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.

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

Guilty Pleasures #2 The Dark Knight Rises

Yup, it's Batman, always Batman. And it’s the third in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. I must admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Batman begins (in fact there are certain parts of it I absolutely hated "I won't kill you, but that doesn't mean I have to save you" YES IT DOES, YOU'RE BATMAN), and was sceptical when the Dark Knight came out. My sister saw it before I did. I only bought it because I had ClubCard coupons and it was cheap at Tesco.

To my surprise, for the most part it was amazing, catching the relationship the Joker has with Batman better than Tim Burton's movie, although they didn't make him all that funny, but you can only ask for so much, especially in this incredibly grim world of Christopher Nolan. So, I came into the cinema to watch the Dark Knight Rises and came out smiling. Then I read all the negative reviews, and found points I genuinely agreed with.

So I wasn’t sure how I'd feel watching it again, but I still enjoyed it, for every flaw, and there are lots of them, I actually still like this movie. Thing is, I have an incredibly hard job explaining why. So, with no idea how this review will end, let's dig into the Dark Knight Rises