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catalyst2Just finished reading this and I am very impressed.
I saw the same movie - The 300 Spartans - that allegedly inspired Frank Miller to write the 300 HC and remember coming away with two thoughts. The first was how heroic (and also stupid, in another sense) the Spartan stand was. I guess that's what a lot of people get out of it. My second though was how could Leonidas find himself in the position that he did and still inspire the devotion that his men showed to him?
The genius of Miller's version of the story is that he answers that second thought with power and certainty and vision. That I know the outcome of the battle before I even start reading is neither here nor there because this is such a vivid tale that it just pulled me in. Miller gets Leonidas' charisma - and that is not easy in a static medium like a graphic novel. In fact, this may be the first time I have seen charisma successfully portrayed in this particular medium.
That this is not historically accurate - we know little about Ephialtes, let alone that he was a hunch-backed Spartan refugee - doesn't bother me, but you know what? It works here: the near-perfect warrior is destroyed by the very "thing", the very creature of imperfection that his culture rejected. I'm sure there's some kind of profound message to get there - sadly, it evades me just now.
However, as a powerful and gripping story of ancient warfare, this has no equal. I am looking forward to the movie even more, if that is possible, after reading this. I hope they stick as closely to the book as they did with the Sin City movie and, from the looks of the trailer, they have done just that!
I saw the same movie - The 300 Spartans - that allegedly inspired Frank Miller to write the 300 HC and remember coming away with two thoughts. The first was how heroic (and also stupid, in another sense) the Spartan stand was. I guess that's what a lot of people get out of it. My second though was how could Leonidas find himself in the position that he did and still inspire the devotion that his men showed to him?
The genius of Miller's version of the story is that he answers that second thought with power and certainty and vision. That I know the outcome of the battle before I even start reading is neither here nor there because this is such a vivid tale that it just pulled me in. Miller gets Leonidas' charisma - and that is not easy in a static medium like a graphic novel. In fact, this may be the first time I have seen charisma successfully portrayed in this particular medium.
That this is not historically accurate - we know little about Ephialtes, let alone that he was a hunch-backed Spartan refugee - doesn't bother me, but you know what? It works here: the near-perfect warrior is destroyed by the very "thing", the very creature of imperfection that his culture rejected. I'm sure there's some kind of profound message to get there - sadly, it evades me just now.
However, as a powerful and gripping story of ancient warfare, this has no equal. I am looking forward to the movie even more, if that is possible, after reading this. I hope they stick as closely to the book as they did with the Sin City movie and, from the looks of the trailer, they have done just that!
