With the new Flash movie releasing this summer, and featuring the Burton/Keaton Batman, this book is a decent read. This Batman is definitely not as gritty or dark. Hamm stays true to the vibe created by Tim Burton and Michael Keaton. This seems to take place some time after the Batman Returns film. There is an interesting new Robin in this storyline. ( )

Sam Hamm, who contributed to the script and story for Tim Burton's two Batman movies, spins an alternate sequel to replace the generally reviled Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

Michael Keaton's very white Bruce Wayne flounders around in a story about race relations and police brutality that sees Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent finally getting his chance to be Two-Face (Nuts to you, Tommy Lee Jones!) when some white supremacists wearing Batman logos commit arson. Batman spends more time dogging after the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman than chasing Two-Face, but that's okay, because there's a new Robin on hand to carry the weight, and he sure isn't Chris O'Donnell.

The story is a boring muddle -- and I really could have done without a couple of severely stupid dream sequences -- but a project like this really hangs on capturing the likenesses of the original actors and the design aesthetic of Burton's Gotham, and while Joe Quinones gets close, he doesn't quite clinch the job. ( )