Ahhh, The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Miller does Batman nicely in the first comic of this series and screws it up with this one.

hahaha, caramelldansen, i thought i would never hear that song in a review about a batman comic... but then again, i was wrong... oh yeah *insert PS3 E3 2006 Giant Enemy Crab Joke here*

Let's see: we have Linkara deliver a brutal yet intelligent beatdown to one of the worst Batman stories ever, while still highlighting the few good points that could've made it shine; parody Yahtzee; give shout-outs to Red Dwarf and South Park, give a ninja-style rendition of Caramelldansen, and sing "Holding Out for a Hero."

... this has to be one of his crowning moments of funny/awesome. Is there a word for that?

My friends and I like to call that "winning an Internet." Used in a sentence: "Congratulations, Linkara, you win the f***ing Internet!"

I have to agree with you about the artwork and stupid attempts at social satire but I still like this comic as it introduced me to some great characters like The Question and The Atom. STill doesn't excuse the bullcrap though.

Yes there is. Iiiit's SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIA LIDOCIOUS!

Nice analytical look there Linkara. I think, more than it's flawed delivery, the book really suffers from being a sequel to The Dark Knight Returns. While being a pretty great book, it's also a period book that really works as a snapshot of the time-frame in which it was published. In an attempt to re-bottle that lightning, there just wasn't any meat to the "satire" in which he was using. It requires more subtlety now, and from everything I've ever read of Miller's work, subtly is not an option.

This review is a very welcome dose of humour at the end of a very long day of studying for a 100%:0 Psych final. Thanks so very much for restoring my sanity and keep up the good work Linkara! :)

The first issue had nothing to do with Batman. They shouldn't have writen it. Good review.

Wow. I read DKR, but never this one. Up until now I lived in blissful ignorance. Thanks for alerting me before I eventually discovered the truth.

The ninja dance was awesome! :D Much better than that comic :X Although, I have heard of some weird place in Europe, I think, where they have strip news, and anchors take off their clothes while talking about the news. What is this world coming to?

Also, you've got some singing voice there, Linkara! lol

Did I catch a Quantum Leap reference at the end there?

I also managed to pull off Ten's triple "what" somewhere around the time Flash showed up. My head hurts from the fail.

Crazy Steve is a different Batman to the one in the main DC universe. He is an egotistical, violent maniac... or at least more so than normal Batman. Miller wants to do his own take on the character which I guess I can respect.

Dark Knight, DKII and All Star represent a different DC universe.

A shit one.

I'M THE GODDAMN PUNCHLINE!

allow me to continue SHOUTING AT RANDOM!

Batman should really BE the focus OF his own COMIC.
He needs TO be the FOCUS of his comic.
THATS why HE is Batman.
HE's Batman
He's THE goddamn BATMAN.

Frank miller doesn't need to ADJUST his writing. we NEED to adjust to HIM.

That's open to interpretation, I mean Dark Knight Strikes Again clearly sucks but I don't think Dark Knight Returns is all that great either. The whole bit with the government forcing the superheroes to stop being superheroes always rang false to me, especially with Batman laughing and identifying himself as a crook.

I don't belive that the government could get rid of the superheroes and not be hip deep in supervillains within a week. Though I grant you, that pales in comparison to the monumental whisky tango foxtrot moment of three of DC's most moral superheroes willingly working for Lex Luthor.

Just OUT of CURIOSITY Lewis WHEN are YOU planning ON doing PART 2? BECAUSE its NOT in YOUR list OF upcoming REVIEWS in THE next 2 MONTHS.

I guess you've seen the internet meme haven't you killerkong (talking about caramelldansen)

[quote=FullmetalNinja25] Just OUT of CURIOSITY Lewis WHEN are YOU planning ON doing PART 2? BECAUSE its NOT in YOUR list OF upcoming REVIEWS in THE next 2 MONTHS. [/quote]

Didn't he say in the review itself that he wasn't going to review part two?

He said he wouldn't be doing it next week; if you watch the preview for 2010 that he has up on his blog, he's holding a copy of DKSA volume 2 (while singing a little ditty of his own composition... :) ). So hopefully we should see it somewhere down the line as another Miller Time, just not immediately.

Just not next week. I believe Part 2 will be covered in March.

Thanks for the reply Lewis, can't wait for Part 2 as well as the rest of your reviews! ^_^

I mainly hate this comic for the art, while I think the story is passable. Though no where near as great as the original Dark Knight Returns.

What I really hate about the art is that, basically, if the character isn't a superhero, then he's drawn as a caricature. Especially around the end, it's really hard to see any of the "people" as regular humans. Especially the Elvis impersonator, the prominent scientists, and news casters.

There is one thing I did learn to appreciate. WHile DKR used TV News shows to move the plot along, all of the satire scenes that Linkara pointed out are done in annoying internet pop-up style windows, explaining why the layout of the panels is so weird. Back in the early 2000s pop-ups were still annoying porno adds, almost excusing the naked news on DKSA.

once again, i really hate Objectivism...

i don't see how it qualifies as a moral theory since its only "morality" is basically to screw everyone else as long as you get what you want, like some kind of sick inverted Nietzschen ubermensch with all the nobility sucked out of him.

No, its morality is that the individual is paramount, exploitation is wrong, slavery is wrong, group thought is wrong, and that altruism is not necessarily a good thing.

And while I don't subscribe to Objectivism or agree with some of its tenets, I thought it made the Question a better hero and made me stop and think about my own actions and what I might do when confronted with difficult situations.

I would tend to agree that the Question was and is a more interesting character when he sticks to his objectivist roots but the problem with characters who are hard core objectivists arn't often written well. they either show up as delusionally perfect heros when their the protagonists or laughably stupid strawmen when their the bad guys. writing objectvists is hard and I think only Alan Moore has ever written one right.

A character who's both a sincere good guy and radically different in their world outlook are invaluable in fiction for the reasons you stated, people just have to figure out how to make them real

How is alan moore the only one who's ever written one right what about steve ditko the OBJECTIVIST who crated the Question (One of my favirote superheros) wrote him quite well, as a flawed man who wanted to do the right thing but a little extreme in his methods, until he confronted himself over his urge to at least come close to killing and stopped the habit. Now everything I see of him he's a crazy conspiracy theorist or a murderer. (Excludin his portrayal in 52 which I like)

And who was his objectivist character? I'm not able to find information on most of his work.

Even in the DCAU (Justice League in particular) he seems to be portrayed as a conspiracy nut.

Anyone else look at the text bubbles at 7:33 and have flashbacks of Spoony's Robowar review?

Priority Alpha...Shoot to kill!...GREASY GREASY!

I actually have the paperback of this thing. I remember actually liking it at the time (I think I was 14 then). Looking back...yeeah, it's not very good, but I still enjoy it, in a stupid-but-fun kinda way.

One thing I will say for it, is that the holographic president sort of explains why DKR had Ronald Reagan as president in the future as imagined during the 1980's. I mean, come on, Reagan couldn't possibly maintain presidential status and the same age without something weird going on.

Oh yeah, and your Miller-Superman voice reminds me of the Ultimate Warrior.

Very end of video = head asplode


See, it's comics like these that completely clarify for me why comics have never taken off in the zeitgeist.

I'm sure this has already been mentioned, but News in the Nudes does exist. Not in the US, but it's out there.

Let me see if I can find a link.

Yup, here it is....

Hmm, actually, I'm not sure I can post that.

It's called Naked News, Google it.

I dont remember Miller being such a dick but this video along with the asb&r review really reminded me why i stopped reading his work

God, anything involving naked girls in bad comics (ex: Starfire in Titans #1 and Naked City and of course the pink news girl in this)...just makes me want to break into Carameldansen just to relieve all the sexual tension.

Trust me, it works! After one unnessary and overinspired dance later, all the sex-related awfulness is out of your system! :side:

I usually agree with Linkara when it comes to these things, but not this time. While I admit that DK2 shows some weird structural choices and goes a little too far with some characters, I liked the story and art over-all.

I think there are stories Frank Miller has done where you can honestly say no one else could pull it off, but Frank can. Maybe I'm just a fan of his style. But this whole thing just worked for me.

The Miller-sanity continues.

I'm certain that no backgrounds wasn't a stylistic choice, I think Miller was just lazy and decided "Nope, I won't draw backgrounds. Who cares if it will confuse people!"

This, "All-Star Batman" and "The Spirit" are instances where I think Miller should be put on a creative leash when it comes to making comics/movies on other people's characters.

great review linkara!

I can't believe Captain Marvel was suckered into this shitty comic, DAMN YOU FRANK MILLER!!!

SHAZAM!!!

Well, first of all: This video was AWESOME! I really was making a countdown (NOOO!) for this video. I'm glad my expetations are now fufilled.

Another thing: This is the FIRST video about a comic that I own. Besides, it's about my first buyed comic book since the [color=blue][i]ELECTRIC[/ i] SUPE[/color][color=red] RM[u][b]E[/b][/u]N[/ color] Giants of Millenium Saga (I, know, but I was just a kid...).

Well, I actually never read the Dark Knight Returns (By the way, the translation here in Brazil came just as "Batman: Dark Knight" and "Batman: Dark Knight 2", so I think the DK2 in the cover was just fine)

Anyway, I just liked this comic, at time, I wasn't a comic-colector but I still knew that the art wasn't one of the best... but the script was AWESOME (for a 12/13 old years boy) that I didn't mind with the art.

Todaaaaaay I think that the script isn't one of the bests but yet there are some things wich I like, as the last scene where Superman flies to the Earth and gets beaten by Batman.

Sure, there are some epic flaws too, like the filler media thing, and the telephaty bettween Clark and Diana...

And others that I didn't get because I wasn't a comic-colector (and because I'm just a Marvel colector, while just buy DC compliation stuff :P ) like Captain Marvel and Diana work for Luthor. Specially Diana, with all her "warrior creation" of better die free than live as slave (300!!!)

And I liked the way you reviewed it... Don't get me wrong, I LOVE your style, but I think that to a so controversic comic, this was the best way.

Ah yeah, The News in Nude thing actually existed at time. I think it was created in Russia, and we even had a brazilian version called NUTICIAS (a mix of the words "nu" (naked) and "notícias" (news)). So again, I think this works better out of North America. (Ah and the hollographic president too... if this existed, it wouldn't be surprise in Brazil that some polictians were using it.)

Congrats again :lol:

[quote=jonathanserrot] great review linkara!

I can't believe Captain Marvel was suckered into this shitty comic, DAMN YOU FRANK MILLER!!!

SHAZAM!!![/quote]

I can't belive Lex Luthor is being portrayed as a threat to Mary Marvel of all people. It doesn't matter if he's working for Brainiac, one magic word makes her almost as powerful as Superman for crying out loud. Cap's reaction wouldn't be "Oh no, Mary's been kidnapped!" It would be "Hey Mary, you need a hand curbstomping that bald buffoon who thinks he's Luthor?"

Also, the last of Superman's people are being threatened. How does this result in anything but Superman rapidly curbstomping each and every person responsible?

What in the hell was up with Brainiac's design? He looked like a lump of clay rolled around in Smarties.

Also, I was kinda disappointed when you didn't make a Warrior#1 reference during the Atom's petri dish battle scene.

Oooooooooh. Yahtzee's gonna be mad.