Holy great Batman story, Robin!

Today the much delayed second part of Neil Gaiman's Whatever Happened To The Cape Crusader arrived and I was shocked and amazed at what a great story this is. No Spoilers following:

I thought the first part of this Gaiman Batman story had some good scenes, but nothing that suggested that it would be considered one of the greatest Batman stories ever. I was also holding this story up against Alan Moore's Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow, one of the all time best Superman stories, of which Gaiman's Batman story title pays homage to, and after reading the first chapter, I thought Gaiman's Batman story just was an okay story. Well that has completely changed with the second chapter, especially the last ten pages.

Whatever Happened To The Cape Crusader is one of the VERY BEST Batman stories I've ever read and people will fondly remember this story for a long time. Everything that happens in the second part of this story brings together what Gaiman presented in the first chapter thus strengthening what I originally thought was just an okay story. Andy Kubert's art takes up the challenge that Gaiman's script provided and although I've often lamented both his and his brother Adam's abysmal output (in terms of number of issues they actually produced while exclusive to DC), I've enjoyed their art much more at DC than their Marvel work (I've got a theory that they don't care as much about DC characters as they do about Marvel characters, but it's also true that I don't no the reasons why they were so late with their DC work) and I'm sorry that their art didn't grace more DC titles with an impact such as Andy Kubert's Whatever Happened To The Cape Crusader. Regarding when Whatever Happened To The Cape Crusader takes place in continuity terms, that doesn't matter, this is just a great Batman story that anyone can read whether they've not read a Batman comic in years and or if they're a regular reader - this story just shows why Batman, as an iconic character, has endured for 70 years.