I cannot begin to tell you how face-meltingly awesome this book was. OK, so technically it's a graphic novel and if you want to be one of those people who are snooty about it, you can downgrade to the level of a mere 'comic' but that would be a tragic, stupid mistake on your part and you should read both this- and it's amazing prequel, 'The Dark Knight Returns' to educate yourself on the awesomeness of Frank Miller.
For those three people out there who don't know, yes, this is the same Frank Miller who did Sin City and 300 (the latter I liked a lot better than the former) and created Batman:Year One a lot of which was used as the genesis for the movie Batman Begins- and with this, he's managed to top an amazing prequel with something that just about blew my mind.
I loved 'The Dark Knight Returns' it was gritty, dark, psychological and to top it all off, it's climax features a truly mind-blowing battle between Batman and Superman that I would be surprised could ever be done true justice on the silver screen. At the end of that book, Bruce Wayne fakes his death, blows up his fancy castle and disappears with the new Robin (a girl!) and a cadre of loyal followers retreating to watch and wait as the world goes to hell around him.
Three years later (though in reality it was quite a bit later) Batman reemerges not just to tackle the problems of crime and evildoers, but to get to the heart of the real criminals- in this case an authoritarian police state that has hijacked the United States. Superman has become a political tool of the government and most of the other superheroes are captured (Atom is trapped in a petri dish, The Flash has been running in a giant hamster wheel to generate power for a nice chunk of the country) or in hiding and things are getting shittier by the day. In short order, Batman blows the lid off the whole damn thing: the President is a computer generated program controlled by Brainiac and Lex Luxthor and eventually everyone gets on the same page and starts kicking ass.
Some key revelations that I love: Superman and Wonder Woman are lovers. And have a kid, Lara- who emerges to do some serious damage in the book. But it's the portrayal of Superman and the interplay between him and Wonder Woman that I loved the most. Superman is at his most vulnerable. He's trying to do the right thing, but failing, Batman kicks him around some more, so he flees to the rubble of the Fortress of Solitude and feels sorry for himself for a bit. Wonder Woman, of course, shows up and knocks some sense into him. Sex ensues. AWESOME. It's a huge step away from all these portrayals of Superman as a divine, Jesus-like figure which piss me off and allows him to embrace his inner alien while at the same time exploring his vulnerabilities. After all, if you're the Man of Steel, there's nothing like getting your ass kicked to make you question everything.
The other thing: the colors! After the grays and muted palette of 'The Dark Knight Returns' these colors explode off the page in a vivid tornado that only adds to the story. Also, it seems that Miller, once again, refuses to be bound by the usual strictures of medium, which initially made me somewhat leery of this book. I picked it up, looked through it and it just didn't look at that good to me, from an aesthetic point of view, but once I sat down and read it, I realized that the aesthetics are what makes the book work. It's different, it's futuristic and it's not an old Bruce Wayne fighting in the autumn of his career as the 'The Dark Knight Returns' was, it's a Bruce Wayne revitalized, with a sense of purpose, ready to kick ass. So all in all, it makes sense.
Overall: This is an amazing graphic novel, one of the classics of the medium. A must read.
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