Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 episodes 21-22 review - The Force of Gravity/The End

4 issue test #40 - Super Sons

Robin has an ego, Jon Lane-Kent has powers. They’re the sons of Batman and Superman and they get on like a house on fire. And by that, I mean the fight that would inevitably ensue between them would leave the house on fire. And boy was it fun to watch them play off each other. Superman did a 2-part story featuring the both of them learning to get along, not extremely successfully, but it’s been hinted since the beginning of Rebirth that they’d be getting a title between them and here it is.

In the writer’s seat is Peter Tomasi who already has experience writing both Robin back from when he was writing Batman and Robin and Jon-Lane Kent from his Superman title. He was the one who wrote the initial crossover, and instigated the dynamic between them. In the art department we have Jorge Jiminez who has a wide range of credits from DC, having done Arrow and Smallville Comics to Earth 2: Society and issues of Superboy and Superman.

Does the gimmick wear or is this a new classic team-up? Let’s take a look at #1-4

4 issue test #39 - Teen Titans (DC Rebirth)

Yes, I know it's another cheat but they use the same logo and this review's late already

It’s DC Rebirth Time again!

I’d previously reviewed a Teen Titans book, it was one of my earliest reviews of this format. It… wasn’t great really, I did drop the book after the 4^th issue and even though a couple of ideas tossed did gain my attention, it was never really enough to bring me back in.

But DC Rebirth has shone a new light on the Titans with a new creative team and a new roster. In the writer’s chair is Ben Percy, who is also tackling the Green Arrow books and with artists… well, there are quite a few of them. The roster, I’ll cover in the description since the first issue is primarily about getting everyone together. Speaking of which, let’s get to it.

#37 - Batman: Bad Blood

Oh boy, we’re back to the New-52verse

You may recall my 4^th rage of this blog was Son of Batman. In it Damian Wayne was forced into Batman’s hands and got the role as Robin. You might want to check out that review, because the plot is ongoing. I also did a review last year of Batman vs Robin, the slightly better sequel. Today we look at the third in the series, and it’s bad, really really bad. This is Batman: Bad Blood. Insert obvious Taylor Swift Joke here.

What we’re looking at is a mish-mash of various bits of Batman history (so what else is knew?). But the biggest influence I can see is Batman Incorporated where Batman assembled a team of not Justice Leaguers to combat a sinister threat. It’s classic Grant Morrison being equal parts awesome, stupid and confusing, especially when Fraser Irving did the art for one issue (rule of thumb, if Frazer Irving did the artwork, it’ll be cr*p) but I suppose I should mention our 2 breakout characters in this.

First we have Kathy Kane aka Batwoman – she was a breakout character from the awesome miniseries 52. In the New 52 continuity, there were plans that she and her long-time girlfriend would get married but the rug was pulled out from under the creative team at the last minute (because, apparently Bat-family characters can’t have happy lives) which lead to the resignation of the creative and the book’s eventual cancellation. She’s currently getting a starring role in Detective comics, I’ll let you know how that turns out in September.

Secondly we have Luke Fox aka Batwing II, the original guy was from Africa, I really have nothing more to say about him because I was not reading Batwing.

With that said, let’s take a look at this piece of trite and see what went wrong.

#36 - Batman and Robin

OK, before we start time for some house-cleaning. It’s become apparent that this meme

Is massively overused so I’m starting a coin jar. Every time I’m tempted to use the clip, I put a coin in the jar, this will last until the end of the year and any money in it will be donated to charity. (I’m all heart, I know)

That’s for the time I used it just now. So with that out of the way, Batman and Robin

I think I might need more change

Oh good grief, this is when Schumacher went too far. I have my issues with Batman Forever but ultimately, I enjoyed it more than I did the Burton movies. Sure, it was over the top but it did have quieter moments and focus was where it should be, on Batman!

In terms of success, being more kid-friendly than the Burton movies helped as it made it more marketable. I doubt they lost any fast food tie ins with this movie. But, this movie’s success was questioned from the start. The movie was fast-tracked into production by the studio after the success of Batman Forever, meaning there was a rushed feel to it, even from the beginning. Making it worse is toy companies coming in during pre-production, adding a commercial feel to proceedings. Chris O’Donnell has said that filming Batman and Robin felt like a toy commercial

Because of scheduling conflicts, largely relating to the fast tracking of the movie, Val Kilmer couldn’t return for a second shot as Batman and so George Clooney was hired instead. Also, with some insistence from Schumacher himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast as Mr Freeze, one of the main villains of the movie, and they were planning to base his origin on the vastly popular episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Heart of Ice. So, yes, I’m doing yet another terrible attempt to replicate it (you might remember the awful attempt to retell Mr Freeze’s origins in Batman Annual #1)

A lot of people in production don’t have nice things to save about this movie, I’ve mentioned Chris O’Donnell’s thoughts. George Clooney said he’d offer refunds to anyone who saw it in theatres (I did not, being the ripe old age of 5 when this came out) and Joel Schumacher himself apologised for it. 

  

Produced on a $140m budget, the movie made back its money with a strong overseas performance but it was lambasted critically, holding a mere 11% on rotten tomatoes, 28% on metacritic and a 3.7 on IMDb.

So, now we’re past the longest intro ever, let’s dive into the sea of sh*t that is, Batman and Robin.

Further Thoughts on Teen Titans Go! - Let's Get Serious

On Wednesday, a crossover review with me and Gregs Chan1 appeared on YouTube.

My apologies that the audio quality is terrible, and note that it's completely improvised and the only editing I could do was for the credits.

I plan to spend this completely improvised blogpost explaining further why I'm not a fan of Teen Titans Go! and this episode particularly

TV Retrospective: Young Justice: Invasion Episodes 1-5

It’s time to get started with Young Justice Invasion

TV Retrospective: Young Justice Episodes 21-26

We return one final time to the first season of Young Justice, it's been a strong start, but it's not been faultless - let's see what the final episodes of the season brings

TV Retrospective: Young Justice episodes 16-20

TV Retrospective: Young Justice Episodes 11-15

Sorry this is a tad late, thanks to being in Rome and things, I forgot to put this up yesterday, enjoy

TV Retrospective: Young Justice episodes 6-10

TV Retrospective: Young Justice episodes 1-5

It’s been a while, what with me reducing the number of reviews I do on a weekly basis and the mass of comics I’ve had to review (that isn’t stopping by the way, I’ll be covering DC’s rebirth post-hiatus) but it’s time once again for a Television Retrospective

It’s time to look at Young Justice, the DC version of Avengers: Earth’s mightiest heroes. An ever-evolving team in a place where a wider universe exists. Based on the comic, but only loosely since it only stars one of the core cast of the comic. Young Justice has received a lot of praise and fans have begging producer Greg Weisman for season since its cancellation, for the record his response is always #notuptome, so you can stop asking now, it’s bugging up my Twitter feed.

Young Justice never came out in a Pal-2 format for UK viewing. I’m considering doing a #WTFU video (is this still a thing, I’m writing this in February people) about what studios can look toward doing to prevent their works suffering copyright infringement, but I digress, that’s for another day. For now, let’s dig into my American copies of Young Justice

4 issue Test #13 - Batman and Robin Eternal

The weekly miniseries is something DC brought back in 52, an excellent title written by 4 renowned writers focusing on the minor heroes in the DC Universe after the big 3 were taken off the table thanks to infinite crisis

Then came Countdown, an awful work head-written by great writer Paul Dini and a load of crappy writers intended to set up an event it didn’t set up, kill things without mercy and push tie-ins wherever it could. It was awful and killed the miniseries off for a while. With the New52 came 3 new mini-series. Future’s end, Earth 2: World’s end, neither of which I’ve read but I can’t say I’ve heard great things about, and Batman: Eternal, intended to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of Batman, which I did a 4 issue test of in January despite the fact issue 4 came out in April of the previous year.

Batman: Eternal was reasonably well written and successful enough that a 26-issue second mini-series Batman and Robin Eternal, this time celebrating the 75^th anniversary of Robin. I don’t like to give too much background as I feel a new title should provide that anyway. But it’s best to know that during the Batman story endgame. Batman and his long-time nemesis the Joker ‘died.’ James Gordon became a fully police sanctioned Batman with a robotic suit as he lacks the skills Batman had. Bruce has since returned, but with no memories of his time as Batman and lacking the skills.

I hate the idea of Jim Gordon as Batman, I’ll just go out and say it. I haven’t been picking up titles with him as the focus because Jim Gordon to me is the legal centre of Batman. He’s Batman’s ally in the police and the main difference between him and Batman is that he is a firm believer in the law. Becoming a vigilante is backwards for his character, and I hate the ro-bat suit. One other thing. Dick Grayson revealed himself to Robin, Red Robin, Batgirl and the Red Hood to be alive after his ‘death’ in Forever evil and becoming a super-spy (see my 4 issue Test of Grayson for more info)

OK, let’s take a look.

4 issue test #10: Robin - Son of Batman

Just a heads up, initially I had planned to review Justice League of America next week, but as the 4th issue has been delayed to the 14th October, after I plan to put out the review, it'll have to wait till the week after, instead Martian Manhunter next week, but for now

Damian Wayne, now this is a character with some history. Which I’m gonna briefly overview just to make things easier

Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. After events Damian ends up rejecting his mother and joining Batman’s side as Robin. Talia creates a clone of Damian called the Heretic that ends up killing him in a bloody battle. In what I’ve got to confess I haven’t read but sounds like the most ridiculous moment in comics Batman travels to Apokolips to try and revive his fallen son. He does so, temporarily granting him super-powers although though they wore off before this issue.

A lot has changed in the Batman books recently. In a final battle with the Joker, Bruce died with his long-time adversary. Whilst both will be back eventually we currently have Jim Gordon Bat-Bot in Gotham (I’m currently not collecting any bat-titles aside this one and Grayson until it’s resolved) and Robin off on his own. Let’s dig into Robin: Son of Batman and see whether or not it’s worth keeping this book.

Editorial: 5 things I want to see in Batman and Robin Eternal

Batman Eternal; I did a 4 issue test on the series in January (despite the fact the 4th issue came out in April the year before, before I even started this blog) it was a good story but it's focus on the plot and big reveals whilst character work was limited to only Batman, Julia Pennyworth, Spoiler and Jim Gordon (with a few sprinkles for Batgirl and the Red Hood) preventing me from calling it a great story. Next month, a new series of Batman Eternal is coming out, titled Batman and Robin: Eternal focusing more on the family of Batman than Batman (who is now Jim Gordon in a stupid robot bat-suit)

So, what needs to happen in this 6-month weekly series to improve upon it's predecessor, here are my 5 suggestions

Guilty Pleasures #19 - Batman Forever

Ah, it’s been a while since we’ve looked at a live action Batman movie, so let’s continue from where we left off and examine an interesting piece known as Batman Forever.

Batman returns, whilst making money at the box office didn’t succeed commercially, partially I think down to the fact that it did everything in its power not to be suitable for kids other than swearing. So Tim Burton got booted down to producer and Warner Bros. hired a new director, Joel Schumacher.

Yeah, I’ll join the bandwagon of Schumacher bashing when I get to Batman and Robin. Or possibly during this review. Warner Bros wanted a more mainstream Batman movie, Keaton decided to depart after disagreeing with the changes and Val Kilmer was hired and as far as I can tell it was almost immediate and Kilmer had no idea what he was signing on for.

Whilst Burton pandered to the very early days of comics, the very, very, very early days, Schumacher was more in favour of style like the Adam West Batman show so cue puns, cheese and general good times right? Let’s just dive in

Batman: Arkham Knight Review

I've spent quite a considerable portion of the last two weeks playing this game and have managed the following

1. 100% of main game
2. 100% of new game +
3. 100% Red Hood Pack
4. 100% Harley Quinn pack
5. 9/9 stars Scarecrow Nightmare missions

To do a review justice, I will have to talk spoilers eventually. But I'll discuss gameplay first for those who don't want spoilers for the full game

Mini review: Batman vs Robin

Well, you can remember my opinion of Son of Batman, IT F*CKING SUCKS so not surprisingly given DC’s track record, it got a sequel Batman vs Robin. Sort of the Based on Scott Snyder’s the Court of Owls stories, also sort of based on some other stories that have come out from Batman’s line on the New52, whilst also telling an original story, you can tell this story is going to be a bit of a mess. Having said that it’s a marked improvement over Son of Batman. Spoilers to follow

#12 All-Star Batman and Robin #9

For those that don't know my history with comic books, which is everyone since I've never mentioned it before, I started out reading a magazine called Batman Legends that collected 2-3 issues of Batman related material into a single volume. A few issues into this magazine a comic was printed called All Star Batman and Robin #5. And I hated it, sure I kept buying the magazine for the other issues (I wasn't even aware of my local comic store, and the appearances of trades in book shops was fairly new) issues 5-9 were printed in the magazine with issues 1-4 printed prior to me picking up the book.

All Star Batman and Robin is written by Frank Miller, known for fantastic works of Batman such as The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, and sh*t works of Batman such as The Dark Knight Strikes Again. The art is done by veteran Jim Lee, who produces some fantastic art, but he's not particularly quick and the series was plagued with delays. Issue #10 ended on a cliff-hanger, with a new series Dark Knight: Boy Wonder supposedly to be released to finish the story. This has yet to come out, and the blame lies, by his own admission, entirely with Jim Lee. Jim Lee was beginning working on projects with decent writers like Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder. (Although you could argue DC editorial decided it was too sh*t to send out)

If you're wondering why I'm not reviewing back-issues of this comic. It's quite simple, Linkara has already covered them. And while I'm certain he'll do a much more thorough and much funnier review of this issue than I do, I have nothing else to say that he hasn't already. Besides so little happens in 8 issues it's barely worth me going back.

#7 Red Hood and the Outlaws #0 (The New 52)

Oh boy, it’s another cr*ppy Scott Lobdell Comic, what I have to put up with…

So, Red Hood and the Outlaws is one of the more controversial new 52 comics. Not because of the fact that Jason Todd seems deadpan and sarcastic, not because Roy Harper is now wearing a trucker hat but everything to do with their portrayal of Starfire. In the first issue she seems like a sex object, and I never really bothered to read the rest of it.

So rather than choosing Roy Harper, who’s origin has clearly changed for the New 52, or Starfire, whose origin is a far lesser known one, we get the origin of the Red Hood. Batman sells! So you'll not be surprised to hear that despite Roy Harper and Starfire being on the cover, they're not in the book at all.

So, let’s not waste any time and get into the issue, and get it over with quickly