In which gangs rule, the government is corrupt, violence and brutality are the order of the day and the media distorts and lies about everything. Welcome to a dark, threatening and hopeless Gotham City. Perhaps in reference to that, The Master Race opens with a text conversation between goons, as they argue about whether one of them has actually “Cn the Bat” (“seen Batman”).How Batman moved from campy 1960s high jinx to the gritty brooding realism we know and love today. Miller’s Joker led followers who spoke in voices that now sound suspiciously like a white man trying to “speak jive,” but they were marked with a cyberpunk aesthetic that was ahead of its time. Miller’s Gotham was a world steeped in guilt and full of dark corners.
It seemed no matter what Batman pulled off that he was always two steps behind the evil in his city, which made Miller’s comics feel dire and full of dread.
Miller’s Batman, after all, was steeped in failure. His image catches him midway through turning to the viewer, and he’s bent and broken. In the last panel of Master Race #2 - spoiler alert) - we realize with a jolt that Bruce Wayne is still alive. He speaks to Carrie Kelly - his former Robin - while lying on his death bed, confessing that - by nature of his lifestyle - he always feared he’d die alone. Notably, the first two books in Master Race are almost entirely devoid of Batman. Book Three flashes its bat signal on February 24. Issue #1 was released back in November, and Issue #2 followed after a month. The good news for fans is that his voice is still just as resonant in The Dark Knight III: The Master Race. I didn’t understand, as a child, why my conservative father felt so connected to Frank Miller’s noir vision of Gotham, where men were grim heroes and women were dames and vessels, but I could hear the undeniable power of Miller’s voice.
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