Movie Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

So last week I saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but didn't want to give an opinion at the time as I needed to mull my feelings over a little.

So here we go:

First off, on the positive, I did feel that it connected nicely with Man of Steel - if you were not a fan of the earlier film due to tone, this one isn't going to change your opinion, but as far as existing in a shared world, this film does a pretty great job of setting a consistent tone for upcoming DC films.

On the negative side, the tone is much darker than you may like and thoroughly without humor (I counted two jokes in the entire movie), so if you're looking for the quips and witticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you may want to hold off for Captain America: Ciivil War.

In many ways I felt like this was designed to be a more grown up superhero film; it dealt with the fallout from the previous films (both in continuity and with moviegoers), focused on a retired Batman who had clearly already run Gotham city for years and attempted to introduce a number of upcoming bog players in the DC universe.

My biggest problem was honestly the lack of joy in the film - I fully understand that Batman has very little joy as a concept, but Superman is (for me) a character designed to provoke awe and wonder, and much of this film is focused on villainizing him.

In the end the movie was better than I feared, but not as good as I had hoped.

A Month With Batman

Sorry that this comes nearly a month after I finished my Batman-themed Reading Challenge for December, but here we go:

In December I read thirty one volumes of both Batman and Batman related stories from the recent “New 52” relaunch over at DC comics.

The stories definitely worked better when read together, and with the exception of a few crossovers with other DC characters (The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman all appeared in the first trade of Batman: The Dark Knight) the stories were largely contained to Gotham, with a few fieldtrips by various Gothamites thrown in here and there as they worked to solve various mysteries.

The two main crossovers, Night of the Owls, and Death of the Family were both incredibly well done, and left me wanting more as the stories really built up the tension level and felt like they would have a lasting effect on the story.

Favourite part of the series: The introduction of Bat-Cow in Batman and Robin – yes it was silly, but also a nice reprieve from the darkness that fill most of the titles

Least favourite part of the series: The Switch in Batgirl from writer Gail Simone to Cameron Stewart, the entire tone of the comic changed, but seemed unwilling to separate itself from the main Batman title or from Birds of Prey, both of which worked quite well with Simone’s Batgirl and not quite as well with the new, stumbling through college Cameron Batgirl

Creepiest Moment: The recently returned Joker taunting Damien in Batman & Robin, wherein (sorry for the mild spoiler), he does something so creepy with his face it stuck with me for days – or maybe the proposal the Joker makes in Batgirl, actually, there is an awful lot of creepy going on in Batman comics.

Will I read more: Absolutely – at this point I’m sitting about one collection behind the current issue for each title and the overall story is a lot of fun!

Will I choose the Distinguished Competition over the folk folks at Marvel: Although the Batman comics are pretty great, I’m actually really enjoying the world-building sensation of reading all of the Marvel Now! titles over the last few months, I think I’ll keep up with Batman, but in terms of the majority of my comic reading right now?


Make Mine Marvel.

Catching up on Batman: Week Three

This week focused largely on the Death of the Family storyline, a successor to the A Death in the Family story (1988-89), which was both the first time I recall reading a full Batman story, and the first time I can recall being really freaked out by a comic, (sorry for the 14-year-old spoiler, but Jason Todd, Batman's second Robin, is brutally murdered by The Joker in that story), so I was pretty nervous going into this new crossover event to see how effective it would be.

A tense week of reading and a few nights of restless sleep later, I've got to say this is some pretty terrifying stuff. The Joker has returned to Gotham and has decided that a new, kinder Batman, supported by a Bat-family, is no good, and as a favour he has decided to help Batman get back to the basics, by killing every sidekick Batman has (or has had).

As this now includes Damien Wayne, the newest Robin and Batman's ten-year-old son, this event gets into some pretty terrifying places, and although I don't want to spoil anything, it is well worth the read and has me excited to see what else the good folks at DC have come up with in the last few years.

Catching up on Batman: Week Two

My second week of catching up with the various Bat-Titles of the new 52 was pretty intense.  The focus across most of the titles was the Night of the Owls, an evening where a secret groups who claim control of Gotham set free their regenerating assassins (called Talons) to attack and kill all those who claim leadership to the city.

Considering Batman has been bringing it's readers new villains since the late '30s The Court of Owls are a pretty ingenious and insidious idea.  

Beware the Court of Owls,
That Watches all the time,
Ruling Gotham from a shadow perch,
Behind Granite and Lime,
The Watch you at your hearth,
They Watch you in your bed,
Speak not a whispered word of them
Or they'll send The Talon for your Head.

The idea of a secret family controlling the city has a pretty big "Illuminati" feel to it, but the stories were a lot of fun, and it's kind of neat to see the whole Bat-Family in action.

Looking forward to week three!

Catching up on Batman: Week One

Using the resources of my local public library (epl) and my youngest daughter (Kaia), I have begun the process of working my way through the various Bat-Titles in the DC's 2011 launch, The New 52.

This week I was able to read through the first Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman, and Batgirl collections.

I've seen Batman fight the Joker, team up with the Flash and Superman, have his first encounter with the Court of Owls, and begin the story of a post-wheelchair Barbara Gordon as she takes back up the mantle of Batgirl.

As compared to most of the Marvel titles I've read over 2015, these are fast, gritty, and often surprisingly fun collections. Each one (excluding Batgirl) adds another love interest for Bruce, and each came with some fairly shocking plot twists overall, beginning with the Joker's interaction with The Dollmaker in issue one of Detective Comics, carrying into a run of Bane-venom infused Villains in Batman: The Dark Knight (highest on action, lowest on story of the titles I'm reading), and the eerily impressive introduction of the Court of Owls in the main Batman title.

Batgirl begins with the introduction of a new villain, Mirror, who targets people who should have died, but didn't, and aims to finish the job - basically someone who saw the Final Destination franchise and thought - how can I get in on this crazy action?

So far I'm having a lot of fun - it is interesting to see how many monthly Batman titles can dance around each other and I'm definitely interested in reading the first crossover this weekend, Night of the Owls.

My Batman Advent Calendar!

So here we are at the beginning of December, and I've realized that with the exception of Sandman Overture, and a couple Fables trades, I haven't done a deep dive into DC comics in over a year!

Luckily, my youngest daughter is an avid Batman collector, so for the rest of the month I'll be reading five great Bat-titles from the 2012 New 52 release.

Detective Comics
Batman and Robin
Batman: The Dark Knight
Batman
Batgirl

I'll still be blogging about all of my regular stuff, but each week I'll wrap up with a weeks worth of Bat-tastic info!

Happy Holidays!
Your Old Pal, Bookmonkey

Things I think about while Installing Game Data

So I've been sitting for about five minutes this morning installing the game data for Batman: Arkham Origins for my Playstation 3 (which I just got from my local library by the way - I love epl)

As the game takes its time to load up I'm wondering exactly how far I'll be able to get over the weekend.

I've finished up much of my school work at a frantic pace specifically to be able to focus my weekend on this new game (and hopefully a movie) so now I'm simply waiting for the load to finish and get going on the new Batman Game.

I sure hope the game is worth the wait - not the wait on the hold queue at the library, but this amazingly long time spent loading the game onto my machine.

When I was younger and loading games on my old Mac or at friends houses watching games load up on the 386s, we could spend an afternoon watching a bar slowly move across a screen before we could start playing our Dungeons & Dragons or Civilization game.

This is actually taking me back, and not necessarily in a good way.

I'm now at 65% loaded…

…

…

67%

…anyway, I think I'll head off to drop my daughter off at her party and hope the game is up and running when I get back.

Batman!

Genre Character of the Week: Batman circa 1889

Like everyone, I have a bunch of books that were given to me years ago that I still haven't got around to reading yet, but as I did all of my March reading on time, I got to check out a few magazines and the Christmas gift my BFF Mike and his lovely wife Trish gave me in 2009.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

Considered the first of what would become DC's Elseworld titles - wherein current DC superheroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.) have their stories retold in different times, settings and in some cases worlds.

Gotham by Gaslight tells the story of Batman set in 1889 Gotham.  Also this version of Batman gets to fight Jack the Ripper.  Written by Brian Augustyn, Drawn by Mike Mignola (Hellboy) with inks by P. Craig Russell the story very creatively fits together the Batman mythos, American history and the crimes of Jack the Ripper.

An excellent read.

Game Review: Batman Arkham Asylum

Since Father's Day my weekend PS3 game of choice has been Batman: Arkham Asylum and I've got to say it's been a lot of fun.  Unlike previous playstation games I've played, this time my 15-year-old daughter was playing the game as well, and she finished the game one day after I did, which was nice because some times I was a little ahead of her and could help her out and sometimes she was a little ahead of me.

The game follows (pretty closely actually) the Grant Morrison graphic Novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth which has the honour of being the first Graphic novel I ever purchased and for introducing me to Morrison and artist Dave McKean.

The game works in a sandbox style (meaning you can either follow the main story or any number of side stories) and focuses on the inmates of the asylum taking over and Batman having to put things back in order.

Honestly this game was tonnes of fun - for the voices they used a number of the same actors from the '90s animated series and the whole look of the game was pretty amazing.

I know I'm pretty far behind the curve with this one (Batman: Arkham City is the current game of the day), but if you haven't tried this one yet it's a lot of fun.

Five Cool Genre things my youngest daughter has shown me

Today is my 97th post, and back in 1997, my youngest daughter was born (quick boast - I delivered her; she was born in our house, no doctor, no midwife, just my wife, my five-year-old, and myself, also there was a snow storm). Like her older sister, Kaia has shared with me a number of genre treats I may not have come across without her. So here we go:

Bookmonkey's five cool genre things his Youngest daughter has shown him.

5. Robin Hood

Growing up I came across Robin Hood three times - first as the Disney Film, second in the Bugs Bunny Short, and Third (during Junior High) as The Prince of Thieves. The story was kind of cool, but as I'm more into Horror, I didn't bother looking for more. Over the last two years, after borrowing the 1938 film, The Adventures of Robin Hood, from the Library, Kaia has checked out pretty much every version there is, and brought us along for the ride. My personal favourite, the 2006 BBC series staring Jonas Armstrong and Richard Armitage.

4. Percy Jackson

I've already done a book review on the first of this series as well as a movie review of the film last month, but it is fair to state that I would never have come across this amazing series if my daughter hadn't been reading them first. The next book series I'm planning to check out is also one she's already read - it's called GONE, and I've heard nothing but good stuff about from her and from online reviews.

3. Scary Stories

Sometimes you come across a book series that has been around for a long time, a series you would totally have loved as a kid, but for whatever reason never noticed. Then your kid finds it and it is just awesome. This series of books can basically be considered nightmare batter - read a story, go to sleep and it'll be waiting. The worst (coolest?) thing about the series is that it is aimed at kids, so all the horror is implied, rather than in your face.

2. Batman the Animated Series

I've been a fan of Batman since I was reading comics as a kid, I loved the Tim Burton film back in '89, and even played the video game for the classic NES (That was my very first Japanese import game). I always stayed away from the cartoon, as I figured that a character as cool as Batman could not be handled properly if he was dumbed down for kids. Growing up, this show was probably Kaia's favourite until the third grade when she moved on to Teen Titans. We actually got notes sent home by her teachers saying they were concerned about her love of Batman (he is a psychologically damaged person after all) - which was ridiculous as from Kaia's point of view he was a good guy who never used guns and always caught the villains - never killing them and took them to a safe place (Arkham Asylum). I started watching the cartoon with her and man - it is really, REALLY good.

1. Universal Classic Monsters

I've always loved horror, from as far back as I can remember I think stories about monsters and ghosts, demons and aliens have resonated well with me. But growing up, I simply worked my way through the horror section at my local video store. This led me to see all sorts of B-Grade Horror, and I had seen all the Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween films before I was in Junior High, but it did leave some big holes in my Horror film viewing. Case in point - I had never seen any of the classic Universal Monster Movies until about 6 years ago. Kaia was getting pretty psyched to see the film Van Helsing, but I figured if she wanted to watch the new flashy flick, she should check out the originals - and that's exactly what we did. For the few of you out there who don't know - these films are awesome, and I would still be ignorant of this fact if it wasn't for my youngest daughter.

Thanks Kaia!