Miller parody beats the real thing

Comic book legend Frank Miller was huge in the 1980s and his ahead-of-his-time storytelling is finally making its way to the big screen in droves. Miller’s latest movie epic, 300, is a gritty war drama with Oscar-level ambitions, but first saw light as an indepedent comic book. In the meantime, the newest incarnation of the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bested 300 in TMNT’s opening week box office receipts, about $25 million for TMNT to $20 million for 300.

The irony in all this is apparent only to longtime comic book fans. You see, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may be remembered by most as a corny series of live-action kids movies in the late 80s and early 90s, but they have their origins in the comic book world, as well.

Created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the original TMNT book was a general send-up of gritty, mutant-and-ninja-populated comic books in general, but was most specfically a parody of Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil and, most notably, on The Dark Knight Returns, which recreated Batman for a new generation of comic book fans as a Dirty Harry-style vigilante.

So, it must be especially sweet for Eastman and Laird – and perhaps ironically frustrating for Miller – that a movie based on parodying Miller’s work did better than a film based on Miller’s actual work. Maybe someone should send ol’ Frank a set of Powell furniture to help ease the pain.