Movie " Batman vs. Superman: at the dawn of justice »I split the community into parts. Some consider scenario shoals and troubles, others are looking for arguments in defense of the snider and make lists of references to comics, and the third will come down, the picture is good. However, for someone and last year’s “fantastic four”, it was from the category “so it will do”.

In one, both defenders and opponents of the film reached a consensus: Batman performed by Ben Affleck is unexpectedly good and, perhaps, became the main decoration of the film.

Only some kind of evil he is. Criminals are crippled, sometimes even kills, in relation to Superman behaves not as an worried earthling, but as an overtaken xenophobe and paranoid. Somehow, it’s not in Batmanovsky, the audience who is not familiar with the graphic novels Frank Miller think, from whom the inspiration of Zak Snyder and screenwriter David Goyer scooped up.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns And Batman: Year One For thirty years they have been considered a classic and are standing in the first places in all tops of drawn stories about a man-nomple. They made Frank Miller a superstar of the world of comics, they were guided by Berton and Nolan, and … they have the worst sequels in history.

Today we will analyze the best works of the master of graphic nuar, and we will leave the most juicy and inadequate.

Attention! The article contains spoilers from comics thirty years ago.

The Dark Knight Returns (1986)

Neon eighties. The world is cracking at the seams on the eve of the nuclear war between the United States and the USSR. Gotham is exhausted from abnormal heat and senseless violence. No one to hope for – no one has seen Batman for ten years. Some argue that he is dead, others generally doubt that a man in a battery costume was not a city legend and not a fiction of clever newspaper men.

► before the “City of Sins” for several more years, but Frank Miller seems to have found his own style.

And at this time, 56-year-old Bruce Wayne desperately tries to calm the ineffective thirst for risk, participating in extreme races. In the evenings, he drinks with Jim Gordon a glass of wine, remembering the old days, or just sits at home in front of the TV. For ten years he is a walking dead man. For ten years, Bruce ignores the voice in his head, calling him to put on a cloak again and go on the roofs.

But sooner or later any patience comes to an end. When street gangs are finally dressed, and blood rivers are foamed to the knees, the dark knight returns from non -being in order to restore order in Gotham for the last time.

► Miller recalls that Betarang is a throwing weapon, and when he enters the body, he, which is not surprising, sticks out, and does not bounce with a funny sound.

The Dark Knight Returns was not a revolutionary. In the same 1986, DC began publishing epoch -making “guardians”, with whom “returning” has many plot parallels (waiting for war, sunset of the superhero era), but still Alan Moore turned out to be a more multifaceted, comprehensive and significant work for the genre. And Batman back in the 1970s became a rather gloomy reading, so do not believe that Miller took and showed everyone what real comics about the Knight of the Night should be. The main achievement of the “Return of the Dark Knight”, perhaps, is that he effectively closed several important topics.

► Frank Miller Joker has a cold -blooded psychopath without a hint of humor.

Firstly, Miller issued a logical and in some ways a beautiful result of the long-term relationship between Batman and Joker. The last fight between fundamental enemies unfolds, of course, in the amusement park. The fight begins in the middle of a frightened crowd of onlookers, then goes into a mirror maze (a hint that Batman and Joker are reflection of each other), and it ends, which is symbolic, in a tunnel of love. The final chord is the suicide of the crazy clown, who realized that the sworn enemy still would not go to murder.

► finita la comedy.

Secondly, the comic book clearly demonstrates the significance of Batman as a symbol. When, due to the explosion of the Soviet atomic bomb, all America is left without electricity, only Gotham manages not to might in chaos. Horse on a horse, like a commander, a dark knight calls excited citizens to order, arouses civilian self -consciousness in them and leads to a battle with looters, bandits and other detachment. This is one of the rare moments in the history of comics, when the hero not only inspires someone with the fact of his existence, but takes on the role of a leader and the herald of folk will.

► Lonely horse from the beginning of the Batman vs. Superman – a reference to this legendary scene.

Thirdly, Miller for the first time (and with great pleasure) showed that Batman, if desired, could knock out nonsense even from Superman. It was from The Dark Knight Returns “at the dawn of justice” borrowed BET Dospards and, in general, the whole battle between the heroes.

However, Miller's motives of the characters were much more understandable and significant. Due to the scriptwriter undisguised contempt for a person, he turned into a puppet of the US president, Batman, being a symbol of civil disobedience, undermined the authority of official power. Thus, the clash of the heroes was a conflict more likely ideologies than personalities. Snyder and Goyer tried to realize something similar, but frankly could not cope with the task.

► Still, Miller had a harder and more.

Now let's talk about what the hero Frank Miller drew Batman and why the leadership of DC Comics was not at all enthusiastic about the fact that The Dark Knight Returns gained wild popularity.

To begin with, Bruce Wayne is definitely unhealthy. For all his significance, with all heroism, he is a mentally ill person. If Grant Morrison devoted the theme of a mental disorder of the Dark Knight Graphic novel: A Serious House On Serious Earth), then Miller demonstrates the whole depth of the avenger insanity with several spectacular scenes.

Here Batman is really an alter of the Ego Wayne, the voice that sounds in his head. Bruce himself is so susceptible to the influence of his mighty shadow that at some point he walks naked along the bat and in an unconscious state, shaves his outlets, which is a lot of surprise post-fact.

► If one night this one flies into your house, your mental health is likely to be shaken.

According to Miller, the knight of the night does not value the life of criminals too much. He throws one on a sign of hundreds of volts, leaves the other with blood. The culmination is the scene in which Batman shoots a crowd of bandits from a large -caliber machine gun! Yes, with rubber bullets, but if you think that the hit of such a projectile, say, is not able to kill in your head, then you are probably mistaken.

Moreover, he appreciates his own life and the life of associates no more. Wayne here allows a 13-year-old girl without special training to become a Robin simply because he needs Captain Marlin sister sites a satellite, or rather, as he expresses, a “soldier”.

By the way, the militaristic vocabulary (“soldier”, “order”, “war”) often slip through in Batman's speech, which is strange. You expect this from the heroes with the military past, like a punisher or captain of America, but from the mouth of a millionaire-Grazhdansky sounds as an extra confirmation that Wayne lives in some kind of world.

► Wayne arranges the bandits with a real Vietnam on his Batmobile. Although it is rather BET Tank.

► Episode from the Return of the Dark Knight is in one of the series of Batman of the 1990s. The elderly knight of the night was voiced by Michael Ironside, Sam Fisher's voice from Splinter Cell.

Be that as it may, fans took such a version of Batman with a bang, like Roman himself. It was his success that pushed Warner Bros studio bosses. Give the good Tim Burton to shoot the gloomy and adult "Batman", and not the next booth in the spirit of the series of the 1960s, as was originally planned.

► The fact that Batman allows a home girl to be a robine, to put it mildly, does not correspond to the character of Bruce Wayne familiar to us. However, desperate times require desperate measures.

Knights of justice

Which unites Batman and Robocop, except for powerful chin? It turns out that both defenders of justice have much more in common than it seems.

Firstly, in the “return of the Dark Knight” Gotham with paintings of the devastation, painted gateway and spiked informals much more reminiscent of Detroit from the Paul Serkhoven militant than himself. In addition, in The Dark Knight Returns, as in the Robocope, uses the inserts from news releases to outline the situation in society.

Secondly, Peter Weller, the performer of the role of Robocop in the first two films, voiced the aged Bruce Wayne in excellent animation film adaptation of the “Return of the Dark Knight”.

Thirdly, Michael Kiton, Batman from the dilogy of Tim Berton, played the main villain in the Robokop remake of 2014.

Finally, Frank Miller himself wrote scripts for the second and third films about the robot-police. They were subjected to significant editing, so the paintings from the author’s text are significantly different. However, everything that did not get on the screen migrated to the format more familiar to Miller – comic.

Year One (1987)

Having reasonably considering that The Dark Knight Returns does not need to be continued (ah, if Miller himself decided so), DC immediately ordered a background, which would show in a similar gloomy manner the beginning of Batman's path. Moreover, they were going to publish a new arch in the framework of the main series, so that, if successful, it fit into the canon and the alternative reality of Frank Miller. So the famous Batman was born: the Year One, which became the main source of inspiration of Christopher Nolan in the work on the trilogy.

► David Matsuchelli's drawing refers to the comics of the past, but makes you look at them from a different angle.

The action really covers the year. One year, during which the honest kopa Jim Gordon has to survive in a snake nest called Gotham police, and the young Bruce Wayne is to find his own way of combating crime.

And both are associated with physical pain and mental torment. Gordon is a white raven among unclean hands of colleagues, besides, he constantly worries for a pregnant wife: Gotham is not a place to have children. And Bruce just doesn't know what to do. Inaction slowly kills him, but the first exit to the fight against crime turns into an almost fatal outcome.

► For the excessive correctness, colleagues beat Gordon with baseball bats ..

► … but he will not remain in debt.

From the “Return of the Dark Knight” “Year of the First” is strikingly, and the point is not even that instead of the author he was drawn by the talented artist David Matsuchelli. Miller decided to stylize the new chapter of his Batmenana for his beloved noir, which, in general, succeeded – partly because the dark knight himself is on the second roles.

Year One is Gordon's story. The story of the last honest policeman in a rotten city or even the world. His problems are understandable, and the motives are simple: to remain yourself, save the family, survive. The future commissar is solid, fundamental, but by no means sinless, which adds humanity to him. Of course, the formation of Batman is also important, and many pages are given to him, but it is clear that Frank Miller is much more interesting than Gordon, whom all the authors used to perceive as given.

► gotham – dirty place.

However, Bruce also has several memorable scenes. One of them is the first exit to the fight against crime. Having made a tramp, Wayne is trying to save a minor prostitute from the attacks of the pimp, for which he immediately flanges from the bandit, from the girl, and from Celina Kyle, who, according to Miller, also earns a living by prostitution, but at the same time possesses martial arts (at the same time ( We will return to this). The folk Avenger beaten to half death understands that the crime in the city does not defeat the crime in the city and it would be necessary to create a spectacular image.

The path to the screen

The graphic novel Frank Miller, inspired by Nuar's films, also repeatedly served as a source of inspiration.

"Batman: Mask of Fantasm" (1993)

The first and last full -length cartoon DC, which was going on a wide box office and undeservedly failed. Events unfold in the universe of the famous animated series 1990s. The creators borrowed two recognizable scenes from Miller’s comics: Wayne's first street fight and the capture of Batman Special Forces.

"Batman: Beginning" (2005)

In fact, the entire trilogy of Christopher Nolan is inspired by the style of the “year of the first”, but the first film shows the beginning of Bruce Wayne’s path with a great eye on Miller’s comic and references to him. The most spectacular scene from the Year One migrated to the screen: Batman's escape from the police under the cover of a flock of bats.

Gotham (2014 – …)

The series about the service of the young and honest (for the time being) Jim Gordon in the dirty and vicious Gotham cannot but rely on the “year of the first”, although this is easy for the whole covers with young supervillains and not to notice. Key characters have been borrowed from the comic book: a corrupt detective Fluss, the Commissioner of the Leb and the criminal boss Falcone.

As in the case of the “return of the Dark Knight”, there is an almost rotary animated film adaptation of the “year of the first”, so if you don’t want to read comics, you can find it.

And again success! Year One instantly gained a cult status: both critics and readers liked the mundane, conditionally realistic view of the BET-velocity. We can say that he and The Dark Knight Returns determined the comic book development vector about the Dark Knight two decades ahead.

* * *

On this, good works from Batmenian Miller end. Then everything became only worse.

But about this next time.