I always thought that DC was trying to sell a FLASH look to Batman, lose the aliens and weird changes to the hero and ground him as a modern Silver Age detective. My 15 year old self also felt soon in the change was a failure. Too many Infantino knockoff attempts at the art and very poor writing. My oppion only BUT, perhaps this was the first example of DC corporate not understanding how to adapt the line( over all) to the coming MARVEL turn around of what sells.