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.
A year ago I reviewed the game Batman: Arkham Asylum, and at the time I mentioned that the big game (this was in July of 2012 mind), the Batman game du jour was Batman: Arkham City.
Well, a year later and I've finally got around to playing the sequel, and you know what? I really love what they've done with this game. Expanding far beyond the island that Arkham Asylum sat on, this game takes place in a large area of Gotham City which has been walled off and left to the criminals - think Escape from New York: Batman Edition and you've got a good idea of what to expect.
Many of the same characters from the first game appear, but now almost the entire batman expanded universe is added as well, with everyone from Robin to a playable Catwoman appearing, not to mention any number of my favourite Batman baddies (including the under-appreciated Calendar Man).
As with the previous game, my sixteen-year-old daughter was playing around the same time as me, but unlike the first game, this time she finished first. At the moment I'm about 53% of the way to completing the game, which involves a large number of side missions, Catwoman missions, and collecting almost 450 Riddler trophies hidden throughout the city.
A lot of fun, especially after you win and you get to run around this hyper-realistic world as the Batman from the animated series - think Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but with more batarangs.
