Frank Miller (1) (1957–)

Isn't it interesting that in art world people will always hang to the perception and story behind the art instead of art itself (and this is comic so it is art, visual story telling). I have a feeling it is because they sound daft to themselves if they say what the h***k is this ink blot here? You dont see it? What connoisseur of visual art are you!?!! You need to go above mere visual perception and seek higher meaning.

Hehehehehehee..... for this comic? Hehehehehheheheh......

As you most probably heard this comic was criticized on the part of the story, and story should be maybe 3rd or 4th thing to criticize this comic for.

Story wise, masked avenger (Fixer) and his sidekick (he spends good part of book chasing around) turn against the Al Qaeda cells that start activating and killing civilians in the Empire City. So he is not friendly towards these terrorists and he kills them in some very gruesome ways. To say that book is against entire religion is ridiculous to say the least. Fixer does not go around the world hunting the terrorists, he stops the cells blowing themselves in the city (and he does not manage to stop all of them, while some are even stopped by citizen arrest). It is as to say that Zero Dark Thirty is against the religion of the people waging the war against US, and not the actual people waging war against the US. Is this type of patriotism cringey - yes, but it happens every time during conflicts (I mean c'mon even Duffy Duck had encounters with the WW2 German soldiers).

So story is mediocre at best and I can even understand why critics wrote only about this. Because art is so ugly it is unbelievable. It is possible they just browsed through the book and decided not to say anything about art - this is ungrateful because what is ugly today will be beautiful tomorrow so imagine you end up on wrong side of history (hahahahahahahaha) - but to concentrate on oh so sweet scandal that will bring this book more unwarranted attention. Basically they took easier path.

So.... art. Ugliest piece of visual art I ever saw in my life, and I have seen a lot. It is unbelievable that author's resume lists Batman and 300. Level of visual cacophony on every page is such that pages can be used as alternative to Rorschach's test and people asked what they see. And if they see anything send them to ESP training centers so they can help humankind with looking towards stars.

Unbelievably ugly art, blocky characters that just ..... blot out with backgrounds. Women sidekick is .... it took me almost half a a book to find out this was woman in the first place. As a contrast lets take Metal Gear Solid graphic novel drawn by Kris Oprisko, book I also had issues with. If you look at Oprisko's style it is also sketchy, sometimes messy but if you move out a bit you will see actual dynamic of the drawing, even some of the details that you cannot see if you are too close to the pages. Is it strange, dream-like, almost nightmarish style - definitely. But you can see it, you get immersed and after a while you get accustomed.

For Miller's work here you can go as far as Moon and still wont be able to decipher what is going on. As a matter of fact I dare you to say you see anything at all.

Author is one of the giants of the industry but this book is terrible in the most important aspect - visual presentation. I do not think he needed this one but hey every great author can make mistakes as long quality work is also given - and in Frank Miller's opus you will find truly great things.

As of story - it will trigger you if you are ultra sensitive PC (to use modern parlance although I dont understand why would it trigger you at all, aren't we sufficiently grown up to recognize comic is comic? If you use/see comic as a political tool and something to get picture about reality I can tell you it isn't about the comic ..... get triggered by things outside imagination, get triggered by what is happening around you, what you see in news or read in newspapers, not by entertainment).

If you read any Punisher, Suicide Squad and even Batman story chances are you wont even register the story but increasing migraine developing while you watch the pages and try figuring what is up and what is down.

I cannot recommend to this anyone, trust me, skip it, your eyes will be grateful.… (more)

I tend to be very careful with experimenting artists - when I bought Metal Gear Solid comic I found it story-wise interesting but art was .... weird is too kind word, totally disorientating.

Here Sienkiewizcs does the same, art is sometimes very interesting but sometimes pretty psychedelic - but nevertheless it follows the story - which is pretty interesting and pretty good. And to be honest this surprised me a lot, I was not expecting this.

So, if you are in for some Ninjas, mysticism, magic, spies and all of that presented in the flavor of legendary 80's give this one a try. It is truly a gem.

Recommended.
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