Happy Halloween!! These scans come from Batman: Gotham After Midnight #6. As a special treat we have two scans. Enjoy and be safe tonight!!
Posted by Dustin
Even Greg Rucka's mom would have to admit that it has only been J.H. Williams III's art that has captivated Bat-fans into purchasing this title. Well Mrs. Rucka, your son finally came through. Detective #858 begins to tell us the origin of how Batwoman came to be. What makes this so nicely plotted is how it slowly reveals the tragic events of Kate's past while still continuing the story from the previous arc. I try quite hard to keep my reviews spoiler free, but I don't think I'm ruining anything by telling you that Batwoman's arch villain "Alice" will not only play an integral part of Kate's future but her past as well. The cliff hanger in issue #857 gave us a clue to where Rucka may be taking us, but the depth with which he tells this story is of the highest quality. He brings the characters to life with an emotion and intelligence that is usually reserved for the most heart-wrenching of novels. The set up for the tragedy in the "to be continued" last page was executed with perfection.
Rucka interjects themes of sibling attachment, responsible Motherhood, and a Daughters intense need for Fatherly love amid feelings of abandonment. Again, without spoiling the story, how will a young girl react when every element of security in her life is taken away? What will become of Katie when the one person who completes her is gone? How does someone who is completely intertwined with another cope with being alone? In my opinion, this is the most mature work I have ever read from the writer of Queen and Country and the Half a Life arc in Gotham Central.
All that said, you might think J. H. Williams III would rest on his laurels given how good the writing is this time around. Well let me tell you nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, this may be his best work yet. The mesmerizing panels of romantic Gothicism are still present, but what makes this issue extraordinary even by Williams' standards is the incredible Norman Rockwell vision of the early scenes of Kate's youth. The mood of American innocence Williams is able to depict is absolutely brilliant. He then slowly builds the visual intensity leading us to a jaw dropping final page reminiscent of the best of Image Comics. Whereas the previous issues' scenes of Kate were almost breathers until a dramatic Batwoman scene; every panel of the young Katie in the new arc "Twenty Years Ago" is a detailed masterpiece.
Williams definitely puts the visual focus on Katie, but his two pages of Batwoman are dramatic gems. The scene of an unmasked Batwoman sitting alone slouched in despair evokes the iconic image of a downtrodden de-cowled Batman sitting in the Batcave wondering whether his chosen life path hasn't been a big mistake.
There has been no question that J.H. Williams' art has made Detective a must read. Now if Greg Rucka can continue writing mature fiction with depth and feeling, this book will no longer be a visual novelty, but one of the best comic series today.
Detective Comics #858:
Reviewed by Tiggerbrown
Alright the final winners are:
Eli Ganias
Steven Esparza
The concludes this contest. Thanks for everyone who sent in an entry. We hope to have another contest very soon. So keep watching the site and listening to the podcasts.
This next Halloween image comes from this years Halloween Special from DC. Batgirl and Robin dress up as some heroes.
Posted by Dustin
Saturday morning cartoons. Do you remember waking up early on Saturday just to watch cartoons? I do. Even though these cartoons are earlier than my time, I still remember them. Waking up early, getting a bowl of cereal and sitting four feet from the television screen to laugh until lunch time.
This set features various Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1960's. The shows that the set features includes; Snooper and Blabber, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, Quick Draw McGraw, The Space Kidettes, Young Samson, The Bugs Bunny Show, Porky Pig Show, The Adventures of Gulliver, Wally Gator, Touche Turtle, Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har, The Jetsons, Peter Potamus and So-So, Breezly and Sneezly, Yippee, Yappe and Yahooey, The Road Runner Show, Atom Ant, Precious Pup, The Hillbilly Bears, Tom and Jerry, Magilla Gorilla, Punkin' Puss and Mushmouse, and Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-long.
Now most of Hanna-Barbera cartoons had some sort of animal that had events that pertained to the fact that it was a specific type of animal. For instance Touche Turtle found himself in fights and used his shell as a self-defense mechanism. Some of the shows related to classic stories such as Samson and Gulliver. The Bugs Bunny characters are thrown in as well, since they were Warner Bros. Mickey Mouse characters.
The best episodes for myself were the Jetsons and Bugs Bunny. I remember watching these shows as reruns as I was growing up on Cartoon Network and various other networks. I always loved the Jetsons because I wondered if the future would really be the way they portrayed it.
There is one special feature that goes over the history of Magilla Gorilla. It also shows that the cartoons of the 1960's were about to change after Hanna-Barbera created Magilla Gorilla. An interesting look at cartoon history.
Overall, this was a great reminder to me early childhood days. Recommended for anyone who wants to have a refresher of their earlier days.
Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Volume 2:
The set is available now. You can buy it on Amazon by clicking here. Check out a video from the set below:
Posted by Dustin
And the winners are…..
Charles Lemon Jr.
Zach Betonte
Congratulations. Today is the last day for you to win. So be sure to get your entry in by 11:59PM CST.
Posted by Dustin
It wouldn't be Halloween without having Batman mixed mixed with Halloween. We start off going towards Halloween with this scan from Batman: The Long Halloween #13.
Posted by Dustin
Plastic Man. Plastic Man. Do you know who Plastic Man is? Well, let me give you a little back history. Plastic Man was created by Jack Cole in 1941. He originally appeared in Police Comics which was published by Quality Comics. Plastic Man was originally a crook and con artist. On one of his heists at a chemical plant, he was shot and acid got in his wound. He escaped and found himself in a monastery. Well there he realized that he wanted to change his ways and use his new found powers for good. In 1956, Quality Comics went out of business. DC Comics were distributing the comics for Quality and acquired three properties; Blackhawk, GI Combat, and Plastic Man. Plastic Man was not used very much at first, specifically because Julius Schwartz did not know they owned the rights to him. In 1966, a comic called Dial H for Hero introduced Plastic Man to the DC Universe.
Years later, Plastic Man was introduced to children everywhere through animation. Plastic Man could not be harmed by a punch. His only weakness was extreme cold and hot. Ruby Spears, a production company owned by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, created the series. Plastic Man worked for the government and was like a James Bond-type agent. He traveled in different vehicles provided for him to stop criminals all around the world.
He had a supporting cast that consisted of Penny and Hula Hula. Penny was the typical female for the time frame, always worrying about Plastic Man. Hula Hula was a Hawaiian who had horrible luck. Hula was introduced through a mandate. There were specific ethnicity groups that were not represented on Saturday mornings. They were given a list to choose from and originally called him Coconut. That was deemed a racial slur and his name was changed. The writers for the series wanted to do original Jack Cole stories, but were told by the network that they wanted something different. That is where the crazy slap-stick humor came in.
So now we move onto the DVD set. This set consists of 35 episodes. It aired in 1979 following episodes of Super Friends on ABC. This was not the show that featured Baby Plas. I mention that because while browsing the net for info about the show, I read countless complaints about when the show switched over in 1980and featured Baby Plas. Anyway the show had 35 episodes and the DVD set has all of the episodes.
Plastic Man fights various villains such as The Weed, Badladdin, and Disco Mummy. He only fought three villains that were featured in the comics. They were Carrot Man, Dr. Dome, and Toyman. Yes, that's right. I said Carrot Man. Google that and see what comes up.
After watching numerous of the episodes, it reminded me a lot of the Super Friends. This was probably because it was also produced by Hanna-Barbera. The animation had the same feel. Although, the stories themselves, were more like Scooby-Doo humor.
Normally, my complaints with these sets are that there are not enough special features. This is not the case with this set. There is a very informative feature that gives an overview of the history of Plastic Man. There is also a pilot episode for a show that was made only a couple of years ago featuring Plastic Man, voiced by none other than Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob). There are also numerous trailers for WB animation projects including many of the recent DC Animated films. The only problem was that the packaging mis-marked the location of the special features.
Overall, the series takes you back to a time of simpler animation and story-telling. It is definitely worth watching. Always nice to see some of the lesser known heroes in the DC Universe getting some attention.
Plastic Man: The Complete Collection:
The set has already been released and can be found at Best Buy. To get it on Amazon click here.
Check out some of the screen shots from the show:
Posted by Dustin
Red Robin #5 is the start of a new story arc in the series. Now that Tim knows Bruce is alive somewhere in the world, everything is going to be alright, and maybe we will get stability to the series. If you believed any of that, then you are as dumb as I was walking into this issue.
We open with a young girl being chased by crazy men in Brazil, the girl runs away and screams for help, and she falls into a pit full of spiders and Tim lets us know “The Brazilian wandering spider is considered the deadliest in the world” and that “One bite can be lethal to a grown man” so, to prove a point, Vitoria gets bitten three hundred and nineteen times, so it really hasn’t been her day.
Next we go back to the present and Tam Fox goes to her hotel room to find Red Robin and Prudence bleeding to death on her bed, like Vitoria, this hasn’t been a great day for Tam either, as who should show up, the league of assassins, and as Ra’s Al Ghul says “No one ever expects the Spanish inqusit….I mean league of assassins!”
Because this issue at this point jumps back between Red Robin trying to make it to the hotel room, Vitoria taking revenge on the men who caused her to die and be reborn and Tim and Tam, who sound like a horrible double act, have a conversation with the league of assassins. So, with all this jumping about, let’s start with Vitoria.
Vitoria, somehow still alive, is now a cheap Poison Ivy rip off finds the men who chased her and kills them, and then goes home to kill her mother, because she has gone crazy.
Next we have the pay off of the end of the last issue and Tim saving the life of Prudence and him by driving to the hotel and passing out in costume. Tim mentions how he just bled out here, and in a nice touch of non-continuity, he doesn’t use the blood saving method from battle from the cowl, instead Tim just bleeds out. Awesome.
Finally we have Tim being brought up to speed on the council of spiders, who Vitoria seems to be the leader of, and Tim having an idea. This idea is to not only take down the league of assassins, but the league of spiders at the same time, how he is going to do this, only Tim knows.
This issue, really felt like middle ground, like Yost was saying “Ok, Tim knows Bruce is not dead, now let’s just move on” and starts to jump ahead onto a new story. The story isn’t all that bad, it really is interesting, I just don’t like all the jumping around, we go through three time frames here, we go from Vitoria’s story, Tim making it to a hideout and Tim learning more about the council of spiders. It all feels like Yost is trying to give us background, but he could have made it so much simpler, have Tim make it to the hotel, Tam finds him, gets taken by the league and is told about Vitoria. This way, you don’t get lost in the narrative of the story; it would all read so much better. Also, I made fun of the Tim and Tam double team, but Tam could work out to be Tim’s personal Oracle or Lucius from the Nolan films, and she is a great normal person for Tim. The only problem with this is, she still hasn’t told us why she needed to bring Tim back.
The art by Ramon Bachs is annoying as usual, now instead of Tim looking fifteen and Red Robin looking like he’s in his twenty’s, now he fluctuates with Red Robin too. If you see Red Robin in the hotel room, when he passes out, he looks like he’s fifteen, but when he speaks to Tam and the league later in the issue, he looks like the normal Red Robin. Ramon is off to Azrael after this issue and for one am glad and sad to see him go. Glad as now we may get a consistent Tim and Red Robin in the comic, but sad because other than that, his art is really good and different and stands out from all the other Bat-books, which is what Red Robin needs. Ramon should have left at the end off issue 4 and let Marcus To, the new artist from issue 5 take over here, as this is the start if a new arc, but he didn’t, which is a shame, because, I like my artists to be consistent through a storyline, when this is collected it is really going to pull you out of the story.
So all in all, this is another solid issue of Red Robin, I am still interested and so will be getting the next issue, not just to review, but to also read for myself. And hopefully, that review will be out on time. My score isn’t five because the comic isn’t perfect, and the change from Tim to Red Robin and Red Robin is still annoying.
Red Robin #5:
Reviewed by Suavestar
Day three winners are:
Xavier Bolanos
Robert Lopez
Congratualtions. More winners today and tomorrow.
Posted by Dusitn
Superman/Batman #65 is a story that has been retold many times, but this issue is still an enjoyable and interesting read. This issue is really carried by the great art that appears throughout the book by a number of artists. The short, yet entertaining stories make for a rather interesting “Halloween” themed issue.
Issue #65 is written by Peter Johnson and Matt Cherniss, who write a fast paced story with little left unanswered and little to ponder about. The story revolves around the Scarecrow kidnapping Superman, Batman, the Joker, and Lex Luthor. He puts each of the characters to sleep, where each one goes into their worst nightmare. Superman’s nightmare involves a crashing airplane in which, Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and Martha Kent are all on board. Superman races to stop it, but it is too late, and each of his loved ones are killed. The Joker story plays with the concept of, What if everyone thought the Joker was funny? After murdering several people, everyone begins to laugh at him; this upsets the Joker, saying that he is not a joke and wants to be taken seriously. The next story is Lex Luthor’s nightmare, he sets out to finally destroy Superman, but is interrupted by Perry White, which leads to rather funny mistake, and a crowd of laughter directed towards Luthor. The Batman story is the most entertaining in this issue. This nightmare opens with Alfred reminding Bruce of his’ responsibilities and that they need to discuss his priorities. I don’t want to give this nightmare away, but I will say that Alfred makes a damn good villain! The overall plot is a rather dull one, which ends with Batman awaking from his dream and conquering the Scarecrow. The individual nightmares are what make this such an enjoyable issue. Johnson and Cherniss understand these characters and each nightmare paralleled the character very well.
The story is good, but the different art styles throughout the book are fantastic. Five different artists worked on the book which included; Brian Stelfreeze, Brian Haberlin, the infamous Kelley Jones, Joe Quinones, and Federico Dallocchio. Kelley Jones draws the Joker the way he should be presented. He draws him very cartoonish, but he is still able to capture the essence of what makes the Joker such a terrifying character. I’ve never really seen Federico Dallocchio, but his art style lends itself perfectly to Batman’s nightmare. Each artist fits perfectly into the story that they are drawing.
Overall, the book isn’t earth-shattering, but it is “fun”. It does what it was set out to do, present each character’s worst nightmare, and I think it does that. However, the art is what makes this book stand out. The art is so well-done, that you find yourself not really paying to much attention to the nightmares, but that doesn’t take away from the stories. If you haven’t picked up issue #65 yet, I would defiantly do so.
Superman/Batman #65:
Reviewed by Zfactor
The day two winners are:
Jeff Inman
Carleena Manzi
Congratulations!! Be sure to end your entry into contest@thebatmanuniverse.net
Posted by Dustin
The first day of the contest has passed. The winners for day one are:
Ryan Agler
Dylan Gaviria
Enter for your chance to win today’s copies. Good luck!!
Posted by Dustin
Detective Jason Bard also had some team-ups with Batgirl as well. This one happened in Detective Comics issue 393.
Posted by Josh
Every parent needs a break from their kids from time to time, and Paul Dini is no exception. Much like he did with Gotham City Sirens, Dini takes a short break from his creation and gives way to Chris Yost for a two issue arc on Streets of Gotham.
Leviathan part one is basically a treatise of the Huntress. Yost uses first person narrative to explore her character, in particular her belief that lethal force is necessary to rid Gotham of its villainess existence. Man-Bat is the foil for Yost to convey Helena’s values and opinions. Throughout their issue-long fight scene, she is particularly focused on how Batman and Oracle are responsible for the continuous scourge of criminals like Kirk Langstrom by preferring rehabilitation rather than her aforementioned permanent solution. The cover to the issue leads us to believe that Huntress and Man-Bat share equal billing. In fact, Man-Bat only seems be an instrument for Helena’s character exploration. The story’s true antagonist is Father Mark. Once an eager newcomer to the hardship and turmoil that is Gotham, he is psychotically transformed by the city’s tumultuous events like No Man’s Land and R.I.P. Perhaps next issue Yost will delve into the reason for Langstrom’s rampage, but for now it plays a back seat to the main plot. Batman, Robin and Oracle all make cameos, but nothing to veer from the focus on Huntress.
Yost obviously likes employing first person narrative, using it in Red Robin as well. Unfortunately I found his style to be lacking in intelligence and depth. The writing reminded me of a poorly written Marvel comic. Compare this issue with Dini’s narrative from the extraordinary #4. I think you will see that Yost narrates in a throwback style before editors realized that the average age of comic book readers wasn’t ten years old. Conversely, the dialogues for Father Mark’s scenes are filled with symbolism and profound meaning.
Before I criticize too much, I think the contradictory writing may have been intentional. The art is treated with a similar duality. Dustin Nguyen’s pencils are par to his usual effort, but Father Mark’s scenes rely on broad black inks and shadows, while Huntress’ panels are filled with bright cartoony colors. I find this interesting being that Helena is portrayed as a dark hero but is almost colored like she was in the BTBTB episode. I checked to see if the inker and colorist had changed from last issue, but it’s still Derek Fridolfs and Jon Kalisz. I need to bring up a pet peeve I have with Dustin Nguyen. Please look at how Father Mark’s face is drawn on page one. Then check out his previous work and how he draws a young Bruce Wayne or Tommy Elliott as Bruce. The faces are almost identical. Nguyen is so talented but can be so lazy sometimes.
The first page of this book as depicted in the Batman Universe preview had me believing that this issue was going to be as exceptional as the last. Unfortunately for me, alternating styles between the protagonist and antagonist focused scenes kept me from really getting involved in the story. The intrigue I felt when reading Father Mark’s pages was tempered with graphic and cerebral boredom by the Huntress. I just had a thought though…..have I been so captivated by J.H. Williams III and Rucka’s Batwoman, that I am not capable of appreciating another female Bat-character? I am finding the new Batgirl completely un-readable as well. Did you guys like this depiction of the Huntress or is it just me?
Oh, a comment I should have asked Dustin to put to Mike Marts: Having characters crash through glass ceilings has become a Bat-cliché done to death. I hope Paul Dini is enjoying his respite and I would prefer to see how Leviathan is wrapped up before I give part one a rating. However, based solely on its own merits…
Batman: Streets of Gotham #5:
Reviewed by Tiggerbrown