Q&A: Jim Beard, Batman & Gotham City 14 Miles

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews, Television, DC Comics,

If you’re a fan of the 1960s Batman TV show starring Adam West and Burt Ward, then you already know what that phrase means. It’s the sign you see denoting the distance from the Batcave to Gotham City. Wayne Manor was way out in the 1960s suburbs! Gotham City 14 Miles is much more than that, however. It’s also the title of a new book edited by Jim Beard whose full title is Gotham City 14 Miles: 14 Essays On Why The 1960s Batman TV Series Matters. Essayists include Beard, comics historians Peter Sanderson and Robert Greenberger, and a host of people whose names are being revealed one at a time.

The book will be published by the Sequart Research & Literacy Organization a “non-profit devoted solely to the study and promotion of the artistic and literary medium alternately known as comics, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, manga, sequential art, and sequart.”

Beard says Gotham City 14 Miles is the first book on the old Batman TV series in over 10 years, and I say it’s about time. The book will examine the 1966-68 TV series and “quantify its worth and weight in current pop culture. It also intends to shoot down many of the cliches, falsehoods and outright misinformation about the show and illuminate its strengths and, yes, its weaknesses.”

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Retro-Reimaginings of The Dark Knight Trailer

Posted by Kris Madden Categories: Movies, DC Comics,

2008’s The Dark Knight was not the first time Batman faced off against his archenemy Joker on the big screen, or even the small screen. Thanks to YouTube’s community of film-editing hobbyists, there are three trailers for previous Batman films replaced with the audio track from The Dark Knight trailer. Enjoy.

Batman: The Animated Series (1992)

The best treatment of The Dark Knight trailer’s audio is a clip made from episodes of the early 90’s TV cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. The cartoon becomes a Gothic “Hanna-Barbera” nightmare and seamlessly goes along with soundtrack as if it was meant to be that way all along.

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DC Comics Review: Batman Confidential #29

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: ** 1/2*

A bit of a disappointment this time around for the creative team of Andrew Kreisberg and Scott McDaniel.  I’ve been raving about the writing that Kreisberg had been doing with his previous story arc in “Batman: Confidential” which was entitled “Do You Understand These Rights?”.  This was a great story that presented a retelling of the first time Batman captured the Joker and brought him in for booking at Gotham Police headquarters.  The Joker that Kreisberg portrayed in his story was fantastic; funny and evil at the same time; the way you would like to see the Joker in any comic book story.  The peanut murder was a classic!  I highly recommend picking this story arc as a trade or going to your local comic store to get the back issues.

I was looking forward to the “Bad Cop” storyline because it’s a direct sequel to the “Rights” storyline and Kreisberg and McDaniel have returned to tell the tale.  This wasn’t a bad story, but it also wasn’t a great story.  If you’re a Batman addict, I would recommend it as it maybe one of the few Bruce Wayne/Batman stories we maybe seeing for a while.  If you can do without Bats, then I would pass.

Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman Confidential #29

Ledger gets the nod, but Dark Knight comes up short!

Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, Movies,

The Oscar nominations were announced today. To no one’s surprise, Heath Ledger received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in “The Dark Knight”. Also to no one’s surprise, the film itself did not get any other major award nominations such as Best Picture, Best Director, or Best Screenplay.

As long as Academy voters look at comic films with disdain, no matter how good they are; no matter how many positive reviews they get; no matter how much money they make; they will never ever give a film like “The Dark Knight” respect.  As comic fans, I think we shouldn’t care anymore. If we enjoy these films and watch them over and over again, who cares if they don’t get the Oscar.

Congratulations to Heath and good luck.

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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!

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.

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DC Comics Review: Batman: Confidential #24

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Right now this is my favorite Batman story being published.  I was underwhelmed by Denny O’Neil’s “Last Days of Gotham” and I’m confused with what Grant Morrison is doing over in “Batman”.  So this story has been a nice cleansing of the palette.

As per my previous blog on this story arc, it’s written by Andrew Kreisberg; mostly known for writing various television shows over the past few years.  The story he’s crafted is fantastic.  It’s tight and each issue has ended with me wanting more.

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DC Comics Review: Batman #681

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

The conclusion to “Batman: RIP” is finally here. The last issue saw Batman entering Arkham Asylum as his back-up personality The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh to rescue Jezebel Jet from the Black Glove and the Joker.

Grant Morrison stated in an interview with Comic Book Resources that what would happen to Batman in this storyline would be “so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past, but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all.”  When I read this, I became very intrigued. What would happen to Bruce Wayne when the story was over? Well, the story is over and I’m still wondering what the big deal was.

(Spoilers)

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DC Comics Review: Justice Society of America Kingdom Come Special: Magog

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

This issue was written by Peter Tomasi with the art provided by Fernando Pasarin.  It’s a very good issue featuring Lance Corporal David Reid who was resurrected as Magog in the current “One World Under Gog” storyline. I liked the introduction of David Reid to the team by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross. The character is the great-grandson of President Franklin Roosevelt who was a part of the formation of the Justice Society of America (JSA). I love American history and I always love comic stories that weave real history into their storylines.

This issue has some JSA members following Gog on his “mission” to help the people of the world. The group comes across a river with dead bodies floating in it.  They discover that it has been poisoned by militants and it will kill everyone in the immediate area who use it for water if they don’t block it’s path.  The river is blocked by Gog and he and the JSA members make their way to locate the militants.

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DC Comics Review: Batman Confidential #23

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

The “Batman: Confidential” series has not been great. The first story arc of Batman vs Lex Luthor was okay. The new Joker origin storyline by Michael Green started off good, but by the end it became kind of blah for me. I read the advance solicitations of the current storyline “Do You Understand These Rights?” a few months ago and thought it sounded interesting. So far, I’m really enjoying it.

The story began in last month’s issue with Batman bringing in the Joker for booking at the Gotham City Police Department for the first time ever. The first issue ended with the Joker stealing the home phone number of one of the detectives who were booking him. He used his one phone call to call the detective’s wife and pretend to be a doctor with the news that she was dying of a disease and that it would be slow and painful death; he said it would be best if she ended her life. One of the cruelest things the Joker has ever done in comics. This issue is part two and is even better than the previous one. With an ending you won’t believe.  It involves the Joker and a peanut. 

Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman Confidential #23

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