5 Reasons Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello's 'The Dark Knight III: The Master Race' Excites Us!

The comic book industry was changed forever by The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, and DC Entertainment aims to do that again with the latest installment. Anticipation is already growing since the newly announced The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, from creator/writer Frank Miller (Sin City) and co-writer Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets).

As we previously mentioned, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For  writer/director made the announcement on Twitter, stating, "I hope that by now my silence is deafening." After the climatic events from DK2, is Bruce Wayne ready to put on the Bat-Suit one more time? The final chapter of The Dark Night trilogy promises to be, as Co-Publishers for DC Entertainment, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee put it best, an "astounding and triumphant conclusion."

We have 5 reasons why we're excited for The Dark Knight III: The Master Race:

5) The Dark Knight Returns

Miller's dark take turned the caped crusader into a flawed anti-hero, who was as self-destrcutive and obsessed as his enemies, The Joker and Two-Face. After donning the Bat-suit again, This is the first time Batman had a female counterpart as young Carrie Kelley put on the Robin costume. The artwork is fantastic on every level as Batman and Superman fight to the death.

4) The Dark Knight Strikes Again

In the second installment, though he continued to age, the Dark Knight isn't dark and brooding; he's more energetic because he's happy doing what he does best. He's actually smiling when he gets his rematch with Superman. I do agree the artwork takes time getting used to, but Miller's art style is poppy, vivid, and surreal. At least, Miller was experimenting and doing something different.

3) Broken City

In Batman #620-625, the Wonder Woman scribe and his 100 Bullets collaborator, artist Eduardo Risso, depicted the caped crusader in an old-school noir tale. In dialogue, everyone referred to the Dark Knight as "detective." In Azzarello's new and inventive take, the monstrous Killer Croc is depicted as a seedy pimp. This is the co-writer who's Miller is working with!

2) It's Sin City Meets 100 Bullets

Inspired by Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and Mickey Spillane (Kiss Me, Deadly), both writers are at their best when they're delving into crime/detective tales. I'm really hoping that when you put these two minds together, they're going to do something epic and memorable.

1) Who's the Artist?!

Klaus Janson delivered the phenomenal artwork for part one. The Hard Goodbye illustrator took over the art duties himself for part two, and boy was that trippy. The renowned X-Men artist worked on Miller's All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder. We can't wait to hear who will be working on the interior pages!

Just in time for the 30th anniversary of The Dark Knight Returns, the third installment is slated for release sometime in late Fall 2015.

Readers, are you excited to get your hands on The Dark Knight III: The Master Race?