was Barry wanted Iris back, but I can deal with it, again, so long as there is some dynamic.  The real problems start when we get into characters like Animal Man, a large aspect of his character is his family but after Rotworld his son is dead, his wife left him and took his daughter, leaving him...single.  Then there is Batwoman, her potentially groundbreaking marriage was called off recently in order to keep her free and available to fight crime, even though her partner was totally supportive and understanding.  The relationship that really throws a wrench in DaDio's single=better theory is Aquaman and Mera, who officially are not married yet I don't think anyone told Johns because he's been writing them that way since issue 1.  There relationship actually improves the narrative and makes me care about the characters more.  So basically DiDio took the one Marvel decision fans are still angry about (ending Peter and Mary Jane's wedding), and thought; "yeah, that was a great move, let's do it to everyone".

Speaking of Marvel, they had a modern reboot as well roughly a decade ago, but they did it in a way that worked.  Not everyone is a fan of the Marvel's Ultimate Universe (personally I am), but they still have the choice to read it, or the classic mainstream universe.  DC didn't do this, they just made the Ultimate Universe the main and did away with the classic.  This honestly makes the reboot universe all that much worse.  Luckily DC does have it's share of "elseworlds" for fan to turn to, including my personal favorite the "Earth-One" line, which only releases a single volume every couple of years, but manages to reboot DC better than the actual reboot did.  Or the Beyond series which comes out weekly and continues where the series "Batman Beyond" left off, only a little more mature to match the age of those who grew up with the cartoon (like me), so DC isn't failing, just the New 52.

The next large mistake made in the new 52 is not listening to the fans.  Since the reboot started fans have asked about their favorite characters, such as Stephanie Brown, Wally West, and Cassandra Cain.  And for years we have got the same answer; wait and see, they may return.  I may not be in charge of a Major comic industry, but wouldn't you want to bring back characters fans enjoy so they buy more comics? 

Lets move on to the Events, oh God the events.  Night of the Owls was decent-ish, if you only read Batman's story.  Then there was the train wreck "H'ell on Earth", then the mediocre "Trinity War", and the abomination that is "Forever Evil".  However I am enjoying Zero Year, so that's what, 1 out of5?  And people say Marvel is having problems.  "Forever Evil" in particular is possibly the worst event I've read in a long time.  It was transitioned into badly by simply tacking it onto the end of another event, the Earth-3 characters are borderline cartoonishly evil, and it was so badly written I stopped reading partway through. 

Now lets talk Batman shall we?  Batman is overused, I understand he's popular, especially after the Dark Knight trilogy, but DC is treating him like he is only hero, he and his Bat family take a majority of the DC monthly titles, 4 of which actually have the word "Batman" in the title.  There was even a brief time when he led 2 different Justice Leagues, when honestly he isn't the kind of person people would rally behind.  One thing the New 52 did get right is he cannot defeat Superman, every fight the outcome was Superman as the victor thus far.  Which makes sense because Superman is the most powerful character in comic books, hell Screw Attack did a Death Battle where they determined just how powerful Superman truly is (Click HERE to watch).  Batman is meant to be the dark brooding hero that invokes fear in others, not the shining beacon of hope everyone rallies behind.

The last thing I want to touch on is this, this isn't the first time DC has rebooted, it's the 1st major one they have done in a while, but every Crisis usually leads to alterations in the continuity, and those happen every couple of years.  So if you're not a fan of the most recent reboot, just wait a little longer DC's track record has proven they don't like to commit.  And even with the crap the reboot has given us, there is still a few titles that are well worth the read, my favorite of which being Earth-2, ironically another example of a reboot done right.

Comic Review: Supreme Power Vol 1

       It has been a while since I posted anything, and even longer since I have done a comic book review.  So I figured why not do a comic series most people have never heard of.  Thus I decided on a Marvel MAX series titled Supreme Power.  As always this review will contain spoilers, but I will try to keep them to a minimum.  So if your ready read on.

       Supreme Power is a retelling of Marvel's Squadron Supreme, a series that was meant to mimic DC's Justice League.  The real twist however for this series is that it falls under Marvel's MAX imprint, meaning it has adult content.  The story begins with our Superman parallel Hyperion crash landing on Earth and being found in a field by a couple.  A few days later the US government arrives to take the child and raise him in a controlled environment.  It doesn't take long for him to show powers, taking advantage of this the government begins to groom him to be a weapon.  Meanwhile the Flash parallel, called the Atlanta Blur is discovering his own power that was a result of a mystery illness he got as an infant.  Fast forward roughly 20 years and Hyperion is a top secret military asset used to end wars, but he is eventually discovered and the Clinton Administration decides to go public with him as a superhero.  The Atlanta Blur is discovered soon after and rather than be a hero, he gets a lot of endorsements by simply being himself.  The Batman parallel, in this series called Nighthawk, is a black man who only helps black people.  Unlike the regular Batman Nighthawk has no problem with killing and does so without any remorse, especially if it helps black people.  The Green Lantern parallel is named Doctor Spectrum, he is an army colonel who was testing the crystal when it fused with his hand.  The Wonder Woman character is Princess Zarda, a Greek goddess who spent the last 2000 years sleeping in a mausoleum.  The last member is a version of Aquaman who isn't named until the end of the series.  Her origin is that she was born with a defect that made her look like a fish hybrid.  With the origin stories out of the way lets move on to the story.

SPOILER SECTION

       This section will contain far more spoilers as it is the plot of the series, so feel free to skip if you don't want to have the series spoiled.  The story can be broken into a few different parts.  The first part is the origin stories that runs for a few issues.  The second part has a more realistic feel to it.  In a nutshell Hyperion learns the truth about his origin and becomes disillusioned with America, kinda.  He realizes that sometimes the greater good doesn't line up with the American agenda.  This terrifies the government and they put a plan in motion to kill Hyperion.  The first attempt is they send Doctor Spectrum against him.  However because the crystal fell to Earth with Hyperion it has a reaction with him that puts Doctor Spectrum in a coma.  The crystal takes him to the ocean to heal undisturbed.  There he is found by the nameless fish girl who is fascinated by the sight of another human.  Hyperion then goes on a search for the truth that leads him to a military base.  The general at the base, rather than talk with Hyperion decides to implement his last resort to kill him, 20 Daisy Cutter warheads that are stored under his office that destroys everything for a few miles.  Hyperion survives however and is nursed back to health by the newly Awakened Princess Zarda.  While this is going on The Blur is conflicted about being a superhero and continuing his endorsement deals to help his mother.  And Nighthawk is saving black people and blaming all their problems on white people.

       The final act of the series is more like the superhero book we are all used to.  Hyperion is still on his journey of self discovery trying out all kinds of new things.  Nighthawk is on the trail of a killer he believes to have powers, so he asks for help from the Blur and Hyperion.  Meanwhile the government also finds out about this killer, and the new head of project Hyperion learns that the virus found in Hyperion's ship grants superpowers to regular humans, and that the group in charge of researching it has been testing it on convicts, and a few escaped.  One of the escapees turns out to be the killer.  So they send Doctor Spectrum after the killer.  The group of heroes find the killer first, and actually defeat him fairly easily.  But then Doctor Spectrum arrives and Hyperion hands the killer to him.  He justified this by claiming only the government has the ability to hold him.  The series ends with President Bush granting amnesty to any super powered human if they take up jobs as superheroes.  Hyperion however decides to finally show the world his true power by causing a 10.5 earthquake in Antarctica, with a warning; stay away from him and he won't retaliate.  And that is where the series ends.

END SPOILER SECTION

       Personally I thought this series was worth the read.  However I can't stress enough that the series is aimed for a more adult audience, it has strong language, graphic violence, and it has a large amount of nudity, and yet it all works to convey a more realistic take on the superhero.  The writing is done well, the art, done by Gary Frank, is equally amazing and quickly became some of my favorite comic book art.  The only real problem I had with the series is that they introduced a lot of characters they never use who end up in the background.  But this is forgiven because the series continued to later series to accommodate these characters.  The next issue is because the series is aimed for mature audiences it is hard to share with others, some of my friends are turned off by the language and nudity.  However since the review is from my perspective, I give the series a B+, a solid first series that I recommend to any comic book fan.

Comic Reviews: Avengers vs X-Men

       This last summer Marvel did an event that many fans, myself included wanted to see, with a premiss that can be enjoyed by Avengers fans...not so much for the X-fans out there.  Quick warning, as with all of my reviews I will spoil some major elements.  Without further a due, lets dive into this event and tear it apart.

Plot

       The plot here is simple, the Phoenix force is back, this time for Hope Summers, and the Avengers want to protect her and stop the Phoenix.  Cyclops on the other hand, wants nothing to do with this.  He believes the Phoenix force is here to recreate the Earth in the mutant image.  This inevitably ends with a grudge match between the two groups.
     
        Being a child of the 90s, I know that whenever the Phoenix shows up, it never ends well, so you would think that the X-Men, who have relearned this lesson over and over again, would be all for protecting the mutant messiah and stopping the most dangerous being ever.  This is where the problem starts, it is hard to side with Cyclops when he is being retarded like this.  Granted I've personally never been a fan of Cyclops, but here I don't even get the change to see his side of things.  In fact halfway through the event Cyclops himself gains the Phoenix force and goes about threatening the world with it.  Then at the end he even kills his former mentor Charles Xavier.

       Personally I feel that the X-Men events of the past few years has led up to this, the death of Jean Grey, the devastation of the mutant race, the forming of X-Force, the creation of Utopia, The Schism, all of this has established Cyclops going down a dark road, one similar to the one Magneto took years ago.  This all ends with the logical conclusion, Cyclops is now the villain.  Though personally I feel he started down this road a bit earlier, when he chose to cheat on the epitome of good within the X-Men, Jean, with the plastic bimbo that is Emma Frost.

       As for the Avengers, Captain America is my all time favorite superhero, so naturally I'm gonna side with him in any argument.  From the first issue Hope is willing to go with them, but Cyclops keeps fighting it and tells Cap to "Get the hell off his island."  Cyclops even makes the first attack.  The Avengers spend the first arc of the event trying to reason with Cyclops and stop the Phoenix, once this proves futile and the Phoenix is divided amongst five of the X-Men, The Avengers are in hiding, training Hope to fight the Phoenix, and making strategic attacks on the "Phoenix Five", taking them out one at a time.

Characters

       As mentioned, the fight is between the Avengers and the X-Men, but who are the major players of these teams.  The main series, which is what I'm focusing on, has a relatively small cast.  The X-Men is basically the Phoenix Five, five members who the Phoenix divided its power into, they are Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Magik, and Colossus.  The Phoenix force is slowly driving them crazy and eventually this leads to the involvement of other members who are actually on the side of the Avengers, like Xavier, Magneto, and basically everyone else.

       The Avengers are of course led by Captain America, Iron Man is trying to find a way to stop the Phoenix, Scarlet Witch who can actually harm the Phoenix, and Iron Fist, who is training Hope and providing a temporary HQ for the group.

       Other characters are involved, but to a lesser extent, although Spider-Man does defeat 2 members of the Phoenix Five on his own.  I feel this works well because having too many characters can take away from the story, sure there are side stories that give other characters the spotlight, but they don't contribute too much to the story here. 

My views

       Because I am a product of the 90s, I was a huge fan of the X-men, the cartoons, the movies, the video games, but I could never fully enjoy the comics for some reason.  Thus any event that puts them front and center, but not the only spotlight, I'm gonna enjoy.  Also this is a fight that I've been wanting for years.  My issues with this event stem from the X-Men, they're simply overpowered.  I know this is a plot point, but even without the Phoenix charging them up they seem to have little to no problem taking the Avengers.  In fact at one point Colossus' kid sister out-magics Doctor Strange himself. 

       Though honestly I do enjoy watching a hero that I've never liked crack under pressure and go evil, in this case Cyclops became obsessed with saving the mutant race, in the Ultimate series Mr. Fantastic loses his tether to humanity, these stories are great, and usually way better than when its the other way around.  Ultimately though, Marvel's events are what shapes the comics for the coming year, then a new event happens and the cycle repeats itself.  Thus the real gauge of how an event is depends on what happens next, with Cyclops gone many of his supporters are now criminals, Cyclops mentioned the Avengers never really cared about the mutants, so now there is an Avengers team that is half mutant, Xavier is dead, so now Wolverine is the new advocate for mutant peace.  Personally, I kinda like where this is going.  Thus I'm giving this event a B+.

       Disagree with me?  Have a question, comment, or opinion?  feel free to post it in the comment section, it may even change my views on some things.

DC's New 52, 1 Year Later

       In the war for comic book superiority only two companies seem to still be competing, DC and Marvel.  The better series depending solely on personal preference.  For me I prefer Marvel, this is mostly due to DC's tendency to reboot every couple years, resurrecting all who have been killed and even changing events that didn't sit well with readers.  Marvel may make stupid mistakes, but they at least have the balls to live with them.  The new 52 is the worst offender of all, not only did they revive dead characters, or even change minor events, but they made changes so drastic that movies like Green Lantern are now more comic accurate than the DC animated universe of the 90s and early 2000s.

       But do these changes make the comics better?  Yes and no, some changes I can get over, such as Beast Boy being red rather than green, the Justice League being an exclusive club, and Amanda Waller being in shape.  However other changes are so bad they destroy the characters and how they fit in with everything around them.

       An example of this is Superman's costume, originally it was made by Ma Kent to give him a commanding, yet friendly appearance.  It was made from the blankets that were in the space ship he was found in.  Now his costume is Kryptonian armor that started out white, but changed colors when he put it on simply because it read his mind for color preferences.  Is this cool, yes, does it fit the persona of Superman, no.  Plus this makes the costume worn by Christopher Reeves not cannon, meaning wrong and will be looked at by future viewers as a mistake made by "an incompetent director".  The changes are not limited to Superman however, Batman now has only had 3 Robins, this isn't a problem when you consider the new 52 claims heroes have only been around 5 years.  The issue comes with Dick Grayson, or Nightwing, in this 5 year period he has been inspired by Batman to help others, trained by him, became Robin, became Nightwing, took over as Batman for a year, and is now Nightwing again.  Yet despite all of Grayson's accomplishments, Tim Drake was never a Robin in this new continuity.

       Another character who seems to have suffered is Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern.  In the new 52 he no longer exists on Earth 1, but is exclusive to Earth 2.  Here the Green Lantern is a warrior chosen by the planet itself to defend and protect it, to be honest I'm OK with this.  His costume has been changes and is now all green, no purple or red, again I'm OK with it.  His powers must be channeled through an item personal to him, in this case his fiance's engagement ring, another change I'm OK with.  However they decided to turn him gay now.  Before you cast judgement on me, hear me out.  Until a year ago Green Lantern had children who's powers were inherited from their father Alan Scott, personally I have no problem with my superheroes being gay, or anyone else for that matter.  However in this particular case it makes more sense for him to be straight.  I guess it is possible for him to have a surrogate child, but the love of his life is now dead, meaning the chances are VERY low that we will ever see Jade and Obsidian again, at least not until the next reboot.

       An interesting question being raised however, is because this is a reboot of the entire multiverse, which universe is now mainstream?  My initial thought was that it was obviously Earth 1, however since the new 52's release there has been a Batman: Earth 1 book released, and next month Superman: Earth 1 volume 2 comes out making this impossible.  On a brief yet interesting side note, these books are in fact closer to the classic comics than the current mainstream run.  We also know it isn't Earth 2 because their is a series currently running with that title.  We also know that it isn't Earth 25 because we get to see this universe in an issue of Action comics.  So why does it matter what universe the new series takes place it?  Because DC has made a very clear point that there is only 52 different universes, and between the Beyond, Smallville, ame-comi, Arkham, and the other three aforementioned universes, there isn't many left, some of our favorite Elseworld series may no longer exist, such as the Crime Syndicate, or Kingdom Come.

       One minor complaint that seems to be common with fans is the color red.  Or more specifically its overuse.  With Superman he now has more of it which is noticeable, but ultimately he still looks recognizable.  But for characters like Nightwing and Beast boy it makes them seem like completely different characters. 

       A major complaint I have however is the multiple timelines.  Batman in particular seems to suffer from this in that every series is going on at different times, yet they can have crossover event even when the series are taking place years apart.  It also seems to kill some of the suspense.  Will Superman survive this encounter?  well the series that happens 5 years later says yes.  I also hate how the reference issues that have yet to come out.  In Superman he fights alien parasites who came to Earth on his suit, the editor's note then says to refer to an issue of Action comics, that will be released next month for the back story of these aliens who were just defeated.  The series themselves seem off as well.  they have the feel of a sequel, yet the original doesn't exist, so it seems like your jumping in mid narrative a lot.

       Is the new 52 worth picking up? like everything else its hit or miss on the titles, even with the same characters.  For example Batman has 4 different series going, all taking place at different times along the 5 year time span I mentioned earlier, and personally I think only 1 is worth reading.  The same goes for Superman, though with him I recommend Smallville season 11, it is far more like the classic hero we all grew up with, is only $1 an issue, and a new issue comes out online every week.
The Earth 2 series is interesting, and is trying to establish itself as a universe without the big heroes, that's right a world without Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman, in fact, they get killed off in the first issue allowing new heroes to rise up in their place.  My favorite of which being the Green Lantern, I know I complained about him earlier, but he is a great character.  Another series is Animal Man, the only hero who truly benefited from the reboot, before he was lame in every aspect except his power, now he is all around awesome.  Whether or not you should read any of these titles however is still personal preference.  I on the other hand give the reboot a C, both good and bad, but ultimately not as good as the classics.  If you have an opinion on the subject, feel free to comment.

Frank Miller's Batman; The perfect Dark Knight, or Psychotic madman

                                                                       Intro
      There is no denying that Frank Miller redefined Batman with The Dark Knight Returns, and then recreated his origin in Batman Year One.  Both of these series were used as inspiration for Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.  What many don't realize is that Miller wrote other Batman series as well.  Such as The Dark Knight Strikes Back, All-Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder, and Batman/Spawn.  Another little known fact is that this was all a series, meaning it is in fact all the same Batman.  Here I will post my reviews of the other series, factor them in with Miller's masterpieces and rate them as a whole, this review is different then what I intend to regularly post, but this will be a good practice run for future series reviews.

                                                The Dark Knight Strikes Again                     
       Miller later wrote a sequel to The Dark Knight Returns titles The Dark Knight Strikes Back.  A series so incoherent in its plot and characters that resembled nothing of their former selves.  For example Big Barda, a warrior from the planet Apokalips who escaped slavery and turned her life around to become a member of the Justice League.  In The Dark Knight Returns she is a porn star named Hot Gates who decided to become the dictator of Columbus Ohio.  Another casualty was Elongated Man who was, to be honest was a less popular, more adult version of Plastic Man, Miller made him a spokesman for erectile dysfunction pills.

       Normally I don't believe in judging anything based on art/special effects, but this series was so oddly drawn, the backgrounds were not finished, the characters seemed to all be in different art styles, and the fact that the original series was far more appealing on the eyes, I would post an image, but I don't know how the copyright laws on this issue work, if you want examples simply google The Dark Knight Strikes Again.  All in all this series fails on all levels, thus I give it an F.

                                                         Batman/Spawn
     The Batman/Spawn series was actually three different stories, but because they were crossovers with the same guy I decided to tie them together.  As far as crossovers go this one is actually not half bad.  The only real issue with this is that Spawn deals with supernatural problems whereas Batman is more grounded in reality.  As far as superhero team ups go, this one seems natural, 2 dark and broody lone wolf type men trying so solve murders, when they realize they are after the same killer they decide to pool their resources and work together.  This happens three different times.  And to really nitpick another problem issue is no matter how many times they work together, they always start off by duking it out over a misunderstanding.  Not a bad series, but not as amazing as Miller's other work.  Honestly it is barely above average, I give it a C+.

                                  All-Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder
       Personally I feel this series gets more crap than it deserves.  True they destroy Batman's character turning him into an angry psycho who kidnaps kids, insults them, sleeps around, and blackmails Superman.  But other characters that are introduced have far better origins than those introduced in other series of Miller's.  For example Batgirl is a girl who worships Batman and decides to follow in his footsteps, their is no affiliation between the two, and in fact they never meet.  Robin's origin is relatively the same.  His parents are murdered so Batman decides to take him in and train him, however because Batman takes a young boy from a circus, it looks like a kidnapping.  This leads to a subplot.  Black Canary is a bartender who works at The Black Canary and fights crime in her uniform, earning her the name.  The Justice League in this series seems to be just starting out.  The roster  includes Green Lantern, Plastic Man, Superman, and his girlfriend Wonder Woman.  The biggest problem with this series is that there is just too much going on.  That and the fact that it doesn't really have an ending.  Along with the aforementioned Batman character raping earn this series a B-.

                                                             The Verdict
       The results are in and go as followed.
       The Dark Knight Returns               A
       Batman Year One                           A
       The Dark Knight Strikes Back        F
       Batman/Spawn                                C+
       All-Star Batman And Robin            B-
       Average                                           B-

       If you look at the series individually some of them are colossal failures.  But as a whole they are not all that bad.  Because of that you can forgive a majority of the flaws, and if you stop after The Dark Knight Returns the series becomes instantly better.  Though one thing that always bugged me about Miller's Batman is that he is constantly referencing things that happened, that we the readers never saw.  A huge example being the death of Robin, which is the reason for Batman's retirement, I feel this would have made a great series, but all we get is a single line of dialogue.  Anyway that is my opinion on Miller's Batman, if you have your own thought feel free to let them be known.