The Bat-Blog!

I’m a huge fan of Batman and I have to admit that some of the older stuff is better than a good amount of the newer stuff. Different writers and different artists do different things… Anyone a fan of Jim Lee? Hopefully if you’ve seen his artwork you are because it’s really beautiful–but that’s me saying it.

As for the older stuff here is an example: The Knightfall storyline from the early 1990’s is one of the best tales DC has ever come up with. For those who don’t know, a new villain was introduced whom everyone knows as Bane. He comes to Gotham in order to “break” the Batman. Unlike how the character is portrayed in the (shutter) forth Batman movie, Bane is quite intelligent and orchestrates the breakout of all the nuts in Arkham and causes Batman horrible stress and pain while he is recapturing the inmates; all-the-while he is training a new hero (Jean-Paul Valley) and fears for Robin‘s safety pushing himself to do the job alone. After facing Bane he is defeated in the second to worse way and then replaced by Valley as a nastier Batman for the Knightquest saga which then ends in Knights End where Bruce and Valley go to battle over who will be Batman. Well written and most issues are drawn wonderfully.

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Jean-Paul Valley is Batman.

Before that: The Dark Knight. (Also has been called The Dark Knight Returns and Return of the Dark Knight [WOW!]) I will say first off, I did not like the art, it was too sloppy for my tastes, however the story was pretty good and it was written in an interesting way through news bites and main story.
Batman is now in his 60’s and he is fighting mutants (different, but it makes sense in the story) he is depicted as huge, as though he was really muscular but out of shape at the same time. He was far from feeble though and could still kick ass. Much more of a tougher guy–the famous line “this mud hole is an operating table and I’m the surgeon”–something like that…followed by the cracking of bone to his mutant opponent–really bitch’in.
A girl named Carrie helps him out as Robin and it’s a pretty cool story ending with a showdown against Superman where he fakes his death to form an underground group to clean up the city.
This story was written by Frank Miller and was from the mid 80’s.

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The Dark Knight.

Back to Jim Lee. Hush was one of the better books I’ve read in years, Jeph Loeb wrote the story–it was decent I have no complaints, but it was the art that stood out. Lee’s renditions of the characters changed them for the modern age. Now, we do have to accept that “shaky hands” are drawing from his designs now so they are not as good, but there is only one Jim Lee.
When Lee owned his Wildstorm publishing he had some decent books which just as well don’t exist anymore–or if they do, they are not like they used to be. Wildcats (X-Men) and one of my old favorites is Gen 13 which is about super-powered teens—–Generation X anyone?! However it was pretty cool. The book was taken over by Campbell and the art was still good in a cartoony sort of way, but his art is clean and that is all that counted.

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Jim Lee's Catwoman from Hush.

Anyhow, it’s Batman I’m talking about…

The other day I picked up a graphic novel that seemed to have spanned from 2006-2008 and may not be completed in the single comic book series yet. It’s volume 1 of All Star Batman and RobinThe Boy Wonder.”
The art is by Jim Lee and man is it awesome! It features what I call “Elseworlds” renditions of a small selection of the characters including Vicki Vale who he draws like a slut–why not, and then my favorite is Batgirl who he makes a teen, a-la, The Batman animated from mid 2000. The most you get of the villains in volume 1 is Joker who is drawn like a pretty-boy or something like that with a big dragon tattoo on his back and also Catwoman who looks like a bondage slave with a single ring collar–not bad but the Hush Catwoman is better.
Other characters include Black Canary, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Plastic Man (of all characters…) Of course Batman and Robin ect…

So, the book is written by Frank Miller, I’d give a short description of what the story is about, but it’s not worth trying…

I thought; well, I liked The Dark Knight, so why not get it, Jim Lee drew it! Man was I disappointed, talk about slapping fans in the face… It was like a 3 year old wrote it on the toilet. I know they were trying to make a new story, but so much was dragged out,  characters were damaged and the dialog was flat-out stupid.  To be honest, Miller really did a crappy job to the point where something tells me he didn’t want to do it. Nothing made sense. If he didn’t want to write it, then why did he and why did Jim Lee draw to the shitty story?  Money?…Come on!
Oh well, you can’t win them all…

There is actually a blog site called I-Mockery.com which has long pages showing some panels and then they are making fun of it along with giving details as to why they are making fun–rightly so, this one was a dud. I bought it for Batgirl and the art I guess.

One last thing though, there was a really cool 6 page flip-out of the Batcave–now that was sweet!

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All Star Batgirl with Black Canary and Batman.

Finally, my favorite “Elseworlds” book is called Thrill Killer. This book is painted and really beautiful. The story features an alternate of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Robin (Dick Grayson) [his name is altered in German–if I’m correct?) Bruce Wayne eventually becomes Batman, but the story is way out there; however,  you know it’s an alternate story that is not in the continuum of the main comic’s such as Detective and the many Batman titles. For Batgirl and Robin it’s all fun and games until Robin is killed and Detective Bruce Wayne joins up with Batgirl to bring the baddies to justice. Filled with a lot of drama and the best- “raping of your favorite character “Elseworlds” style.”  I highly recommend finding the books, or if they put it out as a compiled graphic novel. It’s actually very good and the art is very interesting and different than the normal comic art.

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Thrillkiller Batgirl and Batman.

Batman has been around for so many years in many shapes and forms that some people love and some people hate with a passion. In the end, as long as everyone finds something they like and ignores what they don’t like, then Batman will continue to entertain or disappoint for many generations to come.

Books, movies, TV shows, Cartoons, Action Figures, party supplies, clothing…you name it they got it!

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, BATMAN!

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