Ronin

Product Information

Written and drawn by Frank Miller by Frank Miller (with inspired inking by Klaus Janson and beautiful watercolors by Lynn Varley), Batman: The Dark Knight revolutionized the entire [archetype] of the super hero. No Name Given: Although the reader doesn't know he's actually Billy Challas until towards the end, the Ronin "character" is never given a name.

Frank Miller Presents: Why the Acclaimed Comic Book - IGN

With her color choices she slows time, lightens the characters’ inner lives, and blows the reader’s mind on every other page. Together with penciller Jim Lee, Miller delivered a series that took place in a reality that began with Miller and David Mazzucchelli's 'Batman: Year One'.Ultimately, however, Miller was persuaded by publisher Jenette Kahn that DC Comics would give him as much freedom as he desired for the series, [5] and DC published Ronin beginning in 1983. Miller's final major story in this period was in Batman issues 404–407 in 1987, another collaboration with Mazzucchelli. Taggart denies this when Virgo informs him that the ronin is, in fact, Billy, complete with telekinetic power and, as such, might be useful in cybernetics. Society needs to be saved in the abstract, but Miller doesn't really present any person worth saving outside the Aquarius complex. Miller’s cross-hatching muddies the shapes and design enough to let him get away with quite a bit of bad drawing, and “stylization” carries him the rest of the way.

Frank Miller Presents | RONIN: Book II

At this point, the gang wants to continue the fight, so Ronin kills them while shedding one of these. We are now at the heart of Miller’s prob­lems as an artist: his drawing is all tech­nique and no observation. A series of double-page spreads, appearing throughout the story, show the slowly growing Aquarius complex literally taking over the city - burrowing downwards and sidewise, turning everything into a part of itself. Billy makes himself into the Ronin, into this cool badass figure that kills the bad guys and gets the woman (Casey, the head security officer who seems to be on the ball until the Ronin arrives, at which points she turns helpless). Frank Miller’s career after that, for all his superior and evolving skill as both an artist and a storyteller, would remain in the shadow of that fantasy he failed to kill in 1984.Sure, the whole sci-fi-samurai-trapped-in-a-magical-sword-with-a-demon thing is a bit weird, but seriously, who doesn’t want to read a Frank Miller comic about “The Elvis of Violence”? Not that it’s hard to see why: the list of its offensive qualities is a rap-sheet few comics could compete with. while Metacritic gave it an aggregate score of 30 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally negative reviews", [126] and a metascore of 30/100 at Metacritic. The demon Agat, like an empty suit, thinks he’s in charge; only in the end does he realize that he was just a plaything of something far more vast. His work is undercut by grievous flaws, and they are flaws that appear to be part and parcel of Miller’s artistic gestalt, rather than technical difficulties that might be corrected in the future.