So everybody here’s the big news coming from DC this week, which has been hinted at for a long time now, coming only as a bit of a rumor mill piece that I don’t think anybody took seriously for quite some time, but were still intrigued about it. I mean, it’s another sequel to The Dark Knight Returns the seminal classic (Year One is better fight me) which had its own sequel in The Dark Knight Strikes Again, which, while not very good, is its own unique brand of Frank Miller-crazy that is both fun and frustrating to read. Without further ado, here is the press release:
“THE DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE”
Completes Trilogy in Legendary “Dark Knight” SagaDC Entertainment announced today that bestselling, iconic Batman writer and artist Frank Miller will write the epic conclusion of the celebrated THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS saga.
The “THE DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE” is the sequel to Miller’s 1986 classic THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS – heralded by TIME Magazine as one of the 10 greatest graphic novels of all time – and its 2001-2002 follow-up series BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN.
Miller will be joined by acclaimed writer Brian Azzarello (100 BULLETS, JOKER, and WONDER WOMAN) on the eight-issue comic book periodical, to be published twice a month under the DC Comics imprint. Marking the 30th anniversary of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS original series, this periodical is slated for publication beginning in late Fall 2015.
“Batman remains my favorite comic book hero and a sequel to Dark Knight is going to be daunting,” said Miller, “but we’ll do our best.”
“We are thrilled to have Frank back home at DC writing Batman,” according to Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, Co-Publishers for DC Entertainment. “The story he and Brian have crafted is an astounding and triumphant conclusion to this seminal body of work which influenced and shaped generations of readers and creators alike.”
According to Azzarello, “It’s been an amazing experience collaborating with Frank these past six months. I think we have an epic story that these characters truly deserve.”
Artists for the project have yet to be announced.
My first thought about this: It is literally called THE MASTER RACE. Frank Miller is a man who is devoid of all subtlety at this point (this is the man who put freaking Holy Terror and called an entire modern generation “a bunch of pansies” [this may or may not be a direct quote]). Let that sink in for a second: THE MASTER RACE. Actually, let that sink in for a few minutes and proceed to think about how ridiculous that title is and how offensive it actually is.
It’s really cool that Brian Azzarello is writing this, as Frank Miller seems to be a man in poor health as recent photos have shown. I’m currently making my way through 100 Bullets for the first time and it’s fantastic already, and I loved his Wonder Woman run but never wrote on it, so I have faith that he and Miller will work together to produce something readable. That being said, we have no artist announced at this point, and I’m kind of hoping Miller can draw at least an issue of it without difficulty, or that they get David Mazzuchelli to draw it. I would settle for either.
This also does not need to be 8 issues in my opinion. Part of what makes The Dark Knight Returns so good is that it packs a lot of story and character beats in 4 issues without ever feeling crammed. It escalates things in that each issue tells its own story but each of those stories gets progressively bigger in nature. He starts taking out smaller dudes at first and eventually progresses to taking on freaking Superman in an all-or-nothing fight. I think with the length of that being doubled here, the pacing could get seriously thrown off. Still, I could be wrong and there’s a chance this’ll end up being brilliant but who knows.
Still, THE MASTER RACE
Also, we’re still missing the back half of All-Star Batman and Robin
