bookheaven | Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The original line of Detective Comics ended and Neil was asked to send it off in style and while there were things I liked about it, it did fall flat for me overall (Which is sad since Neil so obviously loves the Bat)

What I liked best was the nod to all the various eras of Batman in both artistic style and how the characters were. It's set at Batman's funeral and he is being eulogized by all his villains (and a few friends) It was a neat idea but might have been a tad overly long and once Bruce realizes it's a NDE the story takes a weird bounce with an end that didn't work for me.

There were several other short stories in this as well, none tremendously memorable. I did like the black and white one that proposed that being a character in a comic book is a job like acting. The final story with some reporters trying to show the other side of Bats' villains (the good side) and Neil worked in some fun Easter eggs into this like Dr. Chilton working in Arkham (from Silence of the Lambs) and a John Constantine cameo.

The art was very nice, especially when it was emulating the 40s era Batman but overall I was glad I got this from the library vs my own pocketbook.

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