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Dark Knight III: The Master Race #2

Dark Knight III: The Master Race #2

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The unexpected finale to the Dark Knight saga continues as Carrie Kelly gets caught…that is, she finds herself…she gets into-well, you’re just going to have to read it yourself.

51 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

13 people are currently reading
99 people want to read

About the author

Frank Miller

947 books5,375 followers
Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of the most widely-recognized and popular creators in comics, and is one of the most influential comics creators of his generation. His most notable works include Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One and 300.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

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5 stars
81 (26%)
4 stars
126 (41%)
3 stars
84 (27%)
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8 (2%)
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,815 reviews13.4k followers
December 23, 2015
Bruce Wayne is dead. Long live Batman?

Except he’s not. And that’s why the start of this second issue cheesed me off a bit - of course Bruce isn’t dead! There’s no Dark Knight book without him so why are we spending a third of the issue on this water-treading pretense?

But there’s an extended interrogation sequence at the start between Commissioner Yindel and Carrie Kelley (who’s been masquerading as Batman) where Carrie spins this yarn about Bruce’s boring bed-ridden death.

There’s an ok action sequence that follows this as Carrie’s being transported to Blackgate where the Bat-Tank is reintroduced and is as fearsome and unwieldy-looking as ever. The scene is a little predictable and not terribly exciting.

The best part of the issue was seeing the titular Master Race appear. Ray Palmer (The Atom) is working with a Kandorian scientist and Lara (Superman and Wonder Woman’s daughter) to expand the bottled city of Kandor back to its regular size. Once Ray pulls it off, oh boy, has he let the genie out of the bottle, or more accurately hundreds of evil Supermen! Nice going, Ray, you irresponsible dick!

The coming conflict is what I’m looking forward to in this book because in the original Dark Knight Returns, Bruce barely held his own against Superman - one Kryptonian. Here, it looks like an even older, more crippled Bruce Wayne is going to take on hundreds, if not thousands, of that same foe. Can we say Kryptonite Atom Bomb? No, I’m sure it’ll be cleverer than that, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

The Atom’s mini-comic in the first issue feels less special now I know the format is being applied to all characters in the DCU appearing in this series. This second mini-issue within the issue features Wonder Woman and Lara as they practice duel. Yeah, it’s not too interesting. There’s a little friction between a mother and her teenage daughter but isn’t there always? Eduardo Risso’s art is great though and imitates Frank Miller’s art style like Andy Kubert’s does in the main story.

The second issue of The Master Race has some good moments but still feels kinda slow, probably to stretch it out over, what, 8 issues? I guess DC have to do something to shorten the gap between them and Marvel, so this’ll have to be their Star Wars! But it’s a controlled and steady build-up that hasn’t gone off the rails yet. Can’t wait to see them wheel out Bruce in the next ish - go on, ya old coot, take your heart pills and fight the alien gods! I get the feeling Carrie’s story will have an element of truth to it by the end of this series...
Profile Image for Mark.
1,680 reviews244 followers
February 13, 2016
The second installment of this Miller series in which the Dark Knights Robin has taken on the mantle of her fallen idol and has to explain to the police why, what , when and where concerning the Dark Knight. She tells them a story and gets shipped away. Enter the Bat-mobile and chaos the starts.......

On another story-line we finally meet the Masterrace that comprises the subtitle and it makes the upcoming battle in the movie Batman vs Superman look like a stroll in the park.

What I realized with this installment is how the booklet in the middle of the comic does belong to the story. With the first installment I was still left pondering the marketing skills of DC. Now I find it a clever way and a novel way to enhance the story.

This Dark Knight tale already feels miles better than the Nolan trilogy of which the first movie was a blatant rip off of the 1997 "The Shadow" movie, the second one benefited to much by the death of its Joker actor and the third has a retiring Batman. All three movies never showed Batman in his prime and glory, Keaton still wins easily in that way.

This comic series has me excited about Batman which did not happen for for quite some time. Really looking forward to the next installment.
Profile Image for Dave Schaafsma.
Author 6 books32.2k followers
February 14, 2016
Second in the series, slow-paced, not much happening yet, though Carrie Kelley who was masquerading as Batman, is interrogated. In the first comic, an "extra" was a comic by Miller on The Atom, and in this one it is about WonderWoman. I really like the concept of having these mini-comics as cute separate mini-comics; this is a cool textured storytelling device. Not much happens in these comics, but now we can see The Atom and Lara and WonderWoman are making their way into the story. The pace of this is operatic; there better be a pay off of epic proportions, DC. . .
Profile Image for Jedi JC Daquis.
927 reviews46 followers
January 30, 2016
The second installment of The Master Race certainly has good moments, but the almost bland story in this issue makes the whole work uninspired and forgettable.

Carrie Kelly and Commissioner Yindel's conversation is the most interesting part of this book. The two have retained their core personalities in TDKR with Kelly just a tad serious and Yindel being humanized. The exchange of words is a battle of wits and I like how these supporting characters are given moments in the comics.

In fact, this is an issue for supporting characters. Here we also see Lara (Supergirl) and Dr. Palmer (Atom) trying something for the benefit of the whole city of Kandor. I loved how things went down in that storyline and a setup for whatever action will happen in (most likely the middle of) the series.

Oh yes, there are great splash panels.

Mini-comic impression: The minicomic that accompanies this issue focuses on the mother-daughter relationship between Wonder Woman and Supergirl in a one-on-one training duel. Very ordinary.
Profile Image for Eddie B..
1,176 reviews
May 12, 2017
Still just an okay slow-paced story. But we had two good moments:
1- The first appearance of the "Master Race" of (SPOILER!) evil Kryptonian supermen!
2- The Batmobile strikes again!
I'm still waiting for that full-page panel that introduces the return of Bruce Wayne in full costume!
Profile Image for Stay Fetters.
2,536 reviews198 followers
January 16, 2016
This really isn't worth the cover price. I would wait for the entire collection to be released. At 6$ a piece, we are getting strung out.
And Batman, what can I say except.... we all knew you weren't dead. Faker!
We did get a glimpse of the powerful Master Race and they are ready to destroy.
The best thing about this is really the phenomenal art. The storyline is slow throughout with a few hidden jems few and far between.
Profile Image for David Edmonds.
670 reviews31 followers
March 21, 2016
Not much goes on in the second installment of Dark Knight III, but we are given our first look at who/what the Master Race may be, and it sets up nicely the addition of some of the more important players in the story. Still looking forward to how this whole story will play out.
Profile Image for David Dalton.
3,085 reviews
January 6, 2016
This is an expensive comic series, running $6 per book. But if you are a Batman/Dark Knight fan, you almost have to read it. I am glad I got in early. Excellent series: well written & drawn.
Profile Image for Jerry Jose.
379 reviews63 followers
September 25, 2016
Surprisingly this is getting better, If one can ignore the tie ins by Miller. I am genuinely intrigued, and moving to the next installment.
Never thought I would say it after the first book.
Profile Image for Steven Shinder.
Author 5 books20 followers
January 28, 2024
So…I guess this isn’t just a Bat story? We see Ray Palmer and Kandor, a combination I can’t believe I’ve never thought of. And we also see Wonder Woman.
Profile Image for Steven.
Author 8 books34 followers
January 21, 2016
After the first issue I wasn't in any rush to dig into the second one. As it turned out, it was relatively dull, and at no point does it explain how five foot nothing teenage Carrie Kelly could pull off masquerading as six foot four built like a tank grizzly old Batman, despite Commissioner Yindel interrogating her and getting the story of how Batman died a miserable and lonely death (for at least the third time in this series, and, no, it doesn't stick this time either.) That leads into a gosh wow unexpected breakout as the Batmobile rescues her and takes her back to a very much alive, if battered, Bruce Wayne. Somewhere in there Ray "Atom" Palmer helps the Kandorians to achieve their dream of returning to full size and escaping the bottle...only to find himself suddenly surrounded by a lot of corpses and a couple of hundred fanatical super-powered fascists. Whoops.

The mini-comic, meanwhile, is a Mother and Daughter story in which teenaged Lara gets pissed off at Wonder Woman during a sparring session, and swans off to Daddy Superman, who's all frozen.

So, pretty much the meh heard around the world.
Profile Image for Logan.
1,022 reviews37 followers
January 4, 2016
Another okay issue. So my main problem with #1, was they didn't really tell you anything, luckily this issue fixes that. The story though is just really weird though! The artwork is disappointing though, its Andy Kubert, but instead of doing his artwork, he ends up trying to recreate Millers artwork; now its much better then Millers artwork, but its still not really nice to look at. In The end, this series is much better then, DK 2, but nowhere near as good as DKR. If you haven't picked up the issues yet, this is better let off to collect in trade.
Profile Image for Luis Reséndiz.
Author 4 books75 followers
February 3, 2016
todo sigue muy bien. tdkiii es en verdad mucho mejor de lo que esperaba (tomando en cuenta que pese a que soy fan esperaba que fuera una bosta completita). el dibujo de kubert, genial, milleresco pero sin perder su toque. el guion de azzarello y miller: fino y puntual. se nota que azzarello lleva la batuta pero que miller sigue allí para hacer brainstorming. ah, y tener una historia extra con dibujo de risso es un lujo. espero que no caiga porque está funcionando como perfecto enjuague bucal para tdkii.
Profile Image for Kwaku Osei-Afrifa.
Author 1 book5 followers
January 22, 2016
Outrageous. Bombastic. Foulmouthed. Bloody. Frank Miller's Batman. A slightly slower issue from the first and we get a look at what will be the Big Bad.

The issue also ends with an 'of course' quite disappointingly.
Profile Image for Roland.
110 reviews3 followers
December 30, 2015
Not as good as the first issue as second issues are usually slower & less packed. The reveal of the Master Race was awesome though!!
Profile Image for Octavi.
1,238 reviews
January 5, 2016
Mantiene el nivel del primer número, pero las supuestas sorpresas no lo son. Veremos.
Profile Image for iTZKooPA.
251 reviews
February 15, 2016
I'm still waiting for the actual plot to come forward. I'm not sure why they broke up the book with so little substance in each volume.
Profile Image for Russell.
89 reviews7 followers
March 17, 2016
There seems to be too little story in these comics. I like that Miller is still being inventive in structure, but I'm not sure I see enough story going on here. I will finish it though.
7,050 reviews83 followers
May 4, 2016
Even better than the first one. I really enjoy it!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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