Today, we look at when Frank Miller’s Batman work first became a distinct influence on other Batman comic books.
In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at [email protected]).
You don’t need me to tell you that the comic book work of Frank Miller from The Dark Knight Returns and Year One (the former working with inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley and the latter working with penciler/inker David Mazzucchelli and colorist Richmond Lewis, who was mainly a painter but was convinced by Mazzucchelli to color a few of his projects from the era and she was magnificent) were highly influential. The impact is obvious in the major live action comic book movies that we have seen over the past thirty plus years, from Tim Burton to Christopher Nolan to Zack Snyder to Matt Reeves, the Frank Miller influence is obvious in their work (Nolan and Snyder each more or less adapted a large chunk of a major Miller work, with Nolan’s Batman Begins being a Year One riff and Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice being a Dark Knight Returns riff, with some imagery literally taken directly from the original Miller comic, like Snyder did with an earlier film based on a Miller comic, 300).
Okay, so that’s obvious, but what is just as obvious is that Miller’s Batman work has had a major impact on Batman COMIC BOOKS, as well, and likely an even LARGER impact than he has had on the films, really, just in terms of sheer volume. Reader James R. wrote in to ask when did Miller’s Batman work first show up in the comic books as a direct influence. Well, let’s take a look!
WHAT WAS THE INFLUENCE OF FRANK MILLER’S BATMAN WORK ON THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY?
Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight (which is typically referred to as The Dark Knight Returns, but it’s interesting to note that the series is technically titled Batman: The Dark Knight, with each of the four books getting its own title, like The Dark Triumphant, Hunt for the Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Falls, but everyone only remembers the title of the first book, The Dark Knight Returns, and that has become the default title for the whole series) was approved when Dick Giordano became DC’s top editor. One of the key aspects of the comic book was how it was much darker than typical Batman stories, and that’s saying a lot, as Batman stories had already gotten relatively dark in the time between 1970-1985, but as Miller once noted about his Batman in the comic, “One thing that had to be done right away was that his methods had to become a lot harsher and he had to become a lot smarter. The ‘Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot’ line had to go out the window. He has to be a very, very potent, scary figure in order to even function in that world, let along overpower it.
The fascinating thing, though, is that Miller’s The Dark Knight was coming out at the same time regular Batman comics were still coming out, as the book was transitioning to a new editor, Denny O’Neil (O’Neil was editing Dark Knight Returns, but Len Wein was still editing the main titles until Batman #401, when O’Neil took over). Doug Moench’s long run on the character was drawing to a close and he reflected to my friend Glenn Greenberg in TwoMorrows’ Back Issue #50, “I knew Frank Miller doing Batman would be a big deal. I didn’t know it would be SUCH a big deal. I don’t think anybody did.” Greenberg heard the same from Marv Wolfman, who added, “I never expected it to be as influential as it was because I thought it was just going to be Frank doing a four-part story – and it would be great, because I loved Frank’s Daredevil. But I didn’t think everybody would then suddenly want to write in that style – and of course, 90 percent of those people didn’t have Frank’s talent” (Gerry Conway also had very similar comments. But go pick up the issue of Back Issue and read it for yourself).
So Moench’s issues were not influenced by Miller’s work…
Former DC Publisher, President and Editor-in-Chief Jenette Kahn was interviewed by my friend Jennifer Contino and Kahn explained how big of an impact Dark Knight Returns had:
Dark Knight signaled a seismic shift. All the extraordinary books that have come after it, Watchmen, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum, The Sandman, Preacher, Planetary, The Authority, 100 Bullets (and great books from other publishers, too, like American Flagg) owe a debt to it. Dark Knight turned comics on its head. And it ushered in a new era of formats. With paper of the highest quality and perfect binding, Dark Knight was more book than comic. Unlike magazines and other supposedly disposable ephemera Dark Knight and the comics it made possible could take their place on the library shelf.
However, speaking to Wolfman’s point, Dark Knight Returns inker Klaus Janson once noted, “Dark Knight gets the credit and the blame [for the comics that came after]. I’ll share with you that [editor] Dick Giordano, many years after Dark Knight Returns, said to me [that] he regretted that.”
WHAT WAS THE FIRST COMIC BOOK DIRECTLY INFLUENCED BY MILLER’S BATMAN WORK?
When O’Neil started as editor, he initially did a pair of Legends tie-ins in both Batman and Detective Comics, but then he made a major change when he brought Miller to the main Batman series to do a new, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin for Batman in Year One with Mazzucchelli and Lewis…
However, O’Neil meanwhile was also having Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis and Paul Neary do a decidedly different type of story in Detective Comics…
And then O’Neil hired the brilliant mystery writer, Max Allan Collins, to take over Batman and Collins’ style was VERY different than Miller (Collins planned for the book to be geared towards a very wide audience, including younger readers)…
Barr and Davis did a Batman: Year Two, which seems to be the obvious answer as to a comic that was influenced by Year One, but that wasn’t the case at all, as Barr and Davis were working well ahead of schedule, so their story was created independently of Year One (the Year Two moniker was likely added, but the story was not based on Year One.
In fact, Davis literally quit the series because he was irked at having to react to what Year One did when he was working ahead of that series’ schedule, so why should he have to change for a story that was drawn AFTER his? So Todd McFarlane stepped in for Davis to finish the storyline).
Alan Grant and John Wagner took over Detective Comics with artist Norm Breyfogle, but I don’t think that they were necessarily Miller-influenced at the time….
Guys like Mike Mignola and Todd McFarlane were doing these brilliant noirish covers during this period, but I don’t think that that was a Miller-influence, per se.
Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson came out with Batman: The Cult, a limited series that debuted soon after Starlin also became the regular writer on Batman, but I tend to think that it is likely that Starlin started working on The Cult BEFORE he was hired to be the regular writer on Batman, but whatever, it’s all roughly the same point in time.
And while you could argue that Starlin’s regular Batman work was influenced by Miller (I think I would say it WAS), the connection is cleaner and more obvious when it came to The Cult.
Starlin and Wrightson’s Batman: The Cult is the first Batman comic book with a glaring Miller influence, although Starlin interestingly noted once, ” I was gearing my Batman off Miller’s because it was the best one going at the time. If it should be compared to any Miller job I’d think it would be Ronin. Both stories take place a good deal in sewers.”
I guess, but, I mean, it sure seems like Starlin, Wrightson and colorist Bill Wray were going for a direct Dark Knight Returns vibe here…
as while you could obviously argue that Ronin and Dark Knight Returns had a lot of the same vibe by virtue of being Miller and Lynn Varley works of the same basic era, there were certain elements of Dark Knight Returns that were distinct to it, like the TV talking heads that The Cult adopted…
So that’s when the Miller influence officially debuted on the Batman comics, but of course it would soon be much more pervasive!
Thanks to James for the question! If anyone else has a comic book question, drop me a line at [email protected]!
About The Author
For all the latest Comics News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
