Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities All-Star Batman and Robin

**SPOILERS**
- Frank Miller and Jim Lee. Sounds good, but so far, I'm not excited.
- The use of Vicki Vale here is a bit of a mystery to me. She comes across as an old-fashioned Lois Lane type of "fiesty reporter" and not much else (the twist I guess being that she's infatuated with Bruce Wayne and not impressed with the Batman). The t&a struck me as reminiscient of Miller's "Sin City", but sex is an intergral part of that book. Here it seems out of place. It certainly doesn't help that Bruce doesn't devote any of his narration to her or what possible significance she might have to him.
- That last panel where Batman "drafts" Robin into a war is a bit too much like the "facist Batman" we saw in "Dark Knight". It makes me think if we'll see a Batman/ Robin relationship here that's like the one he had with the girl Robin or if we'll see more of the kind of Batman/Robin relationship that was hinted at in DKSA (you know, where Bruce denegrates Dick for not being able to hack it and tosses him into a volcano). Miller made great use of the Carrie Robin, using her to show us Bruce's soft side and human frailty as an older guy just hanging in there. It remains to be seen if Miller plans on showig us similar humanity with the younger Bruce.

I'm not sure what I think yet. It's very...

.........mediocre. I'm not impressed or unimpressed. I think I more just don't know if I should care or not.

*shrugs* I guess, we'll see how it stacks up.

I agree with your assessment. The story and characters are immediately accessible but I found it a bit dull.
-I wonder who the target audience for this book is. The T&A shows it's not kids, my guess it's a movie tie in. Mostly kids 16 and older plus adults who may have read comics as kids and are curious because of the movie.
-I thought Batman splitting the cop car in two with the batmobile was a bit too much.

Yeah. What happened there? Did Batman just kill all those cops or what? If so this is a very different Batman to the one we're used to reading about.

I agree about the T&A criticism. Was there any point at all in having 4 pages of Lois La-oops I mean Vicki Vale wandering around in her underwear?

I was largely underwhelmed too. I bought this issue because of all the hooplah and promotion surrounding it but I'm not enough of a Batman fan to continue supporting a mediocre product.

Phew! Glad I wasn't the only one that seemed underwhelmed as well.
I was so much more excited for All Star Superman than Batman and this issue just confirmed it for me.

I was blown away by the art - this was old fashioned romance comic art in full bloom. I loved it. When the visuals are that good, and the story telling is straightforward, as is the case here, I can relax and enjoy the ride. I'm looking forward to more.

Oh, one thing I noticed was a reference to the old concern about about the nature of Bruce Wayne's relationship with Dick Grayson. When Bruce Wayne says he's had his eye on Dick Grayson for quite a while, Vicki quite rightly raises her eyebrows and asks him why he's had his eye on him.

I just hope Miller doesn't have Batman call Dick "peach" again...

I got the whole SOTI insinuation straight away as well. Miller seems to be having some fun with the whole idea. It does seem creepy in another way too, like Bruce almost expected the Grayson's to be murdered.

I'm no Batfan, but I was actually going to buy this.... now I'm not so sure... though Semi's comments on the art tilt me back towards buying it... though I would expect no less from Jim Lee.

The art was pretty amazing. I just wasn't WOWed by the comic as a whole. The portrayels were... mediocre. I wasn't disgusted but I'm not sure it's worth my money.

Art: faboo!

Story: feh!

I missed this at the CBS last week, now I don't think I'll pick it up, just wait for the trade maybe. What's been good is the storyline running in "Legends of the Dark Knight" with Mr. Freeze.

Flipped through a copy at SDCC and I tend to agree about the great art and so-so story thus far. I'm going to give it another issue or so and see where it goes.

Hmm. I guess I'm just not a big Jim Lee fan. I found both the story and the art to be particularly underwhelming. I really hope that Morrison's All-star Supes raises the bar on this line.

For whatever it's worth, All Star Batman and Robin was featured in a recent Entertainment Weekly issue as something worth picking up.

Not to be cynical, but that's corporate synergy at work (DC and ET are both Time Warner). To be less cynical, it might be great for non-comic readers who want to read a story free from continuity quagmire and Miller has been riding a wave of good PR lately as well.

As a total aside, I recently reread "Dark Knight Strikes Again" in one sitting and found it more enjoyable than when it originally came out. Partly because it made for a denser read, partly because the unrealistic expectations weren't there, whatever. I just know that I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around.

Interesting on how the Flying Graysons were knocked off...very Bruce Waynish.

I didn't get that feeling at all. Sure, Batman was obviously eying him as a protege, but he seemed as surprised as everyone else that the Grayson's were murdered.

Well number 2 was much better. Batman is borderline psychotic. I think I'll give it one or two more issues for Robin's sake.

Funny to see Lee emulating Miller to such a huge extent. Jim Lee doing a 16 panel grid. Hahaha.

That's what I was afraid of. I'm not interested in a psycho Batman. Been there, done that.

I was a little underwhelmed, but thought it was okay. I'll give it another issue. I wish Vicki had been a little less exposed, my 6 year old was interested in reading it but I didn't feel comfortable.

True that A.f.b. How many pages did she spend half-naked with shirtless Alfred?

I had to do a double take, cuz usually in comics no matter what happens a butler's uniform must remain perfectly pressed and immaculate.

When DK2 was announced, I knew there was no way it could live up to the nearly 20 year hype and expectations. So when it came out, although it was far from my favorite comic ever, I was able to appreciate it, and I respected that Miller went a different direction, bucking expectations.

But I really thought All Star Batman and Robin couldn't miss. I didn't think there was any possible way it could turn out to disappoint me as much as it has.

I really, really dislike this book.

I like Sin City, but it seems like Miller is losing his ability to write dialogue for anything else. Batman sounds like Marv or something. Miller saying this takes place in the "same universe" as Year One, makes me really wonder if he's ever reread his own work over the past couple decades.

I'll give them 2 more issues to show me I don't know what I'm talking about.

It's been really underwhelming, hasn't it? I decided that I'm dropping this as soon as All-Star Superman hits so I guess that's one more issue.

I don't think I really liked miller's stuff anyways. Well maybe Daredevil out of any of it i liked. Well Morrison can't miss with me anyways so bye-bye frank hello grant in Novemember.