Tales from... A Newspaper? - Batman: The Dailies 1943-1944 - "What a Sweet Racket"

As you can tell by the title, this is a bit different. I wanted to look at a story from this era, so I looked around for something from that time. I knew that Superman had stories in newspapers, but I didn’t know Batman had any done on him. I should have known that since he was pretty popular at the time too. This story comes from Batman: The Dailies 1943-1944. The writing and pencils are done respectively by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, the creators of Batman. So, let’s see what happens when Batman and Robin face the notorious gangster known as Blackie! The 1940’s were weird, man.

Batman: The Dailies 1943-1944 – “What a Sweet Racket” 
Writer: Bill Finger 
Pencils: Bob Kane 

Random Pics of the Month: July - More Batman Weirdness

One thing I can say about the character is that he's had his weird moments over the 75 years. While I did one post that showed weird moments, here's another one.

That's right! I'm not letting go of the "deadly deathclaws of death!" I'm just wondering how he got rockets in those things!

On Brave and the Bold, Batman has a lightsaber in his belt... well, at least he has a Batmobile that can turn into a plane, boat, and a mini-sized Megazord.

The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Just read "Batman R.I.P." and you'll see why he's brandishing a bat.

Huh... Man, the 1950's were weird! And Batman's not the only one who's done this!

Oh Adam West... I'll get to you one day.

Graphic Novels - Batman: Knightfall - Who Rules the Night

I can’t believe it’s been two years since I looked at the first volume of “Knightfall.” I thought I would have gotten to it by now especially since all of the Knight Trilogy has been released in the trades. Now, it’s time to see what happened to Batman after Bane broke him. The creative team for the trade varies a lot. We have names like Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Jim Aparo, Klaus Jansen, and Graham Nolan bringing this to us. The issues contained here are Detective Comics #664-666, Batman #498-500, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-18, and Showcase ’93 #7-8 . Here’s a brief recap of the previous volume:

Bane, being of sound mind and body, decides to unleash all of Arkham Asylum’s inmates on Gotham City. He does this in order to weaken Batman. As for Batman, who’s not of sound mind or body at the moment, doesn’t ask any other hero for help and decides to take on this threat with himself, Robin, and that Jean-Paul Van Damme guy. Besides, he’s the cotton-pickin’ Batman! He beat up a shark for goodness sake! He can win, right? Well, it all doesn’t go well. Bane corners him at his lowest and breaks his back.

Batman: Knightfall – Who Rules the Night

Writers: Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant

Pencils: Jim Aparo, Graham Nolan, Bret Blevins, Klaus Janson, and Mike Manley

Inkers: Scott Hanna, Mike Manley, Klaus Janson, Bret Blevins, Steve George, Terry Austin, Rick Bruchett, and Dick Giordano

Colorists: Andrinne Roy and Klaus Janson

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.