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Location: Home > Dog Books > Batman > All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Vol. 1

All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Vol. 1

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Author: Frank Miller
Creator: Jim Lee
Publisher: DC Comics
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$24.99~~
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Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

46 reviews
Sales Rank: 66673

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.5 x 6.9 x 0.6

ISBN: 1401216811
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781401216818
ASIN: 1401216811

Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 46

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Frank Miller is overrated!!!! December 29, 2008
As you can tell by the title, I'm not a huge fan of Frank Miller. However, I am a fan of Batman. Frank Miller to me is the Howard Stern of writing. Never much talent. just a lot of shock thrown in to keep your attention. This story had potential but never produced. It spent WAY too much time building up to the last page that could have been covered 3 or 4 issues quicker.By then you don't even care enough about the characters to feel their pain. We start off the story with Bruce Wayne certain that Dick Grayson was the one to carry on the mantle. Then the rest of the book had him treating the kid like he was scum. Bruce Wayne/Batman should be conflicted, not insane. There was nothing in this story that showed Batman as being any better than the corrupt cops he hated so much!!

The book gets 3 stars for Jim Lee. Otherwise,don't bother.

4 out of 5 stars

For people who can think outside the box December 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Frank Miller has done it again...he's given us something bold, exciting, satirical, silly, maddening, and defining all at once, and has PO'd anyone who can't see past their own myopic and stodgy views of the source material, wnich is most everyone. I am thankful that there are writers and artists willing to take great chances to express their vision, even if we don't like it or get it. I, myself, like where he's going and I'm looking forward to the conclusion. Though I'm not looking forward to the same, tired vitriol from the peanut gallery.

4 out of 5 stars

Great series, but with a few drawbacks. November 27, 2008
Sure, Batman acts like a complete jerk in this, and it does feel a little more like Sin City than Batman. Granted. But if you can set aside your bias against a slightly crazy Batman, this series has a TON to offer. Jim Lee's art alone makes it worth staring at for hours (best art of his career, I think... BETTER than Hush). On top of that, issue 9 is one of the best Batman/Robin stories EVER (up there with Death in the Family). His interactions with Green Lantern are classic, and that Sin City edge actually fits very nicely in the Gotham Universe when it isn't overdone.

I think there are only two things that I can legitimately complain about in this series: (1)Overuse of repetition... it can really get annoying when every other word in the sentence is "goddamn", and (2)yeah, Batman is an a-hole, which is only slightly redeemed by the fact that he has very well written personal struggles and issues throughout.

Overall, a great series with a few drawbacks, highly recommended.

2 out of 5 stars

What's the goddamn point? November 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The "All-Star" concept seems infallible on paper: bring together the most celebrated artists and writers together on an out-of-continuity title, allowing them carte blanche to loose their creativity. "All-Star Superman" was a shining example of how well this can work. Bringing Frank Miller and Jim Lee together for "All-Star Batman and Robin" should have repeated this success. SHOULD have...

Set sometime after Miller's seminal "Year One" storyline, this collection tells of Batman's adoption of Robin as his side-kick and ward. It should have been an ideal opportunity to explore grief, revenge and loss through the darkened lens of Miller's noir sensibilities. Instead, we have a flat retelling of the Robin origin that can't seem to give credence to its own style.

All too often attention is drawn to the fact that Batman's "Clint Eastwood impression" of a voice is ridiculous, that "The Batmobile" is a stupid name for a vehicle, that calling Dick Grayson his "ward" smacks of paedophilia - making us question whether Miller can even take himself seriously these days, let alone his subject matter.

Then there are the pointless appearances by the Justice League, the Black Canary and Batgirl - all of whom are given one-dimensional personalities and serve no other purpose than letting Miller poke fun at superheroes. A similar treatment is given to Vicki Vale whose sole purpose seems to be to parade around in her underwear until she can be hideously injured in a car accident.

Poor Jim Lee, who has to spend agonising hours illustrating this nonsense.

5 out of 5 stars

Insane and Wildly Entertaining November 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book is absolutely insane, and I loved it!

What we have here is a Batman story free of any previous or current continuity. Writer Frank Miller is taking Batman and starting his story from scratch. (Or is he? More on that later.)

The Batman in this storyline is testosterone fueled, immature, and more than a little nutty. Miller takes him so over the top that I really and truly hope the writer is poking fun at his previous incarnations of the characters and his previous, ultraviolent works such as Sin City and 300. The fact that both Batman and most other characters in the book refer to him as "the g--d--n Batman" can only lead me to believe Miller didn't want us taking this too seriously.

However, Miller is also proving a point. We'd always heard that Batman needed a Robin to take the edge off the man--to bring him back to humanity. However, as a Batman fan of over twenty-five years, I'd never really seen an incarnation of the character that had him in DIRE need of a humanizing sidekick. That is, until now. Miller's All-Star Batman is a whack-job, and it's only through his dealings with Dick Grayson that he slowly begins to realize he's turned into a monster. Despite all the sex and violence in the book, Miller actually does a wonderful job evolving Batman's character--there is real character development taking place that is rarely seen in the comic book medium.

And because this is an all-star title, the artist must be as equally as big a star--enter Jim Lee. Jim Lee has always been a mesmerizing artist, but he truly outdoes himself with All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. His figures look amazing--as always--but the settings are what really blew me away. His attention to detail is nearly genius-level, and I found myself studying every building in the skyline, every poster on the wall, every tread on a tire. He is absolutely astonishing.

So while I'm glad this book isn't the definitive and mainstream interpretation of the character, I am so glad we have this Batman as well. I couldn't put the book down. It was ludicrously fun and breathtaking to look at and had me addicted within the first few minutes of reading it.

Now, if you'll allow me a slight digression: Does anyone else think this is a prequel of sorts to The Dark Knight Returns? As I started reading it, I noticed some thematic links between All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder and The Dark Knight Returns, as well as The Dark Knight Strikes Again. This is nothing unusual with writers, many of them tend to have certain passions that they return to (consciously or not) in their work.

However, as I continued reading, things began to seem like more than just coincidence. For example, in the huge spread from Episode 4, doesn't that look like the Dark Knight Returns Batmobile being built? Also, we clearly see the cover to The Dark Knight Returns collected edition as a poster on Barbara Gordon's wall in Episode 6. The Wonder Woman design in Episode 5 is very similar to the Wonder Woman in The Dark Knight Strikes Again, as his her basic personality and attraction to Superman. I would also argue that Superman, Plastic Man, Green Lantern, and Jim Gordon all seem tonally the same as they are in The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

But, the real cinchers for me occurred first in Episode 8 where the Joker's henchwoman was the same lady with the swastikas covering her nipples (wow, there's a sentence I never thought I'd construct) as from The Dark Knight Returns: Book Three.

And then, the big one--the HUGE one--happened in Episode 9 where Batman tells Green Lantern, "Of course we're criminals. We've always been criminals. We have to be criminals." Now compare that to Superman's internal dialogue from The Dark Knight Returns: Book Three, which was written roughly twenty years earlier: "When the noise started from the parents' groups and the subcommittee called us in for questioning - - you were the one who laughed ... that scary laugh of yours ... `Sure we're criminals,' you said. `We've always been criminals. We have to be criminals.'"

In my estimation, it seems Frank Miller is using All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder to build upon his mythos originated in The Dark Knight Returns, and I think that's both incredibly entertaining.

Of course, if I'm right, knowing what we know about the end of The Dark Knight Strikes Again certainly makes his developing relationship with Dick Grayson seem bittersweet.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

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