Batman Arkham City Trailers

Please note:
All Batman: Arkham City trailers can be found on the Arkham City page (link oin the left hand menu) and The Dark Knight Rises teaser can be found at the bottom of the site...oh go on then, you can watch it here as well:

Dectective Comics #4 cover

Who is the puppet master?

Star Wars the Clone Wars Season 4 trailer

My only problem with the Clone Wars is that I seem to enjoy these trailers much more than I do the actual shows.

(sigh)

Oh, well. Hopefully Boba Fett will do something cool with those Mandalorian looking dudes.

Action Comics #4 cover

CBR have revealed the cover to Action #4.

Teen Titans trailer

Cover for Justice League #4

Poor Hal Jordan! He has had his ring stolen by Batman and been 'one-punched' by Superman. Now it looks like he will be trounced by Aquaman as well.
Is this why he started the series so cocky? So he could be taken down a few pegs?

Review - Action Comics #1

ACTION COMICS #1

Written by GRANT MORRISON; Art by RAGS MORALES and RICK BRYANT; Cover by RAGS MORALES; Variant cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS

I have to start by saying that over the past few years I have become increasingly anti-Morrison. Batman RIP was the last thing that had any coherance to it, since then he has become more esoteric, ego-led and, well, consistently tardy. I have suffered through throw away dialogue designed to make him seem smarter (sticking prefixes in front of words doesn't denote intelligence) and certain comic readers think that he is a genius just because they can't follow whats going on. As for having to read three different books to jigsaw together a story; don't get me started.

Having said all that, however; I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still dreading his return to Batman (at least I know it'll be the last), but golly was Action Comics #1 good. The pacing is fantastic. On the first page Superman crashes a criminal business deal, lights up those heat-vision eyes and says "Rats with guns. I'm your worst nightmare." On the first page! The action doesn't let up as this new, edgier Superman threatens a confession from....well I don't want to spill the whole plot for you. Needless to say there is a chase as they try to stop Superman, a quick fight scene, a reveal the General lane and Lex Luthor are monitoring all this and a Superman chases a bomb on the monorail moment.

I know what you're thinking; "Superman threatened a confession from someone? That's not right!" Well don't panic because three panels after he gets said confession he is advising someone to visit their doctor with a smile on his face (that x-ray vision is handy) and three pages after that he is saving innocent people from the trail of destruction that is following him. Superman is still Superman and Clark is still Clark. But in both cases you get the feeling that his childhood wan't quite as cushy as it had been pre-Flashpoint. I think that Clark has probably had to fend for himself since his teens rather than mid-twenties.

Action #1 work particularly well as a first issue because all the major players are put in their places as part of the plot. It seems to start that Luthor is rambling and that Lois and Jimmy have no reason to be where they are, but all comes to a head beautifully as we share General Lane's final page realisation of exactly what has happened.

Morrison's script is drawn with great skill by the fantastic rags Morales. His style on Action is a bit more kinetic than in Identity Crisis, but it hasn't lost any of the emotive qualites that made that book great. Both have brought their A game in order to make Superman relevent and exciting again. Well done, lads.

My rating:

Classic Superman vs Luthor freshened up with a couple of continuity tweaks, a Superman who can be hurt and a Lex Luthor who beats Superman.

Review - Batgirl #1

BATGIRL #1
Written by GAIL SIMONE; Art by ARDIAN SYAF and VICENTE CIFUENTES; Cover by ADAM HUGHES

Of all the New 52 titles, Batgirl has had the most hype, controversy and curiosity surrounding it. Taking a character like Barbara Gordon back out of her wheelchair (and a role in which she has shone for 20 years) was always going to be tough. Gail Simone has written Babs as Oracle for years in the pages of Birds of Prey with great success, and she has done so with great love for the character. So there was no doubt that she would be the one to bring her back as Batgirl.

It's a shame then, that the first two pages of this new Batgirl series, rather than setting up a terrifying villian, come across as goofy. It's unfortunately a combination of the art (comedy eye-bulge) and the writing (yapping dog, death by hose and 'to-kill' checklist). This really is a shame because both art and writing have improved by page three.

Bab's Batgirl interrupts a gang of home invading would-be rapist-murderers (who Gail makes us want beaten up) and succeeds in taking the gang out, but at the same reveals just how rusty she has become. Batgirl has to haul the gang-leader back into the building after he nearly sends them both plummeting for the street. The middle of the issue sets up the book's supporting cast, including Jim Gordon and Barbara's new room-mate (whose name we don't get, despite her appearing on three pages) who bears a striking resemblence to Bridget Clancy (former Nightwing supporting cast).

We return to the villian, who refers to himself as Mirror, from the prologue who arrives at the hospital where the police are guarding the gang leader from earlier. Mirror storms through the hospital security and shoots the police guard. Batgirl arrives just in time to experience a crucial moment of self-doubt and fear.

Overall, the story and art do their job well, but inconsistencies and plot-holes niggle. The fact that we have referenced the Killing Joke, but not any physical therapy or recovery time (other than 'miracle') is fine, as I'm sure that will come. The bigger question is; If Mirror is hunting people who "shouldn't have survived" from a list, then how did he ge the name of, and find, the gang-leader so quickly? His fall and subsequent rescue by Batgirl was less than 24 hours previous and he's been moved to the top of the list? Odd and disappointing, as I expect so much more from Simone.

My rating:
An off-kilter start to one of the biggest hyped New52 books. There is potential here, but it doesn't hit the ground running; more a jog.

Oracle - Why they endure

Newsarama continue what I believe is their best editorial series, Why they endure, with a look at Oracle.

As a result, the newly "healed" character appears today in Batgirl #1 as a woman who can walk again. That is thrilling Batgirl fans, but the move has angered advocates for the disabled.
"[Oracle] is about as ideal a disabled character as you can find," said Neil Kapit, who writes about disabled issues and comic books on his Handi-Capeable blog. "I have the suspicion that it was an executive decision to bring Batgirl back, as these characters are meant for franchising first. They likely believe they can sell more T-Shirts, statues, graphic novels, etcetera, with an able-bodied character than with a character in a wheelchair."
James B. South, chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Marquette University, who examined the Oracle character for the book Superheroes and Philosophy, said the change from Oracle to Batgirl seems like a backward step.

ENLARGE

"We are losing a major example of an adult woman in comics as well as an example of someone who can be a string leader while finding herself physically incapacitated in certain ways," South told Newsarama. "It does seem to be sending the message that DC thinks readers of comics are more interested in traditional superhero activities and are not able to handle a strong, disabled woman doing things in her own way."
Perhaps anticipating the anger from some fans, DC has incorporated Barbara's former disability into the new Batgirl comic. For example, Barbara Gordon will still have to undergo physical therapy, and she'll deal with her recovery within the story.
Plus, DC has tapped writer Gail Simone for the new Batgirl title, which even blogger Kapit admitted to Newsarama is a good thing, since Simone was instrumental in developing the Oracle character while she was disabled.
"Believe it or not, this was the more difficult choice to make for us, because we saw what the benefits of the Oracle character were, we saw what the challenges of making this change were going to be," DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio told Newsarama. "What we needed to do was to continue to make Barbara Gordon one of the strongest characters possible, in or out of the wheelchair. And we felt that this was a strong direction for us."
So why all the outrage? While other comic characters were maimed and killed over the last 20 years, why did Barbara Gordon endure as such a beloved icon for DC?
To understand the controversy and Oracle's endurance, it's important to review Oracle's history. After all, it was controversy that birthed Oracle in the first place.
The character's switch today to the "Batgirl" mantle is actually a return to her roots. Barbara Gordon was introduced as Batgirl in 1967, both on television's campy Batman show and in the comics, to provide a female counterpart to Batman. She was the teenage daughter of police commissioner Jim Gordon, but she secretly dressed up as Batgirl to patrol Gotham City.
Twenty years later, that all changed with the 1988 story by Alan Moore,Batman: The Killing Joke. After Barbara Gordon had become an adult and retired from crimefighting, Moore's story showed her being shot by the Joker.
While The Killing Joke was critically acclaimed, it was controversial — particularly among female readers — because it victimized a female character in order to forward the story of male heroes. That controversy moved two writers to transform her into the hero known as Oracle.

ENLARGE

"My late wife, Kimberly Yale, and I were not crazy about how Barbara was treated in The Killing Joke," comic writer John Ostrander told Newsarama. "Since the Batman office had no further plans for her at the time, we got permission to use Barbara in Suicide Squad, [another DC title at the time]. We felt that the gunshot as seen in Killing Joke would leave her paralyzed. We felt such an act should have repercussions. So... we took some of her other talents, as with computers, and created what was essentially an Internet superhero — Oracle."
Because Barbara had been established as having a PhD in library science, Ostrander made her a genius at accessing computer information. She adopted the secret code-name "Oracle" as she used her intellect to assist heroes throughout the DCU.
Dennis O'Neil, a Batman editor for DC at the time, said Ostrander's respectful treatment of Barbara, allowing her to continue fighting crime despite her disability, made her a beloved character almost immediately among DC fans. "I think it was a real inspiration on John's part to come up with Oracle, and she became one of my favorite characters in the whole Bat-stable. She was unlike anything else," O'Neil said.
O'Neil eventually made it official in the comics that Oracle was Batman's sole source of information. "It was logical for her to be there in Batman's world," O'Neil said. "Batman would need someone like that."
The editor said he believes she has endured because with her change to Oracle, she gave the DC Universe a new type of hero.
"We had hoards of people in spandex beating up criminals," he said. "We didn't have anybody like Oracle, who overcame a disability and was just as valuable and just as effective in a way that didn't involve violence."

ENLARGE

In the 20 years since then, Oracle has been depicted in comics and other media as a super-intelligent yet anonymous hero who supplies information and guidance to superheroes, including the Justice League. Oracle also starred in the long-running Birds of Prey comic, where she was the leader of a group of female superheroes.
"When Barbara Gordon became Oracle, she went from a character who was of neutral worth to one utterly priceless to the DCU," Kapit pointed out. "From her chair, Barbara has formed connections with the entire DCU, revolutionized the technological infrastructure of crimefighting, and helped found the all-female Birds of Prey, a team which has been consistently high-quality and beloved by men and women alike."
O'Neil said that he never considered changing Barbara Gordon back to Batgirl, despite there being the technology in comics that could have explained it. "Giving her her legs back, in addition to being a kind of deus ex machina, would have subtracted from the uniqueness of Oracle," O'Neil said. "And at the same time, I didn't see anything to be gained by bringing back that version of Batgirl. Even in the stories I wrote, Batgirl was usually just a pale carbon copy of Batman and didn't have any of that mythic back-story that gives the whole thing resonance, like Batman's, which has lasted what.. 72 years now."
Professor South agreed that Oracle's back-story as a hero who overcame disability gives her a strength that Batgirl never had.

ENLARGE

"[Barbara's evolution] shows her developing her own way of being a superhero," he said. "While she seems to develop her own style of fighting as Batgirl, she's still basically following in Batman's footsteps. Once her life is shattered in The Killing Joke, she has to become, in some ways, a more independent woman who uses her own native skills and intelligence to develop a way of fighting crime that complements Batman's rather than copying his way. In Birds of Prey, we see Barbara Gordon as a team leader and her transformation from a girl into a woman."
But that strength isn't going away in the new Batgirl series. In today's new comic, no explanation is given for her miraculous recovery from paraplegia, but her disability is not forgotten.
But some of the character's age and years of experience are being erased with the reboot, according to writer Simone. "We are seeing Barbara at an earlier starting point," Simone explained to Newsarama when the change was announced.
"She's been removed from the action and danger for a long time," she said. "With this relaunch, she is still very much Barbara, but she can reclaim a part of her history and legacy with modern stories, in her own book and elsewhere."
DiDio said the decision to change Oracle was because, while other people had taken up the mantle of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon was the strongest character for that title with the relaunch. "When you talk about Batgirl, whether it's with a casual fan or even to somebody who just knew the Batman character, Barbara Gordon is always the one people default to as 'who Batgirl is,'" DiDio said.
O'Neil said he can understand that the icon of "Batgirl" is most associated with Barbara Gordon. "You can't ignore things like that," he said. "But it comes down to is, are we making this change because we see a brilliant way to reinvent this character? Or is it just that this is the one that we loved in the past? But Barbara Gordon's perception in the mainstream public as Batgirl would be a very valid consideration."
Even Kapit can put aside his role as an advocate of the disabled and see the business side of the decision. "I can understand, but that doesn't mean I agree even slightly," he said.
And even O'Neil admitted that, "from a fan standpoint, I'm kind of sorry to see her go."
Ostrander, who created the character, said he believes Simone will do a good job with the task of reintroducing the former Oracle as a new, younger Batgirl. "I've been quoted as saying that I think Barbara was a stronger and more effective character, a more important part of the DCU, as Oracle than she ever was as Batgirl," Ostrander said. "Do I still feel that way? Well, of course. Kim and I created Oracle.
"Times change and characters and people evolve. I changed things when I wrote characters, including changing Barbara to Oracle. Others do the same for this era," he said. "Gail Simone is a good friend and a wonderful writer and I'm sure her work will be wonderful."

Review - Detective Comics #1

DETECTIVE COMICS #1

Written by TONY S. DANIEL; Art by TONY S. DANIEL and RYAN WINN; Cover by TONY S. DANIEL

Tony Daniel's art has changed an awful lot over the last few years, to the point where I can't even tell that it is the same artist that drew Batman R.I.P, let alone Teen Titans. It isn't really a criticism of the book, but one that I feel underpins Daniel's work (both art and writing). His determination to better himself as a creator is commendable, but has often meant that he doesn't allow himself to become comfortable with one style before moving on to try something new. Unless he allows himself time to explore his own style more deeply, I feel that Daniel's best work may not be ahead of him, but behind him. That said and out of the way, I really enjoyed Detective Comics #1.

We are given a seemingly derivative plot that gives us hints at something deeper. Daniel's Bruce Wayne isn't the ultra-bat that we saw in the early 2000's. Instead this Batman shows enough self-doubt and vunerability that we are able to empathise with him, whilst showing that he is capable enough to pull off near-impossible feats.

Through the course of the book we are made aware of all the key players (Batman/Bruce, Alfred, Gordon & Joker), as well as setting up the new status quo. It appears that Gordon may now be one of Batman's only remaining allies at the GCPD, as we see a SWAT team and helicopter fire upon Batman against orders. This certainly seems to be a move toward a more dangerous Gotham for the Dark Knight - one that I approve of.

Rather than Justice League's clear cut 'first issue' feeling, Detective Comics feels like the first chapter of a Batman story. We aren't being introduced to Batman, we've known him all our lives. New readers will be able to pick this up and enjoy it with no prior knowledge, as will DC Comics veterans. Whilst the story is a little more action heavy than I'd like a Detective Comics story to be, there are still references to Batman's thought processes and deduction.

To Daniel's great credit however, the final page will make you turn back to reread the book all over again for things that you may have missed the first read through.

My rating:

Hard boiled Batman versus Joker action that we know and love with a killer ending.