Dark Knight Strikes Again looks vagrantly crass and ugly, at times unbareable to read or even look at. Period. Yet once I got through a couple dozen of it's hideous pages, I found it had a certain unexpected hold over me, leaving me invested on until the final panel, exposing a very unapologetic, uncompromising and viscious character. And while I still believe this 3-issue series is a comicbooky equivalent of a renal colic - the dust has settled, all these negative sentiments have long ben uttered again and again, and I found a renewed interest in salvaging whatever good may be here. And to a degree, I did. And I feel like some of the criticism, while accurate, may have missed the actual point of the book.

Now, one thing to know is - this is not your average superhero affair. And it should be very well communicated to any poor soul who ventures to read through this mess for the first time. DK2 aims to deconstruct the genre in a true post-modern fashion, which is to say it wants to be more of a commentary on the medium, rather it's product. Frank Miller wanted us to percieve his characters as the twisted, demented and unstable people that they would apparently be, if any formulaic comicbook restraints were removed. To achieve that, the artwork is distorted, panels often lack backgrounds, texture or color, people's expressions sometimes resemble those of old timey cartoon characters from the likes of Tex Avery or Hanna & Barbera, and certain pages look straight out of a bad acid trip. And I believe this book - it's story, it's characters, it's themes - certainly wouldn't work without this cloud of crazy looming over it.

...But I don't really think it works very well WITH it either. The crazines feels as much a part of this book, as does the cape and cowl, and to have it removed and be drawn by a more coherent hand, it would rid this book of any identity or point it tries to make. But it's simply overbearing, it's an assault on the senses and it intrudes on every moment of immersion you could muster out of reading this thing. It's in the way. So It's really a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type deal with DK2 - it's trying to be a Watchmen-style commentary on the medium itself, but where Watchmen, despite it's reserve, had respect for the graphic novel format, Dark Knight Strikes Again is just too dispondent, hopeless and flat-out mean to it's reader. It's why I think it's the comicbook equivalent of Metal Machine Music or Michael Snow's Wavelength, and as such should be treated more as a cruiousity rather than an actual entry into a Batman hall of fame.

One thing is sure tho - much like a renal colic - I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Oh, I sure will. And an emotional roller-coaster like that's gotta be worth something. At least a 4/10.