Reviews

In case anyone was wondering whether I read for relaxation and entertainment anymore, the answer is yes! This collection answers the question, what would happen if Batman had a genetically enhanced, illegitimate son who had been raised by ninjas as part of a plot to take over over the world? Only Grant Morrison could ask such a question and come up with such whirlwind story arc to answer it. The art by Andy Kubert is some of the best I've seen in comics for years. Even though I don't consider myself a Batman fan, I was enthralled every minute.

germancho's review against another edition

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2.0

It's not good. It's Final Crisis bad.

icarys's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thatguitarist7's review against another edition

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Way to many storylines, Damian stops appearing half way trough. The book is basically a collection of mediocre one-shot Batman stories, none of which I found entertaining. The writing is laughable at times. Stopped reading on page 273/446

gohawks's review

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4.0

The storyline for this book was a little more intriguing because it was more about Bruce Wayne than Batman - and the draw here for me is that this is guy without superpowers. Bruce Wayne has.a son, fights falling in love etc. but what puts this one over the top from three and a half to four stars is the art. I like Andy Kubert and always have. Now he is from the school of " why use one line when forty will do", but that has never bothered me. Although I've never had a fascination or affection for Batman like Ive had with Spidey and Supes, he almost always has the best stories.

rhyno0401's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

iffer's review against another edition

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2.0

This wasn't bad, but I just didn't find it very enjoyable. I will admit that this could be that I just didn't "get" what was going on, both because there were likely many references/tie-ins to other Batman comics that I haven't read, and also because I didn't really read meticulously. However, I honestly think that a lot of this was Grant Morrison when he's a hot mess (on some sort of hallucinogen?), not when he's awesome, and since he has a built-in audience, no one raised a hand to ask him what the heck was going on. Most things seemed to come together in the end, but due to the fact that there were multiple "Batmans," and Batman always moves in the shadows, so the art is just dark, I found it confusing to tell who was who, and who was doing what. The flashbacks, flash forwards, hallucinations, etc. also made this unnecessarily confusing. I think it's a shame, because there were some good content/themes and art.

The beginning when Damian appears is entertaining, although he's a huge brat, and I enjoyed Alfred's lip to Master Bruce (as well as the fact that he really wanted to read Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code), but I wasn't interested in the prose section about the Joker's funeral with creepy 3D digital illustrations or the Clue-esque murder mystery involving B-superheroes. I am mentally cutting Morrison some slack with these, since it appears that he's trying to establish a bigger, more complex story.

I know that these are comics, but Talia (general insanity and cartoonish jealously of Bruce's romance) and Damian (totally oblivious to social norms and a complete bart) sometimes seemed too ridiculous to even belong in soap operas or comics, which may have been more obvious because of the seriousness of the themes in the issues.

The artwork was good, but sometimes too information dense for my personal preference.

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