I’m still
trying to erase Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder from my
memory. Fortunately, despite the similar title, this title has nothing to do
with that. All Star Batman
Now, a quick
proviso on writer Scott Snyder. He has a lot of well-acclaimed work and most of
it is well-deserved but… I think he might be a tad overrated. His Court of Owls
work is fantastic and his run with Dick Grayson’s Batman is second to none. But
then I have to look at the previously reviewed Batman Annual #1 (plug) and his
two Joker arcs, neither of which are that great in my opinion. Not horrible,
just not great. I honestly think Snyder is at his best dealing with villains
that don’t have a tonne of backstory and character. He can remodel lesser
villains but when dealing with the mainstream villains, and yes I’m counting
Mr Freeze, his work is less than stellar.
So, yes, it
does worry me that his first arc is focused on Two-Face, one of the more
high-profile Batman villains. Plus, this title promises to be a villain palooza
with villains being chucked in left and right. Batman: Eternal had this but it
was a 52-issue mini-series with a number of different writers, this is a
5-issue arc.
John Romita
Jr does the artwork for this series. Whilst I do like the artwork of Greg Capullo
in Scott’s previous Batman run, John Romita Jr did some great work back during
his Dick Grayson run, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he has up his
sleeve.
All Star
Batman is longer than most of DC comics’ offerings and sports a $4.99 price
tag, nearly double what DC is offering for everything else. Padding it out is
backup feature. I’ll cover the backup story separately as part of the review
but I’ll be judging each issue as a whole when I come to scores.
#1 opens at
Auggie Macs Diner where there’s a black and white shot for no reason (get used to these). It’s all
fine and dandy until Firefly and oh Killer Moth, what have they done to you?
Anyway, until they crash Batman through the window. Firefly threatens to kill
everyone in diner if Batman doesn’t reveal where ‘he’ is. Batman wraps
Firefly’s gun in his cape and burns him somehow. He easily defeats Killer Moth.
Some of the
patrons tell Batman they shouldn’t have taken ‘him’ out of Gotham, Batman is
dragged outside by 2 metal arms. 22
minutes ago there’s a pointless scene with Batman with a guy in a white hood with
only one, red eye visible. Since it’s revealed who it is in the next scene I’ll
tell you it’s Two Face and he thinks Batman threw his coin away.
2 hours ago,
Batman talks with Gordon after Two Face was caught after making Gotham’s
rainwater acidic or something. A story I would like to read for the record.
They caught him but they did it thanks to the help of several crime bosses.
They could throw him in Arkham but since he has something on everyone, it won’t
last. Duke is in this scene too, I can’t even remember what he goes by.
The Harvey
personality of Two Face tells Bruce via recorded message that they need to take
him to the ‘house’ and burn out his Two Face personality once and for all.
Question, is Two Face’s personality usually like this? From what I understand
they’re at least usually aware of what each other’s doing so there’s no way
Harvey could’ve sent this without Two Face knowing. Of course Snyder will proceed to rewrite everything we know about Two Face's character to suit the whims of the story.
We cut to 20
minutes ago… Much like that other title whose name I shan’t mention, the
time-line can get a little overwhelming. Is it really all that necessary to
jump around like this? We could’ve done this straight and linear without an
issue. Anyway, Two Face and Batman continue talking. As Harvey Dent, he put
mechanisms in to track criminal behaviour, apparently and now as Two Face, he’s
exploiting them to squeeze crime bosses and make crime easier for normal people,
leading to crime rises every time he’s in town.
Anyway, the
news decides to be complete dipsh*ts and broadcast a message from Two-Face to
the entire state. A warning that if he makes it to the house, all the dirt he
has will be unleashed, and a reward for his rescue being the funds from the 3
biggest Gotham crime lords. Alfred detects an incoming projectile, they’re
cloaked so that shouldn’t happen but someone has the codes.
Back to the
present and Black Spider is revealed to be the guy with the Doc Ock claws, he shoots
at what he thinks is Batman but turns out to be some wood and Batman uses a
chainsaw he got from the plot convenience fairy to detach his doc ock arms.
Firefly comes back but upon seeing Batman’s growly face, he runs off.
He heads to
the crashed bat-plane but finds Two Face is missing. The chef from the bar
thanks him, then apologises as she and several others draw guns on him.
Including some police by the looks of things. One of the shoots Batman in the
back but Batman shrugs that off and drags Dent down, he wakes up as Batman has
dragged him into a truck. Two Face warns that everyone’s coming for him, good
guys wanting to be bad, bad guys wanting to be worse and he’s sure Cobblepot
will send someone out for them.
Batman tells
Alfred he’s cutting communication as someone close must be in on this to get
the codes to shoot down the Batplane. It’s revealed that Alfred and NO! NO! YOU
DO NOT PULL THIS KIND OF CR*P. Go sit in the corner comic!
Batman
tosses the coin out the window and we conclude seeing an armed Gentleman Ghost
is holding onto the back.
#2 starts 2
days from now. Are you f*cking kidding me with this sh*t, by setting it two
days from now, you’re insuring that this entire sequence has no bearing on the
plot at all. So it’s pointless. Anyway, Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon are about
to make a move on Wayne Manor, Dent has dirt on them too, but first they need
to work out what filter they want to use.
Back in the
Present Killer Croc has arrived to try and take Two Face, he’s brought King Shark
as his muscle (for some reason) and he (again, for some reason) has brought
Amygdala as his muscle. Batman fires some smoke stuff at Killer Shark so he and
Amygdala are knocked off the train. Thank you for their wasted cameos. Croc is
using a log as a weapon (for some reason) so Batman uses a Batarang thing to
make sure he doesn’t let go as the train heads through the tunnel.
But if you
think it’s over, nope, as Cheshire and Copperhead (making her debut since Arkham
Origins) arrive, and use their trademark poisons on Batman. Batman ropes he and
Harvey together, then poisons Harvey too and blows the carriages of the train,
then dives over into the river below with Two Face in tow.
We cut to 20
hours ago where Cobblepot (looking noticeably pastier than normal), Great White
and Black Mask, talk to a retired Mr Knyazev aka KG Beast, or The Beast in this
comic for some reason. His face is kept hidden for some reason. He’s a very
expensive contract killer that the three had to band together to hire. He
accepts under the condition that he can be loud about it, as most of his other
jobs have needed to be covert. They accept.
We cut to
the batcave, also 20 hours ago. We find out how this comic is interpreting Two
Face in a scene which doesn’t have Two Face in it. Indeed we find out that
contrary to previous depictions of the character I’m familiar. Harvey and Two
Face are not aware of each other’s actions. Also, he knows Bruce is Batman. Duke
notices something in some chemical compound and knows Bruce is walking into a
trap and heads off to stop him.
Batman and
Two Face emerge on the shore but some corrupt cops find them and knock Batman
out. We see a Flashback of Bruce giving Harvey back his coin. I’ll admit the
alternate art style looks very good. Batman awakens a truck handcuffed to the
wall. One of the cops tosses the coin and it lands bad side up, he thinks that
means Batman dies but because he had the gall to guess Two Face, he’s the one
that dies instead. Before long though KG Beast arrives to shoot up the van.
#3 opens
‘then’ where Harvey and Bruce as children are talking. We cut to now, where
KG Beast kills off all the corrupt cops as the narration tells us what his
abilities are. Batman tackles him with his Bat knucks and the background more
or less disappears for a few shots. Two Face tries to shoot him but gets some
shurikens in the eye for his trouble. Before KGBeast can finish the job, Duke
arrives and runs him down. They get in and escape. They Royal Flush gang arrive
but KG Beast blows up they’re flying card and kills them.
Black Mask,
the Penguin and Great White are worried about recent events, they can’t even
pay him what they promised. Two idiots tease the Penguin because they don’t
recognise one of Gotham’s most notorious crime lords, they get burnt alive for
their troubles. They drive to a famous Batcave where Harold, professional
gadget manufacturer and medic and mute patches them up. I guess he has some kind
of computer talk for him or something.
Duke tells
Bruce that Gordon thinks a file’s about to decrypt that links Bruce Wayne to
Batman. He also sees that the cure Harvey was working on contains an ingredient
used in joker antidote that never took. Bruce insists on keeping going. He
explains to Duke about his past. After his parent’s death, there was a time
where he was thinking of nothing but killing them, so Alfred sent him to summer
camp and that’s where he met Harvey. Harvey was the son of an abusive father.
One night, he surprised his father, tied him up and left him there for days so
the law sent him to that camp… WHAT?
OK, first
off, I know it’s terrible that Dent had an abusive father but if the law did
see it in his father’s favour, summer camp is a bit of a slap on the wrist,
isn’t it? Also, how does someone with that substantial a black mark on their
criminal record end up becoming DA!
20 minutes
later Duke and Batman are piloting a jet ski through the tunnel, the reflectors
in the tunnel look a bit like eyes in the dark (hint hint) and they’re pretty
old so guess who show up next. It’s the Court of Owls, straight from being
pretty much completely wiped out over in Nightwing. Two Face says he
sugar-coated the story a little and suggests that maybe the cure is about
turning all of him Two Face, they’re both inside each other after all. He ends
the issue by pouring acid into Batman’s visor.
We open at a
house where someone is screaming for help, it’s clearly been a while and finds
his nails have grown through his skin. I could make a guess what this is
supposed to be but it’s not covered again making this scene...
The acid
begins pouring through Batman’s visor and affecting his eyes, but Batman
manages to knock them back with things in his chest plate. The talons attack
but Batman has a plan. He and Duke activate speakers so they can use
echo-location in the fight. Batman also has those things in his gloves and he
uses them to stun the talons so he can fight. Two Face floods the tunnel and Duke’s
visor is cracked. Two Face escapes but Batman tells Duke to load up his music
and exploit the weakness of the Talons’ ears. They manage to knock Two Face out
again. Batman comments about how “Rock and Roll will never die” is that… is
that a reference to Batman: Fortunate Son and his infamous hatred of Rock and
Roll in that book? OK, you get one point
There’s an
airport nearby with a biplane they can use, Batman should be able to see by the
time they need to land. Good luck surviving the flight! In a flashback, Harvey
has received something in a mysterious package whilst they were at summer camp.
Bruce
explains to Duke that at the camp they made a pact. Bruce would kill Harvey’s
father if Harvey killed Joe Chill but the arrival of that package, a melted
down and reformed coin convinced Harvey to give his father another chance
despite all the misgivings. KG Beast lands on the plane, having jumped from
another and knocks Batman out, again…
They’re
taken to a casino where KG Beast tells Batman he plans to take him to his
private island and use him as hunting practice. The trio of big bads arrive and
reveal that Harvey had used them as a backup plan and placed a tracker in Two
Face. You realise that makes no sense right. I can’t imagine you didn’t realise
Two Face could pull off this plan, giving people who have ample reason to stop
the journey succeeding the tools to do so is f*cking stupid!
Suddenly the
building is blown open, KG Beast protects his employers, Batman and Duke escape
and free Two Face but it turns out the attacks are just ordinary people.
OK, let’s
move onto the backup features, featuring artwork from Declan Shavley in what looks
to be his first at DC
#1 opens
with Batman and Duke breaking into a fabrics warehouse and finding several dead
bodies, they all have cuts on them, a torture style known as stilling. Zsasz’s
handiwork. OK, question, isn’t Zsasz purportedly obsessed with killing people
and making a mark for each death? Why would he leave his victims in a state
they may be able to survive?
2 days
earlier, Duke is looking at “The cursed wheel” a condensed version of every
part of his training, that will help shape whether he’ll become a hero or a
villain. Duke questions if he means Jason but no, he means someone else.
OK… Anyway, there are various colours in
the wheel that represent characteristics his allies tend to favour. Nightwing
Blue, Barbara Purple, Damian Green, presumably Jason Red and Tim…I have no
clue, bets on Duke being yellow given his costume? Black is about evil or
something. Anyway, they find one living victim begging for death.
#2 opens at
a mental hospital. Duke is talking to his mother who was affected by Joker
toxin or something. He tells her about who she was but she’s completely lost it
and insults him saying she’s disappointed, calling him a rotten nothing and
even breaking the glass.
Batman tells
Duke that Zsasz saves his most painful tortures for the ones that survive. One
of the victims had even more painful cuts and was likely the intended target.
Alfred is checking the database to verify and is also checking up on the woman
they found alive. They head to the house of Ms. Boone to check for evidence.
Most of the others in the warehouse were under investigation from transporting
drugs. They split up and Duke finds a photo, which reminds him of his own
family. He deduces that Ms. Boone was actually the intended target, given how
she was pleading for death. Alfred’s checks had verified this.
Batman says
it’s probably a bad idea to bring his parents to the grounds now. He’ll move
them to Gotham Pres. But he thinks they’ll be disruptive to his journey to
finding out what kind of hero he’ll become. As Batman leaves, Zsasz reveals
himself and attacks.
#3 opens
with a flashback. Duke’s mother’s home from jury duty or something. Duke asks
about the case, the trial of a boy accused of murdering over a dozen people.
She eventually tells him he was innocent and gets him to bed.
In the
present Duke wakes up. Want to know how he escaped that? F*ck knows. Bruce
tells him that on the night, Rita Noles, the victim with the painful death was
wearing clothes made from the coral Ms. Boone had used, so it was likely just
luck that Zsasz mistook her for his survivor. Duke isn’t convinced and heads
out. He realises Ms. Boone wasn’t wearing the coral clothes she’d usually wear,
she must’ve known something.
Back in the flashback, Duke’s mother reveals that actually the boy was found guilty and she
knew it, she just didn’t want him to think that way.
#4 opens
with Duke confronting Ms Boone. She’d changed her name and face to try and
throw Zsasz off her tail and had made contact with him to aim him at her
competition, but he arrived early and likely knew who she was. Zsasz attacks,
slashing into Ms Boone but Duke knocks him out the window, with Duke hanging on
by a thread, he’s rescued by Batman.
Back at the
mental hospital, Bruce tells Duke that Two Face is in town and he was likely
the medium between Ms Boone and Zsasz. Duke says he doesn’t want his parents
moved and the reason is kinda head scratching. And it’s really why I’m not a
fan of how Snyder portrays the Joker. Batman believes Joker to be pure evil
whilst Duke says he just attacks what he loves and by that twisted logic any
time his parents insult him they’re actually showing their love for him. He
asks what’s next in the training.
OK, so that
was All-Star Batman #1-4, what did I think, let’s take a closer look.
For the main
feature, I like idea conceptionally and I honestly most characters’ voices are
well-captured. However, and this is a big problem, this story is insanely
rushed. Plot points are introduced and dropped ad-nauseum. What happened to the
Gentleman Ghost? How did they lose the truck and end up on a train? How do
these villains, who are not all working for the crime lord trio, keep finding
them? What about Gordon storming Wayne Manor? What about Alfred’s betrayal!
Also, you’re not forgiven for that. One character you don’t mess with is
Alfred!
This story
is ripe for a much longer run, featuring villains from across the DC universe,
maybe the occasional team-up and a lot of fun action. As it is the action
scenes seem non-stop. Yeah, there are brief character moments but usually it
sums to the gaps between them getting a vehicle and getting attacked again.
They are cramming a lot into 4 issues and it massively hurts the story Snyder’s
trying to tell.
In art, John
Romita Jr does a good job, there are 2 points I wish to raise. One, the design
of Black Mask is one of the worst I’ve ever seen for the character and 2, the
black and white bookmarks are incredibly obnoxious.
With the
co-feature, I can be far more positive as the story is largely well told and
appropriate for the length. It’s a nice character study for Duke and sets up
some strings for things to happen later down the line. Zsasz was probably the
best handled villain in the entire run. And the artwork is also pretty
serviceable.
Ratings
#1 5/10 (for
the record, this would’ve been 7 without the Alfred betrayal)
#2 6.5/10
#3 6.5/10
#4 6.5/10
Overall – 6.125/10
Recommendation – I honestly do plan to
drop this comic, I’m not enjoying it as much as I’d hope to for something with
Scott Snyder’s name on it and there are 2 better Batman titles I could be
spending my money on.
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