The Favorites - 13 Favorite Batman Movies

Well, it’s 2022, and we have yet another live-action Batman film. Yeah, we had Ben Affleck in the previous DCEU movies, but this is the first solo film in about a decade. Not only are we getting Rob Pattisson in the role, Michael Keaton (along with Affleck) is supposed to be returning to the role in the Flash movie. By the way, why is this movie constantly pushed back? Maybe that slo-mo from the Snyder Cut carried over onto that movie’s production.

This did get me thinking about what my favorite Batman films are. I mean, the Dark Knight has had a crapton of films released in over the years, live-action and animated. He’s been on his own, hanging with teams, fighting Joker, flirting with Wonder Woman, teaming up with reptiles, fighting Superman, fighting Joker, sleeping with Batgirl, fighting Joker, in Victorian era Gotham, and last but not least, FIGHTING THE JOKER. I think I sense a bit of a pattern. So, here are my favorite Batman movies. Even though he has a lot, I’m stopping at 13-ish. I’m mainly including primarily solo Batman films here, but I do have a couple of exceptions. First, here are some honorable mentions:

• The Dark Knight Rises – Yeah, this didn’t make it to the main list, so take that, Nolanites! Now, this isn’t a bad movie, but I can’t throw it on the list. While it was the ending of Nolan’s trilogy and had good things with it, I couldn’t vibe with it. Heck, it took me almost eight years to see it again! I’ve seen the other two many more times than that! It just felt phoned in at times. Whatever spark those first two movies had wasn’t here. I also wasn’t a fan of some plot points and other things (those dang hilarious voices). Overall, it’s not bad, but it’s not that good.
• Batman and Robin – This one goes without saying. It was the first Batman film I saw in theaters. While I can find a lotta joy in Batman Forever, I can’t with this one. While I do like a little camp with Batman, this one took things too far for me. It’s not one of the worst movies ever though. It has a couple of good things like the subplot with Alfred. Also, Alicia Silverstone looked nice in that costume… hey, it’s true! As for everything else, meh. I can accept it as a comedy, but nothing more.
• Batman (1966) – I wanted to at least mention the original 1966 Adam West movie. It’s one that I honestly haven’t seen a lot of. I do need to see it in its entirety one day, but even if I did,  it would probably still be in the mentions.

This is Halloween! - More Sci-fi Horror Goodness (?) and Batman

Well, it’s another week before Halloween, and I got a few more spooky themed things to share. While my first three pick are recent viewings, my last pick is something I saw sometime ago on HBO Max. So, let’s start out with another homage of Aliens and the Shining!

Pandorum

Pandorum was released to little fanfare in 2009. I vaguely remember seeing something about this movie around that time, but I never saw it. The movie is about how what was left of humanity took to the stars to find a new home. Since it’s a long trip, most of the crew spends their time in hypersleep. The movie starts when two officers come out of hypersleep to find the ship’s active crew missing. While Officer Payton (Dennis Quaid) stays behind on the bridge, Officer Bower (Ben Foster) searches the ship for the crew and any other signs of life. Bower finds a lot more than he expected since cannibalistic creatures have taken root. Unfortunately, that’s the least of his problems since there’s this little space disorder called Pandorum that can make most men go mad.

So, this is what happened to Faora in the Phantom Zone! Yeah, that's Faora there!

I didn’t know what to expect with this one. While the ratings say otherwise, a lotta folk like this movie, and I can see why. It’s pretty bare-bones with the plot, but a lot of things do work here. The atmosphere of this derelict ship is good. The interior is pretty creepy. The creatures, or “The Hunters” look pretty scary. You don’t learn too much about them at first, but you get the idea that something happened to some of the humans on board. The cast was fine for the most part. Ben Foster, Antje Traue, and Dennis Quaid do a good job here.

Movie Talk - Zack Snyder's Justice League

Man, we got hit with some comic book goodness a while back. The revamped Justice League as well as “Captain Falcon and The Mark Hammill-Look-Alike” hit right around the same time. I even got around to finishing WandaVision, aka “Grief Personified into Sitcoms” too. It’s goodness all around when you include Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat! Yeah, I usually start these Snyder posts with a bit of a joke, but not this time. There’s not anything out in theatres for me to joke about, but I could probably make fun of something. Let me just get on with this one.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League was something I wasn’t clamoring for for a couple of reasons. I’ve got my fair share of Justice League-ness, and the fandom surrounding it is a lot. I didn’t say “toxic” because that gets thrown around a too much, and it’s not like any fandom has no toxicity in it. Some folk I do follow seem pretty chill. Heck, anti-Snyder fans are about as annoying as some pro-Snyder fans. Yes, I said it and I’m not even that big a fan of Snyder. Even though the original theater version wasn’t that satisfying, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Then, we heard what happened behind-the-scenes with the reshoots, and… eegh. That’s not even including what got cut out of Snyder’s original cut.

When the WB announced that it was coming, I was “whelmed, traught, and feeling the ‘aster…” whatever that means.  As more of the trailers came, I started to get a bit more excited. I ended up watching it all in bits and pieces the day it was released. I’ll save the pretty spoilerish bits for below, but I thought it was pretty good. The tone is pretty consistent throughout with some good bits of humor and pretty heartfelt moments. The League is all on top form here and even Stepphenwolf comes off better. It’s not perfect (a bit overlong in places and a couple of weird plot points), but this blew out the theatrical cut by a mile.

Movie Talk - Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

One movie I’ve been meaning to get to here is one you know I might like: Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You have one of my favorite superheroes mixed with one of my favorite hero teams. It’s a winning combination! Yet, I actually haven’t read the miniseries that was based on this movie. I'm behind on a lot of stuff, okay? I actually just started to read it on DC Infinite, so I can’t tell ya how accurate the movie is to the book. I do know that some licenses were taken (the turtles are apparently in the same universe as Batman is one example, but all you need to know is that a lotta fighting is happening.

The movie was released in 2019, and this was one rare occasion where I actually bought the movie outright. I had to see this. I even rewatched it last year with Liz, and she enjoyed it as well. The voice talents include some recognizable voices like John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, Eric Bauza, and Troy Baker. One surprise is that Baker’s back as Batman… and the Joker. Talk about pulling double duty. Heck, the dude’s done both voices in other properties before, so I say go for it.

Movie Talk - Batman: Ninja

If there’s one thing you can link to Batman, it can be martial arts. It seems like DC thinks that too since we’ve gotten quite a lot of stuff involving Batman going up against ninjas, monks, and everything in between. Heck, some throw Batman into the whole “World’s Greatest Fighter” title, and that’s just silly. He’s already the World’s Greatest Detective, and adding any more “Great” titles is just overcompensating. When the alien from another world is a bit more relatable than the human male who learned to do everything within a decade, you might be overdoing it. Anyway, why did I go down that tangent? I guess I wanted to hold off on talking about this movie. That’s not a good sign!

Batman: Ninja was released in 2018. Someone at DC had the interesting idea to let some anime creators get their hands on the Dark Knight again. This was done before with Batman: Gotham Nights from 2008. While that movie wasn’t the best of the bunch, seeing Batman (specifically the Nolan Batman) done in anime form was pretty cool. This time, Junpei Mizusaki was the director, Kamikaze Douga and YamatoWorks did the animation, and Takashi Okazaki (created Afro Samurai) designed the characters. When it got adapted for American audiences, Leo Chu and Eric Garcia rewrote the movie. It seems that folk are a bit split on this one. Heck, I didn’t even think about looking at this one till now since the animation wasn’t pulling me in. Still, was it worth it?

Random Thoughts On... Superman's Identity Revealed Arc from the New 52

Well, it has come to this. When I started this month, this was the first thing on the docket. I thought I would’ve gotten it out of the way first, but reading 30-something issues from this era of comics is a bit much. Still, I had to finish this race here. Last time, I said that this story killed the New 52 Superman. Was I right to say that? Not sure because I don’t know what DC’s plans for this version of Superman were. Still, you never know. Also… I kinda liked bits of this. Yeah, it’s actually a shocker.

So, what am I talking about today? After the Convergence event, DC transitioned from New 52 to “DC You.” Basically, the idea was to just go off the wall with certain things. Tom King was doing Omega Men, Hal wasn’t Green Lantern… again,  someone finally decided to give Starfire some frakin’ clothes (yeah, I’m bitter about how they treated my girl), Martian Manhunter got his own book, and Batman turned into a robo-bunny. Geoff Johns started up “Darkseid War” as well. This was a weird era.

As for Superman, someone had the “interesting” idea to out Superman’s double life as Clark Kent to the world. From what I can tell, it was mostly done for shock value. A lot had been done to this version of Superman. His parents were dead, he lost his marriage with Lois, he was in jeans during his early days, he hooked up with Wonder Woman, he got turned into a Doomsday (I’ll touch on that some other time), and he got a “totally rad” power called the solar flare. So, they decide to have Lois Lane out him, and not only that, he loses his powers. That’s a lot for one character, man.

Random Thoughts on ... Batman: The Killing Joke Comic and Movie

Well, it’s time I got back on my Batman fix. Today’s book is one that I just read. Yes, I’m admitting that I haven’t read The Killing Joke until now. I could call myself a bad Batman fan, but that ain’t happening this time. I’ve read and seen too much. It’s been a minute since I’ve visited the mind of Alan Moore. This story has been something I’ve wanted to cover here eventually.

So, what is The Killing Joke? It was a 48 page one-shot written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland. John Higgins originally colored the comic while Bolland handled the colors in a deluxe edition. Richard Starkings did the letters. It’s one of the stories that made the Joker, who was already back in his more psychotic roots, even more of a major threat to Batman and his world.  It also gave him a possible backstory. It even revolutionized Batman’s and Joker’s rivalry. It also made a big change with Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl.

The story was well-received when it was released back in 1988. It was one of the stories that helped make the Joker a household name. It also got criticism with its treatment of Batgirl, who became Oracle after this story. It even got made into a movie, and that is something I will review here as well. With all that said, let me spiel on this a bit:

Five Pros/Five Cons - Chris Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy

Next up is something that I’ve been meaning to re-visit here. A few years ago, I briefly talked about the Nolan trilogy right when The Dark Knight Rises was being released. Now that we have had more live action Batmen come and go, I thought it was time to see how this momentous trilogy stacks up now.

I don’t remember when I first heard that new Batman movie was coming. I also didn’t know who Christian Bale was, but I knew he was that jackass racist from the 2000 Shaft movie. Anyway, Batman Begins was released in 2005 and I was really surprised. I even read the novelization and played that PS2 game. Then, The Dark Knight came three years later and set everything ablaze. After that, you knew a sequel had to come. It took four years, but The Dark Knight Rises made its way to theatres in 2012. I’ll have you know that I haven’t seen this movie since its release until now. I know, it’s kinda weird to say that especially since I’ve seen the first two plenty of times. Now that I’ve finished my re-watch, what are the 5 pros and 5 cons of the trilogy? Yeah, it’s got some problems… come at me, Nolanites!

Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Run on Batman and Robin

Next up for this phase of Batman talk, I thought I’d return to ‘ole Grant Morrison. This time, we’re not dealing with the dankness of Grant Morrison… oh wait, Professor Pyg shows up here. Never mind! Anyway, I’ve talked about Morrison’s Batman run from the 2000’s. I got through Black Glove, R.I.P., and Battle For the Cowl. Yeah, that last one wasn’t Morrison, but you needed it to get to the next phase: the Dick Grayson Era or “Batman Reborn”.

                                               

“Batman Reborn” started off the small era where Dick Grayson donned the cape and cowl, Damian Wayne became Robin, and Tim Drake became a restaurant. I’m only talking about the Morrison themed stuff here, so you’ll have to wait on my thoughts about Judd Winnick’s time on Batman. Morrison left the Batman book and got his own series, Batman and Robin. While he worked on that book for 16 issues, he also returned to Batman to write some issues. Then, he also had a mini-series called The Return of Bruce Wayne. Guess what happens in that mini. There’s also Batman: The Return, a one-shot that basically started off Batman Incorporated, to consider, but I’ll save that for another time.

Tales From the Trade! - Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth

Well, it’s been a long time, I and I feel that I should’ve left you a dope beat to step to. Yeah, I’m throwing a Timberland reference in a Batman review. It’s called “Random Thoughts,” after all. While I did touch on something Batman related back in January, it does feel like I haven’t done much Batman on here lately. Heck, I used to have a month devoted to the Cape Crusader, but that really fell by the wayside. I guess it shows who truly has my mind when it comes to superheroes: Superman. While I won’t do a month dedicated to Batman, the next few posts will definitely be devoted to the Dark Knight.

One of the things that actually brought this mindset was this graphic novel I’m about to talk about. I was in McKay’s for the first time in  a while and came across this GN. There are a lot of seminal Batman stories I haven’t read and this is one of them. Batman: Arkham Asylum – A Serious House on Serious Earth was  a graphic novel released in 1989 right around the time of the Tim Burton Batman movie. It was the first time that Grant Morrison, a writer who’s done much in the comic world, wrote Batman. It was illustrated by Dave McKean who’s probably known for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. The book also served as an inspiration for the video game, Batman: Arkham Asylum. So, what happens when Batman takes some PCP and goes into Arkham Asylum? Okay… there was probably some meth involved too.

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Detective Comics #950-956: League of Shadows

Next up for the month is a go-around into the DC universe. For this story, I got two pretty skilled martial artists: Lady Shiva and Cassandra Cain. Lady Shiva was created by Dennis O’Neill and Ric Estrada. She first appeared in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #5 from 1975. She’s gone toe-to-toe with the best fighters in the DCU. She’s considered to be one the best and is even better than Batman. Yes, Batman isn’t the greatest at everything, folks. I’m getting tired of the whole “I can do anything with prep time” version of Batman. Even though she’s mostly a villain, she’s even trained folk like Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake.

As for Cassandra Cain, she first appeared in Batman #567 from 1999. She ended up becoming Batgirl for a few years, then someone decided to make her a villain for no reason. Anyway, that went away, she had called herself the Black Bat right before Flashpoint happened. After Flashpoint, all of that history was gone and she was brought back to square zero. Instead of becoming Batgirl, she ended up taking the name of Orphan during DC’s Rebirth phase. In either continuity, Cassandra is a premier top fighter in the DCU. Even Batman said he can’t beat her.

I think these two are fine characters overall, but I do like that two women are the best DCU fighters. I know some Batman fans are now staring darts at me right now. These two have gone to blows in the past. I know they did in Cassandra’s own book from the 2000’s and somewhat recently in the story I’ll be covering today. Today, it’s the “League of Shadows” arc from Detective Comics #950-956. When Rebirth started, Detective Comics essentially became a “Batman Team” book with other Batman-related characters being on the team. I’ll list the creative team below.

Favorites - Seven Creepy Moments from Non-Horror Video Games

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of horror games. It’s not that I don’t like them, I’m just not that interested in them. If it has a lot of zombie shooting, there is a chance that I won’t play it since I kinda of want more than that. That doesn’t mean I don’t like horror themed games. I own Vampyr on the PS4, and I think The Wolf Among Us could be considered to be horror. By the way, I finally was able to finish that game. I wish it got a sequel.

 I think I like it more when RPGs include horror elements. Heck, most RPGs tend to mix in a lot of genres together to make something pretty memorable. So, I’m going to go into detail about 7 scary moments from non-horror video games. I was going to go all out and make this a longer list, but I then hit a block when it came to finding scary moments in non-horror games. Besides, this just leaves me to get a little more detailed on these moments and levels. So, let’s start out with what’s probably my first big scare in video games.

1. The Final Level from Spider-Man

“RAWR!!! DIIIIIEEEEE!!” Imagine hearing this for an hour. That’s how long it took me to beat a pretty short final level on the PS1 version of Spider-Man. I hadn’t even ate food for Thanksgiving yet because this thing held me up! In the level, all you gotta do is swing away from the pretty freaky combination of Dr. Octopus and Carnage (Carn-Ock? Doc Carn?). Beating those two separately was hard enough, now I gotta face a merged version of them? While it would’ve been interesting to actually fight them, running from them kinda sounds better.

Anyway, while running like a coward sounds simple, you have to swing, climb, and run your red and blue butt off. You’re jumping over pipes, climbing walls, and running. I think there were a couple of times where I was like “All right, take me!” or something like that. I think I also only got to really beat this once since my PS1 ultimately gave out on me. It’s definitely one memory from I PS1 days I have still held on to.

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Superman: The Final Days of Superman

Next up for the month is trip to the 2010’s. These years have been weird to the Man of Steel, haven’t they? His origin’s been revamped at least twice in the comics, he’s had his identity outed, he’s shacked up with “Amazonian Hotness”, and he died… again. Yes, that actually happened. Right before DC Rebirth started, it was decided to put the New 52 Superman “out to pasture.” In other words, the dude gotta go since we got this older, wiser, more-Supermany Superman over here to use now. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of what was done with Superman in the New 52, I gotta say that I was a little sad to see him go. Then I read Peter Tomasi’s and Dan Jurgens’ run on the Superbooks and I kinda forgot about that dude.

“The Final Days of Superman” crossed over all the Superman related books except for Supergirl (Action Comics #51-52, Superman #51-52, Batman/Superman #31-32, and Superman/Wonder Woman #28-29). Peter J. Tomasi was brought into write this 8-issue crossover. As for the artists, they varied a lot. We had dudes like Mikel Janin, Ed Benes, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Manhke, Paul Pelletier, and Dale Eaglesham on pencils. I’ll just list the inkers below since this going to take a while. So, what happens when someone decides tries to mix “The Sandman Saga” with All-Star Superman?

TV Talk - Batman: TAS "Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai"

Well, it’s January, so that means I get to look at a lot of guys posing in stances and yelling. No, it’s not the WWF. This month is Martial Arts Month, the time where I look at any media (movies, TV, comics, books, etc.) that features martial arts. This time, I think it’s time to throw a little Batman into the mix. While the Caped Crusader is considered to be one of the best fighters in the DCU, I haven’t mentioned him yet during this month. It’s probably because I really don’t have many comics that center on him fighting ninjas or something like that. Also, Batman gets enough love as it is (too much, honestly).

I then remembered that Batman did go up against a ninja named Kyodai Ken on Batman: The Animated Series. Kyodai was a ninja Bruce met when he was in training to become Batman. Ken first appeared in “Night of the Ninja,” the 28th episode aired on FOX. He later appeared in “Day of the Samurai,” the 55th episode aired. This was a character that was only created for the show, so I don’t think he’s appeared anywhere else. Besides, Batman’s got enough wannabe ninjas to deal with. I was able to re-watch them on the DCU app. Today, I’ll be talking about both episodes.

TV Talk - Batman: The Brave and the Bold - "Invasion of the Secret Santas!"

Well, it’s almost Christmas Day and I still didn’t wrap that one present. The thing’s too dang big. Since I did it last year, I thought I would visit another episode that involves Batman and Christmas. I was going to look at “Holiday Knights” from The New Batman Adventures. Unfortunately, it’s not on the DC Universe app. So, instead of that, I’ll actually talk about “Invasion of the Secret Santas!” from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. This was actually the fifth episode of the first season which feels weird. I guess you gotta get those X-Mas episodes out of the way somehow. By the way, I ain’t rhyming this one. I bet all English teachers will be glad on that front!

“Invasion of the Secret Santas!”

Before we get to the slamming theme song (yes, it is a good theme song, you anti-fun snobs!!!), we get Batman and Blue Beetle teaming up to fight the Sportsmaster. I guess he decided to ruin sports events instead of poisoning his daughters’ minds in this universe. He’s also being voiced by Thomas Wilson, Biff from Back to the Future. It takes a couple of minutes (literally), but he is then defeated by the Blue team. We also find out that Batman’s not a big fan of Christmas.

Favorites - Best Superhero Video Games

Soon, I'll be playing this game... 2020 sounds like a good year to start!

Since it is the end of the year and I’m working on setting up a new blog, I thought I’d finally do something with the drafts I got over here. I got some I recently put in and a few that have been drafts for years. It was about time to let these unfinished posts get their light of day. I even got one from like 2010 I haven’t even finished yet! I’ll get to that soon, but right now, I’m going to talk about some games.

Since I’ll be in an Assassin’s Creed binge for a bit, I haven’t gotten a chance to touch the latest Spider-Man game. Yeah, I said it. It sounds quite horrible, doesn’t it? I wasn’t too worried about this game since its publisher, Insomniac, does good stuff. In fact, most superhero games have been pretty good lately. I couldn’t say that years ago, though. I still haven’t gotten a good Superman game yet, but I’m praying for it, dang it! Yeah, folk pray about sport teams, so I might as well pray about something that is pretty inconsequential to life but fun.

Years ago, an idea popped into my head: what are my favorite superhero video games? I know that I have a least played more than ten games based on superheroes. So, here is the list that’ll  cover games from all over the spectrum: old consoles, current-gen consoles,  arcade games, movie tie-ins, and independent stuff as well. I originally was going to only put 8 games on here since I’m not the most varied gamer, but I can thankfully put more on here these days. If they’re good and part of a series, I’m mentioning them too. This also isn’t in any order, but I will put my favorites at the top. First, here are some honorable mentions. These are ones I liked but never got to finish:

• Spider-Man 2 (PS2) – Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Spider-Man 2 is a good game, but I never finished the dang thing. That Mysterio boss battle always messed me up. It did do a lot of things right, though. it served as a good movie tie-in, it had the actors from the movie (Tobey MacGuire wasn’t too good if I remember), and it really made you feel like Spider-Man for the first time. Previous games did what they could, but this one surpassed them with the open-world aspect. Besides, I got a couple of other SM games for the actual list.
• Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (PS2) – I didn’t get to finished this one either, folks. I don’t know what happened. I know I rented it but this was around the time where time was scarce and I had no job. A man’s got to eat! Anyway, while my time with this game was short, this was fun. You got to run around as Hulk and cause a lot of destruction in your way. Heck, it’s in the title.
• Capcom’s Marvel series (PS1, PS3, etc) – Yeah, yeah, I know. While I don’t play many fighting games these days, I got Marvel vs. Capcom 3 around the house somewhere. Unfortunately, I’ve only put in about an hour of gameplay on it. Even though I haven’t finished that one, I still remember some of the others from the arcades and consoles. X-Men: Children of the Atom was a fun one as well Marvel Super Heroes. The one I remember the most and actually beat was X-Men vs: Street Fighter for the PS1. I may need to revisit some of these one day.

Favorites - Favorite Supporting Characters for Superman

Well, September has come to an end. I was able to get to all the supporting players I wanted to get to. Yeah, I left out a couple like Krypto, Emil Hamilton, and maybe Bibbo, but I had to end it somewhere. Besides, I already got a Krypto post from a few years ago that’ll satisfy most folk. As for other personal stuff, I’ll save that for a Random Thoughts post. I’m not done with the Man of Steel’s people yet. So, it’s time for the obligatory favorites list. This time, I’ll be listing down my 12 (sort of) favorite supporting characters from the franchise. The list isn’t really in order, but my favorites are at top.

1. Lois Lane

I might as well start off with his first supporting character. Lois has been around as long as Superman has. She’s been the rival reporter, the love interest, and a cool character especially in modern times. While I’ll admit that she wasn’t always the best during her 80 years, Lois is still an essential part of Superman’s life. Without her (married or not), things feel off. You can’t keep those two separate for long.

2. Jonathan and Martha Kent

Next, we got the Earth parents of Superman. In a lot of ways, they are the ones who made Clark into Superman. Yeah, the Els helped, but the Kents had to raise him. They taught him the values of humanity and how to live in the world. They even had things to share even when they got to live and see Clark become Superman. While they aren’t needed for every story, I think it’s cool to have them around at times. I don’t need them showing up in almost every other episode, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

3. Batman

Yeah, I got the Dark Knight on this list. What of it? Of all the superheroes Superman interacts or teams up with, Batman is right up there. It’s cool to see those two interact since they approach things differently. They both tend to learn things off of one another and they’re usually the closest of friends. Batman’s not essential to Superman’s story, but he adds variety to it from time to time.

4. Jimmy Olsen

While I do rag on Olsen at times, I think that has to do with how he’s sometimes written. When written well, Jimmy can be cool. When it comes down to it, Jimmy’s is more or less us. He’s just a regular guy in an extraordinary world. He has to pay the bills like everyone else. He just happens to be friends with one of the most powerful people in existence. At times, even he can get in on the action. He is the “Man of Action” after all.

Trade Tales! - Superman/Batman: Absolute Power

Well, it’s the last post for the month… sort of. Yeah, I had a busy weekend with going to church, fighting sickness, cutting yards (while having a temperature?), and spending time with someone I care about. So, I might as well hold off the Dark Knight for all… three of you out there? The last supporting character for Superman Month is Batman. Remember that these are the “World’s Finest” and that’s not because they wear speedos quite nicely either. By the way, it looks like the trunks are back in for both guys… dang traditionalists!

Anyway, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 (1939) as part of a push for the superhero. He ended up being popular and even got featured with Superman in World’s Finest Comics, an anthology series. Eventually, the two heroes would first team up in Superman #76 (1952). Since then, those two would regularly team up in certain books. They were the best of buds. I mean, they were the two biggest superheroes, so why not push that? They were also on the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America.

Then, things changed in the 1980’s. The Dark Knight Returns  showed them at odds with one another. There was also another pre-Crisis story (World’s Finest #323) which showed them having a falling out. All this kind of made their relationship in the post-Crisis different. Since continuity was rebooted, they rarely interacted and didn’t approve of each other’s methods. They still had a respect for one another, though. This also carried over into places like the DCAU and even the DCEU for good or ill. I kind of like it for their first meetings, but I do feel like them not becoming friends would be weird.

Eventually, DC decided to bring the World’s Finest together again. In 2004, DC started to release Superman/Batman, a team-up series. If you wanted to see Superman and Batman come together and kick butt, this was the book for that. We’ve even seen two animated movies get spawned from this series. Today’s trade will be Absolute Power which has Superman/Batman #14-18. Jeph Loeb, a guy that has experience writing both characters, is the writer. Carlos Pacheco handled the primary pencils while Ivan Reis helped out a little. Jesus Merino handled the inks. So, what happens when Superman and Batman get turned into despots? Time-travel stuff, yo!

Random Justice League Episode - Hereafter

Well, I got three more posts for this month, so I’m going out some of the big ones. Next up, we got one of my favorite superhero teams: The Justice League. You can throw “of America,” “Elite”, “International,” “Task Force,” or “Dark” at the end of that phrase. Just don’t use “Extreme” and we’ll be good. The team first appeared in comics in The Brave and the Bold #28. The idea DC had was to reintroduce a then-modern version of the Justice Society of America. They just changed the name and threw in all of the major heroes like the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Superman, and Batman. Over the years, a lot more heroes were added. They eventually got put into their own book, Justice League of America, and the rest was history.

The team also made it to TV and movies. They’ve been in stuff like The Super Friends, they headlined their own show for years, and they’ve had a lot of animated movies done about them. They’ve also been put in live-action. There was the recent 2017 movie, Smallville, and some weird variety show from 1979. In 2007, there was a movie that was in production called Justice League: Mortal, but that never came to be. There’s also the failed pilot from the 90’s. They’ve also made it to the video games and have had quite a few games released featuring them.

Since Superman is the theme of the month, I thought I’d look at an episode from Justice League. “Hereafter” was a season 2 episode. Season 2 is probably one the best seasons for the show overall. It was written by Dwayne McDuffie, a cool writer who is unfortunately no longer with us. So, what happens to the League when a member is lost?

Superman Month - Time to Meet the Family and Friends

It’s another year and another Superman Month. He’s one of my favorite characters and has had many stories over these 80 years. While I’ve devoted a month to a few other things over the years, Superman (and martial arts) is one of the consistent topics. Every September, I try to have a certain theme for the month. Even when the theme is a bit vague, it’s kind of there. I don’t know what I was going for a couple of years back. I think the theme may have been “Divisive Works” or something since I looked at some things that folk are still divided over.

"Hey, what's Steve Harvey doin' back there?"

Last year, I looked at the many villains. This time, I decided to devote some time to another big aspect of Superman: the people in his world. It’s Family and Friends month. I’ll try to cover stories and episodes that look at Superman’s supporting cast as well as characters most associated with him. You may even see someone important from last year get a spotlight on his bald, shiny head. So, come around during the month of September, grab some of Ma’s apple pie, help Conner feed the cows, hang with Lana in the loft, and stay away from that Luthor boy. He’s been no good since he stole those 40 cakes, I tell ya!