Going Through The DCAU Part Fifteen

Yup, time for more cartoon talk with Jimmy and Tom.

This time, we’re covering the Batman The Animated Series episodes “What Is Reality?” “I Am The Night,” and “Off Balance”.

Batman: Bad Blood (Mostly) Spoiler Free Review

From 1975 to 1978 DC Comics published a title called Batman Family which focused on the Dark Knight’s supporting characters.  They were mostly Batgirl and/or Robin stories that had little or no interaction with Batman himself.  This original DC Universe movie made me think of that series.  While Batman Family would not be as “cool” a title as Batman: Bad Blood, it would be a lot more fitting.

After the break I’ll look at the movie in a bit more detail and try to be as spoiler free as possible.

Super Bowl 50 – Batman V Superman

Since the Batsoup trailers have been around forever and the dawn of the Justice League is right around the corner, DC decided to go a different route with their Super Bowl advertising.  After the break see two new ads for real life Turkish Airlines and their new flights to not so real life Gotham and Metropolis.

ICYMI: Wonder Woman Segment From Last Nights DC Films Special

While watching last nights DC Films special on the upcoming Justice League related movies, I couldn’t help but feel that I was watching a fish swimming upstream or some other analogy that points out how far behind Marvel that DC is in this cinematic universe building.

On the positive side, the show did give us the new Suicide Squad trailer and the first look at the upcoming Wonder Woman solo movie, which you can see after the cut.  After 74 years, Wonder Woman will finally make her big screen debut in March’s Batman v Superman and her standalone film is due June 23, 2017.

Hey! A Dick Grayson Batman Animated Movie! Woot!

I’ve always felt that post Final Crisis, DC Comics had pulled off what many would probably say was impossible.  Replace Bruce Wayne as Batman.  Sure there had been pretenders and fill ins over the years, but I thought the handling of the new dynamic duo of Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin struck a perfect balance between appeasing old school fans and satisfying new fans.

Perhaps I’m wrong, and the return of Bruce Wayne was always on the horizon, but I really felt that DC could have run with this to Wally West levels.  At the very least they allowed the duo to continue after Bruce returned and took on a more international role with the creation of Batman Inc.  But then the New 52 came along and mucked everything up.

Either way I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the trailer after the cut for the new direct to video Batman animated movie Batman: Bad Blood due in 2016.  Which features Grayson as Batman, Damian as Robin and also Batwoman and Batwing.  The movie is essentially Batman Inc.  My interest is definitely piqued.

Going Through The DCAU Part Twelve

Once more, Jimmy and Tom return to work their way through the DCAU.

This week, we’re covering the Batman the Animated Series episodes “Heart of Steel Parts 1 and 2,” “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” and “Joker’s Wild”.

DC and Marvel Character “Similarities”

Marvel and DC both have many characters that share strong similarities with their cross-company rival.  Sometimes it is a coincidence.  Two people have the same idea, no matter how novel, independent of each other.  Sometimes it is just because there are only so many archetypes.  Of course there is going to be some nearly identical characters.  Sometimes they aren’t even that similar.  We just want to make this list longer.  Other times, they are 100%, complete rip offs.  When DC/Marvel did the Amalgamation back in the 90’s, they could have just used the original.

See what you think after the break.

The New Batman: A (Mostly) Spoiler Free First Impression Of Batman #41

While DC Free Comic Book Day offering Divergence actually gave us our first taste of the new Batman, this weeks Batman #41 gives us the first full blown appearance.  As I’ve mentioned on the site and in the Gabbing Geek editorial meetings, I’m very skeptical about the direction that DC is headed.  I don’t care how much you want to try to humanize him, putting Superman in a t-shirt and jeans is just dumb.  Granted, some might be fine with that, or the new “Canon over continuity” approach DC is taking with their books.  But I’ve mostly heard negative press about the new Robobat, Chappie-bat, Batman.

I’ll admit, if it wasn’t for writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, Batman would be another in a long list of DC books that I won’t be picking up post-Convergence.  But the duo has been rocking since the New 52 launched.  And Snyder has been one of my favorite writers since his excellent “Black Mirror” run on Detective Comics just prior to the New 52.  It features Dick Grayson as Batman and is well worth tracking down the trade paperback.

But back to this issue, after the break, my initial thoughts on this new approach to my second favorite character ever.  (Very minor spoilers inside.)

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Three Part Two

Hey Watson! It’s Aquaman!

Week three continues and if Watson actually read comic books anymore he’s be losing his cookies that we get to meet our THIRD Aquaman in as many weeks.  Watson, man, get in here.  There was even a Wally West Flash story in week one and I know you loves some Wally West Flash.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of:

Week One: Part One, Part Two

Week Two: Part One, Part Two

Week Three:Part One

Read on for Week Three spoilers after the break for Green Lantern Corps #1,  Hawkman #1,  Justice League America #1, New Teen Titans #1, Swamp Thing #1 and The Flash #1.

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Two Part One

Convergence #2

Welcome to Convergence Week 2.  If you read my coverage of week 1 of Convergence you saw that my Pre-Flashpoint DCU knowledge was nothing impressive.  Thanks to Tom Kelly for filling in some knowledge gaps and for an extensive comment on the Extremists of Angor.

Hopefully this week is a little more in my wheel house as the main combantants are Metroplis from the pre-Zero Hour universe and the world of Kingdom Come.  It’s been awhile but I have read Kingdom Come, and pre-Zero Hour would be right around the time I was actually collecting some DC books with the Death of Superman and Knightfall.  One of the side universes in the spotlight this week is the San Diego of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm universe, from which I read a handful of books back in it’s Image Comics days.  So things are looking up, time will tell.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of Week One: Part 1, Part 2

Read on for spoilers after break for Convergence #2, Batman Shadow Of The Bat #1, Supergirl Matrix #1, Green Lantern/Parallax #1, and Superboy #1.