Holy Terror, Batman! was intended to be the modern version to the many WWII comic lines which depicted their heroes tracking down and taking out Nazis and even Hitler himself. In the story, Gotham is under terrorist threat from Al-Qaeda, and only Batman stands in their way.
It seems that this kind of semi-patriotic storyline is no longer looked well upon, however. After the announcement of the project in 2006, soon before the five-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks, it was panned from nearly all quarters, and looked to be on tenuous ground.
Even Fellow Batman writer, Grant Morrison blasted the idea suggesting that, unlike the similar WWII comics, this script is a “decadent indulgence,” and did nothing to help with the war effort. He went on to say that if Miller really wanted to help, he should join the military, and get trained to fight on the front line.
With so much criticism of the concept, the title remained in the comics version of development hell for nearly four years before Miller announced the book was no longer a Batman story, and no longer being planned with DC in mind as a publisher.
However, whether the impetus for this came from DC or Miller himself remains unclear.
Then, earlier this year, after the death of Osama bin Laden, the script required a rewrite to reflect the change in Al-Qaeda leadership.
Now that this rewrite is finished, Legendary Comics has decided to take a chance on the script, currently renamed simply Holy Terror.
The role of Batman from the original script will now be filled by a new hero of Miller’s invention called The Fixer, a hero who has stronger motivations for fighting terrorists, and who hopefully makes more sense in the role. There have even been some hints that The Fixer will be receiving his own line under Legendary, but that depends, of course, on how Holy Terror is perceived by critics and the public.
The hundred-plus pages graphic novel has not yet received a fixed release date.
