A different view of "All-Star Batman"

Issue No. 4 of “All-Star Batman & Robin” came out this week, and despite my plans to drop the series, I found myself picking it up at the comic-book shop.

I’m beginning to appreciate it a bit more by following suggestions by fans online to read it as kind of an Elseworlds tale. This Batman — who basically kidnaps a grieving Dick Grayson and calls him names and wants him to eat rats to toughen up - is not OUR Batman. This is writer Frank Miller’s Batman - and he's a twisted one.

And I’m enjoying Jim Lee’s art. Some readers are grousing about Lee’s six-page foldout of the Batcave in the latest issue, saying they’d rather have more story packed into the issue. I thought it was kind of cool. But I agree the story isn’t exactly progressing at lightning pace. It’d also be nice if it get back to somewhere remotely near on schedule.