I might as well join the bandwagon and put in my two cents about the new Ben Affleck/Batman suit; everyone else seems to be.
I have to say that I like it.
It reminds me a lot of the way that Jim Lee or Frank Miller would draw the character; it looks right out of the duo’s All Star Batman from a few years back. The suit looks right to me, much more than the plate armor that the character was sporting in the Christopher Nolan trilogy.
I think even Butters would agree; this is going to be awesome.
Thanks to my friendly local public library, I’ve been on a bit of a New 52 kick. Scott Snyder’s Batman: Death Of The Family is a suspenseful collection that pits the Dark Knight against his most sadistic foe–the Joker.
The story is simple; the Joker has returned to Gotham City and is recreating some of his greatest most horrific encounters with Batman. Not only that, but he’s attempting to kill of Batman’s allies. Batman kind of expects that he would go after Batgirl, Red Hood and even Red Robin. But things get taken to another level when the Joker sets his sights on Bruce Wayne’s long-suffering butler Alfred. It’s up to Batman to stop the Joker and save his extended Batfamily.
The conclusion of the story isn’t the most satisfying. One of the plot points is that the Joker has somehow figured out the connection between Batman and Bruce Wayne, to the extent that he knew that a way to get to Batman would be by attacking Alfred and how to access the Batcave (which is presumably still connected to Wayne Manor). This was explained in a flashback at the story with Batman as Bruce Wayne confronting the Joker at the Arkham Asylum over a Joker card that was mysteriously found in the Batcave. That in turn gives away everyone else’s identity. But at the end of the story, it was pretty much stated that the Joker didn’t know any of this information. That part I’m still not clear on.
The other interesting reveal was that Batman does indeed know who the Joker was before be became a sociopath. They didn’t reveal it but I would assume that it would mean that he is connected to some of the more prominent characters in the Bat universe.
Death Of The Family did get my attention and I did enjoy it. I really wish that the big reveals at the end were more concrete and not just spring boards for future stories. If you have any thoughts, please comment because I’m still trying to put it all together.
I know it’s been a while; I’ve been spending more time reading comics than blogging about them. Well, that and being increasingly busy in my professional life. So here’s a quick one so I can get back on track.
Teen Titans #0 gives us the backstory of the New 52-ized Tim Drake. Previously Tim was the son of two Bruce Wayne-level wealthy parents, and over the years he had several encounters with both Bruce and Dick Grayson. He eventually figures out their secret identities, and after the death of his mother and crippling of his father Tim becomes the third Robin to avenge his family’s losses.
Writer Scott Lobdell takes the origin in a different direction. He’s a superstar high school gymnast and general smartypants who tries to figure out–unsuccessfully–who the Batman is. To get the Dark Knight’s attention, he hacks the Penguin’s bank account.
That was a surefire way to get everyone attention, with Batman having to save them. As a result, his parents have been put into the witness protection program and have been relocated somewhere in the country and he now has to take the identity of Tim Drake, an adopted ward of Bruce Wayne. At that point Bruce finally reveals that he’s Batman and Tim dons the roll of Red Robin.
The one theme that is hammered into this issue was the relationship between Tim and his parents. They were immensely proud of him and everything that he had been able to accomplish. However, he wound up giving that all away in his quest to unmask Batman. Not only is he isn’t living with them and with extremely limited contact, but they will never know about his true greatest accomplishment: being a super hero.
It’s interesting all around and I’m sure Lobdell is planning on revisiting his parents at some point.
I really thought I was going to like this a lot more than I did. Batman/Deathblow: After The Fire is a collaboration of sorts between Batman and Deathblow in Gotham City. There is a caveat: the two characters never encounter each other and writer Brian Azzarello did an awesome job with that plot twist.
The premise is fairly simple. Ten years ago, Deathblow and another government black ops soldier named Scott Floyd failed to stop a crime syndicate that employed a pyrotechnic hitman. At the current time, Floyd becomes a friend of Bruce Wayne and is murdered by this fiery villain. Bruce/Batman are off to avenge his death and bringing this criminal to justice. The story goes back and forth between Batman’s present and Floyd’s past as they both race to stop this new mysterious villain.
Batman/Deathblow never delivers that big Batman and Deathblow encounter that I assumed would happen, so in that sense the book doesn’t deliver. Instead, there is a slow burning mystery, which you would expect from an Azzarello written Batman. It is certainly not the most exciting or well written story in Azzarello’s bibliography, but if you are a fan of his you will enjoy this.
Art in this was by Lee Bermejo, who later went on to collaborate with Azzarello on the Luthor and Joker books. It’s dark and moody, thanks to Tim Bradstreet’s inking and an extremely muted color palette.
I know I’ve been kind of harsh on some of the New 52 stuff that DC has been putting out, but I was pleasantly surprised after I read Batman/Superman #1-2. But then again, anything that combines Jae Lee’s art with a Greg Pak script will be great.
This series starts out with the two meeting for the first time, shortly after Clark Kent is investigating Bruce Wayne for an article he is writing. After a costumed encounter, they realize each other’s extracurricular activities and there is a lot of fun super hero battling. This newly found friendship/alliance has them take on the mysterious shape-shifting Trickster and eventually sends them to Earth 2 where they encounter alternate versions of themselves!
It is a bit of a complicated read, with all the shape-shifting and multiple versions of the same characters, but it’s definitely worth sticking with. Pak is a great writer and I’m sure it will all make sense at the end. And for Lee’s art, it’s just awesome.
So I give this a thumbs up. It was a pleasant surprise that I wasn’t necessarily planning to check out.
It might be because I’ve read a lot of early 1990s Spider-Man books lately, but David Finch really reminds me of a modern Todd McFarlane, as far as being a superstar artist who gets to write his books as well as dark, more horror-tinged artistic stylings. Not to mention, they’re both Canadian. That said, Batman The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn really reminded me of something that McFarlane might have done.
The main story in this collection is from Batman: The Dark Knight #1-5 and focuses on a new character named Dawn Golden (which if you flip her name around, becomes a really cool title for the story…get it?). Bruce was friends with her as a child and has turned up missing. Anyway, her disappearance was due for her jilting the affection of the Penguin who with the help of Killer Croc has her kidnapped. It read like there was some sort of ‘dinner with schmucks’ kind of a thing between Dawn and the Penguin. This part I get and then it becomes really confusing.
It turns out that Dawn’s father was a longtime occultist who for some reason needed to kill Dawn so he could open the gates of hell as part of a plan to demonically rule the earth. He’s come back from the dead to murder her. Somehow Ragman gets possessed twice in this story; the first time by underworld queen Lady Blaze to recruit Etrigan the Demon to her side. Batman wounds up talking Etrigan out of this, and the two are in a race to stop Dawn’s father Aleister (who is using Ragman as a conduit to return to the Earth and kill his daughter in part of some sort of demonic ritual). Dawn gets killed as part of this but Aleister doesn’t succeed in bringing hell to earth and Batman is sad that Dawn is dead. Not to mention there was some other subplots going on, including Commissioner Gordon dealing with an upstart detective, as well as another with a child named Mira who was trying to steal the Batmobile as collateral to rescue her father.
So what did I think?
Well on the art side of things, Finch is great at drawing the more supernatural/horror style super hero comics. He draws monsters, demons and even Killer Croc in a monstrous way. At times his depictions of Lady Blaze and Dawn veered to far into the cheesecake realm. But on a whole, he knows how to render a dark and scary world for Batman to explore.
On the writing side, I’m pretty sure that this was Finch’s first project. His concepts made sense, but I really think he needed a co-writer for this. At times, the pacing was off and felt like he was trying to have too much going on. I guess the good thing about him writing and drawing the book is that he knows what to script to play to his artistic strengths. I wonder if his future projects involve in that regard.
Since this was a collected volume, they threw in some extras. Finch teamed up with Grant Morrison for Batman: The Return which is a great story of Batman setting up his Batman, Inc. super hero franchise. Now that I think about it, I would really like to see more Morrison/Finch Batman stuff. The final extra is a two-page story from Superman/Batman #75 with Conner Kent and Daman Wayne in the future paying tribute to the men who preceded them as Superman and Batman.
Golden Dawn is beautifully rendered; there is no questioning that. But I think the audience of this is a little narrow, mostly to Finch fans. So if you’re one of his fans–or appreciate dark, horror comic art you will love this.
So this might be the last review of Batman: Arkham City you will ever read. It’s taken me quite a long time to get to a point where I felt comfortable reviewing the game–almost a year later! So what took so long?
The truth is that Arkham City is one of the best–if not the best–super hero video games I’ve ever played. But that said, there’s a lot of skill and patience required that makes the playing a little manic. A few of the missions where your running around Gotham City beating up prisoners are deceptively easy. But then some of the tasks, like carefully navigating the flight of a batarang to go through two separate windows or pick-pocketing security guards with Catwoman, are super challenging to the point where you give up on the game for a few weeks until you get the confidence to pick it up again.
The story of the game is pretty straightforward and ties into the last game (Arkham Asylum). Part of Gotham City has been turned into an isolated prison by evil psychologist Hugo Strange and his private army, with super villains and gang members running amok. It’s up to Batman to not only keep the prisoners and citizens stuck in the Arkham district safe while uncovering the nefarious origin of this prison colony. Meanwhile, he’s in a race to save himself, as he was infected with the blood of a terminally ill Joker. Just a typical day in the life of Batman, with him going up against pretty much every villain of note in his rogue’s gallery.
Like I said earlier, the game play has a very quick learning curve but manages to be extremely challenging at the same time. It’s really addictive and there is a sense of accomplishment when you complete the various challenges.
On the visual side, it’s amazing. There’s so much detail in the game that the setting and environment itself is just as fun to explore as the game is to play. There’s a nice feature in the game, as Batman’s uniform gets more distressed and dirty as the game progresses.
Only adding to how great this game is its connection to Batman: The Animated Series, as the show’s mastermind Paul Dini wrote the game, and Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill respectively resume their voice work for Batman and the Joker.
Once the game was beaten, I realized that was only the tip of the iceberg. Not only do you have the chance to go back and finish any side missions you passed on, but there is additional game stories and the ability to add Catwoman, Robin and Nightwing into the mix as downloadable content, it seems like I’ll be playing this game for another year.
This really was the gift that kept on giving!
Nightwing #0 was a damn good comic book. It gives a look back to how Dick Grayson wound up joining Batman’s crusade. What I like about this is how it doesn’t attempt to create a new and radically revamped origin; it just enhances the story we already know.
Dick was an orphaned circus performer after his parents were gunned down by the mob. But how exactly did Bruce Wayne wind up getting custody of him? Quite simple; he was to hide out at Wayne Manor until his parents’ murderer was apprehended. There was a bit of a bond with Bruce and Dick, for both having gone through such an ordeal.
But what writer Tom DeFalco added to the mythology was how Dick much smarter than Bruce ever imagined, not only figuring out that he was Batman but helping bring in the murderers. Dick proved to be someone competent enough to become Batman’s partner in crime-fighting.
I like it because this felt like an old silver age story. A lot of fun and a quick read, but superb for the Batman purist.
I’ve really been making a dent in my “to read” pile. Hawk and Dove #6 is a one shot with the avatars of peace and war going on a vacation to lovely Gotham City.
They’ve been chasing the New 52-ized Blockbuster who has stolen the Amulet of Ra from the Smithsonian Institute, only to encounter and then team up with Batman and Robin. It’s part of what happens when you visit that city.
So the three birds and the bat team up to stop Blockbuster, who is working with this sorceress Necromancer to collect these mystical totems like the Amulet to get some sort of magical powers. Obviously, our heroes aren’t impressed. They save the day; Hawk and Dove are on their way back home to Washington DC.
The issue was written and drawn by Rob Liefeld and is suited to his strengths. It’s pretty much a full issue of fights and such. I did like the way he had Damien as Robin characterized as being pretty an ass. Stands up on its own decently.
This week we have two of the bigger stars of the comic book movies of this past summer in a battle for supremacy; can Captain America fight Bane.
The answer is a resounding yes. Bane may be super strong due to his Venom, but Cap has fought stronger. If he can deal with a rampaging Hulk, than Bane is cake. Not to mention, that Captain America is a way better fighter on his feet.
WINNER: Captain America
And I would go as far to say that Captain America would have never been defeated by Bane during the Knightfall story line. Obviously, Batman could defeat Bane. The villain’s only chance to win was his master plan of distracting him to exploit his vulnerability: Batman’s pride.
Batman didn’t ask for help and almost lost his life–and the city as a result. But Captain America is everyone’s favorite super hero for a reason and would have decided to call in favors for the betterment of everyone.
I didn’t read Batgirl #5 yet, but the sixth issue starts out with Bruce Wayne getting ready to clock Batgirl with a crowbar. That certainly got my attention.
Bruce was under the control of a new super villain called Gretel, whose use of mind control for lethal purposes and an obsession with killing powerful men is a huge problem. By Gotham City standards, you can’t get more manly or powerful than Bruce Wayne. So with some slick detective work and teaming up with Batman, our caped heroine is able to save the day.
If anyone needs more proof of why Gail Simone is a great writer, look no further. Gail uses a very simple, almost cliché plot of the hero preventing the murder of a public figure. But what she does with instead is uses it as a frame to contrast the two similar characters.
Both Gretel and Batgirl are survivors of gun violence. Gretel was a journalism student investigating a mob boss and wound up being shot, just as Batgirl was shot by the Joker back in The Killing Joke (which thankfully is still part of canon in the New 52). What separates the two women is what happened afterwards. Gretel was left for dead and recovered on her own, becoming extremely vengeful. Batgirl was fortunate enough to have not only the love and support of her father but of Batman as well. It’s a pretty touching story and that exists in the confines of a single issue.
Former Robin Jason Todd was pretty much known for one thing: dying. This Dick Grayson-replacement didn’t seem to resonate well with fans; they hated him to the point that the majority of fans called a 900 number in 1988 to make sure that he died at the end of the A Death In The Family storyline.
Well, maybe he wasn’t that hated. The final vote on whether he would be killed off was 5343 to 5271. But what made comic readers more upset was how he was brought back from the dead. Violating any sense of scientific (or science fiction) laws of physics, Superboy Prime’s punching his way through the cosmic walls to get back into the DC Universe proper wound up resurrecting Jason Todd. Don’t ask…if you think too much about it, you will be driven mad.
What Judd Winick attempts to do in Red Hood: Lost Days is explain what the newly reborn character has been doing since his resurrection. Jason was discovered and taken in by the League of Assassins; Ra’s al Ghul is intrigued by how he cam back from the dead while his daughter Talia wants to take care of him, as she is a connection to his beloved Batman. After he becomes enraged that Batman never avenged his death, Talia winds up bankrolling his new obsession of training to kill the Batman.
The complexities of this story all revolve around the relationships between these three characters. Talia is obsessively in love with Batman; she took Jason into her custody, as she knows that the revelation that he was alive (and pretty murderous) would destroy Batman. Unfortunately, she has wound up arming and funding Jason’s quest of killing the Batman. Things get weird romantically between Jason and Talia, with the two getting intimate. Apparently obsessing over Batman is an aphrodisiac. Unfortunately, Jason finds out that this budding romance–and all the training Talia is providing–is just meant to be a distraction to sidetrack him from his plan to murder Batman.
But as vengeful minded as Jason is, he literally can’t pull the trigger. There’s a scene where Jason is waiting for Batman to get in the Batmobile so he can detonate a trunk full of explosives. But he just can’t do it. This scene reminds me a lot of when Batman first met Jason years prior, as a kid trying to steal the tires off of the Batmobile. Jason attributes his hesitation to wanting Batman to see who killed him, but really it’s that he can’t bring himself to do it.
By the end, Winnick establishes that Jason’s death and subsequent rebirth have left him pretty emotionally unstable and sets the tone for what the character would do and did in later appearances.
Okay, another The Dark Knight Rises post. Check this piece I put together for Stylelist about the evolution of Catwoman’s costume choices on television and movies. How awesome was Julie Newmar?
Can you think of a better way to spend your birthday then seeing the final chapter of the Christopher Nolan Batman series of films? I couldn’t think of one either and spent this morning going out to see The Dark Knight Rises. Be warned; there are plenty of spoilers ahead.
The movie starts roughly eight years after The Dark Knight. Batman is still a wanted fugitive after accepting responsibility for Harvey Dent’s death, and Bruce Wayne hasn’t been seen since. The debut of a new terrorist/mercenary force lead by a new villain named Bane causes Bruce to take up the mantle of Batman for one last ride.
The result was a story that combined elements of the Knightfall, Cataclysm and No Man’s Land storylines, with Batman having to recover from a crippling defeat at the hands of Bane only to save Gotham City from certain doom after it has been cut off from the rest of civilization.
That said, I think I enjoyed this film the most. I liked how intertwined all of the characters were and pretty much everyone knew that Bruce Wayne and Batman were one and the same. At the key of this film was the complex relationships all of the characters had with each other and issues of trust. Sometimes Bruce’s trust was violated (in the case of Bruce and Miranda Tate, who turned out to be none other than Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter Tate and was seeking to avenger her father’s death from back in Batman Begins); other times it was earned (as was the case with Batman and Catwoman).
The other theme in The Dark Knight Rises is moving on. Alfred urged to Bruce that someday he would have to give up being Batman and have a chance to have a normal life. Bruce somehow manages to do that at the end of the film; saving the city and seemingly dying in an explosion. It’s a fitting end for the Batman persona, as he not only saves the city he so dearly cares about but finally sees the impact that he had on its citizens, as they openly mourned the loss of their dark protector. This allows him to resurface in Europe with Catwoman, who was also searching for a chance to start over, and start a normal life.
Although this is the end of the film series, they leave an opening for a new Batman to guard the city. Detective Blake (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) knew that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one in the same, and did everything in his power to help the vigilante come back to save the city from Bane. At the end of the film, he gets given access to Batman’s arsenal of crime fighting equipment.
There’s a whole bunch more I can talk about on this film but I need some time to digest. So what did you think about this?
Electronics company Nokia of all places posted this new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film looks epic. I really like how it doesn’t look like a typical super hero or comic book movie. But there is one thing that doesn’t make me happy.
Bane’s mask looks ridiculous. I have a bad feeling that when I see the movie that my hatred for it is going to distract me the whole time. They better explain why it is so cheasy looking.
Anyway, the movie comes out on July 20. You can all celebrate my birthday by going out and seeing it.
Wow. Grant Morrison’s Batman Incorporated was mind-blowingly fun. The story picks up with Bruce Wayne travelling the world to add to Batman Incorporated, his non-profit foundation that supplies/arms crime fighters that he feels follow his views on vigilante-ism: basically keeping the world safe without excessive violence/murder.
This collection has Batman travelling around the world to both recruit and follow-up on his charges. The first two issues takes Batman to Japan with Catwoman on an attempt to recruit the local hero Mister Unknown, only to avenge his death at the hands of Lord Death Man with the help of Unknown’s sidekick.
From that point on the story explodes into a Pollock-esque explosion of Morrisonian goodness. Batman travels through South America to meet with the Argentinian hero El Gaucho, leading to a global search with Batwoman, Batwing and the rest of Batman Incorporated leading them to find out that the new mysterious organization Leviathan, which is led by Batman’s enemy/baby mama Talia ah Ghul.
The best part of Morrison’s work here is that the story is so complex. I’ve read and reread this over, and I still find new clues and things that stick out at me. There’s a fun little subplot story with Batman teaming up with Chief Man-of-Bats.
There’s a lot going on here and it continues in the new series Batman Incorporated that just started. I’ll definitely be checking that one out.
I guess I’ve been on a bit of a DC infinite Heroes kick of late, so let’s at the Justice Society of America’s resident pugilist-turned-crimefighter Wildcat!
Inspiration for the project came from The Brave and the Bold #127. This back issue from 1976 has Batman teaming up with Wildcat to stop the villainous El Zapatero who is running a smuggling ring specializing in humans among other things. The art in this book was done by the late Jim Aparo. His work on the title during this period is just awesome. You can find some of his original art for sale over at the Artist’s Choice.
I made two other versions, a little more effect heavy, but I like the unedited version. Here are the other two for your viewing pleasure.
So why would I make a pitting the two against each other? It turns out that they have a history with each other.
Remember how young Bruce Wayne went off on a journey to train himself to be the worlds greatest detective and hand-to-hand combatant? He made it a point to train with Wildcat, who as Ted Grant was one of the top professional boxers in the DC Universe.
Whether Wildcat knows Batman’s secret identity is unclear to me. They could have trained together under the guise of Bruce Wayne wanting to learn from Grant just as easy as Batman learning from a legendary hero. Who knows. So who would win in a fight?
Obviously Batman, as his fighting style is a bit more varied than the primarily boxing-based Wildcat. But all Wildcat needs is to land one punch and the dark knight will be looking at the stars.
Today we’re going to share a Photoshop procedural, starring the DC Universe Infinite Heroes Batman action figure! This line of Mattel action figures were pretty cool, although they were slightly smaller and lacked some of the articulation of the Hasbro line of Marvel Universe toys. I like the Batman figure because of its simple design, reminding me of the Dick Grayson-as-Batman from the Batman and Robin series, save for him not having the Batman logo belt buckle. Sometimes I like the yellow and black bat shield, but this larger, more subtle icon.
For this photo project, I took a picture of Batman in front of a cityscape shot that I found online. I took the picture with Batman right in front of the LCD display on my desktop. Doing this is a lot easier than superimposing him over the background image. The trick is to make sure your camera is focusing just on Batman instead of the whole background. That helps make a sense of depth.
I wanted to do something in black and white, because I was looking through the Batman: Black and White book the other day at Barnes and Noble. First step was to convert the image to black and white and I played around with some of the contrast settings. Next I duplicated the layer and used the motion and radial blurs, followed by the feathered erase to have Batman popping out.
I decided that I wanted to make an old comic book or magazine cover, so I lifted the “Batman” comic mast-head, the old DC and Comics Code indica from an actual Batman cover. I wanted to make this really beat up, so I added a scratched up texture to the image. This was done by finding a scratched up texture on Google, adding it as a new layer on top, switching it to “Multiply” mode and lowering the opacity.
I really wanted to make it look even more beaten up. Enter Pixlr-O-Matic. This site lets you apply Instagram like color processing and all kinds of effects to your photos. It’s free and web-based.
I played around with the settings to make it look like it was extremely beat up. Voila! We’ve made a really, really b eat up old Batman comic book cover!
Then you can use the picture for fun stuff, like the time Power Man and Iron Fist were walking around down-town Taipei reading a reprint of it!
To me, it’s always been a weird character point that the Green Arrow was a chili aficionado. I don’t know why, but it always struck me as odd. So how exactly does he go about making it?
After years of being mentioned, his recipe was finally featured in 2002’s Green Arrow Secret Files & Origins #1. I’ve actually made it. While it’s darn tasty, its freaking hot. How hot is it? So hot that its a running joke that the only people who enjoy it are Green Arrow (because its his recipe) and Batman (because he’s crazy tough).
This leaves me with the question of who on the DC staff at the time actually came up with this recipe?
Are you unhappy with the New 52 relaunch DC did this past fall? Blame the Flash. Last year’s Flashpoint crossover set up the new continuity and it was all the scarlet speedster’s fault.
As critical as I can be about Geoff Johns, this was an awesome story. A lot of the Flash’s life is tied to the death of his mother and the subsequent framing of his father. This led Barry Allen to pursue a career in criminal investigation to prove his dad’s innocence, and we all remember how he got zapped by lightning in the police lab one night.
Flash has a seemingly fool-proof plan to make everything in his life great; he will go back in time (since, you know, he can run through the timestream) and save his mother. Unfortunately, Flash messes up big time. Flash shows up in a new war-torn reality where there is no Justice League, and there is a looming Atlanteans/Amazons war. Allied with the Batman of this world–Thomas Wayne, since in this it was only Bruce’s father who survived–Flash attempts to fix the continuity. He battles with his arch-enemy Professor Zoom, who is a bit of a red herring as to why everything has happened. The villain reveals that everything was Flash’s doing, which causes our hero to go back in time and stop himself. This causes everything to be reset and now we have the New 52.
What I liked best about this was the whole Thomas Wayne as Batman subplot with him being this super vengeful hero, but I guess it isn’t to be. The ending is really touching, as Flash returns to the New 52 verse which is the new normal. He shares a letter with Batman from his father. Awe…
Ridiculously Awesome 