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Even DC Has No Idea What to Do with All-Star Batman


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?DC’s big news out of Wondercon this weekend (for me, at least) is that psycho-iest of the psycho Batman tales, Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman — you remember, the Batman that A) asked Robin if he was retarded, b) had rough sex with Black Canary on a filthy pier, and C) painted himself yellow to meet Green Lantern and also drank lemonade — is coming back. The series will receive six more issues, which won’t even start coming out until 2011.

But my favorite part is this: so remember how DC’s All-Star series was supposed to be the ultimate, most iconic version of these characters? And Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman was, but Frank Miller’s Batman had him running around Gotham City, cackling to himself  how awesome it was being Batman, which is totally entertaining but not at all how Batman should act? Well, DC has retitled the series Dark Knight: Boy Wonder, and — apparently — decided that this is part of Miller’s Dark Knight Returns universe. While I’m baffled at the colon (surely a comma would have better better) I’m even more baffled by DC shoehorning this ridiculous tale into the Dark Knight world. Yes, The Dark Knight Strikes Back is also batshit insane in much the same way as Miller’s All-Star Batman, but The Dark Knight Returns isn’t, and thus you now have one ridiculous Batman universe with a small island of sensible storytelling in the middle. Look, DC, just let this one go. All-Star Batman is a massively entertaining, horrible Batman story unto itself.