Batman's Frank Miller Attacks OWS

Impact

Frank Miller, the man responsible for comics such as Sin City, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Daredevil: Born Againlashed out against the Occupy Wall Street movement and protestors across the country in a blog post last week.

The post, entitled “Anarchy,” is a tirade against all those involved in the Occupy movements and opens up exclaiming, “Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense.” Miller attacks the protestors, calling them “a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by nostalgia and putrid false righteousness” and denounces the movement as a shoddy attempt at anarchy. In between bouts of enraged name-calling, Miller notes that the nation is currently at war and names Al-Qaeda and Islamicism as the enemy. He ends by challenging those involved to enlist in the military, “the real thing.” 

The entire thing reads as a condescending sneer against the movement. It is clear he does not agree with the movement, but for some reason it seems as if it truly disgusts him. To Miller, the ones protesting have no real reason to be protesting, as he lumps them all as “iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats” who are causing a disruption as part of a new fad. And while that may be true for a fraction of participants, I cannot believe that to be true for all participants. 

The Occupy movements across the nation have been fueled by anger and frustration with our government, and that is real emotion that stems from real situations. These people have, in their minds, legitimate cause to have their voices heard, and as a young person, I couldn’t agree more with them. There comes a time when you have to make a statement to attract attention to get your point across, and this is that such time for these people. They feel as though their grievances as constituents of this government are not being heard and taken into account, and this movement forces a spotlight on these grievances and forces people to finally hear what has been trying to get said.

Miller’s cry to detract from Occupy, which represents a problem here in our home, and push Islamist terrorism into the limelight is uncalled for. The fact that Occupy exists and has built so much momentum signals the fact that we have problems to deal with here in America and such problems need to be dealt with before we can attempt to focus on any outside enemy.

Most interesting about all of this is Miller’s work in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sees Batman, a prominent vigilante figure, in opposition to the Gotham police and U.S. government for taking a stand against the injustice he sees, not unlike the Occupy protestors facing opposition from government figures and local police.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons