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In an interview with Geoff Boucher, Frank Miller reveals the evolution of his Holy Terror, Batman! story. As many anticipated, it will no longer star Batman, and will find a new publisher, which isn’t DC. The story has been adjusted to star, instead, a character called The Fixer:

“The character is called The Fixer and he’s very much an adventurer who’s been essentially searching for a mission,” Miller said. “He’s been trained as special ops and when his city is attacked all of a sudden all the pieces fall into place and all this training comes into play. He’s been out there fighting crime without really having his heart in it — he does it to keep in shape. He’s very different than Batman in that he’s not a tortured soul. He’s a much more well-adjusted creature even though he happens to shoot 100 people in the course of the story.”


Miller reveals that his anti-terrorism tale has mellowed a bit over the years, as well:

“Holy Terror” has been a long journey, but Miller said he views it as a project that has arrived at its final destination right on time, creatively speaking.

“It began as my reaction to 9/11 and it was an extremely angry piece of work and as the years have passed by I’ve done movies and I’ve done other things and time has provided some good distance, so it becomes more of a cohesive story as it progresses,” Miller said. “The Fixer has also become his own character in a way I’ve really enjoyed. No one will read this and think, ‘Where’s Batman?'”

1 COMMENT

  1. i hope it’s good. it’s been awhile since i’ve really loved anything that miller’s done. hopefully he’ll abandon the highly stylized, overly kinetic a.k.a. sloppiness that’s intruded into his previously (see elektra lives) sublime linework.

  2. In other words, there’s nothing wrong with Islamic Fundamentalism that he can’t fix… with his bare hands? (Full of guns, now that I reread the submission?)

  3. Frankie, in his humble opinion, has taken Batman as far as he can go and I, personally have had as much of Miller as I can take.

  4. Miller’s comments re Batman are pretty damning. When the time came to do a story that had multiple real-world aspects, even though it was a revenge fantasy, Miller decided that Batman and his rogues gallery were, all in all, too cartoonish for the material. Most writers in that situation would have opted for name recognition, made a “new” version of Batman and Al-Qaeda analogues, and proceeded with the story.

    Considering how references to real-world politics in comics have attracted media attention, giving heroes political views that slanted strongly in any of several directions would probably attract more readers than would be lost.

    SRS

  5. There’s a new regime at DC Comics now so I wonder if, upon Paul Levitz’s leave, assuming he was the exec who may have had issues with story vs. corp IP, could have actually made this fit wortk with Batman after all.

    Ever since Levitz has left there has been nary any online chatter about whatever else he may or may not have allowed happen. I guess we’ll see if DC and Marvel do cross overs or if Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch do a Superman book someday.

  6. If DC isn’t willing to do a Miller Batman story, the red flags should go up. Who will publish this “new” character that used to be Batman? Huge egos aren’t attractive, especially when you can’t back them up with talent. I fear Miller’s best days are behind him. It looks like he’s worn out his welcome, and finally burned too many bridges. Good luck, Frank!

  7. What bridges did Frank burn at DC? The alleged leeriness from DC on Holy Terror Batman may have stemmed from the possiblity that maybe–maybe that DC doesn’t want to print anything that could get Muslims upset. DC ‘s management must be fully be aware of the murder of film director Theo van Gogh and the controversy over the Danish Jyllands Posten Muhammad cartoons so the management getting cold is understandable. If DC published this, they could face boycotts which would hurt the bottom line.

  8. Miller will be fine.

    DC will be fine.

    I’m sure everybody is fine. Or maybe I should say “goddamn fine.”

    Batman is perhaps the best-loved superhero in the WORLD. DC isn’t about to allow the character to be used in a divisive political “revenge fantasy” story. That’s not how one manages an internationally known, multimillion dollar franchise.

  9. “DC isn’t about to allow the (Batman)character to be used in a divisive political “revenge fantasy” story.”

    But, they have allowed Kevin Smith to depict Batman as peeing on himself during Year One.

  10. That’s a big difference between a depiction that could be interpreted as being against a group of people.

    Look, there’s a LOT of folks who cannot intellectually distinguish between Al Quaeda and Muslims in general. A lot of folks who hate “those people.” And it’s not likely that DC wants to associate their most popular hero with that sort of lunacy.

  11. darrylayo,
    There are reasons why people , mostly Westerners on the right and left end of the spectrum cannot inellectually distinguish between Islam and Islam-inspired terrorists is because Muslims have muddled distinctions between Islam and Islam-inspired terrorism themselves.
    Islam has become less moderate since the the decline of secular socialism in the Middle East. A lot of younger Muslims are more conservative than their parents for reasons no one has made clear yet.

    There are plenty of Muslims who don’t openly support terrorists but support some of the goals of Islamic terrorists. Some fully support the idea of a theocracy…otherwise called Sharia. In democratic countries, that’s a problem because the Islam population will be more likely to gravitate towards the religous extremists.

  12. Miller s work is has declined, he recached his peak on 1986-7, and has been falling down ever since, specially on the plot department.

    And reading other posts, Millers Dark Night Returns, had political satyre, laughed on Reagan, who seemed like a goofy only wishing to go to nuclear war, and the enemy was the Soviet Union, not some utopia or invented country. This same president resticted Super Hero activities on a fascisct way, ironic cause super heroes are mainly identified with fascism, they brake almost evry knomn law with the exception of not killing.
    Back on 1986 DC gave Frank a high latitude to play with the Batman,, and the character was already iconic. Is there now more censorship than before ? probably.

  13. Too little too late, this book already seems dated. Bin Laden is dead, the whole event leading up to his shooting was incredibly dramatic, just watch the BBC’s Panorama documentary which was broadcast a week after the event, it was better than anything 24 managed in 7 seasons.

    With the combination of the Arab Spring uprisings, waning support for Al Qaida, an uncharismatic new leader in Ayman Al-Zawahiri, is anyone seriously worried about them? Sure they’ll carry out attacks, I mean it only takes one nutjob with explosives, but I just don’t see Al-Qaida as any kind of existential threat, global warming, peak oil, way more scarier :)

    I like Frank Miller but I just don’t see how this is going to work, maybe if it had come out 5 years ago, it would have worked.