Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

By Alex De-Gruchy
July 26, 2006

Created by comics veteran Frank Miller (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Ronin), Sin City is classic noir storytelling heavily influenced by the work of authors such as Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane. The comic might feature black and white art, but its characters are more varying shades of grey. Sin City is a town of crooked cops, beautiful but deadly hookers, murderous thugs and private detectives, all living, working, and dying in a town without pity. With the success of the movie, the Sin City collections have garnered a great deal of renewed attention, particularly A Dame to Kill For, as it is this collection which is to become the main storyline of the upcoming second film.

Plot

The events in A Dame to Kill For take place before - and sometimes at the same time as - the events of the original Sin City mini-series. Although the star of that story, Marv, does show up here, the main protagonist is Dwight McCarthy, a private detective with a violent past. Having cleaned up his act a long time ago, Dwight's world is turned upside down once more with a single phone call - from Ava, the woman who broke his heart four years ago when she left him for a wealthy man...

Despite the years of bitterness and heartbreak, Dwight finds himself falling for Ava all over again. When she tells him that her abusive, wealthy husband, Damien Lord, is going to kill her, Dwight agrees to do what he can. With the help of Marv, Dwight makes his move to rescue the woman he loves. Things rapidly go sour, but not because of Lord - Dwight soon realises that Ava has been playing him for a sap all along. She used Dwight, knowing that she could once again convince him to do as she wanted. She knew his temper would drive him to kill her husband, as it indeed does, making her the richest woman in Sin City. Ava shoots Dwight, nearly killing him, but he manages to escape.

With the help of some old friends, Dwight slowly recovers, after getting reconstructive surgery on his face. Now there is only one thought in his head - revenge.

The plot of A Dame to Kill For is nothing new to fans of old-school, hard-boiled detective stories, but there is a reason that the basic archetype of this story works so well - it has all of the right ingredients: the tough-guy hero with a dark past; the femme fatale who can wrap a man around her finger; sudden, brutal violence; revenge; a cold, dangerous city; and finally, a varied supporting cast who help carry the story along. Although Miller doesn't necessarily bring many twists to the formula, he carries it out with confidence.

Characterisation

Dwight is just another Sin City guy who drinks too much, has a short fuse and is quick with his fists. But that was in the past - over the last few years, he has left his violent, reckless ways behind to try to make his way in the straight world. And he has managed to cope, right up until Ava comes back into his life. Dwight's narrative captions show his inner struggle, and his emotions balanced between hatred and love for the woman who broke his heart. Anyone who's ever been screwed over by someone they love can empathise with this, and it helps the reader relate to Dwight as a believable character. Of course, when Ava reveals her true colours, his motives are much more simple, and it is then that we see the professional, deadlier side of Dwight.

Ava is a femme fatale through and through - intelligent, cunning, and beautiful. It becomes apparent that Dwight isn't the only man she has used and betrayed. There have been many others. One sub-plot here, in fact, concerns a cop who falls for Ava, and ultimately pays a terrible price for it. As a villainess, she is simple and uncomplicated - she wants money and power, and she doesn't care what she has to do to get it. However, this doesn't make her a one-dimensional character, just totally ruthless.

The supporting characters are a mix of new faces and others who will be familiar to fans of the other Sin City collections. They all contribute to the story's noir atmosphere as well as the plot itself. Oh, and fans of Marv from the original mini-series will be glad to know he appears more than once throughout this story. He is still the same old lovable Marv - high-speed chases, brutal beatings and all.

Art

Miller's art on Sin City is certainly distinctive, and it is no coincidence that the movie adaptation looked so visually striking, taking its cue directly (sometimes panel-by-panel) from the pages of Miller's books. Miller's black and white art fits the mood of the story perfectly, and his use of thick, bold lines gives each panel weight even without the use of colour (No splashes of red or yellow here, as seen in other Sin City stories such as That Yellow Bastard). The panels also stand out more because there simply aren't that many of them in a page - Miller often uses no more than two or three panels a page, and there are also plenty of splash pages to go with them. However, this doesn't mean that Miller skimps on the story, as there are often lengthy narrative captions to go with these pages.

Although some of his characters are slightly exaggerated to emphasise their personalities - such as the sleazy, sloppily-dressed Agamemnon and the huge, emotionless man-mountain that is Manute - Miller draws them all like they fit right into the environments around them, whether it is a smoky, seedy strip bar or a high-class, wealthy home up on the hills. Also, he captures enough emotion and expression in their faces to give an insight into their personalities, such as Dwight's cool and focused professionalism, Marv's crazed glee, and Ava's ice-cold ruthlessness.

Overall

A Dame to Kill For is another entertaining, hard-boiled tale from the streets of Sin City. Dwight's tale of love, loss, murder and revenge is one that takes no prisoners, and mixes hard-hitting violence and drama with in-depth, interesting characters both good (as "good" as these characters can get that is) and bad. It is a story that can be recommended to fans of hard-boiled noir as well as crime fiction in general. The influence of classic detective authors upon Miller's work is clear, but the story never comes across as derivative, as he pulls it off with style, both in terms of writing and his distinctive art. If you haven't made the trip before, then A Dame to Kill For is a good reason to pay a visit to Sin City.

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writing & Art: Frank Miller
Collects Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Issues #1-6