I am a Frank Miller fan. I love DARK KNIGHT. I cherish RONIN. I revere his BATMAN, I treasure his DAREDEVIL. I adore his opinions. His letter pages are great. I love SIN CITY. At least, I have so far. The last few SIN CITY outings have been weaker and weaker, but this latest may represent a crash of the series. It's an idea that has been stretched too thin, perhaps. Granted, this is an eight-part epic, but all I could think of as I read this issue was, eight more parts of this?!?

I don't think so. I don't care about the characters. I don't care about what they are doing. I don't know what they are doing. The art isn't as good as it used to be. How much did I pay for this? When I start thinking about how I much I paid for something, well, how much am I enjoying it?

For the record, Miller gives us our hero, Wallace (named apparently for William Wallace of BRAVEHEART fame). Not much is known about him except he paints NEARLY naked models and gets offended if someone asks him to paint REALLY naked models. This makes him a good man. Then we meet some woman, I forget her name, who tries to commit suicide, but Wallace saves her and takes her home to meet the land lady. It looks like some bad guys are after her though. Then she tries on some clothes and that's it until next issue. Three bucks shot to Hell. Hey! It REALLY is the town without pity!

The two stars are for the letters page which wraps up 300--one of the best comics of last year.

I'm not enjoying this review. Frank Miller is one of the few bright spots in comics these days. I want to like it. I want to praise it. I want someone eight months from now to stick issue nine in my face and heckle me for writing this negative review, because it turned out to be the best damn SIN CITY series ever. But I don't see it happening. Prove me wrong, Frank. Please prove me wrong...