The recent news that Frank Miller planned to take part in a Daredevil project for Marvel was quickly eclipsed by the further news that he would release a follow-up to his groundbreaking 1980s series The Dark Knight Returns in 2001.
Both, of course, appear to be good news. Both projects are certain to be huge sellers for their respective publishers, and whether they succeed or fail artistically, they certainly will be interesting.
I first noticed Frank Miller when he was drawing Roger McKenzie's Daredevil scripts back in the late 1970s. Miller (along with inker Klaus Janson) created some of the moodiest comics I had ever seen, and once he took over as writer, with #168, it was immediately apparent that Frank Miller was a gifted creator telling compelling stories.
That first issue written and drawn by Miller introduced the world to Elektra (although Miller had had a character with the same name in a non-superhero comic strip he did back in his fan days), a character that would haunt Daredevil for years. Unfortunately, she even haunted Daredevil after Miller left Marvel, in a mindbogglingly bad miniseries followed by an even worse regular series. Having read both of those, I can say with confidence, Frank Miller is the only writer that has ever handled Elektra well, and one of the few who has handled Daredevil well.
So, his return to that character will be...interesting. David Mack is currently writing Daredevil, and his issues with Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, have been wonderful (if ridiculously late). But the idea of Frank Miller returning to write DD, for however long he chooses to, is in another strata entirely.
For although Frank Miller did not create Daredevil, he certainly did recreate him. So great was the impact on Daredevil as a character by Frank Miller's run that no one else since has been able to make him entertaining for any length of time without borrowing extensively from Miller in one way or another. Even Kevin Smith and David Mack's rightly celebrated runs have owed a huge debt to Miller. Smith used Karen Page's Born Again-era lifestyle as a starting point for a tale that included Miller's prime DD villain, Bullseye. Bullseye killed Karen Page, much as he did Elektra when Miller was writing the book. Mack's story arc thus far has felt like nothing more than a variation on the Elektra theme, although it certainly is an entertaining variation.
The fact that Miller will apparently be working with Bill Sienkiewicz and/or John Romita Jr. on the Daredevil project dilutes its impact for me quite a bit. I know many people loved the Miller/Romita team on the five-issue Daredevil: The Man Without Fear miniseries, but I was not one of them. The story had its genesis in an unmade movie treatment Miller created, which was shoehorned into an awkward comic book that I found a bit of a bore. The fact that it also included extraneous retroactive continuity into the DD mythos made it all the more egregious to me.
Miller apparently will handle the writing and art (along with Lynn Varley's terrific colouring) of the upcoming Dark Knight II project, and that is the one I am really looking forward to. While I think Miller's two Daredevil runs (#158-191, plus the Born Again story arc later on) were among his most personal, visionary work, the fact that he won't be drawing the upcoming Daredevil project make, for me, the Batman series the one to watch. There were parts of the Dark Knight Returns that didn't work for me (the Mutants were too cartoony, for one thing), but his depictions of Superman and Batman as middle-aged warrior-gods influenced an entire generation of artists. Don't believe me? Have a look at Frank Quitely's JLA Earth II work, Ed McGuinness's Superman, or just about anyone's Batman in the years since DKR was released. Miller was expressing a central truth in the way he illustrated DC's top two icons, and it's a truth that is undiminished with time.
It'll be, again, interesting to see whether Miller chooses to create merely another Batman story, or if DK2 is a genuine follow-up to the original series. I suspect it might be more in the spirit of the original than a direct sequel, because the power and impact of the original will be hard to compete with, even for the man who created the story. I'm looking forward to the DK2 project however Miller chooses to approach it, because I really, really miss his superhero work. I have read most of his Sin City issues, and enjoyed a few, but have found them lacking the visceral thrill of his super-powered protagonists. It's odd, I know, because Sin City is almost certainly more in keeping with Miller's creative vision than anything else he has ever done, but it's a fact nonetheless. No Frank Miller project has ever haunted me like Elektra's death did. Marv can't begin to hold a candle to Matt, at least not for me. If that makes me a fanboy, so be it.
The other interesting issue about Miller's return to both Marvel and DC is his motive. He has spent years and years railing against the unfairness of the work for hire environment thriving at both companies, and while Miller can probably swing any kind of deal he wants, there can be no doubt that his work will mean more profits for two companies that have spent decades and decades profiting from artists and writers who have not, by any fair standard, been adequately compensated for the contributions they have made. Unless Miller has somehow convinced Marvel and DC to finally properly recognize the efforts of their creators for the past 60 years in exchange for these Daredevil and Batman projects, his apparent capitulation to the work for hire standard is, at the very least, curious.
Of course, much of the behind the scenes details of these projects may never be known. But to me, as fascinating and engaging as the comics to be created at DC and Marvel over the next couple of years may be, they may pale in comparison to the interest longtime comics readers will have in the most interesting question of all: