Book Review #32: All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder

All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder (2005)

Written by Frank Miller

Pencils by Jim Lee

Inks by Scott Williams

Colors by Alex Sinclair

There is a lot of derision when it comes to All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder for a couple of reasons. Most people either hate this or love it. I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. The reason why most hate it is that Frank Miller, for whatever reason chose to make Batman nothing short of a Blood thirsty, psychopath, hellbent on inflicting as much pain as possible against his enemies. But the thing that rubbed most people the wrong way is that he seemed to be getting off on all the carnage he was dishing out.

This goes against everything that Batman/Bruce Wayne stands for. It's so completely out of character. Now, usually something like this where a character starts acting against the norm can be attributed to brainwashing, alien infection or any other influences brought on by one of many Batman Villains. But here, it's him and him alone acting of his own volition.

The other thing that tends to bring comic book fans to a boil is that the book just....ends. There is no resolution to the story. After 9 issues, it just stops. Even though it has been announced that the book itself will be morphing into another title called Dark Knight: Boy Wonder for 6 Issues to wrap up the story, it's still a shitty way to treat fans that were following the exploits of Batman.

As for the story itself, it's an origin tale about Dick Greyson, the original "Boy-Wonder" who becomes Robin. Although a lot is said about how Batman is completely off his rocker here and in the way he treats Greyson almost to the point of abuse, I can still find some things about it interesting enough to not completely throw this one away. I just look at it as one of those weird anomalies and chalk it up to a different take on the characters that you would never get elsewhere.

Having said all that, the only saving grace really for the book is of course Jim Lee's stunning artwork. The work he put out for this one is of the highest standard that meets and at times eclipses that of his work on Batman: Hush. Just astonishing to look at.

I can only recommend the book for Jim's art and not much else.

Rating: 3 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1