Sadly, I think this is common with many “great” creators, ppl who in their younger days not only were famous but were heaped and heaped and heaped with praise and developed a huge following.

In Miller’s case, I think it’s 2 fold. :\ He’s bought into the “Frank Miller is a genius who writes great mainstream breaking dark fiction” press too much and that’s now all he’s trying to be, and at the same time, he’s trying to push the envelope again.

The problem is that thanks to DKR, the industry’s alrdy done that, and in order for him to be different from mainstream comics that are alrdy dark (Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Civil War), he has to go even crazier!

At least that’s what *I* think is happening XDD

I totally agree with your post and I’m glad at least somebody isn’t taking the opinion that ASBAR #5 must be brilliant parody simply b/c nothing could be that bad XD

He’s Frank Miller.

(Okay, guys, give Dick Grayson the axe back.)

What I mean, is, he’s trying to out Miller himself. People think of all the great things that he’s done, and brother are there a lot of them, so it seems like anything he does lately is trying to outdo his past hero stuff. But dark brooding uberserious ultravi stuff only goes so far. BUT-and this is a big but-that’s what Miller’s fans expect. So that’s what he keeps cranking out. With Frank Miller, like with any of the really good ones, you know what to expect. But too many of the people out there want more morE moRE mORE MORE! So, Miller and his editors try to give the people what they think they want, more Prototypical Miller. What they don’t REALIZE they want is Miller just being Miller, telling deep stories, engaging stories, stories with (GASP!) words in ‘em. Some of his older stuff was pretty text-intensive, just not dialogue heavy, but the story gripped you because it had depth. Reviewers don’t talk about Miller and depth. They talk about the action, the violence, the darkness. But the only reason that anyone cared was because of the characters that he wrote.

Miller was still doing work on non-hero books that was good, but any of his trips back into heroland seemed to be missing something as far back as the early 90’s. Even his return to the Batman for his Dark Night Strikes Again series was… I don’t know… Not bad so much as just missing something. It was the first book I had heavy regrets about dropping the $$$$ for after reading it.

Miller’s name just doesn’t sell me the way it used to. Now, if I see his name on something, I’m more likely to wait for the TPB to come out and get the feedback of people I trust before even picking it up.