Holy Terror

Frank Miller was once the wunderkind of American comics. While so many top comic writers are British (Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Ennis being the most popular writers of the modern era) Miller created a uniquely American style of hard boiled sex, violence and pathos. DKR helped found the Dark Age of comics after all.

Looking at his works chronologically though, Miller's last home run seems to be That Yellow Bastard, written half way through his Sin City period. That was in 1996, fifteen years ago.

So here we have Miller, the American in a field dominated by Brits, over the hill and remixing his old style. The story's two main characters are obvious pastiches for Batman and Catwoman. The art is very reminiscent of Sin City. The content, according to Miller in interviews, is "a piece of propaganda". The reader is left to sort through these seemingly disparate elements.

Holy Terror, on a purely technical level, is very strong. The pounding urban rain has never looked better. Splotches of white amidst the downward lines suggest impressionistic artistic frenzy. Empire City's Lady Liberty strikes an imposing and majestic figure over the landscape. Close ups of the nails and razor blades packed into the terrorist's bombs lend an epic feeling to a scene that is just two people huddling on a rooftop. In fact, I thought the nail motif was a nice artistic touch.

The figures fall into the Frank Miller 2.0 mold, with the exaggerated hands and head from late Sin City and DKSA. For some reason, Miller seems intent to find as many excuses to draw the bottom of people's shoes as possible.

One of the most visually arresting sequences is when the casualties of the terrorist bombing are depicted with a series of grids. When it starts we have a grid with medium sized portraits. The second grid has smaller portraits, therefore more people, but has started to fade out. There is then two pages of increasingly more divided grids, completely empty, on a white background. This is an extremely impressive command of sequential art.

The sparse use of color is used to convey extra information, a green car and red shoe buried in the rubble reminds of the little red dress in Schindler's List. When "Catwoman" goes undercover by stealing a burqua, the audience can tell it's her because her eye's are always colored in green.

There are some technical flaws, though. The character designs feel old. Natalie is Catgirl from DKSA mixed with Gail from Sin City. The Fixer is Batman with a pair of Gats. A pair of girl assassins are Miho crossed with the twins from Sin City. There were honestly one or two panels where I stared at it, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. One remixed element that is improved upon is Miller's famous talking heads. Here, the heads are there, but they offer silent commentary. Miller doesn't waste space or time with political commentary. We know what they will say, he just shows that they are there and lets us fill in their rants.

The actual content is an entirely different matter. The story could be summarized thoroughly on a napkin, with room left for some illustrative doodles. A work can function without story if it has good characters. Holy Terror does not have good characters, though.

The story starts with "Batman" chasing "Catwoman", who has just stole something irrelevant. They take turns punching each other and making out. Then the terrorists strike! From there the plot functions basically like the first Sin City story. Our heroes steal a car to get around and torture bad guys for info. This leads us all the way to the final battle. Again, not much going on story wise.

Thematically, Holy Terror is a far right fantasy about the nigh omniscient threat that evil Muslims pose to Western civilization. The bad guys fortress? It's in a mosque. Truly. The narration tells us that this mosque was built by Saudi Arabia and is basically a sovereign nation inside America. Remember kids, mosques are scary. The first bombing is carried out not by a bearded Taliban looking fellow, but a cute Muslim college girl. A humanities student wearing pink. Second lesson kids, no matter who they are, how they dress or what they seem to believe, they might be a foot soldier in the Evil Muslim Conspiracy. Remember also that terrorists are evil untermensch, so it's totally cool to torture and kill them at will.

Once the bombs start going off, terrorists, bearded guys with ak-47s and burqa clad women with stinger missiles, come out of the woodwork to begin a military assault on the city. (They were probably hiding inside the Park 51 community center!)

This could maybe be dismissed as a fantasy if it wasn't for two things: the opening text is a quote from Muhammad about killing infidels, and the last page tells us the book is dedicated to Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered by extremists. Seemingly Miller wants the audience then to tie this violent paranoid exercise in far right wish fulfilment into reality.

Whether it's his intent or not, this and 300 would make a great start to a Neo-Nazi graphic novel reading list. In fact, if Legendary wanted to make coin on this, they should market it en masse to right wing reading lists. It's got all the required elements: Lady Liberty, who gets blown up early on, is wearing a blindfold, telling us society is blind to the terrorist threat. "Batman's" greatest help? A secretive guy named David with a Star of David tattooed on his face. (really) Translated, Israel is our only true ally! The police commissioner is corrupt and the police useless when the chips are down. Translation: Only hard violent men stand between us and the Islamic hordes. Only guys like the Fixer and David have the strength of will to torture and kill their way to victory.

While I still respect Frank Miller for his past work, Sin City, Daredevil, Batman, Ronin, etc etc, he's been in a slump for a long time now, and I don't see it reversing in the near future. The man possesses technical skills, but even his short.dialogue.bursts lack the charm they once had. My hope is that if Frank Miller keeps making comics, he gets someone else to write them.

2/5

Three letter reviews of the nu DC

Action Comics #1 yay

Animal Man #1 yay

Omac #1 yay

Frankenstein: Agent of Shade #1 yay

Swamp thing #1 meh

Justice League Dark #1 meh

Demon knights #1 meh

Justice League #1 boo

Hellblazer #283

Peter Milligan's run on Hellblazer could be subtitled "The unintentional consequences of being John Constantine." To my pleasant surprise, after being assaulted by Demon Constantine, Gemma remains a supporting character in the title. To his credit, Milligan didn't just hop into the title, dispense rape and injustice to all the established characters and then toss them away for a lark. An unfavourable comparison could be made to the cheap way supporting characters are brutalized for a voyeuristic fix in Identity Crisis.

Speaking again of unintended consequences, our story starts with Epiphany and John waking up in the Thames. Their bed seems to have transported itself there while they were sleeping. A day in the life of John Constantine! The story is actually narrated by John's coat, which seems to have “awakened” after all the mystical jetsam it's been exposed too. The coat seems to exude an arrogant, amoral machismo, an extreme version of the air constantine uses to impress others.

Gemma is still dealing with the aftermath of her attack. She wants to turn to John for help, but she can't forgive him. And John, of course, refuses to admit he did anything wrong.

The stylized cartoony art accentuates the character's best characteristics, John's sneer and Gemma's crumbling innocence, for example. This same art previously gave us a rendering of a bird creature that was thoroughly nonthreatening, making the creature look less like an occult horror then something Superman would throw through a wall. This issue has an all human cast, so that concern is avoided.

On a side note, Epiphany's relationship with her father takes a weird turn when her father surprises her and John in the shower. He mentions that it's nothing he hasn't seen before when they were skinny dipping. I detect an incestous under tone here, something we might see explored in the future.

4/5

Sometimes I want to burn the comic industry to the ground

There recently has been controversy on the internet about the portrayal of women in the new DCU. Like here. I haven't read either of the issues in question, but assuming the description given of them is accurate, I agree completely with this author. (disclaimer: I am a straight white male)

Comics can do so much better than masturbatory wish fulfillment. As a medium combining pictures and word, studies have shown that information can be understood better than either pictures or words separately. That's why Will Eisner created sequential art army manuals.

Comics also have no budget limitations. We can enjoy stories of cyborg ninja pirates fighting alien spaces whales in the 12th zombie dimension without having to wait for 3 years of production and pay for 3D glasses. The medium is limitless. Think about that. Limitless. Any story can be told.

Comics should be the pre-eminent entertainment medium. But it isn't. Why? Because so much of the industry is caught up in making fan base wish fulfillment. So much of it is caught up making, for lack of a better word, shit.

It's like the industry is dominated by 12 year olds who just discovered breasts and market their products to clones of themselves. This crap has to stop. It's misogynistic, immoral and just plain gross. We can do so much better, and the medium can do better. Comics should be soaring through the sky, not wallowing in a fetid sexual gutter.

Colonizing America

Since world war 2, the neoliberal program has been pursued fervently by the Western powers, led by America. This economic hegemony is placed above all other concerns. Men are killed, in large quantities, to maintain these arrangements. The goal is to create a colony-empire relationship between the West and developing nations. The target country, under the rule of a sympathetic dictator usually, pursues a regime of business friendly laws, slashing social budgets, and increased control over the native population. Chile under Pinochet, Indonesia under Suharto and many others killed thousands, but were supported by America as long as they kept to the program. The list of countries under these economic regimes spans South and Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.

One of the chief facilitators of the neo-liberal programs is the IMF and the World Bank. These financial organizations each have a controlling interest owned by the United States. They will give loans to developing nations if those nations undergo prescribed economic adjustments. The more loans they take out, the more loans they need. Similiar to NATO, which has abandonded any pretense of it's original anti-communist goals, the IMF and the World Bank were originally formed to help developing nations and stablize global economic markets. The goal of stabilizing markets has been discarded since the Bretton-Woods system was done away with by the Nixon adminstation. World Bank officials have repeatedly admitted that their stated goals of helping developing nations have failed consistently.

Under IMF austerity programs, countries are told to lower trade barriers and end subsidies. In a free world, these would be valid suggestions. In the real world, it's a different story. Third world farmers are forced to compete with heavily subsidized American agribusiness firms, like Archers Daniels Midland or Monsanto. The local farmers go out of business quickly. Instead of growing their own food, they can now find work in a Nike factory.

The perfect arrangement is for people who used to produce things for their own country, to instead work in a factory making shoelaces or soccer balls. In place of growing their own food, they are now forced to import food from the United States. They now import goods from the West and export piece work, the same arrangement that historical Empires used with their colonies.

All these changes have predictable effects wherever they are implemented. Poverty increases, malnutrion increases, life expectancy goes down, literacy goes down. Political violence increases and corporate profits sky rocket. Wealth spikes among the politically connected, while the overwhelming majority of the population find their standards of living drop precipitously. The economy will usually go under a series of escalating depressions, recessions and crisises. Either the cycle continues indefinetly into the future, or at some point the political anger is enough to change the regime. At that point, if it's feasibly to do so, the occupants will find themselves subject to violence from Western backed agents.

Starting with Ronald Reagan, these programs began to be applied to the Empire itself. In America, laws that could interfere with business were done away with. Social programs were cut and control over the population increased under the rubric of the War on Drugs. Unions were brought to their lowest levels, and continue to fall.

Since the Reagan adminstration, the predictable effects of neo-liberalism have been produced in America. Since the 80's, corporate profits and CEO pay have gone up sharply. Poverty has also increased. Emergency rooms report continued increases in child malnutrition. America has health care standards comparable to communist Cuba. American workers work longer hours, are more productive, get paid less and have less vacation time than comparable employees in Western Europe. Union membership continues to fall. America has now the largest per capita prison population in the world, and the increasing militarization of police departments leads to civilian deaths across the country. Since the 80's, America has continued to undergo increased economic shocks and catastrophes.

America now finds itself in the same economic position all other countries who follow the neo-liberal program eventually enter. Unlike other countries, the US has a controlling interest in the IMF and won't have to take humilating loans from the organization. On the other hand, the austerity measures will likely take the same route: slash social programs but keep the same structure.

These government positions: anti-union, pro-business, pro-government interference in the economy, as long as it protects profit, and pro-defense spending finds a precedent in a familiar enemy: fascist itally and Nazi germany. The things we see in America, bail outs, massive defense spending, anti-union laws and subsidies towards politically connected industries would all seem standard fare to citizens of any fascist nation.

The USA is now getting to a point where cheap manufactoring will navigate from China back to the poorest parts of the US. The United States has undertaken a bizarre program to try and turn the interior of the nation into a third world country to enrich the smallest fractions of it's political and business elite. The economy will likely crash again and again, the dollar will sink in value and inflation will rise, but all of these are just hiccups in comparison to the goals of this system. Even if the program hurls the US into another Depression, they very rich will stay very rich, and will emerge from whatever new economy is hobbled together, still very rich. Will they push the program too far and destroy even themselves? Will the political will ever materialize to change course? Impossible to say for certain.

Debt

I supposed the other day what would happen to the deficit if the government simply cut all the programs and subsides that contribute to the violent and inequitable world we live in.

**2012 defense spending: 1 trillion**

cut by 75%

-$750 billion

**2008 Farm Bill $288 billion**

cut by 50%

-$144 billion

**War on Drugs approx $50 billion**

cut by 100%

-$50 billion

**Foregin Military and Economic Aid approx $12 billion**

cut by 100%

-$12 billion

**Federal Burea of Prisons approx $500 million**

cut by 50% or more by releasing non violent drug offenders and other petty criminals with no felonies or violent offenses

-$250 million

**Medicare Part D approx $70 billion a year**

cut by 100%

-$70 billion

**CIA budget approx $30 billion a year**

cut by 90%

-$27 billion

There are numerous things that could be cut, but that I can't find easy figures for. I came up with this in a couple minutes of internet research. It's possible the savings from the above cuts could be higher, I tried to be conservative whenever possible.

If a tax has to be implemented, the so called "Nader" tax on financial transactions of about 1/2 of a percent would raise a significant amount of revenue while having a small impact on world markets.

Revenue

1/2 of 1% tax on financial market transactions

+approx 350 billion

Total Swing- $1,403,250,000 or approx $1.4 trillion per year

aprox defecit $15 trillion

pay off deficit in approx 11 years

Of course, a person could cut any number of other things. Again, this is all very hasty and preliminary. To get these net savings, automatics increases in spending would have to be frozen, or made even with inflation.

The point is not how to magically fix the deficit (11 years is probably too long to take, although better than forever) but how much the US spends on things that are not only uneconomical, but morally unjustified.

Punisher MAX #15

Aaron continues to explore previously unknown aspects of the Punisher’s life, with good results. In flashbacks to the period when Frank returns from his last tour of Vietnam but before he loses his family, we see Frank flirting with his dark side. Offered a hit by a mafia boss, Frank asks for the best sniper rifle they can give him and turns the sights on his new employer.

Nick Fury points out something to Frank that is obvious to the reader: that he’s not a normal person and he is going to get his family in trouble. Here, the fault for the death of his family seems to be situated on Frank’s shoulders. His family died because he refused to admit what he really is.

The strength of the last issue was the jumping between the two time periods in the Punisher’s life. In this issue, we don’t see much of the current timeline, it ends only slightly advanced from the last issue. We do meet, however, another of what Ennis has bestowed as Frank’s new legacy: the memorable one-off villain. This time, it’s an evil cop who works for the Kingpin.

Aaron has advanced the MAX version of the Punisher to a point where Frank’s family wasn’t his last chance to be normal, but people who were caught in the cross fire in his inevitable fall into darkness.