Frank Miller Going Solo for The Dark Knight IV

 

The third, and as it was originally billed as "the final" chapter of the Dark Knight series, seems to be getting a fourth installment.  The announcement by Frank Miller comes as somewhat of a surprise, considering the third chapter hasn't even hit shelves yet.  It's due to be released next week, November 25.  So why is he making this announcement now?  From the sound of it, he may not be very happy with how the third The Dark Knight turned out.

 

Frank Miller is being billed as a co-writer on DK: The Master Race, while Brian Azzarello was it's lead writer.  In an interview, Miller had this to say on the upcoming comic book:

 

"I thoroughly applaud what [Brian's] doing.  But now that he's doing his, it's now a four-part series.  I'm doing the fourth."

 

Even though he's being credited with helping write the upcoming comic book, it doesn't really sound like he had much input on the miniseries, or if he did, his suggestions weren't being used.

 

Frank Miller shook the Batman world with his release of The Dark Knight Returns back in 1986, in a four-issue miniseries that many Batman fans now consider gospel.  In it, a 55 year old Bruce Wayne/Batman comes out of retirement to take on Two-Face, the Joker, and even Superman himself.  It's one of the greatest Batman stories of all time.

 

One of the characters that we were introduced to in the comic was Carrie Kelly.  She became his new Robin sidekick, and later became Catgirl in DK II.  I'm wondering if one of the reasons that Miller wants to do his own fourth installment is because Kelly didn't get her just dues in the upcoming DK: The Master Race.  This is just speculation, of course, but the reason I say this is that while being interviewed by ComicBook.com, Miller had this to say about Kelly:

 

"Well, to me, [Carrie Kelly] always has had the potential for longevity.  I would love to do a series - in fact, I intend to do a series of her and her alone that would be very much like a comic book Nancy Drew series.  It would be her detective stories.  They would be smaller-sized, they would be designed to that they could be, even though they would be comic books, they would be comic books for children.  That's something I intend to do.  Just picture a small figure of Robin on a cover holding a magnifying glass."

 

DC hasn't confirmed that a fourth chapter is going to be done, but if I hear anything else on this matter, I'll make sure I keep you updated.