Miller, Lee, and T&A

I've been taking part in a reasonably civil discussion over at Millarworld about the gratuitous T&A in All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder. There's a lot to discuss, but my primary concern was that this was a great way to reach new readers, and those pages mean it'll be a squandered opportunity. I'm not even worried that it's kid safe ... here in Utah, adults would put that down as being too much. It's tasteless and it does nothing for the plot or the character.

However, as I keep thinking on it ... it's Frank Miller. This is classic Miller ... the vamp, the sass-talking sexpot, the femme fatale. Part of the problem here is that I think the scene would work as drawn by Frank Miller... but Jim Lee's a whole different kettle of fish. Lee is one of today's top artists, and is famous for his sexy women, but they're often sexy enough in costume. Having Jim Lee draw Victorias' Secret layouts is overkill. Lee's style becomes artless in these shots ....

I'm using a thousand words when some pictures could suffice:

Frank Miller	Jim Lee

I don't think I would have found those Vicky Vale pages such a problem if done with the composition and art of Miller's Sin City work. As it turned out, though, it's a slap in the face to those retailers who thought this could be a great way to bring new fans aboard ... at least if they were hoping for any new fans outside of white hereosexual unmarried males around their college years.