Originally Posted by Tiberius Nero
No it isn't really specifically anti-Iranian; it is pro-Western Democratic and anti-Easterner Theocratic; Leonidas and his men represent the forces of Reason Progress and Democratic Liberty and the Persians represent the forces of Darkness, Ignorance and absolute political submission to the will of earthly rulers claiming a divine descent/mission. The clues are so numerous and so in your face in the graphic novel that the only way to miss them is not noticing the dialogue bubbles inside the pictures.
You know what? In principle I can sympathize with these points, yes in the conflict of Theocracy and Democracy I would side with Democracy anytime any day, but:
1) those ideas are completely out of time and place in the setting they are set in by Miller and having Sparta represent the values of the modern democratic world is just ludicrous (and personally I find this kind of misrepresentation worse than a 1000 cataphract rhinos and ninja immortals, because it is quite devious and malicious in purpose, while the latter just betray ignorance or just a "hey it looks cooler" kind of approach, which are hardly criminal outside the confines of a documentary) and
2) the message is delivered in such a childish manner by representing the Persians as demons out of the depths of Hell that it loses all credibility it might had had. Think if you saw a communist propaganda film representing US capitalists as literal vampires, with sharp canine teeth capes and all, who literally feed upon the blood of workers and tell me you would consider that "just art" or that it was "just for fun". This is precisely what Miller does in the graphic novel with his ridiculously black and white representation of Westerners vs Easterners. It is juvenile and betrays bad taste.