Basket.

Suitably epic but less than historical, 300 succeeds on the most basic level - it tells an enduring tale brilliantly and is an excellent read.

To recap once more the storyline, it is 480BC and Persian Shahanshah Xerxes, master of the great Achaemenid Persian Empire, invades Greece with, to quote the graphic novel, "a force so vast it shakes the earth with its march". The fractious Greek city-states put on a semblance of unity to make a stand at the Hot Gates; the pass of Thermopylae. Led by Spartan king Leonidas and his 300-strong agema (hence the novel's title), the Greek force holds off the massive Persian host heroically for two days, until the hunchback traitor Ephialtes, stung by Leonidas' rejection of his request to join the army, betrays his countrymen. Leonidas sends off his allies and, outflanked and surrounded, fights to the death with his bodyguards. The memory of the battle lives on through the ages as the very definition of a last stand.

It's a simple tale of heroism; of men who chose to stand and fight against overwhelming odds. And Frank Miller wastes little time telling this tale. It's a straightforward story with no subplots, and that is refreshing. No romantic bullshit - all Leonidas' queen says to him as he marches off to certain death is the famous line "Spartan! Come back with your shield or on it." Spartans are brought up to be professional soldiers, and the message is that they have time for little else.

Dialogue-wise, the novel is littered with the laconic phrases that Spartans are so famous for. "Earth and water? You'll find plenty of both down there," Leonidas tells the doomed Persian emissary as he kicks him down a well. (Note: the Persians demanded earth and water as tokens of submission from Sparta.) The famous exchange of "Our arrows will blot out the sun!" "Then we will fight in the shade." is also within - and so, of course is, "Come and get them.", better known perhaps as "Molon Labe."; a paraphrase of Leonidas' response to Xerxes' demand that the Spartans lay down their weapons. But dialogue is not the centrepiece of this novel. Action is.

And action is something this novel has in spades. All the brutal, bloody action of an ancient battle, befitting a true clash of civilisations. As to be expected, there are graphic scenes of violence and gore aplenty - perhaps too many, but Miller has never been known to be a subtle author. His style is over-the-top - and this is reflected even more baldly in his artwork and the style and look of the novel in general.

Stylistically-wise, Miller takes a good number of liberties with history. Perhaps the biggest change is his depiction of Xerxes. From bearded oriental despot, Xerxes becomes lithe, muscular, Nubian smoothtalker - which looks and sounds better is not difficult to imagine, but it is going a bit too far. In addition, the Spartans are depicted as fighting without armour and wearing only their ubiquitous red cloaks; unrealistic, to say the least. But again, it looks good. It looks heroic. Their opposing counterparts, the Persian Immortals, are shown wearing fearsome but impractical full-faced iron masks and all-black clothing with silver armour - yet another radical departure from classical depictions. In addition, Xerxes sends elephants against the Greeks, when in reality he brought none to Greece. Nor do I think he would have taken the surely disastrous decision to use the unwiedly beasts on a narrow coastal mountain path. But once more, it looks good - and for once I can forgive that because it does look good; very, very good indeed.

And so Leonidas and his men fight to the last breath; the story then closes fittingly at Plataea, the final confrontation of that great Greco-Persian conflict of 480-479BC. History enthusiasts will know the significance - Plataea was where the Persians were finally defeated and annihilated; it was also the battle that saw the largest-ever deployment of Spartan hoplites. It was Leonidas' dream fulfilled - a victory for the Spartan nation that he was denied at Thermopylae by the ephors.

Subsequent Greek history might not have been so glorious - petty squabbling as the glow of victory lightened, followed by ruinous civil war interspersed with continual Persian meddling. But for one shining moment of unity in 480BC, Greek heroism blotted out all else, as few stood and died against many in defence of their homeland. Remebered, deservedly, not as defeat, but as heroic sacrifice. 2500 years on, Miller decided to bring to life their time-honoured tale, and he has succeeded brilliantly.