#also some say that the Mask of the Phantasm is the best animated Batman movie

[helix-enterprises117]

Batman Begin...ners Guide.

Okay, so I do talk about other things beyond sci-fi and Halo. Like my Halo Guide, this is meant to be a list of recommendations for folks who want to get into Batman, but have zero clue where to begin because it's an 85-yo franchise with decades of lore and works.

Movies & TV: Both animated and live-action, this is probably the easiest and most accessable way to get into the character and his mythos.

The Dark Knight Trilogy - Watch this first, starting from Batman Begins and ending with Rises. This is a super-distilled film saga that tells Batman's story in the most straight-forward way imaginable; I kid you not, these movies were made for non-comic fans.

The Batman - This is the second most recent film to come out, but Edward Cullen finally does what most vampires can do and transforms into a bat, man. It's a gothic, neo-noir, mystery thriller that shines a light on Batman's detective skills; so while it's not the film I'd recommend you watch first, it is still a very good start.

Mask Of The Phantasm - What else can I say that hasn't already been said? While I personally don't love this film the same way a lot of other folks do, it is the best Batman film in a more objective sense.

Merry Little Batman - This is THE most recent Batman film to come out, it's a christmas kids' film that came out the tail end of last year. It's a funny, cute and very charming flick that focuses on Batman's young son becoming a superhero for the first time while some of Batman's Rogues come to terrorize Gotham on Christmas. Lightning McQueen's brother is Batman in this movie.

Gotham - It's a charming 5 season-long show that I can only describe as "Smallville, but with Batman." It's also got some of the best versions of the fanchise's characters I've ever seen... and some of the worst. That's the beauty of the show to me, it's both 'so bad it's good' AND genuinely good. It's stupid and cheesey just like the comics it's based on and I appreciate and respect how the show embraces the wackiness of the comics that EVERY live-action film is so afraid to capture.

Batman: The Animated Series - Need I say more?

Video Games: As far as these go, there are quite a few really good options; but there's only two that stand out.

The Arkham Saga - I recommend playing through this series TWICE; start in release-date order (Arkham Asylum, City, Origins and Knight), then play the series again in chronological order (Origins, Asylum, City and Knight).

The Telltale Series - This game basically allows you to control the entire story right from the get go. Instead of it being an action-game where you beat up bad guys; it's an interactive film that allows you to customize your own version of Batman himself.

Finally...

Comics: Probably why you're here to begin with. This is where I can have the most fun, since there's so much to pick from that you can't go wrong. I won't talk about these comics, I'll just list them because I'd for you all to read these yourselves.

Batman: Earth One, Volumes 1 through 3.

The White Knight Trilogy - From Batman: White Knight to Beyond The White Knight.

Batman: Creature Of The Night.

Robin & Batman.

Batman: The Imposter.

Wayne Family Adventures.

Burnside Batgirl.

Batman: Universe.

Batman: Black & White.

Batman: Year One, Batman: Year Two, Batman: Full Circle, and finally, Batman: Son Of The Demon.

The Dark Knight Returns.

Batman: Ego.

And finally... Batman: War On Crime.

You don't have to read ALL of them, they're just places to start. This is a a set of guidelines, not mandatory homework.

[arabian-batboy]

My top 5 animated (Batman-related) DC movies:

1- Batman: Under the Red Hood (because it’s B:UTRH? Duh? But seriously, it’s such a good angsty thrilling story and this adaptation did it mostly justice)

2- Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (they are what Batman: Bad Blood tried to be, a good Batfamily-centric movie, but without any racism/sexism)

3- Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons (any movie about a dad, who has his flaws, but still unconditionally love his child and will go to hell and back to save them is already a 10/10 premise for me)

4- Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (mostly for the nostalgia, but it’s also just a good ol’classic Batman story without any cheap decoration)

5- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (only for the engaged StarfireXNightwing being parents to the kids in TT, the rest is whatever)

[stephaniejuhnay]

Alright yall. I finished The Batman.

Now. Y’all are aware of my deep Batman love. Like, I love my white billionaire angsty superhero so much. Batman: The Animated Series is kinda my gold standard in Batman-lore. And Tim Burton’s take (which informed that show) is my favorite live-action take. Also very much enjoyed the Dark Knight trilogy. (Not a fan of the recent DCEU takes with Affleck.) I’ve watched full walkthroughs of the Arkham Asylum games multiple times. Year One & The Killing Joke & Assault on Arkham are great animated feature films. I played both the Batman Telltale series games through multiple times bc I thought the plot was just that compelling. Mask of the Phantasm IS MY SHIT. I thought Gotham was a nice spin on an origin story we’ve seen a million times.

Said all that to say, I enjoy and am very particular abt my Batman content. I like things with a grounding in the canon but a unique perspective/twist to it. I was worried and almost committed to not seeing this movie bc I was tired of being disappointed by Batman live-action films in the last few years.

I’m so glad I went. This is by and far the best DCEU film. I would even place it over the first Wonder Woman, which I thought was DCs strongest film to date (that I’ve seen - I couldn’t get through Birds of Prey and haven’t bothered to watch The Suicide Squad). But this? I am SO IMPRESSED. There is potential for another good trilogy here and that makes me very happy.

It was longer than it needed to be. We definitely could’ve gotten away with a 2hr film here. I felt like I was watching a director’s cut instead of a theatrical release, but I didn’t necessarily mind that.

I really do feel like I watched an amalgam of Tim Burton’s/Nolan’s Batman with the fighting styles and plot points of the Arkham & Telltale games. In the best way possible. The mystery at the heart of the story was pretty easy to figure out but didn’t make it any less enjoyable going on the ride. And there were a couple twists (the Selina/Falcons connection, the reveal that Riddler DIDNT actually know Bruce’s identity bc I was so sure he did) that I thought were pretty dope. My favorite new piece of origin story is the reveal that Martha Kane was instead Martha ARKHAM. That was such a dope twist and is gonna set up some really interesting stuff down the line if we get more movies. Again, it’s reminding me of the Arkham series and I LOVED the plots of those games. I always said they played like movies and digging into the Arkhams’ history is just…exciting to me.

I TOTALLY called Barry Keoghan being The Joker before he even got on screen. I saw him playing “unnamed Arkham prisoner” and was like “Joker. He’s The Joker, that’s tHE JOKER!!!!!” Again, VERY exciting.

I also really appreciated the twist on the “Batman’s existence is responsible for the types of villains Gotham produces” trope too. It’s usually because they’re sick of him trying to clean up Gotham, want to be the one to take him down, blah blah. But the Riddler here was INSPIRED by Batman because of his use of fear to control the city, and I thought that that was such a clever and poignant take.

And lastly. Rob. Well done sir. I have no qualms. I do think it’s interesting that I ended up buying him more as Batman than as Bruce Wayne which is NOT what I was expecting. But he did a really good job here. Everyone did honestly. Super impressed with every performance, I dug the fighting styles (I really think the Arkham games have forever influenced the fighting in any Batman media to come after it), I thought the cinematography was great. I also appreciate the…basic-ness of the Waynetech too. He’s only 2 years into the Batman gig here so the tech to come (hopefully) has such great potential.

Overall. I REALLY liked this film and I fully expected not to when I learned it was happening. I am more than happy to have this film prove me wrong. I hope we get more.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #525

Top Ten Non-Disney Movies to Give the Disniversity Treatment

This week – having finally seen The Batman – I was going to do an updated ranking of Batman-adjacent movies (including, sigh, the Justice League ones). But then I thought it was a little unfair, as I’ve not watched the Burmacher* era or, really, the Nolan trilogy for quite a few years. So I’ve parked that, and if I get my act together, I’ll try to rank them around the time Battinson arrives on Blu-ray. Spoiler alert: Mask of the Phantasm will still be number one.

And that leads me to segue into what this week’s Top Ten will be about! Every now and again I like to bang the drum for something that I, personally, am really into at the moment, even if it’s not necessarily surmounting the zeitgeist. And one of my favourite podcasts right now is Disniversity. For the uninitiated, this is a podcast where film journalist Ben Travis and academic Dr. Sam Summers go through the Disney animation catalogue film by film, discussing what works and what maybe hasn’t quite aged as well. It’s really interesting, partly just because of their thoughts and opinions, but also because Summers is able to place these films in the specific context of when they were made. What was it like at Disney at that time; was the company doing well; what other pop-cultural things were swirling round in the ether; and what was the competition up to? All of these factors help to shine and interesting light on some very well-known movies, and the critical appraisal of the pair has also been food for thought as I re-watch and in some cases re-evaluate classic films.

So this week – with little further preamble – I’m going to imagine a similar analytical gaze being cast on some other animated classics. Er, maybe I should say “classics”; I’m not implying international treasure status for all of the films here! But even a failure can be an interesting failure, and I think these are ten films that I’d love to hear more about. What were the dynamics behind their development? Who were the chief creative forces? Were they produced in response to something, maybe in the market or maybe in the culture? I think there’s lots to discuss!

As it’s me, I’ve got my usual arbitrary rules. I’ve tried not to have too many from one studio – you could do something like this on Dreamworks or Ghibli alone. Similarly I’m trying not to just do “greatest hits” – the “best” animated films of the last however many years. And I’ve utterly nixed anything by Disney at all, so no Pixar (there is a Fox film in there, because it was made before Disney bought ‘em, and because – I think – it represented a concerted attempt by Fox to get onto the animation bandwagon in the late ‘90s). Oh, one final thing – no combo anim/live-action movies. So no Space Jam, Cool World, or Osmosis Jones. Sorry.

The Transformers: The Movie(1986): yes, well, might as well get the obvious one out of the way. But lots to talk about! In development at the same time as the first season of the animated show, it’s funny that just as kids were falling in love with Optimus Prime and the rest, writers were planning their gory deaths. Great cast – Nimoy! Idle! Welles! – and a great soundtrack. But it’s the film’s relative failure that might be most interesting, how that impacted subsequent Hasbro properties (such as the GI JOE movie), and also the film’s legs as the franchise’s most important landmark, defining much of what followed.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm(1993): yeah, the otherobvious one. Developed as a TV spin-off that would have gone straight to video, it was granted a theatrical release (which may have entailed some tinkering I believe) where it flopped. But talking about Batman: The Animated Series in any capacity is very interesting, and it’s worth looking at the origin story presented here, contrasting it with the stories in Batman ’89, Batman Begins, or The Batman.

Heavy Metal(1981): the only one on this list I’ve never really seen, but a really interesting story. A none-more-eighties slice of sexy fantasy mayhem, adapted from a long-running cult magazine, it’s notable for it’s sex-n-violence approach to animation, its great soundtrack, and the laundry list of unlikely stars involved in its creation (Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, John Candy, Eugene Levy…!). I’ve really wanted to see this since it was discussed on one of my other favourite podcasts, the much-lamented 80s All Over.

The Flight of Dragons(1982): one of several films here that I remember from my childhood but haven’t seen in ages. And, truth be told, I know nothing about it. Who made it? Why? How? I mean, sure, I could Google it, but I’d rather someone told me all about it on a podcast. Also, is it as good as I remember? Are there fascinating stories associated with it? And why did it seem to take till the 1980s for non-Disney animated movies to start to become commonplace?

Anastasia (1997): ah, here we go. There was much fanfare here as 20thCentury Fox leaped into the animation game with both feet, mustering an all-star cast to tell a musical adventure story about a princess. Weird in that it’s sort of based on reality, but a very skewed interpretation of the Russian Revolution. Also notable in that it spawned a sequel/spin-off starring the weird bat sidekick of the big villain. So was it a massive failure? A success? Why didn’t Fox really seem to compete with Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks on the regular? And as for the historical “inaccuracies” – let’s be honest here – what the hell were they thinking. The world must know!

My Neighbour Totoro(1988): I didn’t want to go too deep on Ghibli stuff as I think it’s getting adequately covered elsewhere. Plus I might end up with ten Ghibli films. But this is really where it all began; their first huge success. How did Ghibli began? What were their guiding philosophies right at the beginning? How did Totoro – the film and the character – shape the studio going forward? And has there ever been a more accurate depiction of young sisters on film? Plus they could get my eldest to be their special guest, as it’s her favourite film.

The Prince of Egypt(1998): another one that marks the beginning of era – arguably a more successful one than Fox…? This was the first Dreamworks animation, and it was really Jeffrey Katzenberg sticking it to his old bosses at Disney. A concerted attempt to beat them at their own game with a sweeping historical animated music that also yearned to be important. Once the likes of Shrek really solidified the Dreamworks brand, this got kinda forgotten, but it’s really very good and deserves a bit of love.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!(2012): this is just here because I love it to bits and because I want a bit of Aardman on the list. It might not be the most interesting story, because you don’t have the behind-the-scenes turmoil and intrigue that their aborted deal with Dreamworks represented – clashes over Chicken Run, having to make Flushed Away in CG, all that jazz. But why pick such a random book to adapt? What inspired them to cast the likes of Hugh Grant and David Tennant? And how did it feel to make a film that’s borderline perfect but still was something of a failure at the box office? And – and! – why am I asking so many questions in this list?!

The Secret of NIMH(1982): Don Bluth was a Disney animator who pegged it with a load of his colleagues and set up shop elsewhere, trying to make films to out-Disney Disney; a precursor to Katzenberg, in a way. And he was hugely successful, especially with An American Tail a few years later. But this is the more interesting story, I think, although I don’t remember it as well; a dark adventure tale starring a mother who’s just after some medicine for her sick child. There must be many fascinating stories around its development.

The Adventures of Mark Twain(1985): another one that I saw as a kid – many times, I think – but that I only remember in part. Weird, scary, Claymation parts. My memory is that it’s a deeply disturbing collection of tales, with some truly otherworldly visuals, as some kids take a tour through the stories of Mark Twain. The talent behind the camera are worthy of discussion but really it’s just how batshit this thing is – or at least, how I remember it – that’d make an interesting podcast.

Heh, just realised I’ve not put a CG animation on there, choosing Egypt over Antz. Oh well. And I didn’t have room for Akira! What was I thinking?!

Also: go listen to Disniversity, it's great.

*Burton-and-Schumacher, just in case that wasn’t clear.

[duhragonball]

7 Comfort Movies

Tagged by @pandemicpicnic . List your seven favorite comfort movies, then tag 7 people.   

This is a good thing to pass around, since I could use the diversion, and as I think about this list, I realize how long it’s been since I last saw a lot of these movies.  

In no particular order...

1) Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn

I dunno if these are necessarily comfort movies, as opposed to just movies I like the best, but I don’t watch movies a whole lot, so I’m guessing my all-time favorites are probably close enough.   Movie 12 is good watchin’, period.   This is a movie about everyone working together.    Friends, enemies, strangers, the living and the dead, the damned and the divine.   I watch this movie and wish that we in the real world could put aside our differences so easily and blow up all the Nazis.

2) Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

People say this is the worst Superman movie, but fuck that noise.   This is the only one where Superman throws all the nuclear weapons into the sun.    But one of them has a chicken nugget attached to it, which grows into a clone of Superman with scratchy fingernails, his only weakness.    So Superman has to kick his ass on/with the moon, and then tell everyone that nuclear war is too big a job for Superman, because we’ll just re-arm the minute his back is turned. 

This is a story about high school physics, Luthor.     Sometimes the things we fear the most are only the darker side of our greatest strengths.   If humanity has the power to destroy itself, then doesn’t that mean we have the power to save ourselves as well?   The choice is ours.  

3) Spaceballs

Some killjoys actually hated this movie, and point to it as evidence that Mel Brooks lost his touch.   I respectfully submit that those people are dumb.  Spaceballs came out during the dark years between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace, when we all wanted more Star Wars but thought we would never get more.    Brooks heard our pleas, and gave us this movie, which is basically Star Wars with dick jokes all over it.   People always go on about how Star Trek predicted smartphones and the Simpsons predicted the Trump administration, but only Spaceballs was prescient enough to declare: “Fuck!    Even in the future, nothing works!”

This is a story about following your heart.    If all you care about is duty, and obligation, and profit, you’ll end up marrying some dullard, or owing your soul to a talking pizza, or roaming the universe in search of air.   

4) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

This is the best Batman movie ever, and maybe even the best comic book movie period.    In 1994, Batman the Animated Series was popular enough that they made a feature film and ran it in theaters and everything.  I remember some smartass article at the time questioning whether parents would see the point in taking their kids to watch a movie of something that’s on TV for free, which is just dumb.    It’s not like they ran four episodes of the TV series for this thing.   It’s an original story!   Anyway, Batman has to figure out what the deal is with this new vigilante who fights crime with murder, which is also a crime.   He also gets very sad in place and it’s very emotional and I bought the soundtrack as soon as I could because I wanted to listen to it and feel things.

This is a story about the future, and promises, and the roads not taken.   And when all is said and done, maybe the choices we made were the right ones after all, in spite of our second-guesses.

5) Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

I considered putting Revenge of the Sith on this list, since that’s usually the one I look up clips from on YouTube, but there’s no topping Jedi.   I saw this in the theatre when I was six and everything was awesome.    Jabba the Hutt, wint-o-green lightsabers, speeder bikes, Ewoks breaking stuff with logs and rocks, it’s just a pleasure to watch.   Also, this movie introduces Emperor Palpatine, and lays the foundation for the Sith lore that made me love Revenge of the SIth in the first place.  Not long after we got home from seeing this movie in 1983, I tried to draw this scene in the screencap above, because it left such a deep impression on me.   

This is a story about feelings.    Every butthole in Star Wars is always telling everyone else what to feel and how much they should feel it, and don’t get too attached to this or that.     But in this movie Luke has to exercise restraint and then cut loose, give into his passions and then reign them in, care for his friends and family but also be willing to let them go.    Everyone can give him advice, but he’s got to hoe that row himself, and figure it out as he goes.   He doesn’t always get it exactly right, but he still gets it.   

6) The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

The historians will say that cartoons like the original Transformers were nothing more than glorified toy commercials, made possible by the deregulation of children’s entertainment in the 1980′s.    I find this incredibly unfair, because that analysis ignores the fact that Transformers was a fucking awesome cartoon.    They’re all robots, so they could shoot and punch each other without any guff from standards and practices. And since the show was designed to promote an entire toy line, there were literally dozens of characters, each given a surprising amount of character and personality.   Starscream (center) and Ramjet (right) are practically the same toy, but kids wanted both of them because Starscream is a whiny, shitty drama queen, and Ramjet is a dumbass who likes to hit things with his head.     Astrotrain (left) is just a cool dude who can be a train or a space shuttle. 

This movie is the height of the franchise, where they could raise the stakes even higher, and introduce even crazier concepts like planet-eating monsters and robots actually killing each other for keeps.    I see fans from my generation acting all traumatized over all the deaths, like they never should have done that in a movie marketed for children, but this was a story about renewal.   The old order changeth, and it falls to the newcomers to rise up and carry on.    I’ve always taken a lot of comfort in the way these characters pass the torch.    The Smurfs were never brave enough to have Papa Smurf name his successor.  

7) UHF

Geez, I haven’t watched this one in forever.    I’d have to double-check to see if I even have it on DVD.    UHF was the ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic vehicle from the late 1980′s.   I want to say ‘89.    He plays a guy who takes over a TV station and runs all these ludicrous shows on it until it becomes the most popular channel in town.   It’s basically a bunch of sketch comedy stitched together into a movie, and it doesn’t try to apologize for this.  

This is a story of the importance of imagination, and of being true to yourself.   Al’s character has trouble finding a steady job, and its’ easy to conclude that there’s something wrong with him, but it’s really just that he hasn’t found the right opportunity for his passions and skills.   Once he finds his place, he rises to the occasion.  

And that’s my list.   Now I gotta tag people.   @auralime, @ediblenonsense, @semercury​, @twobellsilence​, @drowning-in-this-starry-serenade​, @cozymochi​, and @glintea​.

[damien-ward]

Get to know me.

Rules: Always post the rules. Tag 11 new people you’d like to know better.

1. Dogs or Cats?

Neither, I don’t like owning pets, don’t mind if others have them though. If I had to pick though I’d say cats because dogs are just a huge pain in my ass.

2. YouTube celebrities or normal celebrities?

I don’t particularly care for either? Celebrities are just kind of there I don’t like one more than the other, and I think they both have to deal with crap we will never understand since we aren’t a celebrity.

3. If you could live anywhere where would that be?

I don’t know. I like being near my family in Virginia, but miss all my friends in Atlanta and my dad and his family. It kind of sucks and feels like I am torn in two because I can only be with one and not really get to see the other.

4. Disney or DreamWorks?

I don’t watch kids movies anymore so I don’t care for either.

5. Favourite childhood TV show?

Damn this is tough. Probably Batman the Animated Series. I watched it ALL the time, hell I wore a Batman costume for two years straight, all day every day, and only took it off to take a bath and for it to be washed. In my defense I was like 3-4... A close second would be Dragonball Z.

6. The movie you’re looking forward to most in 2020?

Sonic the Hedgehog! You know I am going to see that shit!

7. Favourite book you read in 2019?

I didn’t read a single book this year, I was supposed to start reading the Mortal Insturments book series though.

8. Marvel or DC?

DC. Marvel is way too kid friendly and cringe-worthy to me. Though I love me some Spiderman and Venom!

9. If you choose Marvel favourite member of the X-Men? If you choose DC favourite Justice League member?

Batman. Hands down.

10. Night or Day?

I like both, the day time is nice and makes me feel good, but also the sun hurts my eyes. And really like night time because it’s chill and the moon is always nice to look at.

11. Favourite Pokemon?

Typhlosion! Ty-motherfucking-phlosion.  He is the best starter 3rd evolution ever, he is so OP. Honorable mentions to Haunter, Lugia, Muk, and Poliwhirl (who I have a little plush keychain of on my car keys, and forever will. My sister got him for me.)

12. Top 5 bands:

KISS, Def Leppard, The Script, Journey, Imagine Dragons? Those are just bands that I like some of their songs, I just like a wide variety of music except country because country can suck my left nut. It sucks ass.

13. Top 10 books.

Great Gatsby, Goosebumps: Werewolf Skin, The Thirst series was pretty good, Grendel was good, and I don’t have any others that are favorites. I don’t read as much as I should, I am an uncultured swine.

14. Top 4 movies

Interview with the Vampire, hands down is number one. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is two, then Interstellar, and finally Angels and Demons. Honorable mentions to Batman: Under the Red Hood, Van Helsing, Detroit Rock City, and Mission Impossible 1 and 2.

15. America or Europe?

I have never been to Europe and am American so I guess I have to go with America.

16. Tumblr or Twitter?

I’ve never used Twitter so Tumblr.

17. Pro-choice or Pro-life?

Pro-Choice.

18. Favourite YouTuber?

I don’t have one.

19. Favourite author ?

R.L. Stine, I am just saying him because I read a lot of Goosebumps books growing up. 

20. Tea or Coffee?

Tea, coffee tastes like ass. I also am not a weakling who is dependent on coffee and it’s caffeine to get through the day PSSSHHH, I do that of my own sheer will... and Alcohol. LMAO

21. OTP ?

Camila Cabello and me. She’s bae and my future wife <.<

22. Do you play an instrument/sing ?

I do not. I did percussion stuff in 6 and 7th grade, but then stopped. I also do not sing unless a song I like comes on the radio, like if Sk8er Boi comes on you best believe that’s getting turned up and I am singing along shiiiittt.

P.S. I am sorry these answers were pretty boring and sucked, I am a boring person.

Tagged by: @monster-of-master​ Thanks dude!

Tagging: @unabashedrebel​ @igniting-the-dawn​ @dae-shadowvale​ @zhrianaa​ @seilune​ @dylan-grimmkell​ @cashew-qq​ @garethlyons​ @kavtari​ @laceandhalos​ @captzexx​

[astrologista]

jl dark 3 or whatever it’s called fun review

i am extremely extremely bored which is what possessed me to put this on in the background while performing other tasks

spoilers under the cut if you care, but pro tip don’t watch this movie. you may as well be spoiled.

this movie is... how shall i put this... hard to get through. it was really the kind of thing with these new dc movies where i think ‘well, i’ll give it a chance. maybe they got a good writer this time, maybe there are some good moments buried in here’. in this case i was wrong. this movie wasted my time. this movie mocked the fact that i even bothered to watch it all the way through.

let us first mention the fact that dc stories have always, fundamentally, been about hope. the idea that something or someone is always worth saving, even the villains. this is fundamental to the dcu in almost every dc story that you will read spanning 80 years of content. many people enjoy dc entertainment for this property.

<SPOILERS>

i find it difficult to classify this story as taking place within the dc multiverse. why so? at the end of this movie the basic takeaway is that the timeline has just been too fucked up to continue to live in. and, that is true. by the end of this movie they have killed lois, killed john stewart, killed cyborg, killed like a bunch of other people i kind of forgot, there was just a lot of killing. like a lot a lot. 

now this neceSSARILY would not be enough to completely turn me off the premise of the movie, because we’ve seen similar elseworlds before, it’s not an original idea to create a crappy future. never mind that the killing is done in the most graphically gruesome ways possible... but, there is more than that. there is apocalyptic destruction of the earth, much of earth’s population, people are tortured, altered, incapacitated. most of the movie seems to be dedicated to showing bad things that can happen.

there is also 5 minutes dedicated to a ring fight between lois and harley which, what? i guess that’s the light moment? whoop de doo? oh yeah absolutely cannot forget gratuitous harley everywhere of course. and KING SHARK IS A SHARK whoooooooo oh my god so funny! best running joke EVER hahahahahahhaHAHAHAHAHA

but getting back to what i was saying, about hope. when the battle is won, when our heroes escape back to earth, what do they do? do they regroup and soldier on despite losing so much? yes, superman says that they should. they shouldn’t just give up. they should have hope in rebuilding a better future while mourning their losses. 

at the end of this constantine be like “hey flash this world is shit. pls do flashpoint and fix everything. kthx”

i mean, ok. fine. fair enough. i want to see them all get a happy ending as much as anyone. and the future was pretty fucked, it’s true. but this is the final note that the movie leaves you on. what was the theme? 

world is a fuck, just reset everything once you’re done torturing the characters.

some of the core elements of dc stories have involved survival. surviving trauma. life after violence, hope in the face of hopelessness. both superman and batman, the central heroes of the dc “mythos” EMBODY these traits.

but, no. justice league dark. remake the world, this one is beyond saving. roll credits. IT’S DARK LIKE REAL LIFE GUYS OHOOOHOOHo.

and honestly, i call bullshit. i could have kind of KIND OF respected it if this had ended with batman and/or superman giving a speech like “yes things are super fucked but we are going to rebuild and survive” and then just go to credits. that could’ve almost worked and it seemed like they were going there.

but, constantine. oh my god. stop wanting the supernatural / dr who audience please. please. this is not dr. house. stop. ssssstop.

other fun points: like i honestly thought batman was gonna be the sleeper agent. i really thought he had already broken mind control a long time ago and was just waiting for a good opportunity to strike, but, no. just bullshit really. 

oh yeah and after seeing his son damian horrifically BURNED to DEATH right in FRONT OF HIM, and i do mean like burned to a fucking crisp extremely graphic and then dying in his arms kind of shit, he gets to have one (1) manly tear. but that’s it. just the one. what in god’s name.

btw raven’s tears resurrecting damian? lol. you know what, if i was a teen i would have kind of enjoyed that cliche so you know what, fine. fair enough. i’ll buy it.

but one thing i wouldn’t do again is buy this movie. the plot’s shit, the writing’s shit, the themes of the story are beyond shit and it’s a big waste of time. i cut some of these new dc movies in this universe a little slack because some of them do have genuinely good moments in them. but every year, they get more and more shock value driven and worse. and this one was probably the worst one yet in my mind because, it didn’t seem like a dc story. and that’s what i thought i was getting, so i’m disappointed. what i got was a super-edgy, xXcrawlinginmyskinXx fan fic by someone with a mutilation fetish or something. everything it is tries to be as edgy reminding you that this isn’t your grandpa’s justice league this is justice league DARK and they won’t let you fucking forget it. i almost forgot about the raven and damian plot being like the core of the movie because. yeah, nah. not for me. 

and i can understand if there is actually a market for this kind of movie, i mean there is. i guess people enjoy this, as an elseworlds. it did try too hard to be thanos and the avengers by having it basically be age of ultron where all of the heroes team up to fight darkseid before it’s too late and a lot of people sacrifice their self but hey, they really just want that audience. and while it may be something i do not care for, maybe people like this. critics seem to think it’s pretty good. i don’t want to minimize the animators, artists, va’s and other people who worked on this because from a technical standpoint it’s a big achievement, as any animated feature is. a lot of work goes into these. seriously, though. i will never rewatch this, ever, just like i basically never rewatch any of the other movies in this universe. you want a good dc animated movie that’s violent? watch utrh. watch the batman beyond movie. watch mask of the phantasm or sub-zero. watch the year one adaptation. watch something, but please. for the love of god. don’t watch this.

will there ever again be a good dc animated film? probably. but not today. maybe next time. that’s all. geeze

[jedimaesteryoda]

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

I am going to talk about my favorite Batman film of all time, and some have even argued it to be the best Batman film out there. This Batman movie showed what many DC fans agree to be the best Joker and one of the best Batman performances. It has an excellent story that draws the viewer in, and a great film score courtesy of Shirley Walker. No, I am not talking about Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or even Tim Burton’s Batman, as great as those films were. I am talking about Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. It’s a direct-to-video film based on Batman: the Animated Series, the first show of the DC Animated Universe that to this day is acclaimed by critics and fans alike. It came out the same year as Schumacher’s Batman Forever, yet didn’t get as much attention due to not just being overshadowed by the live-action film, but lack of advertising on the part of Warner Bros. Of course, a number of critics agree that between the two films, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was arguably the superior film. Bat nipples aside, what made the Mask of the Phantasm superior to Forever in some ways was the story, the love interest and of course, the way Batman was portrayed.  

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD: 

If you haven’t seen it yet, I advise you see it first before you read this essay. If you choose to read ahead anyway, and don’t plan on seeing the film then that’s a shame. Seriously, just watch the film, and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. 

Plot

A shadowy figure appears going around murdering mob: the Phantasm. Batman is mistaken as the culprit, and is trying to figure out who this mysterious figure is, and the connection to the murders. The Phantasm isn’t the only arrival, so is Andrea Beaumont, an old flame from Bruce’s past. We get to see glimpses of their relationship in flashbacks, and learn that Bruce once had a chance at a normal life. And of course, it wouldn’t be a classic Batman film without the Joker, who is also drawn into the story in a way that works.

One thing you will notice about the plot that separates it from most Batman films and every live-action film is that it is a detective story. We never get to see him solve a mystery on-screen, or rather solve a mystery the audience doesn’t already know the answer to. We so often associate Batman with his sobriquet “The Dark Knight” to the point that it is in the title of two Batman films, and often forget his other sobriquet, “the World’s Greatest Detective,” even though his character was first introduced in the DC series, Detective Comics. 

Batman’s story is also straight out of noir: organized crime, corrupt politicians who deal with them and the protagonist being a single man, usually a detective, who is psychologically wounded and might appear morally ambiguous or compromised, but generally adheres to his own personal code of ethics.

Setting and Tone

The setting comes straight out of the original comics with the style being late 1940s from the cars and clothes to the Tommy guns. In contrast to a lot of Batman films, you see actual blood from the wounds as well as teeth getting knocked out, which helps to convey a better feeling of the violence. The animation used is what the producers called “Dark Deco,” Art Deco combined with noir imagery. It helps to give the film a dark atmosphere not seen in a few of the live-action films (Nolan’s), and while I’m not saying dark = better, as Snyder proved that with his Superman films, it works perfectly with a dark character like Batman. There is a tragic, melancholy tone to the whole film with the exception of the flashbacks. The dark overtone of the present scenes contrast nicely with the much brighter and more colorful past scenes of a young Bruce and Andrea’s blossoming relationship, giving the past scenes a nostalgic feel and reflecting a happier time in Bruce Wayne’s life. It only helps to emphasize the tragedy of the couple’s story.

Characters and Acting

Bruce Wayne/Batman

Kevin Conroy, himself a Shakespearean actor, does an excellent job as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman. He manages to convey different sides of the character from the dark, tough Batman to the friendly Bruce Wayne seen at social events and the more vulnerable, younger Bruce Wayne in the flashbacks. I remember seeing him live at New York Comic Con 2018 for a panel promoting the Blu-ray The New Batman Adventures; he said regarding the character: “Batman is his true identity, and Bruce Wayne is the performance.” Batman’s serious, commanding voice is present when he is wearing the mask or unmasked with Alfred, his most trusted confidant, but changes when he’s in public as Bruce Wayne with a more warm, friendly tone. This is opposed to Christian Bale’s Batman who used his Batman voice only when in the suit, and otherwise, used his Bruce Wayne voice, even with Alfred present.

We get the Batman we expect with his first scene being knocking a mob meeting, and beating up the mobsters. Likewise, we first see Bruce Wayne (excluding when he’s in the Batcave with his costume off) hosting a black tie party at Wayne Manor surrounded by a group of female admirers as well as a young, pre-Batman Bruce Wayne in the flashbacks. William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize speech said that there is nothing worth writing about more than the heart in conflict with itself, and we see this with Bruce Wayne’s dilemma between becoming Batman and wanting a normal life. This helps to give a kind of complexity to the character, and shows the personal sacrifices that came with being Batman.

Andrea Beaumont

Dana Delany is good as Andrea Beaumont. Andrea is Bruce’s ex-girlfriend, and practically the only person he ever had a chance of a future with. She managed to pull Bruce out of his dark solitude, and provide him a kind of happiness that likely had been missing in his life since his parents died. She also is a femme fatale straight out of a hardboiled detective fiction novel: intelligent, beautiful and harboring dark secrets. However, to the filmmakers’ credit, Andrea wasn’t a one note character, as in just a manic pixie dream girl who teaches a broodingly soulful young man to embrace life, a femme fatale out to fulfill her personal ambitions, or even a passive damsel in distress who always needs saving by her hero, but a layered character with agency.  

Joker

Mark Hamill is legendary for being the voice of the Joker, and he is consistently rated by fans as the best Joker. They borrow from Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and Hamill’s experience in the play Amadeus was incorporated into the Joker’s laugh, which he made into a song. This adaptation of the Joker fits the sobriquet of “the Clown Prince of Crime,” with a flower on his suit that squirts acid, and a laugh combined with his unsettling smile that manages to be chilling. On the surface, he has the friendly, funny demeanor one would expect from a clown, but you also get the sense that beneath that lies the heart of a nihilistic, murderous psychopath. He manages to be both funny and terrifying, the ultimate scary clown.  

Alfred Pennyworth

Clive Revill does a decent job as the usually dry, proper Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred is the stoic British butler with a stiff upper lip, not without his own dry sense of humor (“What rot, sir! Why, you're the very model of sanity. Oh, by the way, I pressed your tights and put away your exploding gas balls”) except for two moments in this film. The first moment is when he sees Bruce don the cowl for the first time, and one sees the horror on Alfred’s face. The second is at the end when to comfort Bruce, Alfred drops the whole butler schtick for a moment calling him not his usual “Master Wayne” but “Bruce” to connect with him on a more personal level, and speak to the boy he knew. Giving him emotional support during his time of sorrow in that scene demonstrates how much Alfred is a father figure to Bruce. 

Arthur Reeves

I know this is just a minor character, but Hart Bochner also does an excellent job as City Councilman Arthur Reeves. Just by listening to his voice, you can feel this guy practically oozing a sleazy politician. Reeves calls for a special police force to capture Batman after the murders, and you can tell how much of an opportunistic, vain man he is. He also plays a quiet, minor role in Andrea’s story. 

The Promise vs Falling in Love: The Tragedy of Batman

Through flashbacks, we follow a young Bruce Wayne becoming Batman alongside pursuing a relationship with Andrea. You see his future hinted in the background whenever he is with her, with wishes of optimism and hope waiting to be crushed by an inevitable dark fate. Bruce meets Andrea at the cemetery as he was visiting his parents’ grave while Andrea was visiting her mother’s grave, and yes, that’s the most Batman way of a first meeting. We see his first attempt at crimefighting when he stops a robbery, and he wears just all black with a ski mask. He stops the robbery, but he mentions afterwards that the issue was the thieves didn’t fear him when they saw him. Andrea arrives just right after he mentions that. They have some playfighting, and surprisingly, he laughs, and they share their first kiss. He also sees the precursor for the Batmobile on their date, and bats appear from what would become the Batcave right after he proposes to her.  

It all comes to a head while on their date at a theme park, Bruce tries and fails to stop some bikers from robbing a man. He is later in his manor trying to design a costume for his superhero persona, and talks to Alfred about his internal conflict over his promise to become Batman alongside wanting a future with Andrea. Conflicted and confused, he goes to his parents’ grave.  

Now, what this film does a great job doing is displaying Batman’s dark psyche. Look at all the Batman films, and Bruce Wayne’s decision to become Batman is treated as a reasonable decision with Bruce in Batman Begins saying “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood. I can be ignored, destroyed. But as a symbol . . . as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting . . . Something elemental, something terrifying.” He becomes Batman to become a symbol that could do things he couldn’t do as Bruce Wayne, and motivate the people of Gotham into taking action against the corruption and crime of the city. Compare that to Bruce Wayne’s decision to become Batman in Mask of the Phantasm in this scene.  

Bruce Wayne is at his parents’ grave, begging for a way out of his promise to be a crime fighter, and apologizing for falling in love and wanting happiness. He is losing a reasonable argument to the dead over a promise they never agreed to, and as any person would have told him, would have wanted him to be happy and be with the person he loves. His decision to become Batman isn’t portrayed as a healthy, rational decision at all, but a delusion. It isn’t largely driven by a personal desire to motivate the citizens of Gotham into combatting the problems of the city, but by childhood trauma and an obsession with vengeance for the deaths of his parents. For all of Nolan’s attempts to make his Batman as realistic as possible as opposed to the Mask of the Phantasm of the DCAU going for the more comic book feel, Mask of the Phantasm’s portrayal of the man who chose to don the cowl is, in my opinion, more realistic than anything we’ve seen in any Batman film.  

It makes it all the more tragic as his words “It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore” show that his relationship with Andrea managed to provide a way for him to finally move on from his parents’ deaths. In their final scene together in their past relationship, we see Bruce finally propose to her, leaving behind his decision to become a vigilante crime fighter, and instead choosing a chance at happiness. Sadly, he gets the ring back the next day with a note telling him that she rescinded his proposal and he should forget about her.  

This is one of my favorite scenes. Batman first donning the mask combined with great musical direction by the late Shirley Walker captures both how epic and how tragic this scene is. It is epic seeing him put on the mask for the first time, and see only Batman’s eyes as he gives the famous Bat-glare, something that hasn’t been able to be replicated on live-action films. However, as scriptwriter for the film Michael Reeves stated: “When Bruce puts on the mask for the first time, and Alfred says 'My God!' he's reacting in horror, because he's watching this man he's helped raise from childhood, this man who has let the desire for vengeance and retribution consume his life, at last embrace the unspeakable." Alfred sees the Bruce Wayne he knew is gone, replaced by Batman. Bruce donning the mask isn’t portrayed as a happy event that the story had built up excitement for, but a tragic one as Bruce, having lost his one chance at happiness, sees becoming Batman as the only thing left for him.  

The Ending (MAJOR SPOILERS):

The Phantasm is unmasked, and revealed to be Andrea. She comes to the theme park to kill the last of Valestra’s old gang, Jack Napier AKA the Joker. Unmasked Andrea and Batman, whom she figured out is Bruce earlier on, are at the theme park where they had their date in a flashback. The park was named “World of the Future,” and it symbolized the bright and hopeful promised future Bruce had with Andrea. Now, it was abandoned, dark and decrepit, occupied only by the Joker, Valestra’s ex-hitman who killed Andrea’s father. It represented not just the state of Bruce and Andrea’s relationship, but the people they had become. Andrea’s story by the end is revealed to be so much similar to Bruce’s. She is motivated by the murder of a parent, lost out on a chance for happiness and with seemingly nothing left, donned a dark visage to carve out a path of vengeance. (These two are perfect for each other.) As opposed to fighting criminals and super-villains to defend Gotham’s citizens, she decides to murder all the mobsters involved in her father’s murder. Her path is more vengeful, and shows what Batman could have become were it nor for his own code. The park is later destroyed by the bombs the Joker placed around it, symbolizing the end of their relationship, as it is the last time Batman sees her (on-screen at least) with her final words being “Goodbye, my love.” Andrea is later on a cruise ship, and when asked if she wants to be alone, replies sadly: “I am.” Batman in the final scene is standing on a skyscraper looking up at the sky with the Bat signal, and just fires a grappling hook as his mission goes on with his life unchanging. These two people who are practically made for each other are destined by fate to never be together, but spend the rest of their lives apart and alone.

As is typical in noir fiction, the story ends in a lose-lose situation for the protagonist. Every other Batman film ends on a happy note, or at least with some optimism with the most pessimistic ending being The Dark Knight with Batman taking the blame for Dent’s murders and Dent’s death himself, and Rachel is dead after deciding to choose Dent over Bruce, but he at least won some victory as he stopped the Joker, and achieved his aim of preventing Dent’s case from being dismissed and the mob being set free. In Mask of the Phantasm, one doesn’t get the feeling that Batman won anything: no criminals were put away, and no overarching goal was achieved with even the unmasking of the Phantasm not feeling like a win. The only thing that could be seen as a victory is Andrea ending her quest for vengeance, but Bruce is still left heartbroken. The real tragedy of Batman is the price he pays to be him, his personal life is unchanging and he is never able to enjoy any peace or anything resembling a healthy, normal life. 

MOTP manages to be everything I think a Batman film should be: dark, action-packed, intelligent, entertaining and surprisingly, emotional. This will always be my top recommendation for a Batman film. 

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (semi-stream of consciousness) Thoughts Part 1: Mind = blown!

I saw Into the Spider-Verse tonight.

SPOILERS below the cut, but the SPOILERS free tldr version is that this movie is...

·         The Marvel/superhero movie I enjoyed most this year and there were a lot of contenders

·         The most (at least spiritually) faithful Marvel/superhero movie this year

·         The best animated Marvel movie of all time, and I have seen most of them

·         The best theatrically released animated superhero movie ever exempting Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which is equally good but in a very different way

·         The single most unique animated Marvel/DC superhero movie ever made and I mean that in a good way

·         Worth sitting through to the end of the credits for

·         A feast for the eyes

·         Side splittingly hilarious

·         Easter Egg laden for Spider-Man fans

·         The best version of Miles Morales and of his origin

·         A bazillion times superior to Spider-Man: Homecoming

·         The best Spider-Man movie released since Spider-Man 2 by Sam Raimi, which (like Mask of the Phantasm) is equally good but in a very different way because the stories and styles they are employing in telling them are chasing different things

·         A love letter to Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

·         Potentially revolutionary

·         The perfect way to cap off 2018 for Spider-Man

In other words this movie comes with my most aggressively high recommendations.

I expected this movie to be a fun enough time.

I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.

And when I say love it as much as I did I mean ‘walked out the theatre with a new entry in my top 10 favourite movies of all time’

Not top 10 comic book movies or  superhero movies.

Top 10 movie movies!

As I said this is something of a stream of consciousness and that’s partially because I do not know where to start.

I guess I should start with the things I didn’t like.

The movie ended.

There you go I’m done.

I’m dead serious maybe stuff will come to me in time but as of this writing...I have absolutely nothing negative to say.

Those of you who’ve read my thoughts on previous Spider-Man cinematic outings in recent years will no doubt be aware this is a stark contrast to my usual outlook.

Whilst the live action Spider-Man films have alternated between overhyped, overstuffed studio managed messes (Spider-Man 3) misguided and shallow retreads with talented actors and action scenes (Amazing Spider-Man 2012), raw incompetent writing and filmmaking also with good actors and action scenes (Amazing Spider-Man 2), fun and half well written movies with talented actors, okay action scenes but fundamentally broken understandings of the character (Spider-Man: Homecoming and Infinity War) or else dumb yet fun/so bad it’s good dark camp (Venom 2018), here is a humble animated movie from neither Sony’s big budget live action division nor the Marvel Studios juggernaut that just kicked all of their asses.

Hard.

...And it wasn’t even a contest....

So superlative is this Spider-Man movie some people are hailing it as simply the BEST  Spider-Man movie outright.

And whilst this is very much an unfair and unnuanced perspective that doesn’t take into account changing standards or the different goals of different movies at different times...I can also entirely understand where they are coming from.

Lets look at just one example as a microcosm of what I am talking about.

One of the most frequently incited problems with Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the infamous (though now perhaps more fondly regarded as so bad it’s good) Batman and Robin.

Too many villains.

Each of those movies boasts 3 villains and this was attributed as a major reason for Spider-Man 3’s critical failure as well as ASM 2’s, both killing their respective versions of a Spider-Man film franchise. Batman and Robin of course killed the Batman film franchise for 8 whole years.

This failures served to insist a conventional wisedom within comic book/film fans and to a lesser extent the film makers that too many villains can lead to disaster. Whilst success stories exist it is still something regarded as best avoided. Spider-Man: Homecoming somewhat subverted this by featuring 3-4 villains but one of those was a replacement for the other (and served as a sub-boss) whilst yet another was ostensibly a background player.

In what surely breaks a record for a Spider-Man or an MCU movie, Spider-Verse boasts both six protagonists AND villains.

And they all work. Everything is organic.

Yes some villains take more emphasis than others but the context allows this to gel together and by the end of it, especially if you are a Spider-Man comic book fan, you do have to gaze in wonder at the fact that you are in truth watching a single movie giving several minutes of screentime to:

·         Kingpin

·         Prowler

·         Doctor Octopus

·         Green Goblin

·         Tombstone

·         And Scorpion

Oh and cameos from the Lizard and another Doctor Octopus!

That shouldn’t be possible!

I need to stress, these are not blink and you’ll miss them references. All of those characters get multiple scenes or else and extended scene of screentime!

And it goes this whilst ALSO featuring six main protagonists and at least four supporting characters!

Holy shit how did the film makers pull this off?

Well I can summise it via two ways:

a)      They know how to balance things out by giving certain characters more emphasis than others. That is to say that whilst this is an ensemble film, Miles and Kingpin are the PRIMARY hero and villain respectively even if they are not the main ones in the way they would be if this was a solo story

b)      It’s an animated movie.

 What do I mean by that?

Well I’ve recently come up with a little theory.

Animated film making and live action film making, whilst obviously having a lot in common, differ in critical ways.

Both are of course incredibly expensive and time consuming but if you really break it down, generating five minutes of footage for a live action movie is in general actually going to be comparatively easier than for an animated movie.

One of the key factors in this is the fact that live action movies have the luxury of multiple takes allowing film makers to select the best shots and takes to use in the final product.

They have in other words much more options than animated film makers. Scenes might be cut from an animated movie but typically there are not outright alternate animated scenes available.

What does this mean?

It means in short animated film makers need to make damn sure the writing for the movie is as polished as possible before they start animating anything.

And this is why, to be as brutal and blunt as possible, 90% of the time animated movies are honestly better written than their live action competition.

Look me dead in my metaphorical eye, put your hand on your heart and swear on your life that most Pixar movies, most Renaissance era Disney classics (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc) and most modern Disney animated films are not in fact better crafted in their writing than the majority of the movies released those same years.

Often I think people praise the writing of animated fare almost to be hip or alternative. Like this thing for kids is actually better than this thing for adults, isn’t that funny, doesn’t that say so much about the sorry state of ‘adult’ entertainment?

The thing is it’s actually just common practice and entirely practical. An animated film is in many ways more costly and labour intensive than live action ones and since most of them are aimed at families more work is put into them in order to entertain multiple audiences with very different sensibilities.

And that is how we arrived at a Spider-Man film that has more heroes and villains in it than possibly any theatrical superhero movie and ice skated through it.

That is how we have a Spider-Man film that in absolute sincerity challenges 3 MCU movies AND Deadpool to the crown of best comic book movie of the year!

THAT is how we wound up with a Spider-Man film that is better than every live action Spider-Man film since 2004!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got to this point precisely BECAUSE it was animated and aimed at kids AND adults.

I will write more on this movie I promise but I need to go to bed dammit!

[dcarevu]

DCAU #17: The Cat and the Claw (Part 2)

“Oh, I've been going to the Paris Grand Prix for years... You know, one of these days I think I'll enter it.”

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. So how much did Part 2 of our first Catwoman story satisfy? Does it get a bowl of cream, or a spritz of water?

Episode: 16 Robin: No Writers: Sean Catherine Derek (story), Laren Bright (story), Jules Dennis (teleplay), Richard Mueller (teleplay) Director: Dick Sebast Animator: Akom Airdate: September 12, 1992 Grade: C

The first part of The Cat and the Claw had me interested, but certainly not blown away. It was a hit-and-miss episode with enough good ideas in it to allow me to enjoy it and wonder where the story was going to lead. I liked that it did give out a sense of substance, but honestly, I don’t think that the substance held steady between the credits of part 1 and the first scene of part 2. Part 2 does continue the story, but sucks out a lot of what made part 1 worth watching, and if I had never even watched part 2, I would not have been missing a damn thing aside from the realization that Catwoman ends up okay and the day is saved. But I think it was safe to assume that anyway, you know what I mean? Part 2 left very little impact on me, positive or negative, and for that reason I’m labeling it a C. Ironically, this is probably the episode with the highest stakes so far, right? With a conclusion that has a pretty epic scale. But it’s just not handled in an epic way. The concept is there, but the execution is lacking. Even if a studio like TMS or Spectrum were the ones to take care of the visuals, it still would have given the same feelings. The team knew what they were doing, giving it to Akom. Yeah, Akom’s work here is pretty bad, and Part 1 is more visually appealing in addition to being simply more entertaining. Even though it didn’t look the best, I could appreciate Sunrise’s unique style. When Sunrise failed, it still made for something that you don’t see everyday. Akom’s work was just plain old underwhelming. This is especially noticeable during the climax with their work on the fire (yeah, fire count, by the way). 

That fire looks like something from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, guys. I’d expect to see similar on Scooby Doo. You don’t get a sense of the danger or the heat coming off that thing, and so you don’t get a sense of worry as Batman tries to get the hell out of there. Another very Akom scene is the car chase that happens when Bruce and Selena are together, out of costume. It looked laughably lame. That scene could have been so exciting and dynamic! But, at the same time, like I said, I understand why Atom was chosen. Even if the animation got me a little bit more invested, it still would have felt empty because of a lack of why I should be invested. It’s like watching a Transformers movie. Just brainless action. And why waste money on sending this episode to a better studio when a much better episode could be? The only real Akom-caused highlight was the train stuff. That looked pretty cool, likely because even though the train was moving, it still provided a static, stable platform for our characters, so it required less technical stuff to animate. All of the other cool stuff to look at was definitely in the storyboards. I liked the bit where the Bat Plane flew across the moon, kinda emulating that iconic moment in the 1989 film. And my favorite visual moment was when Selena’s secretary put on her glasses, and we see it via a POV shot. But then once things are crystal clear, a second later she walks into the shot, seamlessly transitioning it from POV to third person. 

More things like that could have probably almost created a B-level of enjoyment, admittedly. This part is also campier than part 1, with a lot more cheesiness thrown in, and that is to the episode’s detriment. The idea of Red Claw’s group of terrorists stealing a vial of disease from a military-guarded train is a really cool one, and I’ll take that over another standard police chase any day (until those chases start getting more god damn interesting). But something about watching them ride their little vehicle, leap on top of the train like ninjas, walking around on the train effortlessly, and dismantling it was pretty hard to take seriously. 

(This thug was in the last episode too, and he’s got this constant, static grimace. Makes me chuckle.)

Seeing Batman glide in with the bat-glider for the first time was neat, but then again, we get flown into a corn field. This is some of the cheesiest dialogue/line delivery on the show so far, even dwarfing the stuff from I’ve Got Batman In My Basement. No easy task! It’s like the writers here were aware of the serious tone, and trying, but still could only make a guy dressed like a bat so rational. I especially cringed at Batman’s shock that Red Claw was a woman. Having Catwoman be an admirable, strong character is doing feminism in a cartoon right. But this episode was too on-the-nose about it. Another instance is when Catwoman and Batman are tied up. Catwoman says something about their savior being a “woman’s touch”, and then she claws them out. Outside of the show trying to push a feminist message, why, in universe, would she say that exactly? Batman was not being sexist toward her. Red Claw certainly wasn’t. Red Claw is a woman for crying out loud! And how are her claws particularly feminine, anyway? Are they supposed to represent those stereotypical secretary nails? C’moooooon. Lame, lame, lame. I’m a feminist, and I’m all about cartoons showing that women are every bit as capable as men are. But if this is how they do it, then just don’t even try. And to add insult to injury, after we get Catwoman saving both of them, we end with her getting the shit beaten out of by Red Claw in a fight, merely because she does absolutely nothing to defend herself. Catwoman is an athletic cat-burglar who, in the previous episode, managed to give Batman a challenge. And now she’s just letting Red Claw kick her over and over in a way she easily should’ve seen coming. What a…confusing approach. 

While the superhero stuff was seriously below par, it’s slightly made up for because of how it explores Bruce and Selena’s relationship a little bit more. I liked seeing them on another attempted date, and so did Char! They’re really charming together, and it was incredibly satisfying to see Selena begin to enjoy his company. But as things start to go right for him, things also start to somehow go more wrong, and he discovers that Selena is Catwoman. To me, it’s believable that he wouldn’t have made that assumption right away. First of all, what are the odds. Second of all, a much different environment, mindset, and appearance. Plus, it’s not as though he was seeing Catwoman every single night, right? Most of his interactions of her was as normal human beings dressed in normal human clothes. Bruce mentions that he hasn’t felt a fondness of a woman like this in a very long time (Mask of the Phantasm entered my head for a second), and it feels so genuine. Somehow over these 16 episode and pilot, with a pretty small amount of spoken words for a main character, we’ve gotten to know Bruce…or…Batman…quite well. We can tell when he’s being phony, we can tell when he’s being sincere. This was sincere. And because his Bruce persona is such an exaggeration of his decency, spotting cracks in that just makes you feel something, man, especially when it shows us that hint of affection. This can be compared to Bruce Wayne talking to Harvey Dent about how proud he was that Harvey was seeking psychological help (Two-Face Part 1). These moments show us that Batman still has this warmth to him. It may be like a candle in the wind, fighting to stay alive, but every now and then there is a spritz of gasoline. For a second, Bruce Wayne and Batman are one. But y’know what? This is all well and good, however it makes me wish that the Red Claw stuff was absent. In part 1, it was different. I wanted to know where it was going. But without decent payoff, there is no reason for the terrorist story element at all. This would have been so much stronger if it were a half hour dedicated to building up the relationship of two troubled adults, fighting for what they believe in, succumbing to a certain level of darkness, all while not being able to find common ground. Paul Dini could have done it. Alan Burnett could have done it. Y’know what, Tom Ruegger probably could have done it. But no. We got writers who felt the need to add in that unnecessary, goofy superhero stuff that was not meant to be the focus of Batman the Animated Series when it didn’t need to be. But if there is one major strength of the superhero stuff, it’s the very ending. Because despite what Batman and Catwoman just went through together, saving countless people, Batman still needed to put her in handcuffs (and not in the way he probably wishes he could). 

(Blurry screenshot, apologies...by the way, are bat-handcuffs really necessary, Batman?)

That was paaaaaainful, but the right kind of painful (again, not in the way Batman probably wishes it was). Having Batman state that he didn't want her taken away like a common criminal was a great addition, and I really want to know which writer came up with that line. Whoever did got what makes Batman and Catwoman so interesting. If only they could have gotten a crack at this episode on their own. As some final words, despite me giving this episode a C, I went back and forth between a C or a D many times. I’m still not entirely sure which is my true grade. It depended on what I was writing about. When I was complaining, I was sure that I should make it a D. But as I was talking about some of the more positive elements, I thought maybe a C was more appropriate. Bottom line, I’m not sure. I think a C is the most fair, though, because aside from just being a middle of the road grade, it could also represent me being completely confused on my opinion. Is that understandable?

(Here we clearly see that the section of the train that was bombed is still very much intact)

(Batman was very much on model throughout the episode, particularly in the face)

Fire count: 8 Char’s grade: B

Next time: See No Evil Full episode list here!

[littlebitwriter]

MORE BIG SCREEN ANIMATED COMIC-BOOK SUPERHERO MOVIES!?

Should there be more big screen animated comic book superhero films… What would it take to see big screen animated superhero movies? Why aren’t we seeing more animated films? Why is it only just live action stuff? Superheroes are really big right now. We are seeing live action stuff all over TV right now, we are seeing obviously tons of great stuff going on in The Marvel Cinematic Universe and it looks like finally DC is getting there ducks in a row finally. It’s a really good time to be a superhero fan for the screens. On the other hand we have seen many animated superhero shows not making people as happy as they used to. Where really cool you can take it pretty seriously pushing envelopes kind of shows got cancelled in fair of more least common denominator type stuff.

However with the success of Big Hero 6, which was at the time a really obscure property that I myself didn’t know much about. It was super neat that Disney was mining other Marvel properties that don’t have to be in the MCU and I want more of that and that is very, very possible. With the success of Into The Spider-Verse there are now unlimited possibilities of where to go from here and to take chances with different properties on the big screen.

You may wonder why aren’t there as many? The problem is there are a majority of people too thrilled with the novelty of seeing things recognized in live action. *Which is in a way kind of total proof with the live-action Disney films* Because studios or even the public feels live-action is more legitimized for an adult audience. Which I find to be extremely annoying, because what it’s really telling us is that it’s more about spectacle than it is about the story. Because it doesn’t matter if it’s animated or live action, story is king. You can do a much cheaper movie in animation and do a much bigger show.

Look at Warner Bros. they were the first to dabble in this realm with their cult hit Batman: Mask of The Phantasm. A film that came out Christmas of 1993, which wasn’t a financial hit but it is perhaps legitimately one of if not the best theatrical Batman movies ever made. A big thing with these animated films is bringing it over to a house that understands how to market it. The only reason Mask of The Phantasm didn’t perform because no one knew it was in the theater. Batman: The Animated Series was a hit they had every reason to put it in the theater I think Warner’s at the last minute said make it for the theater instead of direct-to-video but they didn’t do anything to market it. Meanwhile Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns were both really successful movies but why the hell couldn’t they sell this!? Mask of The Phantasm was not a kiddie-film it was a perfectly reasonable film to try and sell to adults while still being completely appropriate to kids. There is also some horror imagery in that film with some cool fantastic stuff that felt even a bit more for adults than the show did while still being good for kids.

Fast forward to now, If they made Mask of The Phantasm now they would aim it at adults because superheroes are in and for everybody. Look at Into The Spider-Verse that is a film doing really well at the box office, was extremely well marketed, and was most importantly a good film. With this film although it is Sony, the success of this film would catch Warner and Disney’s eye. So far from Warner’s you are getting things like The Lego Batman Movie or Teen Titans GO! To The Movies which is more kind of like fun aimed at kids comedy stuff. Now with the fun comic booky-ness and was a film mature enough to handle death and violence.

This could pave the way for more good animated films and some serious stuff like taking animation more seriously. By that I mean doing these superhero films in the Pixar method. Where they are most importantly good films that have a wide appeal. Pixar has always had a great track record and is able to make thought provoking animated films that are relevant and appeal to audiences and like Incredibles 2 proving they are capable of being blockbuster hits. Now with Disney acquiring Fox properties they have a lot of different things they can plumb the depths of and they have the money to take the risks (Fantastic Four and X-Men). Also even though Warner’s for direct to video has been making various direct to video animated films there have been hits and there have been misses maybe Warner’s will compete with the success of Into The Spider-Verse.

These could be sophisticated feature-length animated superhero movies that could appeal to all ages or we can have ones geared towards more adult audiences. Maybe Warner’s and Disney will experiment by making theatrical animated films that span from PG-13 to R-rated. How about they can push the envelopes of what can be done with these animated films and try to make solid movies. Back then, it would be either “Nobody is going is going to watch it. WHO CARES!” Or “It’ll do the numbers it’s going to do regardless.”

What these films need to find is a writer that is out there who will work for fair money that is really excited to get to work on these characters. (PLEASE HIRE ME Warner Bros., Sony & Disney) Instead of in-house people that kind of phone it in and who are drawn to a paycheck. There needs to be more people like Lord & Miller who worked on Into The Spider-Verse these are passion projects. Where these are labors of love and should be treated that way. Maybe do a modern noir detective definitive Batman film that everyone will pay attention too and it just happens to be animated. I just want good theatrical animated films.

Maybe a great emotionally resonant iconic Pixar-style Superman film that happens to be animated. Would be awesome. It would be the perfect response and juxtaposition to the gritty darker less fun Superman of Man of Steel or Batman V. Superman. Doing something with a lot of heart maybe get a great Superman writer or even someone like Genndy Tartakovsky creator of Samurai Jack and Hotel Transylvania and his team to bring back their unrealized project and make the film and allow that team to tell a great original story.

That being said I want a theatrical film by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in that style of animation and perhaps set in that world of the DCAU giving them one last chance to do the theatrical project they always wanted. Anyway that is all I have to say on this subject, I would love more theatrical animated comic book superhero films.

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

- Lil Bit Writer

12/15/18

[dccomicsnews]

This weekend marks the official launch of the highly anticipated DC Universe digital steaming service, and earlier this week they decided to run their beta version for those who have already pre-ordered the service.  The beta is limited, so those of us who have it haven’t gotten the chance to see everything, but it did give us a great look at what to expect from the full version.

There are so many great reasons to sign up for this service, and below I list the TOP 10 Reasons to Subscribe to DC Universe.  So sit back and enjoy the ride into the wonderful world of all things DC.

  10. EXCLUSIVE MERCHANDISE

Not only will you get all sorts of great content to watch and read (as you’ll see below), there’s also a new DC Universe Shop within the app where fans can purchase some awesome merchandise, like t-shirts, statues, mugs, phone cases, and more, with some items being exclusively sold through the app.  One of these exclusives is a new line of animated-style Justice League action figures, to complement the popular 6-inch Batman: The Animated Series figures the company has been making lately.

The first wave includes the full initial team line-up – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern John Stewart, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter – plus Aquaman, who was not a member of the team before they became Justice League Unlimited, but who did appear in several memorable episodes during the first two Justice League seasons.

  9. DC COMMUNITY

In the all new DC Community section, fans can join other fans on a plethora of message boards covering all kinds of topics like comics, movies, TV, news, and more.  There’s even a section called “Creators Corner” where fans can connect with DC talent.

DC Community shows trending discussions, popular tags, and even gives you the chance to create your own thread covering any topic that’s rattling around in your brain.  Do you want to talk about the best Robin?  You can make a thread about it.  Do you want to discuss your love of the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series?  Go ahead!  The sky’s the limit!

And DC has vowed to work hard on moderating these boards in order to make it the best possible experience for fans everywhere!

  8. ENCYCLOPEDIA

This comprehensive encyclopedia breaks down your favorite characters (like Batman and Superman), as well as some you may have never heard of (like Chaselon and Ferro Lad), with great detail, giving an introduction and history to the character, their origin, powers, essential storylines, team affiliations, and appearances in other media.  Some characters are more thorough than others, but this encyclopedia will be always growing and expanding, so if there’s some info you think is missing, you’ll be able to submit it to be added.

There’s also a tab labeled “Related Content” that brings up movies and TV shows, comics, and even trending discussions about that character within the app.  This is a great part of DC Universe as it will help to educate DC fans, new and returning, on the characters that live within it.

  7. LIVE-ACTION FILMS

As someone who loves films (I even run my own film review site), the fact that the DC Universe app will include live-action films is something I was very happy to hear.  Now, from what we’ve been told, there doesn’t seem to be very many live-action films available, at least not yet.  We’ll have access to Superman 1-4, Batman (1989), Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight.

Now, this is a great, albeit small, selection of films, but I’m really hoping they will put more than just Batman and Superman movies up here.  Let’s get films like V for Vendetta, Watchmen, A History of Violence, The Losers, Road to Perdition, RED, RED 2, Swamp Thing, Constantine, etc.  This would truly add some great value to the film library.  And who knows, maybe they already have plans to add some of these.  That would definitely push this farther up on my list.

  6. ANIMATED FILMS

The catalogue of animated films based on DC properties is huge, with dozens of quality entries, from the 30+ DCUA (DC Universe Animated Original) films, to films like Subzero and Mystery of the Batwoman, and even the LEGO DC Super Hero films.

The DC Universe app will offer a large array of them, including some of my favorites like Justice League: War, Batman: Under The Red Hood, and even Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.  But what shocked me the most was that their newest animated film, The Death of Superman, is actually available to watch on the app, even though it’s only been out for less than two months.  And with a 3-4 films release schedule every year just for the DCUA films, this library will continue to grow.

  5. DC DAILY

  Within the “News” tab is a section for the upcoming daily news show, DC Daily.  They recently did a live-stream (of which the video is available to watch on the app) breaking down what you can expect from DC Universe, while also introducing DC Daily and the hosts who will be bringing all the news to the fans.  The live stream was hosted by Kevin Smith.

There will be several great and knowledgeable hosts including Tiffany Smith (DC All Access), John Barrowman (Arrow, Doctor Who), Samm Levine (Freaks & Geeks, Inglourious Basterds), Harley Quinn Smith (Yoga Hosers), Sam Humphries (DC Comics Writer – Green Lanterns), Hector Navarro (DC All Access), Clarke Wolfe (Collider Movie Talk, Film HQ), Brian Tong, Markeia McCarty (DC Movie News), and John Kourounis.

DC Daily cast (L to R): Samm Levine, Sam Humphries, Tiffany Smith, John Barrowman (in front), Harley Quinn Smith, Clarke Wolfe, Brian Tong, John Kourounis, Hector Navarro

DC Daily will be replacing DC All Access and will offer news related to the original series on DC Universe and other content that “ties back” to DC Comics and the DC Universe community. The program is scheduled to have the following segments: “Headlines”, for daily news briefs; “Reports”, for an in-depth interview or look at an upcoming book, film, or television series; and “Talk”, for panel discussions.

  4. LIVE-ACTION TV SERIES

DC has some of the best live-action comic book TV shows out there, and a lot of them will be available to watch right through the app.  We’ll get to see such shows as Wonder Woman, The Flash (1990), Birds of Prey, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and even more obscure titles like Human Target.

This would be a spot or two higher on the list if the current DC shows were included, like Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Gotham, and all of the others.  Hopefully, they’ll eventually make their way to the app once their contracts with the other streaming services expire.

  3. ANIMATED TV SERIES

I’ve got four words for you: BATMAN. THE. ANIMATED. SERIES!!!!

When it was announced that the greatest comic book TV series of all time was heading to DC Universe, I was ecstatic.  And to make it even better, it’ll be released in fully remastered HD, and I have to say, it looks fantastic!

And if that’s not enough for you, we’ll also be getting a plethora of other great animated shows from the world of DC including Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman: Brave and the Bold, Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and even the old Max Fleischer cartoons from the 1940’s.  This is an amazing line up that will keep people busy binging for quite a while.

  2. LARGE SELECTION OF COMICS

Unlike other streaming services, DC Universe will also offer a reading component through a large curated selection of some of DC’s best comics.  You’ll get to read classic stories like Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, and The Dark Knight Returns, as well as getting the chance to check out some more obscure stuff like Doom Patrol and New Gods.

And the built-in comic book reader is fantastic, particularly the panel-by-panel option, which allows you to become fully immersed in what you’re reading, bringing these comics to life.

  1. BRAND NEW EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

For me, the biggest reason I chose to commit to this service wasn’t the past DC content, but instead all the future content that’s on the way.  There’s only so much previous content, so the fact that they’re developing several new projects exclusive to DC Universe will keep me coming back for more.

Right now, there are four live-action shows and two animated shows in production, with many more to come.  I’m also hoping they will dive into original films for the app as well.  The shows announced so far are Titans (which will premiere at NYCC, and then hits the streaming service on October 12th, with new episodes each Friday), Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Stargirl, the Harley Quinn animated series, and the one many have been waiting for… Young Justice season 3 (titled Young Justice: Outsiders).

Titans follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find belonging. This gritty take on the classic Titans franchise finds Dick Grayson and a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness named Rachel Roth as they get embroiled in a conspiracy. They’re joined by Starfire and Beast Boy to become a surrogate family and team.

Doom Patrol is a reimagining of one of DC’s strangest group of outcasts: Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman and Crazy Jane. Led by the mysterious Dr. Niles Caulder they’re called into action by none other than the ultimate hero for the digital age, Cyborg. These rejects band together on a mission that will take them to the weirdest and most unexpected corners of the DC universe.

Swamp Thing is a scary love story following Abby Arcane as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but soon discovers that the swamp holds mystical and terrifying secrets.

Stargirl follows High School sophomore Courtney Whitmore who inspires an unlikely group of young heroes to stop the villains of the past. This new DC Universe series reimagines Stargirl and the very first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, in a fun, exciting and unpredictable series.

Harley Quinn tracks the lovable, raucous villain with a fractured psyche after she breaks up with The Joker and tries to make it on her own to become Gotham’s main queen-pin.

Young Justice: Outsiders features the return of the fan favorite animated series with a huge cast of DC’s most iconic young superheroes – plus brand-new characters, many of whom are just discovering their unique meta-powers and special abilities. Set against the backdrop of a rich, deep world that touches all corners of the DC universe, the season focuses on meta–trafficking, and an intergalactic arms race for control of these super–powered youths.

  And there you have it folks, the Top 10 Reasons To Subscribe To DC Universe.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure sign up and enjoy all of this wonderful content at your fingertips.  Head on over to the DC Universe site and sign up right now.  You can do the monthly subscription for $7.99/month or you can save some money and do the annual plan for only $74.99/year.

And be sure to share your experiences with the service in our comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

Top 10 Reasons To Subscribe To DC Universe #DCUniverse @TheDCUniverse @DCComics #BatmanDay #DCComics #DCComicsNews This weekend marks the official launch of the highly anticipated DC Universe digital steaming service, and earlier this week they decided to run their beta version for those who have already pre-ordered the service. 

[amtrax]

amtrax FAQ/About Me

Hello?

-Ahoy hoy!

Who are you?

-My name is Austin Lee Matthews and I’m a voice actor based out of California!

What do I know you from?

-I am the voice of Demon King Jester in Cyberdimension Neptunia: Four Goddesses Online, Jun Kiwatari in Kakegurui, Tatsumi in Sword Gai the Animation, Kai in Atelier Firis, Kagerou and Erst in Summon Night 6: Lost Borders, Grimlock in Transformers Legends, Dave “Killer” Carlson in Wasteland 2, various minor roles in Hunter x Hunter, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Aldnoah.Zero, Magi; The Kingdom of Magic and more! I was also one of the finalists in 2011′s AX Idol Voice Over competition, the first callback for BangZoom’s Opening Auditions in 2014, and I’ve co-hosted a few panels at Anime Expo, Anime Los Angeles and Titan Con.

Don’t I know you from something else too?????

-I mean, probably.

How long have you been voice acting?

-I’ve been voice acting since April 14, 2009 (though I’ve found old cartoons I made before then that I voiced for, but I don’t count those. I count when I decided that I wanted to be a voice actor)

What kind of equipment do you use?

-I use an AT 2035 studio microphone with a Focusrite preamp, a microphone arm that clamps onto my desk, a Kaotica Eyeball acoustic housing, Audacity for recording and general mixing, Protools 10 for heavy duty mixing.

How did you become a voice actor?

-I grew up watching a ton of cartoons, doing silly voices, impersonating and repeating the dialogue from my favorite cartoons, watching documentaries about voice over (especially the Spongebob voice over featurette, which I watched religiously). Finally, I discovered online voice over through stuff like Legendary Frog, The Decline of Video Gaming, Perfect Kirby, DE: Dust, and stuff like that. Finally, after my friends and I fell in love with The Awesome Series, and quoted it so often, my friends encouraged me to start voice acting. I often attribute the Awesome Series as my initial impetus for acting, but so much led up to it that it’d be a disservice not to explain that it was really something I’ve loved my whole life.

How do I become a voice actor?

-Grab a microphone and start recording. Listen to yourself recorded. Get used to hearing yourself recorded. You will hate it for a while. Push through it. Audition for things CONSTANTLY. ALWAYS BE AUDITIONING. Cast a wide net for auditions, find what you are best at and what kind of roles you get cast in most, so you can start casting a line instead of a net. Keep at it. Save money. Get professional equipment. Take acting lessons. If you want to make money off of voice over, you need professional equipment and you need to take acting lessons. If you are using a guitar hero mic, Blue Snowball, or Blue Yeti, you are not ready to be charging money for your voice over. Learn how to mix. If you use Audacity, learn it up and down. If you use Adobe Audition, learn it back to front. If you use Protools, please for the love of all things bright and beautiful take a class in Pro Tools. You won’t be able to figure that program out yourself, I promise. MOST IMPORTANTLY: KEEP AT IT. IF YOU WANT TO DO IT, MAKE IT HAPPEN. DON’T WAIT FOR IT TO HAPPEN. MAKE. IT. HAPPEN

Do you have a voice demo?

-My character demo and commercial demos are available on my website here! I’ll be updating this with a visual reel at some point soon.

How do I make a voice demo?

That is a very big question. My best advice is “don’t do it yourself.” If you are making a demo to be presented to potential directors of online projects (i.e. Youtube, radio plays, etc.) get plenty of help from somebody who knows what they are doing. (I’m willing to help if I have time, but I do charge for my time and work when it comes to demo production). If you are looking to make a demo to present to studios or prospective agencies, save up some money and get a professional to help you. If you don’t have a big enough body of work to pull from, you will need to drop some pretty serious cash to record it in studio. If you do have a big body of work to pull from, you will need a professional to help you go through and pull out your very best bits that show off what you are best at. Either way, if you aren’t a professional, don’t do it yourself. And even if you are a professional, get help and maybe pay a demo director/mixer to do it for you. I put my demo together myself, but I got lots of trusted professional friends and colleagues to give me some serious feedback. I also went to college for sound design, so that helps too.

Who are YOUR favorite actors?

-Oh so many. Patrick Stewart, Betty White, Grey Griffin, Mark Hamill, Bill Farmer, Cree Summer, Maurice LaMarshe, Robert Paulsen, Wendee Lee, Steven Blum, Judi Dench, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jess Harnell, Troy Baker, Nolan North, Robert Downey Jr. James Earl Jones and basically all my voice actor friends, there are too many to list I love you guys ugh.

What are your favorite movies?

-Kung Fu Panda, Into the Spider-Verse, Summer Wars, Up, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, Zooptopia, Empire Strikes Back, Scott Pilgrim VS the World, Redline, Batman Mask of the Phantasm, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Thor 3, Avengers, Batman, The Great Mouse Detective

What are your favorite games?

-Undertale, Katamari Forever, A Hat in Time, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Ghost Trick, Mass Effect 3, Paper Mario 2, Pokemon ORAS, Borderlands 2, Burnout Revenge, Megaman Legends 2, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Tetris Attack, Kingdom Hearts 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, Kingdom Hearts DDD

What are your favorite TV shows?

-Megas XLR, Cowboy Bebop, Nichijou, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Gurren Lagann, Teen Titans, Batman TAS, Batman Beyond, Kill La Kill, Futurama, The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants, Dragonball Z, One Punch Man, The Flash (Season 1), Madoka, Little Witch Academia, Gravity Falls, Ducktales

ARE YOU IN [insert show that hasn’t been released or had any casting announcements made for]?

I’m unable to comment on my involvement with projects that have not been released or that the client has not made a casting announcement for. You will find out as soon as I am at liberty to say, I promise! I wanna talk about it as much as you wannt know about it!

Anything else I should know about you??

-I’m actually pretty chill and mellow, love answering questions, and just love to help people create. Also, I’m nuts about monster people.

[daleisgreat]

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge

A couple weeks ago, the DLC story expansion to the videogame, Mortal Kombat 11 was released and added an additional few hours of narrative that picks up on where the core MK11 plot left off. I finished that up a few days ago, and picked away playing with the new characters and doing online battles with a friend I occasionally duke it out with online. On top of that, several weeks ago Warner Bros. released a straight-to-video animated movie dubbed Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge (trailer). Animated features based on the MK license are nothing new; one is include as a bonus feature on the original live action BluRay I reviewed here a few years ago. That and the other ones released in the previous century varied greatly in quality, and a pivotal difference with Scorpion’s Revenge is that it features some of the brains behind the highly acclaimed DC animated films working on it. Assault of Arkham’s Ethan Spaulding is directing, while Teen Titans Go vs. Teen Titans penned the script. I ate up too many MK comics, movies and videogames over the years so I have an admittedly high familiarity with its canon. With a title like Scorpion’s Revenge I was initially led to believe this would be a side story focusing on Scorpion’s rivalry with Sub-Zero. It initially starts out that way with Scorpion’s origin story where he returns to his village to see his family and fellow villagers slaughtered by a clan headed up by Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero (Steve Blum) ultimately slays him as well, and in hell Scorpion (Patrick Seitz) makes a deal with one Quan Chi (Darin De Paul) to restore his essence to enact revenge while also entering the Mortal Kombat tournament. That opening scene is graphically intense for an animated feature, and Warner Bros. granted the animators a lot of leeway to maximize everything they could out of the R rating. If you have played the recent MK games and are familiar with their ‘X-Ray Attacks’ then a lot of the gore and violence in Scorpion’s Revenge will ring a bell.

After that initial intense setup for Scorpion and Sub-Zero, the rest of the film is essentially a remake of the original live action film, yet has some noticeable differences to switch things up. Liu Kang (Jordan Rodrigues), Johnny Cage (Joel McHale) and Sonya Blade (Jennifer Carpenter) return as the three core protagonists that meet up once again on a boat leading to mysterious location where the Mortal Kombat tournament is emanating from. Sinister sorcerer, Shang Tsung (Artt Butler) is behind the festivities on his own personal island of hell, and has all kinds of trickery to distract the heroes. While the general broadstrokes of the live action film and this animated feature hits similar beats, a lot of it is freshened up. Some of the key battles feature different matchups, and the characters from the second game have varying degrees of supporting roles, and I feel for poor Jax (Ike Amadi) because the filmmakers here found a new way to de-arm him, which is as excruciating as ever to relive again and again. I got into Scorpion’s Revenge style of mixing up the exposition this time around. Sonya Blade has an edge to her and has absolutely zero tolerance for Cage’s nonstop flirting with her. Having Scorpion constantly out for revenge on Sub-Zero in their rivalry is a better use of those two characters instead of as lowly goons for Shang Tsung like in the live action film. Raiden (Dave B. Mitchell) is back as the wise elder with an occasional pun that guides the heroes along their journey and sets them up for an awesome final stretch of battles against Quan Chi, Goro and Shang Tsung. I will re-emphasize the gruesomeness of the violence here as the artists hold nothing back and ensure it matches the pedigree established by the games. It all adds up for a gritting finale as the warriors lay waste to one another.

There is a decent amount of bonuses on the BluRay. Producer, Rick Morales and Writer, Jeremy Adams are on hand for the feature commentary track. They go out of their way numerous times to appreciate Warner Bros. for letting them go all out with the violence and offer up other random insight and production facts throughout. There are four mini-behind-the-scenes extras totaling just over 20 minutes breaking down the characters, lore, weaponry, animation and sound design of the film. All are quick watches with an interesting anecdote or two, but not worth going out of your way to see….except maybe the one on sound design where it was amusing to see how they showcased all the various foods squished for the blood splatters and bone crushing sound effects. Part of me wants to give Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge an easy recommendation because of their excellent use of the license and canon that any MK nut like myself will get a thrill out of, and it is a breezy 80 minute watch to boot. Watching its take on remixing the plot from the heralded live action film for a new generation was something special to immerse myself in to witness how it all unfolded. However, if you are not all that familiar with the near 30 years of MK lore a lot of the characters and general plot beats will either go right over your head or will likely incite many unintentional chuckles. Suffice it to say, only fans of the series should go out of their way to see Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge. Bonus update, upon doing research for this I discovered the long delayed live action reboot film wrapped production at the end of 2019 and is currently slated for a January 2021 theatrical release date. Here is hoping it will up to the legacy of the original as being one of the best live action videogame film adaptations. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #467

Top Ten Romantic Couples in Superhero Movies (& TV)

It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend. Woo, I guess? I dunno. I’m not generally cynical about holidays but Valentine’s Day does seem to be entirely focused on selling cards without any of the associated pleasantries of, say, Christmas or Halloween. I’d rather just try to be nice to my wife all year round. At least because of the apocalypse all the restaurants are closed so we can’t be tempted to pay through the nose for a set menu. Anyway, it gives me a strained excuse to tie this week’s Top Ten to something vaguely romantic.

Superheroes are often horny. This seems to be a defining characteristic of the artform. Whether it’s their descent from ancient myths, or their creators’ origins in writing romance books, or just a function of genre storytelling in the mid-twentieth century, there’s quite a lot of romantic angst in superhero stories. Pretty much every superhero has a significant other; Lois Lane even got her own comic that was actually called Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. It’s hard to conceive of many heroes without their primary squeeze, and often – as we get multiple media adaptations of characters – we can add diversity or a twist to the proceedings by picking a lesser-known love interest, or one from earlier in the character’s fictional history; for instance, Smallville beginning with Cark Kent’s teenage crush Lana Lang, or The Amazing Spider-Man swapping out Mary Jane Watson for Gwen Stacey.

Anyway, I’m talking this week about my favourite superhero couples. I’ve decided to focus on superhero adaptations – that is, the characters from movies and films based on superhero comics or characters. I find this a little bit easier as I don’t have a phenomenal knowledge of sixty years of Avengers comics, but I have seen all the movies a bunch. As many comics as I’ve read, and as much as I love various ink-and-paper pairings, I can arguably talk more authoritatively about the fillums than the funny books. And let’s be real here, kids: my favourite comic book romantic couple is Chromedome and Rewind in Transformers. Also if I split them in two I can talk about comic couples next year. Woohoo!

It really is hard thinking of these things nearly nine years in, folks.

So! Here, then, are my favourite movie-TV Couples in Capes. Obviously there’s a fair bit of MCU in here. And I’ve been pretty specific about “superhero” romances: so no Hellboy and Liz Sherman, sadly (and I do really like them in the movies, of which they really need to make a third). Some are civvies-and-supes; some are capes-and-capes. You’ll work it out.

Superman & Lois Lane (Christopher Reeve & Margot Kidder, Superman, 1978): who else? The most famous romance in all of comics, a combo so strong it remains the focus of pretty much every interpretation of the character, but arguably never better than here; so good are Reeve and Kidder that their fast-talking banter and inherent goodness set the template for a huge swathe of other comic adaptations to follow. She’s sarky and streetwise; he’s gormless and good-hearted. She leaps in where angels fear to tread, he’s an invulnerable alien in disguise. They have buckets of chemistry and an utterly believable (tentative) romance. They’re perfect performances and the scenes of Clark in Metropolis for the first time (including Superman’s balcony interview with Lois) are the best bits of an already excellent film.

Raven & Beast Boy (Tara Strong & Greg Cipes, Teen Titans Go!, 2014): on a totally different register, we have the comedy stylings of the Teen Titans. Raven and Beast Boy had a flirtatious relationship on the original Titans series, but on this longer-running and much more demented comedy follow-up, they were allowed to make the romance more official (I nearly said “explicit” but, y’know… it’s not that). The jokes and banter – BB the love-struck, jealous suitor, Raven the too-cool partner who feigns nonchalance – build and build, but every now and again they’re allowed a moment of genuine heartfelt romance, and it hits all the more strongly amidst the ultra-violence and outrageous comedy.

Captain America & Agent Carter (Chris Evans & Hayley Atwell, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011): the premier couple of the MCU, Steve and Peggy spend a whole movie flirting (she sees the goodness of him even before he gets all hench) before finally arranging a date that, we all know, is very much postponed. Peggy casts a shadow over the rejuvenated Cap and the MCU as a whole, founding SHIELD, inspiring dozens of heroes, and counselling Steve to her dying days. She remains Steven’s true north (like Supes with Lois, Peggy’s an ordinary human who is the actual hero of an actual super-powered hero), guiding him through the chaos and tragedy of Endgame, until they both get to live happily ever after. Even though he snogged her niece.

Batman & Catwoman (Michael Keaton & Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns, 1992): Pfeiffer delivers a barnstorming performance as Selina Kyle, all barely-supressed mania and seductive feline charm. The chemistry between her and Keaton is electric, and propels the film forward even when the Penguin-runs-for-mayor stuff gets a bit daft and icky. There are beautiful moments of romantic comedy when they’re both trying to cover up injuries they gave each other, and of course there’s “mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it” – a line that runs a close second to “dance with the devil” when it comes to Burton-Batman quotations (just ahead of “never rub another man’s rhubarb”). Burton, generally favouring the macabre villains over the straighter edges of the heroic Batman, nevertheless makes great play of the duality of the character, and how this is something he and Catwoman can share – both “split right down the centre” – but also how this means a happy ending for either of them is impossible.

Spider-Man & Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2002): whilst a lot of this is really down to the sexiness of them kissing upside-down in the rain, there’s a nice duality to Peter and MJ seeing through each other too: he sees the wounded humane soul beneath her it-girl persona; she sees the kind, caring man underneath his geek baggage. This arc plays out beautifully across the first two films (ending in that wonderfully accepting “Go get ‘em, tiger”) before sadly getting all murky and unsatisfying in the murky and unsatisfying third film. Still: that kiss.

Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor (Gal Gadot & Chris Pine, Wonder Woman, 2017): probably the film that hews closest to the Clark-Lois dynamic of the original Superman, to the point where it includes an homage to the alleyway-mugging scene as Diana deflects a bullet. Steve is Diana’s window into man’s world, showing her the horror of the First World War but managing to also be a sympathetic ally and never talking down or mansplaining anything. He’s a hero in his own right – very similar to another wartime Steve on this list – and very much an ideal match to the demigod he’s showing round Europe. And, of course, Gadot’s Diana is incredible, both niaive and vulnerable whilst also an absolute badass. There is an enduring warm chemistry to the pair, with a relationship which we actually see consummated – relatively rare for superheroes! The inevitability of his heroic sacrifice does nothing to lessen the tragedy, and no I’ve not seen Wonder Woman 1984 yet.

Hawkeye & Laura Barton (Jeremy Renner & Linda Cardellini, Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015): I love these guys! I love that Hawkeye has a relatively normal, stable family life. He has a big old farmhouse that he wants to remodel, he’s got two kids and a third on the way… he’s got something to live for, something to lose. It humanises him amidst the literal and figurative gods of the Avengers. And they’re cute together, bickering and bantering, and of course she is supportive of his Avenging. I hope we get to see more of Laura and the kids in the Hawkeye series, and I hope nothing bad happens to them now they’ve all been brought back to life.

Wanda Maximoff & Vision (Elizabeth Olsen & Paul Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War, 2018): theirs is a difficult relationship to parse, because they’re together so briefly. They cook paprikash together in Civil War before having a bit of a bust-up, and by Infinity War they’re an official couple, albeit on the run (and on different sides). That movie does a great job in establishing their feelings for each other in very little screentime, with their heroic characteristics on full display, before the shockingly awful tragedy of Wanda killing Vision to save the galaxy, before Thanos rewinds time, brings him back to life, and kills him again, and then wins. Their relationship going forward, in WandaVision, is even trickier, because we don’t know what’s up yet, and at times they’re clearly not acting as “themselves”, defaulting to sitcom tropes and one-liners. Will Vision survive, and if he does, will their relationship? Who can say, but at least they’ll always have Edinburgh, deep-fried kebabs and all.

Batman & Andrea Beaumont (Kevin Conroy & Dana Delany, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 1993): woah, Batman’s back but it’s a different Batman, say whaaaat. Animated Batman has had a few romances, from the great (Talia al-Ghul) to the disturbingly icky (Batgirl, ewwww), but his relationship with Andrea Beaumont is the best. Tweaking the Year One formula to give young Bruce a love interest that complicates his quest is a golden idea, and making her a part of the criminality and corruptiuon that he’s fighting is a suitably tragic part of the Batman origin story. Conroy and Delany give great performances, him wringing pathos out of Bruce, torn between heart and duty (“It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore,” he wails to his parents’ grave, “I didn’t count on being happy”), her channelling golden age Hollywood glamour. The tragedy of them rekindling their relationship years later, only to wind up on different sides again, is – again – so very Batman. It’s a beautiful, earnest, very Batman relationship, a great titanic tragedy of human emotions and larger-than-life ideals. And they both look good in black.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy (Kaley Cuoco & Lake Bell, Harley Quinn, 2020): this one’s a little bit of a cheat, as I’ve only seen the first season of the show, where Harley and Ivy don’t even get together. But in the wider, non-canonical sense of these being characters who are part of the pop-cultural ether, Harley and Ivy will always be a couple, I feel; and there’s definitely enough in there already to see the affection between them, not yet consummated. They adore each other, are always there for each other, and as the season follows Harley getting out of her own way and acknowledging the abuse of her relationship with Joker – and finally getting over it in the healthiest way possible for a bleached-white manic pixie in roller derby gear. And all through this, holding her hand, is Ivy. They’re utterly made for each other, and I’m glad that they do get together in season two. I hope that Margot Robbie’s rendition of the character can likewise find happiness with a flesh-and-blood Ivy. Hell, just cast Lake Bell again. She’s great.

Just bubbling under – and I’m really gutted I couldn’t fit them in – was Spider-Man & M.J. from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Like Batman, I’m comfortable including multiple continuities here, and those cuties offer a different spin on a classic relationship.

[aion-rsa]

How Batman/Catwoman Will Redefine the Dark Knight for a Generation

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Batman writer Tom King tells us what we should expect from Batman/Catwoman, his most ambitious work with the Dark Knight to date.

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"If you think Vision changed Vision forever, Batman/Catwoman will change Batman and Catwoman forever," writer Tom King says of the 12-issue limited series that will conclude his four-year run on the character. While King has spent 85 issues physically and emotionally breaking the Dark Knight, it's these final 12 issues that could very well define his run. 

For those who haven't been paying close attention, King took over writing duties on Batman in 2016 during DC's Rebirth relaunch. It was no easy task, especially since King had some very big shoes to fill -- Scott Snyder had just finished a five-year run of amazing, fan-favorite stories with the character. But King soon made the book his own, turning his take on Batman inward in order to ask big questions about the Dark Knight. Could Bruce ever find happiness without Batman? Could he ever truly love someone?  

This is King's modus operandi. He dissects characters we know and love, breaks them down, in order to discover something new about them. In his Vision miniseries, the book that arguably put the writer on the map, King gives Marvel's superhero android a new challenge: a dysfunctional family to love and protect (it doesn't go well). In what many consider to be his magnum opus (Mister Miracle), King questions whether there's anything the titular hero can't escape, all while hinting that the New God has been trapped all along. 

With Batman, King zeroed in on his decades-long love affair with Catwoman. Bruce's marriage proposal to Selina was a status-quo-shattering moment for the character, and when their engagement fell through (thanks to the machinations of King's main villain, Bane) it broke the Bat. Since issue #50, King has been rebuilding Batman, who spends much of the next 30 issues questioning whether he's worthy of love or a life beyond the violence of Gotham City. It's an unexpected, raw, and beautiful direction. 

But that's all just been lead up to Batman/Catwoman, which King describes as "a lot more ambitious." Originally set to be the final arc of the writer's planned 106-issue run, the limited series focuses in on the central relationship of King's Batman with a much bigger scope than can realistically be attempted on a book that ships bi-monthly.

"I never got to go as deep into Batman as I do in Mister Miracle or in Vision," King tells us at NYCC 2019. "The reason why [is] because Batman was twice monthly and the artists had to constantly shift and it was wonderful to do it that way because that was like old school comics, just get to the deadlines, get them out."

While King has enjoyed the company of many great artists during his time on Batman, including Mikel Janin, David Finch, Lee Weeks, Jorge Fornes, Joelle Jones, John Romita Jr., and Tony S. Daniel, the writer explains "you have to have a consistent artist for 12 issues" to go as "in-depth" as he did in Mister Miracle and Vision. And King knows what he's talking about: it's in these shorter maxi-series that King has produced his most critically-acclaimed, award-winning work. (Go read these books, folks!)

Joining King on Batman/Catwoman is the brilliant Clay Mann, who just recently collaborated with the writer on Heroes in Crisis, the 9-issue DC event series that showcased just how stunning and captivating Mann's pencils can be. Having an all-star partner-in-crime like Mann along for the ride allowed King to change his original outline for his Batman/Catwoman story into something bigger.

"My outline was based on a double shipping thing and a constantly shifting artist. I was like, 'Let's make this bigger and deeper...even more impactful," King says. "This is my chance to do my Dark Knight Returns, to do something that defines and redefines this character for a generation."

While King might not be ready to divulge more details about Batman/Catwoman's story, we already know one big detail: it's going to feature the DC Universe debut of one of the Dark Knight's most beloved rogues, the Phantasm. First introduced in the Batman: The Animated Series movie, Mask of the Phantasm, the Phantasm is becoming a canon Batman villain, thanks to Mann. It was the artist's idea to include her in the story, according to King. DC has released promo art that teases the Phantasm as a major foil for Bruce and Selina (unsurprising, considering the villains' romantic past with the billionaire), but how this all plays out remains to be seen. 

There's also been speculation that Bruce and Selina's daugher, Helena, will appear in the maxi-series, especially after King teased the character's return on Twitter. The offspring of Batman and Catwoman first appeared in Batman Annual #2 in a potential future where the heroes grow old together. It's not far-fetched to assume that King would return to one of the themes that runs through both Mister Miracle and The Vision: parenthood. Raising children is one of the ways King likes to experiment with his subjects, and the writer confirms that his new Batbook will be as experimental as his past maxi-series.

"Clay and I are trying a whole new way of telling the story that we've never done before. We're borrowing from a bunch of different ways. We're collaborating differently than I've ever collaborated. Clay is deeply involved in the story process and he's a brilliant storyteller. It will be the best looking book on the stands," King says. "And when it's done, you're going to hopefully have something like Watchmen or New Frontier that you can have on your shelf for the rest of time."

There's still a long road ahead for King, who is just at the beginning of the work: "I've written the first three scripts already and it's maybe the best thing I've ever written, so I hope it's good."

What else can King tell us about how Batman/Catwoman will redefine these characters? Well, for one thing, King's been planning a big change in the status quo for quite some time. Earlier this year, the writer teased a shocking twist that would "change the character for a generation." But that was back when he was going to write 106 issues of Batman. But now that his run is ending a bit earlier, with December's #85, is that big twist still in the works?

"Yes, I would say that the change is still coming and that it's going to be in Bat/Cat."

Batman/Catwoman #1 hits shelves in January. 

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9 and make sure to check him out on Twitch.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature John Saavedra

Oct 10, 2019

DC Entertainment

Batman

Tom King

NYCC

NYCC 2019

from Books https://ift.tt/2OC5yls