Within the last few decades Batman has been defined by the villains he faces more than just about any other character in comics. He has a gallery of nemeses that are more recognizable to the average person than any two or three heroes combined. Among that collection of foes, one stands head and shoulders among the rest, The Clown Prince of Crime: The Joker.
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Archive for the ‘DC’ Category
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**This piece was originally published on the website Action A Go Go, but it originated as something on here, so I reposted. Enjoy!**
I try to steer clear of movies or shows that are considered “controversial” in fan circles. I mean, we can all (mostly) agree that Jonah Hex is pretty crappy and X2 is pretty sweet, right? That being said, there’s one movie that I continually see as a point of contention in the comic movie fan community. The film Man of Steel has become somewhat of a lightning rod for fandom’s worst qualities. I see people attack it for every reason under the yellow sun. From the color of Superman’s costume, to the fact that it doesn’t use the John Williams score from the Donner series. And I also see people defend everything about it, even things that wouldn’t be acceptable in other movies, like shoddy CGI or obvious plot-holes.
Pictured: SUBTLETY!!!!!!!!
CBM Profile: DC Heroes
Posted: January 21, 2016 in CBM Profile, DC, UncategorizedTags: Arrow, CBM Profile, DC, Justice League, Supergirl
This profile is going to be a little different than others that have been posted. Instead of focusing on one character or team, I’m going to look at a few different DC heroes who have had a limited presence in expanded media. None of them have had enough of an impact to carry their own profile, so I’m combining. Enjoy!
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Wonder Woman (2011 unaired pilot)
Posted: October 29, 2015 in DC, Wonder WomanTags: DC, Wonder Woman
Why is Wonder Woman seemingly so hard to adapt? She’s one of DC’s trinity of main characters (alongside Superman and Batman) but is the only one to not have a live-action film franchise, let alone multiple which the other 2/3’s have. In fact, the last truly successful depiction of the character in expanded media (that didn’t share billing with some other hero) was way back in the 70’s with Linda Carter in the lead. Since then, there have been attempts at brining her to the big screen with Joss Whedon’s failure in 2005-06 being the most notable. A live-action television series based on the Wonder Woman comic suffered the same fate of constant re-writes and non-starts until 2010 when David E. Kelly got a pilot commissioned at NBC.
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COMMENTARYCAST: Batman (1989 DVD)
Posted: September 26, 2015 in Batman, CommentaryCast, DCTags: Batman, CommentaryCast, DC
It’s very hard to really appreciate what a momentous film Batman was without actually living through it. In 1989, I was in kindergarten and was completely caught up in the Batmania that was gripping the world. For the first time in my life, I could go to the store and find an entire row of toys based on Batman (and Joker and…Bob the goon?) and every kind of tie-in and cash-grab imaginable. These days, that sort of thing is common place, it’s even strange if a comic book movie doesn’t have a bunch of advertising. In that way, Batman was very ahead of its time. In many, many other ways it’s still a product of the late 80’s. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s fairly dated and not nearly as beholden to the character as modern interpretations. As such, it’s kind of fun to look at it from a historical perspective and see just how much the character has changed over the course of two and a half decades. With that, enjoy Brian and I talking through Batman. Also, don’t forget the trivia question! Or do…I’d rather not have to come up with a prize.
Swamp Thing (1982 film)
Posted: September 2, 2015 in DC, Swamp Thing, VertigoTags: DC, Swamp Thing, Vertigo
In memory of Wes Craven, who recently passed away, I decided to take a look back at Swamp Thing, an early (and, at the time, DC’s only) attempt at adapting a horror comic book. It’s difficult to evaluate this film on its own merits for me. I am a big fan of the mystical universe established in DC’s Vertigo imprint, and that universe was created in the Swamp Thing comics of the time that this film was released. This movie retains very little of the flair and sophistication of those stories. Regardless, it has a definite love for the source material and despite a limited budget and an unintended tendency toward silliness, it manages to treat the story and it’s lead seriously.
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This was originally written in the Spring of 2009 and it was rediscovered after discussing it with Brian Baer during a CommentaryCast recording recently. I figured it would be worth posting on here, due to the subject matter.
Amen, Doc.
PANEL TO PIXELS: Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (2003 video games)
Posted: August 18, 2015 in Aquaman, DCTags: Andrew, Aquaman, DC, Panel to Pixels
**Andrew Prenger wrote this article about his favorite worst game ever made. Of course one of DC’s worst video games was based on Aquaman. If they won’t take him seriously, how do they expect us to? Anyway, enjoy!**
PILOT LITE: 2014-2015 Season in Review
Posted: June 30, 2015 in Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, Constantine, Daredevil, DC, Flash, Gotham, iZombie, Legends of Tomorrow, Lucifer, Marvel, Powers, Preacher, Supergirl, Vertigo, Walking DeadTags: Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, Constantine, Daredevil, DC, Flash, Gotham, iZombie, Legends of Tomorrow, Lucifer, Marvel, Powers, Preacher, Supergirl, Vertigo, Walking Dead
The 2014/15 television season has become well known as the season of the comic book television series. While we used to be content with the occasional Smallville or Birds of Prey (ok, no one was content with Birds of Prey), it’s now possible to watch comic book programming 5 nights a week (or more thanks to DVR). While most of these shows have been ratings successes, I’ve been looking at them on my own scale of general artistry and adaptation. To me, not all of them have been stellar, but it’s certainly been interesting to watch them grow, regardless.
COMMENTARYCAST: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003 DVD)
Posted: June 8, 2015 in ABC, CommentaryCast, DC, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vertigo
It could be argued (correctly) that this shouldn’t count as a DC comics film. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was originally published by ABC Comics in 1997. The first two volumes have recently been acquired by DC’s mature imprint Vertigo. So it’s not really a DC comic, but we really wanted to watch it next…so there. This movie has some degree of infamy and not just because it’s a fairly crappy adaptation of the source material. It had an incredibly troubled production involving natural disasters and cast/crew in-fighting which lead to both the director and star retiring from film-making and citing this film as the reason. Add to it a complicated legal battle involving plagiarism and it’s a wonder it even got released. It’d been a while since I had seen this movie and my strong negative sentiment toward it has definitely chilled a bit. For your listening/viewing pleasure, here’s our discussion of LXG (don’t call it that -Brian)…
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Comic Book Media 