I think that part of it is that I set my expectations too high. King had talked about the story before on podcasts and everything about it sounded right up my alley. A story set in the Year One era that explored the differences between the Riddler and the Joker? I was sold. Originally, it was supposed to be a standalone 12 issue miniseries with art by Mitch Gerads, who is doing the Mister Miracle series with King. But somwhere along the line, an editor decided to shove the story into the main Batman series, and that's where I think it went wrong. Instead of standing on its own, it had to tie into the engagement. Instead of Mitch Gerad's artwork, Mikel Janin drew it (which is a step down in my opinion.) Instead of 12 issues, it was cut down to 8, which was its biggest problem. There wasn't enough room to show the "war" going on, so most of the story is shown, not told, through narration rather than it actually playing out. I don't think that it is essential to the overall run and you can probably skip it without missing too much, but it isn't so bad that you need to avoid it either.