So you’re perusing the graphic novels at your local comic shop when something catches your eye, something you’ve never seen before: Batman riding a pterodactyl. You say to yourself “What the **** did I just look at?”

You’re certain you must have seen that wrong. It was probably a Man-Bat adventure of some sort. It was Man-Bat, right? Had to be. That at least makes some sense when you think about everything you know about Batman. But no! You look again and there’s Batman riding a pterodactyl, pulling the reigns strapped to the flying dinosaur coaxing it to soar ever higher. You are looking at Batman Odyssey, arguably the most insane Batman story ever written.

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It’s finally here. We’ve reached the end of Neal Adams’ “Batman Odyssey”, the best Worst Batman Mini-series Ever Made!

And since it’s such a ridiculous comic, it really isn’t fair for me to grade it on the same 1-10 scale I usually use. Instead, let’s recognize that “Batman Odyssey” is best read (it really should just be avoided) when it is at its absolute craziest. So I’m going to award points for each ridiculous event moment in the book–the higher the number, the crazier the issue. Did he just Neal Adams just throw in a few Egyptian gods? There’s a point! Did the Egyptian gods just say they are actually a result of ancient genetic experiments? There’s another point! Everyone should read at least one issue of “Batman Odyssey” but make sure it’s the craziest one possible.

Naturally, when I say the crazy thing it’s likely going to spoil it for you so if you’d like to skip to the end and just look at the Insanity Score Total, I won’t be offended. Hell, I won’t even know you did it!

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Have you seen that episode of “Battlestar Galactica” where the Cylons show up every 33 minutes and they have a timer on board every ship and when the clock runs down they all freak out because the thing they fear and hate the most is about to come back? Well that’s how I’ve been with the DC release schedule and “Batman Odyssey” only this month the book came early! Can you imagine Captain Adama if those toasters had shown up 10 minutes early? He would’ve ****ing lost it! And that’s how I feel. And yes this is the first and last time I will compare myself to Edward James Olmos.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve given “Batman Odyssey” consistently low scores. It’s clearly not going to turn into a good story or even a coherent story anytime soon so from here on out (there’s only one more issue left– knock on wood) I’m going to set aside the usual 10 Point Scale of Batman Comic Book Quality and will instead award points for insanity. As far as I can tell, the only real reason to pick up this book is to see how far Adams will take the craziness. Did he just throw in a few Egyptian gods? There’s a point! Did the Egyptian gods just say they are actually result of ancient genetic experiments? There’s another point!

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It’s become somewhat of a tradition around here for me to not really give a review for Odyssey as much as just explain what happens as it happens and voice all of frustration and confusion I feel page by page from this absolutely insane book. I’ve only ever given one issue of Odyssey a higher score than a 1. It received a 2. This book is terrific if you have an extra 4 bucks and want to see what a truly nuts book looks like. It’s good for a laugh. And if you’re a fan of Neal Adam’s legendary art style, then by all means pick this up. He draws just about anything and everything that comes to his mind– turns out it’s a lot of dinosaurs. But if you’re on a budget and you want a Batman story that will enrich the mythology you’ve come to love, well, I just can not recommend this book. It’s too expensive and too bad for me. I guess I just pick it up because I’m a glutton for punishment and am curious as to just how far Neal Adams will go in each issue. It’s a train wreck and I can’t stop looking at it. So, now that I’ve said all that, let’s talk about what happened this month in “Batman Odyssey.”

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Let’s break down what happened recently before we dive into this issue. When we last saw Batman he was explaining the crackpot “Expanding Earth Theory” long advocated by the book’s author Neil Adams. The core of the earth is in fact filled with dinosaurs and giant bats and all kinds of life long thought to be extinct. The evolved beings capable of abstract thought like Neanderthal Jamroth Bok listen to the radio frequencies we broadcast on the earth’s outer surface, thus explaining how he found out about Batman and decided to become the underworld Batman himself. Talia Al Ghul is being held hostage in the underworld somewhere, as is Jamroth’s girlfriend. They could be…jeez. I literally feel my brain turning to mush as I type this. My fingers cramp up with resistance to punching out the keys to this much stupid…they aren’t being held by the Neanderthals or dinosaurs (Batman ruled them out in the last issue) so that leaves the assassins, Ra’s Al Ghul’s oilers, magicians, aliens, and the old gods. If you read all of that and it actually brought you up to speed, then…wow.

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It seems to me like a complacent artist syndrome. We saw it with Frank Miller in comics and George Lucas with films. I mean, after the guy brought us Star Wars and Indiana Jones it’s not like anyone was going to raise their hand and say “Are you sure this midichlorian thing is the right way to go, George?” Sometimes creative people need outside input, some sort of criticism to keep them from going too far but creative minds that have been this successful for this long end up living in a bubble in which they think they can do no wrong because no one is willing to criticize them.

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