Phil's Reviews Special: All-Star Batman and Robin #5

All-Star Batman and Robin #5 — Writer: Frank Miller; Penciller: Jim Lee; Inker: Scott Williams
I know a lot of readers have problems with this book.
I hate them. I hate their stinking guts. I hate them so much I could puke. Puke my guts out. Then I’d be gutless. Gutless like them, gutless even though I hate their guts.
They think they know so goddamn much. How can they not see how fun this book is, with its look at the raw early versions of these characters? Wonder Woman has spent her whole life being told how worthless and stupid men are, how her destiny is to defeat them. She’s too young to see subtlety; she just knows she’s in Man’s World and it stinks, it’s just as corrupt and evil as she was taught.. And yet, here’s this man, this Superman, who has the power and authority of the gods she also grew up worshipping. What’s she supposed to think? What’s she supposed to do with these feelings she has when she’s around him, ones that no one’s ever told her about, except to warn her against them? Of course she wants to spit in his stupid male face one minute, and melt into those blue eyes and kiss him the next.
And Batman — here’s a Bruce Wayne in his mid-20s who’s at the beginning of his destiny, who finally, finally after 15 years of training, is starting to pay back the vermin who took his parents and ruined his life, who left him frozen in fear. Now they’re frozen in fear, they’re hurting, and he’s making them pay and no one can stop him. It’s an exhilarating, dangerous feeling, one that could drive him straight into insanity, even make him a killer, except that there’s this kid he’s rescued, innocent but not naive, who just might save him, might remind him of what he’s really fighting for, and whom he’s trying to protect.
And we aren’t even halfway through this story yet. What happens when everyone’s paths cross? What will Wonder Woman do when faced with Batman, whom she thinks symbolizes all the qualities of Man’s World that she hates? What will Batman do when faced with these super-authority figures who will try to tell him what to do, who will act like the smug bullies he’s spent his life training to fight?
I can’t wait (well, I may have to wait years, at the rate things are going, but you know what I mean).
I love being a goddamn reviewer.