Brighter Days Ahead for Batman?

[JulianPerez]

Apparently Neal shares my old opinion that he's a god.

I can live with egotism as long as the work is great. By all accounts, my hero, Stainless Steve Englehart, is the biggest egomaniac this side of Shatner.

It is something of a tragedy to watch childhood icons spiral into madness: the worst example of this is professional wrestler the Ultimate Warrior, who after his firing, legally changed his name to "Warrior" and began to refer to himself in the third person.

Stainless Steve started to go into a nose-dive circa NEW GUARDIANS, but thankfully he was able to do STRANGERS and THE NIGHT MAN and thus pull up just in time.

Annoying enough when he's just bragging about how everything good that ever happened to any character is all thanks to him (Burton's Batman films? All stolen from Neal's work...Singer's "X-Men" films? Clearly an adaptation of Neal's run on the book. Yadda Yadda)

Why the hell do artists do this to themselves?

"Exhibit A" would have to be my old boyfriend, Johnny Redbeard, who, if he was to be believed, created Wolverine and the X-Men right after he lassoed a tornado and domesticated the dog.

Englehart on his own website, takes credit for the Burton Batman movies. Now, if the movies HAD been inspired by Englehart that would have been SOMETHING. Circa 1983, there was an idea for a Batman movie based on Stainless Steve's stuff that was going the rounds, which featured a slim, urbane Penguin and a prominent role for Silver St. Cloud rising from the water like Ursula Andress.

This Bat-movie, like Cary Bates's script for SUPERMAN V that involved Brainiac and Kandor, is one of the first DVDs I will buy once I visit an alternate universe.

Short version: more weapons. Oh, and blades, gotta have blades. Neal Adams, 60 going on 14.

Well, the "pop-out waterproof breathing mask" is going a little too far, but the idea of the utility belt being a toolbelt sounds intriguingly utilitarian. It always bugged me that all of the pockets of the Bat-utility belt were equally sized and equally spaced. What does he keep in there? Jellybeans?

[Klar Ken T5477]

Can Neal make a deadline when he couldnt when he was younger?

[TELLE]

[Super Monkey]

the next regular writer of Batman is....



Grant Morrison!




In an unexpected announcement at the DC panel (though not coming as a complete surprise), it was just announced Grant Morrison will be the next regular writer of Batman, following James Robinson’s eight-part story arc running through that title and Detective beginning in March.

Though not announced or even confirmed, popular rumor and speculation still holds that one of the DC exclusive Kubert brothers will eventually be announced as his artist.

Morrison said that he’s already plotted 15 issues, and in his first issue alone, he has 15 ninja man-bats as well as Talia, and the story is called “Batman & Son”. Morrison said Batman coming out of 52 OYL will be a more of a “fun guy, more healthy”, more like the “Neal Adams, hairy-chested, love-god” version of Batman.

http://www.newsarama.com/WonderCon2006/DCU/besttocome.html

[Great Rao]

Morrison said Batman coming out of 52 OYL will be a more of a “fun guy, more healthy”, more like the “Neal Adams, hairy-chested, love-god” version of Batman.

Hah!  I knew that Batman Through the Ages! would lead to something good!

I hope this means that Bats will also get his yellow-circle chest logo back.

[Klar Ken T5477]

My favorite gag in a recent Plastic Man is when Ras Al Ghul took his shirt off and challenged Plas to "some hairy chested shirtless fighting!"

Just like the good old days........

[JulianPerez]

Rucka described his new CHECKMATE series as a “really good Mission Impossible movie”, “a little bit like Tom Clancy but well written”

The single greatest slam I have ever read in anything ever.

The earth's circumference isn't large enough to give a long enough plane ride where I would consider picking up another Clancy book. THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER movie, like LORD OF THE RINGS, made a boring, glacially paced book readable.

Though why would I bother with this book at DC when nearly every single title at Marvel now has more or less this description? Is spy-esque comic books now the refuge of the hack writer that isn't cut out to write standard superheroics? And I have no intention of forgiving Rucka for his Superman run. Oh, no.

Rucka recalled a line from the series pitch the sums it up well – “When Superman gets out of line, Checkmate is there to bring him back. When the Joker gets a nuke, Checkmate is there to shut him down.“

Rucka then outlined the characters from the cover of issue #1. The Black Queen is Sasha Bordeaux, the White Queen is Amanda Waller, Fire is the Black Queen’s knight, and the White King behind the podium is … wait for it …Alan Scott…

”This book is going get you in the head and get you in the gut”.

Good choice of words, because I already feel like I'm in physical pain.

[DoctorZero]

So far I like the latest issue of Detective One Year Later.  Some nice moves and maybe, just maybe, a return to the good old days.