"I touched my mother's breast." Okay, we know Frank didn't mean for that to sound sexual, but it still brings up unpleasant mental images.
Some of the things Batman says about Robin are worded very unfortunately, even with proper context. Just one example has him commenting on the boy's "fast hands [and] big mouth."
Alfred's description of Bruce as his "black eyed angel" doesn't sound too good either.
The fact that Batman keeps laughing like a maniac while Joker never even smiles makes you wonder if the two swapped costumes before the story started. That or it takes place in Bizarro World.
Frank Miller considers this comic in the same continuity as The Dark Knight Returns and its sequels, and also considers Superman: Year One in that continuity too. When questioned on how Superman in his previous works was portrayed as ineffectual and foolish, Miller commented that Superman came off that way because those books were about Batman, so they're going to make Batman look good and Superman look bad. If one applies that idea to this comic and sees Dick Grayson, age twelve, as the viewpoint character, suddenly Batman's behavior starts to make sense: Dick is an Unreliable Narrator who sees Batman as more grim, violent, and abusive, than he really is.note Though this still begs the question of how Dick knows about all the other events going on in the series that he wasn't present for.
Arc Fatigue: The series had a lot of Padding with characters and subplots that don't seem to be important to the main narrative; it was infamous for its Schedule Slip, resulting in issues being released months apart (and Issues 4 and 5 had a full year between them), and the story being told didn't seem very good anyway. The result is that when the plot actually did begin to move forward, no one cared anymore. It has been noted that in all that time, not much actually happened. By the 10th and (unintentionally) final issue, much of the plot is still where it was in issue one, with plot points having been shown but not advanced as we cut back and forth.
Awesome Art: Say what you want to about the writing, but Jim Lee and Scott Williams's art is amazing, both the interiors and the covers. The art is what sold the book; all the critics who absolutely hated the writing said DC could do the fans a better service by reprinting the books with blank speech bubbles.
Neo-Nazi woman with swastika pasties standing guard outside a motel door. It's supposed to be a Continuity Nod to a minor villain that appeared in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns but...yeah, it's just too weird to work this time.
A lot of events in the comic go nowhere and have no importance to anything except for Padding. Black Canary, Catwoman, Batgirl, Vicki Vale, Jimmy Olsen, and the Justice League all feature in the series, but across ten issues they each only get one or two scenes in which they do little, if anything, of relevance. Given that Miller considers this series in-canon with his Dark Knight Returns saga, he's probably including them to build continuity...but the series is supposed to be about Batman and Robin distilled to the essence of what has made them enduring icons, yet Miller constantly cuts away to other characters.
Bile Fascination: The whole reason the book continued selling and people have tried to go back and read it archived: once word about it began to spread, those who hadn't read it yet just couldn't believe it was that bad.
Crazy Is Cool: What a lot of Batman's actions appear to be intended as. Unfortunately, he ends up looking just plain crazy.
Designated Hero: Batman, who's psychotic, brutal, and an-all round Jerkass. He kidnaps Dick Grayson, age twelve (albeit from Dirty Cops that were about to kill the boy), and leaves him to fend for himself in the Batcave, expecting him to hunt the rats and bats for food. Then he complains about Dick getting on his nerves and insults and assaults him, and also pushes around Alfred for taking pity on the boy and feeding and clothing him. His inner narration portrays him as a borderline Psychopathic Manchild who thinks about how cool he is and how much he loves being Batman, as he gleefully beats up criminals, poisons them, sets them on fire, and attacks police officers, and contrary to Batman's (usual) code against killing, it's often vague if his victims actually survive these attacks. He also sneers at the Justice League as ineffectual losers that squander their power, and thinks that if he had a Power Ring like Green Lantern, he'd use it to Take Over the World by exiling Superman from Earth, destroying the armies of enemies of the United States, and implicitly anyone else he considers an enemy (citing parents groups, civil rights activists, and the police, to Hal Jordan as those he's "up against"). It says something when the Villains Wiki has an entry for him.
Designated Villain: The Justice League are repeatedly insulted and mocked by Batman as a "joy luck club" for ineffectual morons. While this is accurate to how Miller is writing them, all the Justice League does in terms of their interactions with Batman is call him out on his crap, particularly that he's an insane nutjob that's making superheroes look bad and should try and tone it down a bit for the sake of everyone. And they're absolutely correct.
Alfred, for refusing to put up with Batman's crazy crap.
Hal Jordan, for calling out Batman on his terrible treatment of Dick Grayson, age twelve, and being pretty much the only hero that doesn't do or say anything horrible or offensive—which is ironic, given Frank's opinion of him.
This version of Batman is called "The Goddamn Batman" to distinguish him from his mainstream counterpart. Some also call him "Crazy Steve" thanks to Atop the Fourth Wall's review of the comic.
"Dick Grayson: Age 12," due to its constant repetition in the narration.
Fanon Discontinuity: Many fans like to believe that this story (and The Dark Knight Strikes Again) is in no way connected to Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. (However, they're just fine with ASBAR and Strikes Again being connected to each other; ASBAR Batman eventually toning down somewhat to become TDKSA Batman but it being too late and his horribleness being the catalyst for Robin's Face–Heel Turn makes total sense... almost too much sense for either book.)
The close up on Vicki Vale's panties reveal that the design is that of a Bat. This, much like Vicki Vale herself, has no real importance to anything.
When Dick Grayson is huddling alone in the Batcave, his shadow cast on the floor forms an "R." It's probably supposed to foreshadow that he's going to become Robin, but considering the series is called "All-Star Batman and Robin" and Dick is prominently featured on most of the covers, often in full Robin costume, it's not so much foreshadowing as it is symbolism for the sake of symbolism.
Fountain of Memes: It is, after all, Batman-—now with extra crazy flakes.
The 1994 Batman/Spawn crossovernote also written by Frank Miller had Batman riled up at Spawn's lethal methods, vexing him to the point where he chucked a batarang in Spawn's face when Spawn asked to shake hands. At the time it was understandable; in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, he never used lethal force. After his child abusing, cop-killing antics in All Star Batman his attitude towards Spawn killing seems flat out hypocritical. However, it's completely in line with Miller, as Spawn asks Batman why not kill the villain - and Batman can't think of anything.
Likewise, a lot of scenes from Year One. Especially the scene early on where Bruce breaks out of a cop car but winds up crashing it and still goes out of his way to save the two unconscious cops inside, even one of which is shown to be somewhat of a dick because of his willingness to let Bruce bleed to death, in light of the cop-killing scene early on in ASBAR.
Frank Miller once said he considered Batman the most pure and good of all DC superheroes. Fast forward to this comic and suddenly we have the Goddamn Batman smirking gleefully as he slams the Batmobile into cops, abducting Dick Grayson, Age Twelve, and being terrifyingly cruel to him. Also, Holy Terror was conceived by Miller as a Batman story before being changed to a new character called The Fixer.note as detailed on that book's trivia page, Miller claims that he consciously chose to make the hero a new character because he didn't seem like Batman, but a far more popular theory—based on the fact that many elements of the book seem like the Bat-mythos with Serial Numbers Filed Off—is that DC refused to let Batman be used in a story as an Islamophobic sociopath who kills terrorists, and so Miller took the story elsewhere.
At one point in the story, Batman contemplates taking Green Lantern's ring for himself. Although the general idea of Batman becoming a heroic Green Lantern was explored in the One Shot Batman: In Darkest Night, Dark Nights: Metal (which came after ASBAR) features the Dawnbreaker, who's essentially what an unhinged Batman could be if he became a Green Lantern.
On the same token above, Batman laughs in a psychotic, Joker-esque manner. Considering how sociopathic this version of Batman is, no doubt someone would compare him with the Batman Who Laughs.
The love scene between Batman and Black Canary also counts. In the story, they make out while keeping their masks on. The scene might be Squick, sexy, or even outright funny to some people. Fast forward three years later, Batman and Catwoman have SEX with their masks on.
Although the "I'm the Goddamn Batman" is the most remembered part of the quote, right before it he says "Who the hell do you think I am?"
When 12-year-old Dick Grayson initially creates his costume with a hood, Batman cynically tells him to drop it, since according to him, this would be impractical in a fight. Flash-forward to Grant Morrison's mainstream Batman run, when Damian Wayne becomes the new Robin. His costume includes a hood.
This is acknowledged in the comic itself. Dick (who has taken up the Batman mantle) mentions how Batman taught him that a hood would limit his line of sight, but Damian proves that, having been trained from a far younger age than Dick, he can fight perfectly fine with the hood.
A later comic by Morrison, though, has the Bruce Wayne Batman scold Damian for having a hood in his outfit.
This Batman's actions are very similar to those of the Red Death from the aforementioned Dark Nights: Metal. He's even more akin to the gun-wielding Grim Knight of the Batman Who Laughs' self-titled mini-series. In particular, the Grim Knight and Crazy Steve are both out and out fascists who rant and ramble about their superiority.
It's often been pointed out that the way Batman treats Robin can get really uncomfortable. Says he's been watching him before Robin was orphaned, takes him away without the kid's consent, smiles as he thinks about putting the kid through hell...
"Fast hands, my little Robin. Fast hands, big mouth."note He's talking about how quickly Robin painted a house yellow while complaining all the while, but still...
Martha Wayne has also become this due to the infamous (even by this book's standards) "I touched my mother's breast." The context is that Bruce was checking in vain for a heartbeat after his mother was shot, but many see it as providing Crazy Steve with a legitimate Freudian Excuse of being sexually abused by his mother.
Dick Grayson, age 12 due to its constant repetition in the narration.
Mis-blamed: It's common for people to put the blame on Frank Miller for the comic's Schedule Slip. However, Jim Lee stated that it was because of how long it took him to draw the book that it fell behind.
Narm: The entire comic. It's obviously trying to be dark, edgy, and gritter, but just comes off as bizarre and silly.
The dialogue has provided plenty of opportunity for memes and mockery, with characters constantly repeating themselves several times in a row, talking in sentence fragments, and just saying dumb things. At several points it's evident that the repetition and sentence fragments are supposed to be a Madness Mantra or because a character is excited, like when Vicki Vale keeps describing the murder of Dick's parents as "brutal", and Alfred keeps repeating himself because she's in shock from what she saw and the car crash she was just in and he's trying to calm her down; except, again, this is how most characters in the comic talk, so it just comes off as silly.
As if picking up on the Memetic Mutation, Miller starts overusing the hell out of "Goddamn Batman" like it's going out of style, bordering on once an issue at least. It stops reading like a serious exclamation and more like that's just his hero name now, and it becomes a signature phrase for Frank Miller to the point that his later works liberally toss around "goddamn" all the goddamn time.
"What, you've got a car? You're the goddamn Batman and you need yourself a goddamn car?"
"Sure I do. ... Batmobile, find me."
"'Bat-mobile?'"
"Not one word. I've taken enough grief for calling my goddamn car the goddamn batmobile. I'm the goddamn Batman and I can call my goddamn car whatever the hell I want to call it."
Speaking of the Batmobile, the fact that Batman, who's supposed to be dark, brooding and more than a bit psychotically violent, inexplicably becomes a pouty, vulgar Psychopathic Manchild about Robin mocking his Theme Naming tendencies with it in particular. Obsessively so, according to both his rant above and the surrounding narration taking great offense.
In the midst of an attempt at a dark, gritty, and bleak storyline where Batman is a straight up Sociopathic Hero, there's his method of dealing with the Green Lantern powers: by painting himself, Robin and an entire house yellow (and seemingly even his own teeth judging by one panel) and then offering Hal a cup of lemonade to rub in their immunity to his powers. It's like a quick trip into a wackier and zanier comic than this one tries to be, right down to the immortal line "Damn you and your lemonade!".
The fact that Robin—in both narration and spoken dialogue—is constantly referred to as "Dick Grayson, age 12", almost as if "age 12" was part of his name. This often happens several times an issue.
Batman, when he isn't being completely ridiculous, puts the Joker to shame in the unhinged psychopathy department.
Similarly, Alfred discussing Bruce in disturbingly romantic-sounding terms...
Older Than They Think: Some readers take exception to the Joker being emotionless and grim, a far cry from his usual depictions. However, his early Golden Age appearances did have the Joker as a more morose character compared to how he would later become known.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Although each issue is arguably infamous in some way, issue 10 was the only one to get recalled—due to a printing error, the text boxes that blacken out profanity were made see-through, and a certain word that would otherwise have been blocked out was visible. As such, any discussion of the issue will inevitably bring up said scene.
Padding: The series suffers terribly from this. One critic noted the book felt like Miller was spreading 4 issues of story across 20. To put it in perspective, Batman meets Dick Grayson in Issue 1. They arrive at the Batcave in Issue 4. The time in between (the entirety of Issues 2 and 3) is focused on either repetitive inner monologue from one of them or scenes focusing on other characters (despite this being a book about Batman and Robin). Black Canary's introductory scene takes up half of Issue 3, but all that happens is her getting harassed and her beating up a room full of people, and then she isn't seen again until Issue 6. The Justice League appears in Issue 5 to talk about confronting Batman, but nothing happens about that until Issue 8, and the actual confrontation happens in Issue 9. Finally, while Dick's parents getting killed was the event that began the series, it wasn't until Issue 7 that we actually learn who hired Jocko Boy to carry out the murders, and when the series was cancelled after Issue 10, we still had no hints why they were killed.
Signature Line: "Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the Goddamn Batman."
So Bad, It's Good: The fact is that most people think this is an awful Batman story. That doesn't stop them from finding it absolutely hilarious. It helps that unlike The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the story isn't juggling a dozen plots at once and Jim Lee's artwork is far superior to Miller's, making for an easy read even if it makes some questionable choices.
Squick: Batman talking about how his mother's breast bled on him after he touched it. Ignoring the fact that it's an implied bullet wound, the overtones are unpleasant to think about.
Strawman Has a Point: When Green Lantern confronts Batman, he points out that Batman is hospitalizing people with his excessive violence and endangering a boy as young as Dick Grayson.
Tear Jerker: The ending pages of issue 9, where Batman throws Dick Grayson,age 12,a bone by visiting his parents' graves so he can properly grieve, only for both of them to dissolve into tears. Even with how messy the rest of the series is, it's a legitimately powerful and almost uncharacteristically sincere scene.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Aside from the snail's paced story and all the Padding, most of the characters in the series are sociopathic jerks, incompetent idiots, or both. Between Batman brutally beating up criminals in ways that could kill them or cripple them for life, Black Canary and Batgirl being violent vigilantes who idolize Batman and emulate his behavior, the Justice League kowtowing to Batman for no reason (save for Wonder Woman, who wants to kill him, and otherwise viciously hates all men), and Jim Gordon cheating on his alcoholic wife, it's hard to feel sympathy for anyone in this comic. The exception to that is Dick Grayson, but the kid is psychologically traumatized and physically and emotionally abused by Batman in a deliberate attempt to mold Dick into a "detective" like him, so Dick's presence also heightens how loathsome Batman is.
Watch It for the Meme: Many fans just read it to see Batman declare "I'm the goddamn Batman!"
The Woobie: Poor Dick puts up with quite a bit of Batman's crap. He shows signs of turning into a Jerkass Woobie, which is a sore reminder that sooner or later he will turn into the psycho who appeared in TDKSA.
