The Dark Knight Returns.....Again

Evening peeps! I know I've been a bit slow in releasing new posts, its just a bit hard to find the time. When I do have time I don't know what to write about, so I end up playing Playstation or reading comics so that I have something to write about. Then  I have no time to write because I've been gaming and reading. Anyway no such problem today as there is a guest writer today!

Helena Jidborg Alexander has this to say on Batman:

I have a complicated relationship with comic book films, well I should suspect a lot of us do. I love it when they get it right, but when they get it wrong, man do they get it wrong. Batman has most likely suffered this more than most.  I first saw Batman in the form of the very campy 60's TV show when I was around 10 years old. Even then it seemed a bit silly to me. Little did I know that Batman had started out as a very dark and not afraid to kill vigilante character many years earlier.

As I young teen I rented with excitement the 1989 Batman film by Tim Burton and then my love for Batman was born. I sat through the sequel and loved that, but I fell out of love again with the two following Joel Schumacher films. About 7 years after I watched the horribleness that was Batman and Robin a workmate told me I really needed to read the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. We had been talking about Superman and how neither of us was really a fan. Back then I wasn't really that in to comics, I had read Watchmen and been blown away and my work mate had just lent me some Sin City. And I guess he wanted to further my education. It is safe to say that the Dark Knight Returns was a turning point for me and was the catalyst of me starting to read more and more comics.

The Dark Knight Returns came somewhat as a turning point for Batman as well, he had after the Adam West TV series turned rather campy in the comic too and after the TV series was cancelled the sales of the comic started failing. So in stepped Frank Miller and created what I can only describe as one of the best comics ever.

The premise of the Dark Knight Returns is an aged Batman forcing himself out of retirement as Gotham is falling apart. He has to battle his old foes such as Two Face and the Joker. The latter snapping his own neck in order to implicate Batman in "murder". Batman also gets a female Robin in the form of a 13 year old called Carrie. But the story that interested me the most is his battle with Superman.

Superman no longer of secret Clark Kent identity is working as an agent for the government and during a mission he cocks up a bit and makes a nuclear missile crash, causing the US to be hit by an electromagnetic pulse creating a blackout (well he did save people too I suppose, he didn't just mess up). Cue a lot of loitering and chaos all over the US. In Gotham Batman takes charge and keeps the city running with help from some former foe gang calling themselves Sons of Batman. The government finds it very embarrassing that Gotham is doing so well and sends Superman to deal with Batman. I won't give away the ending because you really need to pick this comic up if you haven’t read it.

You see with this new Superman vs Batman film coming up, which is said to be influenced by the Dark Knight Returns I do worry that they might cock it all up again. After all, Batman got good again with the Nolan silver screen incarnations after Schumacher had caused the franchise to nosedive yet again. So this film following on from the Man of Steel and then (if it is indeed going ahead) leading onto a Justice League film I keep on seeing flashing warning signs (big exclamation marks carried around by George Clooney). But hey, let's give ‘em a chance shall we? Meanwhile if you haven't already I urge you to read the Dark Knight Returns because I suspect Batman may never be better than this.

Helena Jidborg Alexander is a web editor from originally from Sweden but now living in the UK. She is a Whedonverse obsessed nerd who spends most of her time online, reading comics or watching clever TV series. Married to someone she met in 1998 known as Deckard in an #industrial IRC channel, they now have two sons, Tycho and Huxley. Loves a really good TV-series, blippy music, Sushi, A.M Homes books, Heidy Kenney Urban Vinyl figures and comic book heroines. Find her on Twitter under the name Hyperism.

When Will The Dead Stay Dead?

I've just finished issue 3 of Marvel's latest event, Original Sin, and it has got me thinking about death in comics. It seems to me that unless your name is Thomas and Martha Wayne, Uncle Ben or Gwen Stacey, then death is never the end.

If you look at the Marvel 616 universe Jean Grey has died something like 14 times! Xavier is not far behind either. Recently we have had Nightcrawler and Peter Parker come back from the dead and with Marvel planning to kill Wolverine this year how long until he is back?

Maybe with the death in Original Sin things might change and people will stay dead. It would have more of an impact when it does happen and story lines could build up some genuine fear for the safety of our favourite supes. But we all know that money talks and the cash sure does roll in when its announced a hero will die and it rolls in again when they come back.

Marvel vs DC: The Movie

 I am a Marvel fanboy and the only DC stuff I've read is Batman. Now that's out of the way you can see I might be slightly biased and take anything I say that you don't agree with, with a pinch of salt.

The Avengers movie was a game changer. That moment when Nick Fury told Stark he was a part of a bigger universe, Marvel had started the long game. To be fair it was a big risk, if the films that followed Iron Man flopped only the hardcore comic book fans would've gone to see The Avengers. But as we all know, it worked. All the pieces fell into place and the MCU was born. The Avengers was a box office hit and the millions rolled in.

The kerching from The Avengers cash registers were heard by the big wigs at Warner Bros. They had the rights to make DC movies but only Batman was doing well. They tried to make Superman return but it fell flat. Next they tried Green Lantern and the less said about that, the better. All the while the Dark Knight was rising. Only Batman seemed to work and Chris Nolan had decided to bring that to a close. With no more Batman and Harry Potter also wrapping up, WB had no long-running franchise left. Cue Man of Steel.

Now I find no other superhero as boring as I find Superman. I see him as an overpowered boy scout from outer space.  With that said MoS was an okay film, so that coming from me must mean it's a good film. The money backed this statement up. So WB now have the base to build a new franchise.

At comic-con 2013 Superman v Batman was announced. Since then it has evolved into the start of the Justice League with the new subtitle Dawn of Justice added. It's now clear Warner is not going to follow Marvel and do solo films, they are clearly going to concentrate on the Justice League. This is probably the best approach looking at their history of solo films and I'm personally looking forward to it.

One last thing I've yet to talk about: Batfleck. Now I know this was a hot topic when it was first announced and I just want to put my two cents in on the subject. I have a good feeling about it. Now I know Affleck has got poor form when it comes to superheroes with his previous in Daredevil but he is a good actor. Don't believe me? Check out Argo and Hollywoodland. Besides he did the best he could with Daredevil, it wasn't all his fault the movie was poo. For me this casting has echos of Heath Ledger with the Joker. When that casting was revealed, I was not happy that the guy from 10 Things I Hate About You was going to portray my all time favourite villain, especially after Jack Nicholson had already put in a fantastic turn in the role. But Ledger ended up being the definitive Joker in my mind and completely stole the whole film.

So in summary: WB could be onto a winner with the road map they have for their films and the casting of Batfleck. This will keep Marvel on their toes and a little healthy competition never hurt anyone.

Number two (snigger)

So the difficult 2nd post. Where to start? Maybe give a brief outline of the stuff this blog will probably cover and a bit of my history with it.

Video Games

Gaming has been in my life for a long long time. The earliest gaming machine I had was a Commodore 64. That should tell you how long I've been gaming. I'm now rocking the PS4, PS3 and Vita. I'm working my way through my PS3 back catalogue at the moment since there is a lack of good PS4 games out there that I haven't already played. Currently I'm playing Batman: Arkham Origins and it has carried on the tradition of the Arkham games being awesome. I was concerned when I heard Rocksteady were not making this game but WB Game Montreal have done a good job with the foundations they were given. There is not a lot of differences from the last games, but when the last games were so good, more of the same is just fine. Now it turns out Rocksteady have been busy building Arkham for the next gen (or is it current gen now?) and it looks like all their hard work is going to pay off.

Comics

I've only just started really collecting comics in the past 2 years, but I have had a love for superheroes since the 90's when the X-Men and Spider-man cartoons were on the Saturday morning tv show "Live and Kicking". These shows were the first introduction to serialised television as well as Marvel comics that I'd had. The animation was the best, but the story lines were well written and kept you coming back for more.They dealt with themes that other shows might have thought were too mature for younger audiences. For example the X-Men having to deal with fear and hatred from the people they were trying to protect. Mutants being rounded up and put into camps with echos of the Holocaust. These were not your average stories on a Saturday morning. The crossover was also brought to my attention when the X-Men turned up in Spider-Man. Never before had my two favourite shows been meshed together in one shared universe. Who knew that years down the line Marvel would do it again on a grander scale?

I tried collecting single issues of comics back then but was too impatient (and poor) to wait and keep buying monthly. So I stopped buying comics, but still followed anything to do with them. Once I got a full time job, someone introduced me to graphic novels and trade paper backs. That was me sold and I started collecting them. Now I'm on single issues and I'm slowly losing space.

That's the 2nd post done. Feel free to chat in the comments because I'd love to build a community here, might even set up a Facebook group if it takes off well. You guys could also suggest topics for future posts.