Brand Miller

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He was also making statements in interviews like this one for NPR from January 2007:

“Where I would fault President Bush the most was that in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn’t call the nation into a state of war. And he didn’t explain that this would take a communal effort against a common foe. So we’ve been kind of fighting a war on the side, and sitting off like a bunch of Romans complaining about it.”

In a weird way, Miller was basically using the plot of 300 as an analogue for our current non-united war effort. Where the rest of Greece wouldn’t join Sparta against the Persians, neither can the U.S. population rise up as a whole against the Middle East. 

Brand Miller was going strong in his 2008 directorial debut, The Spirit, based on the classic 1940s crime fighter created by Will Eisner. He was also still working on All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, which started in 2005 and remains unfinished after only nine issues (the last one having been published in 2008).

Both interpretations of established characters have received heavy criticism, with many feeling that Miller can only operate in his wonky Sin City noir mode. In All-Star Batman, he essentially turned a variety of established characters into thugs, prostitutes and a Yakuza-style Joker. The Spirit has Samuel L. Jackson’s character, The Octopus, dress in full Nazi regalia in one scene. The film’s style and tone are pure Sin City and reflect little of Eisner’s influence.

Finally, on to Holy Terror.

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The story was originally intended as a Batman comic (Holy Terror, Batman!) but now stars a new character called The Fixer, who is essentially Batman without the ears on his cowl. The cover depicts what looks to be a man in a costume punching out a mummy, and while I think that a superhero fighting mummies would make for a way more awesome comic, it’s probably some Middle Eastern man being punched. Beyond all the goddamn prostitutes, post-9/11 right-wing paranoia, rain and ninjas, maybe there will actually be something of substance to glom on to – if just in Miller’s art. Otherwise, it will at least make for a “so bad it’s good” story by a man whose work I once sought out but who is now stuck in one gear.

Some comic book creators do not age gracefully and it shows in their work. This one-time fan can only hope to be surprised.

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