geekdaddy

There are few things the Geek Daddy goes completely Fanboy over. Batman is one of them. So to say I was slightly disappointed in All Star Batman is like saying Lehman Brothers hit a small bump over the last few weeks. I wondered if I was reading the same book everyone had been raving about.

First off, there is a disconnect between Miller’s gritty writing, and Jim Lee’s sweeping artwork. I felt that Miller was going for a gritty, urban tone, while miller was looking at things with more of an eye to an epic style. The juxtaposition of Miller’s text brings Lee’s art down a notch. Think of a Picasso with graffiti on it. There needed to be more of collaboration between what I was reading, and what I was seeing in this project.

Secondly, the origin story of Robin was way too much of a parody of the same tired origin story we have all heard before. The fact that Robin starts out terrorized, kidnapped, and abused is a direct 360 from the story we all know. Batman seems to be delighting in pulling this youngster into his slimy, grotesque, parody of a world. Robin has no redeeming values in this situation. It is almost a case of Stockholm syndrome, rather than a cherished partnership. This is antithetical to the genuine respect these two heroes have for each other.

Thirdly, Batman is a bastard. It’s not enough that he is haunted, tortured, and violent. The authors’ also make him mean, and without redeeming value. He is not just fighting for the little guy, he is treading on him. That is not the Batman I know and love. I think Christian Bale Said it best in Batman Begins, “I’m not going to kill you, but I don’t have to save you!” That is the credo we see time and time again in the lineage of The Dark Knight. The fact that this project gets rid of that dynamic is laudable, but not practical. Jim Lee’s great art notwithstanding, this volume is deeply flawed. 6/10.

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