Tag Archives: Frank Miller

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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 107 – Secret Wars #9 Reviewed!

The Tuesday Night Book Club continues this week with All-Star Batman and Robin by Frank Miller and Jim Lee. We’re reading the whole series published to date, issues 1-10.

We also have full reviews of Secret Wars #9 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic, and Squadron Supreme #3 by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk.
Plus, our picks for the comic books you need to buy this Wednesday and a slew of comic book industry news! AND THE RETURN OF BLOODLINES! #bloodlinesneverforget
bloodlines2016

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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 105 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens Reviewed!

Year three of the Tuesday Night Comics podcast begins here! And what a start to the third year it is! Dave and Billy have an in-depth discussion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the recent Fantastic Four movie.

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The second installment of the Tuesday Night Book Club has the guys reading Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow’s Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot from Dark Horse/Legend.
big guy cover
Plus, the guys review Justice League #47 by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok, Squadron Supreme #2 by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk, and Dave draws parallels between the current Dr. Fate series and the Fate series from the 1990s.
justice league 47 squadron supreme 2 cover
All this, and the guys give you their picks for the week in The Twenty!

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Tuesday Night Comics 104: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Strange Costume!

Dr Strange’s movie costume! Netflix Daredevil vs. Punisher! Our picks for new comics coming out on 12/30/15! And the launch of a new feature: The Tuesday Night Book Club, where we review a graphic novel. This week’s book: Black Canary and Zatanna: Blood Spell by Paul Dini and Joe Quinones. Next week: Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot by Frank Miler and Geoff Darrow.

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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 99 – Should You Buy Dark Knight III?

Episode 99! Listen and find out whether or not you should buy Dark Knight III: The Master Race. We review Batman: Europa, Uncanny Avengers Annual #1 and more. Plus, listen up for the details regarding a very huge comic book related Cyber Monday sale!
 dark knight 3 boot cover

 

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NYCC 2015 Friday Panels – Our Picks!

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Written by David Henehan.

Welcome to Day 2 of NYCC. You made it through Thursday, the day of NYCC that is least packed, in terms of both attendance and what creators are there, but now it’s Friday! More people at the Javits Center! More panels! That said, there seem to be less MUST ATTEND panels than Thursday. BUT the good Friday panels are AWESOME Friday panels, which is going to make for some hard choices when it comes to time conflicts.

DC Comics – The Dark Knight 30th Anniversary – 11:00-12:00 Main Stage 1-D

Wow, talk about a star-studded panel. Jim Lee, Klaus Jansen, Andy Kubert, Brian Azzarello and surprise guests. Could the surprise guests possibly be Scott Snyder and Frank Miller?! What do you think? (Wristband required)

Dark Horse: CLASSIFIED – 11:00-12:00 1A21

Dark Horse lost the Star Wars license at the end of 2014. What would have been a mortal blow to another company inspired this company to really go all out in producing new quality product. Dark Horse has long been a home of great independent work and licensed comics. With the loss of their biggest license, they doubled down on the creator owned titles, giving us such gems as Brian Wood’s Rebels. Wood will be at this panel, as will Matt Kindt, Mike Richardson and more. Come here to see what Dark Horse has planned for 2016.

Dan Parent Drawing Workshop – 11:00-12:00 Family HQ 1C01

Here’s a fun one to bring the kids. Dan Parent of Archie Comics will be hosting a drawing workshop. Learn how to draw your Archie faves.

YogaQuest: Narrated Yogic Adventures – 1:15-2:15 Family HQ 1C04

“A mix of yoga and fan-fiction storytelling.” Okay, you’ve piqued my interest. Hmm, maybe this is the day I’ll wear my Spider-Man costume to NYCC.

Star Wars Collectibles Update with Lucasfilm’s Anita Castellar – 1:30-2:30 1A21   CANCELLED

If you missed yesterday’s Hasbro Star Wars panel, make up for it by attending the Lucasfilm Star Wars Collectibles panel, which will cover the gamut of upcoming Star Wars merchandise.

In Conversation With Seth Meyers – 1:45-2:45 1A10

Late night host, former SNL head writer, and published comic book writer (it’s true!) Seth Meyers will be interviewed by Vulture’s Jesse David Fox. I’m surprised this is in one of the smaller A-line panel rooms, and not on either the Main Stage or Empire Stage.

The Adventure Continues: A Justice League Reunion Event – 2:00-3:00 Empire Stage 1E

This is the first time that the Justice League cartoon cast is reuniting in over 10 years! Kevin Conroy (Batman), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), George Newbern (Superman), Phil LaMaar (Green Lantern), Maria Canals-Barrera (Hawkgirl), Carl Lumbly (Martian Manhunter) and Voice Director Andrea Romano all in the same room! The cast will also be autographing in the autographing area at different points during NYCC. Be sure to check the timetable in the autographing area for that info.

[adult swim] Panel Block – 2:30-5:15 Main Stage 1-D

The people behind Venture Bros, Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter, and Robot Chicken will all be here and will have preview footage of their new seasons. (Wristband required)

Archie Comics Forever – 4:15-5:15 1A05

Are you reading Archie by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples? If not, you need to. It’s one of the best new comics of 2015. Mark Waid will be at this panel, as will Roberto Aguirre-Sacassa (Afterlife with Archie), Chip Zdarsky and more.

Dorkly Presents Today in Nerd Trivia – 6:30-7:30 1A21

As a member of Trivia NYC’s reigning Trivia Champions of New York City (seriously, look it up), I’m all about this. I really, really, really hope I get picked to join the Dorkly staff to compete on stage.

Batman: Bad Blood Exclusive First Look 8:00-9:00 Main Stage 1-D

See exclusive footage of the latest from Warner Animated’s DC Superhero movies, Batman: Bad Blood. Batwoman and Batwing are finally appearing in an animated movie! This one is directed by Jay Oliva, which means it’s bound to have awesome fight scenes!

 

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Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 – Review

After months of waiting, it’s finally here, the conclusion to the animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s epic, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  Like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, the folks at DC’s animated division have once again created a movie worthy of the source material.

When I first heard that DC was dividing The Dark Knight Returns into two movies, the cynic in me saw this as a cash grab. But now that I’ve seen both movies, I’m glad the decision was made to divide the story into two movies. Nothing feels rushed, nothing feels left out.

Michael Emerson did a great job voicing the Joker. His Joker is not Mark Hamill’s Joker, but it is terrific in its own way. While I love Batman: The Animated Series, and hear Mark Hamill’s Joker and Kevin Conroy’s Batman when I read those characters, I like that Andrea Romano was tasked with finding all-new voice talent for the two Dark Knight Returns movies.

The climatic fight scene between Superman and Batman was awesome, as was the scene where Superman is hit by the nuclear bomb. Both scenes were like seeing what my mind’s eye sees in the gutters of the comic brought to life. The producers did an amazing job with both.

My only complaints about the movie are minor. The lighting seemed too bright for some of the street level action. I would have expected more shadows and murkier colors. The comic is full of a lot of blacks and  grays, but the animated movie has a more colorful overall palette.

There were two character designs that stood out for me that seemed very off from their comic book counterparts. In The Dark Knight Returns comic, Bruno, the Joker’s swastika-adorned, Neo-Nazi goon always looked like a post-op tranny to me. She’s more obviously a woman here in the movie. Batman’s bag lady disguise is the other design that was jarring to me. In the comic, this is a scary looking disguise. The bag lady looks like disease and death in an overweight bag. But her gruesome features are gone in the movie. Sure, she’s not winning any beauty contests, but they definitely gave her an upgrade in the looks department.

Bruno from the Dark Knight Returns comic

Having recently watched Batman: Year One, it was nice to see a couple of Easter eggs for that movie in this one. On the Gordan’s apartment wall, you can see photos of Gordan’s first wife, Barbara and their infant son James Jr.

I bought the limited edition version of the movie at Best Buy, which comes with a small Joker figure. Was this  figure worth the extra five bucks? I’m going to say no. The Joker’s face looks more like David Bowie by way of Gene Simmons and there is virtually no articulation.

Not the best Joker figure.

I definitely recommend watching Batman: Year One and then both parts of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. All three movies are very faithful and very well done adaptations of what I think are the two greatest Batman stories ever told.

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Batman: Year One – Review

5/5 – Perfect adaption of THE Batman origin story.

Batman: Year One might be my favorite comic book story ever published. Like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, it’s a story that I’ve come back to year after year and it’s never felt old. When I heard that DC was planning an animated adaptation of Year One, I was a bit worried. Would they change the story? Would they stay true to Mazzucchelli’s line work or attempt update the art style?

My worries proved to be unfounded. Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano have once again put together the pieces to make a great animated movie. Batman: Year One should be considered a must-see for any Batman fan. I would also say that Batman: Year One, the comic this movie was based on, is mandatory reading for any Batman fan. After hearing Bruce and Andrea talk at New York Comic Con, and seeing the quality of Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, I’m very excited for everything coming down the DC Animated pipeline.

This movie shows Batman at his most fallible. He’s inexperienced and unsure of himself. He doesn’t have the super computer, all the fancy gadgets (though he does have some), the fancy car or the network of crime fighting colleagues to call upon. It’s cool to see Batman make mistakes, like when he attempts to foil a home burglary. And I was very happy to see that the coolest scene from Year One, which was also used in Batman Begins, was kept in the animated movie, namely Batman calling the cloud of bats to come to his aid when fleeing the Gotham PD.

Batman: Year One is much Jim Gordon’s story as it is Bruce Wayne’s. This isn’t only Batman’s first year in Gotham. It is also Gordon’s first year there as well, after uprooting from Chicago with his pregnant wife. The Gordon presented in Year One is unlike any Jim Gordon presented before. He’s trying hard to be an honest cop in a corrupt city full of corrupt cops and politicians. He’s not an infallible knight in shining armor though. He is full of pathos. He questions his decisions. You probably will too. But at the end of the day, he’s the most upstanding cop on the Gotham force. It’s interesting to watch Batman and Lt. Gordon do their dance, unsure if they can trust each other.

The Year One movie, like the Year One comic, accomplishes
 the amazing feat of making Jim Gordon as interesting as the Batman.

The only slight I have against the movie is the coloring of characters eyes. The whites of people’s eyes are the same color as the rest of their face. It’s not jarring when I see it in a still, but in the movie, I kept being distracted by it. I’m guessing the decision stemmed from wanting the animation style to match the book as much as possible, but I just found the flesh colored eyes to be weird.

I highly recommend watching Batman: Year One on DVD or Blu-ray. The special features included in it are great. There are two short interview-style featurettes, the first one focusing on the impact Frank Miller had on the Batman mythos. Miller doesn’t appear here himself, but a lot of other comic creators do, including Dennis O’Neil, Mike Carlin, Dan Didio and Scott Snyder. Producer Michael Uslan sits down with Dan Didio, Dennis O’Neil and Scott Snyder to talk about how Batman has changed over the years in the other featurette. Snyder, Didio and O’Neil each grew up during different eras of Batman, so it was very interesting to hear them talk about the differences and similarities of what defined Batman for them.

There’s also a Showcase animated short featuring Catwoman. I thought Eliza Dushku did a better job voicing Catwoman in Year One than she does here. In the short, she sounds stilted, as if she’s reading off of cue cards.

We’re coming up to the release of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 very soon. I recommend watching Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 in anticipation of it.

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Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 Review

Around the time that the first Tim Burton Batman movie was released, I had a case of full-on Batmania. I had enough Batman t-shirts to last over a week. I had multiple Batman buttons pinned to my jackets. I even had a giant Batman movie poster from the NYC subway hanging in my bedroom.

It was around this time that I was given a copy of The Dark Knight Returns. It immediately became one of my favorite comics. It’s one of those comics that I read almost every year.

When it was announced that Dark Knight Returns would be adapted into an animated movie, I couldn’t help but feel hesitant about it. I’m not a fan of the Death of Superman animated film and I worried that they would use the wrong art style or water down the story on DKR. The box art scared me; this wasn’t the Batman from The Dark Knight Returns on the box art.

I shouldn’t have worried. The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 is a very faithful adaption of the first half of The Dark Knight Returns. The art style is very reminiscent of Frank Miller’s art from the comic, but updated to not look dated, less rough, and more streamlined. It’s a very subtle shift in style and it works well. The story has barely been changed. It’s not a shot-for-shot, line-for-line remake of the comic, but while watching it, I couldn’t pick out any scene that was missed. Batman’s inner monologue is gone, but that may be for the better. I don’t know if I’d have enjoyed the movie if every scene was narrated by The God Damn Batman.

Yessssss!

The story in Part 1 deals with Batman coming out of retirement to deal with the Mutant Gang, who have been terrorizing Gotham City. The leader of the Mutants is a ‘roided up, razor teethed psycho. It’s a cool story that works both on its own and as a set-up for Part 2, which is being released on January 29, 2013. The climatic battle between Batman and the leader of the Mutants is simply awesome.

The Mutant Gang have a similar eye-wear fashion sense as Cyclops from the X-Men.

The hardest part of enjoying any animated Batman movie for me is dealing with Kevin Conroy not voicing Batman. To me, and many others, Kevin Conroy is Batman, so hearing someone else’s voice come out of the character’s mouth can be jarring. But Peter Weller is great as Batman.

I highly recommend checking out Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1. It has replaced Batman: Under the Red Hood as my favorite DC animated feature. If you enjoyed the recent The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight rises movies, it’s worth checking out the story that helped inspire those two films.

I can’t wait for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 to be released. In the meantime, I think I’ll check out the DC animated movie of my other favorite Batman tale: Year One.

You can also read my interviews with Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano about the making of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.