I've never given a half-star review to any book I've reviewed so far on Library Thing. I have done several one-star reviews, certainly. At least those one-star books had an interesting idea or two, or they were, at times, somewhat enjoyable, or it tried to do something interesting, even if it did fail. This book, however, has no redeeming feature that I could find. It's written solely to be brought by people who are fans of Lobo or Batman, and I suspect those readers will find nothing to enjoy here, either.

Lobo, an intergalactic mercenary, has been hired by The Scarecrow, a Gotham mob boss, to kill The Joker. Upon Lobo confronting the Joker, the Joker convinces Lobo to take a job, for ten million dollars, before Lobo completes the hit - go annoy Batman, then kill him. Or something like that. Lobo proceeds to dress up as Batman, terrorises Gotham City, kill several people that Batman is close to, and then Lobo squares off against both Batman and the Joker. Pretty much a typical week in Gotham City, then.

The ending is absolutely awful, too. Batman finds out that the Joker is really the long-lost brother of Batman. The Joker, in spite of having amnesia from the moment of his accident, accepts Batman's word without argument. They then both fight Lobo, and Batman hits Lobo with a gas canister that holds gas that makes people compliant. Lobo flies away into space, singing. If there's a worse ending to a book than that, I haven't yet read it.

The graphic novel is really a series of plot inconsistencies and gross stupidity, glued together with senseless violence. How does a mob boss in Gotham City contact an intergalactic mercenary? It might as well have been by smoke signals, because that would make as much sense as the rest of the book. The idea of someone masquerading as a superhero has been done elsewhere, and done far better than this, too. Would an intergalactic villian really care about earning American currency so much that he would spend a week on Earth? And why, why, why does a near-invincible villian, susceptible to toxic gasses, not even bother to wear a gas mask?

I can't even compliment the graphics of the novel. They're messily-done. I suspect the artist cared about the graphic novel about as much as I did.

There's not one thing that I would single out of this book as being enjoyable. It is only a pity that I can't give a book a zero rating. ( )