The highlight of Child Of Dreams is Asamiya's artwork. Like most manga, the art is completely in black-and-white, with no coloring whatsoever. Despite this, even the most ardent American comic fan will find something to love about this artwork. The Gotham City scenery in the manga is stunning. Asamiya visited New York for reference before drawing his version of Gotham - and it shows. Gotham is appropriately dark and foreboding.

One manga element not lost in Child Of Dreams is the dynamic panel layout. It is put to good use here, especially in the action sequences. Some may criticize the way Asamiya designs characters (their noses are “huge”), but his style is instantly recognizable and sometimes results in greatness. His version of The Joker is particularly good here. Asamiya's Joker manages to make that familiar grin look like the facade of a maniac instead of just a twisted smile.

There are two main issues with Child Of Dreams that keep it from becoming a quintessential Batman work. For one thing, it contains a lot of dialogue. This English version was adapted by Max Allen Collins of Road To Perdition fame. While the dialogue itself feels pretty natural, there is just way too much of it. You can see that Asamiya wants to underline the themes he presents in the manga, but at times, you wish he would have the characters express things a little more concisely. Also, the story itself, while intriguing, feels a little superficial.

Batman: Child Of Dreams is that rare beast that successfully merges manga with American comics. It stays true to a comic book icon while at the same time retaining the unique qualities of manga. It's a great for a comic book fan looking to try out manga or for a manga fan who wants something very different from what's out right now. It also shows that there is actually some common ground between these American and Japanese graphic artforms.