Category Archives: Batman
Review: Gotham: “Pilot”
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume some meddling studio executive was the one who insisted on all of the name-dropping in the first episode of Gotham. Surely no sane creator with a vision for a Batman-themed TV show would insist on such silly pandering. Surely some executive was nervous about mainstream audiences picking up on the source material and insisted that Edward Nygma show up for 5 seconds to crack riddles, or that several different characters would tell Oswald Cobblepot that he looks like a penguin.
Because otherwise, Gotham doesn’t have much faith in its audience to not be idiots.
TV Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
I’m going to try not to focus too much on the random character cameos because that’s what everybody is talking about (and Dorkly did it best). Suffice to say, I don’t think they make or break the show. I think they’re the byproduct of somebody higher up desperately trying to push the Batman elements of a show that can stand without them. They’re training wheels for a kid who can pedal just fine on his own.
The sort of people who are going to watch Gotham understand what it’s about, and we’re capable of being patient. We don’t need to be reminded every 5 minutes of another Batman character. I sincerely hope this was just an affliction of the pilot, and that future episodes will behave themselves.
Nobody likes a name-dropper.
I liked the first episode of Gotham, but I also think it was a very unpolished episode. A show like Gotham should crack with the energy and efficiency of an episode of Law and Order. It should establish itself as a cop show first and foremost, and then prove it’s the most interesting cop show with its characters and world. But in the first episode, Gotham seems a little bloated with clunky dialogue, bad efforts at campy humor and an all-around sense of trying desperately to live up to its own expectations for itself. It wants to be this awesome combination of cop show and superhero show, but it’s not quite sure how to achieve that.
Fortunately, being the pilot, a little shoddiness is excusable. Gotham has a whole season to tighten the plotting, the dialogue and the character development.
And I will definitely be around for the whole season.
Join me after the jump or my full review.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/20/14
I don’t know what happened this week, henchies, but I’ve got a pretty light pile. It helps that I’m not reading Futures End, but more on that later. I had a pretty busy week. I’ve got some projects in the pipeline that I’ll tell you guys and gals about someday. But nothing stops me from reading comics! Nothing!
This week was…alright. Solid week. No real complaints from me. Actually, this seemed to be the week for alternate versions of characters. Both Multiversity and Edge of Spider-Verse told alternate reality stories, and the new Avengers event is set 8 months into a possible future. So neat! Way to create an unintentional theme, comic books!
Comic Book of the Week goes to…um…tough call. I think I’ll give it to Multiversity #2 for a pretty darn fun alternate reality comic. Though, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, Batman Eternal was close to winning!
Not always, I don’t
If Batman Eternal transitioned into Spoiler: The Comic, I would be so happy.
Over at Word of the Nerd, I took a gander at another Deadpool comic. Regular readers might know how much I dislike Deadpool’s sense of humor these days, but the cameo revival of no less than Brute Force brought me back!
Never heard of Brute Force? You should pay a visit to Linkara.
Comic Reviews: Avengers #35, Batman Eternal #24, Edge of Spider-Verse #2, Multiversity #2 and Uncanny X-Men #26.
Robin Watch: Robin of the Future!
Late last year, there was a bit of a kerfuffle on the Internet about the possibility of a black Robin, based on preview art drawn by Sean Murphy for Batman #27. I didn’t write about it at the time because the drawing was a single image for an ‘imaginary future’, and didn’t hold any importance to canon.
Or so I thought at the time! Looks like I’m eating crow now!
Check out Robin from the Futures End issue of Batman and Robin, which came out this week.
He’s definitely got the ‘Robin is a badass’ part down
Set five years in the future, the issue is about Batman battling Heretic to see if he is indeed a clone of Damian Wayne. Batman has Alfred send the new Robin out on various crime-fighting errands to keep him from interfering (and possibly dying at Heretic’s hands), but Alfred eventually disobeys orders and sends Robin to rescue Batman when the Dark Knight gets his butt whooped. It’s a pretty cool Robin story.
But is it just pretend?
Even though these Futures End comics are also just ‘imaginary futures’, there’s still the possibility that a kernel of truth exists in what we’re reading. The writer of the issue, Ray Fawkes, gave an interview to Newsarama where they asked him if this new Robin is part of the current Batman plans, considering Fawkes is also part of the creative team on Batman Eternal.
His answer?
Obviously he can’t go into more detail than that, but clearly this future Robin might be more of a reality than any of us yet realize.
Fists of sidekick justice!
The Robin in question is Duke Thomas, the kid that helped Batman during the Zero Year. Remember him? Duke made a very brief appearance, having sheltered Batman while he recovered from his injuries. Then he spent the rest of his time trying to come up with a riddle to defeat the Riddler.
I do not, sorry. My crossword skills have never been strong
It was such a small role, and I was actually a little surprised that nothing more was done with the kid. He gives Batman a hand, wishes him good luck, and then we don’t see him again for the rest of Zero Year.
Perhaps because that appearance was only supposed to introduce him. His story wasn’t going to be told in Zero Year, because Duke Thomas’ story will be told elsewhere.
Duke was about 10 or so in Zero Year, wouldn’t you say? And Zero Year took place 5-6 years prior to present-day Batman comics, which would make Duke a teenager today, the perfect age to become Robin. Except in Futures End, set 5 years into the future, Duke says he only became Robin “two years ago”, which wouldn’t link up to Bruce picking Duke in the present day. Not that that timeframe matters all that much.
I don’t know if any of this is true, or if any of it will go anywhere. But clearly there’s a new, awesome candidate for the new Robin in 2015!
If it’s not clear yet, I would love a Duke Thomas Robin!
Though I’m not a big fan of the Iron Robin armor, personally.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/13/14
A week after my birthday and I get all my presents! How else do you explain new issues of Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel all arriving in the same week? I would be hard-pressed to name three other comics I enjoy reading more these days. So thank you, Marvel, for the belated birthday present. I understand you need to stick to Wednesdays.
And lucky for us, they’re all pretty good!
Though having to choose between Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel for Comic Book of the Week is tough. I think I’m going to have to give the edge to Hawkeye for another Kate Bishop issue by Matt Fraction and Annie Wu. It was the battle of the adorable protagonists, and Kate Bishop won by a nose.
Kate Bishop knows a good blog when she sees one
Kate and Kamala are both cutie pies.
Speaking of cutie pies, I decided to pay a visit to New Warriors again before the end, because it’s an issue that serves as a would-be epilogue to Scarlet Spider. Does it live up to that previous series? No. Is it still fun? I suppose.
And anyone who is interested can read my review of Death of Wolverine #2 over at Word of the Nerd. I’ve decided to review all four issues of that weekly series, and it hasn’t been too bad so far.
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #6, Batman Eternal #23, Captain Marvel #7, Hawkeye #20, Magneto #9, Ms. Marvel #8 and New Warriors #9.
Ze Batmobile is in Ze News
We all know that they’re currently filming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, so it’s only a matter of time before we find out if/how Robin appears in the film. Right? Right?! I mean, c’mon! How long do we have to wait? I’m only human!
To tide us over until the big reveal – that we’re all eagerly waiting for – pics of the movie’s Batmobile hit the web. Some amateur shots can be viewed here, but director Zack Snyder then just went ahead and posted a big HD pic.
Click here for an even bigger version
I like it, looks good to me.
Though, of course, it only has seating for one. Damn you, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice! Quit toying with my emotions!
Henchman-4-Hire 