All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Vol. 1

Doing for the Dark Knight what Morrison and Quitely would do for Superman, writer Frank Miller and artist Jim Lee (both no strangers to telling compelling Batman stories) recount the early days of Robin's apprenticeship from a contemporary viewpoint and modern settings. The All Star series is designed for writers and artists to explore new and fresh stories for established characters without the burden of canon, and while seeing a neophyte Robin, a fledgeling Justice League, and a teenage Barbara Gordon as a blinged-out Batgirl is a little disorienting at first, Miller's evocative script and Lee's razor-sharp art make it all coalesce after a while.The trouble starts with Bruce Wayne's apparent kidnapping of Dick Grayson after Dick's show more parents are murdered, and Batman's subsequent indoctrination techniques on the young aerialist, which at times border on the abusive. Even when working solo and not obligated to chaperone Robin, Miller's Batman takes on a decidedly sociopathic personality when fighting the criminal elements of Gotham City; in combat he laughs maniacally, mirroring his future nemesis the Joker. His contempt for other heroes with different agendas is amplified tenfold as he realizes that they spurn using their greater powers for more overarching deeds, even as he is guilty of micromanaging crime within the parameters of his own abilities.Stunning artwork and striking, sometimes disturbing characterizations. show less

Uh. Wow.

I could have rated this with 5 stars or 1 star. I've settled on 3.

This is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read. Although I haven't read all that much of Miller, I've kind of gotten the impression that he's slowly been slipping into self-parody. All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder is not self-parody. It's more like someone else wrote a parody of Miller, and then Miller saw it and decided to write a parody of that.

I could spend a long time listing all the stupidity. Dick Grayson (age 12, of course) appearing on a carton of milk within minutes of being "abducted" by Batman (actually, upon checking, it seems he was on the milk carton before he was abducted, and while his parents were still alive)? The brief and ultimately show more pointless appearances of Joker, Batgirl, Catwoman, etc.? The fact that I'm pretty sure Miller actually meant to use Huntress rather than Black Canary (or maybe not, but the fact that it wouldn't surprise me is telling)? The goddamn swearing, goddamnit?

I've barely scratched the surface, and I'm not even going to touch the sexism (a friend, while flipping through my copy, started calling out "crotch shot" every time ... well, you know. It did not end well.). The dialog? The story itself? Alfred? Seriously. This is dumb, and the fact that Miller was responsible for some of Batman's finer moments just makes it that much worse.

So how could I consider giving this five stars? For one thing, it's funny. Stupid funny, no doubt. The kind of funny where you're laughing at the book, rather than with it, but still, I laughed out loud while reading it. And I kind of like the fact that despite all the effort DC seems to put into turning its characters into icons, good for little more than shining up and putting on pedestals, Miller is like a gleeful child, laughing while knocking them into the mud. His superheroes might have the abilities of gods, but their behavior marks them as ancient greek gods, the victims of the basest of human emotions, rather than the abstract, virtuous, and pious versions that so often get trotted out.

I don't know why Miller seems to want to piss all over the DC universe, but it's kind of fun to watch. I just can't decide if he's doing it intentionally, or if he's just stumbled into it by accident. show less

I really liked Dick Grayson and Alfred in the first couple of issues of this. That is the only bit I liked or enjoyed.

I am furious at the way every single female character is portrayed in this book, both in the art and the text, especially Wonder Woman, who is turned into a feminazi caricature. Black Canary's treatment also makes me sick.

I also don't like Miller's deranged Batman (which I've read also in The Dark Knight Returns). I can take a well-written, slightly-unhinged Batman, but this crazy maniac is nobody I know and nothing I want to read.

This is my least favorite read in several years by a wide margin. I should admit up front that I’m not much of a superhero fan, but I had high hopes since Miller has written some of my favorite superhero comics. Those hopes weren’t met.

Miller is writing in the same staccato style that he used to such feat effect in Batman: Year One and the early years of Sin City, but it reads almost like parody. In fact, viewing this book as parody is the only way it makes sense to me. Parody of Miller’s early style, and parody of superhero comics for adults. The main stylistic element at play here is to make every character the least likable version you can imagine, and have Batman say “goddamn” every other word.

Over nine issues, Miller show more introduces half the DC cast of characters, and a number of plots, and resolves none of them. I know that the story continues, but, goddamn, I have no stomach to read more.

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Merideth says: Frank Miller. Jim Lee. Batman. What's not to love? Plenty.

If you take this book as it is presented, a serious 're-imagining' of the Batman mythos, then the whole thing is just awful. Featuring some of the most ham-handed dialog in creation, and a distinct lack of plot, this book casts Batman as such a psychotic that the Joker looks tame by comparison. He gleefully injures crooked policemen, kidnaps a traumatized boy and throws him in a cave, and nearly murders his love interest. However, Batman isn't the only one who gets a character reassignment, Wonder Woman comes off as a 'femi-nazi', Hal Jordan is an idiot and Superman is a rage volcano. Miller has taken all the ticks of his Sin City characters and has grafted them show more on to the familiar faces of the DC universe. Miller is known for an edgier style, but this comes of as parody.

This is the second way that you can read this title -- as Miller intentionally taking superhero tropes to an extreme. However, after reading DKSB, I don't find this argument particularly compelling. Maybe Miller has gone back to the well too many times, but for me, he's just not that interesting anymore.

Jim Lee provides the artwork for Miller, and it is done in typical Lee style. Clean, fan-friendly presentation with lots of candy-bright colors and curvaceous women. While Lee always turns in quality, if repetitive, work, he was the wrong choice for this project. His character designs work against Miller's tone, no matter what his intent, and add to the 'They're Kidding, Right?' factor this title.

Perhaps what bothers me most, about this book, and about Frank Miller's work in general, is his treatment of women. Yes, superhero females couldn't stand in normal gravity, but in recent years, most writers have at least tried to give their heroines depth and purpose. Not so with Miller -- his women are stacked and bitchy, and that's where it ends. It's tired. (crossposted from MeriJenBen) show less

A very intriguing re-telling of Robin's origin, one which I've got a lot of mixed feelings about. For the first time, we see a Batman who revels in his brutality ("I love being the goddamn Batman"). This Batman is profane, angry, sexual and savage. But he takes on a young circus athlete who has just seen his parents killed and all sense drained from his world, and it's a question whether they'll kill each other before some kind of civilizing influence arises from this angry bonding. We also see Frank Miller taking a new tack with characters such as Black Canary, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman. There are aspects to Miller's changes of long-established characters and storylines that distress me, but I have to admire the sheer show more creative audacity of it. It's also got me curious as hell, waiting for the next installment. And the artwork, by the way, is drop-dead gorgeous. show less

Frank Miller. Jim Lee. Batman. What's not to love? Plenty.

If you take this book as it is presented, a serious "re-imagining" of the Batman mythos, then the whole thing is just awful. Featuring some of the most ham-handed dialog in creation, and a distinct lack of plot, this book casts Batman as such a psychotic that the Joker looks tame by comparison. He gleefully injures crooked policemen, kidnaps a traumatized boy and throws him in a cave, and nearly murders his love interest. However, Batman isn't the only one who gets a character reassignment, Wonder Woman comes off as a "femi-nazi", Hal Jordan is an idiot and Superman is a rage volcano. Miller has taken all the ticks of his Sin City characters and has grafted them on to the show more familiar faces of the DC universe. Miller is known for an edgier style, but this comes of as parody.

This is the second way that you can read this title -- as Miller intentionally taking superhero tropes to an extreme. However, after reading DKSB, I don't find this argument particularly compelling. Maybe Miller has gone back to the well too many times, but for me, he's just not that interesting anymore.

Jim Lee provides the artwork for Miller, and it is done in typical Lee style. Clean, fan-friendly presentation with lots of candy-bright colors and curvaceous women. While Lee always turns in quality, if repetitive, work, he was the wrong choice for this project. His character designs work against Miller's tone, no matter what his intent, and add to the "They're Kidding, Right?" factor this title.

Perhaps what bothers me most, about this book, and about Frank Miller's work in general, is his treatment of women. Yes, superhero females couldn't stand in normal gravity, but in recent years, most writers have at least tried to give their heroines depth and purpose. Not so with Miller -- his women are stacked and bitchy, and that's where it ends. It's tired. show less