Later this month, the much-anticipated/dreaded third chapter in Frank Miller’s legendary and divisive Dark Knight series hits stands. Dark Knight III: The Master Race is being co-written by Miller and Brian Azzarello and will be Miller’s last big Batman story – or at least, that’s how DC Comics has sold the series. As with most things Frank Miller-related, things are a little more complicated.
In a recent interview with Newsarama, Miller claims Dark Knight III actually won’t be the curtain call for his version of the DC Universe, and that he plans to do a Dark Knight IV, which he’ll be writing on his own.
“It is in Brian Azzarello’s hands right now, and I thoroughly applaud what he’s doing. But now that he’s doing his, it’s now a four-part series. I’m doing the fourth.”
Miller also seems to indicate that he wasn’t as involved in the creation of Dark Knight III as DC would like us to believe, essentially working as an advisor more than an actual writer.
“I’ll read what Brian’s doing, and I will respond to that. I know what he’s doing and I applaud him completely, and I can’t wait to get started on my next book.”
Of course, the unspoken here is that DC obviously teamed Miller with Azzarello to reign Miller in, as his last three Dark Knight Universe projects have all been insane, offensive or just plain terrible. Dark Knight Strikes Again was kind of brilliant, but also totally bizarre, mean-spirited and divisive, All-Star Batman and Robin was Miller in full hard-boiled self-parody mode, and the anti-Islamic screed Batman: Holy Terror was so radioactive that it had to be stripped of its title character and published independently. And now Miller wants to do another one. On his own. Hoo boy.
What do you folks think? Excited for the spectacle of Frank Miller taking on the goddamn Batman one more time? Or should he just leave the Dark Knight Returns memories alone?
(Via Newsarama)