Simpsons Did It!: “Marge Vs. The Monorail”

Let’s face it:  whatever your thoughts for this Conan O’Brien-penned episode, they are bound to be better than your thoughts on the last thing we reviewed with a “Vs” in the title.

Spoilers After The Break: The Final Days Of Superman

Unlike some of our readers who may not have been born yet, I was a regular in the comic book stores in 1992 when DC pulled the ultimate publicity stunt and killed off the Man of Steel.  His death in Superman #75 sold 3 million copies.  It was a perfect storm.  You had regular comic readers interested.  Former comic readers interested.  Non-comic readers.  The young and old.  Fans of the Superman movies or various TV shows.  Everyone was talking about it.  It was during a time when the death of a character seemed to actually mean something and didn’t happen every other day.  Especially to such an iconic character.   Sales were also boosted by occuring during the comic market boom as people were buying multiple copies as investments, hoping to cash in down the line.  Especially the variant black polybagged version which featured the logo above.  “Fans” were buying two copies.  One to open and read and one to lock away in a pressure sealed vault for safe keeping.

As we know, the market boom crashed not long after and this issue has often been attributed as having a major role in that.  But that’s a different column.  We’re here today to talk about the potential latest death of Superman.  More (including spoilers) after the break on the ongoing Final Days of Superman storyline in Superman #51, Batman/Superman #31 and Action Comics #51.

Bento Review: Blackcross: From The Pages Of Project Superpowers

Project Superpowers was a series from Dynamite Comics that used Golden Age public domain heroes to tell modern stories.  These were heroes created by old comics publishers that went out of business and no one bought the rights to their characters.  Technically, anyone can use them.  Dynamite did.

Blackcross is a spin-off mini-series from the looks of things involving a super powered serial killer who is on his way to the mysterious town of Blackcross in the Pacific Northwest.  Some folks there have had weird things happening lately…

What Are The Chances Captain America Civil War Outgrosses Batman V. Superman On Opening Weekend?

Readers of this blog and listeners to our podcast know that I love box office numbers.  I’ve also recently become intrigued by the Good Judgment project after hearing about them on the Freakonomics podcast.  Their website has a number of political, news, and pop culture questions they invite the public to predict and they recently asked what were the chances that Civil War would outgross Batman v. Superman (which brought in an amazing $166M on opening weekend).

I was surprised to see so many people saying Civil War would outgross Batsoup with almost not thought into the matter, so I decided to make my own prediction and analysis.  Jump after the break to read why I think it is unlikely for Civil War to beat Batsoup and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Defending The Grade: Ryan’s Batsoup Rating

  The discussion around Batman v Superman will likely continue…well, forever. After our initial ratings Prime Blogger Tom felt the need to defend his generous grade of the movie.  I thought he did a good job explaining his rationale so I thought I would return the favor by defending my own rating the movie a 3 out of 10. Jump after the break for my full reasoning. 

Defending The Grade: Batsoup

70%? That’s a passing grade, right?

Yesterday, the last of the Gabbing Geek crew, Ryan, finally saw Batman Vs. Superman Vs. All Common Sense.  He didn’t like it and left a long, often amusing, ever-expanding when he remembers something else list of the film’s flaws.  For my part, I thought it would be fun to write a tongue-in-cheek reply listing everything that was “right” about the movie.  That was rough because I wanted the same number of points as Ryan’s original post, and he has since added a few more.  There may be more by the time I finish typing this and more still when it goes live.  Check in often and make sure.

However, Ryan made note of the fact that the others ’round these parts, either on post or podcast, rated the movie above a five out of ten.  My own grade was a seven out of ten.  I stand by that.  So, in the interest of filling up space, allow me to explain my reasoning a bit.

SPOILERS for the movie after the cut.

The Complete List Of Everything Right With Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

At last, Ryan has seen and reviewed the eponymous Batman Vs Kramer:  Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.  He didn’t like it.

Well, it wasn’t good, but to be very fair, I will now list all that was right about it.  SPOILERS and such.

The Complete List Of Everything Wrong With Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

I may be late to the game in finally seeing Batsoup but at least I didn’t have to brave the crowds to see it. While my fellow Gabbing Geeks have given the movie much higher ratings (above 5 out of 10) I thought rather than just give a review I would list everything wrong with the movie. Warning: spoilers after the break. Second warning: it’s a long list. But if I missed anything let me know in the comments.

The First Trailer For Batman: The Killing Joke Is Here…Kinda?

Along the lines of Batman Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, 1988’s Batman: The Killing Joke is considered a classic and one of the best Batman (and Joker) stories ever.  Written by legend (and all around curmudgeon) Alan Moore and fantastic art by Brian Bolland, this one shot would lay the groundwork for many years to come in the Bat-books, particularly for one Barbara Gordon.  It is here that the tragic events that turn her from Batgirl to eventually Oracle occur.  (I kept that vague, just in case I have to worry about spoilers, which I probably do not.)

The book is violent and a physiological head trip for all involved, especially the Gordons.  We get perhaps the most definitive Joker origin (if there can ever be such a thing), in the pre-New 52/pre-Zero Hour/can anyone keep track anymore? continuity.  (On a sidenote, the upcoming issue of Justice League will supposedly reveal the Joker’s true name that Batman learned while God-ing out in the Mobius Chair.)

It will be interesting to see how honest the animated film is to the source material.  Warner Bros. has reportedly given the ok to make the film R-rated (isn’t everything these days?) but a rating has not been given yet.

You can watch the “trailer” (and more) after the break.  I found it a bit weak (and wonder how legit this is, more on that after the break as well) and I don’t know that it would draw in many fans who don’t already have some idea what is going on.  But they still have time, and this feels more like a teaser trailer than a full trailer.  But with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill on board as Batman and the Joker respectively, count me in.

Going Through The DCAU Part Seventeen

And we’re back with more cartoon superhero talk with Tom and Jimmy.

This week, we’re covering “Zatanna,” “The Mechanic,” and “Harley and Ivy”.