Young Justice and The Dark Knight Returns

So I'm definitely not keeping to my 2 trades per day goal. In my defense, I've been reading heavy stuff first. Hopefully I'll pick up the pace by the time anyone actually starts reading this blog.

Anyway, first let's talk about The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. Anyone who really likes the Christopher Nolan batman movies and/or doesn't particularly like super hero comic books should read this. Miller pulls off the dark and gritty side of Batman better than most writers, and the art, also done by Miller, has a cool look. Obviously this is another classic must-read, but I didn't really like it.

I've never bought into the whole "Batman's the best because he doesn't have any powers" thing, and that's what the newspaper article in the introduction tries to prove from the outset. In addition, the constant onslaught of two-dimensional pundits debating whether or not Batman is a good guy gets old very fast. I particularly dislike when the same exact television clips are shown over and over. It's just more to get through.

Perhaps the worst part of this book is the portrayal of Superman as a dumb government sellout. It's books like this that make people dislike Superman as a character. Yes, he is an idealist, and yes, he believes in the government, but if he was asked to work for a corrupt government, he would work to change it. He would never simply do as he was told, as Miller suggests.

Anyway, now onto something I did like. After seeing the kickoff movie for the upcoming cartoon, I decided to check out Young Justice. Over the past few weeks, I've read the first seventeen issues of the series as well as the mini series and one shot that came beforehand. This is one of the most fun series I've ever read. Written by Peter David in the late nineties, it stars Robin, Impulse, Superboy, and a few female characters that nobody's heard of. It's one of those books that makes you laugh out loud, but still has strong enough plot and characters to keep you interested. Plus, because several of the characters are c-list, if something happens to one of them, it might actually stay that way.

Okay, that's it for today. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next...