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Frank Miller and Batman: Year One
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Frank Miller has made a recent and personal stamp on films adapted from his top-selling comic books throughout the mid 80’s and 90’s. A prolific collection from the Maryland-born artist/writer has enamored Hollywood. “300” was a ready made storyboard. “Sin City” revised the cool of noir style films. “The Spirit” carried Miller’s visual excellence. “Elektra”, starring Jennifer Gardner, was based on an infamous assassin Miller created for a classic story arc of the Daredevil series. The works of Frank Miller, along with creator Alan Moore, have added velocity to comic book styled feature films.
“Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”, however, on singular merit have been the character and story motivated movies in the Batman franchise comics fans of the vigilante detective were confident could be featured. David S. Goyer’s and Christopher Nolan’s screenplays cleared the tarnish off a 60’s, cartoonish Batman legacy. Whether a third movie is released or lives up to expectation, Nolan and Goyer crafted a cinema experience acclaimed by critics, movie-goers, and award committees. They cemented that a superhero movie can convey mature, dramatic themes aligned with action scenes that contribute to the script beyond what caters to a bells-and-whistles cinematic sweet tooth.
Prior to these latest Dark Knight movies, DC Comics were benefactors to another variant lightning-in-the-bottle retelling of the crimefighter’s origins by then Batman writer Frank Miller.
Batman: Year One opens with a 25 years-old Bruce Wayne returning from years abroad; supposedly living the good life of an heir to multi-millions. Once Bruce settles in Gotham after a paparazzi arrival the extreme difficulties of transitioning training into effectiveness propels a novice-hero’s story. While Batman experiences time as a rookie without a veteran to mentor him, Lt. Detective James Gordon balances marriage and impending fatherhood with survival as a neutral police authority in grimy, gritty Gotham City. Page after page Wayne aka Batman and Gordon separately cope with the inescapable need to become types of men who can not only keep head-above-water but directly confront the driving pollutive forces of the city’s corruption.
Frank Miller wrote a superhero noir that paid homage to Batman’s beginnings while the series established fuller dimensions to a renowned, all-too familiar story. To match the depth of story are the illustrations of David Mazzuchelli. David combines the 40’s countenances to contemporary fashions, styles, and technology. Where he depicts the metropolitan trafficked throng of Gotham, the quick-pulse of cityscape panels induces realistic familiarity or comprehensible notions.
Hybrid 94’s “Seven” with 2006’s “Casino Royale” and a whiff of this ahead-of-its-time comic is realized. Originally published as a limited series, the issues were compiled into a single graphic novel that can be purchased at any major book store, or comic book shop in the DC metro area.
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