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Earlier on in the inception of this website, I wrote a bit about Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. However, I’ve spent some time re-reading the issues (nine of them as of this writing) and I’ve come to a few conclusions: One of them mainly being that Frank Miller isn’t actually completely insane. He may actually be telling a story here. But before I begin, there’s something that definitely needs to be clarified for people who don’t quite get what the All-Star line is.

This is not Ultimate DC. These are not a modernized retelling of your favorite characters. All-Star is actually something like a filtered Silver Age. In this instance, Miller has filtered the Silver Age of Gotham City and Batman into what it’s become within this series. It’s not all happy and cheery with laser-guns and expository thought bubbles. This is the Silver Age, amalgamated with the sin and cynicism of the Modern Age (which Frank may or may not be doing as a bit of self-parody)–at least for Frank. This is NOT the Batman you know, or have ever known.

Instead of just rambling on about everything in lengthy text blocks–like I normally, do, I’m gonna break it up a bit.

The Goddamn Batman

The essential trademark of the series–coined by Vicki Vale¹ in the first issue:

So Metropolis gets a Man of Steel, and we do we get in dear old Gotham City?. A damn flying rodent that doesn’t even fly. A goddamn bat man

Batman makes his mark, officially, in the second issue. The first issue merely sets us up for what’s to come, introducing us to Bruce Wayne and the other cast of characters.

This Batman is a dual-identity, not the hiding-behind-the-mask-of-Bruce-Wayne type of Batman that we see so often in comics now. This Batman lives separately from Bruce Wayne, though Bruce is, indeed, a victim to the machinations of the Goddamn Batman. However, we don’t often see the real Bruce Wayne within the confines of the story. It’s suggested a few times within the second issue that this primary Batman we see–the laughing, psychotic sadist–is nothing more than an act to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. He knows, quite plainly, what he is doing and how it is affecting the people of the city as he does it.

The first few instances take place, surprisingly, within issue #2. The same issue that has Batman saying “What, are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I’m the goddamn Batman.” features a surprising insight from a distressed Dick Grayson²–slightly influenced by some gas that Batman used to try to relax him:

Wait a minute. That’s not his real voice. It’s like he’s doing some lameass Clint Eastwood impersonation. That’s not his real voice. He’s faking it.

This, of course, isn’t really any kind of revelation. All of the Batmans, save for Adam West, used a different voice whenever they were wearing the mask. It seemed like the best thing to do. But, it sets the course, really. Batman is clearly not who this man is, he disguises his voice–even from a kid who doesn’t know who he really is–he disguises himself for this one-man war on crime.

Later on, in this same issue, they’re being chased by the Gotham City police, for various acts, and Batman decides to act by speeding the Batmobile into the air–something that freaks Dick out. Batman, in the captions, points out that he needs Dick to be scared. Batman is an entity of fear and Dick needs to, in turn, learn how to manipulate fear, to be fear, like Batman. But Dick doesn’t know that yet–he just doesn’t want to die.

It’s then that it finally consumes Dick for a moment–his parents are dead, shot in front of him. He can’t understand what’s going on here, it’s all too much.

Batman doubts, here, what he’s done, reflecting on himself what he’s doing to this boy and what happened to him as a child.

…Damn it all. What am I doing to this kid? … Just look at him. He’s a baby. And I’m torturing him. It’s a terrible thing to do. But it’s the only way … If I don’t keep the pressure up, he’ll find time to grieve … Grief is the enemy. … Grief turns into acceptance. Forgiveness. … Grief forgives what can never be forgiven. … Stop it. No doubts. … He doesn’t matter. You don’t matter. Nothing matters — except the mission. Pray he’s up to it.

This is whenever we first get a major glimpse into the inner working of this Batman. He doesn’t really WANT to do what he’s doing, but at the same time he feels he has no choice. This child, through unfortunate circumstances, has found himself in the same boat the Bruce found himself–and Bruce is going to take advantage of that so he has a partner of sorts in this mission. His mission, of course, his is war on crime.

On the very next page, however, we learn more from Dick Grayson’s insight into the man:

…but then he goes all sad, bottled up, contained. It’s like he’s the only person in the whole world. … I’m in another world. His world. He’s that lonely. He’s all alone. Whoever he is– he’s all alone.

Remember that every instance of Batman has always had him be a solitary man. Batman has no TRUE companions. His loved ones have all been killed, injured, or kept at a safe distance from him. Just look, in the mainstream, with the story Hush. He finally reveals himself to Selena Kyle, only to damage the relationship with his own paranoia and distrust. The man is alone. This Batman has all but sacrificed everything for this mission of his, and he’s brought in someone else to go along for the ride.

Dick also points out that Bruce’s³ voice is “kind of soft” whenever they’re closing the second issue. Batman tells Dick that Gotham City needs him and “Maybe she needs you. Maybe not. We’ll see.”

Batman understands what he’s putting Dick through–the training and everything–and hopes to mold Dick into someone who, like himself, is able to instill the fear of justice into people. Batman knows the child–he’s well versed in Dick’s history.

Of course, once Batman gets the kid into the cave, he goes back and about his business. He hides behind the mask of the sadist Batman–cackling and mauling the street-level villains. This attracts the attention of Miller’s version of the JLA, which I’ll get to in a minute. Suffice to say, for this section, that Batman treats them all with disdain. He respects them, in that they “wear tights”, but feels that they approach things the wrong way. In a conversation with Green Lantern⁴, which he has take place in a yellow room, with even himself as Dick–now Robin–painted yellow, he tells Hal:

Sure I’m scaring people. Why the hell do you think I dress up like a goddamn bat? I want to scare the crap out of people. They’ve got all of you bromides out there to reassure them that the world’s a nice, safe place.

Following a bit from Hal⁵, Batman makes a rather strong point–”Of course we’re criminals. We’ve always been criminals. We have have to be criminals.”

These people are not state-sanctioned authority–they never have been. They’re vigilantes with their identities hidden from the public. They both break and enforce the law at the same time. Bruce understands that he cannot work within the direct confines of the law, so he doesn’t. But at the same time, he understands what he’s trying to enforce. I think that, if he managed to rid Gotham of criminals–the street level criminals at least–he would strongly consider hanging up the cowl. He would avenge his parents, and so many others. His mission would be, more or less, done. But he knows that won’t happen, either.

Following Dick Grayson attack Hal, we again see another side of Batman. This is the more familiar aspect of Batman, the one mentioned in every piece of literature from Kingdom Come to the oldest issues that are still considered canon: The man who doesn’t want to see anyone die. He knowingly unmasks himself in front of both Dick and Hal–revealing himself to be Bruce Wayne (although I think Hal is a bit preoccupied with not dying) and does what he can to prevent him from dying as a result of Dick’s attack.

That’s whenever he realizes the stark differences between the two that I hope will be expanded upon in further issues. Batman had years to train, to come to terms with everything, and was still supported by Alfred. He just grabbed Dick and threw him into this mess. Dick never had a chance to say goodbye or anything.

But that’s enough on Batman. The next time I write, it’ll be about the other people of this comic.

1. Who is going on a date with Bruce Wayne–and that is so cool. [↩]
2. Who they feel the need to remind you, constantly, is twelve years old. [↩]
3. I’m saying Bruce, at this point, because the comic leads me to believe that, for this point in the conversation, he has all but dropped this persona of Batman [↩]
4. Hal Jordan. Which helps affirm that this is a Silver Age story. That and the weakness to yellow, which as we all know, doesn’t really exist in the same manner. [↩]
5. “They’ll bring us all down. Because of you! They’ll think we’re all as crazy as you are! You’ve already got half of them calling us criminals! [↩]