By Frank Miller
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
I brought back this and Craig Thompson's Habibi back home and - my girlfriend asked what they were: "Well - going by reputation (seeing how I haven't had a chance to read them yet) - this (pointing at Habibi) is the best comic of 2011 and this (pointing at Holy Terror) is the worst comic of 2011." [1]
"Why is Holy Terror the worst comic of 2011?" She said.
"Pick it up. Open the first page. No - next page. One after that. Next page - ah: there you go."
"Ah" she said.
I won't ruin the surprise for you - except to say that there's a quote from the prophet Mohammed and - well - it's not pleasant. And (oh dear) neither is the rest of the book that follows.
Some context may be helpful here. Frank Miller is a guy who has spent a long time writing and drawing comic books: and while most people out there struggle to do one or the other - he does both very very very well. Most people who've heard of him will associate him with The Dark Knight Returns - his big, brooding Batman magnum opus from the mid 1980s. Since then - seemingly everything he's created has been (to lesser and greater extents) been booed and jeered as derided as not being as good... But - well - that's just the price you pay for making a masterpiece - right? And even if there's people out there who still wish Radiohead would make OK Computer Part 2 already - well - doing the same thing over and over and over again isn't really what makes life fun and exciting. And all of the stuff that Frank was making - from his black and white neo-noir Crime stories (Sin City) - to his retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae (300) - and the bonkers manga infused mayhem with Geoff Darrow (Hard Boiled and The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot) - it was all to the good.
But then - in the early 2000s - things seemed to take a turn for the worst. First there was his sequel to The Dark Knight Returns which many dismissed as an empty-hearted cash-making exercise - then came his All Star Batman and Robin with artist Jim Lee which was condemned as blasphemy with it's use of the (now immortal line) "I'm The Goddamn Batman." - and now this: Holy Terror (which reportedly began life as a Dark Knight book back when it went under the slightly longer title of - I kid you not - "Holy Terror Batman"). With each successive stage Frank Miller has lost more and more fans and left the people who defend him with less and less to work with. And I speak as one of those people who have defended him and - yeah damnit - I'd still say that The Dark Knight Returns and All Star Batman and Robin are joyous and exhilarating reading experiences and frankly I feel sorry for those that dismiss them outright. But after reading Holy Terror I realised that I've finally reached my limit - and as much as it pains me: this is my stop and this is where I get off (bye!).
An explanation: when Holy Terror was first announced (way back in 2006) Frank Miller sold it as (and I quote): "a piece of propaganda... Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for." Which I guess was fair warning for what the finished product was going to be like: a semi-incoherent racist splurge that spews nothing but bile and hatred at the expense of everything: characters, plot and design. Reading it feels like being locked inside a drunk paranoid old man whose last few synapses have long since burnt out and faded away - replaced only with a festering debilitating rage fixated on "evil Muslims." But - hell - maybe that was the point? I don't know. In fact: when the negative reviews first started coming out for Holy Terror (and a quick scan of the web will reveal that there are so so many negative reviews of this book) I thought that maybe people had missed the point and that maybe Frank Miller was fiendishly making some wider satirical point that everyone else was missing. Sadly: that doesn't seem to be the case.
Are there any plus sides? Well. Some of the art at the start is slightly nifty and I'm not to proud to admit that I dug some of the angled silhouettes of the building. But the way everything looked reminded me of Hell and Back - which as anyone will tell you - is the worst of the Sin City books.
In short: It's not only the worst comic of 2011. It's - by a long, long stretch the worst Frank Miller comic ever written. And - hell - for the sheer ugliness that squats at it's dark sunken little heart - one of the worst comics I've ever read.
Sorry Frank.
...................................................................................................................................................
[1] And I'm sure that someone somewhere is already writing a thesis comparing and contrasting both books opposing attitudes to the Islamic faith.
...................................................................................................................................................
Links: Comics Alliance Review, Robot 6 Review, The Tearoom of Despair Review, Warren Peace Sings The Blues Review, Wired Review, Every Day Is Like Wednesday Review, Tor Review, 4th Letter Article: Swing Anna Miss, Big Frank [Holy Terror], Guardian Review.
Further reading: Sin City, 300, The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Hard Boiled.
Profiles: Frank Miller.
All comments welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment