Broken Frontier

After many years of work, and after a change from Batman to a new character simply known as the Fixer, Frank Miller truly unleashes Holy Terror on the comic reading world. 

On a normal night out on patrol, chasing down a beautiful cat burglar across the rooftops of his city, the Fixer suddenly encounters a terrorist attack, followed by another, and another.  Suddenly with his city in ruins, he must take it upon himself to find the cause of the problem and put a sudden and deadly stop to it.  And if that particular cat burglar wants to tag along to help, he won't turn her down.  Through the city he treks, encountering his normal set of associates, doing anything he can to prevent another attack.

Artistically, this is vintage Frank Miller and the man is still an absolutely stunning illustrator.  Taking a cue from the style he made famous on Sin City, this book is done in strict black and whites, with occassional splashes of color.  His mastery of the artform is fully on display here.  In his later years, he seems to have eschewed detailed artwork for more stylized images, so don't expect realism in the art.  And he isn't without his missteps either. During some of the panels of the chase sequence to start the book it's almost impossible to tell just what is going on.  Perhaps that is the intent as the scene is hectic and crazy; and perhaps it's due to him having to cover up bat and cat ears on his characters but it's quickly forgotten due to his breakneck pace.  Miller's artwork grabs you and drags you through this book at the exact speed he wants.  Pacing has always been key to his work, speeding up and slowing down exactly when he feels it is needed.  His panel work (when there are distinct panels) should be trademarked, and in one instance he somehow makes a film style match cut without panels and gutters.  He even manages to somehow include a number of his classic talking head panels.  Visually the man is still a master, despite his rough edges. 

While most people woudn't disagree that Miller is still a master illustrator, his writing has come under fire recently.  His All Star Batman and Robin was criticized for what seemed uneven dialogue and he has turned to forgoing exposition to keep up his breakneck pacing.  If you had a problem with it then, there's a very good chance you'll have a problem with it here.  He just cuts from scene to scene with no care for transitions modern readers have gotten used to.  We get no introspective discussions from the characters, no in-depth look at their thoughts.  These characters aren't three-dimensional, they're archetypes and stereotypes, heroes and villains alike.  He simply has a story to tell and will just tell it.  It's as if, more than any other creator and despite what he says, Frank Miller realizes that this is still just a comic book, not to be taken too seriously, just to be enjoyed.

And here is where we get to the two-ton gorilla sitting in the corner of the room: the story of this book.  Much has been written and much has been debated on Holy Terror, as it is a superhero taking on Al-Qaeda.  And, much of the debate has centered on if Frank Miller is the man to tell such stories.  Miller's politics are well known and much maligned by most, if not all, of the comic book reading populace.  He leans right, most readers lean left.  He's been referred to as a racist and a fascist.  Miller's politics and thoughts on the subject have been a lightning rod of controversy for this book.  He debates that Captain America arrived on the scene punching out Adolf Hitler; readers and critics say that that was then and now we can use comics as a metaphor for real life.  He certainly brought a lot of criticism upon himself with the statements he made about the book's subject matter; but this is 2011. Aren't we overreacting to him a bit and feeding the controversy? 9-11 was 10 years ago.  We're winning the war on terror.  Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are both dead.  It seems as if Miller himself even realizes that and this book almost takes on satirical overtones at time.  After all, this is just a comic book.

There are a couple final statements I wanted to make.  First, too often recently in comics have I remarked about characters saying "Oh my God!" where it didn't seem appropriate.  The readers are the ones who are supposed to do this.  And in Holy Terror, we do.  The second idea is that I find creators and their characters too unwilling to take a stand and put their politics into the book.  Jonathan Hickman's landmark Nightly News ended a little flat because he left it open.  Ed Brubaker will try and play both sides with Captain America saying he can be left and right politically.  Most of the public responds in similar fashion.  Frank Miller doesn't care what we think of his politics, he's putting it all out there.  There's something commendable about that, even if you don't agree with him.

Maybe, instead of taking this so seriously, we should just try and enjoy the book about a flawed hero trying to stop terrorists from destroying his city.  It's far from a perfect book, there are the previously stated flaws in the artwork and aside from the storytelling pacing, Miller certainly dares us to say he hasn't moved the line of good taste with a name joke.  But rather than get caught up in that, we should just take the book for what it is.  Because agree with his politics or not; enjoy his storytelling or no; if we as readers focus simply on his politics, we're taking this way too seriously and he's having the last laugh at us.