Graphic Novels - Batman R.I.P.

With Grant Morrison, a few things come to mind. Some of them are things like Animal Man, All-Star Superman, narcotics, baldness, and Batman. I’ve looked at some of his work on Batman a while back. The Black Glove HC contained a bunch a good and weird stuff. Well, it’s time to jump back into that madness.  Hold on to your butts because I’m going to jump into the next adventure, Batman R.I.P. Morrison basically wanted to put Batman up against his ultimate enemy. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Morrison is the writer of this six issue arc. The penciller is Tony Daniel. Daniel had already been on the book for a while. The issues I’ll be looking at from the trade are Batman #676-681. While there are two other issues in the trade that looks at what Batman did post-RIP, I’m saving those for something down the road. With all of that said, let’s see what happens when Batman faces his greatest adversary: Someone who isn’t the Joker!!!

Batman RIP

Writer: Grant Morrison

Penciller: Tony Daniel

Inker: Sandu Florea

Colorist: Guy Major

"It's a Video Game!!" - The Batman Arkham Series

I think I’m just going to stay with that title. It’s just so to the point. When it comes to superhero video games, finding good ones is a little rare when it when regarding DC. Somehow, some of this doesn’t concern Batman. Now, there have some decent games and there have been some horrible games. Does anyone remember Batman Forever for the Sega Genesis? Man, that game was bad. Luckily, someone at Warner Bros. came up with the idea to let Rocksteady make a Batman game. The rest, as they say, is history.

When it comes to these three games, I was pretty late to the game (pun intended) in playing them. I actually didn’t get to play Arkham Asylum (AA) until 2011. It was the first game I played on my PS3. I don’t exactly know when I got Arkham City (AC), but it had to have been a while after it was released. I rarely get games when they come out.  Plus, I was in grad school. I also waited a while for Arkham Origins (AO), but that was more for reasons I’ll get to later. Other than AO, I’ve played these games more than once.

Movie Talk - Direct-to-DVD Batman

Son of Batman: It’s the only place where you’ll see a 11-year old get shot at, stabbed, tied, and have questionable role models.

Well, the Month of Batman is here, so I might as well start out with some movies. The movies I’ll be looking at today are the direct-to-DVD movies that Warner Bros. have been putting out since about 2007. I’ve already looked at the Justice League and Superman movies, so it’s time for the Dark Knight. I first saw Batman: Gotham Knight when it was released on DVD. I actually saw Batman: Under the Red Hood online since Redbox actually didn’t have this movie. Batman: Year One was one of the first movies I watched on Netflix. Finally, I rented Son of Batman a couple of weeks ago to see if the Internet buzz was right.

I’ve recently watched the first three to re-jog my memory. As you can tell, The Dark Knight Returns two-parter is not included here. I’m actually saving that and the actual miniseries for later on. So, get some coffee because it’s going to be an all-nighter!!

Music Retrospective - Michael Jackson: Dangerous

Well, it’s another day and another album from that guy named Michael Jackson. Today’s album is one that should be approached with caution because it is “dangerous.” Yes, I know that pun was a little lame. Anyway, Dangerous was released towards the end of 1991. It incorporated a lot of music styles just like his previous albums. It was also was fully produced by Jackson meaning he didn’t collaborate with Quincy Jones on this one. 10 singles were released from the album. It only received four Grammy nominations in 1993. He also wrote the majority of the songs on here as well.

I’ve had bits and pieces of this album for years but I never owned the complete thing. My sister even got the album before I did. Since I’ve really never heard the whole thing, I bought it last year. I just didn’t see the urgency in getting it until then. I don’t have much else to say, so let me see if this album is truly hazardous or just causes sunburn.

Dangerous

Random Thoughts #32 - Some Randomness

'Sup guys. It's been a minute since I've posted anything. June has kind of been a busy month. Work's fine and women are women. Yeah, there ain't much going on there. So, here are a couple of random thoughts.

Death in the family

I don't want to get too personal on here, but I will for this. My grandfather passed away at the beginning of the month. He died at the age of 77. He hadn't been doing too well and it was finally time for him to go home. He was a good man. He helped raise 13 children, was married for 56 years, and did a lot of things to help his community. I'm gonna miss him, but I know that I'll see him again one day. 

Movies

I think it's time to move over to somewhat lighter subject. I've been able to see three of the however-or-so movies I listed off back in April. Here are the three I seen so far:

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier - This movie was pretty good. It's definitely on par with The Avengers and is probably one of Marvel's best movies. The acting was really good and I liked the inclusion of  Black Widow, SHIELD, the Falcon, and a certain villainous organization known as Hydra. The Winter Soldier himself was pretty awesome. The action scenes were epic. Most of all, the fight scenes were awesome and probably has better fight scenes than any of the Nolan Batman films. Yeah, I said it.While those movies had a lot of good elements to them, the fight scenes were not that good. Anyway, CA: TWS was really good.
• Godzilla - This was another good one. I can definitely say that it felt like a Godzilla movie. The effects were great and the G-Man himself was pretty awesome on-screen. Unfortunately, it did feel like we saw more of the other monsters (MUTO) than we did Godzilla. Also, some of the human characters were a little bland. The only ones I was interested in were Cranston's character, Dr. Serizawa, and Ford Brody (that guy from Kick-A$$). Other than those gripes, I liked the movie. It's not the best Godzilla movie but it is one of the better ones to come out.
• X-Men: Days of Future Past - This movie exceeded expectations for me. It felt like a nice meshing of everything in the franchise. I also liked that it was kind of a soft reboot. While the story could get a little confusing, I really liked it. The acting was top-notch. While there were changes made from the source material, the movie still stuck to the basics of the Claremont/Byrne two-parter. I kind of do wish that the future sequences were a bit longer and that there were a couple of more X-Men in the past  but those are minor nitpicks. Here's hoping that X-Men: Apocalypse can keep the momentum going.

Batman Month

Yes, I'm still going to do it in July. Even before June, I just knew that I wouldn't want to do it in June. Don't worry because he's coming. I have a lot of stuff I want to do, so stay tuned.

Yes, there is an episode of Brave and the Bold that has Scooby Doo, Batman, and Weird Al. Yeah... 

Well, I'm out of things to say.Be praying for my family during this time. Peace and God Bless.