By Jason Apuzzo. In advance of Comic-Con, Legendary has just taken the unusual step of releasing a trailer for Frank Miller’s forthcoming Holy Terror, which will be released by Legendary as its inaugural graphic novel title on September 14th.
Here’s how Legendary described Holy Terror in a press release from June, courtesy of Deadline:
In HOLY TERROR, join The Fixer, a brand new, hard-edged hero as he battles terror. The graphic novel is a no-holds-barred action thriller told in Miller’s trademark high-contrast, black-and-white visual style, which seizes the political zeitgeist by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page.
THR also had this to say about the project, back in June:
Holy Terror was originally conceived by Miller as a story of Batman taking on those responsible for the attacks on 9-11 but was scrapped by DC several years ago. … The political themes and ties to 9-11 will almost certainly remain.”
Miller is famous, of course, not only for his work on the Batman comic/graphic novel series but also for 300 and Sin City. We’re certainly looking to what he’s cooked up here.
Posted on July 21st, 2011 at 9:46am.
I always wondered what happened to his “Batman punching Osama” comic. Guess DC buckled under pressure to not “harm” the overall Batman product? I’m sure the comic is well done and kicks ass, but it would have been nice to have the iconic image of Batman punching Osama in the face. Of course, I’m sure there’s a lot more they would allow Miller to do with this character than they would allow him to do with Batman, so it will be really interesting to see what he’s cooked up.
The release of this trailer is timely given the release of Captain America, and also the new Batman trailer. It gives you a sense of what’s being left on the table when our current war is ignored as subject matter – or only dealt with in the most indirect, elliptical terms.
I finally got to watch it (laborious process to watch Youtube at work), and I agree. Knowing that the comic deals with terrorists and watching the boat tossed on the waters of the bay around the Statue of Liberty with a flying American flag, it almost takes your breath away. Not because the artwork is beyond amazing (it’s really good) or even because the images themselves are so striking. The fact that the event of a popular visual medium being used to tackle the war on terror in a creative manner is so rare makes it striking. That Hollywood left so many chances to take our breath away with films or television directly dealing with our fight against jihadists will forever leave them with a black stain in their history.
Agreed. The other aspect of all this that bugs me is how cinematic such films about the current war could be. The War on Terror has taken us to the most remote, exotic places on Earth – Afghanistan in particular comes to mind. Kipling made almost an entire career telling adventure stories that took place in the same locales our soldiers and spies are in right now, and yet the whole subject’s been left off the table. Good for Frank – and the many others now with projects in the pipeline – for starting to turn this situation around.
In fairness, neither of the Christopher Nolan Batman films avoid the War on Terror, Ra’s Al Ghul and his League of Shadows are a fairly obvious stand in for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The Dark Knight as well directly addressed the War on Terror, and the vile nature of the enemies the West faces.
As for Captain America, how could he not be in a film about WWII, given his comic book origins in the war? Much more problematic are recent Captain America comic books after 9/11, which do have him fighting Al Qaeda, and sinister CIA agents at the same time (who are of course portrayed in a far worse light than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists).
It is great to see this Frank Miller come to light, as long as it is not another variation of Sin City (he seems to be stuck on this). It would have been great to have Batman in it, but given the nature of DC, I am not surprised they backed out.
Sean, thanks for your thoughts on this. Two quick replies: it seems to me that the Captain America character could easily have been adapted to the present day, as many comic book characters have been (Iron Man comes to mind). The source material isn’t exactly Shakespeare, after all. Also: Nolan’s Batman movies are ambiguous as allegories on the War on Terror, despite what my former Libertas colleague Andrew Klavan believes. The Joker, for example, in no way resembles an Islamic terrorist – being far more like a Western-style anarchist. As for Ra’s al Ghul, the character in its film form may have been intended to resemble (in a limited sense) bin Laden – but I don’t think the comparison is really a satisfying one. Nolan’s Batman films, to the extent the deal with the War on Terror, seem to look at it only in a very limited sense as a conflict between security and freedom. They really have nothing significant to say about the worldview of the enemies we’re currently confronting. This, I think, is where Miller’s contributions will likely be valuable.
I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. It has the potential to be — at the very least — a huge butt-kicking affair … provided, of course, the terrorists aren’t misunderstanders of Islam.
I just hope it’s not too much to ask to feature a broader, honest portrayal of Islam.
The inevitable question here is whether this might get made into a film. I’m tempted to use the phrase “a right wing V for Vendetta.”
“a right wing V for Vendetta.”
That is a dream project — and the phrase could be used to describe my next novel.
Hey, that sounds great! Tell us more, whenever you feel like it …
Well, it’s in its very formative stages at the moment. What I can say is that it examines what happens to a man who loves the United States, but has given up the belief that it can return to the idea of its founders.
I just finished a giant epic space opera (which should be on Amazon in a couple months), so I’m eager to have this character drive the novel. To do this, I’m going to have to use theme and motifs, and symbolism and imagery better that I ever thought I could. It’s going to be a great challenge. I’ve been reading a lot of E.M. Forster, and Cormac McCarthy lately — strange combo, I know.
Thanks for asking, Jason. My blog, which will promote my novel, “The Tempest Effect,” is under construction.
This looks pretty cool. I liked the idea since I first heard about it a couple years ago, though I wish it was still Batman. (the title made more sense then, too: Holy Terror, Batman!)
But I would caution everyone that the book might not be very good. Frank Miller was one of the defining comic talents of the 80s, but he’s gone down hill quite a ways since then. He used to be able to handle lots of action and serious issues with surprising subtlety and nuance, but he seems to have lost that completely in the last ten years. His most recent Batman story, All-Star Batman, was hugely built up and then turned out to be one of the most hilariously/offensively awful things I’ve ever read. So I’ll read this story, but go in with caution.
Nice! Looks great. Can’t wait to read it. 🙂 I also can’t wait for the second book of Bosch Fawstin’s “The Infidel” to come out. It’s another anti-terrorism graphic novel.
Looking forward (for years now) to Miller’s effort on this project. No surprise DC Comics/Warners bowed out of the Batman version. Editorial bias at DC Comics seems to be generic New York left. I would disagree with anyone touting Miller as in creative decline: his last DC Comics project “All Star Batman” was offensive and crazy, but entertainingly crazy, and the offensiveness seemed calculated to strike at the moribund DC Comics fanculture that wants the same can of beans delivered year after year. Marvel/DC Comics are in steady sales decline (year after year) and disassociating with writers like Miller hardly seems like a sound creative direction.
He certainly seems out to provoke these days. That community probably needs it.
I like Frank Miller and have loved many of his past works, but…I don’t think the art looks very good at all. And that looks like such a painfully obvious ripoff of Batman and Catwoman that I wouldn’t be surprised if DC sues. Best of luck to Miller, but this looks more like the unholy piece of crap that was “Dark Night Strikes Again” than the mastery of “The Dark Knight Returns.” I can’t say my life was empty without comic book heroes killing jihadists, so the subject matter isn’t necessarily filling a need for me. I’ll probably pick this up eventually in paperback, but as Stephen says above, Miller’s talent has fallen precipitously in the last decade or so.