I realy love this graphic novell/comic, The illustrations are beautuful in all ther gory glory, and the story about the brave spartans is quite captivating and inspiering. I still got this baby on my coffe table months after i bought it.

I normally am not into graphic novels that much, but this one is truly a great re-telling of one of the most heroic deeds in human history, the stand of Leonidas and his Greeks at Thermopylae. What makes it special is that it is quite a metaphor for this day and age with the current war we find ourselves in and that is what is sometimes referred as the eternal choice of men: to submit to slavery or to resist, a choice as clear today as it was back then.

Now, bear in mind, that all the graphic novel does is that it tells a story. For anyone expecting a strict intrepretation of the exact events from a historical prespective will be quite dissappointed, for it only uses a historical event to tell a story, just like the 70's gang movie "the Warriors" tells the story of Xenophon and his 10,000 Greeks in their famous March to the Sea set in a different time and place. They tell an inspiring story of courage and preserverance in the face of insurmountable odds. There are a few details inaccurate, such as the public standing of the messenger dispatched by Leonidas shortly before the end; Dilios, the messenger in the graphic novel is shown deferred with great respect, telling the story to other Spartans just before the Battle of Platea while two of the actual messengers, Astrodemos and Pantites, were scorned as cowards under comparison to the third messenger, Eurytos, who disobeyed his orders and returned to Thermopylae to die with the rest. But, on the plus side for us history buffs and students of military science and leadership the story does a great job in the telling from the view of Leonidas and insight into his decisions.

Overall, if you want a strict historical intrepetation of Thermopylae, I would advise the reader that he would be a lot better off going to such work as "the Gates of Fire" for a more accurate telling, the Osprey Men at War, Elite, and Essential Histories books for overviews on events and illustrations and recountings of the individual Greek Hoplites and Persian Immortals and soliders, and the Department of the Army's recommended reading list for even better works and accounts. For those who just wish for an inspiring story, you will not be dissappointed.

I'm not a johnny come lately to the works of Frank Miller. Many reviewers seem to only be aware of him through Sin City, which in some ways is his least important work. I'm also not a specialist in Greek history, so I'm not concerned whether or not the Greeks really wore mustaches or not.

This is among Millers best work especially in terms of the art, its almost a revolution on top of all of Millers other artistic revolutions of which there must be at least4 ( Daredevil, Dark Knight 1 and 2, Sin City). This is unmistakeably Miller, but still somehow new. The story and especially its message however, leaves much to be desired. Throughout his career Miller has never missed an opportunity to depict black people as either idiots or sadists, white superiority is one of the most predominant,important, and ignored messages running through nealrly all of his works, including this one. His eurocentrism is simply a pandering to his predominatley white male audience, but it also seems to be what he actually beleives.I'm quite sure that Miller looks for, especially black artists of his caliber, doesn't find any and uses this to justify his imagery.

The conclusion of this book is that Greek culture equals freedom, democracy, and progress, and that easter(non-european) culture leads to bondage and despotism. Few readers will challenge him on this since few readers disagree. The lack of commentary on this most insidious and inaccurate of conclusions is a testament to this country's arrogance conceit and absolute lack of historical perspective.

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