300: The Birth of an Empire (2014): the film versus the comics

How can a film be compared to its source when it was published after it? 300: The Rise of an Empire poses a question that few adaptations raise. Source-by-source decryption.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

Adapt a book that doesn't yet exist

The starting point of this article is an anomaly. When Warner Bros. lance la production de la suite de300, the studio announces that it will be based on Xerxes, Frank Miller's project intended to extend the universe of his 1998 graphic novel. The problem: this comic is not published. It was announced, delayed, re-announced for years, and the film was released in March 2014 without even the slightest booklet having appeared. Miller did provide his pages and material to the producers – Zack Snyder, director of the first film, co-wrote the screenplay with Kurt Johnstad – but the public has no source to compare.

The comic will eventually arrive, four years later:Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander published by Dark Horse in 2018, written and drawn by Frank Miller, colored by Alex Sinclair — the author's collaborator on Dark Knight III. Miller deploys a very long-term project, matured over around twenty years, which goes well beyond what the film tells: it starts from the fall of the house of Darius to the rise of Alexander the Great, sweeping away more than a century of ancient history. Le film, lui, s'arrête aux guerres médiques. The consequence is clear: what most adaptations treat as a relationship of fidelity here becomes a relationship of simultaneity — two works born from the same material, developed in parallel, one arriving before the other.

What the film is about, and where it comes from

The film covers the episodes that 300 left off-camera. Where the first part focused on Thermopylae and the Spartans of Leonidas, this one follows the Athenian strategist Themistocles and moves to sea: the battle of Marathon, where Darius dies and where his son Xerxes swears vengeance, then the naval clashes of Artemision and Salamis. This structure allows the film to function as a prequel, parallel story and sequel at the same time - the events of Thermopylae take place simultaneously, and Lena Headey reprises Queen Gorgo to ensure the connection with the first part.

The most commented element of the film is elsewhere: Artemisia, commander of the Persian fleet, played by Eva Green. The historical character exists - ancient sources mention a sovereign engaged alongside Xerxes - but the film gives her a place, an origin and an intensity which make her the true protagonist of the story, largely eclipsing Themistocles. This is the choice that saved the film in the eyes of a good part of the critics, in a production otherwise considered inferior to its model. As for the transformation of Xerxes into a golden god-king, covered in gold and piercings, it really comes from Miller - the film offers its genesis, showing how a prince becomes this icon that the first part already took for granted.

Miller style as specifications

What 300: Rise of an Empire most surely inherits from Frank Miller is not a plot but a visual grammar. The 1998 graphic novel had imposed an extreme treatment – ​​cut-out silhouettes, saturated skies, stylized sprays of blood, heroic bodies to the point of unrealism – which the first film had transposed frame by frame, shooting entirely on a green background. The sequel continues the process, with its slow motion, its flat areas and its grain. She adds a constraint: the film is shot for stereoscopy, and the aesthetic becomes even more demonstrative.

This fidelity of form without fidelity of text is rich in lessons. It shows that a work can be adapted by its style before being adapted by its content – ​​the “300 look” had become a property in itself, recognizable, salable, independent of any precise narrative. It also illuminates a constant of Miller in the cinema:Sin Cityat 300, his works gave rise to the most literally graphic adaptations of the medium, where the box dictated the frame. The paradox of The Birth of an Empire is to apply this method to an invisible book: the style is there, but it no longer illustrates anything published. For the reader, the comparison only becomes possible after 2018, and it then reveals a very different comic - more historical, broader, less centered on the naval spectacle.

The characters, from paper to screen

• Xerxes— The golden god-king, whose genesis is recounted in the film.
• Themistocles— The Athenian strategist, nominal protagonist of the film.
• Artemisia— The Persian Commander, greatly expanded for the screen.
• Darius— Xerxes' father, whose fall opens the 2018 comic.
• Gorgo— The Queen of Sparta, narrative link with the first film.

Twenty years in the making: the Frank Miller case

L'histoire éditoriale de Xerxes is worth telling, because it says something about Frank Miller's special place in the industry. Author of the works that refounded modern comics - from his time on Daredevil to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, including Sin City and 300 - Miller enjoys a freedom that few authors can claim: his projects come out when they are ready, or don't come out.Xerxes, long announced as the sequel to 300, went through roughly two decades of development, announcements and postponements before being released in 2018 by Dark Horse, Miller's historic publisher.

Entre-temps, le cinéma était passé devant. This inversion – the film before the book – is extremely rare for an author's work, and it has concrete consequences for the collector. The 2018 comic did not benefit from the usual “movie heat”: when it appeared, the film had already been forgotten for four years, and its reception suffered. À l'inverse, c'est le roman graphique de 1998,300, which benefited from the whole movement — driven by the success of the first film and then thereafter. For anyone building a Miller collection, the hierarchy is therefore clear: the five issues of 300 from 1998 constitute the centerpiece, while Xerxes remains a recent curiosity, widely available and without tension on the market. An unusual configuration, where the late is not the rare.

Where to start reading

To discover the source, the logical order is the reverse of the chronology of the films: read first 300(1998), the five issues of Frank Miller colored by Lynn Varley, then Xerxes(2018) to see where the author really wanted to take his universe — much further than the film, all the way to Alexander the Great. The comparison between the two books is more instructive than that between the book and the film.

Chronology of comics to know

• 1998— 300: the five issues of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley at Dark Horse.
• 2007— Zack Snyder's first film imposes the “300 look”.
• 2014— 300: The Birth of an Empire is released, adapting an unpublished comic.
• 2018— Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander is finally released.

Collection side: what numbers to aim for after the film

The hierarchy is atypical.300 #1(1998, Dark Horse) remains the key to the whole: first issue of the founding work, supported by two successive adaptations and by the general rating of Frank Miller. The five issues of the series are easily collected as a complete series.Xerxes(2018), on the other hand, appeared too late to benefit from the cinematic momentum: its issues remain widely available at modest prices, making it an easy acquisition to complete a Miller collection without being an investment. As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

300: The Rise of an Empire will remain as the adaptation that preceded its own source by four years - an anomaly which says a lot about the way Hollywood now treats projects from established authors: no longer as books to be adapted, but as universes to be exploited, published or not. The film inherits Frank Miller's style without being able to inherit its text, and this perhaps explains its status as an honorable but minor sequel. For the collector, interest is focused on the 1998 graphic novel, whose popularity was built by the cinema. For the reader, true curiosity is Xerxes— the book that the film could not adapt, and which goes much further.

The verdict: inherited style, missing text

• Loyalty: the mythical vision of the Persian wars, the transformation of Xerxes into a god-king, Marathon and the death of Darius, the outrageous aesthetics and the epic recitative come from Frank Miller.
• Freedoms: the film adapts an unpublished comic, significantly expands on Artemisia, shifts the narrative to naval battles, and ends where the 2018 book continues to Alexander the Great.
• Collectible numbers: 300 #1-5 (1998, Dark Horse), Xerxes (2018) to complete.

300: Rise of an Empire adapts Xerxes by Frank Miller four years before its publication — a unique case in this series of articles. He inherits the style and the vision, never the text, and his best contribution, Eva Green's Artémise, belongs to him in his own right. For both the reader and the collector, it is an invitation to return to 300 from 1998.

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