Batman comics in general (was Batman- The Dark Knight)

I've long been wanting a Batman title that (A) was mostly self-contained and (B) featured Bruce Wayne. B-TDK fits that bill. Mind you, one of the 5 billion other monthly Batman titles may very well fit those same requirements but I wouldn't know.

I've checked out the issues published up to now. Pretty good. I mean,yeah, the influence of the Nolan movies is pretty heavy (although the title of the freaking book alone should probably give that much away) but unto itself this is so far a pretty good little kidnapping/whodunnit case. Plus, the art is top shelf too. I've been warned to expect late comics out the wazoo from this guy (apparently holding to a monthly deadline ain't his specialty) but with only two issues released so far, the book is just too new to rate in that respect.

Anyway. It's good enough that I went ahead and added it to my pull list.

Anybody else following this title?

Bane's new 52 look:
http://shelf-life.ew.com/2012/02/16/batman-the-dark-knight/

FEBRUARY 16, 2012 2:40 PM ‘Batman: The Dark Knight #6′: Meet the new Bane, same as the old Bane —EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW By Darren Franich


Image Credit: DC Comics The supervillain known as Bane occupies a curious place in the Batman mythology. On one hand,his first appearance coincided with one of the most memorable story arcs of DC’s early-’90s campaign to kill or maim their most iconic characters. On the other hand… well,Bane is a big strong man wearing a Mexican wrestling mask. But the redemption of Bane officially kickstarted when Christopher Nolan announced him as the big bad in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises. Now Batman: The Dark Knight #6 comes with the promise “The Rise of Bane!” In four pages debuting exclusively on EW.com,Superman also swings by to say hello. It’s like old home week in Gotham!

You can read the full issue when it hits stores Feb 22. For now,check out EW’s full sneak peek here.

Read more: Sneak peek at DC’s #2 ‘Batgirl’ —EXCLUSIVE Superman #1,The Dark Knight #1,Aquaman #1: New comics reviews Batman #1 and other new DC Comics reviews

Follow Darren on Twitter: @EWDarrenFranich

shelf-life.ew.com wrote:On one hand,his first appearance coincided with one of the most memorable story arcs of DC’s early-’90s campaign to kill or maim their most iconic characters. On the other hand… well,Bane is a big strong man wearing a Mexican wrestling mask. But the redemption of Bane officially kickstarted when Christopher Nolan announced him as the big bad in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises.

Ah. So Bane wasn't "interesting" or "credible" until Chris Nolan cast a 190 lb weakling in a trench coat for the role. I see.

Fuck you.

Well at least new 52 bane didn't take hardy look. Which is a good thing, as for author comment, ew is owned by wb right? So he was probably made to say nice things about nolan and that crap.

webhead2006 wrote:Well at least new 52 bane didn't take hardy look. Which is a good thing, as for author comment, ew is owned by wb right? So he was probably made to say nice things about nolan and that crap.

EW shit-talked Singerman back in 2006. Both the movie and Blandon, come to think of it. So if they're all over Nolan's balls, it's probably not strictly because they're following marching orders. Who says they even had to mention TDKRises in this comic book story anyway? Why not simply avoid reference to the movie? Or, lacking that, imply the movie's superiority?

Methinks they're doing this all on their own, the hacks.

EDIT- I'm seriously starting to wonder about the Batman fans who spooge their pants over the Nolan movies. The comics they profess to love so much are full of so many supernatural, sci-fi and fantasy concepts that could NEVER fit into Nolan's universe, and the material seems to frequently look down its nose at the comics. Doesn't this bother them? Do they have no self-respect?

I'm co-opting and retitling my own thread because I can't think of where else to put this but it's not worth a thread by itself.

Each year, I try to "adopt" a comic book character. The basic idea is that I pick a character, team or title and then read the hell out of those comics. This year? I guess it's Batman because there's been more of him than anyone else.

But no New 52 bullshit. No thanks. A lot of that stuff seems too Nolanized for my tastes. Instead, I've been mostly sticking mostly with 90's stuff (ie, my era of the character). I find Batman to a LOT more tolerable when I get to set the boundaries like this.

So far this year, I've read the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers Detective Comics run, Batman- Earth One and more recently I've started Cataclysm/Road To No Man's Land/No Man's Land.

I started the Cataclysm/Road To No Man's Land/No Man's Land stuff a few weeks ago. I've heard people whose opinions I respect do nothing but talk smack about how badass this storyline is. I never read all of it so there was a limit to how much I could say. Right now, I've just started the Road To No Man's Land thing but so far? Pretty good. Really enjoying it.

Yes, I do feel kind of strange that I got the itch to read this series a week or three before TDKRises came out. I guess everybody else knew there was a kinda sorta half-ass tie-in but I sure didn't. So now I feel stupid. But whatever, it's done.

After this I'm thinking I'll read Bruce Wayne- Murderer/Fugitive. I've read it before but only in pieces over the years; never in sequence. After that, maybe I'll reread War Games/War Crimes. That takes more into the 2000's. We'll see what happens from there.

Castrated Objector- "But colors! Not all of these relate to Batman comics! In fact, most of them don't!"
Me- "Eh, you'll live."

Was flipping through a reprint of Detective Comics #27 and noticed something weird. So I compared it to other reprints. Curiouser and curiouser. A word balloon is present in the original printing and at least one reprint but absent from a lot of other reprints. Also, the lettering seems different. See for yourself.



My best guess for the missing word balloon is Comics Code BS. That wouldn't have been a factor with the original printing but may have been a concern in the 60's. As to the different lettering, I suspect (but can't prove) that the original lettering was damaged by the print reproduction process. It's a laborious subject but in the early 90's, DC would use a very unorthodox chemical bleach method to generate "flat" art which preserved all or most of the original black line art but removed the color. I'm working on the hypothesis that the black lines making up the art mostly survived the process but some lettering could have been compromised.

Anyway. Thought it was weird and wanted to throw it out there.

Knowing me I probably wouldn't have caught that, not immediately anyway. But the thing that bugs me is where are Batman's ears?! I thought the Golden Age version was known for having humongous bat ears so I find that curious too. That ain't about like Jack Kirby drawing Ben Grimm & the Hulk with varying amounts of fingers & toes back in the 60's is it?

In Detective Comics #27, Kane drew the ears in a way that they were visible from the front or back but not so much from the sides. Observe: http://bigotherbigother.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/detective-comics-27-pg06-detail1.jpg

That began to change even by Detective #28 though- http://dialbforblog.com/archives/282/tec28june1939.gif

It's funny, the Apologists want to argue that Superman's costume underwent a lot of changes over the years to justify that horrible thing from Singerman... which ignores the fact that the basic outfit was pretty much settled by 1942. However, Batman's uniform changed a lot. The evolution there is truly remarkable when you really follow it through. This is why I tend to cut a bit more slack with Batman's outfits than I would The Suit. Their arguments could far more accurately be applied to Batman than they ever could to Superman.