#Gotham Season 3 Finale review

[maizethecorn]

Harley Quinn season 4 review/spoilers and links/trivia for people

I finished season 4 of Harley Quinn which began in 2019 developed by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey. The plot revolves around Harley voiced by Kaley Cuoco who has broken up with the Joker setting off to become the new queenpin in Gotham City. Eventually, Harley dates Poison Ivy voiced by Lake Bell. Harley also gains friends such as Clayface voiced by Tudyk, King Shark voiced by Ron Funches, Doctor Psycho voiced by Tony Hale and Sy Borgman voiced by Jason Alexander. So it took me two days to finish season 4 and watch the Valentines Day Special. Here's what I thought was good about season 4:

Harley and Ivy learned they needed to communicate better as a couple after their future daughter tells them they were bad parents who never listened to her.

Seeing how Harley and Ivy attempted to balance their separate jobs as villains and heroes and make their romantic relationship work. Couples getting different jobs can affect an intimate relationship in real life.

The bat family not accepting Harley was good. Batgirl liked Harley due to hanging out with her but Nightwing and Damian didn't have much of a reason to like Harley.

Harley hanging out and training with Alfred was sweet.

King Shark having to be a new dad was comical. He thought being a single dad would be easy like what he had seen on television. For better or worse, Jim Gordon gives King Shark some advice such as giving the new shark babies liquor to calm down and allowing them to see violence on security cameras as a form of entertainment.

Nora Fries becoming Ivy's personal assistant was great. She is voiced by Rachel Dratch and has charm and wit. She's filling the spot that Ivy's talking plant Frank used to have.

Bane was wonderful as always. He's so sweet and I hope he can get back with Betty from the Valentines Day Special since Nora just seems to be using Bane was a lackey.

Lex Luther being the final villain for season 4 was well done. His obsession with Superman was his drive for blocking out the sun. There were little moments highlighting his Superman fetish such as when he demanded a man whom he was watching have intercourse put a Superman cape back on.

The final episode set Talia Al Ghul up to be the big villain for season 5. She brought Nightwing back to life in the Lazarus Pit who is now a creepy zombie of sorts out to get revenge on Harley.

Batgirl or Barbara Gordon getting shot by the Joker like in the comics. She's now exercising her computer skills and on her way to becoming the Oracle.

Things I didn't like about season 4:

Clayface didn't show up as much as I would have liked. He is in two episodes. He is now a celebrity and doesn't hang out with Harley and Ivy anymore.

Dr. Psycho-This was my favorite character and I was bummed about how he was demoted to being an extra after season two. I wanted to see him get a redemption arc but that doesn't happen. Still, his character does make appearances in season three and four which is nice.

Harley lying to Batgirl about Nightwing's death. She claims her potato clone killed Nightwing instead of admitting she was the one who killed Nightwing. Harley lying will no doubt lead to conflict between the two girls in season 5.

What was Batman doing in jail? I would have liked to have seen a whole episode focused on what he was doing but all we see is him being a DJ for two seconds.

The Joker's girlfriend Bethany and her kids turning evil. I didn't mind the Joker becoming evil again. I figured he would get tired of being mayor and go back to being a villain. Since Bethany was a nurse, I thought she would break up with the Joker after learning he was evil. Instead, she and her kids laugh, deciding to support the Joker in killing people. Season 3 showed Bethany and her kids to be good, decent civilians with no reason to become villains so the writing seemed a little weak with them in season 4.

I loved the Valentines Day Special. I was glad to see Bane find a special someone for him and for Harley/Ivy to enjoy their first Valentines Day together.

Extra Harley Quinn trivia if you go to the batman wiki link below :

Harley Quinn and Bruce Wayne got married in the White Knight comic series. The White Knight comics are about Joker becoming sane, adopting the name Jack Napier and protecting Gotham City, Jack marrying Harley Quinn and he becomes insane again unfortunately. Bruce reveals his identity as Batman to the public and has to adjust to life not being Batman. Joker dies eventually and Harley becomes a single mom to her two twins: a boy and a girl. Bruce helps support Harley and the two of them get married which you can read about in these links:

Batman/Harley in the White Knight comic universe is the only place this pairing has happened. Unfortunately, they don't look to be a happy couple. Harley grew attached to Bruce after the Joker died. She married Bruce so she wouldn't have to testify against him in court. Bruce tells Harley the main thing that has them bounded together is the trauma the Joker caused both of them. Upset, Harley insists there are mutual feelings between them which Bruce denies. Angry, Harley walks off and leaves Bruce to brood. I like this pairing but this comic series may not let Harley/Batman have a happy ending.

Harley is a wonderful character created in the DC universe. She needs to have someone who will treat her better than the Joker ever did. So far, she seems to be happiest with Poison Ivy from what I have seen in the Harley Quinn cartoon.

[walkonpooh]

Batman: Haunted Knight - Jeph Loeb Review

Writer Jeph Loeb and Artist Tim Sale collaborated on one of the most famous Batman stories of all time, The Long Halloween (which I plan on re-reading later for Halloween). Unfortunately, I had yet to read the prequel or sequel to that story before, so I thought I would rectify at least the former for this Halloween season and read Batman: Haunted Knight.

Batman is a perfect super hero to read for Halloween, his very creation was brought on by trauma and his primary goal in dressing like a bat is to instill fear into his enemies. Haunted Knight takes place over three separate Halloweens (I was confused by if they're supposed to be consecutive Halloweens) and is broken up into three stories.

In Fears, Batman is on the trail of the Scarecrow, who gets away just barely. This was probably my least favorite of the graphic novel, not because it wasn't good, it was, but some of it didn't quite land for me, but I liked the bit where Batman got poisoned in a thorn maze, but I do feel like more could have been done with that, the game Batman: Arkham Asylum does Batman vs. the Scarecrow *perfectly*

In Madness, Batman is going after the Mad Hatter. I have to confess, I haven't read a lot of stories with the Mad Hatter, but this specific one I actually really enjoyed, because it ties into Alice in Wonderland; not only through the Mad Hatter wanting to put on a tea party with children he is kidnapping around Gotham, but through Bruce and his connection to the story via his past, with his mother Martha (WHY'D YOU SAY THAT NAME!?).

Finally, Ghosts, which is just a take on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I was hoping this story would land a little better. Again, I enjoyed it, it just doesn't do anything particularly interesting or new with this story. Thomas Wayne in ghostly form shows up to tell Bruce three ghosts will be visiting him and they do; Ivy, Joker and a phantom figure (seeing as how this was 96, would have *loved* if the Phantasm from the animated series had been the one who did). Again, it was good, but it was partially good just because A Christmas Carol is so good. I don't think it reveals anything or gives us insight into Bruce/Batman the way it could have differentiating him from Scrooge and showing us more his specific character flaws.

Again, I actually enjoyed this while reading it. It just doesn't hit the highs of some of my favorite Batman stories, but if you're a fan of the character, especially for Halloween, it's a quick and easy read.

3/5

[salty-apples]

I posted 76 times in 2022

28 posts created (37%)

48 posts reblogged (63%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lacetulle

@embellishme

@salty-apples

@chandelyer

@juilletdeux

I tagged 27 of my posts in 2022

#fashion - 25 posts

#design - 25 posts

#fashion design - 25 posts

#art - 15 posts

#fashion school - 14 posts

#fashion illustration - 14 posts

#colour - 13 posts

#fantasy - 13 posts

#fashionillustration - 12 posts

#tips - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 66 characters

#pearlinebycharlemagne imactuallynotkidding art design weddingdress

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Hardworking women of the fantasy militia

Part one

See the full post

3 notes - Posted April 21, 2022

#4

Adventures In the Classroom: Advanced Skirt Variation- Godets

Adventures In the Classroom: Advanced Skirt Variation- Godets

Hello Gotham City! The clown Prince of Crime is back! Just kidding. It’s just me. Lego Joker introduction aside, Hi! Welcome back to the Adventures in the Classroom show hosted by Yours Truly. I know, I know.�� It’s the most watched show on television. We are raking in more viewers than the last season of Game of Thrones! We are still in the advanced skirt variation series and this week; we are…

3 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

#3

Sparring clothes for the lady combatant. Spear and shield included 🛡⚔

See the full post

4 notes - Posted May 2, 2022

#2

Hardworking women of the militia

Part 2

See the full post

5 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Adventures in the Classroom: Understanding Necklines- All-in-One Off-Shoulder Necklines

Adventures in the Classroom: Understanding Necklines- All-in-One Off-Shoulder Necklines

Aloha! Good to see you here! Welcome to another Adventure in the Classroom and our ongoing foray into the magic of necklines. So far, we have covered six different necklines and we are now at the final neckline of the lesson series. Today, we will be looking at off shoulders. I know we covered it in its most basic form in the 100% contour lesson, but this time we will be looking at how an…

6 notes - Posted May 16, 2022

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[rayofsuunshiine]

I posted 389 times in 2022

That's 218 more posts than 2021!

71 posts created (18%)

318 posts reblogged (82%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@brutallyjulia

@captain-icicle

@bucky-bucky-bucky-bucky

@lanne13

@drabbles-mc

I tagged 244 of my posts in 2022

Only 37% of my posts had no tags

#euphoria - 36 posts

#euphoria spoilers - 26 posts

#euphoria hbo - 18 posts

#jason todd - 15 posts

#stranger things - 15 posts

#hbo euphoria - 11 posts

#sebastian stan - 11 posts

#stranger things spoilers - 9 posts

#batfam - 9 posts

#stranger things 4 - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 110 characters

#ive only done it to send to my sister after she recommended me to watch a show that emotionally wrecked me lol

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Cal saying “call the cops, let me go or kill me” like Ashtray didn’t do some parkour and smash a man’s head in with a HAMMER!!

121 notes - Posted January 24, 2022

#4

"It's going to be surprising, inevitable and it's going to blow up the internet. It is, I personally think, the best thing I've written.”

I’m gonna need Clyde Phillips to never write again if this was his best.

122 notes - Posted January 9, 2022

#3

I’m convinced DC refused to give The CW rights to use Dick, Jason, Tim or Damien in "Gotham Knights". So The CW being The CW created *checks notes 📝* … Turner Hayes, Bruce Wayne’s adopted son; who’s parents were murdered…

231 notes - Posted May 19, 2022

#2

Y/N: Damn, man, you do need friends who aren’t Roy.

Jason: I have friends who aren’t Roy.

Y/N: Uh huh. Like who?

Y/N: Don’t say me.

Jason: You.

Jason: Alright. What friends have you got?

Jason: Don’t say me.

Y/N: You.

Y/N: See? Neither of us have friends.

523 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

NORMALIZE GIVING SHOWS A FINAL 10 EPISODE SEASON AFTER YOU CANCEL THEM MIDSEASON SO THE SHOW DOESN’T END UNRESOLVED!!

657 notes - Posted May 13, 2022

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[ants-personal]

I posted 6,102 times in 2022

That's 2,823 more posts than 2021!

133 posts created (2%)

5,969 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@uf-oh

@lokidokeyartichoki

@friendraichu

@lesbian-toddhoward

@homunculusalphonse

I tagged 6,101 of my posts in 2022

#queue: having sweets with suzuya - 5,660 posts

#the batman 2021 - 712 posts

#the umbrella academy - 651 posts

#saw - 372 posts

#gotham - 364 posts

#my chemical romance - 331 posts

#the walten files - 317 posts

#chucky - 237 posts

#cobra kai - 225 posts

#emo trash king of gotham - 196 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#screaming og my god og my cranska art idmdkdjkd i loove these so much jerome giving jonathan breakfast jon being a saw fan everything ❤️♥️

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i want the show to make it seem like they are setting five up for a love interest. But it just turns out to be about a dog.

219 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

#4

remember when gotham said no gays but heres baby fetish and bdsm. the writers out of control.

325 notes - Posted November 9, 2022

#3

can't wait for season four when the family needs fives help again only for them to finally tell them no. He refuses and its take klaus or vicktor to approach him to find it out why. And hed get to express finally how much it hurt to watch the family he had done eveything to save. Walk away from him when he needed them.

639 notes - Posted July 31, 2022

#2

i know people are sayin robert is the best joker for his batman but just consider .. andrew garfield

689 notes - Posted February 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i honestly dont know which is funnier picturing elon opening his own photoshop to create these shitty ass memes crying about his 8 dollar subscription. Or him crying calling some poor editor and telling them which meme he needs cause these people don't wanna pay for a thing they already have for free.

5,457 notes - Posted November 3, 2022

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[gothamtvpodcast]

Gotham 503 Review "Penguin, Our Hero" – Gotham TV Podcast Episode 131

NEW #PODCAST our #Gotham Season 5 Episode 3 chat about #PenguinOurHero is out now including exclusive chat with @realdavidmazouz @GothamTVWriters killed it this week

A battle with Ecco and Gotham is forever changed once again and we chat all about it in our Gotham 503 Review of “Penguin, Our Hero”. We are again joined by David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne of Gotham) for some thoughts on this episode and his meeting with The Witch we also discuss our Top Five case notes in our Gotham 502 review. This is a spoiler filled discussion so as always make sure you’ve…

[batmannotes]

The Batman: The Complete Series Review

The fully-remastered The Batman: The Complete Series is now available on Blu-ray for the very first time. All 65-episode are included in this newly released box set.

The series premiered on September 11, 2004 on Kids’ WB before eventually shifting to Cartoon Network for subsequent seasons. The Batman: The Complete Series follows 20-something-year-old Bruce Wayne’s early adventures as he balances his daytime persona as a bachelor billionaire with his nighttime guise as a caped crimefighter.

At first I was a bit hesitant accepting this cartoon; after all it wasn't Batman: The Animated Series, which for me was the definitive Batman. I also wasn't sold on the new look of the villains. But after I let my cape down and gave the series a chance, it started to surprise me. The animation itself had an amazing color palette which was used exquisitely for scenery and backdrops. The stories themself were a little less serious than, Batman: TAS, but that played in its favor through the course of 5 seasons. It also gave us a look at some of Batman's rogues not used in Batman: TAS like Black Mask.

The first couple of seasons of the show were a bit of a departure from the traditional Caped Crusader, no Commissioner Gordon, Robin or Batgirl . Fast forward to season 4 and all of the perviously mentioned characters were in place, making it the strongest season thus far. At the start of season 4 was the episode titled, 'A Matter of Family', which guest starred Kevin Conroy voicing Dick Grayson's father, John. It was exceptional retelling of Robin's origin story.

The 5th and final season push limits of awesomeness even further, as THE BATMAN added guest Justice League appearances by Superman, Green Arrow, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Martian Manhunter. This season had a spectacular two part episode finale that seemed to set up a new Justice League series. Unfortunately we didn't get that or even a season six of THE BATMAN, as the series was cancelled.

The Batman: The Complete Series – Special Features

Blu-ray+Digital

The Dark Dynasty Continues (New Featurette) – Explore the relationship between The Batman and his allies as he evolves from mysterious vigilante to the World’s Greatest Detective.

Joining Forces: The Batman's Legendary Team-Ups (Featurette) – How the series’ producers adapted the DC “Team-Up-Tales” approach from the comic books to the screen.

The Batman Junior Detective Challenge (Quiz) – Alfred tests your detective skills with The Batman: The Complete Series challenge.

The Batman Junior Detective Exam: Level 2 (Quiz) – Pass The Batman test of knowledge with the level 2 exam.

Building Batman (Featurette) – Detective Ellen Yin investigates The Batman's true identity.

Gotham PD Case Files (Featurette) – Highly confidential profiles of The Batman's most dastardly foes.

New Look, New Direction, New Knight (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes to explore the development of The Batman television series.

The Batman: Season 3 Unmasked (Featurette) – Supervising Producer Duane Capizzi talks about the animated series.

The Batman: Season 4 Unmasked (Featurette) – A behind the scenes look into the making of Season 4.

VERDICT:

If you've never check the series out, you should definitely give it a chance, it's one of the hidden gems in the DC Universe. In my opinion THE BATMAN is far superior to most of the latest offerings from Warner Bros. Animation. The newly released HD transfer to Blu-ray makes the box set that much more appealing and with 65 episodes to enjoy, you can binge watch for quite a long time. There's a lot to love about this series once you get used to the irregular designs of Batman rogues. Seasons 4 and 5 are exceptional and left me with an appetite for more of this animated fun. It's a series that doesn't take itself overly serious, but that's one of its many alluring features.

Available now at Amazon. Direct link here.

Warner Bros. provided a copy of The Batman: The Complete Series for review which did not affect this reviewer's analysis of the product.

[longitudinalwaveme]

Longitudinalwaveme Reviews Some More Old Comics (and One New One), Part 3

 Batman #353, “Last Laugh”

The Joker walks into his hideout at the abandoned Tatch Hotel, where his goons are gambling. He promptly kills one of them by snakebite for disrespecting him. 

Batman scares a corrupt city council member into revealing that the doctored photos that “revealed” Batman as a crime boss came from real crime boss Rupert Thorne. Apparently, Thorne ensured that Reeves would lose the election...meaning that he wanted Hamilton Hill to be mayor for some reason. 

Also, Gordon is currently not the Commissioner---someone named Commissioner Pauling is, and Batman suspects both he and the new mayor are corrupt. 

The next day, as Bruce Wayne, he accompanies Vicki Vale to the destruction of Gotham Central Station. Apparently, Vicki was witness to an interaction between Rupert Thorne and Morton Monroe that culminated in the latter’s suicide. 

The computer being used to manage the explosions that will preserve the landmark while still clearing space for new development malfunctions has been stolen...by the Joker! 

Because Batman and the new police commissioner are on the outs, Batman hadn’t known about the Joker’s escape from Arkham, and he’s not happy about that. He does, however, quickly work out that the Joker has bought some land in the Palisades under the pseudonym of Mr. Harlan Quinn. (No...seriously!) 

Batman heads to the location in question...only to be caught off-guard by the Joker, who shoots a drugged arrow at him. When he wakes up, he’s tied to some rocks and surrounded by dynamite. 

Joker is upset that Gotham is constructing a statue for a Broadway star and not for him, so he’s going to use the dynamite and the computer he stole to create a monument of himself (and kill Batman). 

Batman manages to break free and jams the computer signal by way of a device he brought with him for that purpose. 

The story is then interrupted for a weird He-Man comic! Hi there, He-Man, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Battle Cat, Sorceress, Mer-man, Beast Man, and Skeletor! And, uh, Superman, too, I guess! Why not? 

I can honestly say I did not expect this Batman comic to contain a Superman/Masters of the Universe crossover where Superman fought Skeletor. 

And now back to Batman, who’s fighting Joker’s goons. While this is going on, the Joker shoots at Batman while his back is turned-only for the explosions to go off. It temporarily creates Joker’s memorial of himself, but it lasts for only a few seconds before collapsing. The issue ends with Joker frowning and Batman smiling in a really unsettling manner. 

The issue also has a backup story, starring Robin and Batman, the latter of whom is undercover as Matches Malone. They work together to defeat some con-men, and Dick uses an inflatable suit to dress up as Batman. It’s pretty amusing. 

Batman #355, “Never Scratch a Cat” 

Why does Catwoman own what appears to be a pet panther? 

Apparently, she’s not happy abut the fact that Vicky Vale is also romantically interested in Bruce Wayne. We then cut to the latter two on a date. 

Their date is suddenly interrupted when Catwoman uses her car to send their car off a cliff and into a river. She immediately regrets it and dives into the water after them to save them.

Bruce fights her off and makes it to the surface with Vicki himself. Two days later, she wakes up in the hospital. 

The police have been staking out Selina’s house, but so far, there hasn’t been any sign of her. 

That night, Batman leaves to track down Catwoman, telling Dick not to come with him as Robin. They have a fairly heartwarming conversation, and then Batman zooms off, leaving Dick and Alfred worried about how angry he seems. 

Batman breaks into Selina’s house...and is promptly attacked by her pet panther. They fight, and he defeats the panther. He then discovers that Selina hasn’t been home for at least 2 days. 

Batman looks through her bills and discovers that she’s rented an apartment somewhere. 

Ex-Commissioner Gordon talks politics with Mayor Hamilton Hill. There’s a petition to remove the latter from his position, since he’s connected to Thorne and Thorne was arrested for murdering his own appointee for police commissioner. Also, Hill makes him commissioner again. 

Batman tracks Catwoman to her new apartment and the two fight, verbally and physically. Eventually, though, they make up and hug each other. It’s kind of weird, but I guess it works.

Flash #324, “The Slayer and the Slain” 

The Reverse-Flash is dead! But the real horror of this issue isn’t that he’s dead or that he died attempting to murder Fiona Webb...it’s the fact that this issue will kick off the Trial of the Flash arc; otherwise known as the Arc That Never Ends! 

Some really weird nurse tells a baby the story of her favorite soap opera...only to lose her grip on the carriage, which goes hurtling towards a pane of glass! Kid Flash manages to save the baby, but not the glass. 

Kid Flash then rushes to what he believes will be the wedding of his uncle to Fiona Webb, changing into a tuxedo along the way. 

Unfortunately, when Wally arrives at the church, there’s no sign of Barry. Dexter Miles, Barry’s friend Mack Nathan, Mack’s son Troy, and Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man, are at the church, though, as are Barry’s parents and Fiona herself. 

Before Barry’s first name was Bartholomew, it was Barrence. No, seriously. 

Fiona is naturally very upset, believing Barry stood her up at the alter. Henry Allen is less than sympathetic. “Nora and I aren’t ready to give up on our boy just yet, Fiona. And if you really love him...you’re not about to either!” Way to guilt-trip her, Henry. No wonder Barry got along better with Roscoe-pretending-to-be-you than he did with you. 

Barry and the Reverse-Flash have a fight/race around the world, Eobard yelling about how mad he is about Barry trapping him at the end of time for four years. 

Officer Frye and Frank Curtis are also at the wedding. 

Apparently the Guardians of the Universe stopped Wally from helping Barry fight Eobard for some reason. Okay...

Eobard, being Eobard, makes a giant ice sculpture of Iris in the Himalayas just so he can troll Barry. Then they fight some more as all the wedding guests wonder where the bridegroom is. 

While the two are fighting/racing, Eobard creates a big wave at Miami Beach, which Barry has to stop to rescue some swimmers from. 

Captain Frye is starting to believe that Barry’s been murdered. 

Eobard and Barry end up in Cape Carneval and take a rocket into outer space. After they return to Earth, Eobard taunts Barry by writing “Guess who’s going to kill your wife again” in the sand. This naturally makes Barry very, very unhappy. 

Equally unhappy is Fiona, who is now completely convinced she’s been stood up and is leaving the church. 

The wedding photographer pops up over thirty-five minutes after the wedding is supposed to start; conveniently already filming with his camera.

Eobard runs towards Fiona, murder on his mind...only for Barry to grab him from behind by the neck as he shouts “NO! Not again!” 

Barry tries to comfort Fiona to no avail as Frye discovers that Eobard is dead. 

And on that grim note, the issue ends. 

Batman #362, “When Riddled By the Riddler...” 

Why was Riddler working at a winery? Is it just because one of the processes involved in making wine is called riddling it? Whatever the reason, the appearance of a film crew at the winery apparently gives Riddler an idea for his next crime spree.

Batman is summoned to police headquarters, where Harvey Bullock is arguing with Commissoner Gordon. Apparently, Bullock’s working with Mayor Hill, and the Riddler has been sending Gordon puzzle boxes.

This puzzle box prompts Bullock to ask about the Riddler, which in turn prompts Gordon to tell Bullock and the reader about the Riddler’s M.O. and backstory. 

When he finishes the story, Batman finally arrives and kicks Bullock out. He and Gordon proceed to try to solve Riddler’s latest riddle as Bullock eavesdrops on them both from outside the door. The riddle seems to point in the direction of the Mother Goose Amusement Park, but Batman tells Gordon to keep thinking of other possible meanings just in case. 

Bullock plans to outwit Gordon, Batman, and the Riddler, showing an impressive degree of self-confidence (or self-delusion). 

Batman goes to the park and is promptly ambushed by a machine-gun wielding Riddler. 

Then they fight, Riddler escapes, and Batman learns that the amusement park has been closed all season, so it would have no money around to steal. 

Gordon, Bullock, and Batman reconvene to do some Bat Deducting in order to figure out the Riddler’s real plan. Because Batman’s true superpower is his ability to understand the insane ways in which the Riddler uses riddles to plot his crimes. 

Apparently, Riddler is going to steal the loot of a game show being filmed in Paradise Theater. The show in question is called “Enigma”, which is a terrible name for a show filmed in Gotham. It’s beggining the Riddler to show up. 

The Riddler actually wears a suit in this issue! That’s unusual for Riddler at this point, and it looks really good. Of course, he immediately takes it off a few panels later, but still. 

Apparently, the game show consists of getting contestants to answer riddles and...seriously, who decided it was a good idea to film this in Gotham? 

Then the Riddler pops himself out of the riddle drum used in the game show. It’s hilarious. He steals the money and walks out the door, gloating. 

Batman then appears and starts chasing Riddler, who hijacks a bus. Batman follows him and uses gas to force the bus to stop. 

Then Batman literally kicks him off the bus and captures him. 

The issue ends with Bullock deciding to drop the charges he’s managed to get raised against Gordon (after Gordon uses a riddle to threaten him). Hill is not happy about this. 

Batman #373, “The Frequency of Fear” 

The issue opens with Jason Todd having a freaky nightmare about his parents’ deaths (since this is pre-Crisis, the deaths happened at the hands of Killer Croc). 

A really stupid psychologist wants to meet Jonathan Crane so that he can analyze the effects of fear on the human mind. Unfortunately for him, Crane has been released from Arkham, because everyone in Gotham is stupid. Even the stupid psychologist thinks so! 

Meanwhile, a couple of people at Gotham University wonder if they really did see the Scarecrow heading for the old Marston House where Crane once lived. 

Julia Pennyworth, Alfred’s daughter, asks Vicki Vale for a position at Picture News (is this different than the Picture News where Iris West-Allen works?) Vicki is opposed to the idea until Julia insists she’s not interested in Bruce Wayne. 

Apparently, in an earlier issue a number of Batman’s Rogues dragged Scarecrow around while he was mostly incapacitated by fear. He’s not happy about the fact that they did this and is plotting revenge against all of them. 

A guard at the courthouse demands to know why he’s there. In response, Scarecrow uses a skull to emit his fear frequency, and the guard predictably starts hallucinating. He then continues to use the frequency to get the location of the lock-up. He’s then lead the the solitary cell of the Joker.....and then Batman shows up. 

Scarecrow proceeds to use the fear frequency on both him and on Robin, when the latter shows up. Batman manages to fight off the worst of it, but when Jason chases the Scarecrow out of the building and onto the rope Scarecrow was using to escape, the frequency overcomes him, he loses his balance, and he starts falling. 

Batman manages to rescue him, though. 

On an unrelated note, Child Services are worried about the fact that Jason keeps falling asleep in class. 

Gordon and Bullock go out for dinner and have a little chat; Mayor Hill hires a hit out on Bullock.

Meanwhile, Batman tells Crane’s backstory to Robin, who suggests that Crane might be hanging out at his old house. Batman dismisses this, which is unfortunate, since Crane is, in fact, hanging out there. 

Crane is reading his psychology textbook to his little skull head. The man is really weird. I’ll also note that his textbook does actually contain a few words I’m not familiar with, which is impressive. 

Crane then determines that he’ll have to get rid of Batman first if he wants to kill off all the other villains, and goes out to do just that. 

Commissioner Gordon calls in Batman and Robin and tells them that the Scarecrow is attacking a zoo. Batman tells Robin to go home; he thinks the case is too dangerous for Jason. 

Batman goes to the zoo, and is increasingly affected by fear. When he reaches the crocodile pit, the fear is so overwhelming that he loses his balance and starts to fall in. 

Meanwhile, Jason has disobeyed orders and gone to Crane’s old house. The Scarecrow promptly attacks him as Batman falls into the crocodile exhibit....and the issue ends on a cliffhanger. Ooof. 

Flash 2021 Annual 

SPOILERS!

Man, Wally West makes the weirdest faces in this confessional. 

Barry, Ollie, and Mr. Terrific talk technobabble. 

Good news! It turns out Wally’s not a murderer anymore! HURRAH! 

Roy is alive again! YAY! 

Barry and Ollie are also making weird faces. 

Ollie really wants to save Roy from the speed force explosion that will kill everybody at Sanctuary, but Barry says there’s nothing they can do. Ollie doesn’t like this explanation.

Also, Barry’s powers suddenly start fading. 

Wally makes another weird face as he and Roy talk. 

Hey, Savitar’s back! And looking a lot more attractive than the last time I saw him. 

Turns out that he’s been causing all the weird problems with the Speed Force in this arc. It’s appropriate for him, I think. 

Roy and Wally team up to fight Savitar, who goes on a villainous monologue about how he’s going to eat the speed force so he can become it. 

There’s some more technobabble about the Speed Force. Apparently, if they don’t cause the explosion that kills everyone at Sanctuary, Savitar’s plan to eat the Speed Force will destroy the Omniverse. 

Roy ends up setting up the necessary explosion to save the Omniverse. Good work, Roy! 

Aww, Roy and all the heroes are dead again....:(

Oh, well. At least Wally still isn’t a murderer now. 

Wally and Savitar arrive in the present, Wally decides to continue being the Flash, he and Savitar have a fight/race, Wally wins, and Savitar disappears. 

After Wally takes a nap, he and Barry have a cute talk, and Barry gives poor Ollie, who’s been through a lot, a hug. 

Wally goes home and reunites with his family. HURRAH!!!!

Heat Wave’s going to be in the next arc. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes. 

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (3/10/2021)?

cheerfullynihilistic said: Comics this week (03/10/21)??

adudewholikescomicsandotherstuff said: This week’s comics?

Anonymous said: Comics?

Anonymous said: 3/10 NCBD?

Non-Stop Spider-Man #1: The lead story was fun, the backup was dopey, I’ll give it another issue or two to see where it goes.

The Immortal Hulk #44: While it was too late for this week I’ve taken Hulk off my pull list, so the store won’t order any copies specifically for me and therefore my future purchase of the book won’t support Joe Bennett’s presence, just the store. This issue is typical of some of the books’ weaker installments of the last year or so - feels like well-done regular superhero comics instead of Immortal Hulk - but those last couple pages bring it back around.

Daredevil #28: Holy cow, those King In Black issues actually mattered. God this book is still so fuckin’ good in so many ways, everything every dumbass street-level superhero ‘deconstruction’ wants to be when it grows up.

Children of the Atom #1: Sucks real bad! This weird combo of ‘hip new young Marvel heroes!’ trappings and soulless X-Men lifer comics execution that feels certain to appeal to neither group.

Eternals #3: Of the listed Deviants I imagine I’d relate most to Annoyed Veug.

Commanders in Crisis #6: While I remain without the ability to weigh in on this objectively, this is the issue that to date most feels like it lives up to the promises of the series premiere.

The Wrong Earth: Night & Day #3: Little disappointed personally with the reveal of what the third world is - I assumed it was going to be more of a straight take ‘modern’ version to the other two’s flavors of throwbacks - but this series still rules. And that ending.

Home Sick Pilots #4: Okay, I think I can follow what’s happening at this point, still enjoying it.

Proctor Valley Road #1: I review these books in the order I present them to my dad since he likes DC/Marvel/Other to each be lumped together, but make no mistake: this is the last of the three Morrison books to read this week, because this is what comes next for them. A return to their roots - 70s kids way into music and dealing with the weird, girls adventure stories of the kind they apparently grew up reading - this feels like a refinement of their mid/late-00s Vertigo work in the same way they’ve been iterating on their superhero material for decades. The horror is sold excellently, whether by their own efforts or thanks to cowriter Alex Child this is their most fluid, ‘real’-sounding dialogue perhaps ever, and Franquiz with Bonvillain are instantly among their all-time best collaborators, perfectly capturing the shifting tone and character acting necessary to best put Morrison’s big ideas over in a way a number of their collaborators haven’t lived up to over the years (and speaking of the visuals, Jim Campbell does the lord’s work with that lettering trick near the end). Ritesh Babu and Sean Dillon have a lot more to say about the book and how it already acts as a darker, more honest take on your Stranger Things and the like as a commentary on its times, but I’m already loving to see this particular return down to Earth for Morrison and company and I’m glad to hear this is selling really well compared to their previous indie work.

Dead Dog’s Bite #1: This actually came out last week, but Ritesh recommended it so I figured it might be worth a look. A so far intensely low-key missing persons mystery with a touch of surreality around its edges, this already looks to be the best “look! A nine-panel grid! Fancy!” comic since Mister Miracle, really lived-in and emotional for as little happens in this debut. Very curious where it’s going.

Rorschach #6: I continue to like it.

Batman: Urban Legends #1: Glory be, a good Jason Todd comic - at last, you noble stubborn weirdoes living off of like six nonconsecutive panels all these years, you may lay down your burden. Not all you’d necessarily hope from Zdarsky tackling Gotham after what he’s been doing with Daredevil but rock-solid work regardless; the Harley story is fine, Outsiders is a letdown after Thomas’s shockingly good showing for them in Future State but it’s still fine, and the Grifter stuff is fun.

The Joker #1: I thought the advertised ‘a Joker story from Gordon’s POV’ angle was an interesting one even if I was concerned this book would in practice be pure editorial mandate, but in reality? Tynion has managed to pull the wool over DC’s eyes and do a full-on Jim Gordon book (one predicated with him being off the force to make it reasonably comfortable read in 2021) with Joker as the barest of pretexts to get it out the door and selling for as long as he wants to continue it. He even said in interviews that when the book was first pitched to him that his response was that a Joker solo book was a dumb unworkable idea until he had an idea for a ‘different way to approach it’, he knows exactly what he’s doing and I salute him. And it’s a darn good Gordon book even if the Punchline backup is predictably tepid, I’m in the tank for Gotham’s perpetual whipping boy dealing with weird noir international crime with Joker sort of hanging around in the background menacingly to justify the nominal premise.

Anonymous said: Hey, so I figure one random anon won’t change your mind, but like you I was disappointed by New Frontier’s immortal Wonder Woman, but I still got the new issue of Wonder Woman cause Wonder Woman at Valhalla still sounds great and I actually liked it! I think I’m gonna get at least the next issue, so there’s at least one recommendation for it

Wonder Woman #770: This combined with the store still putting it in my pile prompted me to give it a try after all, and whether because something here clicks better or if they’re simply not trying so hard without the pressure of doing a ‘final’ story for Diana, Cloonan and Conrad do in fact do substantially better on the main book than they did with Immortal Wonder Woman. Some fun, some fights, some mythology and intrigue, gorgeous landscapes and generous servings of beefcake from Travis Moore - this isn’t going to be sweeping the Eisners, but this is as enjoyable as a Wonder Woman comic has been in a good long time. My only concern is that the joyousness on display here might dissipate somewhat once Diana fully returns to herself, but in the meantime this was a very pleasant surprise (especially with the the Young Diana backup by Bellaire, Ganucheau, Goode, and Carey).

Superman #29: PKJ’s Superman thus far has been a story of overcoming initial worries of mine - in this case, my concern that he’d have a bad Scott Snyder-ey case of “if you’ve read the interviews you’ve pretty much already heard the dialogue of the comic verbatim”. In practice here most of what he’s had to say about these issues are distilled down really succinctly and poignantly in the midst of a fun little upper-atmosphere adventure portending something grimmer, and while I know it didn’t click with everyone I thought Phil Hester’s work here was a perfect accompaniment. The Tales of Metropolis backup wasn’t nearly as enjoyable, but hints at some interesting worldbuilding I’m hopeful will pay off in the main run.

The Green Lantern Season Two #12: The final Grant Morrison DC comic. One of two anyway, but if the next story I discuss is their broader final (non-Klaus, hopefully) statement on the superhero subgenre and a bridge to what they’re doing next, this is the one that’s about being The Final Grant Morrison DC Comic. A mélange of pretty much all their other DC finales into a shamelessly self-reflective meditation on the limits of what they can accomplish in shared universe storytelling where Green Lantern saves the universe through collective action and then fucks off to do his own thing elsewhere while the kids take over the ongoings. Weird and kinda perfect, and if nothing else this series took Liam Sharp from “really? This dude is drawing the last ever Morrison DC ongoing?” to “HOLY FUCKING SHIT LIAM SHARP”.

(The panel folks blew up over I think can be read multiple ways, but not in a ‘it’s open to interpretation!’ way so much as the storytelling/framing being unclear. I personally read it as ‘this is what neighbor versus neighbor looks like now’ rather than ‘calling someone a TERF or a Nazi is as bad as anything the other side does’, because oldster and out of touch though they may be I can’t see Morrison seriously saying that, especially after coming out.)

Wonder Woman Earth One Volume 3: At long last, after a hideous misfire kicking the series off and a second installment best described as ‘well, at least it wasn’t the first one’, this while not without elements I want to see femme and nonbinary critics discuss critically lives up to what you want to see out of ‘Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman’. Big utopian fiction breaking the typical boundaries of superhero stories with aplomb in implicit conversation with a ton of their previous work, a bridge from what they’ve done to what they’re doing next, it’s an imperfect (especially with Paquette’s art, which while gorgeous and majestic in the way this story demands really doesn’t living up to the ‘acting’ necessary here in a way thrown into sharp contrast by Franquiz in PVR) but shockingly passionate statement of intent - if the last two volumes felt like Morrison struggling to have something to say with Wonder Woman in the same way they did with Superman and Batman, this feels at the close like them at last finding in her a way to do everything left with the cape and tights crowd they wanted to but couldn’t manage anywhere else under the Big Two umbrella. Odd and lovely, a fine sendoff.

[romancemedia]

Underrated DC Shows

Ever since my childhood, I have always been a Major DC fan and my love for the franchise has continued to grow as I got older as I enjoy watching some of my favourite DC shows, wether its the from the DCAU or the live action shows we see today. However, there are some shows that aren’t always given the recognition they deserve and here are my top picks.

The Batman

The Batman was one of the many Batman television series created over the years and one of the most under appreciated ones of all time. The Batman focuses on Bruce Wayne’s early years as the Dark Knight, from when he was originally pursued by Gotham PD up until he is known as Gotham’s protector and guardian, mentor to Robin and Batgirl and a member of the Justice League. The Batman lasted for 5 seasons, making a total of 65 episodes and a television movie from 2004 to 2008. This show was absolutely amazing. Everything about the series was incredible from the character growths to the season story arcs. I enjoyed watching Batman grow into the hero and legend that he is, including his partnerships with Robin, Batgirl and James Gordon. It was also refreshing to see new characters never seen before such as Ethan Bennett and Ellen Yin. Although they were less present in the shows later years, they were great nonetheless.

Every season of the show had a character story arc while also showing the growth to Batman’s legacy. Season 1 was him being pursued by the police and encountering his rogue gallery for the first time. Season 2 shows his new secret partnership with Ellen Yin until he is finally recognised as Gotham’s Guardian. Season 3 was the debut of Batgirl, determined to prove herself to the Dark Knight and become his sidekick. Season 4 featured the debut of Robin and the official Batman team being formed and the final season featured Batman and Robin teaming up with members of the Justice League. It was incredible to watch how Batman’s legacy was formed over these five amazing seasons. Although the series was ultimately successful, it is still considered greatly underrated since no one seems to discuss its greatness compared to other DC animated series such as Justice League, Batman Beyond or the Teen Titans.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Green Lantern: The Animated Series focused on the adventures of Hal Jordan and his team as they traveled throughout space to stop the villainous Red Lanterns and later the Manhunters from taking over the universe. The series had everything for everyone, something we could all enjoy, action, humour, superheroes, mystery, suspense and romance. Green Lantern lasted from 2012-2013, making 26 episodes over the course of one year and is one of the very few CGI DC shows alongside Beware the Batman.

Hal Jordon is the team’s leader who was determined to protect the galaxy after learning of the threats of the Red Lanterns and later the Manhunters. Although many question his methods, he always manages to come out on top and again proves himself a true hero and leader. Kilowog is Hal’s former drill sergeant who trained him. Kilowog and Hal are greatly different as Kilowog is serious, gruff and by the book, but sees that despite Hal’s crazy plans or methods, he knows he what he’s doing. Aya is an artificial intelligence, serving as the nagivation computer to the Intercepter space ship, but as she spends time with the crew, she begins to grow and become her own person and wishes to become a Green Lantern herself. Finally, the last member is Razer, a reformed member of the Red Lanterns who joins Hal Jordon’s team after he is offered a second chance. Razer begins to grow, becoming a loyal and reliable teammate and along the way, allows love to enter his heart once again.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series was so underrated. It was so much fun and amazing to watch as I enjoyed watching the crews adventures and relationships growing, becoming true friends and family. One of the greatest things about the show was the love story between Razer and Aya, becoming one of DC most underrated couples. Unfortunately, although the series itself was popular the reason behind its cancellation was because of the poor toys sales and the negative reviews of the 2011 live-action Green Lantern movie.

Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey was a short lived live action DC show that consisted of 13 episodes and aired for only a year from 2002-2003. Birds of Prey focused on the trio of female heroines, Huntress, Oracle and the future Black Canary as they tasked themselves with protecting Gotham City following the disappearance of Batman. Huntress is Helena Kyle, the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle, who never knew her father and tragically lost her mother when she was a teenager after she was killed by the Joker. Oracle is Barbara Gordon who was formerly known as Batgirl until she was shot and paralysed by the Joker and now operates from their clock tower hideout as tech support and mentor. Dinah is a young metahuman teenager who harbours a variety of abilities and is learning to control and harness her growing powers with help from Barbara and Helena.

Birds of Prey was such an underrated series and it had such great potential. The series featured great action and the special effects weren’t so bad. I also enjoyed the romantic relationship between Helena Kyle and Jesse Reese, a detective with the Gotham PD. It’s a shame it only lasted for one season as I could see it had so much greatness within in it, but sadly it was one of the very rare shows that never had a chance to truly shine.

Constantine

Constantine was one of the many shows within the Arrowverse focusing on the adventures of John Constantine, a demon hunter who protects the world from supernatural threats while struggling with personal demons from his past. In his adventures, John gains help from his friends/team, Zed Martin, a psychic artist, Francis Chas, John’s oldest friend with survival magic and Manny, an angel assigned to watch over John. The series lasted for 13 episodes from 2014-2015. Although Constantine’s character has been revived in the Arrowverse, making a guest appearance on Arrow until becoming a main cast member on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, I still miss the old series and characters as John had a lot of great and mysterious adventures.

Overall, it’s a shame that a lot of these shows weren’t given proper recognition as they had were very special in their own unique ways.

[aion-rsa]

Legends of Tomorrow: Can Sara Lance Survive This Space Oddity?

https://ift.tt/3eMSTaK

This Legends of Tomorrow review contains spoilers.

Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 Episode 1

There’s a bit in the sixth season premiere of Legends of Tomorrow, “Ground Control to Sara Lance,” that made me furious. Gary, the comic relief sidekick who gets retconned this episode to have been an alien infiltrator, has explained his whole backstory to the abducted Sara Lance, who wakes up on an alien spaceship just in time to see it hyperdrive away from Earth from a rear window. Sara wants to get home, so she tells Gary, “Give me everything you know about this ship.” Gary’s response is to start to explain how she and Ava first started dating. 

When I heard this, I got so mad. It’s completely unfair that the cast and crew of Legends is so good that they can hand in a B+ episode for this show that contains within it the single best Muppets joke in over a decade.

Legends returns to airwaves with its first episode in almost a year, and it continues to amaze how this show just can’t miss. This cast is so obviously comfortable with each other, and the crew so in touch with what makes the characters so entertaining, that Legends’ floor is better than many shows at their best, and good episodes turn great because of those strengths. There’s a confidence and efficiency in the storytelling that lets the show dispense with a lot of setup and exposition quickly,to give the characters space to breathe and the jokes time to set. Case in point: “Ground Control to Sara Lance.”

At the end of last season, Sara was abducted by aliens, setting the stage for this season’s space and alien-themed adventures. The purpose of this episode was to reintroduce the characters and setting, and set up the conflict for the rest of the season. This was done mostly with two sequences: one that showed how deeply comic book-y this show can be, and one that showed how efficient it is. 

The reintroduction of the team was done largely through Ava’s eyes. She’s flushed awake by Mick after passing out drunk on the Waverider’s toilet, where she realizes Sara never brought her to bed the night before. So they head out to find everyone. Constantine and Zari just finished hooking up; Astra is card sharping an entire poker room dry; Behrad’s getting the munchies out of his system with a Buckingham Palace Guard; and Nate’s explaining his extremely convoluted love life to David Bowie. When Bowie shows the team that Sara was ready to propose to Ava before being abducted by aliens, Ava springs into action. I’m 85% certain she used time travel to clean up her hangover, and came back with a checklist for how to deal with the problem, one that had specific, character-by-character instructions on how each would respond and how to get them to serve the mission despite that.

This whole thing is extremely similar to how Bronze Age and earlier comic issues worked – each issue was treated like someone’s first, so the storytellers had to take the first 3 pages of the 22 page story to reintroduce and recap, but the effective, elegant ones would do it without you ever noticing. Ava’s checklist and hunt for her teammates performed the same function just as effectively.

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Incidentally, while this show is extremely comic book-y, it’s also straight up disrespectful to the concept of comic book shows in an utterly delightful way. Legends continues to interact with the rest of the Arrowverse – the DEO is referenced as destroyed here, in a nod to Supergirl’s fifth season – but this show feels like it’s taking the tics of comic book shows and poking fun at them. When you’ve spent years watching every show with an ear for potential easter eggs, your first instinct when you hear a character on a DC TV show say “he’s with Starman” is to clap and wonder if it’s Jack, Ted, Mikaal, or Prince Gavyn. Then and only then does a David Bowie cameo feel like a cop out. The same goes for Ava referencing Sara’s pre-her love life by saying “swing a dead cat…” I had to stop myself from looking up if Sara and Roy Harper hooked up.

The episode ended with that same efficiency that made the opening so effective. Sara battles the tentacly captain of the ship while Gary tries to open a wormhole home, and Sara wins the fight with a move straight out of Alien: she opens an airlock to throw him out. And when he doesn’t get all the way out the door, she releases pods of other kidnapees from their alcoves to knock him into the wormhole behind the ship. The captain, along with the aliens in the pods, fall into the Bleed and eventually travel through time, setting up the Legends to hunt them down last season, while Sara and Gary figure out how to get home. 

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Legends is a show that shouldn’t work. It’s ridiculous and earnest and geeky and could so easily slide into terminally cheesy and corny. But it never does, even for a minute, because the cast and crew are so joyful and confident and talented that they sell every bit of the emotional stakes. The only complaint I have is that this show is so consistently good that it almost demands being graded on a curve. “Ground Control to Sara Lance” would be a 9.5 or a 10 on any other TV show, but because Legends of Tomorrow routinely does so much bananapants shit, it’s only an 8. But praise Beebo, it’s a high 8.

The post Legends of Tomorrow: Can Sara Lance Survive This Space Oddity? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[irisbleufic]

Happy 2020! Can I tag you to do that 2019 Fic Year in Review thing?

Happy New Year to you, too!  Sure thing.  I can’t remember the last time I did one of these; since 2019 is the end of a decade, it feels fitting.  Here goes…

14 February 2019: After spending 14 of my 15 years (2020 marks the start of my 16th year) in Good Omens fandom working on it, I finally finished and posted the 75th and final installment of Crown of Thorns [The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse] ’Verse.  LiveJournal was still the fandom’s primary posting hub when I posted the first-ever installment, A Better Place, on 1 October 2005.  The series didn’t get its second installment (The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse) until 2010, but work on the series from that point forward was pretty much constant.  2012 saw a higher number of CoT updates than any year previous; that was also the year I transferred it to AO3.

25 February 2019: I finished and posted the last chapter of my third Good Omens collaborative fic ’verse with @procrastinatingbookworm, Turn In Your Arms.  We couldn’t believe there was no Good Omens fusion with Tam Lin, so we went for it.  Given our first collaboration in 2018 was a Good Omens fusion with Groundhog Day (Game Over, Insert Coin), that wasn’t a stretch.

27 February 2019: @aspiringjedi and I posted the first of our two Good Omens meta-essays, Making An Effort: Queer (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens.  Yes, it’s 1,990 words due to the novel’s publication year.  When you’re just under 2,000 words anyway, why not?

28 February 2019: @procrastinatingbookworm and I followed up Turn In Your Arms with a brief sequel, Burn After Reading.  All of our collaborations to date have ended up as multi-story mini ’verses.

25 March - 20 April 2019: I went about as livid over Gotham’s Season 5 as I did over Season 3 and wrote Darkroom to address how dirty the show did Bruce and Jeremiah.  I had a stand-alone Season 4 fix-it story (focusing on Oswald and Edward, like most of my other Gotham work) called Triage from 2018 that had never quite felt like it was meant to be a stand-alone.  Triage and Darkroom became the first two installments of a series called Playing for Keeps, to which I added another 6 stories by April 20th.  Darkroom somehow got more traffic than any of my other Gotham pieces since When You Find It, Run over in DDO ’Verse (although those two stories are keystone pieces in much larger series, they can both be read as stand-alones).

4 April 2019: In the midst of working on the aforementioned, @aspiringjedi posted our second Good Omens meta-essay, Southern Pansies: Subversive (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens.

8 May 2019: Brief blip back into Pacific Rim fic!  I posted a missing Anthology correspondence/inset ficlet called L’amour, c’est comme la guerre.  For anyone who ever wanted more of the email correspondence in Anthology’s final chapter, this fills in some gaps you didn’t know were there.

16 May 2019: Thanks to some behind-the-scenes persuasion from several really tenacious Gotham readers who didn’t want me to abandon it / shut down DDO ’Verse, I completed The Knights’ Tour after almost a year on hiatus from it.  This turned out to light a fresh fuse on DDO, because TTK didn’t end up being the final story in the series like I had once planned.

18 May 2019: The only His Dark Materials fic I’ve ever written, also a Gotham fusion, got a belated new final chapter.  Gold Dust is sort of an alternate take on DDO ’Verse, one in which Dust and daemons are present.

23 May 2019: I posted what I thought would be a stand-alone Gotham story called The Meaning of This City.  It manages to be a marginally less dark and complicated take on the Bruce-and-Jeremiah situation (than Darkroom over in PfK ’Verse, that is) without sacrificing some of the most difficult features of what they need to overcome.  More on why this didn’t remain a stand-alone in a bit.

6 June 2019: Good Omens requests came around, one of which led me to follow the Imagine Hastur Ficlets (which themselves exist thanks to the accidental prompts at @imaginehastur) interlude in CoT with The Imagine Hastur Epilogue.  This was a sort of neat in-narrative way to deal with having gradually come out about my biological (inter)sex and (nonbinary) gender identity over the 14 years I worked on CoT. 

15 June - 1 July 2019: I posted another Good Omens collaboration-set with @procrastinatingbookworm called Have Faith at the series-title level.  The two stories in it, You Bloody Snake and Enough of a Bastard, focus almost entirely on Hastur and Ligur.  Seeing Aziraphale and Crowley through different (and less favorable) eyes was a weird pleasure; seeing people indignantly realize they were enjoying fic about Hastur and Ligur was even more of one!

15 August 2019: @verumx persuaded me to watch Jamie Marks Is Dead with her and @one-eyed-bossman, and then implored me to fix it.  Using Our Words is the stand-alone that resulted, which is no shock given I can’t resist ghost stories.  It’s unique among this year’s stories in that it may be the only genuine stand-alone aside from the Gotham piece called Gold Dust.

17 August 2019: After an experimental in-character snail mail letter-writing exchange that lasted about 6 weeks, @verumx and I transcribed the letters and framed them in a piece of collaborative Gotham fic, We Were All Forgiven.  Since about late April, I had been getting progressively sicker and sicker (didn’t know yet that I had cancer).  Keeping busy as things got worse helped at least in the psychological sense, but by mid-August my exhaustion and difficulty eating were hitting their peak.  I was hiding it from everyone except my partner.

1 September 2019: Returning to two stories I’d written for Batman: Europa, I created a series umbrella called Once Is Not Enough and explicitly placed London (Letting Go) and Five Love Affairs under it as companion pieces.  Between Thursday Friday of this particular week, I experienced an increasingly more frightening set of symptoms that landed me in the ER and got a sequence of diagnostic tests finally rolling.

22 October 2019: After receiving a diagnosis of colon cancer on 10/1/19 and starting medical leave Monday of Halloween Week, I decided to complete the sequel to The Meaning of This City, which was a Gotham piece I’d left hanging mid-progress for weeks.  The Maze of Your Ingenuity was hard for me to complete due to constant blood tests, CT scans, and outpatient procedures in the lead-up to my Thanksgiving Week major inpatient surgery, but I did it.

23 September - 11 December 2019: My longest Gotham fic ’verse (Delicate, Dangerous, Obsessed, a.k.a. DDO), having refused to die even once The Knights’ Tour was complete, got an entirely new ending stretch of stories focusing on, of all people, Jerome Valeska and Five (514A).  They were the only two characters from canon who I had mentioned and/or shown briefly in passing earlier in DDO, but whose arcs from canon (and onward into my fic) I had done nothing to wrap up.  Challengers, Thicker Than Blood, Take This Waltz (It’s Yours Now), Finally Fair (In Love and War), and What We’re For (And What We Want) may, collectively, be the best writing I did during the entirety of 2019 (unless you count what I wrote in February to finish CoT).  The experience of terrifying, unexplained illness and harrowing treatment was entirely too timely to one of my two protagonists in this set of stories.  They were worth their weight not just in distraction, but also in catharsis.  Five survived, and so did I.

[inappropriatefangirlneeds]

Gotham s5ep11  “They Did What?” Personal Review & Rambling 

I DID IT .... I WATCHED THE GOTHAM FINALE 

“We need to make it a bomb again.” Absolutely no warning cause that’s all no spoiler anymore for a long time 

So I´m not sure if it´s good thing I´m watching this ages late, partly I guess I could be more emotional, partly not. It´s sweet to see how everyone and their aunt is teaming up for the city. “Well, this is gonna make one hell of a bedtime story some day.”   With Nyssa al Ghul holding the baby I briefly totally forgot the plot and wondered where did that child come from again? And my brain went back to the (godawful) “Ra´s present for Barbara is a child” theory, and then I remembered oh no it was Jim ..and I was like .. eh, magic baby would have been the better plot. So that´s how we started this but at least Jim and Barbara were quite sweet, even with the child (I usually just cringe and crumble in sheer terror of what kind of responsibility a child is whenever one of those appears but they made it sweet)  BARBARA KEAN & JIM GORDON were such a great team!  Also Barbara just looks so damn fine, they really did good with that. And just bless the FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHERS of the Show , handcuffed Barbara taking out the guy with her legs > Jim later handcuffing Nyssa to keep her close to not get shot at < Good Stuff!  * ~ 24:05 even up to the Steps of SELINA KYLE , Just the way she walked before fighting Bane was such a neat detail   ”My father made his name destroying empires.” NYSSA AL GHUL I guess with more time she´s got potential but rushed like that her character is just boring. 

“Can we really be so cavalier about the destruction of Gotham?” Oh OSWALD COBBLEPOT that´s part of why I fell in love with you. So he and EDWARD NYGMA go over the whole “listening to your heart never did you any good Oswald” spiel, and “I´ll miss you”, or “not so much”, Ed kind of is saying “don´t go” , but just not quite, the usual, you know, I can´t bring myself to care much but damn do I like watching their pretty selves talk through it.  * Edward later follows Oswald, claiming it´s about the city, says the submarine can only operated by two people, and actual people, dog didn´t work.  The usual. * Holy Shit, JIM GORDON ´s so gorgeous. It´s not like I had forgotten how pretty he is but damn that episode hit me hard again with Jim feels. Him over that map, going through their strategy. Daaaamn daaaaaaaaamn. * JIM GORDON & OSWALD COBBLEPOT in something that might as well be just fanfiction: “Oswald, come in.” / “Still have those eyes in the back of your head, Jim.” / “No. You just have a remarkably recognizable odor. Part dandy, part snake. After all these years, it hasn't changed. Drink?” / “No, thank you. Dulls the senses.” /  “That's what I was going for. Surprised you're still here. Figured you'd be long gone by now. That storm you've warned me about for so long, it's finally here.” /  “Sure, I could escape... with money, I might add... but then what? Stand on the shores of the mainland and watch the army burn it to the ground? Then watch tasteless industrialists and vapid politicians rebuild it? No. My life is etched on the walls of every alley and dirty warehouse here. My blood lives in its broken concrete. I'm staying to fight. For my legacy.” * LESLIE THOMPKINS caring about the people of the Narrows was great, I don´t know, if I like that she “abandoned” them in order to stand next to Jim but I can let it pass because of the way she did: She respected and trusted BARBARA KEAN to get them out. I can accept a plot that doesn´t pit those two women against each other (anymore). It was equally great that Lee just told Jim to “yes, go to your child”, and not to forget the scene where Barbara is thanking Lee for what she did, and “Barbara Lee Gordon”  * Lucius is full on providing gadgets for Bruce, including that Bat Beacon that slowed down Bane. Nice but eh.  Also they rehash Jeremiah´s plan to turn the city in a labyrinth to slow down the army. “We need to make it a bomb again.” Battery goes Bomb again, but eh, kind of fell flat for me

* HARVEY BULLOCK pointing out they are fighting SOLDIERS that are just following orders was a good touch. And it makes sense that JIM could brush that aside, he knows what they signed up for. That´s what you do, that´s what you accept. * Also I can stan a good  story that rejects and is a slap in the face of  the "NUREMBERG DEFENSE" so props to that! Just the execution fell so remarkably flat for me. I felt nothing then the people came back with Barbara, nothing when the soldiers pointed their guns at Bane.  BRUCE WAYNE & SELINA KYLE   Just Selina checking in with a “Bruce?” to make sure he actually wants to do that bomb thing was so precious. Also her recognizing that he is and accepting his choice. [Rant Below]  Them later sitting on the stairs and talking was sweet too, except for what they talked about.  SELINA KYLE MRs. & MR WAYNE So apparently they paralleled those in this episode 1.  Selina´s shadow is just right under the painting of Mrs & Mr Wayne and Bruce just plants the bomb right in the middle of her shadow ~19:40) 2.  Selina telling Bruce on the stairs she will be there whenever he needs her and Bruce replying that this is what his parents used to tell him.     Which is a good setup for the kind of conclusion Bruce draws out of all of this but also I´m gonna rant about it below but first:  3. Bruce says his parents would have and did sacrifice everything for the city. He´s making the same choice but apparently can´t see that Selina has as much a choice to do so as he and Mrs & Mr Wayne have .  So in the end I´m getting overly emotional, angry, hurt, let down to be precise:  How dare BRUCE WAYNE leave SELINA KYLE  behind like this?! Given the backstory that´s bound to be so much more painful than whatever Jeremiah or Bane ever could do. Selina has been through this after Jeremiah and she made a choice. She stayed, she thought and she was (not that that matters but let´s not forget it) damn good at it. I know Bruce thinks he´s making a “sacrifice” but how dare he take away this choice from her. How dare he hurt her like that.

* Most importantly though ALFRED PENNYWORTH in that COAT at the end looked so damn dashing. I´m in love. But I don´t like that they made a point of benching his character like that. He added plenty to the fight, he´s been in hospital before, he can add still contribute like he always did. Don´t let it end like this. Yeah I do need at least three seasons to magically happen before the 5th. OSWALY COBBLEPOT & EDWARD NYGMA Round #2  * Edward apologizes for freezing because of the grenade, Oswald understands. Edward gags when seeing Oswald´s hurt eye but claims it is just a scratch. * Back in a remarkable awesome looking place they lick their wounds: > Oswald feels not appreciated he wants “credit for our loyalty, our selfless bravery?” aka Love.  > Edward however feels better than everyone else. He used to be “Shy awkward, pathetic Ed”. Not anymore. He´s better! “I don't want their thanks. Or their respect. You know what I felt, standing shoulder to shoulder with those people out there? Nothing. I... feel... absolutely nothing for those drab... boring people.” Never again. I've shown this city who I truly am once before, and I will do it again. They will bow to the Riddler, and they won't get up until I permit them to.” >> The notion of the “Thankless Job” is there too with Ed but Ed get his kicks out of separating himself from the people, he´s different and above them he doesn´t care about their opinion and has no real stakes in their well being. Oswald however obviously still want´s the recognition of said people, and he wants the good and nice kind, so it´s important that they aren´t miserable.  However “Yes. You're right. Our accomplishments have been erased, our brilliant minds underrated. If they had let me run this city the way I wanted to, it would not be in ruins now. I had the men, the money, - the guns... “ 1. Oswald falls in line with Ed´s reasoning, appeals to his brilliance spleen but tweaks it for his need.  Edward says he has to rule and they have to bow to him.  Os says Ed is right, follows in line with Ed in reassuming a strife for leadership but adds his twist that this is necessary not so much because he (just as Ed thinks he is) is superior but because his leadership is “good” for the people. He´ll do good for them so they´ll like him.  >>> Oswald wants to rule to not have the city in ruins and get praised for that >>> Edward wants to rule because he´s better and deserves so regardless of other imbeciles thoughts or needs.  2. Divide et Imperare Edward is quick to make sure to point a finger to an enemy and separate Oswald from Jim “Gordon took them.”  Oswald just might as well try to go back to old methods and try build alliances with Jim and the law again, Edward recently saw Oswald and Jim kind of teaming up again and he just can´t have that. Just like Mr. Penn was in the way. Jim is a threat.  One to be undermined at all costs: “Gordon took them. Why? Because he still sees you as Fish Mooney's umbrella boy, and he always will.” 

3. One Ring to bind them. Edward starts with a selfish reason but is quick to put Oswald back into the plan. First there´s “I” suddenly he talks about a “We”:  “I only came back to help him save this city so that I could take it for myself. We would be stronger together. No one could stop us.”  4. Do they believe each other?! Apparently they don´t because the both go in the hug with a drawn knife but are relieved when they don´t feel one in their own back. Which was really nice and fitting imagery. I can live with that “conclusion” but I have so much open questions.  I really got to look for post that worked through all of this. > Oswald obviously must be weary of Edward because (I just have to believe) that he sees through the manipulating words of Edward. (as listed above) [[[ Especially the scene with Jim: They had a rather respectful, familiar interaction. I can´t quite believe that he follows Edward´s claim that JIM only thinks of him as that umbrella boy. I do think Oswald gets that Jim takes him serious, just well considers all his crime stuff to be wrong, and that´s quite a different thing than what Ed claims.]]]  > What is Edward´s angle there? Yeah he might not have been able to operate the submarine alone but granted his speech it sounded like he would think that he is capable of taking the city for and by himself. Why is he appealing to Oswald to form a “we”?  Just to get him in the hug situation and test him, asses a possible future threat to his claims?  The only other proper motivation for that would be …. he likes Oswald.  5. “Brothers” Hahahah * Okay, but Oswald´s face when Edward and his mirror self do their thing …Damn …. * 8:26 Are the “Captain Jim Gordon” letters on his door window colour ??! * Jankey Piss Whiskey, what is Jim drinking?  * Oh no, not the General

[mrjoelgarcia9]

Let’s Talk #Gotham: Season 4 & An Announcement

This post was originally going to be my Final Thoughts on the third season of Gotham. However, I have nothing else to add to what I wrote in my review of the Season Finale. Despite some flaws, the third season was really good.

For my thoughts on the upcoming fourth season and an announcement about my reviews, feel free to keep reading. There will be spoilers.

Not much has been announced about the fourth season. The Season Premiere will center around Oswald, according to a tweet from the episode’s writer. The only other hints about next season came from the finale, such as Selina being trained by Tabitha, Bruce starting his career in crime fighting, and Ra’s al Ghul likely becoming the new main villain.

There is also the possibility of Five returning next season. While the Court was dead by the finale, he disappeared after knocking out Alfred and Selina. He could either want Bruce to help save his life or try and switch places with him permanently.

Or he could become as forgotten as Harvey Dent.

(Seriously, what happened? Was Nicholas D’Agosto too busy with Trial & Error to at least make a cameo? I honestly cannot recall if Dent was even mentioned this past season.)

Starting this fall, the show moves to Thursdays at 8 PM. It will now compete not only with football and CBS’ The Big Bang Theory (which it previously did on a limited basis) but also Young Sheldon, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, NBC’s Superstore & The Good Place, and The CW’s Supernatural. As long as the show continues to be great, it will thrive and survive on Thursdays.

As for my own plans for the fourth season, I do not think I will continue writing these reviews. I still like the show but the reviews have not been as fun to write as when I originally began posting them back in September. They were also not as popular as those I have previously written about other shows.

For example, my most popular review was “Beware The Green-Eyed Monster” with 18 notes.

My most popular post about Sailor Moon Crystal, the other show that I have written weekly reviews, has 33 notes.

From what I have seen, Gotham has a great fan base here on Tumblr. I will always be grateful to all of you who read, liked, and reblogged my reviews. In the future, I might write about the show again whenever it goes on hiatus or after the next season finale. In the meantime, I will continue to watch Gotham on its new night, tweet about it over on Twitter, and post more great content here on Tumblr.

The complete third season of Gotham is now available to buy on iTunes.

Until next time, thank you for reading!

[dukereviewstv]

Duke Reviews TV: Batman: The Animated Series 1x02 Christmas With The Joker

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews TV, Where We Coninue Our Look At Batman: The Animated Series By Talking About Episode 2 Of Season 1, Christmas With The Joker...

The Episode Sees The Joker (Played By Mark Hamill) Escaping Arkham Asylum On Christmas Eve To Kidnap Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson And Detective Bullock To Give Both Batman And Robin A Little Problem Over The Holidays...

Threatening To Kill Them At Midnight, The Joker Sets Up Various Disasters To Keep The Dynamic Duo Busy While He Has Some Holiday Fun...

Will Batman And Robin Save The Hostages And Stop The Joker Before Midnight?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Christmas With The Joker...

The Episode Starts At Arkham Asylum...

(Start At 0:16, End At 1:00)

Meanwhile At Wayne Manor, Batman And Robin Go Down To The Batcave, Despite Robin Feeling That There's No Need For Them To Go Out On Christmas But Batman Knows The Joker Is Out Of Arkham...

So, Robin Makes A Deal With Him That If Gorham Is Quiet With No Sign Of The Joker, They'll Come Back To Wayne Manor And Watch It's A Wonderful Life...

Yeah, I Agree, Batman, It's A Wonderful Life Is A Little Overrated...

Not Finding The Joker, Just Someone Helping An Old Lady That Dropped A Gift A Few Miles Back, Bruce And Dick Head Back To Wayne Manor To Have Dinner But When They Go To Watch It's A Wonderful Life, They Discover A Christmas Special On Instead...

(Start At 0:39, End At 2:07)

Working To Find The Joker's Location By Checking Power Surges Before Heading Out To Find Him, Joker Continues His Show To Revealing That He's Kidnapped Commissioner Gordon, Reporter Summer Gleeson, And Detective Bullock...

Who I Laugh At Every Time I See Him In That Baby Bonnet...

And That If Batman Doesn't Find Him And The Hostages By Midnight Then He'll Kill Them...

Coming Back On With His Own Christmas Elf, Laughy, Joker Explains That He'll Blow Up A Rail Bridge In Time For The 11:30 Train, Which Just So Happens To Have Summer Gleeson's Mom On It...

(Start At 1:40, End At 3:27)

Isolating The Joker's Broadcast Signal To Observatory On Top Of Mount Gotham, They Find A Jack In The Box Which The Joker Uses To Communicate With Batman And Robin Before Using The Telescope Which He Replaced With A Cannon Which Is Now Firing At Batman...

Don't Know He Could Have Done That In Such A Short Time But It's Superhero Stuff, I Guess...

But Despite Taking On Dozens Of Joker Statues With Guns For Fingers, Robin Blows Up The Cannon Using An Explosive Bola...

Hopping In The Batmobile, They Continue Watching Joker's Broadcast As He Gives Summer Gleeson A Betty Blooper Doll, Realizing That The Doll Came From The Laffco Toy Factory Which Has Been Closed For 14 Years..,

Considering It To Be Joker's Hideout, They Head There Only To Face Several Giant Toy Nutcrackers And Toy Airplanes While Music From The Nutcracker Plays...

Eventually Destroying Both, Joker Appears With His Hostages Over A Vat Of Molten Plastic And Telling Batman To Come Get His Christmas Present Or He'll Kill The Hostages...

(Start At 2:50, End At 4:12)

As Bruce And Dick Finally Watch It's A Wonderful Life, The Joker Spends The Rest Of Christmas In His Cell But In Good Spirits...

This Episode Is One Of My Favorite Christmas Episodes Ever...

While This Is Early Joker, The Story Is Pretty Good And Some Of The Scenes With Joker Are Pretty Good, Either Way I Say See It And Make It One Of Your Holiday Favorites Today..,

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...