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A "hard-edged" new superhero, The Fixer, is set to take on al-Qaida in acclaimed comic book author Frank Miller's latest outing, the "gut-wrenching" graphic novel Holy Terror.
Set for release around the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the long-awaited comic – "a dark, uncompromising superhero tale for the modern era", according to its publisher – was originally intended to feature Batman taking on the terrorist group, and was called Holy Terror, Batman! "Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for ... It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a piece of propaganda," Miller said in 2006 at a comic convention where he described the book as "a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we're up against".
But the author of The Dark Knight Returns and 300 told the LA Times's Hero Complex blog last year that he had "decided partway through" that the graphic novel was not a Batman story. "The hero is much closer to 'Dirty Harry' than Batman. It's a new hero that I've made up that fights al-Qaida," he said. Told in the author's iconic black-and-white style made famous by his Sin City series, Holy Terror "seizes the political zeitgeist by the throat and doesn't let go until the last page", according to its publisher Legendary Comics , a subsidiary of Legendary Films.
Miller said The Fixer was "very much an adventurer who's been essentially searching for a mission". He told the LA Times that he was "very different than Batman in that he's not a tortured soul". Instead, "he's a much more well-adjusted creature even though he happens to shoot 100 people in the course of the story".
"He's been trained as special ops and when his city is attacked all of a sudden all the pieces fall into place and all this training comes into play. He's been out there fighting crime without really having his heart in it – he does it to keep in shape," said Miller. "It began as my reaction to 9/11 and it was an extremely angry piece of work and as the years have passed by I've done movies and I've done other things and time has provided some good distance, so it becomes more of a cohesive story as it progresses. The Fixer has also become his own character in a way I've really enjoyed. No one will read this and think, 'Where's Batman?' ... My guy carries a couple of guns and is up against an existential threat. He's not just up against a goofy villain. Ignoring an enemy that's committed to our annihilation is kind of silly. It just seems that chasing the Riddler around seems silly compared to what's going on out there. I've taken Batman as far as he can go."
The 120-page Holy Terror is due out on 14 September.
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