Las Vegas Weekly

Frank Miller’s ‘Holy Terror’ is ugly politics

Frank Miller’s Holy Terror

Originally conceived as Holy Terror, Batman! (get it?), Frank Miller’s Batman vs. 9/11 comic finally sees release as Holy Terror, and stars not Batman but “The Fixer,” who is written and drawn as if Miller simply took some Wite-Out to the bat-ears and bat-logo on an already-drawn Batman.

The Details

Holy Terror

By Frank Miller, Legendary Comics

$30

His foes are the terrorists people feared were attacking on 9/11, not ones that ever actually existed. These fantasy bogeymen infiltrate Empire City with an army, an air force and a nuclear bomb hidden within their mosque.

It would be nice to see Miller’s strange revenge fantasy as a critique of certain Americans’ irrational fear and hatred of an entire religion, but Miller makes his views clear with a quote from Muhammad that fills the first two pages: “If you meet the infidel, kill the infidel.” The enemy, the comic asserts, isn’t terrorism but Islam itself.

Miller’s artwork remains both powerful and beautiful, but it’s in service of an ugly story and uglier politics. This is what happens when a genius cartoonist is terrorized and puts pen to paper while still in a state of fear: The terrorists win.