DK III: The Master Race Book Two Review

Repeat Performance?

DKIII: The Master Race Book Two

Writers: Frank Miller & Brian Azzarello

Artists: Andy Kubert & Klaus Janson; Eduardo Risso

Colourists: Brad Anderson, Trish Mulvihill

Letterer: Clem Robins

DC Comics

We are two issues into probably the most hyped comic series since The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Issue One was okay and set up a few things for the series. So the focus in Book Two is on the former teenage Robin Carrie Kelly, who has been apprehended by Gotham’s police and is being interrogated by police commissioner Yindel. It actually starts quite strongly and it appears that we discover what happened to Bruce Wayne and the original Batman. Kubert and Janson are a natural team and Anderson’s colours lend a vibrancy to proceedings. We switch then to The Atom, Ray Palmer and Lara, daughter of Wonder Woman and Superman who are trying to suss out how to free the miniaturised inhabitants of the bottle city of Kandor from Superman’s home planet of Krypton. Then we return to Kelly who has no intention of remaining in police custody and the readers witness a very brief liberation. Then focus switches back to the residents of Kandor who have been freed but there is an unforeseen repercussion to Dr Palmer’s actions. The main story ends inferring that perhaps Kelly wasn’t being totally truthful in her revelations about the final fate of Bruce Wayne. The minicomic, drawn this time by Eduardo Risso, details the training of Lara by her mother. The second issue looks pretty consistent and the minicomic is helped by the fact that Risso is one of the best artists currently working in contemporary comics. The real problem here is the flaw at the heart of the whole series. To use a TV analogy, The Sopranos was one of the best , most groundbreaking shows of all time when HBO broadcast it. It set the bar very high for quality TV and thanks to it, and other shows, we have had a decade and a half of brilliantly realised television. Arguably the publication of Dark Knight Returns back in 1986 was an equally epoch-making moment in the industry. However rather than return to the original story, it should have inspired a host of other creators to really push the medium. I am not criticising the creators here per se as they are all very capable of creating great work but DKIII: The Master Race feels like a pointless and redundant sequel to a wonderful comic. It is almost too dull to really care how it all progresses. We shall see if the series develops as more issues come out.

JOEL MEADOWS