So I recently read the Dark Knight Returns and the Dark Knight Strikes again, and I have also been looking at grabbing All Star B&RtBW #1-10, however I'm at a loss as to what happens at the end of this? Is the series tied up at the end of #10? What happened to Dark Knight Boy Wonder? Is the Dark Knight series in the New 52 anything to do with the Dark Knight universe?

So many questions, sorry but I must know :P

@Slaze: Dark Knight isn't related to All-Star. Their only connection is that they both suck. :P

@DarkChris: At some point (and it pains me to say this) the official line from both Miller and DC is/was that All Star Batman is the same Batman from TDKR and TDKSA.

Not only that but Batman Year One is also supposed to be the same universe... the Millerverse if you will.

I'm not joking, you can look this up.

Now obviously this is something they decided to try and convince us of long after these books were published.

Tbh, if that is the same Bruce Wayne in all 4 books, the man really does have MPD.

I mean at a stretch I could maybe, kinda accept that All Star Bats is the same guy as Dark Knight Bats (but only if I'm feeling generous).

But to try and tell us that Year One Bats is the same guy we see in All Star... well, that's just insulting.

Anyway, despite all this I don't think many fans accept it or even care.

Not many DC writers accept it or care either I suspect (OP, that's a hint).

For me Year One is canon and the canon Robin intro is Dark Victory, All Star is just a (rather poor) Elseworlds story about a psychotic Batman and TDK is Sin City's John Hartigan in a Batman suit... "Lucky old man... Lucky." >.>

Miller was great once... but he's burnt out now imo and should just stay away from the comic book industry (and film industry actually, have you seen the Spirit?).

I'm sure he's made enough money to retire comfortably and spend the rest of his days drawing "hot chix".

Anyway, I believe that the reason All Star ground to a halt is because Jim Lee couldn't stand working with the misogynistic, sex obssessed Miller any longer... Have you ever read the script sheets for All Star? It's worth it just to see Frank's drooling description of Vicki Vale.

Lmao.

Anyway, on topic, OP don't worry about it, All Star will never be finished, it bombed too hard and is almost universally reviled by fans and critics alike.

Aside from the aforementioned vague connection to TDK there are no arcs or lines that continue the story, it's dead in the water and will probably remain so forever.

Just stick an Elseworlds tag on it and move on.

Isnt All Stars a joke?

I alway belive that Miller was making fun of the Dork Age and the super dark and gritty superheroes like Watchmen and other.

Pretty much making fun of Moore and others that follow his style.

Frank Miller is writing one Stealth Parody after the other.

He was so disgusted by the Dark Age turning into a Dork Age that, somewhere along the line, probably when he was writing the Dark Knight Strikes Again, he decided to relentlessly parody the worst aspects of modern comics, while never letting on that he's writing parodies just to see how seriously people take it.Alternatively, he was so disgusted by the Dork Age that he decided to always take large amounts of drugs before sitting down to write comic books.

Other thing it could be.

Frank Miller is trying to make a Shout Out to the Golden Age, but has failed miserably.

This primordial, psychotic version of Batman seems to hearken back to the days when he actually killed people (and showed little remorse for doing so), and the grim, scowling Joker is just how Miller chooses to reference the character's original debut, in which he had absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever. It's heavy-handed, true, and it may just seem to be a decidedly lame re-hash of SinCity, but this can be chalked down to Miller's long, slow decay as a talented writer.

Thanks to Tv Tropes, also i always hated this Super Dark Age and how many modern comics are pretty lame ass dark.

So could just be that he is making The Golden Age Batman or the Modern Version of Batman.

@superbatprime: I knew most of the things you wrote, except the thing about Lee and Miller's scritps. Have you read Holy Terror? At first, it was supposed to be with Batman in Dark Knight Universe and then they changed it.

All star was horrid, only good thing was the G**D*** batman meme that happened. The characterization of nearly every character was scary bad , the only exception was the Joker, and there while there was one kind of awesome thing and the meme it is not worth looking at. The art was good but not worth the story.

Nah people says it sucks, I read it in my early comic days and ejoyed he's madness, I was like "Who cares if he's mad? It's just a f*cking elseworld you can safely enjoy" but

I know the story was ridiculous and the art too awesome for it, but after all I enjoy it

@superbatprime: Yeah no matter what people says (or continuity) I refuse to believe that Year One is in the Millerverse, year one is too good for that.

I ordered issues 1-4 of All Star Batman the other day... now I'm beginning to wish I hadn't...

@DarkChris: Yeah I actually liked Holy Terror quite a bit, it's what I want from Elseworlds stories, completely out there.

I didn't know they planned it as part of the DKU... that's just... weird.

@Slaze: Nah man, don't let us put you off, it's a part of comic book history, Jim Lee's art is fantastic, there's an awesome multipage spread of the batcave and you'll get to see the much lauded moment when Bruce says "I'm the goddamn Batman."

Plus it's interesting to see what all the fuss is about.

I own the vol 1 trade myself and am glad I bought it, like I said... part of comic book history. ;)

I actually quite liked the series. I only would have wished for an ending. I liked the take on Batman and didn't think anything of it. You can blame the artists for the violence. Batman speaks no differently than he did in the beginning, yet the art is much different isn't it?

No, issue 10 very much does not tie up All-Star. The issues just kept getting more and more delayed until the series trailed off. There was more planned but. . . Lee and Miller just sort of never got around to it. There was word that the title would be changed to Dark Knight: Boy Wonder and that those issues would be coming out monthly without any delays, which obviously didn't happen. Whether Lee or Miller is to blame is up to debate.

The writing does have a lot of problems, although I think it's ultimately more amusing than infuriating, and there are a few moments where the old Frank Miller shines through. Also, I would argue that All-Star is Jim Lee's best work and one of the visually best books out there.

I would have liked to see where it was all going. I viewed it as a young Dark Knight Returns Batman, he would have to grown into the older Batman. The relationship with Gordon would have had to evolve and grown into the one we saw in the future. I would have liked to seen if the relationship between Bruce and Dick was troubled from the beginning and how and why it ended up the way it did. I give Miller's work in the DKU a break and enjoy it for what it is, after someone writes TDKR and Year One it is most likely all down hill from there. The art is very good and as a previous post stated there is flashes of the old Miller from time to time.

9/11 happened and Frank Miller went crazy.

That was the one with Black Canary, the yellow paint and the only good Wonder Woman incarnation I have read, right?

I liked it too. It was different, the art was great and I was thoroughly amused throughout the entire thing. It's not legendary in anyway, but I have read for worse canon stories and it is an elseworld so who cares if it's not the same characters were used to reading? That's sorta the point right?

lol

I liked it...for an elseworld there's to much hate on it!it was actually a really good story for an elseworld

It was certainly different. I wanted to see it through to the end to get a look at another version of Batman, as well as see how it'd end up connecting to Dark Knight Returns, maybe give us another look at that story.

When Frankie started writing Sin City...he kind of never stopped. He just kind of cut and pasted that writing style into everything.

Then when 9/11 happened he completely lost his damn mind.

Also WHORESWHORESWHORESWHORESWHORESWHORESWHORESWHORES

@redowl_1: shut up

@guardian_of_gravity: lol

Frank Miller created one of the greatest Batman stories of all time.

That's what happened.

Don't f**king lie to me and say you don't love All Star Batman and Robin.

Just don't.