Frank Miller’s Ronin Rising

Miller (Sin City) returns to the world of his 1980s cyberpunk classic Ronin, ably backed by the art team of Tan and Henriques, who trade off drawing duties with Miller. Together, they produce a psychic blast of sex, violence, sci-fi, and transhuman battles. Sometime after the events of Ronin, Casey McKenna wanders the ruins of New York City with her superpowered son Billy, fighting giant demons who shout things like “You and your child could be tools of destiny—or its sorry excrement!” They’re searching for the eponymous ronin, currently held captive by Virgo, an all-powerful AI given to sexualized expressions of cybernetic brainwashing. The chapters drawn by Tan and Henriques are hyperdetailed and theatrically staged, reminiscent of 1970s-era Heavy Metal magazine. Miller draws in the blunt, chunky style of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, scrawling images across the page like graffiti. The combined result produces the kinetic action and stylized compositions for which Miller is known, with generous nods to anime and manga like Lone Wolf and Cub, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Dragon Ball. It’s style over substance on an operatic scale—but what style. Agent: Silenn Thomas, Frank Miller Presents. (Oct.)