Holy Terror / YMMV

Accidental Aesop:
- The story actually does include one valid point by bringing up Osama bin Laden's then-recent death, namely the fact that killing off one high-profile terrorist leader doesn't automatically make terrorism (or even Al-Qaeda) go away forever. Unfortunately, this point is completely ignored so that Miller can share his conspiracy theories, then have the Fixer violently slaughter the terrorists.
- One could also take The Fixer's failure to actually get anywhere when it comes to stopping the problem of terrorism as a statement of how pointless it is to engage in blind militarism against your enemies.
Audience-Alienating Premise: While everybody enjoys seeing terrorists get their comeuppance, most people were understandably put off by the fact that the comic doesn't just target terrorists but all of Islam and Muslim culture as well, which is where most people draw the line. As only a few people are willing to read a comic book that is unabashedly racist and Islamophobic. Even Frank Miller himself came to feel that he went too far with the racism here.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Some splash pages feature various world leaders or personalities who… are just depicted without saying anything, and without any kind of relation to the plot.
- Upon seeing the destruction by the bombers, we see among the wreckage… a giant red shoe and a green car. They are the only colored objects in the page, even the other cars aren't in color.
- In an otherwise black-and-white comic, the soles of Natalie Stack's shoes are painted bright red; while this could be one of Frank Miller's many insults towards Muslim culture^note, it still stands out as very odd.
- During one scene where Natalie fights the terrorists in their secret underground city (it makes no more sense in context), we see a random dinosaur who is never mentioned by any of the characters, nor is it explained why terrorists have a dinosaur or how they got one.
Bile Fascination: You'll be hard-pressed to find people who genuinely enjoy this comic, and far more who were intrigued by the idea of a Frank Miller comic even worse than The Dark Knight Strikes Again or All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder and wanted to see just how terrible it really is.
Designated Hero: The Fixer permanently cripples a terrorist and threatens to blind him, then throws said terrorist into a meat grinder after getting the info he wanted. He steals a car for transportation just because he's tired, and ruthlessly slaughters terrorists without hesitation, not to mention generally being very bigoted and hateful about them. He also mentions his entire motivation for fighting crime was just to stay in shape and practice on criminals for the event of a terrorist attack. He clearly cares more about killing terrorists than he does actually doing anything heroic, and is just as much a remorseless mass-murderer as the terrorists he's fighting. He ends up more heroic than Miller's version of Batman, though, as he only kills terrorists; there's no sign that he'd ever make a 12-year-old eat cave rats. But, that's literally as far as you can go when it comes to saving graces for him.
Don't Shoot the Message: Even people who agree with or at the very least aren’t against Miller’s beliefs have a very hard time liking this comic due to the terrible art, dialogue, and pacing.
Fan Nickname: Due to What Could Have Been.
- The Fixer is Not-Batman.
- Natalie Stack is Not-Catwoman.
- Dan Donagel is Not-Jim Gordon.
Fashion-Victim Villain: The Al-Qaeda leader is portrayed as a 4-foot-tall man whose entire body is wrapped up in robes... which just happen to have beads covering up his arms, feet, and face. And the normal terrorists have their entire face except their eyes and mouth wrapped up, making them look like mummies.
Fridge Logic: As Linkara points out, if Al-Qaeda has missile-armed jets and Stinger missiles, why do they resort to suicide bombers and waste perfectly good soldiers?
Harsher in Hindsight: Near the end of the story when Natalie Stack is captured by Al-Qaeda mooks, the Al-Qaeda cell leader says that he'd like to record the beheading of Stack and upload it to the Internet for the world to witness. Less than two years after this comic was published, another Jihadist terrorist group, Daesh (better known as ISIS/ISIL), would gain infamy for committing such barbaric actions. (They weren't the first to do so, but they were — and are — notably more tech- and media-savvy than older extremist groups.)
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Let's see, a duo of a superhero and Classy Cat-Burglar are seeking to stop a group of terrorists that are part of a secret society from destroying their home city. Are we talking about this 2011 graphic novel or 2012's The Dark Knight Rises?
- That the book is named similarly to the Elseworld story Batman: Holy Terror becomes humorous to those who've read that story, as it ends with that world's Batman explicitly referring to his war against the Commonwealth as a jihad.
Padding: More than half of the book is splash pages. Along with that, there's a flashback to what a suicide bomber was doing before the explosion. Because of this, the pacing is so slow that the plot starts moving during the last third. To prove this, at page 93 The Fixer says the attack is still beginning.
Spiritual Licensee: Linkara described the book as a Sin City comic featuring Batman. Unfortunately, however, it's nowhere near as good as that sounds.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- At least one scene is shown from the viewpoint of a suicide bomber. She has a few moments that seem to give development, but they're quickly ignored in favor of making her another generic terrorist.
- The Fixer is given zero backstory or explanation for his attitude towards Muslims (barring a line about how he spent his whole life preparing for such an attack). He could have been an ex-soldier or a civilian who lost his family in a terrorist attack.

YMMV / Holy Terror

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