It was nice to compare how emotions can both hinder and help, and even more intriguing to contemplate the balance that needs to be struck in Bruce Wayne/Batman's life. We get a single issue introducing the new villain, The Mime, who would never appear again aside from an Arkham Asylum mini-series published sixteen years later.

I thought they were good stories, but yes, they were hobbled by an inconsistent approach on the art. This is the first time we get to see these two interact and their clash of personalities is very well written by Starlin. Though my memory of that time is vague, I remember that my young self liked those Batman stories just fine, though of course the comics work of yours that I REALLY enjoyed was “Ms.Before undergoing surgery meant to remove both his disfigurement and his alternate personality, Two-Face/Harvey Dent is kidnapped by persons unknown. The stories here focus mainly on establishing a grittier tone for the post-Crisis Batman while developing Jason Todd, who served as Robin. And I have the benefit of several decades worth of hindsight and the knowledge that he will grow to be an awesome character! Furthermore, there is a lot of emotional complexity at work here, particularly with respect to the unresolved anger Dick harbors toward Batman for being told his sidekick services were no longer necessary. I've always heard that Jason was the most annoying Robin (hence why the fans voted to kill him), but, honestly, I can't really understand that perspective.

The collection features all of DC Comics’ most famous heroes including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman - the most famous superheroes in the world. Robin learns of the villain’s connection to his father and goes out seeking revenge while Batman plays to the boy’s better angels and succeeds. That’s kind of the problem with this collection as it is more interesting to see what went wrong with the Jason Todd character and seeing the awkward transition from the Bronze Age into the modern one than the quality of the stories themselves. The switch to Starlin’s scripts at the end is a welcomed change but comes too late to do anything about the book’s overall feel as a complete miss.

Most of my comic reading stems from Silver Age fare from Marvel and 2000s era books from both companies. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).