My Miller read of 2017 is pretty typical for him. The art and page layouts are extremely well done, the colours by Varley feel muddy and cliche, and the writing props up frail male egos everywhere.

The misogyny is actually a bit toned down in this story as Miller does need women somewhere in the background in order to prove that all these guys (sleeping in a naked heap at one point) are indeed straight. That said, only the "diseased old mystics" actually show much interest in the female form.

Somewhat unique to this story, the single group that Miller seems to really want to go after is anyone who is not perfectly physically fit. Again and again, the people who stand in our heroes way or even outright betray him are old, crippled, mysterious, and/or otherwise "deformed".

It's been a while since I read the original story that Miller is drawing from, but I suspect that this ableism is likely rampant in the source material as well. It certainly is a founding principle of the Spartin lifestyle. Does this mean that Miller is completely innocent of any hate mongering? Nope.

How Frank Miller can keep saying that Leonidas is protecting reason and freedom while literally smack talking democracy... Literally eschewing diplomacy in favour of mindless violence... The amount of cognitive dissonance and doublethink is really quite impressive. Boiled down to its most basic storytelling elements, this story is little more than ableist straight cisgender dude propaganda.

But for the art and page layouts, it gets two stars.