Frank Miller Indulges in His Favorite Tropes in Sin City “Hard Goodbye”
If you’ve read any of Frank Miller’s comics, you’re probably familiar with some of his most beloved tropes found in his work from Daredevil to Holy Terror, including pudge-faced, long coated wearing anti-heroes, prostitutes, a crapsack urban setting, and hardboiled voice-over narration that ranges from unintentionally hilarious (” Sin City, she’s a big, bad broad flat on her back begging for it and I take her for all she’s worth and then I take her again and still she’s begging.”) to tight and poignant (“Worth dying for. Worth killing for. Worth going to hell for. amen.”) In “Hard Goodbye”, Miller plays with these tropes and devices like a kid with his favorite action figures, but he also constructs a three dimensional character in Marv, who is the dark grey anti-hero Sin City needs. Marv is a driven character, who will go to any means necessary to avenge the death of Goldie, a prostitute and “goddess”, who gave him the time of his life before she was killed. The plot of “Hard Goodbye” is filled with forward momentum and doesn’t go down any rabbit trails. Miller fleshes out some of the backstory of (Ba)Sin City, its ruling clan the Roarkes, and supporting characters, like Lucille and Nancy, but it mostly focuses on one violent, mentally unhinged (yet well-intentioned) man’s quest for vengeance , justice, or something in-between.
