Dark Knight Strikes Again
By: Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
Published By: DC
Dark Knight Strikes Again is the book that Planet of the Capes wanted to be - an intelligent satire of the current state of the comic industry. Sure, Frank Miller had a nice advantage from the start by being able to use the actual DC characters (although you can argue the opposite point with Watchmen, although I am not sure how well Alan Moore data points reflect on other creators).
DKSR shows Superman unwilling to break free from the corporate control because he fears losing the few million hostage residents from his original home planet. Flash is trapped running in a treadmill without being able to go anywhere. Elongated Man has been reduced to doing lame TV endorsements. And the world seems to have forgotten that superheroes ever existed.
But Mr. Miller does not lack for hope for superheroes in this work - in fact, his sheer joy and enthusiasm for the potential comes through a number of times. As soon as superheroes reappear they become a pop culture fad. The Superchix seem to be a take on the bad girl comics, that gained the popularity but didn't know what to do with it.
It is also interesting to note how many of the new generation in the story are women. The Superchix, of course, show an ineffectual side of things, despite Batchick's attempts to use their popularity for something meaningful. But Catgirl and Kara, Superman and Wonder Woman's daughter, are the real leaders at learning from the previous generation and (Kara especially) teaching them where they can go.
When I went back to reread this there seemed to be a lot more depth to some of these possibilities than I had originally noticed when reading it. In fact, the first time I read it I was kind of put off by the tone and the lateness of the third part and the art style and, well, lots of things. But rereading helped to reveal its substance, something which didn't happen for multiple readings of POTC.
Larry Young gives some of the background about POTC in a nice series of interviews, but I think he forgets one thing - even satire should be contained inside of an engaging story. The story of POTC is too rushed and haphazard to be really engaging. Most of the entertainment value comes from reading the dialog as if it were Larry's take on the comic industry, and personally, I would rather go read old Loose Cannons instead.
The artwork is nice, and I did enjoy the attempt at the retro-printing color for the middle part, although I think that may have been a little overdone, unless I have forgotten how garish old comics really were. Mr. McKinney does a nice job trying to give the characters a little more personality and substance, but he doesn't seem to have enough time to really settle in to the characters.
I think an expanded version of POTC could have been much more effective because it could have more fully fleshed out the characters, which would have given the metaphor more weight. As it stands, the ideas are merely sketched out, enough so we can get an idea of what Larry is thinking, enjoy some of the clever twists of ideas, but not enough for it to feel substantial in the end.