Review: ‘All Star Batman and Robin Vol. 1’

Van Jensen

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book writer. In addition to ComicMix, he contributes to Publishers Weekly and Comic Book Resources. He lives in Atlanta, and his blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

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10 Responses

  1. Alan Coil says:

    All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder is a great book, but not for children nor some adults.In later issues, Batman may be coming to the realization that he is nuts. Look for that aspect to be expanded on by Grant Morrison sometime in the near future.

    • Van Jensen says:

      Is Morrison taking over ASSBAR (whoops, I did it again)? He's been exploring that theme in regular, ol' Batman.

      • Alan Coil says:

        Ooohh. Spooky. I was just being flippant.

        • Alan Coil says:

          Or was I being sardonic? That word came to me this morning. Never been used it before, but it seems to fit!

          • Pink&Deadly says:

            Have you read the first issues of "Batman RIP" by Morrison? It's just as baffling and jarringly out of character as All Star, but nowhere near as funny. Also, it's apparently canon.

  2. Delmo Walters Jr. says:

    This is one of those examples where good art can't save bad writing.

  3. Neil C. says:

    I'm very behind in my reading, so I just read issue 5. The art is beautiful, but the story is still crap. It's like Miller has contempt for all the characters and is showing us that. Wonder Woman being the worst kind of man-hater and calling someone 'Sperm bank'? The only person who struck me as in character was Plastic Man. It reads like a parody of a comic book.

  4. Anonymous says:

    First, this goes against every incarnation of Batman we've seen and degrades the character.Characters can't be degraded. They're not real. If the people who have been given the right to tell stories of the character decide he's going to wear a pink tutu and bugger Comissioner Gordon every issue, then that is what Batman is and does.A lot of us fans need to stop reacting to fictional characters as if they were real. It makes us look like morons to the rest of the world.

    • Russ Rogers says:

      Comics characters aren't just fictional entities. They are bankable commodities. They are brand logos. Publishers need to protect their brands because the comics consumers can have fanatical brand loyalty. So yes, comics characters are as real as your credit rating. Totally made up, it's a fiction, but let's see you bank on them when they get abused. And when Batman buggers Commissioner Gordon, it's Gordy that wears the pink tutu! Batman is not a bottom, that is SO out of character.In the end, who "gives the right" to tell stories about a character. Is it the publisher? No. In the end it's the reader, who is asked to suspend their disbelief for a moment and imagine that this character is real. It's the readers who "give the right." If this depiction of Batman degrades that bond of trust between artist/publisher and reader, that believability [that credit rating], critics have every right to complain.Fact is, we are already morons to the rest of the world. That's part of what makes being a member of this super-secret club so fun!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Personally I agree with Miller in his portrayel of batman as a psycopathic sadist, thats how I always thought batman really is and that writers were just softening him up to try and attract younger readers. And I agree with you that he should propably draw the issues himself, I prefer Frank Millers art over Lee's any day, issues would propably com out faster as well, in fact I hear that they are rebranding it as Dark Knight: Boy Wonder and it will run for 6-issues. I dont know if it will start over or if they are just going to continue the series for the remaining issues.