Holy Terrible

In 2006 comic book auteur Frank Miller, who redefined Batman with his grim 1985 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, announced that he had begun work on a new story about the Caped Crusader. Titled Holy Terror, Batman!, the book would pit Batman and his longtime frenemy Catwoman against Muslim terrorists. It was to be "a piece of propaganda," Miller told The Telegraph, in which "Batman kicks Al Qaeda's ass." 

This year, under the truncated title Holy Terror! (Legendary), Miller released his vision—sans Batman. Instead, it features a suspiciously Batman-like hero called The Fixer and a feline, cat-burgling partner who is not Catwoman, gleefully torturing and murdering a terrorist before invading a mosque and wiping out its worshippers and inhabitants—all terrorists—with a chemical attack. It's crude, bigoted, and deeply unpleasant to read, less a story than an ugly revenge fantasy. Miller was right: It's pure propaganda, but not in a good way. —Peter Suderman