When the first issue of Miller and Lee’s “All Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder” dropped, I was surprised by the amount of ill will it generated online. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, and for the life of me, I didn’t fully understand the sheer bile and hatred it garnered. Then the second issue hit the streets, and I wasn’t to sure about it. I figured I’d trust Miller, though I was having my doubts. When the third issue was finally released, I was done. Virtually every argument I’d read and disagreed with about the first issue was in full effect in #3.

With the fourth issue, I’m back on board and looking forward to number five. The only reason I gave the title another chance s because I’d pre-ordered the damn thing months and months ago, or I’d have left it on the rack. As it is, I reluctantly bought it and read the thing. And then I enjoyed watching Miller travel from the realm of genius to the land of utter crap and back around the world where he’s knocking on the door of genius again.

Once you manage to divorce yourself from the idea that this is Batman, a character you grew up reading or watching to the point where you just know when he’s written/portrayed correctly or incorrectly, it’s a surprisingly entertaining read. Everything is exagerrated to a ridiculous degree, as if placed under some sort of bizarre fisheye lens. Miller and Lee give us a Batman who grows stubble over the course of a drive in the Batmobile, blackmails Superman (who can’t yet fly) into literally running across the Atlantic Ocean to get a doctor for Vicki Vale and tries to sound like Clint Eastwood in order to impress a kid whose parents were just murdered. The bit thaat finally sold me on this all-new, all-bizarre Batman is when he tells the just-rescued Dick Grayson that if he wants to eat while in the Batcave, he can kill and munch on a rat. Then he leaves the poor kid alone in the dark.

OK, so maybe “genius” is too strong of a word for B&R:TBW, but if you’re able to divorce yourself from your existing beliefs about who/what Batman is, it becomes a piece of work that actually has some redeemingly entertaining qualities. There’s no concern that this will become the default depiction of the character, so there’s no harm in allowing yourself to enjoy what boils down to a “What If Frank Miller and Jim Lee Created Batman” mini series.

Anyone else still reading the title and come to a similar conclusion?

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