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The first trailer has been released today.

It looks quite good. I like this better than the recent Thor: The Dark World trailers.

Has anyone read the Winter Soldier storyline by Ed Brubaker? He has said some highly positive things of this movie.

Has anyone else seen The Flashpoint Paradox recently? I thought I'd share my thoughts.

The Flashpoint Paradox is about the Flash discovering that he has entered an alternate reality where the entire complexion of the world's heroes and villains have drastically changed, and the world is on the verge of an apocalyptic disaste. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are evil tyrants as they are bringing the entire planet to its knees, while Atlantis and Amazon are in war with each other, because of an affair between the two leaders  ended when Wonder Woman killed Aquaman's wife Mera in self-defense. Flash believes that Professor Zoom, a Reverse-Flash who the Justice League stopped before waking up to this nightmare reality, must have used the Speed Force to go back in time to change something in the past; ultimately distorting reality altogether. For example, Bruce Wayne was killed instead of his parents, and his father Thomas takes the mantle as Batman. This Batman, unlike his son, comes across the costumed equivalent of the Punisher and is always armed with pistols. Superman doesn't crash in Smallville when his ship arrives on Earth; instead his ship crashes in Metropolis and he is taken into custody by the US Government and used for scientific experiments.

Since the word paradox is in the title, I guess I should have anticipated that a lot of changed characters' behaviors changed. But still there was a lot of stuff that made me go "what?!". I'm aware that there had been stories of Aquaman distrusting anyone who lives outside of the ocean world, but changing his profile to an evil warlord was a massive shift. Believe or not, this is the most graphic DC Animated Movie since Dark Knight Returns Pt II. Lots of people get shot at, stabbed and ruthlessly beaten, it may get a little unbearable for the squeamish.

As a film, I didn't care for it and don't really recommend it. The main reason is I admittedly don't care for alternate reality/timeline fiction, but given it was an animated Justice League film I chose to give it a chance. The other JL films, Doom and Crisis on Two Earths were okay albeit unspectacular, but I'd choose either of those than this.

[1. Terminator - Intimacy]

I was looking around YouTube and stumbled across some of the corniest "music videos" and montages I've ever seen for movies made in the eighties. 

1. Terminator - Intimacy

Believe it or not, this nonsense was on the original Terminator soundtrack, sung by some obscure pop singer called Lin Van Hek. For a song called Intimacy, I can't believe this video did not include Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese kissing each other HAHA! It was also the song that Sarah's friend was playing on her Walkman moments before she was killed by the Terminator. I got to say though I no longer find the whole movie to be that chilling because of this music video.

2. Cobra - Angel of the City

This actually isn't a real video clip, but it might as well been.  It was your typical corny 80s montage, containing shots of Stallone as the rogue cop investigating a deranged serial killer while Brigitte Nielsen plays a model doing a photoshoot. 

3. Miami Vice - Heartbeat

Not a movie, but it's just like Cobra with the cheesy montage. If I remember this episode correctly, Don Johnson spends the night in with his girlfriend as fails to keep a lookout for his cop buddy during a stakeout. The guy shows up at Johnson's doorstep the following morning all beaten up, and Johnson feels guilty.  I love Lt Castillo's stare at 1:35. 

4. Batman '89 - Batdance & Partyman

Oh yeah, I couldn't resist showing Prince's videos from B89.  Partyman is gold! 

I decided to read some comics from the Golden Age era in no particular order.

I got to say I enjoy how much I can imagine the quick-talking-snappy dialogue this would've been these stories were adapted for live-action.  Batman did have a habit of making a lot of lame one-liners that is reminiscent of Spider-Man e.g. knocking over a crook against the table and saying "Tch, tch! A gentleman would never rest their hands on the table!"

The stories had a lot of focus on crime, some ordinary that don't involve too many well-known villains from the rogues gallery since most of them haven't been invented yet (Catwoman was only an ordinary thief who didn't even wore a costume, Joker was a serial killing jewel thief). But contrary to what people have said, the comics did contain some pirates, such Batman and Robin fighting pirates or Batman fighting Hugo Strange and his monster-transformed henchmen. I think my favourites would have to be The Joker's first appearances, the Hugo Strange one and the short story of Jimmy McCoy - a rise and fall story of a mobster who meets his end; presumably Bob Kane and Bill Finger's point about how unglamorous life in organized crime is.

[Batman: Assault on Arkham is said to be based on the popular video game franchise, of which has the Batman: Arkham Origins video game coming out later this year.]

If this was already mentioned somewhere else on the forum, please feel free to delete this thread. Otherwise:

Batman: Assault on Arkham Animated Movie Announced & Son Of Batman At Comic-Con

Posted by: Matt McGloin, Editor/Publisher
July 21, 2013 18:42 | Updated: 2 days 8 hours Ago

9656

During the world premiere of the Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox animated movie at Comic-Con, two new Batman animated films were also announced.

Slated for direct release next year, Batman: Assault On Arkham and Son of Batman were announced at the panel.

Batman: Assault on Arkham is said to be based on the popular video game franchise, of which has the Batman: Arkham Origins video game coming out later this year.

The second movie, Son of Batman, is said to be based on the popular arc from the comic book.

Justice League: War was also mentioned coming out in 2014 as well, which was previously announced.

We can obviously see the pattern that Warner Bros. is going with here as they continue to use their big name heroes in all their forms of media.

Announced at Comic-Con is the sequel to the Man of Steel featuring Batman and Superman (as of yet untitled), which joins the new animated series on Cartoon Network with Beware The Batman.

The comic book side of things recently launched new Batman Superman, Superman Unchained, and Superman/Wonder Woman titles.

Source: http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/batman-assault-arkham-animated-movie-announced-son-batman-comic-con

I'm taking this with a huge grain of salt, since it's coming from that guy from Batman-On-Film; from what I read he comes across as biased for his views on Batman movies (maybe a studio plant?).

I've never given the show a proper chance, but the concept about an elderly Bruce Wayne training a rebellious kid, who if I'm not mistaken turns out to be Wayne's younger clone, never appealed to me. It would have to take great casting and some vision if a project like this could ever get me on board. And besides, how would this work in a future Justice League movie with the current Superman?

BATMAN BEYOND A Reboot Possibility for Batman on Film?
July 17, 2013


BOF has heard some whispers that an adaptation of the animated TV series BATMAN BEYOND is on the table when it comes to the upcoming Batman on film reboot.

http://www.batman-on-film.com/BATMAN-REBOOTED_rumor_Batman-Beyond-reboot-possibility_7-17-13.html

I read volume 1 of Superman: Earth One two weeks ago. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Changeling, co-wrote the Thor movie).

It was yet another retelling of Superman's origin, where Clark comes to Metropolis as he considers his career options and seeks to live a normal life. This changes when an alien from another world which rivaled Krypton many years ago arrives, and seeks vengeance against Clark for being Krypton's lone survivor by destroying Earth. There is also a theme about how the print media industry struggles nowadays because of modern-day technology when Clark's application at the Daily Planet was turned down .

I noticed that there were a few striking similarities to Man of Steel. Like the film, this comic contains a lot of flashbacks of Clark's past, some similar to the movie such as his adoptive parents revealing to him about his alien origins, how Clark was bullied as a kid and how was growing up. Then when the villain, Tyrell, arrives on Earth he makes an ultimatum that's expressed in a way that's similar to General Zod's announcement in MOS.



I thought it was an alright book overall, but personally I prefer Batman: Earth One. I'll read volume 2 when I get the chance.

[WARNING:]

Wow, this is the first video I've seen that does not sing the praises of this film at all. One guy, in a snarky smart-ass manner, explains some of the movie's flaws while convincing his friend at the same time. WARNING: Contains some rude language.

Apart from a few absurd comments (Seriously, who the hell would watch a Batman movie and think there would be any sex in it? ), I thought they made some great points, especially the poor action, expository and repetitive dialogue, and Batman's hypocritical moral stance.

I recently read Kingdom Come.

I thought it was an intriguing story, it had a lot of religious references throughout. It's about Superman returning from a ten year exile to lead the rest of the Justice League against a new breed of volatile anti-heroes, while being unaware of an apocalyptic event that is about to come.

Interestingly the creators used the opportunity to take a swipe at modern superhero character design that was common at the time, by having Superman's successor - Magog - looking a little like X-Men's Cable.



In this story, Metropolis embraces Magog after he killed the Joker, who poisoned the whole staff at the Daily Planet to death with smiling gas, including Lois Lane. Superman's popularity falls apart because his moral code is seen not being compatible with the times and villains became more ruthless. But when Magog is embraced, he becomes more and more reckless and dangerous as time passes by - inevitably prompting Superman to return. The dig at Cable, and anti-heroes created at the time, is shown by making Magog share physical similarities i.e. robotic arm, scarred eye and somewhat heavy artillery.

As far as Batman is concerned, Bruce Wayne wears mechanical prosthetics to support his upper body and neck, probably implying that he never recovered from the crippling injury that Bane inflicted upon him. Dick Grayson becomes Red Robin - whose face looks very similar to Michael Keaton.

It looks like that Bryan Singer has cast somebody to play Quicksilver, who is supposed to appear in The Avengers 2. But it looks like Quicksilver may appear in both movies since Fox and Marvel are contractually obligated to do so:

Source: http://www.slashfilm.com/quicksilver-to-appear-in-bryan-singers-x-men-days-of-future-past-and-joss-whedons-the-avengers-2/

Here is a screenshot of a tweet that Singer has now deleted.



Just how many characters is this film going to have exactly? At this rate, this film is going to be just another mess just like the last three films. I didn't care for First Class that much either, primarily because it nobody could make up their minds on whether or not if it was a prequel or a reboot; more confusion and contradiction in the franchise's continuity.

I've found this analysis that a blogger posted almost six years ago, arguing how Burton's approach to adapting Batman on film is better than Nolan's, which he unapologetically despises. Amongst other things he criticizes includes how Hollywood copies the same formula in many superhero films, i.e. Superman Returns (or as colors calls it, Singerman  ).

Some of Burton's reasoning for hiring Keaton in the lead role are quoted here too:

"I looked at actors who were more the fan image of Batman, but I felt it was such an uninteresting way to go...Taking someone like Michael and making him Batman supported the whole split personality idea...He has a lot going on inside him, there's an explosive side; he has a temper and a great amount of anger - that was exactly the Bruce Wayne character, and not some unknown, handsome, strong hunk."

"...The thing that kept going through my mind when I saw these action-adventure hero types come into the office was, 'I just can't see them putting on a bat-suit. I can't see it.' I was seeing these big macho guys, and then thinking of them with pointy eyes, and it was 'Why would this big, macho, Arnold Schwarzenegger-type person dress up as a bat for God's sake?'...I'd worked with Michael before and so I thought he would be perfect, because he's got that look in his eye...It's like that guy you could see putting on a bat-suit; he does it because he needs to, because he's not this gigantic, strapping macho man. It's all about transformation..."

Sources:
http://cinemachine.blogspot.com.au/2007/05/burton-batman-and-superhero-flicks-part.html
http://cinemachine.blogspot.com.au/2007/05/burton-batman-and-superhero-flicks-part_27.html

First trailer is out now:

Looks decent, but it didn't wow me.

I'm not sure if this was ever shown on this forum, but I found this behind-the-scenes featurette from another forum where Schumacher, O'Donnell, Kilmer, and Clooney express their regrets how the fourth movie turned out.

There were some comments being said I'm sure had been discussed here many times, but I thought Clooney showing his respect towards Keaton for being an icon as Batman was a highlight; including how Clooney admitting to feeling unsure of himself that he could ever rival Keaton or even Kilmer before he took the role...which sadly he turned out to be right in many respects.

I've been reading a few stories from the 1970s - mostly stuff by Dennis O'Neil and Steven Englehart. Beside the goofy exposition here and there, I think this is probably my favorite decade for Batman comics. I can never get over the classic art, especially by Marshall Rogers.

Some of favorites at the moment are The Laughing Fish and Sign of the Joker stories - where the Joker poisons fish with smiling gas in a misguided attempted to get them trademarked, until a legislator told him that nobody can copyright fish because they're a natural resource. The Joker's reasoning is he if Colonel Sanders can trademark chicken, there he be allowed to trademark fish! And there is the love interest who figures out Batman's identity, but decides it would be best to go their separate ways to prevent heartbreaking tragedy should it happen to either of them.

But surprisingly, the stories in this decade aren't always cheerful like in the '60s, there's still a fair amount of dark moments here and there i.e. Joker poisoning copyright  legislators to death with smiling gas, Rupert Thorne has Hugo Strange beaten to death for not revealing Batman's identity. I'm still confused about why many people think the 1980s is considered to be the first decade that introduced darkness in comics...unless they mean it was the first decade where comics were nothing but grim & gritty? 

I read The Killing Joke three years ago, so I'd like to share my thoughts:

I thought it was a rather good story. I liked how the Joker's backstory was told and then it was muddled when he admits to telling different stories about his past - "the multiple choice". Totally demonstrates his sick sense of humour.

I got to say though; did anyone else get the impression that the events that "supposedly" happened in the Joker's backstory might have had some truth behind it? In the end, Joker looked rather remorseful when Batman tried to offer him a chance for rehabilitation, but he apologetically rejects it because he thought it was too late - as if he knew his crimes were too unforgivable. In this story, I always thought the Joker wanted to be understood so badly about losing his mind after "one bad day" that he believed driving a sane man like Gordon crazy would get people to see where he was coming from. I guess one could say that Batman and Joker are two opposites of each other despite
both having similar tragedies; the former endures his grief over the loss of parents but takes it as a motivation to fight off crime for the good of the city, the latter loses his mind completely and tries to demonstrate his point about how worthless life is.

One thing that bothered me about this book though is the violence. I've always had a hard time getting through the Joker's assault on Barbara Gordon, and even the assault on Commissioner Gordon at the theme park where he had to endure enlarged photographs of his bloodied, naked daughter. Ugh. Frank Miller, ear your heart out. Even Alan Moore admits to feeling uncomfortable with it.

[2:09]

I remember this, the Super Tiny Toons parody of the on-set filming of Batman Returns, including poking fun at Sean Young!

The damn video missing a few scenes though - the part where Batman beats up goons and pokes his tongue at them.

Starts on 2:09 though, and sound volume will need to be adjusted

I recently picked up and read this crossover made 10 years ago.

I think it's by far the best crossover I've read so far, at least as far as these two big comic companies are concerned. It's about how Krona and Grandmaster bet against the two big teams from their own universes in what is basically a treasure hunt of various important items (i.e. Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet, DC's Lantern Corps Power Battery). The JLA and the Avengers are told of their mission and crossover to each others worlds, and both condemn the others' impact on their universes. For example, Superman is disgusted at how ineffective the Avengers are at preventing disasters like mutant genocide and stopping dictators like Dr Doom, while Captain America regards all the DC heroes as fascists, who demand admiration from an impressionable public.

After the JLA win the tie, Krona is about to raise hell because of his insistence on discovering all of the universe's secrets, until Marvel's and DC's universes are merged into one, as both teams have their memories and histories altered by believing they were close allies.

My favorite is when Grandmaster reveals all of the main heroes' tragic events happening in their lives, including Batman grieving Robin's death and getting injured by Bane, Superman dying after fighting Doomsday, Iron Man's struggle with alcoholism, Aquaman losing his hand etc.

[digital-first]

DC Announces 1966 'Batman' Comic By Jeff Parker, Jonathan Case and Michael Allred

   
Mar 22nd 2013 By: Chris Sims


 
Finally, after forty-five years, writers across the country have a good reason to drop "Biff! Pow!" into their headlines again. After finally settling licensing issues last year and paving the way for toys and merchandise based on the classic Adam West Batman show, DC will be publishing a new digital-first Batman '66 series by Jeff Parker and Eisner-winning artist Jonathan Case, with covers by Michael Allred.

The Batman '66-inspired stories are scheduled to hit Comixology and the DC app this summer, where they'll join their fellow TV-inspired properties, Smallville Season 11 and Arrow, along with the digital-first Legends of the Dark Knight and Adventures of Superman, for which Parker is also writing a story.

While specific storyline information has yet to be revealed, Parker did confirm to ComicsAlliance that, like the show, the first Special Guest Villain of the comic will be the Riddler, with Catwoman also appearing to challenge the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. He even provided us with one of Case's sketches for the product, featuring a Frank Gorshin-inspired version of the Riddler:

Stories that referenced the look of the classic Batman show haven't exactly been all that rare over the past few years -- Mike Allred's issue of Solo was to come with a cover of the '60s-style Batman dancing the Batusi (the published version featured Donna Troy in the same pose), Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Batman/Planetary featured multiple versions of Batman that included a West-inspired cameo that fought with Bat-Sleep gas from his utility belt, and the iconic, George Barris-designed Batmobile has made cameos all over the place. This, though, is the first time DC has gone with a full-on '66 aesthetic for a full series.

Case, a studio-mate of Parker's in Portland's Periscope Studios, hasn't done work for DC before, but his clean, expressive style and the eye-popping colors being used for the promo art make a pretty solid fit for Batman '66's world of Dutch angles and deathtraps.

Details have yet to be released on whether the series will be ongoing, but one hopes that it'll at least run long enough for the return of Surf Jams Joker.

Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/22/batman-classic-tv-series-comic-jeff-parker-jonathan-case-michael-allred/#ixzz2OKEPjudj

Digital format, huh? Should be interesting. I can imagine the die hard "darker" Batman fans must be spitting bile over this news. 

I found this user editorial on comicbookmovie.com about Batman's non-killing "moral code":

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ImTheGoodGuy/news/?a=75847

I've seen a lot of people making conflicting arguments about how they're either in favor or against the idea of Batman killing. Some argue it would be logical for him to kill only the worst kind of villains (i.e. Joker and Zsasz) for the sake of saving lives, while others argue killing would only make him just as bad as the villains he confronts, regardless of the circumstances.

The problem I have with the moral code is it feels contrived. It was an excuse to ensure children could be allowed to read comics because of censorship back in the 1940s, while at the same time making sure that Joker and major villains never get killed off forever. A lot of fans argue that Batman's code separates himself from his enemies, and even use this to argue that it what makes him "human" and "relatable". It's all well and good if it's only for the sake of escapism, but the problem is the stories are becoming more violent, darker, humorless and even desperately trying to be "realistic". Unfortunately, black and white morality doesn't always work like that in real life. There are times when using lethal force is necessary if the circumstances are that dire, and unfortunately most Batman stories nowadays constantly remind me of that. There's got to be a better way to explain why Batman can't kill, without making him look reprehensible for keeping the worst killers alive at the expense of innocent people.

Thoughts?