What’s next for Batman after Final Crisis?
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Batman is dead. In this week’s issue of “Final Crisis”, Batman died at the hands of Darkseid. I always felt that if DC were to ever write this story, (I’m not including the death of Earth 2 Batman or any Elseworlds stories) Batman’s death would come at the hands of one of his rogues. It would be an epic tale where the Joker or Ra’s would finally succeed in getting one over on Bruce in a moment of weakness.
So now that he’s dead, where do we go from here? Well we know DC will be putting “Detective Comics” and “Batman” on hiatus and in it’s place will be a three part miniseries entitled “Battle for the Cowl”. We can assume from the title that there will be a fight of some sort to see who will take over as Batman. The players are: Nightwing, Robin, Jason Todd, and Hush.
This is much different that what we saw during the “Knightfall” trilogy where the mantle was simply given to Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael. Bruce’s relationship with Dick Grayson was estranged at the time and Tim Drake was too young, so for some reason it was deemed fitting that the character of Bruce Wayne would rationally relinquish the most important thing in his life to this guy he barely knew - but that’s ancient history now.
Click to continue reading What’s next for Batman after Final Crisis?
Advertisement
DC Comics Review: Batman: Confidential #25
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
This is the final chapter of the “Batman: Confidential” storyarc, “Rites”. I’ve blogged about this story before and how it’s been a breath of fresh air over the past few months in contrast to what Grant Morrison has been doing over in “Batman”. Overall this was a very good story. It’s a story so good that I think it would be accepted by fans if this story was incorporated into the current Batman continuity.
The story continues with the rogue police officer looking to get revenge on the Joker for tricking his wife into committing suicide. The story has no surprise endings really. The cop doesn’t kill the Joker obviously and Batman of course comes in to save the day. However, there are some cool moments like the birth of Arkham Asylum where the Joker tortures his fellow inmate the rogue cop with cruel jokes about his dead wife.
The cover of this issue gives away the ending as the story comes full circle and shows the Batman bringing in a new villain to police headquarters for booking - the Riddler. The writer of this story Andrew Kreisberg is a Hollywood writer and producer. I doubt he would give up his day job to come and work for the comic industry full time. It’s our loss as he has done a fine job here. Scott McDaniel is on the money here as always with the art work.
The next storyarc is the introduction of the 1960s Batman TV show villain King Tut into Batman comics. Whether this story will be in continuity I have no idea. The story will be written by Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis who wrote the very underrated “New Mutants” relaunch a few years back and its next incarnation “New X-Men Academy X”. I’ll be sticking around as there won’t be any Bruce Wayne/Batman stories hitting the stands for a while. Whose idea was it to kill off Batman as we enter his 70th year of publication? Nice move!
Random Thoughts
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Let me start on the Spider-Man variant story. Marvel and DC usually make dealers buy 20, 40, or even 75 copies of a book to get one variant. Sometimes you can buy as many copies of an unimportant variant as you want. Now, dealers can change their orders via an FOC three weeks before they arrive. In this case, Marvel announced that any dealer that ordered more copies of Spider Man 583 than 575 could get as many copies of the Obama cover as they wanted. This slipped by most of the dealers. And who knew that Joe Quesada would be all over TV to plug it ? So I didn’t get any, but I could have sold plenty.
And next week they are printing a second printing with the same Obama variant cover except it has an orange background instead of a blue one. Don’t be fooled as some people on E-Bay who are buying the second printing thinking they are getting the original variant. The original variant is worth up to 100 dollars on E-Bay.
Now the real random thoughts (SPOILERS!!!):
- You’ve been warned about SPOILERS… stop now! Okay…
- So Darkseid kills Batman in Final Crisis 6, but which Batman died in RIP? And if the continuity was screwed up by having a live Batman in the next two issues of Batman, what the heck is going on now? Even DC couldn’t straighten it out to me on our weekly call. Luthor zapping Libra was cool, but Sivana saying “and that’s the classic we haven’t heard the last of him” was priceless. Batman and which Superman were flying around in Crisis 6 heat visioning everybody in sight? For a non-killer he seemed to kill a lot of who? Good guys or bad guys? Can’t tell. Is it the same Supes carrying Bat’s body in the end? Final Crisis 7 comes in two weeks and we are promised that Grant Morrison will clear everything up. I am holding my breath.
- In Faces of Evil - Prometheus, it seems he goes off to a secret monastery in the Himalyas to learn all about evil. Holy Dr Doom, Batman, where have we seen that before?
- Adam, Legend of the Blue Marvel was great. What they plan on doing with a hero who has talks with the Watcher after the series is over is interesting. Calling the Watcher a white guy with attitude is classic.
- Batman Confidential is a fun way to introduce all the old villains but I am sure they are screwing with continuity? But, who cares?
DC Comics Review: Final Crisis #6
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
“Final Crisis” is garbage. There I said it Grant Morrison fans. I can’t believe there are people who defend this man and say his work on “Batman” and “Final Crisis” has been great - they’re not. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here for a review of the 6th issue of the “Final Crisis” mini-series which features the final fate of Batman.
For those of you who haven’t read it yet, do not read any further. I can’t review this issue without revealing that piece of information.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Final Crisis #6
Ledger gets the Globe!
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, Movies,
Last night Heath Ledger won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role of The Joker in “The Dark Knight”. Like many comic book fans, I am very happy that a comic book film has finally been recognized and has achieved an award of this caliber. It’s of course bitter sweet with the death of Heath Ledger occurring before the film was even released. Would he have been nominated or even won if he were still alive? We’ll never know, but I would like to think so.
I wasn’t happy when he was cast in the role of the Joker. Even when I saw him in the make up, I was thinking that this was going to suck. As I watched the film for the first time, a smile slowly began to form on my face. As the Joker exited the room after his meeting with the mobsters in the beginning of the film, I was sold.
What Heath did with that role was nothing short of amazing. He has set the bar high for any actor who wants to take on the role of a Batman villain in any future Batman film. In my opinion, Heath Ledger became the Joker. When Jack Nicholson played the Joker in “Batman,” he was playing himself. Even when it was released in 1989, I wasn’t that impressed with Jack as the Joker. I think Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer were much better in their roles as The Penguin and Catwoman in “Batman Returns”. Heath was unrecognizable as the Joker role and it wasn’t just because of the make up.
I hope he gets the Oscar. According to Yahoo, the Oscar nominations will be announced January 22 - the one year anniversary of Heath’s death.
Good luck, Heath and rest in peace.
Read More 
| Yahoo
Random Thoughts For The Day
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials,
- I have the greatest screw up of 2009 by far. X-Men Manifest Destiny 5 is not X-Men Manifest Destiny 5. It is really X-Men Spiderman 3. They either printed the wrong cover or the wrong book. Stay tuned.
- Does anyone else have the slightest idea what is going in X-men Noir. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? I am so confused.
- Batman 684 is a good continuation of the story line if only I could figure out what story line it is the continuation of? And remember, boys and girls, never end a sentence with a prepostion.
- I have been told I am the biggest perv on the website. If that’s true, what do you have to say about Ultimate Hulk Annual? Hulk and Zarda? Remember that every woman the Hulk has sex with seems to die - Betty, Jarella and what’s her name from Planet Hulk.
- If Katherine Heigl can have sex with dead Denny on Grey’s Anatomy, why can’t Hank Pym have sex with dead Janet in Avenger’s Initiative?
- Sub-Mariner is a beautifully drawn book, but on which planet is the story set? Is it in any continuity? In fact is there any story here?
- After January 20th can we still refer to Black Adam, Black Panther, and Black Lightning? I mean we do have Dark Avengers coming.
- The freebie Marvel is giving away on War of The Kings is a pretty good recap of everything that has led us to where we are. I wonder if we will ever have a War of the Queens? I am collecting jokes now in case it ever happens.
DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #852
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
“Detective Comics” #852 is part one of a two part “Faces of Evil” storyline. Paul Dini returns as the writer for “Detective Comics” with this issue and he will continue with part two in “Batman” #685. Throughout the month of January DC is focusing on the villains of the DC Universe in “Faces of Evil”. The villians will take center stage in the monthly comics of their adversaries as well as some individual special issues. This issue of “Detective Comics” focuses on Hush and takes place right after the “Heart of Hush” storyline. As we know from this storyline, Thomas Elliot aka Hush has surgically altered his face to look like Bruce Wayne. He was attempting to take over Bruce’s life when Batman thwarted his plans.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #852
DC Comics Review: Batman #684
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
This issue is part two of the Denny O’Neil storyline “Last Days of Gotham”. This story was very disappointing. After months of reading Grant Morrison, I was looking forward to a good old fashion comic book story by one of the greats in Denny O’Neil. This issue was uneventful and the story as a whole was pointless.
The story follows Nightwing - Dick Grayson - as he battles a criminal posing as Two-Face and his cohorts. The story also deals with an actress who was abused by these criminals prior to the earthquake that hit Gotham. By the end of this story we aren’t left with much except Harvey Bullock and Commissioner Gordon moping around about the disappearance of Batman and Nightwing feeling as if he’s a rank amateur who can’t fill the shoes of his mentor Batman.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman #684
The World According to Todd: Best of 2008
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Collecting, Editorials, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Figure Caption: You gotta love Supergirl!
It’s that time of year again when we look back at the year and see what lived up to our expectations and what fell flat on its face. So without further ado…here is MY Best of 2008.
Book of the Year: Captain America
When my friends ask me what the best comic out there is, this is my answer. Every month, Brubaker mixes social commentary, superhero history, and pulse pounding action into a symphony of awesomeness. As icing on the cake there is always a new twist or a new piece of character development that makes aspiring writers (like myself) bang their heads on a table wishing they thought of it. Damn you, Ed. Steve Epting’s artwork continues to be realistic and energetic with fun homages to great artists like Steranko.
Worst Book: Countdown to Final Crisis
Wasted time. Countdown to Final Crisis was an over-hyped highlight reel of the DC Universe that promised to set the stage for Final Crisis. Not only did it not set the stage for Final Crisis, it didn’t do much of anything except steal minutes from my life I’ll never get back. That and about $156 from my wallet.
Click to continue reading The World According to Todd: Best of 2008
Random Thoughts
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials,
Presented for your enjoyment a series of random thoughts:
* Is it possible that they are publishing more Captain America comics now that he is dead then when he was alive?
* Is the Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom mini-series drawn by someone who had never seen the characters before he got the assignment?
* Isn’t the Secret Wars Requiem a real rip-off because it is mostly old Ant-Man stories?
* With all the different colored Lanterns showing up in the DC universe, will we get to see the Pink Lanterns? You know, the gay ones? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
* Wasn’t it cool when in Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter answers the phone with “Hall of Justice”?
* Exactly how many named characters in the Marvel universe has Tony Stark slept with? Apparently She-Hulk and the Lady Liberator’s are taking a census. And who thought up the name Lady Liberators anyway? Sounds 1940ish to me.
* If Batman 683 is picking up from 682, a miracle in itself, don’t we still want to know where the heck in continuity this story line lies?
* Didn’t we just have a year without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman?
* Can we find out once and for all if Earthlings and Kryptonians can reproduce? All-Star Superman says no, but aren’t the All-Star books set in a different universe? Apparently Clark and Lois spent a year together without Super-powers so shouldn’t we know something by now?
* How could they send off SuperGirl in Smallville? In a Smallville filled with gorgeous women wasn’t she the tops?
Recent Galleries
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.