FrankMillerHere

Well, you think of the ancient gods, which is really where these characters all come from. It's really strange that a bunch of American Jews imitated a bunch of greek heroes to create the new superhero. They changed because of the times. Jack Kirby was originally Jacob Kurtzberg, Stan Lee was Stanley Zeiber, and Bob Kane (who created Batman), his real given name was Eli Katz. It was part of the anti-Semitism of the time, that people wouldn't get as noticed without all-American names, and back then that meant Anglo-Saxon. It meant names like Rip Torn, or other very Americanized names. Sometimes to the point of absurdity. And so for obvious reasons, namely American anti-semitism which have been covered up over time (most people don't know that Jack Kirby was fighting the Nazi Bundt, for instance, and when WWII came along he was one of the first to go out charging as a five foot four man with the soul of a warrior - he actually trained to become a boxer before he became a comic book artist. Yeah, he failed but he did become an excellent scout, who would go behind enemy lines). Compare him to Will Eisner, who was the same age, and Will Eisner being a much shrewder businessman and (I suspect) much less of a fanatic on the subject, he went to the military and showed them that he could draw, and had a proposal drawn on a buxom woman putting guns together. So he spent the war as a drawing boy). Keep in mind that Superman was the first of the superheroes, he even pre-dated Batman, he was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster in Ohio, and as time went by they changed Superman accordingly. He started out as a what the Jews call a Golem, a product of the earth who would bring the leaders of warring forces face to face and make them then and there, in the trenches, face each other. And thereby diffuse a war that was happening. Along came WWII, everybody was wearing a flag, and Superman hoisted the flag.

It's a variety of things, really. But mainly it's in a way he's a superhero naked, in that he is plainly out for revenge, so much so that he actually dresses like a villain, and throws bad guys through windows, there's all kinds of rough and tumble stuff. I was also in love with the idea of a character that could not fly. The man needed a car to get around. And he got by on wits and skill alone. That's why I couldn't resist having him beat the crap out of Superman just once, i had to see that just once. You kind of have to be of a mind to like that sort of a character. But Batman is also so personable. You could do him 20 different ways, and they could all work. He's like a giant diamond. You could slam him against the floor, throw him against the ceiling, but you can't hurt it. Everything from the Adam West TV show to my stuff and dozens of others, Jerry Robertson, each contributed to this ongoing myth that has survived and been revitalized on an ongoing basis.

I think they did a very good job of proving that by themselves, they don't need my help.

I have a habit that I've developed over the years, which is to deliberately avoid any character in film that I've done in comics. Because I developed my own taste in them, and my own opinion of them so deeply, that I will hate it. They could do Citizen Kane and I would find something wrong with it. So I simply don't go to 'em.!

Working with Mickey Rourke was one of the adventures of a LIFETIME. The man is unlike anybody I've ever met. When Robert Rodriguez had the idea of casting him, all I could think was "you mean the skinny guy from Body Heat?" and then we met him in a hotel room. And we saw and waited and when he knocked the door, he was practically knocking it from its hinges. He was carrying this dog, i think you'd call it a dog, i thought it looked like a deformed rat, and he sat and talked about his therapy for 20 minutes. We never discussed the role. I remember writing on my little notepad: That Mickey Rourke. He is Marv.

Then he got up and left the room, and incidentally, that rotten little dog had peed all over Robert's hotel room couch.

But Mickey and I went through all the stages that I think he puts every director through. It would start out with him mocking every word I say, disagreeing with all of it, then gradually I would earn his respect. This time, though, he and I worked much more as a team and I could feel that the work was going more smoothly, there weren't as many extra takes, and he seemed to be much more comfortable in the role. I think it's a hard character to bring nuance to, but he managed to make the character completely believable and add additional layers of nuance to it.