All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder has taken as long to produce 10 issues as it took for both of Chris Nolan’s Batman films to come out in theaters. Beginning in 2005, this Frank Miller/Jim Lee book has been nothing but delays and controversies. You’d think a legendary powerhouse teem like that would be setting precidents and positively changing the face of comics as they both have for more than two decades, but despite the incredible artwork, Miller has consistantly made the book, to quote the Toledo Free Press, “unreadable.”

It’s gained a lot of negative press due to Miller’s anti-hero portrayal of Batman, who apparently acts in the opposite spirit of the dark-but-noble hero we all grew up with. This Batman, apparently, unneccesarily beats criminals to a bloody pulp and enjoys every minute of it. This is a guy who should be locked up, not fighting crime, and there should be no question in anyone’s mind about that, unlike the real Batman, who is a vigilante but arguably justified because of the good he does for Gotham.

What’s really gotten Miller in a lot of trouble is the incessant swearing in this book, something fans apparently don’t like seeing in Batman. Here’s the panel that made the series infamous:

Most people agree: he really isn’t the *******ed Batman. He’s insane.

It’s gotten so bad that DC has been censoring the issues by putting black marks straight through the curse words on the page, as if that’ll make fans feel any better. With this amazing artwork and unprecidentedly crude writing (at least, for Batman) by Miller, these marks just make the book look terrible.

Some of you may already know about this, but I wanted to mention it in case any of my readers had missed the news. A couple of weeks ago, issue #10 finally came out, and the editor did such a poor job of blacking out the swearing that you can read right through it. DC “recalled” the book after it went to print and thousands of stores and newsstands had already gotten their hands on it, asking retailers to please destroy every copy. Naturally, few people have complied– I just bought my copy on eBay about an hour ago.

There’s been a lot of talk about DC doing this on purpose to get in the headlines and such. But what I’m really curious about is how such a blunder happens in the first place. Okay, so he’s Frank freaking Miller, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a boss. He works for DC. So why didn’t they just tell him to tone it down? Were they worried they’d lose him? Doesn’t seem like a huge loss when it takes three years to publish ten issues.

And what about that title? Apparently this “All-Star” line is supposed to be a self-contained continuity, outside of the regular DC universe. The idea is that anything goes because it’s its own thing. Fine– I still don’t know why anyone would want to read about a Batman who’s just a dangerous bully with a foul mouth and his own twisted agenda– but whatever. Other people might enjoy that sort of thing, and why should I argue? I don’t have to read it. What’s throwing me is the TITLE! A book called “All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder” sounds like a monthly from the ’70s. No one who hasn’t already heard of the book’s bad reputation is going to pick up that title and expect to see the panel above.

It’s not published with the Comic Code Authority seal, which guaruntees that a book has been censured by the Authority and is suitable for all readers. And it shouldn’t be. But a lot of readers probably don’t know to look for the seal, so they’ll still be surprised. And why publish it as a regular book? Why not make it a Vertigo book? Vertigo is a side-company owned by DC that makes a lot of darker books like Hellblazer and Sandman. It’d be a little weird to see a regular DC character there, but Miller’s writing wouldn’t surprise as many people.

And Frank Miller’s got enough characters in his other continuities acting just like this jerk who’s going around calling himself Batman. Is he really saying anything new or interesting by doing it to a well-established, well-respected character who, let’s not forget, he was responsible for bringing back to his roots in the first place with Year One and Dark Knight Returns?  …That’s what I thought.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

Tags: All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, banned, Batman, DC, Frank Miller, Jim Lee, recalled

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 9:26 am and is filed under Batman, Capt Logan, comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.