Found it really hard to get through this and in the end stopped trying to push my way through. Sure, there are some great illustrators and wonderful storytellers but the concept is based on showcasing individuals and doing short stories on The Bat Man. Because of the format, the artists don't have enough time to make it consistently gripping. This is a bunch of pop songs on a compilation tape. Some a brilliant, most are ok. What I want to listen to is full album where the artists get the time and pages to explore their full potential.

This collection had been sitting on my shelf for over a year, but when I finally started reading it I found it hard to stop.

I'm not a big fan of short stories, whether it's in comics or prose. I usually prefer the bigger tales. But with Batman I have to say that who he is - who he really is (and I mean "really" as in "the image I have in my head of him") - tends to get lost and/or muddled in most of the in-continuity stories. That doesn't mean I don't love him there, but some storylines can result in a lot of head-shaking.

What this collection showed me was that sometimes it doesn't take that much to say something that matters. With every collection of short stories, there are some that don't work, and some mediocre ones, and it's like that here - but there are also some really good ones and great ones, some that packed quite the punch and just made me think "YES".

It's the same with the art; I didn't like every artist, but overall it was very impressive and cool to see such varied styles. And while I usually prefer color in my comics, this was so well done and great to look at.

If you're a Batman fan, this is definitely worth checking out.

"La gente pensa che io sia un cavaliere. Un combattente. E invece sono soltanto un'urna che contiene i ricordi di chi ci ha lasciato. Di chi non ha più un guscio dove riporli."

There are some great stories in here and I like the concept. You're always going to have a mixed bag in an anthology like this one, but I think the bad outweighed the good here. Still, it gets three stars because the stories that worked were exceptional.

Read these issues individually on comixology. Great stuff, Gaiman's story was probably my favourite.

Just as beautiful as you'd expect it to be. I'm sure it would have been 5 stars if there'd been a Selina Kyle/Catwoman story in there. Highly recommended.

Strong art and mostly effective scripts.

If you ever find yourself jonesing for some Batman - not by a particular artist or author, not featuring a specific villain or plotline, but just "I wanna read some Batman stories damn it!" then THIS is your series. Veteran artists and writers are paired up to deliver one great self-contained chapter after another. A few of the stories didn't quite hit their mark for me, but even so, none of them were wasted space, and I would instantly hand this collection to anyone wanting to read some of the caped crusader without wading through thick patches of mythos.

This is a true 3-star review, because I definitely liked this, but didn't necessarily love it. It's really a collection meant for the art, rather than the story, and there's some really amazing examples of both here, though. Archie Goodwin's story was my favorite (and I believe it won the Eisner for best , and Neil Gaiman and Simon Bisley's piece was also a knock-out, and worth reading, and I love the whole concept of the collection. I would certainly read the other volume(s), but it's ultimately non-required reading. Certainly some ground-breaking stuff during the worst period in comics (the mid 1990's).