ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN #1 - #4

DC

WRITER: Frank Miller

PENCILS: Jim Lee

INKS: Scott Williams

COVERS: Jim Lee and Frank Miller

This, uh, kinda sucks. I don’t know what happened or why, but somehow pairing Frank Miller and Jim Lee, a team-up that sounded as destined for greatness as Batman and Robin themselves, ended up mixing like milk and blood. I was hoping to follow my usual pattern and wait for a story arc to complete itself before writing a review, but I got so fed up I cancelled my subscription, so all I’m dealing with right now are the first four issues. I’m hoping some kind reader will fill me in on how the story ends, hopefully using language somewhat more readable than Frank Miller’s patented Raymond-Chandler-meets-a-horny-15-year-old-dialogue.

And I like Frank Miller. His Sin City work perfectly updated the world of pulp film noir with a modern streak of depravity and overkill, and stuff like The Dark Knight Returns stands on its own as a master-piece of graphic story-telling. But All Star Batman & Robin, for all its promise, is not Miller at his best, or anywhere near it. The Ultimate, sorry, All Star concept is, in theory, a great one. By removing the All Star line, which at this point includes only this title and All Star Superman, from the continuity of the DC universe, creators are allowed to riff on major characters with complete impunity, playing in a fresh sandbox with old toys. Apparently, however, this lack of restraint has translated to the editors not showing up to work the week the scripts came in, because this title in particular seems a bit of a mess. Here, Miller re-invents the story of Batman and Dick Grayson’s first meeting. Full of violence, needless aggression, and a bizarre interlude in which Black Canary beats a room full of bar patrons to death, the book is all sound and fury, bringing to mind the worse excess of early Image comics mixed with the acidy scenes in Natural Born Killers. Miller is an immensely talented writer, but it seems almost as if he needs someone perpetually watching over his shoulder, making sure he doesn’t turn what he’s working on into a Grand Guignol of cartoonish sensory overload, like Rob Zombie directing an episode of Pee Wee’s Playhouse.

As for Jim Lee, well, he’s Jim Lee. Apparently, Lee lives in a world of Olympian physical perfection, with the men resembling slabs of beef and the women approaching the kind of skinny that would make a skeleton anorexic, with both appearing to have had their clothes painted on. I’m not a huge fan of his work, but I certainly can see the appeal. However, where the book needs a noir-ish feel to accompany the silly, silly dialogue, Lee gives it more of a surreal look. Areas like the Bat Cave closely approximate a Willy Wonka–run Toys R Us, which just adds to the cacophonous feel of the book. Still, the pairing of these two comics superstars, and the characters they’re working with, will no doubt sell a few issues. Which is good, as I would like to see the All Star line survive, if only for the to see the potential inherent in the concept of a uninhibited sandbox of ideas fully explored. It would just be better if the sandbox had some adult supervision.

Alternate Reviews:

All-Star Batman and Robin # 4

All-Star Batman and Robin # 3

ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #2