Welcome back to the oven my crispy cousins for another episode of OH GOD IT BURNS!!! Your buyer’s guide to bad comics.
Today on the pod we’re continuing our look at Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns universe with a slight twist: the title we’re covering today is not officially a Batman story. Some might call that cheating, but in order to fully understand why 2011’s Holy Terror has earned a spot on the list you’ll need to know about its very long and very interesting publication history where it was originally developed as a propaganda comic starring – you guessed it – Batman as he works side-by-side with his lover/freaky sex kitten Catwoman to seek revenge on Al-Qaeda following a devastating terror attack on Gotham City. It was to be a spiritual successor to books like Captain America #1, the cover of which depicts Cap knocking Hitler’s jaw off, but because Frank was still in a very dark place following the events of 9/11, it instead became something more vile and hateful, albeit with a very poignant message about how PTSD can infect the lives of the victims in very deep-rooted and incurable ways.
Understandably, DC no longer had any interest in affiliating Batman with this title, and Frank took this to his second home at Dark Horse to publish this as a standalone graphic novel with barely-tweaked costume designs to set them apart from their iconic DC spirit animals.
People love to hate on this book for its blatantly Islamophobic overtones, but those who read this for the story beyond the page will find a tale of redemption for Frank Miller as an artist. Following Dark Knight Strikes Again, it was clear that he had continued to deal with the fallout from the World Trade Center attacks, and that he had been carrying that anger knotted up in his gut for years, just looking for a solid pillow to scream it all out in. Holy Terror is that pillow, and that is why we believe this title deserves a spot in your coveted Longbox of Cursed and Forbidden comics, so listen along as Bruno and I detail the many therapeutic ways this book helped Frankie get his groove back on this week’s meditative episode of OH GOD IT BURNS!!!
