Highlander here. I don't know, Tony. First, DARK KNIGHT wasn't all that. You did a pretty good job fisking this latest Miller absurdity; try to go back and reread DARK KNIGHT in that same mind set. You'll find just as many idiocies. YEAR ONE is fabulous, but Miller was working with a good artist on YEAR ONE, as on GIVE ME LIBERTY, as on BORN AGAIN. When Miller draws his own stuff, or works with a hack like Lee, well, he just plain sucks. I've known that for a while, and that contributed to my decision to give a wide berth to ALL STAR BATMAN. What else contributed? Well, when I hear the phrase 'non continuity' I generally reach for the tongs. Sometimes a very good writer can do something non continuity and make it work (I recall a lot of Silver Age Imaginary Tales I liked, along with Moore's final Superman story and a good early Jim Shooter issue of WHAT IF), but as a general rule, when you throw out the 'non continuity' bone, you end up with lazy self indulgent horseshit. Which we ended up with here, I guess. But I guessed that before hand, and didn't spend any money on the crap. Other phrases, like "this is DC's version of Marvel's ULTIMATES line", tipped me off that this was going to be utter toxic garbage from top to bottom. I swear to God, is it really too much to ask that Marvel and DC create new characters for their new readers, and keep the established characters as they are, well, established? I guess it is. But Geoff Johns (and several others) have proven, over and over again, that continuity, when used correctly, is an invaluable storytelling tool that makes your fictional world seem realer and your characters seem richer. Oh, any wanker can screw up continuity (and many have, and lately, Grant Morrison has been leading the pack there, and he's tried furiously to make his inability to write well in continuity seem like a virtue rather than a failing), but when you get a good writer on a good comic, continuity adds so much. So, when I see 'non continuity', I buy a good pair of nose plugs. And the phrases "Frank Miller" and "Batman" don't mean much to me, either. Throw in Jim Lee and, well, I come not to praise this comic, I come to piss all over it, set it on fire, and shoot it out of a bazooka through Frank Miller's study window. "It's... a flaming piece of paper! That's it! I shall become... a FLAMING ASSHOLE!" shrieks Miller, as said missile bounces off his forehead and sets fire to his soiled bathrobe. Hey, I can dream.