History Comicbook / BatmanOdyssey

[[DescribeTopicHere Describe Batman Odyssey here.]]

''Batman: Odyssey'' is a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' miniseries drawn by legendary illustrator Neal Adams, one of the defining artists of ''Batman''. On the downside, it is also ''written'' by Neal Adams, which leads to some... issues. It is very, very strange.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Adams seems to have a passing knowledge of paleontology, and gets a few things right, including the correct spelling of ''T. rex'', and the portrayal of neanderthals as intelligent and human, but still manages to make some common anatomical errors in the illustrations. And then there's Primus. Just Primus.

* BrickJoke: Alfred's "Tiniest violin in the world" joke, and the ice axe Batman threatens the reader with, are both (surprisingly) alluded to again near the end.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Everyone!
* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover (see page image) shows Batman riding what appears to be [[PteroSoarer a badly-drawn pterosaur]]. This never happens anywhere in the comic. There are pterosaur-like creatures in the underworld, but they look nothing like this.
** He does, however, ride a giant bat. And a tyrannosaurus rex.
* CrazyPrepared: Batman, Batman, Batman. Specialized weaponry? Check. FauxDeath tricks? Check. [[ActionBomb Rigging Robin to explode?]] ... Check.

* DeconstructorFleet: Considered to be TheAce in DC fandom, this Batman seems designed to annoy the reader as much as possible.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs

* FantasyKitchenSink

* GodGuise: The Egyptian Gods are actually ancient genetic experiments. [[VoodooShark Wait, what?]]

* MindScrew: A meandering plot that wanders from flashback to flashback, fights coming out of nowhere, Batman verbally assaulting Alfred, all narrated by a [[CarpetOfVirility shirtless Bruce Wayne.]] Things like coherency and sanity do not fly here.
* MoodWhiplash: All over the place.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Everyone. It's like they think they're in a Shakespeare play. And they're all played by Creator/WilliamShatner.

* SickeninglySweethearts: Batman and Talia have their moments.

* TalkingIsAFreeAction: And how!

* TotallyRadical: Sylvester the clarinet-playing wizard talks like this.

* DeadpanSnarker: Alfred. [[UpToEleven Even more so than usual]].

* DodgeTheBullet: [[UpToEleven Taken to eleven]]. Batman is able to grab a gun out of an aggressor's hand so fast that the [[EveryBulletIsATracer tracer]] originates from a location the gun isn't even in anymore.

--->'''Talia:''' I'm safe because my beloved crushed my kidnappers. Kidnappers my father paid. THAT MY FATHER PAID!
--->'''Ra's:''' Daughter, control. What poison has this witless idiot been filling you with?
--->'''Talia:''' PAID... so that I can be used for bait... to draw my aged brother... the Sensei, out. Why? Why? why? So he can humiliate you by killing me... [[CallingTheOldManOut YOU SCUM!]]
--->'''Ra's:''' But... you escaped... I sent Batman.
--->'''Talia:''' Batman? So he would kill my deadly brother... while you sipped ouzo and watched sports.
--->'''Ra's:''' Sports? What? I don't...

* UnfortunateNames: Dr. Slattern? Does Adams know [[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/slattern what that word means?]]

* IHaveYourWife: Or rather, "I have your sidekick", when the bad guys capture Robin to threaten Batman. Batman responds by ''[[spoiler: [[MakesJustAsMuchSense detonating Robin]].]]''

* CrazyPrepared: Batman, Batman, Batman. Specialized weaponry? Check. FauxDeath tricks? Check. [[ActionBomb Rigging Robin to explode?]] ... Check.

* DeadpanSnarker: Alfred. [[UpToEleven Even more so than usual]].

* {{Fanservice}}: Bruce Wayne narrates the vast majority of this story while [[WalkingShirtlessScene shirtless.]] Falls into FanDisservice if you're not into how [[CarpetOfVirility ridiculously hairy]] he is.

* MachoCamp: Bruce's hirsute forearms take up 90% of his introductory splash pages. He's about as sharp as a Calvin Klein model (deploying the DreamworksFace on numerous occasions), pitches fits and takes naps like an overgrown child, and arguably is a bigger threat to public safety than his rogues gallery.

* OffModel: When Batman begins threatening to shoot a train full of civilians (ItMakesSenseInContext... kinda), it scares the mustache right off the conductor! This was fixed in the collected edition.

* OurGnomesAreWeirder: They're wiry, pointy-eared humanoids with bulbous noses.

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Naked Bruce Wayne narrates the whole story directly at the reader. Although the ending reveals he's actually talking to [[spoiler:Superman.]]

* ThouShaltNotKill: Seems to be the driving theme of the story (as much as it has one). No matter how murderous everyone else in the story is, or how many people around him are trying to convince him to kill, or how many [[RecklessPacifist absurdly dangerous situations]] he gets himself into, Batman refuses to kill anyone. [[spoiler: Even Sensei in the end is merely [[FountainOfYouth turned back into a baby]]]]. Of course, [[spoiler: he ''pretends'' to kill Sensei to put [[GoodIsNotNice the fear of Bats]] into the [[RoguesGallery Arkham crowd]],]] which makes it a BrokenAesop, but...
* RandomEventsPlot: Oh boy. Trying to figure out a coherent narrative with this comic is like trying to figure out quantum physics. First, it's a naked Bruce Wayne recounting an adventure to [[spoiler: [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]]]] about recounting an adventure to Robin about a robbery on a train. Which soon becomes a story about him trying to stop the Riddler. Except it wasn't actually the Riddler, it was some guy never even brought up before. Then a Man Bat shows up. Then Aquaman shows up. ''Then'' some guy in ''another'' bat costume shows up. All while there's FlashbackWithinAFlashback stacked ontop of one another. ''Then'' they go to a hidden underground world underneath the Earth. ''Then'' Batman [[spoiler:''blows up Robin when he's captured'' but Robin is inexplicably unharmed.]] Also Egyptian Gods. It's almost like a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks silver aged]] comic. On copious amounts of acid.

* SmolderingShoes: A variant. In the infamous scene where [[spoiler: Robin]] is blown up, the victim's still-intact boots and mask are seen being flung from the blast. [[spoiler: Subverted though, as the Robin comes back in the next issue, with the explanation that he was wearing "directional explosives" and [[ArtisticLicensePhysics so was safe from the blast]]. Where he got the spare pair of clothes from is never explained.]]

* TyrannosaurusRex: Inevitably, one of the prehistoric creatures encountered in the underworld. The dinosaur people traditionally ride, and even eat them.

* TheReptilians: Primus and his people. Humanoid to the point that they don't really resemble reptiles that much at all.

* RandomEventsPlot: Oh boy. Trying to figure out a coherent narrative with this comic is like trying to figure out quantum physics. First, it's a naked Bruce Wayne recounting an adventure to [[spoiler: [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]]]] about a robbery on a train. Which soon becomes a story about him trying to stop the Riddler. Except it wasn't actually the Riddler, it was some guy never even brought up before. Then a Man Bat shows up. Then Aquaman shows up. ''Then'' some guy in ''another'' bat costume shows up. All while there's FlashbackWithinAFlashback stacked ontop of one another. ''Then'' they go to a hidden underground world underneath the Earth. ''Then'' Batman [[spoiler:''blows up Robin when he's captured'' but Robin is inexplicably unharmed.]] Also Egyptian Gods. It's almost like a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks silver aged]] comic. On copious amounts of acid.

Over drinks, [[WalkingShirtlessScene Naked Bruce Wayne]] tells a story to a friend sitting BehindTheBlack. The story he tells is meandering and bizarre even by comic-book standards, but eventually coalesces into the tale of Batman traveling BeneathTheEarth to battle a deadly enemy, rescue Talia Al-Ghul, and solve an ancient mystery.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Neal Adams' grasp of language is... interesting at times, contributing to the general weirdness.

* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Sensei is so incredibly badass that he can stem blood loss through sheer force of will. Even Batman is awed by his "discipline."

[[DescribeTropicHere Describe Batman Odyssey here.]]

-->--''[[https://www.digitalspy.com/comics/a213299/neal-adams-batman-odyssey/ From an interview with DigitalSpy]]''

->''"I cannot give you an overview of the plot."''
-->--'''Neal Adams''' illuminates his readers

* RecklessPacifist: A big theme of the story is that, no matter what, Batman [[ThouShaltNotKill will not]] kill. Doesn't stop him from unloading multiple clips into a crowd of civilians on a train that's about to blow up to incentivize them to get off it, though.

* AccentDepundent: Batman resolves one of the Riddler's riddles by [[spoiler: rhyming "order" with "water"]]. As some reviewers pointed out, this really only works if the speaker has a ''really'' thick Boston accent.

* DoingInTheWizard: Impressively, Neal Adams manages to come up with an explanation for the Egyptian mythological pantheon that somehow manages to seem ''[[VoodooShark less]]'' plausible than them actually just being regular {{PhysicalGod}}s.

* BadBoss: Sensei casually kills his own underlings, and even forces them to fight to death for little apparent reason. Batman is a pretty bad boss too, the way he talks to Robin and Alfred.