Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and Arkham Assylum

Watchmen is the graphic novel that got me into reading graphic novels. It redefine what I thought comics were and opened up my eyes to a great world that I had been missing for most of my life. The concept of the anti-hero really struck me, this novel wasn't full of Good Guys fighting the bad guys. It was up to me to decide whether Ozymandias' reason for killing millions of people was justified. Killing millions, that sort of sounds like a bad guy, but to save billions? Watchmen is very gray and Alan Moore's critique of the superhero concept is perfection. No one character is necessarily good or bad.

After reading watchmen I moved on to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which I thought was equally as great I feel it recreated the concept of batman he is not just a superhero but a tortured anti-hero who becomes obsessed with the villains he hunts. Of all the Frank Miller novels that I have read, this was my favorite. It deals with the anti hero again, a type of character that I love in all media. The anti-hero takes the perfect hero and beats him down until he is flawed and normal just like every human. The storied are often dark but that is the exact reason that I love them, if I wanted a light version of superheros I would just watch The Incredibles over and over again.

For my actual reading this week I read Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. I had previously tried to read this just a few months ago but it was hard for me to get past the first few pages. Between the distracting pictures, small text and the tv being on I could not focus. After sitting down in a silent room and reading it, I have fallen in love. Arkham Asylum took all the elements of the previous novels I mentioned and combined them. Batman again is portrayed as an anti-hero which I believe is a result of Frank Millers work. The novel is a complete pyscological peice batman is forced into the minds of the very villians that he hunts and almost breaks because of it. The novel also gives a good background of the Arkham Asylum and shows how even the founder is driven insane. Batman is taken from being flawed to almost down right deamed crazy as if he belongs with all the fellow inmates.