You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2008.
This just in: Tickets for the Premiere of The Dark Knight at the Utopolis cinema complex on August 6th can be purchased here. Hope to see you all there!
This six issue mini-series was published under the banner Dark Moon Rising making it the first of two stories by Matt Wagner. Both take place during the end of Year One. Indicators for this are that Gordon is still Lieutenant and Commissioner Loeb has already been replaced. We see a bit more of Bruce Wayne’s private life than we did in Year One and it is nice to see the introduction of the Bat-mobile. In terms of character realization, Wagner did everything right. Alfred is witty and sarcastic as we love him, Wayne and his alter ego Batman fit perfectly and also Dr Hugo Strange is as demonic and “evil geniusy” as possible.
The think this story lacked for me was neither action nor suspense (it had a lot of those two actually), but it felt a bit sterile and boring. I didn’t particularly warm up to Wagner’s art and so it all felt a bit stale. In this first of the two Dark Moon Rising stories, Hugo Strange is properly introduced to the Gotham City universe. He is a scientist who is trying to enhance the human body through DNA manipulation. Being of small stature, bold and near-sighted, he hopes to find the means to perfect the human DNA strain, to get rid of such shortcomings. In the process his experiments fail and he creates abominable creatures, which he uses to get rid of his enemies. Of course Batman won’t allow such shenanigans and has several run-ins with the good doctor and his “monster men”. All in all, the story is decent and it fits into the Year One universe, a time when Batman was still fairly inexperienced and people didn’t know who or what he was.
Story 6
Art 6
Reread Value 4
Overall rating 6/10
The first major event that I want to cover is The Death of Superman. The review series will be split into three parts (Doomsday, Funeral for a Friend and Reign of the Supermen) and finished off with a review of Superman – Doomsday the DC Universe Original Animated Movie. All of these storylines were collected in independent graphic novels, but I will use the individual comic book issues to map out the events that lead up to and followed Superman’s death.
Let’s start off with four one-page panels originally published in Superman: The Man of Steel #017, Superman v2 #073, The Adventures of Superman #496 and Action Comics #683. These are not actually stories but only single pages attached to the end of these four books, showing a fist trying to punch through a metal wall. They were supposed to prepare the readers for the upcoming event. When the fist finally penetrates the prison, something terrible is unleashed, a force so destructive that it would bring terror to the world. When asked where the idea for the storyline that would kill the Man of Steel came from, Editor Mark Carlin stated in an interview once that: “the world was taking Superman for granted, so we literally said ‘let’s show what the world would be like without Superman’.”
Next week I will look at Doomsday, the main event that led to the death of Superman.
Featured in the original Batman issues #404-407
After his success with The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller decided to write another Batman story that was supposed to be a retake on the origins of Gotham’s dark avenger. He pitched his idea to DC and thus Batman – Year One was born.
The story follows both James Gordon, who had just transferred to Gotham City and was still only a Lieutenant, and twenty-five year old Bruce Wayne, who after 12 years of absence returns to his hometown. Miller paints a fairly dark and corrupt vision of Gotham. The police force is on the take, the mayor’s office is also involved in the different criminal activities of the mafia families. Gordon, an honest cop, quickly upsets the balance, by sticking his nose into the affairs of the other officer’s. At the same time the first issue shows, how Bruce Wayne slowly evolves into his later alter ego. His first attempts to go out and get involved in fighting the criminal elements drowning Gotham’s streets fails miserably. He realizes that he needs to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and when a bat crashes into his study late one night, an idea is born.
The following issue shows Wayne’s first attempt to patrol the streets as Batman and Miller ingeniously shows that a perfect training in martial arts is not enough for the dark knight to succeed. However, he slowly gets the hang of it, only to face a new problem: the Gotham City police department isn’t too thrilled about the vigilante. The reasons for this are not only of legal impact (Batman tends to mount up assault charges), but he also interferes with the organized crime syndicates, which pay a lot of money to the police department to be left alone.
In the last two issues these conflicts explode and Batman is hunted by a swat team, while Gordon fights to indict his superiors. Selina Kyle, who made an appearance in the earlier issues, picks up her costume and decides to become Catwoman, a high profile cat burglar and later on, one of Batman’s most notorious encounters.
Miller’s Year One does everything right. It establishes the main heroes, as well as some of the villains. Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle are introduced and we also get a look at the different crime syndicates (Sal ‘The Boss’ Maroni, the Roman family) ruling Gotham’s underworld. David Mazzuchelli’s film noir art fits Miller’s dark and gloomy re-imagination of Gotham perfectly, giving the whole tale a real detective story feel. Since the original release in the monthly Batman series, the story arc has been published as a graphic novel and it is one of those stories that every Batman fan must have read.
Story 10
Art 8
Reread Value 8
Overall rating 10/10
I finally tackled one of the most important stories from the DC universe and will give you several pointers to help you get through it yourselves. In 1985 the DC universe had grown so much in size that it had become almost impossible for new readers to get into any of the storylines without a degree in comics history. There were several different universes that constituted the multiverse in which all of the current storylines took place. There was Earth-1, the place on which Superman, Batman and all the others from the weekly comic series were stationed. Then we have Earth-2, where Superman arrived decades earlier, fighting in World War II and formed the Justice Society of America. Batman became Commissioner of the Gotham Police department and was killed later, leaving Robin and his daughter Huntress to fight crime alone. But that’s not all, we have Earth-3 (Luthor is the only superhero here), Earth-4, Earth-S (home to the Marvel family), Earth-X, Earth-Prime and others. No wonder nobody knew, what was going on anymore. A fairly good introduction into the whole storyline can be found here at Alan Kistler’s Universe, featuring both an map of all the universes and a helpful prologue, showing us what has happened to the heroes previous to the crisis.
DC decided to reboot their whole mythology and give new readers a chance to become acquainted with these heroes without having to get into the complicated fifty year old continuity. The storyline was supposed to get rid of all the different universes and leave us with a single one, Earth-1. For this purpose the other universes had to die and this was done by introducing a new supervillain. At the same time, there was however also a new character called “The Monitor”, gathering heroes from all the different universes to stand in the way of the destructive force and prevent the end of all life. Crisis on Infinite Earths had an enormous impact at the time it was released. The twelve issues were spread out over one year, featuring multiple tie-ins in all the major publications. Several heroes died or disappeared forever during the battles against the Anti-monitor. Barry Allen, the Flash from Earth-1, Wonder Woman from Earth-1 (although she technically doesn’t really die), Supergirl and Aquagirl are only a few of the victims. Superman from Earth-2 and Superboy from Earth-Prime disappear and the newly created Earth-1 features now several “new” superheroes from other Earths. All the universes were merged together in the end and the heroes that survived had found a new home with the old inhabitants from this Earth.
Crisis on Infinite Earths was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Pérez and is still one of the most interesting stories ever written. It features so many different heroes and a truly epic battle. The destruction of all life in every single universe is not that common after all (not even in comic books). The artwork might not keep up to modern standards, but that is not important in my opinion. For the time it was very good and also pretty detailed. It is also remarkable, if you realize how many different characters the artist had to include in his panels and he got them all spot on. With its over three hundred and fifty page, you will stay entertained for more than just a few hours. It is one of those stories that every comic book fan should have read.
Story 10
Art 7
Reread Value 10
Overall rating 10/10
It’s weekend, Baby and that means: Weblink-A-Palooza
Best of Batman: G4’s Blair Butler has put together a collection of must-read Batman comics that she considers perfect to recruit new fans for the Dark Knight.
Marvel’s most bad ass character gets another movie this December. For all of those who haven’t seen the Punisher Warzone trailers yet, you can check the first one out here and the second here.
Here is an interview with Joss Whedon discussing the different comic book publications he is involved in: SDCC Interview.
The MMO game DC Universe Online is something that probably every most gamers, who are into comic books, are looking forward to. I found two reports at IGN that show a bit more about this new game: here and here.
The 2008 San Diego Comic-Con has come to an end and there where tons of news and presentations showcasing the releases over the next few months. I’ll try to find some of the best features for next week’s link collection.
After the initial release delays (what’s up with movies suddenly coming out several weeks later in Europe?) I managed to see Wanted yesterday. I must say during the viewing I had a strange sour feeling of disappointment, which only changed a bit afterwards, when I discussed the movie with a friend. For those who have not yet read the graphic novel, I suggest to first go and see the film or you might expect something different, like I did. There is not much left over from the book accept the introduction, the training montage and the fact that the hero joins an organization that is above the law. The moral abyss from the graphic novel is replaced by a deep sense of righteousness, which gives the hero of the movie a more likeable character. He is not a heartless killer anymore, but a fighter for the good of mankind. This fact alone (changing the tone so drastically) left me with a deep feeling of: “something’s just wrong here”. Still, the movie is good enough in the way that it works as such. The story they have created is by far not the one that Mark Millar had conceived in his book, but the changes are consistent with each other and the story works.
So what is this movie about? First of all it might be pointed out that if you are a bit squeamish and close your eyes, when you see blood, you should see another film. The hero is a Joe Everybody, who hates his job and his life and is given the opportunity to join a group of assassins called the Fraternity and take control of his life. His father, one of the best killers in the world (yet apparently not good enough) is killed by a rogue agent, and the Fraternity believes that his son is the only one who could kill the renegade assassin. Style and violence wise, this flick can compare itself with The Matrix and Equilibrium (which you should see if the name doesn’t ring a bell). There are an abundance of bullet cam slow-motion shots, close-ups of bullets entering all kinds of human extremities and massive amounts of blood and gore to make every action fan happy. Most of these action sequences are visually stunning; the assassins can curve bullets around corners, they are such perfect shots that their bullets deflect bullets in mid-air (which becomes a bit repetitive after the third time) and they apparently have a special bath salt which makes them heal faster.
The action and visual effects are all very well done, but I can’t help to be disappointed by the outcome of this movie. The main actor James McAvoy didn’t convince me, Angelina Jolie was hot but not really good and Morgan Freeman’s career has also seen better days. All in all it was a cool movie that was missing something to make it special. And no, extremely cool and stylish ways to shoot bullets alone won’t cut it anymore.
I never really liked the Green Arrow. Somehow I always thought he was kind of lame – a guy in green tights with a bow – it was all too Robin Hood for me. But then I read Green Arrow Year One written by Andy Diggle and art by Jock and I was amazed how good a read it actually was. For those of you who have never heard of the Green Arrow this graphic novel is the perfect introduction to his character. It tells the story of billionaire playboy (sounds familiar doesn’t it?) Oliver Queen, who after behaving like a drunken idiot at a fundraiser, where he acquires a very nice bow, decides he needs to disappear for a while to save his face. When he leaves on a cruise with his personal bodyguard and friend Hackett he is betrayed by him, because Queen is interfering with his illegal business and as a result our hero is left for dead in the middle of the ocean. He washes up on shore of an island and lives for several weeks hunting with a self-made bow and honing his survival skills, when he finally finds out that the island actually houses a giant opium field. Hackett and his business associate Chien Na-Wei (China White, Queen calls her) have enslaved the local population and have them work the fields. When Queen confronts his old friend, he only barely escapes with his life and a broken arm. One of the local female workers finds him and administers first aid. To ease his pain, she gives him some opium, which he quickly becomes addicted to. When he has finally healed he is left with a nasty addiction, which he has to overcome first in order to finally defeat the evildoers.
Green Arrow Year One does everything right. It establishes the origins of a superhero (later being an important member of the Justice League of America), has an astonishing amount of action and suspense, and even gives the character some inner depth, by making him grow and overcome a drug addiction. The art by Jock is amazing, and fits the island theme very well, and it shows that Diggle and Jock have become a team that works like a well-oiled machine. The gritty storytelling is perfect for this hero and the author gives Queen just the perfect amount of coolness and lovability. They reinvent a hero that has been around for many years and manage to draw in new fans to the franchise (like me for example). All in all an amazingly fun read that I can only recommend to every DC fan.
Story 9
Art 9
Reread Value 8
Overall rating 9/10
In the third copy of Millar’s six issue story arc Marvel 1985, we encounter even more supervillains than before. After the Sandman and Electro had attacked a couple in the last issue, we see that more and more people are being terrorized by the costumed evildoers. Among them are MODOK who controls a bunch of people and sends them to into a lake (see picture below), Fin Fang Foom the giant dragon and frequent opponent of Iron Man is seen sitting in “Oak Ridge Lake” and an older couple is assaulted by another baddy who seems to have killed off half a block. Millar manages to present these second grade bad guys in a way that makes them genuinely scary and shows how the people and the police of our reality would react to such an attack. Still, there are no superheroes in sight in this issue (the Hulk from #2 is so far the only one that has appeared), the villains have free reign and wreak havoc on the general population. The protagonist Toby is now also on the run with his father, who finally believes his claims and the two are attacked by the Lizard, when the issue comes to an end. This is also the only real fight in this months Marvel 1985 and hopefully, with the first half finished now, the action will pick up in pace a bit and we will get some sweet supervillain ass-kicking in the next publications.
Story 8
Art 9
Reread Value 7
Overall rating 8/10
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