Halloween Scene: The Batman Vs. Dracula (2005)

Did anyone else watch The Batman? It was a pretty rad cartoon that got off to a slow start in my opinion. What bogged the show down, for me, was that the first season or so just introduced all of the various Batman villains, something I've seen in several incarnations over my many years of being a Batfan. It eventually went on to feature Batgirl and Robin, team up the various villains with each other and even bring in the Justice League. It wasn't up to the same caliber as Batman: The Animated Series or as fun as Batman: Brave and the Bold, but it was a fun little series from the episodes I saw (it lasted 5 seasons, one of which included an awesome rendition of Dark Knight Returns). The figures they put out were super cool too.

What first grabbed my attention about the series though was this straight-to-DVD movie which pitted Bats against everyone's favorite vampire. I had heard it was pretty good, but never got around to watching it until last night as I played a little Russian roulette with my NetBox queue and landed on or near it. And it was pretty freakin rad. You never know with something like this how vampy it will get. It is a WB cartoon afterall and these are the guys who edited the crap out of the Batman Beyond: The Return Of The Joker movie (another one I need to check out, which is also on NetBox).

So, no, you don't get full-on scenes of Batman staking vampires, but you do see vamp versions of The Joker and Vicky Vale and Batman fighting off the undead with batarangs. Batman of course develops a cure for vampirism that he injects into every single vampire in a fight scene straight out of the Arkham Asylum game (but, you know, three years early).

Lack of blood and guts aside, this is a super fun movie. You know how a lot of vampire (especially Dracula movies, like 1979's Dracula) are really boring in the beginning? Well, with this one, you start with an Akrham breakout, action with Joker and Penguin (Penguin goes on to take the Renfield role), Dracula hunting victims, a party at Wayne Manor that Drac attends, Batman fighting Drac, Batman fighting VampJoker and the big final battle. The fight scenes are rad, on the level of JLU and it's especially fun seeing Batman actually losing his first fight with Dracula. It's even more fun to see the vamp-fighting gear that he and Alfred develop to level the playing field and give Batman the final victory. Speaking of the final fight, it's a hard fought one for Batman and Alfred that includes a pretty great "smoke clearing reveal" scene and Batman getting a pretty fantastic one-liner in before, well, before the end. I don't want to spoil it as it's pretty cool.

All in all, it's probably one of the better Dracula movies I've seen (at least one of the more action-packed ones)and it gave me something I didn't think I'd ever seen in animated form: Batman fighting a vampire Joker. Plus, it's an easy 83 minute watch and it's on instant watch, what more do you need?

[post does not go on]
Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

Wow. A lot went down this weekend. Agent_M himself got married as you probably know because everyone on the internet is friends with Ryan (as we call him in the real world). Ben posted this great pic of a bunch of us former Wizardites up at Cool Kids Table. I'll post mine as soon as I figure out why my phone and new laptop aren't syncing up.

In other good-news-for-my-buddies news, Sean will be joining the Robot 6 crew this week, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

One nice thing about being home all day is that I get to watch a lot of TV and movies (probably way too much, no, definitely way too much). Last week SyFy (bleck) did a Twilight Zone marathon which may or may not have inspired the i09 crew to do this 6 Important Life Lessons From The Twilight Zone list. I completely agree with all 6 points.

Newsarama did a feature on Mike Mignola where he dropped this very good bit of news for fans of his work:

“I will continue to co-write BPRD with John Arcudi and continue writing Hellboy for Duncan Fegredo, but besides that my main thing is going back to drawing stories myself,” said the career cartoonist. And the first project I want to do is some stories that will act as companion pieces to The Amazing Screw-On Head. Not with the character itself, but set in that kind of world. The plan is to put out a collection of three stories under the banner Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects.”

There's no such thing as too much Mignola.

As I've mentioned before here and here, I'm a big fan of Kelley Jones' artwork so the news from The Source about him and Doug Moench working on a new Batman book called The Unseen. Can't wait!


Oh, DO go on.

The Box: Batman vs Predator II #4 & Defenders #119

For the full rundown of what The Box is all about, check this out. This week's picks (I went with two because I had some spare time and felt like trying my luck again) are Batman vs. Predator II #4 and The Defenders #119. One thing I forgot to mention before is that, as you can clearly see in the picture, there are actually two boxes ("The Boxes" just doesn't have the same kind of ring). Also the box that's completely full of comics is full of Marvel, the less full one is mostly DC and Dark Horse with some incredibly random stuff thrown in (there's even a copy of Spawn #1).

Alright, enough explaining of things. Let's get into the comic reviews. First up is BVPII #4 from 1994 which was written by Doug Moench and drawn by Paul Gulacy. I'm 90% sure I haven't read this series before. I have read--and own--the original and more Predator comics than I care to admit (or am able to remember), but I'm still thinking this one wasn't on the list. I'm glad I snagged the last issue and not a random one in the middle (I think there's a few more in the box, but I'm not sure). Anyway, you pretty much get the full story right here even though there's nothing like a flashback to catch newbies up. Batman's got a contract out on him while one Predator is attacking Gotham. Meanwhile, another Predator is there to stop the bad one. I'm not sure what makes him bad, as Predators all love to hunt humans. Unlike the first volume there's some government dudes in weird costumes and Huntress is involved. It's not a great comic, but the last bunch of pages were a lot of fun as the poo hits the fan and we get our final battle. Maybe I'll check the trade out online.

And now we have The Defenders #119 by Steven Grant and Sal Buscema which has a cover date of May 1983. Having only ever read one Defenders comic (the first issue of Erik Larsen's series), I was glad to find out that, even though the issue number was so high, this was actually a "never told story" that takes places between issues #68 and #69. That might not seem like much help, but, apparently at this time, the team still consisted of the main members I'm vaguely familiar with: Namor, Dr. Strange, Hulk, Hellcat, Valkyrie and Nighthawk (who apparently died right before this issue came out). The flashback shows us a tale of Yandroth taking mental control of most of the Defenders only to have them fight the ones who aren't controlled in the end. When I first looked at the cover it was just a glance and I read the text "MARVEL SUPER-HEROES BATTLE SIDE BY SIDE AGAINST...EACH OTHER." I thought "Awesome, big huge fight issue. Then I looked at it a little closer and saw that Namor, Clea and Dr. Strange were on the opposing side. That's not really that interesting of a stand-off and unfortunately the issue mimicked those sentiments. I guess the real point of this story is that Nighthawk's nurse Luann Bloom was actually a robot, spying on him for a shadowy organization yet to be revealed. All of which would make a lot more sense if I knew anything about the Defenders. Oh well, it was a fun enough issue to read and did make me curious about checking out other Defenders comics.
Oh, DO go on.

Halloween Scene: Batman Haunted Gotham (2000)

Welcome to October folks! I'm just barely making it in under the wire here, but my goal is to have a Halloween Scene (or at least one) up every day of October so here we go. Today's installment is on a trade I picked up called Batman: Haunted Gotham. Originally printed as four 48 page issues, this Doug Moench-written and Kelley Jones-drawn mini-series takes a look at an alternate reality in which Gotham is literally haunted. It's kind of like Bette Noire from Fallen Angel.

Anyway, in this version of the Batman story, Bruce looses his parents, who happen to be part of a group trying to keep the dark forces at bay, as an adult after they've trained him his whole life to take up the mantle of the bat as Gotham's protector. What I really like about this story--essentially an Elseworlds, but I'm not sure if it was every officially labeled as such--is that not every relationship from regular Batman continuity is the same regardless of the universe. Yes Batman is aided by Alfred and Gordon and there's a Catwoman-type character, but there's enough differences and new characters that things don't feel rote.

Another thing that helps keep these stories interesting is Jones' awesome art. I've talked about liking him before when I wrote about Batman comics last October, and my opinions haven't changed. No one draws a spooky Batman like Jones and Moench's story offers him plenty of other horror themes to try his hand at: werewolf assassins, demons, ghosts, talking skeletons, an even more Gothic Gotham, and Jones just runs with it.

I will say that this is one of the few trades I've read and realized that it would have probably read better in single issues (or at least in fewer settings). The first two issues show as Bruce becoming Batman and facing off against a Frankenstein-like Joker (another interesting alteration of the mythos), then the second issue goes off on a tangent about a snake god and then with the last issue we're back to the story elements from the first two issues. It's a bit strange that a four issues series would have time to take a tangent like that, but I guess it's better to expand the world than stretch the story for no creative reason.

All in all I dug this book. It's not scary by any means, but it's a fun read if you take your time.
Oh, DO go on.

Halloween Scene: Batman Arkham Asylum

Without really knowing I was getting there, I finished Batman: Arkham Asylum the other day. I guess I had longer to go because I was only 70-something% done with the game, but I guess that includes all the secret Riddler trophies, character files and interview tapes. All in all, this game is as rad as everyone said it is, but I was still surprised at the intense horror elements in the game: bodies littered all over the place, monsters, trippy nightmare sequences, armies of weird looking dudes all trying to kill you, mountains of doll or human body parts. Even Scarecrow gets a Freddy Krueger makeover, with injection hand and everything. Plus, there's a last minute, Carrie-like hand pop scene at the very end of the credits. But the game isn't perfect.

My biggest problem with the game is the opening 5-10 minutes. It's a glorified cut scene with you controlling Batman walking alongside the newly incarcerated Joker as credits roll. Now, I don't play a ton of video games, but I don't think this is common practice (the credits). My real problem with this is that you have to control Batman, but all he can do is walk. Why not just make it a cut scene, pretty it up and let me enjoy Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker again. This was not a great way to start things off.

Another aspect of the game that I wasn't crazy about, but got used to, was the fighting mechanic. There's basically a punch button, a counter and a dodge. It really frustrates me when there's no basic jump button in a game. I guess I'm just old fashioned that way, but it bothers me. Anyway, when fighting you've got a few combinations and it turns into a button masher mixed with a rhythm game as you need to hit the counter button at the exact right time. Like I said, at first this was kind of boring, but then I realized that I can't remember long streams of combo moves anyway, so this was perfect for me. That doesn't mean I'm great at it, but it's still fun. Plus you've got all the gadgets, though I do wish there would have been some explosive batarangs. You know, cause blowing shit up is cool. I really thought about just unlocking all the goodies with a cheat code, but decided instead to just go through the game the way it was designed (though I'm betting it would have been more fun from the beginning to have everything).

Aside from those minor complaints, this game is fantastic and it looks gorgeous. I would gladly watch the events of this game roll out as a CGI movie, even after just playing it. Let's get the newly formed DC Entertainment on that! I'm hoping this is the future of comic-based games. The thing that developers have to realize is that, just because a comic might star a superhero, doesn't mean you have to make a superhero game. AA feels like it's a few steps away from the creepiness of something like Resident Evil or Silent Hill and just happens to star some of the most recognizable characters in the universe. I'd also like to see someone get their hands on the Green Lanterns and do an epic space game. Oh, or a WWII game with Captain America. Or a Nick Fury spy game. The possibilities are endless, especially when you take the concept and look at it from all angles.

Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

Gallery 1988 has a new show called Call of the Wild, you should definitely check it out. Here's a few of my favorites.



According to Toy News International, Hot Toys will be making Inglourious Basterds figures. I probably won't be able to afford, them, but they'll be super cool. Still haven't seen the movie, hopefully tomorrow night.

My buddy Alejandro pointed out this rad site to me called Squirrelizer. The idea is that you upload a photo and it puts a squirrel in it.

Seems like Jim had a much more localized version of My Epic Journey this morning.

In a weird twist of fate, I just read that 28 Weeks Later writer/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has been tapped for the Bioshock movie. I haven't played Bioshock, but it looks bonkers-crazy. Sounds like a good match. (via /Gamer)

Do yourself a favor and check out the wild and crazy website for Genius' Maneater Series of animals/mythical-creatures-eating-humans DVDs. First of all, marvel at the scariest looking swamp EVER. Then, as an added bonus, drag your mouse over the various carnivores for them to make a scary sound AND get details on the DVD.

Finally, check out Sean's Blackest Night review. He addresses a lot of the "pacing problems" that some people have with the series. Personally I agree and think that, even though this has been built to for a few years now, it's not against the law to have a bit of a slow burn story that will most likely reach epic proportions in the next issue or two. Plus, in a first in many years, I'm enjoying EVERYTHING related to this series, though I've only been looking at the pretty pictures in those Tales of the GLC issues.
Oh, DO go on.

Ad It Up: The Return of Clayface!!!

This little ditty comes to you from Major Bummer #5, October of 1997, just like last week's. It sums up why I wish I had all of my old back issues with me here in New York and why I love comics from this time so much. Can you imagine such a big push for the return of Clayface nowadays? Well, probably not because he seems to be popping up every three months or so, but who's counting? Heck, I even tried to count, but there are six Clayfaces listed on The Comic Book Database:

Clayface (01 - Basil Karlo) -
Clayface (02 - Matthew Hagen) -
Clayface (03 - Preston Payne) -
Clayface (04 - Sondra Fuller) -
Clayface (05 - Cassius Clay) -
Clayface (06 - Johnny Williams)

That is way too much research to deal with. Anyway, I also love that this ad is trying to bolster excitement for Batman #550 for a brand new character called Chase. I remember the push behind Chase much more than the actual stories in these comics (which are in my boxes back home) and was pretty happy when Chase showed up in Manhunter (even though I didn't read that book much) and more recently in the fantastic Final Crisis: Escape, a book I don't understand, but am in love with. Plus, how cool is it that two of the artists for the comic she debuted in are Kelly Jones and JH Williams III? I wish I could get them to draw me! Ah, good times.
Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

I gathered most of these links last Friday, but got a bit lazy and haven't posted them till today. They're still worth a look, I think.

This one's from today and it's about Tarantino's movie universes. Apparently there's some linkage between Inglorious Basterds and the Tarantino-written True Romance. Very cool. And as I've said before (when I've incorrectly guessed the release date of the movie at least twice) I can't wait for this movie. (via /Film)

Please, please do yourself a favor and check out the best and worst nerdy pick-up lines the female readers of Topless Robot have heard
. They're amazingly hilarious and sometimes even sweet.


A week or two back, BC at Horror Movie A Day reviewed Sea Beast, which I watched and had nearly identical thoughts on. Instead of posting a similar review, I figured I'd just link to his.

Ben Morse has posted all of his ridiculously awesome Nova sketchbook here, here and here. Everyone's talking about how cool the Jim Lee one, which is totally true, but I think Ethan Van Sciver's (below) is my favorite.



According to DC's The Source blog, John Carpenter wrote the intro to Steve Niles and Kelley Jones' Gotham After Midnight trade. I talked about this crazy awesome horror comics here, but lost track of the rest of the issues and can't wait to read it in trade.

I never knew what it was called, but I've always loved the "cut/slide" moment in a movie (usually horror). It's the part where after someone gets sliced in some manner, their diced body part slowly slides down the line of the cut. Thanks to /Film for explaining and drawing my attention to this highly violent video.



Wired posted this awesome picture of an early concept model of the Apollo lander. I love this kind of stuff. I wonder if these dudes were heavily into sci-fi.



Here's another one from Wired.com's science pages, a group of Canadian mathematicians developed an equation for dealing with a zombie outbreak. As someone who has figured out the best place to hole up given several locations in my daily life (the Palisades Mall is number 1 if you can get it fortified, it even has an ice rink!), I can definitely appreciate these guys trying and succeeding to get credit for such geekery.

Finally, check out the "10 Horrible Paintings from Atari 2600 Game Box Art" list over at Topless Robot, as always, it's a hoot.
Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets (I like this title better, don't you?)

First off, everyone give thanks, Ben Morse is okay after his surgery. He also had the foresight to ask his fiance to take pictures, check 'em out. Get well soon playah.

How can you not be excited for Batman Arkham Asylum?



I don't think I'll ever get enough of artists drawing/painting/sculpting interpretations of pop culture figures. If I could draw or paint, this is pretty much all I would do. Check out Rivet's "We'll be Right Back..." show. Below are my three favorites, but they're all rad. Huge bonus points because they're located in Columbus, Ohio which is about 45 minutes from where I went to college (via The Autumn Society.)







Speaking of cool pop culture artists, check out Dennis J. Reinmüller's cover of Wolverine #104 over on Covered (my absolute favorite art blog).



Sam's completely right, Raquel Welch is super hot. She makes some good points about other stuff too, but man...that's a great pic.

And finally, my buddy Jesse Thompson over at Maxim.com
found this 1-900 horror commercial:


Oh, DO go on.

Wanted: My Third Favorite Comic Movie of 2008

2008-12-16
3:41:04 am

Yup, I said it. Of course Dark Knight and Iron Man were the cat's pajamas, but what movie holds the third spot in my heart for this year? Well, without thinking about it too much (and not doing any real research), Wanted, which I saw for the first time this weekend on DVD easily takes the bronze cake. I also saw Incredible Hulk, which I found to be generally boring and mostly uninspired, and Hellboy II, which Rickey just watched. I share his sentiments and you can check out my comments over there for a few specifics.

Even though I liked Wanted for all of it's action movie craziness, I gotta say, I'm not a fan of the comic. I'm not a big fan of the idea of raping various women showing how much of a bad ass you are. We get it already, he's not held by society's rules. Plus, I found the end of the comic to be pretty dull, even though we were kind of influenced by it for the recent Secret Invasion TTT over in ToyFare.

Fun fact for those of you who might not know already, the screenwriters actually started writing the script after the first issue came out, but before the rest of the issues. They apparently came up with a lot of the same themes and plot points which I found very interesting. If you're interested in hearing them talk about their experiences writing the script check out the interview done with them on the Creative Screenwriting Magazine podcast via iTunes (I've enjoyed a lot of the podcast interviews on there). Anyway, that explains the differences in the plot, which include them not being supervillains among other things.

So, what I liked about the movie is that they just kind of went crazy with it. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole "loom of fate" idea, but whatever, it's just a goofy plot point that didn't bother or intrigue me, it just kind of sat there. I've always been a fan of stories where it turns out that a normal dude is actually really special (and in this case a born assassin) and Jame McAvoy plays the roll very well, going from schlub to annoying new guy to total badass (how can you not love the scene where he tells off his boss?). But beyond that, I also really like just how good these assassins are at their craft. They're not just good enough to shoot a dude from what looks like hundreds of city blocks away, but they can flip one car over another and shoot a dude through the sun roof. It's just a lot of fun and I had fun watching it.

Of course, it's not a perfect movie. It would have been cool to see them as villains, but hey that's just my inner geek talking. There's also a scene where James is chasing this dude who he thinks killed his dad and out of nowhere all of the other assassins that we know (Common, Angelina Jolie, a few others, but not Morgan Freeman) and things just go crazy. Why were they there? I really didn't get that and I don't think that it got explained even with the twist ending (which I was expecting, but Em even called it before the reveal). I also thought the twist got a little confusing. If he did what McAvoy says he did, then who's to say he wasn't lying about the other ones? That will make sense, if you've seen the movie and you're thinking of the library scene towards the end of the movie. Oh, also, McAvoy's assault at the end is freaking sweet even if I'm still not quite sure how he got them to explode.

I guess I should comment on the other stars. Morgan Freeman definitely elevates what's probably not a very good role on paper (as you'd expect). Common's pretty cool as the Gunsmith. I think this is the first movie I've seen him in. I wouldn't mind seeing him as Green Lantern John Stewart, as he was potentially cast in the Justice League movie. And then of course there's Angelina Jolie. She's one of those actresses that I'm not a big fan of until I actually see her in something. I've got this kind of mental block about her (probably because I don't like the person I see on TV and whatnot), but then I think about Hackers and Gone in 60 Seconds and I dig those movies, so I guess I like her.

So, in the end, congrats to Wanted for getting my coveted (heh, who am I kidding?) third place in my 2008 comic book movie list (I'm sure I'm missing something, but maybe not). But watch out, I still haven't seen Punisher: War Zone, which I'm hoping will fill the same kind of niche (I love Dolph's original and it looks like WZ follows in its footsteps pretty well, though without the Shakespeare-quoting drunk bum).

Oh, DO go on.

Halloween Scene: Batman Comics

2008-10-05
3:49:45 pm

A year or two ago the folks at Wizard decided to do a story of the 25 scariest moments in comics. I kind of had a problem with this because I've never really been scared by a comic, I'm not sure if it has to do with the format or what, but it's never happened. But that doesn't mean I haven't read some generally creepy stories in comic book form. Recently I've read some pretty cool Batman-related stories that had a good horror elements. For the ongoing series' I'm probably still an issue or two behind, so take that into account, but here we go.

BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT

This is a 12-issue series written by Steve Niles and drawn by Kelley Jones. I'm not a big fan of Niles, so Jones was the big draw for me here. His art on Batman around Knightfall was the first time I realized that artists had different styles. No one draws a more over-the-top, creepy Batman then him in my book. And that's basically what this book is, crazy and over the top. #3 was the last one I read in which the creepy zombie-looking villain convinces Clayface that, if he actually consumes people, he can grow to giant size. It's a pretty cool concept that I haven't seen done before but really makes sense. There are all kinds of over-the-top moments in the first three issues (Jones' Batcave looks like a smelting factory, Batman's building a giant robot suit just in case). Some people find it ridiculous, but to me that's part of the fun.

JOKER'S ASYLUM

A little while ago DC put out these one-shots under the Joker's Asylum banner showcasing Batman's biggest villains, probably to tie into the movie because they came out so far ahead of Halloween. I read all of them, but I particularly liked the Scarecrow and Penguin issues.

Scarecrow was written by Joe Harris and drawn by super awesome fantastic artist Juan Doe. With Joker taking on the Crypt Keeper role in all these books, we get presented with a slasher-like tale of a young, nerdy girl getting invited to the popular girl's sleepover with nefarious intent. It turns out that the girl's shrink is actually the Scarecrow, who convinces the nerdy girl to go to the party. While she's there, Scarecrow hunts down the teenagers and poisons them with his fear toxin. It's probably the best slasher-movie-in-comic-form story I've ever read and it's all done concisely in one issue. And boy oh boy is Juan Doe's art fantastic. It's a kind of angular cartoony style that still captures the eeriness of the scene. He also does some really cool little things like taking the old Joker face from his early appearances and using them as decorations on the Joker's pajamas in the opening scene. Harris also sets up a possible future villain in the form of Lindsay, the nerdy girl. And one last thing, bonus points to Harris for referencing Mean Girls and Heathers (Heather's the mean girl and Lindsay is the nerdy girl, after Lohan I assume). Well done all around.

The other Joker's Asylum story I really dug is the Jason Aaron written and Jason Pearson drawn Penguin one-shot. It's more of an EC revenge tale than a horror story, but it offers probably the best representation of the Penguin I've ever seen. If you think that he's too ridiculous of a character to be a good villain in the next Batman movie, just read this issue and you'll see what I mean. Instead of being an active threat to people we find that Penguin is much more behind-the-scenes in how his revenge plays out. There's also a fun nod to one of the most over-done elements in Batman comics that I loved. Penguin's day dreaming about his new lady friend while Batman's beating up on his bodyguards. When he's done Batman says "Just remember that I'll be watching" to which Penguin responds "Yes, yes...see you next week." As anyone who's been reading Batman comics for a while, Penguin currently owns the Ice Berg Lounge where he's considered a legitimate business man, but Batman still routinely comes there, knocks his guys around and tell Penguin he's watching him. It's gotten old fast for us Batman fans and this was, to me at least, a way of poking a little fun at that.

SIMON DARK VOL. 1 TPB

Like I said above, I'm not a big Steve Niles fan, but lately he's been writing some pretty good comics, so maybe my tune is changing. What I first thought was a retelling of the Frankenstein tale has kind of morphed into something much more involving dark magic and other craziness all set in the backdrop of Gotham City. But don't expect Batman to pop up every issue, in fact, I don't think he shows up in this trade at all. I've read most of the issues after this one and still dig the story, even if it does drag out a little. A big, big part ambiance of the story definitely comes from artist Scott Hampton. Looking at it actually makes me feel cold. That's really the best way I can describe it. Crisp. I think Simon may be my favorite new, non-legacy character from last year, especially as he finds more and more out about his weird past.

BATMAN FACES TPB

Really the only reason I even picked this book up is because of Matt Wagner. I'm a big big fan of Mage and really hopes he does the third and final miniseries. So, while waiting for that I decided to give this Batman/Two-Face story a while and I really enjoyed it. Basically Two-Face is trying to take over an island that Bruce Wayne wants to buy and start a new country with a bunch of European sideshow freaks. I laughed as soon as I saw them because I had JUST watched Freaks. It's another one of those great coincidences like when you're flipping through channels, stop on a History Channel or Discovery show about something you've never really heard of and then it comes up in conversation the next day. I love when that happens. The story itself isn't all that surprising, but Wagner does some great thing with his art (like a Family Circus-style dotted line splash or the page consisting of a track). The big draw is Wagner's art, especially his interpretation of classics like Batman and Two-Face and the freak characters. It's more about the smaller moments, like how the freaks react at the very end of the story than the big plot stuff, but all in all it's a really enjoyable story.

Oh, DO go on.

Making a (Thrill)Killing

2008-07-11
7:36:26 pm

So, every few months I have a few beers and start clearing off my trade shelf to make room for new stuff. But I don't just automatically get rid of things. Sure there's a pile of books I'm going to throw up on Swap or see if any of my buddies need, but I also make another stack of books that I want to re-read to see if they deserve that place on my shelf. Batman: Thrillkiller was one of the books on the chopping block. What did I think? Read on...

Batman: Thrillkiller (1997)

Written by Howard Chaykin

Art by Dan Brereton

I'll put it this way, Thrillkiller is heading back to my shelf.

Here's the deal, Thrillkiller is an Elseworlds book, which was a stamp that DC put on out of continuity books that took familiar concepts and put a different spin on them. This one obviously focuses on Batman, but it doesn't start with Batman, instead, we get a load of Batgirl and Robin in the early '60s. Batgirl is still the daughter of James Gordon and Robin is still acrobat Dick Grayson (though his real family name is different), but instead of Bruce Wayne living in Wayne Manor, Barbara lives there and has created her own batcave below. I'm not really sure where she got her money, but I assume it's from her mother who got murdered. Little Barbara found her with a bat-shaped blood pool around her (hence Batgirl). Also, Chaykin calls her a madcap heiress way too many times.

Batgirl and Robin walk the mean streets of Gotham standing up for the little guy, but not against your average supervillains. They're butting heads with the corrupt cops of Gotham. But not all the cops are bad guys, take Bruce Wayne for instance. His parents lost their fortune in the depression and went on to get murdered by their servants. He's been tasked by Jim Gordon (another good cop) to both stop the corruption and bring Batgirl and Robin to justice.

I actually don't want to get too into the story in case you want to check it out and see for yourself, which I highly recommend. I will say one thing about the trade, though, that confused me. I thought the book was made up of a four-issue series when it's actually a three-issue series and a one-shot put out later. Which explains why the last chapter of the book seems separate but equal to the previous ones.

Okay, here's what I like about the book. First up, the art. Dan Brereton has an somewhat exaggerated yet super-sexy style that really appeals to me. Back in my younger con-going days (1999 to be exact) I met Dan at either the Mid Ohio Con in Columbus or the convention in Novi, MI. He drew me this rad Harley Quinn sketch for free and also gave me the great suggestion of getting two sketchbooks in order to maximize your sketch-getting potential.

So, yeah there's a little nastalgia for the first creator that ever talked to me like a real person and did something cool for me, but I also really like Dan's style. You should check out Nocturnals sometime.

Anyway, I'm also a big fan of this time period. As Chaykin says in the first issue, this is a pre-JFK assassination '60s. Things are going crazy, the cops are corrupt, but the country still has the spirit that seemed get squeezed out when JFK got killed. Chaykin really captures the mood of the times and even uses what seems like language of fiction from the time in his narration.

But what I really like about this Elseworlds tale is that the relationships aren't just assumed. In a lot of Superman EW tales, Superman always falls in love with Lois. In this case, Bruce Wayne isn't rich, he doesn't even start off as Batman. And even though Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson are together, it's a whole different dynamic than what you're used to in the comics. Also, the villains were changed, some more drastically than others. Joker is a woman, there's a dirty cop called Duell that looks like Two-Face, but then there's also Harvey Dent the DA. You've even got Black Canary and Roy Harper showing up in the one-shot. Oh and Catwoman is a stripper. But even though the characters' circumstances are different, you still feel like you know Bruce Wayne because he's a tough guy who's out for justice and doesn't mind busting a few skulls to get it.

Oh, DO go on.

The Joke's on Them

2008-07-02
3:51:10 pm

Sometimes books get a bad wrap. Joker's Last Laugh is definitely one of those. Frankly, the mandatory tie-ins did become way to0 much, but I just finished reading the main mini-series for the first time and actually liked it. So here goes the review of

Batman: The Joker's Last Laugh (2001)

Written by Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty

Drawn by Pete Woods, Marcos Martin, Walter McDaniel, Andy Kuhn, Ron Randall & Rick Burchett

Starring The Joker, Nightwing, Batman, Oracle, Black Canary, a legion of Joker-ized super-villains and Shilo Norman, the dude who used to be and now is Mr. Miracle (kinda/maybe)

So, here's the basic plot of the story: Joker finds out he's dying, so he sets this elaborate plan in motion to poison a huge number of villains in the DCU with a gas that makes them go crazy Joker-style. There's a lot of twists and turns along the way, including (SPOILER) the fact that the Joker's not really dying (it was a prank pulled on him by a doctor in the Slab) and that Nightwing beats the Joker to death. Yup, it's true. But someone else (Batman, Spoiler, Robin, Nightwing or Huntress, we're not sure) actually brings him back. Crazy right?

What really interests me about this story is that it doesn't really feel like a big crossover. It doesn't star a big character, except for Joker himself I guess (Batman's hardly in it). Nightwing, Oracle and Shilo Norman, who was in charge of security for The Slab at the time, and, obviously Joker, all take center stage at times. But Joker gets the most face time, making him the real star. And a villain as the star of a big crossover like this is really interesting.

As the star, Joker shines. Dixon and Beatty give him a great, crazy, ingenious voice and we really get to see how smart of a villain he is. Not only did he figure out the chemistry involved in turning the Slab's nerve gas into Joker gas, but he continues to use the supervillains and their powers as tools to continue his assault on humanity. He even continually kills Multi-Man (who gets a new superpower every time he dies and comes back to life) until he gets the right power to bust them out of prison.

I'm also a fan of the art. Pete Woods and Marcos Martin especially bring their style to the wacky world of the Joker and it really fits well. Even though a different artist handles each issue and they each have fairly unique styles and inkers, the book still retains a fun, fluid continuity from issue to issue.

And really, I think that's why I liked Joker's Last Laugh, it's fun. Which is weird to say about a story staring a lunatic facilitating untold murders (and even lighting enough fires on the earth that the JLA could see a sneering smiley face from the Watchtower). In the end, the DCU is pretty much the same as it was before the story started, but Nightwing and Oracle have definitely been changed and God only knows what's going on in the Joker's mind. Oh, the Slab also ended up in the South Pole due to some weird teleportation thanks to Black Mass. I do kind of hope that DC puts out a companion book, though, because it seems like there's some fairly important plot points that took place in other issues (like Robin going up against Killer Croc which results in Nightwing thinking he's dead), but for the most part, LL is a complete story that kept me entertained and reminded me about how different comics were even 7 years ago. Can you imagine this creative team doing a line-wide crossover now?

Oh, DO go on.