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

Vince’s Take 

If Batman: The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke had a baby it would be Dark Knight.  Having read both graphic novels I can say it definitely takes after its father; assuming that the father is The Long Halloween.  To my understanding The Killing Joke was supposed to be a major inspiration for the film.  That may be true, but it does show in the plot.

Hands down my favorite part of this movie is the heavy involvement of Harvey Dent.  Not only is Dent a joy to watch, but his involvement in The Long Halloween is heavily drawn upon for the events of the movie while not ruining the events of the thirteen issue comic book.  Good job, writers.  That’s impressive.  Upon hearing of Aaron Eckhart’s involvement I was immediately excited, and having him as a major character in the movie couldn’t have been more satisfying.  Eckhart is every bit as strong of a hero (at least partly *wink wink*) as Bale and Oldman, and is a welcome addition to the team.

Good ‘ol Batsie doesn’t disappoint.  Christian Bale brings the same intensity that we saw in Batman Begins.  I don’t have much to say about his performance because I’ve pretty much accepted that Christian Bale really is Batman.  The emotional pulls in this movie are too great to confirmedly label one character as the heart in the movie, but, in my opinion, it’s Lt. Gordon.  Tragedy and heroism exists win Gordon as a special variety distinct from Gotham’s White Knight and Dark Knight.

As for the Joker, I thought there was only a few moments where the characterization seemed watered down, but that can easily be explained away.  Ledger is chilling and hilarious as the Clown Prince of Crime.  I had my worries that the Joker was going to be too dark to be in keeping with what the Joker was supposed to be: a madman with a demented sense of humor that the audience will judge themselves a little for laughing with.  I must say, I worried for nothing.  They delivered and then some.  Particularly in the laugh, I think there’s even a slight reminiscence of Nicholson’s Joker while allowing Nolan and Ledger to make it their own.

I felt the movie had a little too much action in it.  I found myself asking, “How much can the Joker actually plan in advance?”  I assume his recourses are the same as that of the various crime bosses in town, but still his terrorist acts happen with such frequency I question the feasibility of the events within the time period given versus the Joker’s ability to create those plans and execute them as intended.  And there’s my only major complaint.  I loved this movie, guys.  Do not miss it for your own sake.

Cap’n Logan’s Take

Comic book films are far too often worrying about their audience’s attention spans. They need to knock this off. The difference between Dark Knight and most “seroius” comic book movies is about a half hour. That’s the time that makes the difference between being just an action thriller and a real mind-bender. Dark Knight takes its time– it’s two and a half hours long– and gets to be both.

I can’t think of another comic book movie that has so much story. I haven’t seen a lot of recent movies period whose plot gets nearly this complex. I don’ know anything about the novelization, but it could very easily be written between three and four hundred pages. Despite that many of these are characters we know from the first film and that there are certain things that simply must be done when dealing with the Joker and Two-Face, it’s not predictable. Spider-Man had two and a half villains (yes, I’m counting New Goblin as the half villain) and it couldn’t juggle all of its characters. Joker and Harvey Dent/Two Face are well developed, each have full and logically interconnecting stories, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, Alfred, Lucius Fox, Gordon, and Rachel are still three dimensional characters who grow, change, and matter. As Vince hinted at, this is a film not just about the Joker, as Tim Burton’s film was, and isn’t just about Batman, as Begins very appropriately was– it’s as much about Gordon as it is about anything. We care about him, we applaud for him, and we cry for him. Boy, do we cry for him.

The Dark Knight is an apt title– Nolan couldn’t make a darker film. There are points where the film is almost so depressing it’s no longer entertaining… but that’s only because we have so much invested in these characters, and that’s amazing in one film, since many of those are people we didn’t get to know last time. We don’t want Harvey to become Two-Face. We don’t want Batman to have to make the tough decisions that almost break him.

And the best part– Joker orchestrates all of it. If it weren’t for the incredible complexity of turning Harvey Dent from the most decent man in Gotham, the man who has single-handedly changed things as much as Batman, I’d say Joker didn’t get enough screen time, because he’s so interesting. He’s not interested in money or fame– he just wants to make a point: you can bring the most decent person in the world down in the most unspeakably evil way, and you can do it for very little coin. This is a Joker with actual principles. They’re twisted, but they’re principles, and though he’s a killer and a lier, he never goes against those principles. And the best thing about him is that we never know exactly how he got to be how he is because he keeps telling conflicting back stories about himself. He’s as complex as Batman, very much his opposite, and though he’s a mystery, he’s multi-layered and we can tell that if we knew what really happened to him, we’d probably feel a little sorry for him.

Problems? I’m the only person on the Internet who’s probably saying this, but I liked Katie Holmes and I missed her. Rachel looked a lot older and I kept having to remind myself it was the same character. Not a problem with the writing, but this was not the continuity to change an actress with such a pivotal role. I would have liked more original scoring– I expected themes from Begins to come up, but I had hoped at least Joker woud get his own melody. I didn’t like that the one trade-off for Batman’s new costume was that it would be more vulnerable to gun fire and knife wounds. It seemed like a plot contrivance so Joker would be more of a match for him. And I really would have liked Wayne and Dent to have already been friends before the film began, because, while the film did develop that aspect enough for us to buy it when Dent is destroyed and then corrupted, it could have been that much more bittersweet for Batman.

And the saddest thing of all is after layers upon layers of real substance, as the movie proves, even more than Iron Man, the real validity a comic book film can have (a point made by Roger Ebert), after Batman and the Joker build that real comic book rivalry, and after Joker gets the incredible line, “You and I are destined to do this forever…” we’ll never get to see him again.