I typically don’t read comic reviews unless I’ve already read the book or have no intention of reading it. I try to go into every book without any third party notions in my head - it’s loud enough up there without the rest of you chiming in. But I made an exception in the case of the ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN premier. How could I not when everyone as an opinion on this thing? I have yet to see one book generate so much interest across the comic blogosphere. Several of you have posted multiple times on various aspects of the book – I think Mark Fossen is starting a separate blog dedicated solely to that one issue. (Kidding Mark.)
My personal expectations for this book started out low and were further lowered by all the negative reviews. When I actually got around to reading it I thought it was just sorta okay. Not horrible, not great, certainly not deserving of the hype or as the launch of yet another Batman book, but equally, not the incoherent paste up of random scrawlings some have made it out to be. Truth is, I actually like Jim Lee’s art here – setting aside the gratuitous Vicki Vale stuff. The problems are with what I presume to be Miller’s work. There’s an old saying, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Miller is clearly down to hammers. And when they strike everything looks like a hard-boiled crime drama, complete with tough dames, bad cops and the anti-hero. That MO has served him well with SIN CITY and some of his earlier Batman work, but doesn’t really get off the ground here. Maybe it’s all those wasted panels spent on Vicki Vale or the dialog that seems to be just off the mark or perhaps Lee’s art, which has such a current vibe to it, is unable to truly support the sense of history a story like this requires. Or maybe we’ve all had enough of Miller’s “Dark Knight”. I guess in my case not quite enough because I plan to read a few more issues of this. I figure it's bound to improve.
All the chatter prompted me to do something I rarely do: read the book twice within a few days. I usually give a book at least a few weeks prior to a reread but I went back to this one more quickly to try and see what I was or wasn’t seeing. Here’s a few random thoughts on the book, most of which I wouldn’t have had without the reread:
The logo on the cover sucks. Someone else mentioned this as well (can’t remember who) and they were right. Horrible.
Most of the book is fairly era-neutral, but the video-phone in Vicki’s apartment seems out of place, and her language (“This crate’s got game”) is a tad too modern cool.
I realize Miller has a fetish for tweaking the old myths but was it really necessary to have Dick’s parents shot rather falling to their deaths? I can’t discern any gain from this change beyond Miller getting some cheap thrill out of thumbing his nose at the history buffs.
What happened to the requisite “Now where did Bruce go?” reaction from VV? Or was that too cliché?
Yeah, Bruce’s following of Dick’s “career” is a bit creepy. Who else has he had his eye on?
“Soldier”...Hmmm, I guess we’ll see where this takes us…
Comments