It is nigh impossible to know what exactly to make of this title.

There seems to be two divergent states of mind possible. One could believe that Frank Miller is taking the piss out of his own vision of Batman, and how that vision has devolved into the grumbling sad sack Dark Knight Avenger that has dominated the Batman titles for going on two decades.

One could also argue that Frank Miller's just gotten really crappy over the years, and this is his crappiest work yet.

Hard to say, really. When in the right mindset, it is possible to enjoy All-Star Batman and Robin, even love it a little. There are strange laughs to be had here, outlandish parodies of what the DC Universe has become, with Batman thrilling at the criminals who shoot each other trying to kill him and frequent overuse of the expletive "goddamn."

But the book doesn't make it easy to enjoy, for those very reasons why it is so enjoyable. It's hard to swallow this level of harsh parody, because there's absolutely nothing good-natured about it. If Miller is railing against the very image of Batman he's helped create--if he is, in essence, biting the hand that feeds him--then he's drawing blood, and it's spilling everywhere.

Which makes Jim Lee either an instrument of his savage critique, or the unluckiest star in the comics industry. He's doing what he does here--big, bold images of iconic superheroes doing amazing things. Yet it's being conscripted almost against its will into the tapestry of Miller's larger goals here. In utilizing perhaps the most "comic book" of the comic book artists working today, Miller's critique gets even more savage--he's using one of the superhero genre's most potent tools against itself.

Yeah. Either that, or his work has just gotten plain AWFUL, and Lee's unfortunate to have found himself working with a legend well past his prime.

Like I said, nigh impossible, it is.