5 out of 5

He was thought dead. The laughter was supposed to have ended.

But evil never dies.

The Joker is back!

His mission? Why, give Gotham a wedgy again!

But this Gotham is different than the one the Joker left behind. It’s a new Gotham with a new Batman.

Plenty of surprises abound in this thrilling chapter in the Batman Beyond universe.

This movie is brilliant, pure and simple.

I’ve seen both the regular and the uncut versions of this film and it’s the uncut version that’s being reviewed here (the regular is virtually the same and has only a few altered scenes).

The uncut version doesn’t hold back and isn’t sensitive to the viewer’s eyes. This one’s much more violent than the regular version. In the original release, certain events were only implied. In this one, they are shown. (If anything, I was surprised at how graphic this cartoon was compared to the Batman Beyond and Batman: TAS episodes.)

Ah, yes, the joys of direct-to-DVD releases.

The Batman in Batman Beyond, Terry McGinnis, is real. You care about him, you relate to him. You want to be him even when the tension mounts between him and his mentor, Bruce Wayne.

The Joker’s nasty in this and once more Mark Hamill, with that creepy laugh of his, reminds us why he was born to play the Joker. The dialogue, the jokes—utterly fantastic!

The story is stellar, with multiple plots going on at once. It also answers the questions you have about the fate of the characters from Batman: TAS, which had a series finale that fell flat. (It was just another episode, really.)

The first time I saw this film I couldn’t believe what happened to one of the Bat regulars. It still blows me away every time I see it.

Wow.

Language warning: Blasphemy

I thought Batman would live somewhere exotic. I was never a Gotham fan, cost of living too high for my standards, and a little dark and depressing. I pegged Batman for someplace warm, beachy, but with a cool cave for hiding all the high-tech stuff he relies upon. But no, he likes Times Square. Maybe he loves 24-hour induced daylight? Tourists? Sbarro pizza? Or that guy in the diaper with the guitar?
I can’t explain it, but there he is.

He also likes my wife. Get in line buddy, everyone likes her.

One second we were looking for an overpriced meal, and then suddenly, there he was, my wife in his arms.
“Just make sure she’s back by the 8am trade show start time,” I yelled trying to melt into the crowd.

Lucky for me I had my trusty, 15-year-old point and shoot with built in flash. NAILED it.

Other folks said, “Wait, wait, wait,” as they blasted through frame after frame on their cell phones or digi-point and shoots trying like Hell to get something to turn out.

“Wait, how do I turn on the flash?”

“Wait, how do I turn OFF the flash?”

“Wait, it’s all blown out.”

“Wait, it’s too dark.”

“Wait, how do I turn on the video?”

“Wait, my card is full, I need to erase something.”

“Wait, my battery is dead.”

“Wait, the delay is killing me, I keep missing it.”

Poor Batman. His muscled arms trembling, sweat forming on his brow, his cool suit starting to itch. I could read his mind, “Come on people, get it together, for the love of Robin.”

“Wait, my phone doesn’t have a flash.”

“Wait, it’s blown out again.”

Defeated. Low. Exhausted. Wife firmly planted back on terra firma. A swoop of the cape and he was gone, a little of my cash in his trembling hand. Defeated by the technology, but cemented on tiny grains of silver.

This was a poignant moment for me and for the Caped Crusader. He was cool. He is cool. But I felt a tinge of sadness.

Nobody should have to work that hard for any decisive moment.

Real Name:
Aliases:
Occupation:
Group Affiliation:
Height: | Weight:
Eyes: | Hair:

Known Powers:
Special Skills:
Weapons:

History:

Let’s be friends: Check out my blog and other social media spots. – SHAZAM

Real Name:
Aliases:
Occupation:
Group Affiliation:
Height: | Weight:
Eyes: | Hair:

Known Powers:
Special Skills:
Weapons:

History:

Let’s be friends: Check out my blog and other social media spots. – SHAZAM

:

Let’s be friends: Check out my blog and other social media spots. – SHAZAM

The world can’t exist without the Avengers. At least, the world in Marvel Comics can’t. After Brian Michael Bendis’s destruction of the Avengers in Avengers Disassembled, a lot of Marvel fans were upset. I was one of them. If you haven’t read that book, go read it and see if you’re upset too.

At any rate, any reconstruction of the Avengers was going to have to be a lot different. Marvel Comics chose to take their powerhouses, basically the guys who sold the most comics, and pair them with personal hero favorites of Bendis. That list includes Luke Cage and Spider-Woman. Granted, Bendis has made these characters pull their weight in the strip, but fans wouldn’t have expected them to be in the ranks of the Avengers before.

Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Wolverine are high rollers in the comics game. Putting them in the series makes good sense on some levels. Captain America and Iron Man have both been Avengers before. They have a history. And both of them have worked with Spider-Man and Wolverine on other occasions.

In the original Avengers comics, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby also gathered their heavy hitters from the 1960s that weren’t on a team and brought them together to chase down the Hulk, who was on a mad rampage inspired by Loki. The heroes had to band together to defeat a menace no one else could deal with.

That’s the setup in Breakout. But Bendis weaves in a lot of plot points that he’s going to touch on in future volumes of this new series. Matt Murdock (Daredevil) is on hand when Electro manages to bust everyone out of an island prison. We get some really good set pieces of some of the characters before they plunge into the fight. In fact, Bendis does a few quick double backs with each issue collected in the graphic novel to turn back time and pick up story threads from before the action breaks out.

And the action is fast and furious. Readers get to see a ton of old foes at their best. One of my favorite scenes was the confrontation between Luke Cage and the Purple Man. Anyone who’s read Alias, another Bendis created comic, knows that Luke has a HUGE bone to pick with the Purple Man.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this graphic novel is the introduction of the Sentry. He’s purportedly the most powerful superhero in existence, yet the world doesn’t remember him. And he’s in prison for murdering his wife. Bendis deals with that plot line in the second arc of the series.

The aftermath of the prison break ends up with Captain America and Iron Man reaching an agreement to bring the Avengers back in some form. Following up on leads established from the investigation regarding the breakout, this new group journeys down to the Savage Land and confronts a conspiracy they hadn’t expected. They also meet up with Wolverine.

I enjoy Bendis’s portrayal of characters and the dialogue that flips back and forth between them. I had a blast watching Luke Cage and Spider-Man mix it up with verbal sparring. The bit about Luke getting his hands spider webbed so he could fight Electro was priceless. David Finch and Danny Miki handle the art chores and do quite well on the pages. When I finished the book, I went back through for the fight scenes and some of the character specific art just for another look.

The New Avengers is off to a good start and I’m enjoying the series. These guys may not be your dad’s Avengers, or the Avengers you grew up with, but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a dull moment around them.

He is the Dark Knight. He is the winged vigilante, the greatest superhero in all of the comic book world.

And he is dead.

So goes the plot of Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? a follow up to this year’s Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison.  Gaiman, the comic book genius behind the ever-popular Sandman series, penned this eulogy as a way to say goodbye, a love story to his first comic book hero.

In a short, but complete introduction to the graphic novel, Gaiman describes that his love of Batman is as “one loves a parent.” In what is ultimately every fan’s chance to say goodbye to the dark hero who helped raise us all, Gaiman starts it off beautifully with a heartfelt lecture on his own connection to the character.

The plot, like any good Batman comic, is somehow just a shade past realism, while taking a huge step into fantasy.  Dozens of characters, spanning the whole of Batman’s 60 years, attend Batman’s funeral, each telling his or her own tale of Batman’s life and death, all while Batman himself watches, narrating off-screen. He, like the readers, has no idea what is going on, and why so many of his friends and enemies have gathered to tell wildly conflicting stories about the man of mystery. It is up to him, the so-named World’s Greatest Detective, to figure it out, and to explain it to all of us.

Friend and foe, great and small make their way through the ceremony. There’s Commissioner Gordon, Batman’s trusted ally, and his daughter Barbara, who after being injured by the Joker became Batman’s all-seeing eye, Oracle.  Enemies like Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Ra’s al-Ghul, Penguin and the Mad Hatter sit among them, as Dick Grayson, the first Robin and Bruce Wayne’s soon-to-be replacement as Batman, starts the ceremony.

It is left to Batman’s two closest relations, lover/enemy Catwoman and faithful butler Alfred, to tell the extended stories. They draw on Batman’s character, his greatest flaws, and all of his complex history. They rewrite the beginning, and even the ending, of the life of their hero, but always manage to stay true to the character himself.

That is Gaiman’s greatest strength. He knows his subject, and any reader who has lost touch with the character will be faced with the impossible task of keeping up with the dozens of “there, did you catch that?” moments – and no, you probably did not catch them all the first time.

The graphic novel touches on every generation of the Dark Knight, from his early origins “a couple of years before Pearl Harbor” to the darker, more distressed Batman of recent years. Gaiman, and his tale, remind us constantly, that while the man may die, the legend never does.

It is a send-off fit for a warrior. What could easily fall into the realm of cheesy or fan-baiting instead retains all the dark lore of its hero. Gaiman and longtime Batman artist Andy Kubert worked tirelessly to represent every great artist and writer who has helped shaped Batman along the way, but each manages to leave his own touch on the project. Batman’s final four-page farewell, looks like a page torn directly from Gaiman’s Sandman.

Kubert’s artwork, shown more precisely in the supplemental sketchbook, is often a direct copy of his forefathers’ work on the comic, assuring that fans of any age will see Batman as they remember him best.

It is a difficult task to be the one to kill off an idol. Batman is so many things to so many people. He is America, our dark side to Superman’s purity. He has saved us countless times, maybe not from the Joker, but certainly from drowning in normalcy. He is deserving of the greatest goodbye granted a legend.

Gaiman may not be synonymous with Batman, but with this comic, his love is showing – and he allows every reader to show their appreciation as well for the man who shaped our culture and rewrote our ideas of “good” and “bad.”

It is a haunting goodbye to a tortured soul who has touched us all in some way, and we all deserve to be there, right beside all the men and women who made Batman what he was, so that he could shape us into who we would become.

-Stephanie Jackson

look what I got for Thanksgiving! [I totally do not remember these Indians from 4th grade social studies!]

p.s. this made me spit-take. for real. click it.

Larry Storman is a very passionate man.
He has amazing powers that he uses passionately.
He hates crime with a passion.
Larry uses his powers to fight crime.
He revels in fighting crime!
It makes him happy!
It makes him carefree!
It makes him gay!

Everyone knows that in the Marvel Comics universe Doctor Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme, right? Well, evidently that’s changing. There have been a lot of changes in the Marvel Universe, and some of them I haven’t been too keen on. I have to admit, it took a writer as good as Ed Brubaker to convince me that maybe I needed a new Captain America. So maybe some changes will be all right.

But Doctor Strange? Come on. The guy has been an icon since practically forever. Every time I think of him, I think about the old Stan Lee stories and the Steve Ditko art.

However, Brian Michael Bendis has been known to shake things up. His take on Daredevil won me over, as much as Frank Miller’s run back when I was much younger. And the idea of the responsibility of Sorcerer Supreme dropping to…uh-uh. You’ll have to read the book to find out, but I was thoroughly taken with the idea and want to see where it goes.

In the meantime, though, The New Avengers Vol. 11 Search for the Sorcerer Supreme is a great graphic novel. There’s lots of action, lots of jokes and humor, a meal at Luke Cage and Jessica Jones’s house, and a tour of some of the supernatural heroes in the Marvel Universe that haven’t been seen in a while.

I don’t know that I was particularly taken with the portrayal of the Son of Satan, but it was a fun romp watching him explode with power while fighting demons. And Bendis’s introduction of the whole plot, the gentle scenes with Doctor Strange seeking out Wiccan of Young Avengers and trying to find out if he’s supposed to be the next Sorcerer Supreme was well done. I really enjoyed the characters and the dialogue.

When the possessed villain showed up on the scene, though, Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo’s art really seized the stage. The look, the menace, was terrifically creepy and totally blew me away. Right then and there, I wanted to see a new Doctor Strange series showing him fighting demons like that – in the urban streets as well as other dimensions. Maybe we’ll get it soon.

In the meantime, Bendis delivers a great story chockfull of characterization and a blitzkrieg of supernatural action. The one-liners and the unmasking of Spider-Man (again, since the reset button got pushed on his life, which is not something I agree with) were awesome. This is a fun book that will make you think about the possibilities, especially since the Sorcerer Supreme in the Marvel Universe is –

Lately Superman has become even more of an everyman hero in the hands of Geoff Johns and James Robinson. Superman/Clark Kent has his roots in Kansas farmland after all, and his core values aren’t the same as Batman or Wonder Woman. Batman’s personal tragedy propels him, and Wonder Woman’s sense of duty keeps her motivated, plus that whole history of being raised among Amazons.

At the end of the day, though, Superman is the kind of guy you can sit down with and talk about family issues. And he’d have good advice and experiences he could share with you. Beyond the super powered stuff and being an alien from another planet, if those were your problems.

James Robinson really gets that about Superman as well, and his first scripting run on the character is fantastic. Okay, I’ll admit that the villain plot of The Coming of Atlas is a bit simplistic and creaky, but that isn’t the real story. The real story is even more basic and much deeper than villains trying to take a hero’s head off.

The graphic novel is the story of a boy and his dog. From page 1 to the final page, that’s what this book is about, and the dog lover and father in me was ecstatic about that. In fact, I’m pushing the book onto my 12 year old now, and I’m ranting to you about it as well.

I loved the argument Lois and Clark had over whether Clark should keep Krypto, and how that argument escalated into whether Clark loved her and why he should love her even though he could have probably had anyone. Clark certainly answered that question with more aplomb than most guys out there would have.

But the thing that really sold me on the tale was Superman’s simple love for Krypto, and the way the dog returned that love. The scene with Superman playing fetch with Krypto out in space with Green Lantern watching was priceless. (Of course, it also made me wonder where GL was when Superman was getting the stuffing pounded out of him later.)

I wasn’t really sold on Atlas as a villain. For one, he didn’t really have an agenda against Superman, and I didn’t really know what happened to him at the end. However, Renato Guedes’s art is eye-popping. The battle scenes were terrific, and the black and white washed “memory” scenes of Lois and Clark were an absolute visual treat that really stood apart from the rest of the book.

One of Robinson’s greatest strengths is his vision of the characters he writes about. He can touch the core of their values, hopes, and fears like few other writers can. Even with the story isn’t particularly strong, Robinson’s portrayal of the heroes/characters will be. Highly recommended for the last scenes especially.

REAL NAME:
Unkown

POWERS:
Unknown

HISTORY:
In development…

See more of Apollo Cities characters by clicking here.

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor

by BrentJS – ReelzChannel.com

Even though Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns grossed $390 million worldwide, it is still considered a failure by many. Critics often compare it to Warner’s other top superhero property, The Dark Knight, which grossed more than $1 billion and had a smaller production budget.

Still, Superman topped the list of a recent MTV poll that asked which DC Comics character should be fast-tracked to the big screen next. In a recent interview with MTV, Kevin Spacey said that he would be “delighted” to reprise the role of Lex Luthor in a sequel to Superman Returns.

“If I ran Warner Brothers I could tell you definitively we’d be making that movie. But I don’t, and they haven’t called me to tell me. Literally, all I know is what I’ve heard from press reports. I can’t even confirm whether those are true or not because I haven’t spoken to Bryan.”

Recently, director James McTeigue’s (Ninja Assassin) name has been popping up as the man who will possibly direct the next installment of the franchise. However, his take on “The Big Blue Boy Scout,” would likely leave little room for Spacey, since he said the franchise is “ripe for a retooling.”

Amazon Specials!

Sterling Gates took over the writing reins of the months Supergirl strip and has proceeded to deliver a new spin on the Girl of Steel that I love. In the issues he’s written, Kara has become a real person, a teen that reminds me of the daughter I raised, as well as her friends. Not only that, but with Geoff Johns and James Robinson’s leadership into the world of New Krypton, Gates is also building on the deeper Kryptonian heritage that Kara possessed and young Kal-El (Superman) did not.

With the present storyline underway in the Superman book, Kal-El is torn and challenged, but Kara’s memories and place within the New Krypton community is more frail and more fully realized. There are definite responsibilities and expectations.

But I digress. Some of the above is backstory that you’ll need to get from other graphic novels to better understand what’s taking place in this one. The first issue collected in this graphic novel is very much a standalone piece that sets Gates’s vision of Supergirl in the minds of the fans. I enjoyed the vulnerable side of Kara, seeing how easily she was hurt by words when bullets, bombs, and buses didn’t do the trick.

From there, though, Gates delves deeply into Superman lore and brings an old character from the Superman universe into the forefront. Lucy Lane is Lois Lane’s sister, and she was once the girlfriend of Jimmy Olsen. That lucy is gone however. In her place is Major Lucy Lane, a military officer that’s a hard-as-nails, by-the-book kind of person that is, quite frankly, a little scary.

Then there is the mystery of Superwoman. Although Kara wants to trust this superpowered heroine that’s stepped into her life and has helped her with issues regarding living among Earthlings, Supergirl hasn’t quite been able to trust her.

In addition to the New Krypton storyline and Superwoman, Gates spins in other characters from the Superman books that provide touchstones for things going on over there, and embellishes on Kara’s personal world as the “niece” of Lana Lang, another character that’s stepped back on stage in the Superman universe.

I enjoy the dialogue and the way Gates sets up his comics pages. The last panel of every page entices the reader to flip to the next to see what’s going to happen. And there’s a lot of story squeezed onto the pages as well. A lot of things are going on, a lot of relationships are explored. This is great storytelling and there’s a lot of vision behind the events that come to fruition in the graphic novel, while leaving enough tantalizing threads dangling to ensure fans will come back for the next collection if they’re not following the monthly books.

One of the best things about the current Supergirl art is Jamal Igle, the penciler. He complements Gates’s scripts with stunning visuals and action sequences that take the reader’s breath away. Cat Grant’s sexuality oozes from the pages. Lois and Clark’s relationship is given depth in the way they’re drawn standing together. And Jimmy Olsen’s classic geekiness and naiveté stands out. The man just can’t draw a bad panel, or one that I wouldn’t want to go back and see again and again.

If you’re new to Supergirl, or haven’t read the strip for a while, I urge you to pick up Who Is Superwoman? and try it out. I think you’ll find the story and art to be among the best out there, and Supergirl in the hands of these two storytellers is an entrancing character.

Unele din cele mai interesante animatii vazute in ultimul timp…rad de nu ma pot opri )).Voua care place mai mult?:d

Okay, Patrick wasn’t kidnapped. He decided that he wanted to go on vacation with his latest sugar daddy and rushed to pack before jet setting.

He saw my post and called me as soon as he read it. Serves him right for not leaving a note or even texting me the details.

Well I did meet up with the mysterious commenter. I was shocked to find out that it was actually Cancer. He was one of the superheroes that inspired me to branch off from my family’s life of crime. It was very strange to see him, as the years have passed and we all thought he had died.

I thought that Cancer had been crushed under a ton of rubble after a huge bout between my father and a gorgeous woman who went by the super name Indestructable. When reinforcements came, Indestructable was tossed through an apartment complex and took out some of the support beams. Cancer was born with the ability to see things that others couldn’t and saw that there were families trapped inside.

He rushed in to help them out of the building and was crushed by a support beam.

The police department claimed that they had recovered the body to confirm the death of the very notable defender of good. Dozens of women flocked to tell the story of how they were Cancer’s significant others and there was no one to prove them wrong.

It was a difficult day for me. I remembered playing with my Cancer action figure like the other girls played with their Barbies. Of course Cancer would go to the prom, but he’d also have to fight the bad guys that flooded into the prom to steal the king/queens crown because they held the one isotope needed for global domination. (What can I say? I was a girl with imagination.)

When I found out he had died, my father threw a party celebrating it. I remember crying like my father supposedly had when JFK died. It was one of the pivotal moments in my life where I realized that if I ended up with superpowers, I would use them to benefit life and not myself.

So imagine my surprise when in rolls Cancer, hero of my childhood.

My clothing was caked in various milk/soy products with a smattering of nutmeg and cinnamon to finish the look. I have a nasty habit of getting caramel in my hair. I’ve learned a very valuable trick, however. If I change into my ice form it freezes. Then I turn back and can crack it off and everything is awesome.

I digress, I apologize. I’m still trying to digest what happened.

When I saw him, I initially thought it was a doppelganger, but he showed me the lead lining his clothing. Cancer radiates a ton of… well… radiation… and the lead helps to mute it.

Apparently, on that fateful night, a support beam landed on him and damaged his spinal cord. A friend in the police department confirmed his death because he didn’t want to be an easy mark for… my dad… and others. Vivre (a healing super) tried to fix him, but was unable to be around him for prolonged amounts of time due to the immense radiation he was emitting. I asked him what had happened to her and he immediately changed the subject.

He’s offered to coach me into the lifestyle. A part of me thinks he just wants to keep an eye on me to make sure I don’t go the way of vonFreeze.

I’ve decided that I’d be a moron not to accept his help.

Who can’t smile at someone who swoops in and saves the day?  I know that I will never turn away someone who decided to come to my rescue.  Everyone needs a little bit of saving now and then.

I was saved today but a couple of people and it definitely gave me a smile in a not so happy situation.

When I arrived at my college this morning I was looking for a place to park.  Sometimes parking can be tight and a bit short in supply.  I was maneuvering my way through when I heard crunch.  I stopped and got out to see just how bad the damage was.  I had scraped up the front bumper a bit, leaving some of my paint behind, but no dents.  I left my contact information, grabbed his license plate number and parked my car.  Turns out, after asking at the front desk, that the owner of the car is in one of my classes.  So we go across to figure out how we’re going to solve the situation.

Through everything I was so shaken up (and yes, I’ll admit it, pretty emotional).  This was my first crash dealing with another car.  The only other crash I had was in the winter and it was just my car that was involved in the situation.

Anyways, the reason I was able to smile in all of this?  There was a girl who also went to my school that came in after I hit the car and offered paper and a pen.  She also caught up with me later to make sure everything was okay.

My other reason to smile would be my boyfriend, who is so much better in situations like this than I am!  He’s definitely calm and comes up with solutions that are much more practical than how I was dealing with things to begin with.

So, thank you to both of you who saved me today.

Don’t forget to smile at those who save the day for you too.  : )

This is my favorite book of all time and is one of the very few that I own that I’ve read more than once. I think I’ve read Batman: Knightfall by Dennis O’Neil three times. Part of that reason could be because it was the first superhero novel I read cover to cover. I liked the story so much that I went out and bought all three graphic novels upon which this prose book was based.

Check it out. It’s real good.

Batman: Knightfall

Click the image above to order from Amazon.com

Oh, if only I had the same amazing powers to discover such wonders as this young woman has found here. The astonishing display of Google Powers remind me of this one SuperHero.

Real Name: Stephen Garcel
Aliases: none
Occupation: Adventure, Crime fighter
Group Affiliation: none
Height: 6′0″ | Weight: 375 pounds
Eyes: Brown | Hair: Brown

Known Powers: Armored Suit
Special Skills: Mechanical Engineer
Weapons: Armored Suit, flight, lasers

History:

Let’s be friends: Check out my blog and other social media spots. – SHAZAM

I’m back home and more or less recovered. I think!

The problem with people like me is we got more ideas than time and our bodies aren’t always keeping up.

When I was kid people wondered why I pushed myself so hard. No one else was going to do the work for me. Everything I have, I earned the hard way. Blood sweat, and tossing caution to the wind or leaping before making sure something would catch me. I’m not dead yet but that could be the evil mastermind posing as a superhero by day.

Wait. What do they call those? Villains. Shh. Please keep this under wraps. I’ve got a façade to keep up.

I did more edits on NIGHT REINS. I love rewrites. I love the story so much I enjoy going in and cleaning things out. I cleaned up the synopsis of LIFE REINS got my super critique partner to look over it. Edited, she relooked at the work, I did more edits. See, I wasn’t joking about loving the rewrites. I went over some AEQUITAS II PUNISHMENT.

Over the coming posts, I’ll be adding in some interviews in the mix not to bore you with my mad ramblings.

Susan the bride and groom are beautiful and I hope they live long and prosper. I got that line from a hotty. Spock.

Mason
a.c.Mason
Darkness ♀♂ Desires
www.acmason.com