The Riddler has stolen a priceless jeweled egg, and Batman is on his trail, chasing him from Gotham to Gorilla City and points beyond. But when Batman catches up with the crook, he realizes something is wrong with his old foe. The egg is possessed of some strange power that is scrambling Riddler’s brain. The clue to what this is may lie in who hired Riddler to steal the egg: Vandal Savage. What does the immortal mastermind want with it? Batman’s quest is like a tour of the DC Universe, spanning space and even time. Guest stars include Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Deathstroke, Jonah Hex and more!
We’ll be reading this from 2021-04-10T05:00:00Z → 2021-04-16T05:00:00Z, but if you’ve found yourself to be lost to time, you’re always welcome to come in.
So let’s take a tour of this tour, and share your thoughts down below!
The World of Bats is doing a month-long Casefile of the (in)famous All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder!
@Bar-El is doing a neat read-along for the first arc of Superman/Batman, “Public Enemies,” leading up to a cool WAL of the animated movie!
Harley’s Crew is at the tail-end of exploring issues of the 2000 series of Harley Quinn as she causes mayhem in Metropolis, as well as the one-shot Harley Quinn & The Suicide Squad April Fool’s Special!
Over the Bird’s Nest, the Birds of Prey club is looking at Huntress during the mid-late 90s, as well as the various one-shots leading up to the first on-going of the Birds of Prey series.
The Dick Grayson Book Club through the month of April will be looking at the Teen Titans: Year One mini-series!
Over at Renegade Robins, the group will be looking at the last days of Damian Wayne as the start of the “Robin Rises” event, as well as the Outlaw Jason Todd trying to teach a young generation of neer-do-wells.
Oh, this one is quite fun, though also I think a bit shallow in terms of Bat-characterization or themes. I collected it in the Walmart specials, and the art by Derington really lifts it up into something special.
It is pretty fun! I collected some of those specials but not all of them to complete the story. So some of this I’ll be reading for the first time!
Shallow…I kind of agree and disagree. This is definitely a lighter Batman, but I think it works, especially for this story. I think so far he’s a good mix between the serious and determined crimefighter, without being too dour.
There’s a few notes that we get further along that just feel off. Plus, I don’t quite get what Bendis is really saying about Batman. Maybe that shouldn’t be necessary - we certainly have enough stories that are like, “THIS IS WHAT BATMAN IS, DEEP”, and I myself have complained that I’d like more simple Batman adventures or mysteries. But this one is a bit too far on the wacky side for me to really embrace it. Other than the art, as I said. The art is without compare.
I thought this was very entertaining and I enjoyed reading it a good bit. Batman as a cowboy was something I didn’t know I wanted and it was fun seeing him interact with other heroes. While I didn’t know it specifically, it was certainly not a surprise that Batman loves dinosaurs (does that count as characterization?)
Towards the end the artwork reminded me of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”, the book from Dr Seuss. That has to have been intentional, especially since it fit so well thematically. The artwork was great.
I suppose you could say that it’s saying something by not being too deep or grim. It’s saying that Batman can do any kind of story, whether it’s grim and gritty detective stories, or wild romps where he gets involved with Gorilla Cities, gets lost in outer space and goes to dinosaur islands. He can do all that and still feel like the same character.
As for a few notes, the only one that sort of felt off to me was when he got back to present time and landing in Crime Alley as he was dying. I think Bendis kind of undersells Bruce’s feelings for a joke or humorous note that just rang false to me. I think instead of being “upset,” we’d see more of that grim avenger come out, saying that he is not going to die there.
But that’s just me.
He’s done the cowboy thing a couple of times – most notably in Grant Morrison’s Return of Bruce Wayne storyline, as well as the Justice League Unlimited two-parter “The Once & Future Thing.”
I LOVE the dinosaur nerd aspect of Bruce here. Like, it makes sense in a way – why else would he keep a robot dinosaur in his cave? It’s instantly become canon for me.
I read this as it was being released on DCUI. Honestly, I didn’t dig it too much. For the longest time, I was only reading the digital firsts for Batman as I am not the biggest fan of his. While this and many of those stories came from the same Walmart specials I was more into the Gotham Nights stuff.
I will say that Universe had a lot going for it but something just didn’t hit it for me. I remember thinking this was my least favorite when compared to the Wonder Woman and Superman stories that were released here the same way.
