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”.

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”.

Tom Recommends: Young Justice (Animated Series)

Animator Greg Wiseman has had a long string of animated series that have pleased fans but have always seemed to be cut short due to other factors.  He was forced off Disney’s Gargoyles and saw his Spectacular Spider-Man cut short due to the Spider-rights going to Disney.

Then there was Young Justice, an animated series set in the DC universe about a team of superhero sidekicks going on covert missions for the Justice League.

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.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #45: Faith

I think she got the power of heart to form Captain Planet.

A common theme to many a Misplaced Hero is that many times there’s only a single creator who’s really enamored with the character.  Oh, other writers and artists may have a decent run with the character, but often once the original creator moves on, the character is quickly relegated to the background or written out of the book entirely.  That is more or less what happened to Snapper Carr.  Creators showing favorites is nothing new, such as how Geoff Johns dealt with Black Adam, or Brian Michael Bendis’ clear love for Luke Cage.  But sometimes the creator love goes to a new character that doesn’t always stick around long.

One such example there is Faith.

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.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #37: Minion

This is not him.

Over the years, DC’s Teen Titans group has been one of those perennial books that’s always around.  At one time, The New Teen Titans, as written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Perez, was one of it not the hottest comic around, rivaling The Uncanny X-Men for popularity.  The classic line-up that included Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Changeling, Wonder Girl, and some others was all the rage.  Other Titans came and went, such as Kid Flash, Speedy, Aqualad, Red Star, Pantha, and Wildebeest, but the core group was what the fan remembered.

Then, after the Zero Hour storyline, a new line-up appeared.  Gone were most of the classic Titans, possibly due to no longer technically being “teens”.  In its place was a line-up that at least looked interesting.  There was former Speedy Roy Harper, now going by Arsenal.  Donna Troy went by her real name and was, at the time, a member of the spacefaring police force, the Darkstars.  Former Team Titans from a collapsed future timeline Mirage and Terra were there.  So was the at-the-time only Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, as were two teen heroes from the period, Impulse and Damage.

Oh, and then there was Minion.

Awesome Cosplay Of The Day: Nightwing

Cosplayer Tenraii stuns us all with her beautiful rendition of DC’s Nightwing. Covered from head to toe, she is able to make this look powerful yet sexy. I am in awe. You have to see the captivating photos her and Akyol Photography.

Lessons Learned From Superheroes

We all know “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility”, but what else can we learn from the superheroes?

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #31: The Huntress

Offhand, I could not tell you which Huntress is in this picture.

Superheroes, for the most part, don’t age.  Marvel and DC have their superhero universes set in some sort of sliding scale timeline, where almost everything that’s happened since the superhero line was created somehow only occurred over a ten to twelve year period.  That means that even though there are Fantastic Four comics depicting Reed Richards and Ben Grimm in the trenches of World War II, today neither of those gentlemen are that old.  Aside from a handful of World War II era heroes and villains who have managed to stay active and keep their ties to the war (Captain America, the original Justice Society), or even the rarer other type (Frank Castle is a Vietnam vet), heroes are pulled from eras they existed in to avoid explaining how Batman swings through the streets of Gotham without a walker.

But there are ways to allow heroes to age, and one of them DC used to have was Earth-2.  Originally the home of the Justice Society of America, Earth-2 was the place where the Golden Age heroes did their thing.  And while none of them quite reached the state we’d consider “elderly,” some of them did marry and have children.  One of them was the Earth-2 Batman, and he had a daughter, and oh man, is this one messed up history.