Trade Tales! - Batman: The Cult

Next up on this small Dark Knight post-binge is the story that started the binge. Batman: The Cult was a four-issue miniseries that was released in 1988. It was released in prestige form, so that meant that the issues themselves could be longer. They could also go places where mainstream comics wouldn’t go. Heck, if you read the first few pages, you’ll see that in detail. I think it was even meant for mature readers when it was released.  It’s akin to stories like The Dark Knight Returns. Judging by the artwork and format, you’d think it came from that universe. It was also loosely adapted into The Dark Knight Rises and that was apparent when I read it.

I heard about this story for years but never really got around to finding it. When I saw it for cheap, I thought it was finally time to see what this thing was about. The story was written by Jim Starlin, a pretty cool writer who was already writing Batman’s main series at this point. The artwork was done by Bernie Wrightson, one of the creators for Swamp Thing. Bill Wray handled the colors. This is also another story that gets thrown on those “Greatest Batman Stories” lists. So, is it truly worth it? Do I even need to answer that question? Find out after this probably brief synopsis!

Batman: The Cult

Writer: Jim Starlin

Artist: Bernie Wrightson

Colors: Bill Wray

Letters: John Costanza

Editors: Dennis O’Neil

"It's a Video Game!" - Batman: Arkham Knight

Well, as most superheroes state in their movies/comics/TV shows, “This ends tonight!” Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham series is probably one of my favorite video game franchises. So much was done in order to get Batman and his world right in pixels. Even though Batman: Arkham Origins wasn’t a Rocksteady game, WB Montreal took a lot of cues from Rocksteady. Rocksteady wasn’t done and they churned out possibly one final game to finish off their trilogy. Batman: Arkham Knight was released in 2015 to much acclaim and criticism. The game didn’t translate well to PC and there were some problems there. This was the first game I decided to play on my PS4. By the way, it’s been pretty fun so far. Right now, I'm replaying Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Batman: Arkham Knight takes place a year after the events of Arkham City. Stuff had kind of cooled down since those events but Batman is still dealing with the fallout. Suddenly, calamity strikes as the Scarecrow (voiced by John Noble) returns and unleashes terror across the city. Citizens flee most of Gotham as crime and all-out douchbaggery takes over. Luckily, Batman is still leading the fight against evil with a new suit, some allies, and new gadgets. Things get worse when Scarecrow reveals a new partner in his plans: The Arkham Knight. Not only does Batman have to contend with the Knight who is well-versed in his ways, he starts to really crack under the pressure after he’s exposed to some of Scarecrow’s gas.

PROS

While I can't say this is the best game of the three, this is still a nice game to end Rocksteady's run with. By the way, I'll spoil some of this but not all of it. It's been out for two years and Wikipedia spoils it all anyway. Everything about this game works for the most part. Rocksteady took a lot of what worked in Arkham City and applied it here. The graphics and designs are top-notch. You get to operate in Gotham City itself. There are three big sections of the city and they all are pretty massive in scope.This is possibly the ultimate Batman experience. You got the moves, the gadgets, and the lumbering, black weapon of mass awesomeness called the Batmobile.

The combat is still the same since Arkham City pretty much set it in stone. You have the stealth approach as well as the "beat 'em down" approach. There are some adjustments like tag-teaming with your allies. On certain missions, you can team up with Robin, Nightwing, or Catwoman. As for the driving aspect of the game, it was cool for the most part. It did take a while to get used to using it in battle, but when I got the hang of it, it was awesome. Unfortunately, the Batmobile sections have their problems and I'll touch on them later..

This was fun. I kind of wish we got more of this.

The story is pretty good for the most part. You get the idea that Rocksteady is trying to end this all in one big bang. Pretty much all of Batman  allies and villains (living and not so living) are back in a way that works. It was nice to see one the Scarecrow be the top villain. The missions are all diverse in some way. There were even a few twists that I didn't see coming. There was one that I and most fans saw coming from about 50 miles away. I'll get to that later. Of course, The Joker does make a reappearance since you apparently have to throw in the clown. I will say that his place in the story was actually pretty interesting and ties into the series as a whole. It even references one of my favorite Batman animated movies with how he's used.

CONS

Me When Doing This Stage: $$$$ %%%%$$$ ####$$ **^^%$%$##!!!

While the game is really good, it does have some flaws. First , there's the Batmobile. Now, I liked the Batmobile for the most part, but I was shocked at how much it gets used here. I'd probably say that the game is possibly 40% Batmobile action and there are many times where you have no choice but to use it. I mostly kept to the skies since that was more fun. The Riddler sections were probably some of the most grating parts. You have to do some race courses and the final one may make you want to throw your controller. I didn't do that but a few pigeons were thrown at the TV.

Sorry... man/ma'am, but you're not doing it for me.

There were also some lackluster boss battles which is a shock. You'd think Rocksteady would have went all-out for this last one. Some of them involved the Batmobile and really only a couple of those were cool. The final "fight" with the Arkham Knight was pretty cool though. Then, there's the subject of the Arkham Knight. I won't spoil the identity here but I wasn't a fan of how this character was handled here. It's especially a letdown since other media has treated the character better than this. Let's just say that he/she played a major role in another Batman animated movie. Yes, the Arkham Knight is...  Lois Lane! Other than those major things and some small quibbles, this game was pretty good.

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Overall, it's a good game to check out if you haven't done so. While I had my quibbles, it's still Batman being done by Rocksteady. You can't go wrong with that. I can't say it's the best of the trilogy though. All of the games have been really good, so choosing the best would be hard. I can choose my favorite though and that would have to be Arkham City. Anyway, I'm out. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there in Gotham City.

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Justice League: New Frontier Special #1

Well, it’s about 3 weeks until Good Friday, the day when Jesus Christ died for our sins. Also, some little indie movie involving Batman, Superman, and justice is coming out. Since "Batman v. Superman: Green Eggs and Ham" is coming out soon, I wanted to look at a couple of stories that featured the duo doing their thing.

The one I’m looking at today is a little different and kind of matches the upcoming movie. When Justice League: New Frontier was being released, DC got with Darwyn Cooke (writer/artist of DC: New Frontier) and released a special one-off issue. It featured three stories from that universe Cooke set up in DC: New Frontier. For those who don’t know, DC: New Frontier was a miniseries that bridged the gap between DC’s Golden and Silver Ages. Cooke wrote all of the stories for the issue. He also did the art for the first story. Dave Bullock and Michael Cho handles the art for the second story. Finally, Jason Bone (J. Bone) handles the artwork for the last story.

Justice League: New Frontier Special #1

Writer: Darwyn Cooke

Pencils: Darwyn Cooke, Dave Bullock, and J. Bone

Inks: Darwyn Cooke, Michael Cho, and J. Bone

Colors: Dave Stewart

Letters: Jared K. Fletcher

Editor: Ian Slatter

Tales From the Trades! - Batman: Battle For The Cowl

Three cheers for Christmas shutdown! Now I can try to sleep normally for a couple of days…

Next up on the list is of Batman wanna-bes is Batman… sort of. No, this isn’t the John-Paul Valley variety either. I didn’t want to center on too many of Batman’s supporting characters this month. A lot of them are more or less knockoffs. I did at least want to look at a couple who tried to take on the mantle of the Batman. Only a few have tried it. I won’t be looking at Comm. Gordon’s more recent time as Batman aka RoboBunny. Yes, that’s happening now and it’s actually not that bad. It is Scott Snyder after all.

I’m actually looking at Batman: Battle for the Cowl, a three issue-crossover series that occurred after Final Crisis. It basically served as a midway point for Grant Morrison’s time on Batman. In Final Crisis, Batman “died."Yeah, he was actually getting his Sam Beckett on, but he’s not in Gotham where trouble is always brewing right now. By the way, I’m only looking at the three-issue crossover from the trade. The trade also has two issues that looks at other supporting characters in Batman’s world.  Tony Daniel wrote and did the pencils for this small series and I think it was his first time writing.

Batman: Battle For The Cowl

Writer and Pencils: Tony S. Daniel

Inks: Sandu Florea

Colors: Ian Hannin

Letters: Jared K. Fletcher

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Robin #1-#5

Hey, all. Originally, this was going to be a quick look at Justice League of America #8 since Batman gets into a fight with the Karate Kid (guess which one). Since it was part of a major storyline, I decided to save that for later. I then found its replacement this weekend in one of my boxes. For today’s post, I’m going to quickly browse over a five-issue mini-series that involves the third Robin: Tim Drake. While I like Dick Grayson better as a character, I think Tim may be my favorite Robin. I liked how they tried to make him different from Dick and Jason. For example, he still had his parents… until DC decided that killing one’s relatives was the way to go in the 2000’s. Yes, that’s a jab.

Tim could also be known as the first fanboy. In his first story, he was able to figure out that Batman was Bruce Wayne. Eventually, Batman ended up taking Tim on as a sidekick. This mini-series came out around 1991, a couple of years before his ongoing series began. I found the issues in the 50 cent bin a while back, so I decided to give it a read. The writer is Chuck Dixon, the penciller is Tom Lyle, and the inker is Bob Smith.

TV Talk - Young Justice

Here's a little story. Originally, I was going to let this post be about unaired pilots like the Justice League of America pilot from the 90's and the somewhat recent Wonder Woman pilot from 2011. I've now decided not to view those potentially dreadful things (I also couldn't find a whole airing of them on YouTube) and have decided to look at a good show that sort of featured the Justice League: Young Justice.

Background

I watched Young Justice when it premiered on Cartoon Network back in 2011. I tried to stick with the show on TV, but I would miss some episodes because of work. So, I had to YouTube them after they aired. I had to do the same for all of Season 2 especially since our family basically got rid of cable. It was a pretty frustrated second season. CN would air episodes and then not air them. When I found out that the show wouldn't get renewed for a third season, I was (and in some ways still am) pretty annoyed about the treatment of that show.

Top 36 Heroes - Part 3

It's part 3 of my long list of my top 36 heroes. Well, I might as well start with a vampire... no, not that Cullen boy.

24. Angel

Well, if I have to throw one vampire on here, it’s going to be the tortured one with the soul. Sorry, Blade.  Angel, aka Angelus, is from the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. As Angelus, he was a simple vampire who did some bad, bad things in his time. When Gypsies restored his soul, he gained a conscience and over time decided to atone for his past sins by becoming a champion for the innocent and changing his name to Angel.

He’s willing to risk everything in order to save innocents. Just watch the series finale to Angel for that. There’s also his constant battle with his own dark sides. Most of all, he’s well acted by David Boreanaz. He’s just a cool character in general. The character may be why I stopped watching Buffy after he left. It just didn't feel the same.

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 5: Life and Death - Part Two

Sup guys. It’s arw1985 back with part 2 of Life and Death. At this moment, it’s the 22nd, I’m listening to my iTunes, and I’m thinking about someone from lunch yesterday (Who? None ya business! Ha!). I also got a new camera this weekend, and I like it. Anyway, let me get on to the creative team for these parts. By the way, it’s big.

• Geoff Johns - … ‘Nuff Said (lol).
• Marv Wolfman – Let’s see,... the man’s a legend! Because of this guy, Teen Titans (or should I say New Teen Titans) became a household name in the 80’s. This guy also wrote that other ‘Crisis’ (COIE) event too. He’s also written on countless books, so look him up.
• Bill Willingham – writer of the Robin issues.
• Bill Williams - ...I have no freaking clue what he does.
• Todd Nanuck – He does the artwork in TT #31 and #32.
• Ed Benes – Nice artist. He does some pencils in the Titans Annual.
• Phil Jimenez – The main penciller from the main crossover book. His artwork is from IC #6 (which won’t be talked about for a while because…_______ ______.
• Ivan Reis – Some of his work from IC is included.
• Scott McDaniel – the artist of the Robin issues.
• Dale Eaglesham – a good artist. He does some of the art in the Titans Annual.
• Tom Grindburg – He also does some art in the Annual.
• Elton Ramalho – He also does a little art in the Annual (wow! Those are a lot of pencilers).

Since I didn’t note it last time, I’ll note it here. This volume contains Teen Titans #29-33, Robin #146-147, Teen Titans Annual #1, and some stuff from Infinite Crisis #5 and 6. So let’s start to end this.

Graphic Novels - Teen Titans Vol. 4: The Future is Now

Hello and hello! I’m back with another tpb, and it’s a good one. And yes, it’s another one of those Geoff Johns’ ones.

Teen Titans Vol. 4: The Future is Now
Writers: Geoff Johns
Artists: Mike McKone, Tom Grummett, and Ivan Reis

As stated above, the creative team is pretty much the same from before, with McKone doing the main stuff, Grummett doing filler, and Reis doing part 2 of the Legion Crossover. The volume has issues #16-23 including the Titans/Legion Special, so this is going to be a big one. So, let’s get to it.