I just got done reading Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder issues one through nine. On one hand, I want to say that Frank Miller has no business touching Batman again, but then I remember the good times with Year One and the Dark Knight Returns... But then there was the bad with the Dark Knight Strikes Back (which I'd say is easily the worst comic I have ever read). So what's so bad about All Star Batman? Well, it's not necessarily bad, it's just that Frank Miller writes everyone as the biggest bunch of assholes to ever have employed word balloons. This is not canonical Batman. In All Star Batman, Batman is a sadistic jerk who basically abuses Robin both mentally and physically. It's rather grotesque. And the Joker? He was in an issue, but instead of being either a gleeful funster or a lovable psycho, he's just a straight up rip-off of the main villain from the movie Red Dragon, tattoo and all.
My issues with the story and characterization aside (although it was funny for a while to see Batman paint himself yellow when dealing with the Green Lantern), the art by Jim Lee is characteristically astounding. Jim Lee may just draw my favorite version of Batman ever in All Star Batman. Although I haven't read Hush in a while, All Star Batman somehow seems like it's more consistent. I almost feel guilty for saying that I like Jim Lee's art and that that's somehow gauche (like liking Todd McFarlane), but the fact is that it is stunning work. On that point, I have no contention with All Star Batman.
That aside, I think I'd like to recapitulate an idea I heard a while ago that will make your life as a geek far more sane and friendly. The idea is simple: Make your own canon. You needn't be concerned with what DC considers official canon and how this and that work together to get x, y, and z. You, as the surveyor of all of this content, are responsible for stitching together your own canon to find something that suits you and how you see these various universes. Let's use Star Wars as an example since everyone seems to have an opinion on that.
Episodes IV, V, and VI are the original trilogy. Most geeks would sustain the idea that Episodes I, II, and III were absolute horseshit. I am of this school of thought as well, but I take it one step further. In my Star Wars universe, the only thing that matters are the first three movies in their original forms. All of the novels that Kevin J. Anderson or whoever penned and all of this bullshit Battle for Endor stuff doesn't exist in my Star Wars universe and I'm happier for it. Sure, I can enjoy Knights of the Old Republic a great deal, and it does feel like Star Wars to me, but ultimately in the grand scheme of things, it's only the original trilogy that counts.
Now let's get back to Batman. To me, the real origin stories and mannerisms of many of Batman's Rogues Gallery and the like come from Bruce Timm's Batman the Animated Series. It's not just because I watched that as a kid, it's because I think that the Animated Series artfully tells the stories of many aspects of the Batman universe in a cogent and masterful way. What the Animated Series did with Mr. Freeze is irreversible -- they actually made him a good Batman villain, and one you care about to no less! Bruce Timm's fantastic art is also how I visualize many of Batman's nemesi. And let's not forget that it's the Animated Series that brought us Harley Quinn...
So in my own personal Batman universe, Kevin Conroy is the true voice of the bat and Bruce Wayne. To me, Mark Hamil's cackles as the Joker are nothing less than perfect. It's not to say that I don't accept other Batman universes or that I can't live with them simultaneously. I love what Christopher Nolan has done with Batman. From the bottom of my geeky little heart, I really do. The Dark Knight just gets better and better every time I see it. And Heath Ledger's joker? Brilliant. Jack Nicholson's? Also brilliant. They're two extreme takes on a delightful character, but when I personally imagine Batman and his escapades, it's the Animated Series that usually prevails.
So when I read All Star Batman, I don't necessarily get too angry. It's just another version of Batman. I may not agree with Frank Miller's sick little joke, but I can easily put it aside. It's not for me. Maybe in Frank Miller's own personal Batman canon, Batman is a psychotic dick that will happily hit kids and thinks that everyone that's not him is a gigantic idiot. Or maybe I'm just not old enough to be that bitter yet...
My issues with the story and characterization aside (although it was funny for a while to see Batman paint himself yellow when dealing with the Green Lantern), the art by Jim Lee is characteristically astounding. Jim Lee may just draw my favorite version of Batman ever in All Star Batman. Although I haven't read Hush in a while, All Star Batman somehow seems like it's more consistent. I almost feel guilty for saying that I like Jim Lee's art and that that's somehow gauche (like liking Todd McFarlane), but the fact is that it is stunning work. On that point, I have no contention with All Star Batman.
That aside, I think I'd like to recapitulate an idea I heard a while ago that will make your life as a geek far more sane and friendly. The idea is simple: Make your own canon. You needn't be concerned with what DC considers official canon and how this and that work together to get x, y, and z. You, as the surveyor of all of this content, are responsible for stitching together your own canon to find something that suits you and how you see these various universes. Let's use Star Wars as an example since everyone seems to have an opinion on that.
Episodes IV, V, and VI are the original trilogy. Most geeks would sustain the idea that Episodes I, II, and III were absolute horseshit. I am of this school of thought as well, but I take it one step further. In my Star Wars universe, the only thing that matters are the first three movies in their original forms. All of the novels that Kevin J. Anderson or whoever penned and all of this bullshit Battle for Endor stuff doesn't exist in my Star Wars universe and I'm happier for it. Sure, I can enjoy Knights of the Old Republic a great deal, and it does feel like Star Wars to me, but ultimately in the grand scheme of things, it's only the original trilogy that counts.
Now let's get back to Batman. To me, the real origin stories and mannerisms of many of Batman's Rogues Gallery and the like come from Bruce Timm's Batman the Animated Series. It's not just because I watched that as a kid, it's because I think that the Animated Series artfully tells the stories of many aspects of the Batman universe in a cogent and masterful way. What the Animated Series did with Mr. Freeze is irreversible -- they actually made him a good Batman villain, and one you care about to no less! Bruce Timm's fantastic art is also how I visualize many of Batman's nemesi. And let's not forget that it's the Animated Series that brought us Harley Quinn...
So in my own personal Batman universe, Kevin Conroy is the true voice of the bat and Bruce Wayne. To me, Mark Hamil's cackles as the Joker are nothing less than perfect. It's not to say that I don't accept other Batman universes or that I can't live with them simultaneously. I love what Christopher Nolan has done with Batman. From the bottom of my geeky little heart, I really do. The Dark Knight just gets better and better every time I see it. And Heath Ledger's joker? Brilliant. Jack Nicholson's? Also brilliant. They're two extreme takes on a delightful character, but when I personally imagine Batman and his escapades, it's the Animated Series that usually prevails.
So when I read All Star Batman, I don't necessarily get too angry. It's just another version of Batman. I may not agree with Frank Miller's sick little joke, but I can easily put it aside. It's not for me. Maybe in Frank Miller's own personal Batman canon, Batman is a psychotic dick that will happily hit kids and thinks that everyone that's not him is a gigantic idiot. Or maybe I'm just not old enough to be that bitter yet...
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