Ian Brill on All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder

It's easy to see why DC wanted to put Miller and Lee together. This is a book that will sell very well, at least in the direct market (where DC would still own half of the market no matter what, big victory there!). The teaming up of these two doesn'’t yield anything more worthwhile than that. We have a comic where the two main talents behind it are going in different directions. No matter how much I liked a lot of MillerÂ’s choices in the script the end result is a comic that doesn'’t work.

The critical response to All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder has been fascinating to me - this will be my third post about it (here and here). But while I was fumbling towards describing a disjoint between Miller and Lee when it came to the cheesecake, Ian's delivered the best analysis I've read so far by realizing that disjoint is the fundamental problem with the book. Sometimes there are two great tastes that don't taste great together.

Unlike Ian, I don't believe the blame falls squarely on Lee's shoulders. Miller's become a language unto himself, and I don't think he's scripting with the realization that he's not doing the art. It'll be interesting to see if Lee's art develops over the course of the series. From some of his posts over at Sun of Gelatometti, it seems like he can really criticise his own work. Either these two guys will sit secure in the knowledge that they are among the best at what they do, or they'll take it as a challenge and a chance to grow.

Either way, it just makes me realize how much I'm looking forward to Morrison and Quitely's All-Star Superman. Here is a case of two huge talents that already work together brilliantly.