ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER sucks.

Well, that’s was at least my original reaction.

And that’s primarily the reason that it hasn’t been reviewed here on the site (sans the first issue). I read issue #1, thought about buying it regularly, and decided that I wasn’t going to waste my money on the damn thing.

Plus, not only does it suck, it’s notoriously late a hell. For cripe’s sake, it’s been nearly a year since the last issue!

It was way overhyped and an initial success only because of the talent (Lee and Miller) behind it. And the "All Star" Batman is a total A-hole as well!

And what’s with this “All-Star” line from DC anyway? It’s not in current continuity, but yet Frank Miller says that ASB&R is basically his “BATMAN: YEAR TWO.” So I guess the “Miller Batman” and the “In-Continuity Batman” both share the same origin (BATMAN: YEAR ONE), but then split and take different paths from that point on? Sounds a lot like the ‘ol “DC multiple Earths” thing to me.

Anyway, while I was at Wondercon this last weekend, I attended one of the two DC Universe panels and the status of ASB&R was addressed by both Dan DiDio and the title’s artist Jim Lee. According to these guys, issues #s 5 and 6 are complete and will soon see the light of day.

So while I was visiting my local comic book shop this past week, I saw that they still had a copy of ASB&R #4 sitting in the rack and collecting dust. I guess the info from DiDio and Lee was still fresh on my mind, so I grabbed it and bought it along with the latest issue of DETECTIVE.

“Why not give it one more try,” I thought.

The entire story of ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN #4 involves an internal and external dialogue between Batman and Dick Grayson. A-Hole Batman says something to Dick, then thinks something about what he’s saying internally, and then Smartass Dick responds -- and vice versa. And all -- well most -- of this takes place within the Batmobile/plane/sub which is headed to the Batcave.

That’s it. Not much in the way of a plot, just this banter between Batman and the soon-to-be Robin. However, this back and forth between the two offered me a slight glimmer of hope that this title may be getter better.

Could Miller actually have a grand master plan in place? Well he damn well better, since I actually saw some good in this issue, like…

* Batman showing Dick a little compassion -- and I mean a little...

* Batman telling Alfred to “…get that clown from Metropolis” to bring a French doctor to Gotham to attend to the severely injured Vicki Vale…

Alfred telling The Batman to go take a flying leap…

* The Batman's explanation (to himself) why's he's better than Superman...

* And, Jim Lee’s artwork -- although it’s basically nothing more than series of splash pages.

Now don‘t get to feeling too good about this title -- I’m sure as hell not -- because there was plenty of “suck” in this issue, such as…

* No plot…

* Batman’s extreme A-Holiness…

* Batman leaving Dick in The Cave, alone, cold, and hungry, with only the rats to eat…

* Batman putting his “hands on” Alfred…

* The Batman's dialogue which essentially ammounts to him saying "Shut up"...

* Did I mention that there was no real plot?

At any rate, things are going to have to improve on ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER dramatically to give reason to continue this title. So far, all we’ve got (and late at that) is The Batman telling Dick to shut up, Dick responding with wise-ass cracks, and a bunch of pretty splash pages from Jim Lee.

Come on Frank Miller, Jim Lee, and DC, give us something “All Star” about ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN!