Phill's comic review thread

There's a movie review thread in the front room. You can get lots of tips to get in shape as well. LEN's footballodium …
I'm a fan of strips, BD's, comics, graphic novels, … whatever you want to call them. So why not start a comic review thread.

I'll kick off with "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller (1986)
In which senior citizen Wayne gives in to the bat once more and people lose their ability to reason logically.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Not being of American origin, I haven't read any American style comic book until recently. Determined to correct this hiatus, I asked around for some excellent series. As answers I got Sandman, V for vendetta, Watchmen, Maus and finally The Dark Knight Returns. I've read them all. Some were great, some were underwhelming. In which category should I put TDKR?

Firstly the format and the premise
I like shorter stories that run for only a few issues. Par definition, ongoing series can never build up to an equally powerful ending.
I don't much care for superheroes. Without excellent writing superhero stories can be prone to drift towards trying to One-up the previous story arc or "I'll get you next week"-situations. Therefore I liked the premise of an almost elderly batman giving it one last go. It's a standalone story with the potential for a good ending.

Graphically TDKR was decent. Good for the period it was made in. By today standards (or at least mine) it's average when it comes to line art and coloring.

Storywise I'm less than satisfied. The story simply boils to Bruce Wayne going up against the same people he always goes up against with the twist that they're all older now. No character development, no new insights.
There's absolutely no flow or rhythm. Walls of text just halt the story to a crawl. A picture is worth a 1000 words according to a well-known cliché. It's a good idea to show the controversy around batman by means of talk shows. Just don't let it crowd those few pages you have. And for the love of god make it believable. There are far better arguments for condemning batman than accusing him over and over again of murder by proxy. Seriously Harvey Dent/the joker only kills because batman exists. At least make a good argument if you want to convey a pro/con batman conflict to your readers.

Happy endings are a touchy thing for me. I don't mind them in feel-good stories and the likes but some stories just don't fit with a happy ending. Would braveheart be as compelling if Wallace escaped beheading at the last minute? Would Saving private Ryan be believable if they would've won the last battle without much loss of life?
The mock death and resurrection of Bruce Wayne felt IMO forced. A real death or forced retirement would've been better. Now it just looks like Miller awkwardly left the possibility open for a sequel. And guess what …

i dont really read comics. but i read comic strips like Pearls Before Swine and Foxtrot. can we review those?

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

i dont really read comics. but i read comic strips like Pearls Before Swine and Foxtrot. can we review those?

Be my guest

Pearls Before Swine-
there is so much awesomeness related to this strip that words cannot even begin to show its awesomeness.
plus im friends with the cartoonist on facebook.

Garfield
ah, where to start with this? pretty much until the first Garfield movie, this strip was good. but afterwards, it took a deep plunge, most notably when Liz started dating Jon, even though for about 20 years beforehand Liz rejected Jon every single time. obviously Jim Davis was submitting to the will of the newcomers who only started reading garfield because of the movie and demanded why liz wasnt dating jon, as she did in the movie.

Foxtrot
used to be a personal favorite, got lame after he switched to sunday-only strips.

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

Garfield
ah, where to start with this? pretty much until the first Garfield movie, this strip was good. but afterwards, it took a deep plunge, most notably when Liz started dating Jon, even though for about 20 years beforehand Liz rejected Jon every single time. obviously Jim Davis was submitting to the will of the newcomers who only started reading garfield because of the movie and demanded why liz wasnt dating jon, as she did in the movie.

Garfield got repetitive long before the movie came out. You know that you have recycled your jokes to much when the random Garfield panel generator dishes out better jokes than the ones you produce.

I recently developed a taste for American graphic novels, the style is so different, I never knew superhero-saga's could be this mature, I didn't expect any blood.

My favorite comics are Storm and Thorgal, I doubt they are known very far abroad. Both aren't that good anymore but what can you expect. I have Watchmen but I have yet to read it, the movie was.. interesting.. didn't know what to make of it so I bought the comic I will put up a review when I am done but I am doing a lot.

Originally Posted by Fragony

I recently developed a taste for American graphic novels, the style is so different, I never knew superhero-saga's could be this mature, I didn't expect any blood.

My favorite comics are Storm and Thorgal, I doubt they are known very far abroad. Both aren't that good anymore but what can you expect. I have Watchmen but I have yet to read it, the movie was.. interesting.. didn't know what to make of it so I bought the comic I will put up a review when I am done but I am doing a lot.

Watchmen was IMO not that great. It was dated, overly dramatic and an end that just doesn't make sense. I have yet to see the movie.

Read sandman if you're interested in American graphic novels. The first few issues are a bit hard to get through but once the main story starts rolling it's just simply mindblowing. So many characters, stories, intrigues that are all intertwined with each other. This series is simply epic.

Other novels to recommend: Maus. A bit different but a great mix of a dramatic story and comic relief.