#also demand more batfans

[theflashjaygarrick]

After getting into more parts of the DC fanbase the difference between how Batfans and non-Batfans act becomes really apparent. Like in the Batfandom people want their individual fav to have a leading role in an acclaimed ongoing series as a sign they are finally being respected by DC.

Meanwhile everyone else is celebrating when their favourite family/team/side of DC gets one decently written series every other year. Shout out to the Fourth World fans for getting a new New Gods series written by Ram V (for context the first one in 6 years, and the last wasn't even canonical). Aquafans, I'm holding out hope they will announce a new series for you guys at some point. Personally I am manifesting that one day we will get a single decent black canary solo series.

[ectonurites]

I’m adding these responses onto this just to keep the context all together

So I think you’re giving like… a worst faith reading to what the first anon was saying. To me their point felt much more like ‘Tim just got a big exciting focus story recently [like UL #10 came out only 2 months ago y’all] and people are still complaining very frequently that it’s not enough, while lots of characters haven’t shown up at all in far longer but their fans aren’t complaining nearly as much’ which like… I think is a pretty fair point. I don’t think they were saying ‘ugh Tim should disappear now that you guys got this’ I think they were just venting bc batfans overall get so much more content than fans of like any other aspect of DC, so to see batfans complaining about a lack of solo for a character that just got a big cool thing could definitely get grating when it feels like other characters have to fight for even a cameo.

Like, I still stand by the stuff I said in response to the first anon, but I don’t think what they said was that unreasonable or ‘weird’ lmao.

And with this one- in general I agree that it feels off that Tim is one of the only Bats not featured in an ongoing rn (though again, as much as many of us don’t want to acknowledge it, Robins exists. It’s not like Tim isn’t appearing at all. But as a limited series it is different than an ongoing) and that’s something I don’t see anything wrong with expressing/talking about, but like…

Tim fans aren’t a monolith. While plenty of people are being reasonable about this and just want Tim to show up more as proof of DC not tossing him aside now that he’s queer, and wanting that sort of spotlight for queer stories like you said… there’s definitely a subset of Tim fans who have just been demanding a solo/complaining constantly about the lack of one while not even paying attention to stuff at DC right now- and that does comes off in a reasonably negative light imo. I really saw someone on twitter today claim that Tim hasn’t been seen in comics at all since UL #10 when that’s just plain not true! Quality of the appearances is debatable sure, but they exist. Several people are complaining without even actually reading or acknowledging the stuff DC’s putting out, and that can again just get grating.

Anyways. I do just also wanna say, solely complaining about a lack of solo for Tim isn’t the best way to demand for more queer representation in the comics. Again I think it’s a valid thing to complain about/be frustrated with to a degree, because Tim shouldn’t just get tossed aside now… but it’s most productive (and more likely to make a difference) to make sure you’re like, also reading/hyping up/supporting the comics currently coming out/coming up that do feature queer characters. Go read and talk about Nubia and the Amazons, go read and talk about Aquaman: The Becoming and Aquamen when it starts, preorder and hype up Galaxy: The Prettiest Star if you’re able to, read and talk about Crush and Lobo (and preorder the trade if you’re able to). These sorts of things would in the long run only help chances of Tim as a queer character getting more focus, because it further shows DC people are interested in these stories.

if my favourite character had a coming out story honestly i wouldnt complain every week that he doesnt have a solo...so many characters get nothing and every day i see tim fans crying lol

I get that and in general agree (I think… because people come into my inbox talking about it a decent amount it may give the impression it’s something I’m more concerned with than I am. Like i’d like to see Tim get a solo sure, but I uh… recognize how slow comics are and how things take time and you don’t just get everything ya want when ya want it)

But I think the main reason a lot of Tim fans are getting so… like this in this specific situation is just the fear that now that he’s come out DC’s gonna stop using him. That they said ‘ok he can be queer but don’t expect to see him as much as you used to now.’ Tim’s coming out was a big deal in a lot of ways because of how established a character he is- having that further fizzle out now that he’s queer is just… not a good way for DC to handle representation. Like the hope is that sort of thing isn’t the case, I personally don’t really think it is at this time, but I think a lot of people are jumping to panic mode about it and that’s leading to the impatience and complaining. It’s them wanting proof that that won’t happen in the form of steady content like an ongoing solo.

[theprocrastinatingalien]

Gotham City Sirens - Who should play Catwoman & Poison Ivy?

In the ever-expanding DCEU, one of the announced films likely to garner some excitement from fans is that of GOTHAM CITY SIRENS.  Technically it'll act as a spin-off of last year's SUICIDE SQUAD which introduced us to the first big screen version of Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie.

SUICIDE SQUAD 2 is in the works, as is a spin-off for the film's lead DEADSHOT, which should see the return of Will Smith, I think most are looking to the comic book adaption that will see Margot Robbie return, both as a lead of sorts, and in a producer role.

Of course, Harley Quinn will be just one third of the female lead team - the other two being Catwoman and Poison Ivy.  So, basically, the best known female villains in Batman's "Rogue Gallery".

There's even the suggestion we might get Batgirl's introduction into the shared universe.  But, for now, lets focus on the main trio.  We know Robbie will be back as Harley, but who will be cast as her partners-in-crime? 

Below are a few suggestions on who could join the franchise.

CATWOMAN

So far, Catwoman has been the highest profile female character in the Batflicks to date.  Lee Meriwether played her in the camp sixties effort BATMAN: THE MOVIE, whilst we got an iconic turn from Michelle Pfeiffer in Tim Burton's BATMAN RETURNS.  We won't discuss Halle Berry's venture (we don't need to - it wasn't Selina Kyle, so it's not relevant) but the last time we saw Catwoman on the big screen was in Christopher Nolan's trilogy-capper THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, played by Anne Hathaway.

But who should don the catsuit for this new generation of batfans?  Here are seven options.

LENA HEADEY

Lena recently put her name in the ring, on twitter, when asked why she hadn't already been asked, and it was a question she asked too.  So, that's why she's on the list.  Right now she's the ONLY name that's even been remotely linked - and the GAME OF THRONES star wouldn't be a bad choice. At 43, she's the right age to fit with Affleck too.  (We have nothing to say that Affleck will be anywhere near the film, but in the grand scheme of things, it's relative).

KATE BECKINSALE

My personal favourite at this point, I'd say.  All you need to do is look at the UNDERWORLD franchise to see she, at the very least, looks the part). She also happens to be 43, which fits with 44 year old Affleck.

ANGELINA JOLIE

You can't deny there's something somewhat feline about Jolie, and she'd certainly be a high profile casting.  I actually think she's make a good Catwoman, and - again - she's in the right age range.  Of course, Jolie may not want, what is likely to be a very physical demanding role, and she's now trying to carve a career as a director.  Still I thought it was worth suggesting her.

NATALIE DORMER

Okay, I'm just putting this one out there in case Warner Bros. decide to go younger.  At 35 she's still pretty much a decade older that Robbie, but would look in-keeping I think.  She was a fan favourite for CAPTAIN MARVEL for the MCU (she's already had a small role over there, though) and she's the second GAME OF THRONES actor on this list, as well as appearing in THE HUNGER GAMES franchise.

EVA GREEN

Eva seems to be the fan choice at the moment, and it's hard not to see why looking at some of her turns, such as PENNY DREADFUL and SIN CITY 2. She also about the same age as Dormer.  Now, I won't lie, Green wouldn't be my choice, but I've seen so many other suggest her, I felt I had to include her on this list.

MILA KUNIS

Okay, Mila is easily the youngest on this list, in her early thirties, and perhaps is too young for "Affleck's Catwoman", but she's still be older than Robbie, and I feel fits the Catwoman role.  She looks the part, and I reckon could play the part.  I've not seen her in a role similar, the closest being JUPITER RISING, which wasn't maybe the best example.  I'm still waiting for Kunis to break out with a franchise.

THANDIE NEWTON

Another name I've seen put out by fans (nearly as much as Green), and Newton is certainly in the public eye following the success of the recent WESTWORLD series.  I certainly prefer her to Green, and think she'd bring a performance somewhat reminiscent of Eartha Kitt in the 60s show.

As I said, Beckinsale is my personal choice, but I could see all of the above seven options working to some degree.  I think the general thought is, if any of the characters are, Catwoman (presumably Selina Kyle), will be the elder of the three leadies, keeping to Affleck's age.  However, fans seem to have it in their heads that Poison Ivy will be younger.  This may well be the case, too, but I hope to provide a mix of ages below.

POISON IVY

Ivy was played by Uma Thurman is the below par BATMAN & ROBIN, and didn't get a gritty real revamp during Nolan's trilogy. This will be DC's chance to rectify the damage.

CHRISTINA HENDRICKS

I have thought Hendricks to be a perfect fit for Ivy since I saw her in FIREFLY, and seeing her in MAD MEN and LOST RIVER certainly hasn't made me change my mind on the matter.  She's easily my top choice.  Again, in her 40s, she's just the right age range with Affleck.

ISLA FISHER

I love Isla Fisher.  I make no apologies for her appearance in the list.  She's probably too cute for the role, and she perhaps doesn't fit the 'superhero' look all the actors seem to have... but I wanted to throw her name in the ring.  I would be ecstatic of she was cast!  (Again, perfect age!)

ALEXANDRA BRECKENRIDGE

A name I've seen pop up a few times in fan's wishlists.  A nice surprise too.  I've not see her much, personally, having only really noted her as the sexy maid in AMERICAN HORROR STORY and as Jessie in THE WALKING DEAD, but I'd definitely consider myself a fan... I'd be more than happy to see Breckenridge cast as Poison Ivy.

ALEXANDRA DADDARIO

Another name from fanlists, and an interesting one.  I think she went to the top of most fanboy lists following *that scene* from TRUE DETECTIVE.  I think the new BAYWATCH film won't turn either.   That said, for Ivy, I'm not sure she would be my pick.  When Marvel were looking for JESSICA JONES, she was my pick for that, and was even a little disappointed when she lost out, so I want her to get a franchise - just not sure it's Ivy.  I won't complain if she did get cast though! At 30, she's one of the youngest actor on this list.

JESSICA CHASTAIN

I've not seen Chastain on any fan-lists yet, which is surprising in itself, considering almost all other redheads are featured.  I actually think Jessica might be a good fit for Poison Ivy.  Whether or not she'd fit in with Margot's Harley is another matter.  She's quite intelligent (remember, Ivy was a scientist), but she can handle action (as witnessed in THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR). 

KAREN GILLAN

Gillan will be known to you for one, maybe two, things.  Right now, she's best known for playing the blue and bald beauty, Nebula, in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.  If you know your sci-fi, and like British sci-fi, then you'll also know her as Amy Pond in DOCTOR WHO.  Now, it's quite possible, I'm only putting her in this list because she's ginger.  But I don't care.  I'm not sure she'd be allowed to join the DCEU, considering her role in the MCU is still ongoing, but I'm going to include her here.  So there. (she's also, the youngest on this list, and I think would look great alongside Robbie).

AMANDA SEYFRIED

I'm going to be honest with you, I was going to put Emma Stone on the list, then crossed her out in favour of Jane Levy, but am now resting on Amanda Seyfried.  I think she's got a unique look, that might not immediately offer itself to being a supervillain... or maybe it does... but I'd like to see Amanda pop in one of the big superfranchises, and reckon her Poison Ivy would compliment Robbie's Quinn.

So, there you are, 14 options.  But before you pick your favourite, I'd like to offer a bonus 15th...

ALISON BRIE

I'm offering Brie as a bonus, because I'd like to suggest her for either role - I could see her as either Catwoman or Poison Ivy.  She's been up for roles in the MCU (she lost out to Emily VanCamp to play Sharon Carter in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER), and she's been garnering a fanbase, appearing in a number of films, and of course she's well known for playing Annie in COMMUNITY.  She's one I would certainly love to hit a franchise, and whilst I was thinking of her as a hero-type... why not a villain instead?

So, there you have it.  Do you think any of my suggestions are likely to make the grade?  Will we be seeing Margot Robbie, Kate Beckinsale and Christina Hendricks rattling around Gotham City in their own film?  Or do you have a better option?  Let me know!

[project-two-five-zero-one]

Games I Played in 2016 - Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)

I am what could maybe - generously - be called a modest Batfan. I don’t have any powerful childhood attachment to the character and mythos; I’ve only read a couple of the more iconic graphic novels; I hated the Christopher Nolan movies; even my exposure to the DCAU is mostly by way of sporadically catching Batman Beyond and Justice League on Toonami. But I do like Batman - if anything my appreciation for Batman is growing with age, and with appreciation for its symbolism. Of late I’ve developed a real fondness for the kind of tragic archetype epitomized by the darker, more ambivalent portrayals of Bruce Wayne: these romantic pop-cultural portrayals of tortured, duty-bound masculine identities borne out of trauma, individualist personae built in response to a world of random violence and chaos antithetical to their very existence. (see also: my resurgent fondness for Berserk, my crankish stubborn insistence that Death Wish is a misunderstood masterpiece about violence and grief.) Batman’s appeal taken at face value may be as some kind of quasi-fascist power fantasy, but his longevity comes from tapping into this deeper narrative of tragic masculinity. Also, he has cool gadgets. So it’s no surprise that demand is high for a video game that truly encapsulates the Batman Experience. 

According to The Internet, if I want the definitive Batman game experience I can do no better than the Batman Arkham (hereafter “BamHam”) series. Having played all of the first game, a bit of the second one and a large portion of the handheld spinoff, I can answer this recommendation with a resounding “fuck that”. BamHam Asylum is one of the dullest, most uninspired games I’ve ever played. The design is a hodgepodge of second-rate elements (combat, stealth, puzzle-solving, backtracking, skill tree progression) laid out with minimal cohesion across an endless series of gray industrial corridors. Rocksteady Studios almost certainly designed the game by coming up with a checklist of “stuff Batman can do”, developing a stultifyingly literal-minded mechanical representation of each bullet point, and shoving it arbitrarily into a likely pre-designated number of relevant points in the game. You have the Scan Visor from Metroid Prime, but with less diverse environments or interesting interactions; the environment-manipulating tools from Zelda, but with only the most superficial lock-and-key mechanics from those games (“there’s an X here, so use Y”); stealth like Splinter Cell or MGS, but without the deep toolbox of possible NPC and environment interactions that make those games interesting; storytelling via (*yaaaaawn*) audio logs because after BioShock came out every AAA action game on the planet was obsessed with audio logs; big stagey setpiece boss fights like Metal Gear, only again with far less mechanical depth and also less narrative depth too, because instead of developing any of the characters with interesting dialogue or a coherent narrative structure the game relies on the audience’s prior knowledge of these characters to fill in the dramatic gaps and takes near-constant narrative detours to force in one more iconic villain with a truckload of backtracking-based fetch quests to pad out the game length. The game’s most fleshed out and widely praised mechanic is its “free flow” combat system, and it’s a sham: one button to attack, mostly automated character movement, and a maddening facade of “difficulty” imposed by punishing the player for zoning out and mashing that one attack button eight times in a row instead of seven, or what have you - you know, the thing every beat-em-up constantly encourages you to do. Yes, it’s a truly masterful combat mechanic whose difficulty hinges on whether the player can resist becoming too mindlessly ensconced in its own repetitiveness to pay attention to their every move.   

I’m convinced that the widespread praise for Arkham Asylum, and thus the ensuing Arkham franchise, came from comic book fans so gleeful that a licensed Batman game - with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill in it and everything! - was merely MEDIOCRE rather than ATROCIOUS that they were ready to praise it on high as something it fundamentally was not. What makes this especially painful is that, narratively, the game doesn’t feel like a good encapsulation of Batman either, or at least any Batman stories that are actually good. Stripped of the five zillion pointless detours mentioned above, the basic plot is: Joker springs a trap. Joker has an eeeeevil plan in the works. Batman beats up a lot of guys. Batman beats up the Joker. The Joker’s plot is foiled. The End. No character development. No social commentary, subtle or otherwise. No deeper exploration of Bruce or Joker’s psychology. No philosophizing about law versus chaos. No zesty one-liners, even; the dialogue fizzles at every turn, and while it’s been too long since I’ve played to recall a specific example (suffice to say it’s not memorable) you can always go and watch the cutscenes on Youtube if you want proof. The writing equates “dark and gritty” with characters saying “bitch” and “hell” and Batman beating the shit out of people in slow motion and a bunch of nameless NPCs being slaughtered. The characterizations are trite to the point of being stereotypical: the thugs you beat up all talk with the same cartoonish Brooklyn patois and indicate no motivation beyond being “evil” and “criminal” in some intangible, essential, and - evidently - irrelevant way.   

Am I asking too much from a video game plot? Have I been spoiled by my exposure to the Batman mythos coming predominantly from Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Tim Burton, and the writers in the DCAU who aren’t Paul Dini? Gliding off of rooftops and punching people repeatedly are prime examples of video game actions that can and should be fun - and there are plenty of other games to show us that (Just Cause and God Hand, respectively). But I’m pretty sure what draws people to Batman, as opposed to just any dime-a-dozen superhero, is the characters, the dialogue. There’s a reason, say, Joker is practically obligated to show up in each and every one of Batman’s myriad adaptations, and a reason those adaptations have ranged in style, tone and medium from the Technicolor Adam West camp sagas to last year’s R-rated cartoon adaptation of The Killing Joke (which I thought got more hate than it deserved, but that’s another discussion altogether). A video game defined primarily by traversing empty rooftops and beating indistinct hobos will only ever capture a small fraction of what Batman has to offer. So it’s been long overdue that someone should make a Batman game where narrative is the primary focus, dialogue and abstract choice-making the primary interaction, and the long legacy of Batman films and graphic novels the primary template. And it’s highly fitting that the developer for such a game should be Telltale.   

I’ve been a fan of Telltale and their reinvented brand of “adventure games” ever since I tried the first season of their Walking Dead series on a whim (it came bundled with my PS Vita) and got instantly hooked. I’ve heard frequent allegations that their titles aren’t “real adventure games”, that they’re mechanically shallow, that their much-vaunted systems of choice are illusory since the player can more often determine only HOW plot events happen and not IF they happen. Some of these criticisms likely carry some weight, but I can’t really bring myself to care. I’ve always been attracted to games with a strong narrative component (I’m juuuust old enough to remember when people’s choices for a narrative-driven game experience on consoles were JRPGs or bust) and I’m thrilled that there’s a successful subgenre now of games molded entirely around interactive storytelling, where the writing is actually the selling point, the developer’s most fleshed-out resource in the game, and not just secondary to the mechanics. More importantly - the writing IS the mechanics. This isn’t one of those David Cage abominations, where “cinematic” events play out on screen in accordance with one pretentious manchild’s stunted idea of quality screenwriting, and you occasionally get to press a button. Telltale games constantly bombard the player with active choices - they demand the player’s involvement - and if the majority of those choices are inconsequential, the cleverness of the games’ design lies in the fact that distinguishing the choices with long-term consequences from the ones that are mainly filler is often not an easy task, even in retrospect. (Assuming you play on Minimal Interface mode, as any true roleplayer should.) I played through their Game of Thrones series for the second time last year, and between in-game experimentation and looking in guides I found myself repeatedly surprised by discovering which plot points I could or couldn’t change, and how. Telltale’s products could be compared to Japanese visual novels (a genre that rarely attracts the same kind of backlash in the West, perhaps due to its niche audience), but really they’re more like Choose Your Own Adventure books by way of premium cable dramas - and as someone who has enjoyed the former as a kid and the latter right now, I’m not shy about embracing this inventive synthesis.   

Likely thanks to the lucrative backing of DC Comics and Warner Brothers Entertainment, Batman is Telltale’s most elaborate and polished effort to date. Up to now, even their big-label games have tended to be plagued with technical problems - choppy framerates, graphical glitches, shoddy animations and textures, outright bugs and crashes. Playing on PS4 in 1080p, for the first time I can see a Telltale running smoothly and looking… good. The cel-shaded graphics wear their comic book inspirations on their sleeves, with bold lines and saturated colors that actually look good in motion, and - at least compared with Telltale’s previous work - they’re not overly hampered by framerate problems and glitches. No more of those washed-out flat backgrounds used in Game of Thrones, that look like someone took a still-wet oil painting and splashed it with their own urine. Much is owed here, narratively and mechanically, to Telltale’s previous comic book-based effort The Wolf Among Us, also an easy contender for their best game so far.   

Mechanically, Telltale predictably don’t stray far from their Walking Dead template, but with each new project they take on they find new ways to expand and experiment within the confines of that formula, and Batman hints at some exciting new directions their work might take in future. New “detective” segments are light puzzle challenges which task the player with sussing out clues from a crime scene to reconstruct offscreen events, CSI-style; while they’re a bit lacking in flexibility and occasionally descend into monotonous pixel hunts, it’s a decent idea for a new kind of mechanic that might enable substantive game interaction beyond dialogue choices and QTEs. (Next time, Telltale, include multiple solutions.) QTEs also have some kind of grading system now, where optimal executions charge up a glowing blue meter that does… something. Seriously, I played all the way through the game and never figured out what this actually did. I like the idea, though! Again, if these games are already structured so that different dialogue choices can open up branching paths, what could be the harm in fleshing out the occasional action and puzzle sequences to enable similar flexibility? Any step toward making QTEs an inconsequential gesture meant only to facilitate the illusion of action is another step forward for Telltale’s design model. Already they seem to be pushing ever forward with the flexibility of their narrative structures, with choices in this game seemingly leading to far more diverse outcomes than previous titles - even if this occasionally leads to strange inconsistencies in character (I went out of my way to treat Harvey Dent like a friend, but when the inevitable happens Bruce’s attitude towards him seems to shift irrevocably on a dime). Every new project is another baby step forward for the Telltale crew, and I fully believe that the perfection of the narrative game subgenre they (re)invented is yet to come. The best idea for now: at the very end, the game evaluates not merely your key choices, but the overall tenor and characterization of “your” Bruce Wayne; “honest” or “cunning”, “collaborative” or “individual”, and more. The core exercise of the Telltale model - narratively, mechanically - is roleplaying, the way the player chooses to embody and express their assigned character given the options available. The more attention Telltale pays to reading and deepening this aspect of their games, the better they’ll be. Read how I roleplay, and respond. Evolve the story along the narrative trajectory I’ve chosen to see. Be a good dungeon master.   

So what about the actual story? Telltale takes a curious tack, distancing it as much as possible from previous Batman media and starting from square one in much the same manner as a Hollywood adaptation (from back in the days before the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned every superhero film into a stultifying morass of cross-brand continuity and pandering to comic readers). None of the characters are voiced by actors involved in any previous adaptation - the cast is led by a trio of Funimation veterans (Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, and the ubiquitous Troy Baker) which can make certain scenes feel more like some kind of Fullmetal Alchemist reunion special than the DCAU. A stable of familiar cast members - Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Harvey Dent, Oswald Cobblepot - are introduced as though the audience had never met them before, in newer, younger forms freed from the strictures of any existing canon. Bruce and Harvey are best friends (or can be, if you think it makes for a more interesting story); Harvey and Selina are romantically involved; characters may take on roles or become privy to knowledge that directly defies DC tradition. Without giving too much away - since making choices without full knowledge of their possible implications is such a large part of the fun - certain sacrosanct elements of the Batman mythos are fundamentally altered for the purposes of this story in this universe, which has no obligation to tie itself to any other piece of media but itself. Bruce is of the more talkative, emotionally balanced variety than I like him - Telltale goes for dark and gritty, but not to the extent of diving head-on into the Batworld’s central metaphor of fractured identity and trauma - but everything is carefully considered and deliberately placed within the particular vision of the Batcanon Telltale has imagined. Hell, the Joker doesn’t even show up outside of a minor role in the last two episodes, with only limited opportunities to truly ham it up, and if that’s not an indicator of writerly restraint in a Batman adaptation I don’t know what is.   

The overall tone and narrative arc is most clearly influenced by the Nolan films, but the script blessedly has numerous advantages of not being written by the Nolans and/or David S. Goyer. There’s humor, wit and a modicum of self-awareness, for starters (you can crack jokes about the Batsuit and flirt with reporters); verbal exposition and speechifying are kept to reasonable levels, and there’s none of that horrible tendency to try and pass off meaninglessly vague pronouncements delivered in ominous tones as freshman-level “deep” dialogue - thank the fuck Christ. (“Sometimes… the hero… has to be… the villain… to be… our hero…” *BWAAAAAAAM*) Characters are allowed to have personalities - even female characters! Yes, Catwoman has motives and personally traits in this one, personality traits that are clearly identifiable and run deeper than “sexy”, “duplicitous”, and “butt”. (And “Batdick”.) She’s not even the only woman with a speaking role! How about that! So it’s like… if Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy were actually fun to watch, instead of a set of movies about a man in a bat suit punching a man in a clown suit that carry themselves with the portentous dourness of a fucking Bresson flick.   

Ironically, despite nailing tone far better than Nolan and Rocksteady, Telltale has miraculously been granted the freedom to go far grittier than previous adaptations. Some of the crime scenes are outstandingly gruesome; major decisions can result in characters being permanently maimed; Batman can brutalize his enemies to the extreme, if you so choose; and Bruce Wayne spends as much time navigating through seedy political entanglements as chases and brawls. In this monent of American fear and unrest, the mad crucible of Gotham feels like an especially cathartic funhouse mirror in which to gaze (no matter how little sense it makes that Batman’s America seems to have no state or federal government). With the episodic format and TV-like presentation, Telltale has taken the opportunity to fold the Batverse into its obvious match in the gritty crime procedural; no one will mistake it for The Wire or even Sherlock, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find video games doing this particular brand of genre fiction any real justice.   

There’s one more element to the game that I didn’t try, but I wish I did: a new “party mode”, where people can sync a mobile app with the game on console and vote for dialogue choices as a group. It seems like it would either be a dumb, hilarious clusterfuck or a fun and engaging group game, and a totally unique experience either way. For what little my praise is worth, I will always applaud a game for seeking out new ways to facilitate a social experience, capitalizing and expanding upon the inherently participatory nature of games that electrifies people such that millions of people are even willing to watch others play on Youtube (something I’ll never personally understand). The more I can share the act of playing a game, the better.   

So… what are the best Batman books? I’m taking recommendations.