Category Archives: Robin
6 Pop Culture Resolutions for 2014
I may as well say that my New Year’s resolutions for 2014 are to lose weight and save money, but I’ve kind of been making those same resolutions for the past 30 years, and they haven’t come true yet! So how about we veer wildly off course and talk about something much more fun: pop culture!
No, I’m not resolving to play fewer video games or watch less TV. Don’t be crazy.
Though I’m totally gonna lose weight and save money. Totally.
Instead, I’ve whipped up a list of 6 pop culture things I want to see in 2014. We already know what movies, TV shows and more are coming out, and I resolve to drown myself in all of them. But we don’t know how good or bad they’re going to be, or what surprises might be in store. So let’s get our hopeful wishing hats on, and predict the 6 pop culture resolutions we want to see in 2014!
And yes, I realize these are more like ‘wishes’ than ‘resolutions’, but New Year is all about the resolutions. Cut me some slack, I had a cold this week. Join me after the jump!
First Arkham Origins DLC Does Not Feature Robin
We’ve known about this Initiation DLC for awhile now, but here’s a trailer to let us know what it looks like and what it may contain. The DLC is about Bruce Wayne’s time training with ninjas in Asia before returning to Gotham to become Batman. I don’t remember if it’s going to have story elements, but it’s definitely got some challenge rooms.
What do you gamers think? Gonna pick this up? I beat Arkham Origins and lost interest in playing, but maybe this’ll be enough to bring me back. There’s no Robin, though, so that’s disappointing. I was hoping for something similar to Harley Quinn’s Revenge from Arkham City. Maybe there’s still time…
Review: Teen Titans #25
You can always count on Teen Titans to have more than a few things wrong with each issue. Sometimes it’s an overabundance of editor’s notes pointing you towards some other series. Or maybe it’s a lot of long, boring, expositional dialogue. Or maybe it includes a few random cutaways to villains who will never appear again (the book loves to do that!). It’s always something with this comic. Teen Titans has been written by the same guy with what I assume is the same agenda since the start of the New 52, and writer Scott Lobdell hasn’t gotten any better. This new issue flings our heroes far into the future, into outer space, to meet a bunch of random space dudes and sort of maybe start to learn the secret origin of Kid Flash.
Teen Titans #25
Turns out he’s kind of a murderous monster with more blood on his hands than your average Manson. Our teenage heroes, ladies and gentlemen!
Comic Rating: 3/10 – Bad.
Sometimes I think I’m being too hard on Teen Titans, but then I read the rest of the comics I buy each week and the difference is staggering. Modern comics today usually focus on the character, and leave a lot of the exposition to the art. We readers don’t need to be spoonfed every little piece of plot. But Lobdell on Teen Titans looooves exposition. He loves having his characters explain everything as awkwardly and as stuntedly as possible. Teen Titans #25 is a fine example. And it’s made even worse by Lobdell doing most of the expositing via thought bubbles. Freakin’ thought bubbles! Those haven’t been in style since the 90s! But Teen Titans #25 is full of them, from multiple different characters. It’s deadening.
To say nothing of the actual plot and characters involved. Bart Allen’s origin has no connection to anything we’ve ever seen before in DC Comics or the Teen Titans – or at least that’s how it appears so far. So Lobdell is pretty much making it up as he goes along, whether it’s the names of random space mercenaries or space police agencies or futuristic technology. He’s on a roll just throwing out new ideas and concepts with absolutely no grounding, unless you count the Teen Titans themselves, who have never been particularly grounded.
Teen Titans #25 is another fine example of why this series is as dull and as flat as a piece of wood. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
Robin Watch: Batsgiving
There hasn’t been too much Robin news lately – other than that day everybody mistakenly thought the new Robin was going to be black – but I’m still keeping a close watch on who might be the next Robin. As you may recall, the leading contenders are Carrie Kelley, an alternate reality version of the female Robin that appeared in Frank Miller’s classic The Dark Knight Returns, or Harper Row, the street-smart electrical engineer groomed by DC Comics’ current golden boy Scott Snyder.
Speaking of Snyder, he Tweeted a picture yesterday teasing the upcoming new weekly series Batman Eternal.
Why did they invite freakin’ Professor Pyg to dinner!?
The picture is full of Easter Eggs, like the little robin sitting on the back of Titus the dog, Alfred in a straight jacket, possibly a blonde Nightwing, and the first look at New 52 Stephanie Brown (she’s the one in the purple hoodie). So it’s definitely a neat picture. But our interest is in what it means for the new Robin.
If you look at everyone in the picture, you’ll see Harper Row plain as day in a very important position. I think Carrie Kelley might be that orange-haired woman sitting between Catwoman and Batwing, but it’s hard to tell. She’s not wearing her normally signature glasses. Heck, that might not even be Carrie Kelley.
But that’s definitely Harper with the blue streak in her hair sitting next to Red Robin. She’s the one sitting directly behind Batman. She’s also holding a drumstick in her hand, making her the only other person eating Thanksgiving dinner with Batman. She’s also sitting among Red Robin, (a possibly blonde) Nightwing and Stephanie Brown, so clearly that’s the ‘Robin Table’, as it were.
Maybe I’m reading too much into the picture, or maybe I’m reading exactly what Snyder wants me to read. His Tweet was bragging about all the Easter Eggs in that picture, after all, Easter Eggs for the Batman books in 2014. So I suppose we’ll still just have to wait and see.
This has been another edition of Robin Watch!
Will We See a Kingdom Come Batman in the Man of Steel Sequel?
Rumors are swirling left and right about the upcoming Batman/Superman movie, everything from Wonder Woman and Flash having cameo appearances, to the batsuit being based on Jim Lee designs. Normally I wouldn’t write about these kinds of rumors, but now that they involve the possibility of Dick Grayson appearing in the film, I am all over them. I can’t help it. I want Robin to appear in this movie more than I want a low calorie french fry.
Today’s new rumor comes from Warner Bros. producer Daniel Alter who sent out a Tweet about the film this morning that makes me think the Ben Affleck Batman will be based on the comic book series Kingdom Come.
It’s not as religious as you might think
I’m saving the Tweet until after the jump so that you don’t have to be SPOILED if you don’t want to be. There’s also the possibility that this is a total lie and none of it’s true. Such is the problem with rumors. But if that’s the case, who the heck does Daniel Alter think he is that he can make up lies about the new movie?
All thanks to ComicBookMovie.com for finding this Tweet.
Henchman-4-Hire 