Dark Knight III The Master Race | Issue 1 & The Dark Knight Returns Book 1

I haven't reviewed a comic book yet on this blog, and that's only because I really am not very confident in my knowledge of the medium. I enjoy them well enough, but for all the years I've journeyed to Comic Con and other related conventions, I've never really picked up any area of expertise. Working in the video game industry these days, I'm hoping to change that, not only for my own interests, but simply because super heroes are very quickly becoming the name of the mass entertainment game. The Marvel and DC movies' rampant success over the last few years really seem to have brought super heroes out of the dredges, and it's not just the "nerd" crowd that loves our men in tights anymore. Super heroes are becoming the main stream, and frankly, it's about time. That being said, I hope this and future reviews do the series justice (no pun intended) as I would like to add more than video game reviews to this blog in the future.

After reading issue one of Master Race, I immediately felt it necessary to go back and reread The Dark Knight Returns, simply because so much didn't make sense to me as I picked through the pages. (I also remember very little about it save for the epic Batman/Superman fight that the new movie will hopefully revisit respectfully).

I was amused to see DC parallels to what looked like Jon Stewart, Bill O'Reilly, and Reverend Jesse Jackson in news media clips speculating on the "return" of the Dark Knight once more, but the rest was a bit of a garbled mess to me.

Frank Miller's original Dark Knight collection left us with a pretty interesting tease. The world believes Batman to be dead. The last few pages of DKR tells the reader otherwise however. Bruce Wayne is setting up a team of crime fighters to take on the mutant gang that is plaguing Gotham out of the prying sight of the remainder of the Justice League. I haven't done any research on the matter but I'd wager its a good guess that this Wayne-trained is the "Master Race" the series title refers to.

The best part of DKR was the deeper look at Batman's psychology and his parallels to the villains that few would probably argue that he was, in part, always responsible for creating. The first book touches on this heavily with the resurgence of Harvey Dent (Two Face) and the Joker when announcements begin to rise that Batman has been sighted in Gotham after a decade's hiatus.

Miller's Batman is a little darker, and brings that noir feeling that seems to have left the franchise in more recent installments of the series. (In fact, Miller was responsible for that change in the Dark Knight from the get go). DKR Batman is less elegant in his approach and more visceral, which given the application of age no one can be surprised about. One of my favorite moments in the first DKR book is one of the gang members Batman chases down saying "He never used to make sounds". Poor Bruce. It's hard for anyone to admit they're getting on in years, and I'm sure it would be harder for someone who really made use of their betters years the way Wayne did, especially with friends like Superman and Wonder Woman still in the game and barely showing their years, if at all.

This first issue of Master Race teases that Batman has returned, but the last few pages show us that this is not Bruce Wayne donning the cape anymore, this is Carrie, the Robin from DKR. Given how buff she was in that suit, this was a surprise for me. She must have been wearing something to hide her more...feminine...attributes, or the art intentionally hid that from the reader. Either way, great twist! But her last words leave the reader almost as perplexed as they are surprised with her telling new Police Commissioner Yindel that Bruce Wayne is dead. Is he really? Probably not.

Lara & The Atom from DKMR Comic Insert

The art has also been given a modern update, which was welcoming. I love Frank Miller's style, but so much of the original DKR is given to us in a series of boxes and confusing text blurb alignments that I wasn't sure where my eyes were supposed to go at times. Perhaps that's just a result of being a product of the 80s.  The boxes have made a return in Master Race, but the pages are arranged a little cleaner, and are in general less frequent. Wonder Woman is back, albeit shortly, with a son, and a daughter (Lara), the latter of the two having just found Superman frozen in his Cave of Solitude. This was strange to me, as after rereading DKR, Supes wasn't in such a bad way as to have gone off to his cave to mope about Wayne's death (in fact, I think he was in on the whole "faked death" thing, or at least had managed to figure it out). So the Super family is in an odd way at the opening of this series, and I for sure am curious as to how this is going to unfold in the issues to come.

One thing that made DKR so amazing was its inclusion of political topics, touching on the issues of the day. Master Race starts immediately on the same line as we see a suspicious street chase between two white officers and a black youth. Needless to say it doesn't go well for the cops for a change. It'll be interesting to see if more of this is included in the issues to come.

There's also a quick insert featuring The Atom that alludes to some more potential depth for the series. It's hard to say for sure, but Atom seems to be reflecting on some personal issues as well as what the new Batgirl means as part of Bruce's larger plan.

Issue three is out this coming week I believe, and I still have issue two to work through. I'll post on that or wait until issue three depending on what happens, but until then I think this should be promising.

Comics seem to really be coming back into their stride and great stories are prevalent not only in DC but with the Marvel universe (with the exception of the Death of Wolverine mini series). I may create a retrospective blog post on the female Thor series depending on how the new Mighty Thor series plays out also.

Agree with anything here? Disagree? Feel free to comment below.