All Star Batman and Robin

Some thoughts I had about this new title in reponse to a post at Penciljack.

"First I LOVED this book. For those of you complaining that this "isn't the batman that I know and love" well, you're right. This IS DC's Ultimate version of the character. And in a way, goes back to the way he was conceived - a really scary freaky guy that beats up and kills criminals (I'm pretty sure he ripped the crooked cops car in two, which definitely calls his whole "respect for life" thing into question). Furthermore, I thought Jim Lee was in fine form. Maybe his art style isn't to your taste, but you certainly aren't going to be surprised by it. He's been drawing comics for 20 years and that's the style he uses. If you like it, that's what you get. Miller's doing his film noir thing again (Daredevil, DKR, SinCity) so again, no surprises there. And if the storytelling wasn't all that compressed, what can you say? That's what superhero comics do these days. This isn't the Golden or Silver age any more, capiche?
Just to touch on a few other things that I read -
Adam Darwin, you're right. Kind of. Money is the reason to get into mainstream comics if you want to draw or write comics. The "just drawing comics for the love" is horseshit. It's not the $750 a page that magazine illustrators get, but $200 for a days work is nothing to sneeze at. Obviously if all you want is to make money, you become a doctor or a lawyer or go into "actual" business. If you wanna make art comix, no you won't make any money. But if drawing superheroes is your bag, you can make enough to, say, move to Italy and buy a boat.

DannoE, I don't understand where you got confused on the story - Bruce Wayne tells Vicki Vale (a prominent reporter) that she's going to the circus with him, probably as a cover for his escapades as Batman (if she reports in the gossip column that he was her date, he can't be 2 places at once right?). Or maybe just because he finds her attractive and he wants to hook up. While they are there,the parents of Dick Grayson (a talented acrobat he's been "scouting") are murdered and he tracks down the culprit. The boy is a witness to the murder and the local constabulary (who are obviously involved in some way) decide to manipulate the boy into keeping his trap shut. Batman intervenes and drafts the boy into his own personal war on crime.
Seems pretty simple to me....
Then you go off into left field with this one:
Quote:
...this is the kind of book that has the potential to reach fans who are VERY MUCH just casual, occasional comics fans. Done well, this book would rope those fans in and hold them FOREVER. But if done poorly, you'll merely convince those guys that nothing ever changes and that comic movies might be fun, but comics themselve will always be just funny books for kids.

THAT kind of thinking bankrupted Marvel and has nearly destroyed the industry.


1) If you substitute the word "Superhero" for comics when describing the casual fans (kind of an oxymoron, but I digress) you're alludng to, I might let this pass. But a CASUAL COMIC READER would never be "roped in" by ASBMAR. Why? Because it's very much the same as nearly every other superhero comic out there. People get roped in to something and become "fans" of it when they find something personal they can RELATE to and it reflects something in their lfe or their personality. Scott Pilgrim could "rope in" a casual reader, if they could keep finding material in a similar vein (and that material spoke to them). In my opinion, casual comic fans love the medium (the format of comics; sequential illustrated storytelling) but con't really find somehting that appeals to them genre wise OR are reading because they have fond childhood memories and when they pick up a comic realise that it's got adult themes, but still mainly concerns men in tights running around in cities beating each other up.

2) "Comic book movies might be fun, but comic books themselves are just for kids."
Again, which comic books and movies are you referring to? Because ASBMAR doesn't seem too "kid friendly" what with a grown woman prancing around in underwear, two people shot dead, a thug poisoned, police brutality, a car crash (and possible murder of police officers) and a huge grown man forcing a teenage boy into becoming a vigilante. And thematically, this book is more in line with Batman Begins than most of the current crop of "regular universe" Bat books. (Admittedly, I'm not reading them right now, but it's definitely a) a good jumping on point, b) darker in tone than the regular books from what I remember of the Hush story arc (much like the movie) and c) rigt now at least more realistic than the regular universe has been lately, what with all the Identity Crisis stuff going on.) Fantastic Four is an example of a superhero movie that WAS good for kids (well better than Batman Begins or Sin City anyway).

3) The kind of thinking that crashed the market in the nineties wasn't rebooting established characters in a more modern and realistic setting. That was the kind of thinking that revitalised Marvel in fact (the Ultimate line). The kind of thinking that crashed the mainstream North American comics market was a) huge multiple title all encompassing event driven maxi-series and b) alternate covers, amongst other things. Sort of like all the stuff going on with House of M and Infinite Crisis.

If Marvel and DC really want to improve the state of the industry they have to make comics for everyone not just 40 year old adolescents (so like, women and kids!and alternate subject matter than just superheroes!) and make them accessible - lower price point (more bang for your buck) and available everywhere. It's easy math. It just takes guts to potentially bite the hand that feeds you ("comics fandom").

Could you imagine if all Hollywood made were Action movies? You'd only gross $120,000 a movie! Or all people would watch would be foreign films! Marvel and DC better smarten up if they wanna grow the industry...
But they won't and eventually all we'll have is Manga to read because Marvel and DC will go out of business."

What did you think?