Frank Miller to write The Dark Knight III: The Master Race

[Travesty]

I finally got around to reading this, and I just found it to be a bit boring. It wasn't terrible like TDKSA, but nowhere near as good as TDKR. This entire trilogy feels so disjointed. The overall story to this is pretty generic, and ends with an almost cartoonishly hopeful ending. Almost like Frank Miller is trying to redeem himself to Superman fans, while also giving a cheerful message before he dies. Everything is a bit too on the nose.

[The Dark Knight]

I finally got around to reading this, and I just found it to be a bit boring. It wasn't terrible like TDKSA, but nowhere near as good as TDKR. This entire trilogy feels so disjointed. The overall story to this is pretty generic, and ends with an almost cartoonishly hopeful ending. Almost like Frank Miller is trying to redeem himself to Superman fans, while also giving a cheerful message before he dies. Everything is a bit too on the nose.

I finally read it yesterday after buying the trade paperback edition.

I'm not sure how to feel. I like aspects of the story but have mixed feelings on the whole.

Superman's portrayal is okay, I guess. Getting beaten to a pulp by his daughter because he refuses to lay a finger on her is seriously disciplined and respectable. But allowing himself to be shut away again is also submissive and dangerous for humanity...so I'm split. Snapping at the end to surgically bash his foes into submission was very satisfying. But that's about all he gets to do otherwise.

If this is the final entry in the saga, perhaps I'll argue the full circle symmetry works. But Batman being dipped into a Lazarus Pit to return to a youthful appearance seems counterproductive to TDK Returns' original intent which centred around an older, worn out interpretation. I'm still deciding how I feel here.

I really enjoyed the whole 'we just defeated Superman, now give us Batman' moment in the story. Superman gets beaten senseless, and Batman is next on their hit list. This human being is considered a dangerous threat that needs to be dispatched by a bunch of brutal aliens. Pretty awesome thought. Batman does arrive, and via synthetic kryptonite brings them down from the sky in a weakened state. That wasn't too bad.

The story isn't outright terrible, but it's still not great. It had potential to be better.