A masterful return.
By Joshua Yehl
Note: This is an advance spoiler-free review. The Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1 releases on Wednesday, November 25.
Frank Miller’s Dark Knight saga has quite a bit in common with Star Wars. Their initial efforts were universally acclaimed successes that changed their respective mediums forever, while their follow-ups left quite a lot to be desired. Now, they are both poised to make a comeback with new talent involved. The Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1 hits almost a month before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and if they are going to maintain similar levels of quality, then that’s good news for Star Wars fans, because the third entry into the Dark Knight saga does everything right.
Mimicking the time jump between The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again, three years have passed when The Master Race begins. Like its predecessors, the comic reflects the times: talking heads that evoke Jon Stewart and Bill O’Riley provide the media chorus, smartphone pictures of Batman go viral, and the architecture looks modern while still channeling Gotham’s noir vibe.
Artist Andy Kubert infuses his style with Miller-isms that evoke what came before, so there’s a powerful sense of nostalgia, but also one of clarity. It feels like Miller’s classic world only more focused and streamlined — that is, better realized with more for your eyes to drink in. To be clear, it’s all Kubert from the ground up. There’s no copying here, just an attention to detail that helps evoke Miller’s signature design.
Inker Klaus Janson embraces those elements, giving the pages a sharpness and sense of depth, adding to the hard, brutal edge of the Dark Knight world. Brad Anderson’s excellent color work gives it all a toned-down, lived-in aesthetic, plus he delivers us the most bleak sunrise in recent memory.
All three artists use this first issue to show why they are masters of the medium and, without a doubt, the right picks for this ambitious project.
Miller is co-writing with Brian Azzarello, and it’s Azzarello’s voice that stands out. It’s full of profound inner dialogue and a sense of world-weariness, yet not without subtle, surprising moments of humor. Familiar faces like Wonder Woman, Superman, their daughter Lara, and Commissioner Yindel appear, each burdened with intriguing new status quos begging to be explored. There’s no immediate call to action for any of them, but rather the sense that they’re slowly orbiting the Dark Knight’s world, set on paths that tease to send them all crashing together.
And then there’s that heart-stopping last page that all but ensures they will.
The Master Race team took a smart approach, utilizing core Dark Knight elements that we all recognize and pushing them forward to the next level. It’s both modern in its artistic sensibilities and classic in how it treats its characters as mythic figures. This comic is pumping with the blood of today’s top comic talent, but spiritually it’s faithful to Miller’s work — although much more the steely slow burn of The Dark Knight Returns than the wild mind-bender of its sequel.
The Dark Knight III: The Master Race delivers a pitch-perfect first issue, channeling the vibe of The Dark Knight Returns by telling a slow-burn story with mythic characters set against a modern day backdrop. The art pays homage to Miller’s iconic world while improving and inventing where needed — an impressive show of artistry on all fronts. While Miller is co-writing with Azzarello, it’s Azzarello’s voice that shines through, lending the book the crime smarts of 100 Bullets, the reverence for Batman’s legend in Joker, and the epic quality of his Wonder Woman run.
This comic altogether manages to set your fears at ease while building anticipation for the story it’s preparing to tell, and from the way this issue ends, it has the potential to be one for the ages.
