Paul Dini

First thing first I like the character of Ra's al Ghul and his everlasting conflict with Batman. I truly enjoy the 1970's take on him, Blofeld like persona with accumulated knowledge of the ages that snaps and decides to teach humanity a lesson because of his loss. Sounds like an adult throwing tantrum right but hey these are comics and from comics I only expect entertainment not reflections on reality and answers to life issues.

That being said while enjoying the story to extent following was reaaaally annoying:

- Continuity issue - this is not standalone book but excerpt (or plugin?) work that fills the pages of other books (in case you ever wondered while reading them - oh, man what was X/Y/Z doing at this time.....reading a book, going to night club? hmmmmm, I wonder). Because of this you will end up with switches between stories that do converge to a degree (sometimes take a loooong time to converge) but as soon as they do kablam new arc starts (continues?) and you have to wonder what? Again I understand these are comics and stuff but this seems to be just like a filler release without any attempt to link the dots for us petty fools that are not up to date with Bat-Family issues. Not to mention the enemies here - Sensei, Sensei's Men of Death (they recover faster than anyone I ever saw, Batman kicks them in a seconds and then few pages back they are not just alive but making life miserable for all our heroes), those three weird women masked heroes who look more like characters from Kick-Ass then from DC whose sole purpose is to come in, make idiots of themselves and fade out in the closing pages of the arc....... as I said due to nature of the work it is not possible to connect all the dots.
- Bat Family ..... somewhere in the middle this started to read like Santa Barbara for caped crusaders. You have Nightwing and Robin duking it out because they are true sons of Batman. In the middle of this daddy issue conflict enter Damian, actual biological son of Batman (who is simply a spoiled brat trained as an assassin and unable to make one logical and sound action in the entire book) who scorns above mentioned two (grown ups? I dont think so) and makes such an idiot of himself that I hope Talia beat some sense into him after she run away with him.It is nice to have a junior with spunk and attitude but some brains would be good too. I understand need for internal conflict and emotional aspect of the story but do we truly need to have it presented in the way that would embarrass most soap opera writers? Not to mention that half the issues these three are talking about are unknown [to anyone outside of the loop] so it all looks rather very silly (again due to the continuity issues, see above).
- Art is a mixed bag here. For obvious continuity reasons and story spanning what I expect to be dozens of books so artists are changed ever so often. In some issues art is very good but in others it looks so .... weird, like 3D animations gone bad way that it is disconcerting.

All in all interesting read. If you are knowledgeable of the background (or parallel stories to this story) I think you will enjoy it more. For me it was an interesting book but with issues (art and internal relations that were presented in such a dramatic way I was feeling embarrassed for all the heroes involved).… (mere)

I took this book after a second browsing in a local shop. I have to say I thought this was more of a wacky approach to Batman (considering the art-style which is very much Archie comics-like). I like the art style but just could not link it to rather serious Batman story.

Man was I wrong. I guess if I ever saw Batman The Animated Series I would have known better.

This must be some of the best Batman stories I ever read - starting from Mad Love and then moving to others. Some are truly sad, tragic stories (e.g Harlequin, Scarecrow and Two-Face stories) while some are a little bit far-fetched and not that clear (Demons story).

But in overall this is beautiful collection - both in art and quality. One that taught me again not to judge the book by its cover :)

Recommended to all fans of action, adventure and of course Batman.

… (mere)

I have always been a big fan of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Catwoman and the Riddler. So, lucky me, this book did not leave me disappointed! I am craving the next book in this series wildly - now I'll just have to find it.

This ensemble works well together and are quite amusing. Yes, there are some aspects of this book that I didn't like (*cough* their body types *cough*), but you get what you get with comic books. I don't like that Harley isn't very smart, but that seems to be her portrayal often in the media (before Suicide Squad, that is). She also doesn't seem to be the main focus, which is kind of sad. Harley Quinn is just as important as the other three, and probably more well known at this point.

The plot and overall storylines are amusing and easy to follow. I like that each comic leave it open to continue, but also closes the story so if you wanted to stop you could.

I do have to say, this book has left me with a high expectation for DC comics. I've read other comics since and have been left disappointed because of this book. To me, it's a high end, fun story arc that should be read by comic fans wanting a little fun in their life. It's definitely not one of the darker DC arcs.

I like the art style of this book - it's bright, it's beautifully drawn and there's lots of details in the background.

Overall - I loved this book! Five out of five stars! I want more!… (mere)