Hush or All Star Batman and Robin

[Mr. Mastermind]

Trying to decided which one to get as I love Jim Lee very much. Which one is better?

[FHIZ]

Both have their haters. Hush you get to see Lee draw a whole bunch of characters, and ASBR is just do god damn ridiculous and over the top, it's a whole different kind of beast. Gun to my head, I'd say hush.

[ForeverYoung8]

Trying to decided which one to get as I love Jim Lee very much. Which one is better?

Kind of depends on what you're looking for.

Hush is a "Jeph Loeb mystery" (meaning there is a slight 'whodunnit' theme) that gives the writer (and reader) an excuse to take a wild romp through Batman's world and most of his rogues gallery. It's got its detractors here, but the characterizations are mostly good & it's a lot of fun. It was also canon in the old DCU.

ASB&R is quite a different beast. Hyper violent, hypersexualized, absolutely hilarious (in a good way; YMMV), and a pretty decent origin story for Dick Grayson. I prefer Lee's art here to his art in 'Hush'. This is undoubtably Frank Miller's own universe though; if you've read & enjoyed 'The Dark Knight Strikes Again', and to a lesser extent 'The Dark Knight Returns', you'll probably enjoy this (I feel it shares more with DKSA than it does DKR, though. Tonally speaking).

Sorry if it's confusing. Can't really go wrong either way. Know, though, that 'Hush' is a self-contained story, whereas 'All-Star' leaves you hanging just a little (not a lot, a little); it was never finished.

[SicSexSix]

I actually enjoyed both very much. I like the "insane" take that Miller used in All Star, and Lee's art is perfectly suited for the manic, hyper-gritty tone of the story & I enjoyed Hush for the "summer blockbuster" kind of story that it is. If you're more interested in the art than the story, that's a tougher call. All Star has some stunning imagery (& a scorching hot Vicki Vale too!), but if you go with Hush, you'll get to see Lee's take on a plethora of Batman's rogues, it's almost like a pin-up book in that sense, whereas All Star is mainly psycho-prick Batman and hot women.

[Shepherd492]

Miller's take is good for a laugh or two, but I don't think it is great work by any means. Hush is closer to what we've come to expect from Batman and a bit more representative of the types of stories he has been featured in for much of the last 25 years. I wouldn't say it is great either, but it is a more well rounded book for sure.

[andthegunslinger]

It depends what you're looking for I guess. Neither are perfect but Hush is a little more Batman than the hiliariously awful monstrosity that is All Star.

[Trey]

get both.

start with Hush, though

[TomSlick]

Miller's take is good for a laugh or two, but I don't think it is great work by any means. Hush is closer to what we've come to expect from Batman and a bit more representative of the types of stories he has been featured in for much of the last 25 years. I wouldn't say it is great either, but it is a more well rounded book for sure.

This is a nice well-thought out post. But, I'm going to use it to argue the opposite of what you said and say that the original poster should check out All-Star first in that it is different and Hush had a little bit of a been-there-done-that-before feel.

Personally, I enjoyed them both, but neither one - IMHO - will ever go down in the "greatest Bat-Man stories ever told" archive.

[HXHAlex]

Hush. The Batman/Nightwing interactions and Batman/catwoman interactions are great

[BigT]

Gotta go with Hush because All Star doesn't have a true ending......yet

[Phelpzy]

All Star, Lees art is miles Head in it compared to Hush

[Namtab]

I'd go with HUSH, at least at first.

All-Star never finished, right? I haven't read it in a very long time, so I don't know where exactly the story went, and what, if anything, was concluded. At least with HUSH, you get a completed (Loeb) story.

[Aquacatlungfish]

Art wise it's got to be ASBAR. Jim Lee's artwork was off the hook. It's probably his best work ever which is why it took 3 years to put out 10 issues. The artwork in Hush is very good just not ASBAR standards.

Now story wise I personally preferred ASBAR greatly though I know I'm in a minority in that. I often joked that Loeb loved The Long Halloween so much he wrote it 3 times and that's true. Hush is the worst mystery I've ever read as soon as I saw guy who was Hush I knew he was Hush. Loeb tries to throw you off but it couldn't be more obvious and he tried the exact same technique in The Long Halloween (as I recall, it's been a long time since I read TLH). Loeb admits he wasn't on board until Lee signed on and it pretty obvious he did it so he could get Lee to draw everything Batman related. With the exception of the Bane and the back breaking I don't there's a single Bat major thing that Loeb didn't find a way to shove into the story. Granted Loeb shoved nearly every major villain into TLH/DV but here it just feels forced and the splash pages are overdone. What says it are the characterizations and the memorable scenes which make it a very enjoyable story. So while it's story isn't very good and the experience of reading the story is pretty great and it got new readers into Batman comics so yay! Recommended.

ASBAR is hilariously entertaining and funny all the way through. It has a slow pace that doesn't help it with the beginning but it''s an even funner ride that Hush. Batman may be a pycho but it's an Elseworlds story so it doesn't matter. The stories takes a while to get going and it cuts off when thing's where about to get very interesting with the rest of the JLA coming after him and the Joker, Dick Grayson subplot nearing and the new Black Canary one. The writing is very similar to DKSA instead of DKR so be warned. It seemed like it was going to expand on the last minute twist of DKSA too.

Hush. The Batman/Nightwing interactions and Batman/catwoman interactions are great

They were better in ASBAR.

[JasonTodd428]

About the only thing I liked about ASBAR was the art so if art is all you're interested in then I would recommend that one over Hush. Lee's artwork there was great.

[cgh]

Art wise it's got to be ASBAR. Jim Lee's artwork was off the hook. It's probably his best work ever which is why it took 3 years to put out 10 issues. The artwork in Hush is very good just not ASBAR standards.

Now story wise I personally preferred ASBAR greatly though I know I'm in a minority in that. I often joked that Loeb loved The Long Halloween so much he wrote it 3 times and that's true. Hush is the worst mystery I've ever read as soon as I saw guy who was Hush I knew he was Hush. Loeb tries to throw you off but it couldn't be more obvious and he tried the exact same technique in The Long Halloween (as I recall, it's been a long time since I read TLH). Loeb admits he wasn't on board until Lee signed on and it pretty obvious he did it so he could get Lee to draw everything Batman related. With the exception of the Bane and the back breaking I don't there's a single Bat major thing that Loeb didn't find a way to shove into the story. Granted Loeb shoved nearly every major villain into TLH/DV but here it just feels forced and the splash pages are overdone. What says it are the characterizations and the memorable scenes which make it a very enjoyable story. So while it's story isn't very good and the experience of reading the story is pretty great and it got new readers into Batman comics so yay! Recommended.

ASBAR is hilariously entertaining and funny all the way through. It has a slow pace that doesn't help it with the beginning but it''s an even funner ride that Hush. Batman may be a pycho but it's an Elseworlds story so it doesn't matter. The stories takes a while to get going and it cuts off when thing's where about to get very interesting with the rest of the JLA coming after him and the Joker, Dick Grayson subplot nearing and the new Black Canary one. The writing is very similar to DKSA instead of DKR so be warned. It seemed like it was going to expand on the last minute twist of DKSA too.



They were better in ASBAR.

My take on ASBAR is: Frank Miller sat there and thought "What if...?" for every character. Like, "What if we had a demigoddess from a female-supremacist society running around? How would she act?" And he gives us a pretty accurate take on it.

Or, "What if Green Lantern really was a not-so-bright hotshot test pilot?"

"What if the Black Canary really was a wild young bartender?"

In that sense, I think ASBAR is one of the most realistic, down to earth takes on the DCU characters ever and that's why I love it. Give people with real personality quirks/neuroses/crazy backgrounds a bunch of superpowers and they sure won't act like noble gods all the time, and might be downright unlikable.