Batman (created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane)

[Mongrel]

[beatbandito]

Have they done Batman where Bruce is just hallucinating his staff of like 20 as Alfred and they all just deal with it?

[Thad]

Not that I know of, but the best story in Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? was about how all the rogues were just Alfred's old acting troupe and he'd sent them out to give Bruce something to do with his life.

The story was written by Neil Gaiman but evidently the idea was Kurt Busiek's. Which makes sense; it's a Busiek kind of idea.

[Büge]

also, this

[Thad]

Dreams in Darkness: For an episode that doesn't reveal its villain until the last act, it sure plays his leitmotif a lot before the reveal.

Robin's Reckoning: I'm sure I've noticed before that Tony Zucco's uncle in the flashback is the same crime boss who gives himself up in It's Never Too Late, but I guess I just keep forgetting because it was a surprise on this rewatch.

[Thad]

I just watched "The Laughing Fish" and the whole time I was thinking "You know, in the wake of Monstanto v Schmeiser, the idea of the Joker modifying the local fish population and then asking for royalties doesn't seem quite so absurd anymore."

[Thad]

You know, the Batman: TAS disc order (which is more-or-less the production order) is better than the broadcast order in most ways, but it's got its share of issues.

Making "Christmas with the Joker" the second episode means it's the first time we see Summer Gleeson; she's introduced as one of the Joker's hostages (alongside Gordon and Bullock, who both already appeared in the previous episode) with no explanation of who she is. There should be another episode introducing her first.

The first two Mad Hatter episodes, "Mad as a Hatter" and "Perchance to Dream", feel too close together; there are only two episodes between them. It's less obvious in the original DVD release because one of them is at the end of vol 1 and the other is at the beginning of vol 2, but when you've got them all in a single-volume release it kinda stands out. It's one thing for the Joker to be in 3 of the first 9 episodes; he's the Joker. The Mad Hatter only has 3 appearances in the entire series; it's weird having the first 2 that close together.

Putting "Heart of Steel" right after "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne" means we've got two episodes in a row where the villain discovers Batman's secret identity.

And this one has bugged me since the DVD release -- New Batman Adventures kicks off with "Holiday Knights", which clearly happens after "Sins of the Father" (the episode that introduces Tim Drake) and "Growing Pains" (which establishes that nobody's seen Clayface since "Mudslide", meaning it happens before his appearance in "Holiday Knights").

[Thad]

It also puts the episode where he fights this guy

immediately after the one where he fights this guy


Both episodes involve mad scientists, have scenes at the Gotham Zoo featuring the same zookeeper, and end with a shot of the monster in silhouette against the moon. I think they should maybe have spaced them out a little.

On the plus side, this order meant I already had an episode based on a Neal Adams comic cued up when I heard he'd passed.

[beatbandito]

First looking at that with a "haha, bottom one looks so silly compared to top", but then I remembered the bottom guy and that sad, weird story. And I still have no idea who the top one is.

[Upthorn]

They were probably hoping you'd think it was your fault for accidentally putting the same episode on twice in a row.

[Thad]

Other stuff you notice on a re-watch:


(Screencap via Tor)

Hopey cameo!

(Are any of the rest of the people on the bus supposed to be anybody? I'm sure the names in the heart must be a reference to something.)

Also: man it's weird in hindsight that the Penguin gets to just walk around with a cigarette in his mouth, in a cartoon that changed Bullock's cigars to toothpicks. I guess it's probably because it's not easily identifiable as a cigarette, because nobody's actually used one of those old-timey filter things outside a cartoon since the 1960s, and it's never actually lit?

[Büge]

[Thad]

[KingRoyal]

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

Finally got around to watching The Batman.

I really liked about the first 2/3 of it. I didn't feel like the last act really brought everything together in a satisfying way. But I liked the murder mystery angle and it's nice to finally see a Batman movie focus on his detective skills.

Visually I didn't find it as distinct as some of the past efforts, but I liked the batsuit with the separate collared cape a lot. (Whose design is that? I'm pretty sure I've seen a similar design in the comics, maybe a Gary Frank or John Cassaday look, but I can't quite place it.) And I'm pretty impressed by the makeup department managing to make Colin Farrell look exactly like the Arkham City version of Penguin.

I think it depicted Batman's no-killing morality better than most of the other movies have (with none of Nolan's "that doesn't mean I have to save you" rules-lawyering). Pattinson did a solid job under the cowl; he feels a lot like Keaton, but I like Keaton so I don't think that's much of a criticism. Bruce didn't feel sufficiently distinct from Batman, but that's not his fault, it's a writing decision, and given that they seem to have a multi-film character arc in mind maybe we'll see him develop his public face more in the sequel.

Great cast all around. I've got mixed feelings about this take on the Riddler -- "make him the Zodiac Killer" is the kind of thing that would have been brilliantly subversive in the '80s but I'm so burnt-out on that kind of thing at this point -- but Paul Dano did a fantastic job with it. Zoe Kravitz feels more like comics Catwoman than any of the past live-action versions. Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro -- just a great cast all around.

I'm ready for a lighter take on Batman, but if dark Batman is what sells movie tickets, we could do a lot worse than this movie. And have.

[Thad]

[Thad]

Batman: The Adventures Continue continues with Season 3, and hot damn the art by Jordan Gibson looks good and the colors by Monica Kubina look amazing.

As for the writing, it's perfectly decent but didn't blow me away. I kinda like that Dini and Burnett focus this one on new and minor villains that don't seem to be toy-company mandates, and it's a done-in-one story; I think it's a refreshing break from the Red Hood and Court of Owls stories in the last couple volumes, but it's not exactly their best work, either. I'd probably consider it fine-but-forgettable if not for the colors; I look forward to more of Kubina's work and think she has a bright career ahead of her.

There's a nice full-page dedication to Kevin Conroy, too, which I appreciated seeing.

[Thad]

God damn if Batman: TAS' The Demon's Quest isn't one of the best comic book adaptations I've ever seen. Particularly part 1, which is pretty much a straight-across adaptation by Denny O'Neil of the comic (by O'Neil and Neal Adams). There aren't a lot of changes, and most of them are improvements -- there's no need to explain what Batman's doing back at Wayne Manor like in the comic (which was written during the period he was living in a penthouse downtown), and dropping the narration results in a smoother show-don't-tell approach. (Most notably, in the comic, the scene where Batman confirms that Ra's al Ghul is setting him up -- because the one time Ubu doesn't stop him from walking ahead of Ra's is when he's walking into a trap -- there's a hokey caption to the effect of "The Batman has figured out something important! Have you?" whereas in the cartoon Batman just gives a little smirk.)

I'd say the one thing that works better in the comic is Robin's age -- he's younger in the original story, and I think a story that opens with Robin taken hostage and held for several days as bait works a lot better if he's still a kid than if he's college-age.

And from what I understand "Raysh" is a mispronunciation and "Ra's" should be pronounced exactly how it looks. Ah well, it was harder to look stuff like that up in the '90s, let alone the '70s.

...and I'd be remiss if I didn't note how damn good David Warner was as Ra's. Andrea Romano sure knew how to cast 'em.

[Thad]

His Silicon Soul is the best thing Skir and Isenberg have ever done.