The Unholy Dragon
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Posts posted by The Unholy Dragon
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Heart of Hush is Dini/Nguyen so it's great. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader rules. The other two are fun, dumb action stuff. Long Shadows has the good Winnick show up though.I remember rumors about that last year on BC. Azzarello is co-writing it so it might not turn out so bad.
Batman: R.I.P. I put off way too much time between reading this and the book that proceeded it so things felt a bit off for me at times. That said, I still enjoyed itthough this felt like it was pushing the limits of Batman as the ultimate planner. Actually reading this really made me think back to other Batbooks I've read over the last five years or so and realize that this particular idea of Batman really seems to have been something created by Morrison. All the stuff from the 90's to right before his run really do push Bruce as more reactionary. I'm curious now what made Morrison go in this direction.
Thinking I will read Heart of Hush next before continuing on to Batman& Robin. I am curious though on what peoples' thoughts are of the following: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Battle for the Cowl, & Long Shadows.
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Biggest thing I kinda love about Daredevil is while they're not presenting Fisk as a good guy in any way, he's convinced he's right, which is a good villian, but he's not a good guy. But the humanizing of him is something I'm diging, at least as far as Vanessa and his mother are concerned. Something I think is missing from other stories.
Captain America 2 had a similar idea, although they didn't dwell as much on it. And then Redford just killed his maid in cold blood without any regrets which pretty much threw out any moral ambiguity in his character.
"I wish you'd knocked." was great though. He really sold like it was a decision that upset him despite the necessity of it which still contributed to layering the character.
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After watching Arrow tonight, I really have no idea where they go with the story from here. I can't buy Oliver Queen going back to fighting street thugs after the Ras stuff.
That was kind of a problem following the Deathstroke arc too. I think they'd do well building up and recurring villains to make them a bigger deal. Worked for Brick.
Regardless, this is sort of the last *big* card they've been building. I know they want HIVE to be a huge deal given the long background vibe but time alone doesn't give you the presence Deathstroke or Ra's carry.
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Long Halloween is a middling story elevated by Tim Sale art. You can tell because Dark Victory and Hush are the same middling story told again with different players. Jeph Loeb is a master of hiding his weaknesses by teaming with all star artists.
Why can't I get an adaptation of The Long Halloween over two movies or three movies?The leaks coming from the Suicide Squad preproduction made it sound like the solo Batman movie will be an adaptation of book 3 of DKR. They're pretty much doing DKR, just out of order.
That said, people need to start adapting Snyder or Morrison. Or hell, do an adaptation of No Man's Land.
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I have been trying to let it go, but that Figure Four being wrong bothers me every time I see it.
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I'm mostly into the way it carries this running theme of fears and limitations. Where Morrison's run is defined by Batman overcoming everything, Snyder's is all about the idea that as a man he has limits, challenging him to find new ways to go beyond them. The Court of Owls is bigger and older. The Riddler and Endgame turn his city against him. And Joker is the one who can slip through the cracks and bring him to his weakest forcing him to keep becoming better to survive.
It's got layers along a theme with a lot of the same strengths as Morrison's run, just focused more on his humanity than iconography.
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Fairly recent series I'll grant, but I feel like if Selfie had been a Netflix series it could have found the audience it just didn't otherwise. I want it back for more of David Harewood's character alone.
Young Justice needs a miniseries or a DCAU movie to wrap it. Badly.
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I have a little feeling Avengers: Age of Ultron will be less well received than Avengers Assemble. Even if it is, it shouldn't stop it making a lot of money.
Eh. Once the original hype subsided, a lot of people cooled on the first Avengers. It's definitely gone from top of the pops to middle of the pack for me since it hit and that's not just down to Phase 2 being awesome. The movie has a lot of problems from the weird creeping militarism to the overly long final battle that never really sold the stakes...I never bought that any of the team were in danger and thus it was more extended squash than tense climax.
With SHIELD gone and Ultron being a more credible threat than Loki and the Chitauri, there's no reason the sequel shouldn't be able to improve on the original.
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My two biggest complaints about Man of Steel revolve around turning Supes into a mopey ass sad sack who is driven by fear and does what he's told more than what's right to a point. Basically a lot of it is down to the Jonathan Kent stuff which, while perfectly acted, is just the wrong approach for the character to me. It's using unnecessary tragedy as a shortcut to the perception of depth and it's so obvious it makes me mad. That's not even a criticism I have of this movie specifically as much as the Hollywood structure right now. Even something fun like Big Hero 6 can't get by without everyone rolling stages of grief. It's frustrating.
Anyway, point B is that I don't mind the destruction in the last Zod fight or Superman killing him. I dig Max Landis' take of "I don't have a code. I just generally don't kill people because I don't have to." Here he had to and that's fine. Zod Had nearly powered up to the same level and Superman had never been in a real fight before in his life while facing a guy who was literally bred and raised to be a combatant.
But there's the problem. None of the action sold this. It wasn't Zod kicking the shit out of Supes only for Supes to pull something out by using his knowledge of his powers or something. Zod wasn't using civilians to distract Supes and get cheap advantages. It was just two guys hitting each other in rotomotion until a death scene that was both obvious and trite which had the bonus of PROVING ZOD RIGHT.
Basically they had a chance to sell those decisions and instead they did a generic fight scene. Which sort of sums up my problems with Man of Steel, Zack Snyder, and my concerns for Superman v Batman all at once.
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The problem, for me, with the Morrison run is that it was not only nearly perfect" but it felt complete. Like, I don't need to ever read another Batman story again.
I feel that, though the New 52 half of Inc. kind of popped that bubble. It's somehow a terrible and perfect finish and I still can't wrap my head around how it can be both. But after building up thw unbeatable Bat-God, Morrison brings him down again which dovetails into what Snyder has done with him nicely.
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So basically everything about Batman is great in that and Superman has all the same problems as MoS, but given how mass audiences have become a bunch of overly cynical babies who think sadness equals depth, maybe that is the best take for the times and I'm just out of touch.
Seriously though, that may be the best Batman costume committed to film. It looks right out of the comics without a cosplay vibe. I dig the Nolan suits but they're so clearly military armour stuff...this looks like comic books.
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Next year, we are getting a MAN EATING TELEPATHIC GORILLA as a major player on a network drama. How can this be anything but the best possible timeline?
*this year.
Grodd is happening before the end of the season. Likely in episode 20 or 21.
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Frankly I think the success of Arrow has changed a lot of that. The Wonder Woman pilot was the only one of those three that showed promise as well. It wasn't great but I can't say it was notably worse than the Arrow pilot. Just different problems. Would probably land now.
Gotham has kind of turned into a fun carnival ride. It's not well written or characterized but I can't say the last few weren't fun.
Also Constantine still isn't officially cancelled. And hopefully won't be since it was also improving toward the end of S1. Basically you can draw a correlation between how blatantly John smokes and the quality of the show.
Even if it turfs, DC should turnaround Matt Ryan for a R rated Hellblazer flick. He looks and plays it perfectly.
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Finally finished Daredevil. I loved it. Not sure how much more can be said. A few specifics though.
Gao is super interesting. The scene where she abandons all pretense with Fisk is one of my favourites and her getting the drop on DD ruled. I hope she pops up again in Iron Fist.
As much as Matt/Foggy was great, I think the Fisk/Wesley relationship was the one that hit me hardest. Fisk in general was shockingly sympathetic. Dude was a monster but you could see how that was rooted in his humanity.
I sort of hated the big death orgy at the end. Lots of great characters wasted. Urich especially was kind of pointless except to make the good guys sad again. Also the quality of the show will not hide the fact they fridged a Latin woman and a black man to give angst to the core cast of white folks.
So noted, I liked the way the dominos fell in the end. All that strategy and it was some moves from DD and a few random moments of luck that bring it all down. Wesley dies because he's overconfident and trying to protect his friend. Fisk's empire crumbles because he can't control his emotions regarding three people. It feels more organic than most similar things I've seen and I really loved that.
Now we get The Hand for S2 right?
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In fairness, Speed Force dropped the ball more than most. And also showcased the fine continuity problems as Jay still had powers despite the pre-Flashpoint timing which even the recap said he shouldn't. I get the appeal of Jay and Iris at that stage but the sliding timeline as well as every hero apparently being in Gotham when the walls came down is a bit much.
The Flashpoint Universe suffers from this BADLY as well. A lot of characters that should be dead popping up despite it clearly being post-Flashpoint #5 (And confirmed as that iteration via Batman in...I want to say the Superman issue)
For a project so geared toward continuity nerds, this is really sloppy about its own. And yet I'm having fun with it?
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Mizdow...Wouldn't have come close to the reaction that Rousey got. How many people googled Mizdow after Raw last night?
And thanks for the grammar correction. You are smarter than my phone.
How does anyone googling Ronda Rousey make WWE any money? Pretending the wrestlers that work there actually mean something might turn Mizdow into someone that can make money for the company.
Just because Vince has a hard-on for any mainstream publicity that isn't associated with Daniel Bryan doesn't mean that Ronda Rousey showing up to armdrag Triple H will actually do anything for anyone in the long run.
I think it's cute that you think Damien Sadnow can be a long term draw. The gimmick is fun and plainly over but once he's past the Miz feud where does it go? Especially given Sandow is horrifically bland in-ring?
It's a hot act right now but there was always a ceiling for it.
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A big problem with all the Convergence minis I've gotten through so far is that by having only two issues to juggle status quo, crossover concept, conflict, action, and fan service....well, almost all the first issues feel very similar and do more to set up the REALLY cool stuff in issue 2 than be great on their own.
Also, for all the superheroes involved, the only ones seeming to question fhe fighting hard were in Superman.
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Binged Eternal. First DC I've read since definitely the Zero Month and really, a few months into the new 52.
Thoughts
-First and foremost, it was hugely ambitious. There's a sort of Batman story, the gauntlet story, where he goes through almost every major character in his mythos. Knightfall, Long Halloween, Hush, etc. And this was way longer than any of them and probably a good deal better too. That said, there were a lot of moving pieces and they didn't always fit together perfectly. I think some elements (Steph's mom, for instance) didn't get enough play and others (Catwoman during act 2) dropped off for too long when they should have been seen, even in one panel reaction shots or something. Another example is Gordon. Once they got the evidence to clear Gordon, it was a little offputting that they didn't find a way to use it, even after Bard refused to.
-They introduced 3 major new additions to the Batfamily and they were all female. On paper, that's great. In practice, it crashed into each other a little too much. I don't get how Spoiler was so good at what she did, for instance (even if what she did was just stay alive with a few lucky breaks).
-Catwoman sort of following in the Black Cat's footsteps (though in a way that was far better done) was weird too. Just bad timing there.
-There were some bits that were cleared up elsewhere? Like Poison Ivy never got caught with her upgrades.
-Joker's Daughter's really useless isn't she? I don't get the appeal at all. Harley's full of charm so it's impossible not to compare.
-Ok, so the biggest strength (past the pacing and structuring) was also the biggest weakness, the reveal of Cluemaster. This was the one element I was spoiled on coming in so I was looking for clues, and despite all the RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE! babblings, they just weren't there. And I like that to some degree, since the whole "the plan wasn't a plan so he couldn't figure it out." bit was great, but they really sent mixed messages, like with the Riddler stuff. Riddler's big clue that if they cracked his message then they should have figured it all out or whatever, when it was a situation where cleverness actually worked against Batman. In some ways, they buried him a bit to make Spoiler look good at the end, and I'm all for that but it's also sort of weird for a story of this size and scope. Also sort of funny since it parallels the last time I can remember where batman's infallability worked against him, back during the story where Spoiler (as Robin) accidentally started a gang war due to Batman's secret plans.
-They sure destroyed a lot of stuff. And that's okay but I am more impressed with a great comics story that can maintain more of the status quo than one that literally blows so much of it up. I would have liked to see a bit more of the "all of Gotham is batman!" thing, especially considering the mid-story bits where people were talking about moving away due to all the problems, but again that was there to set up Spoiler's moment more than as a message in and of itself.
I think Riddler genuinely thought it was Ra's. Given that he thinks in a similar manner to Batman it would stand to reason he'd be equally fooled.
There's definitely some logic gaps. Steph learned nothing of value really so it was weird for her dad to be trying to kill her over it. Even in Bruce's weakened state, him being taken down by Cluemaster was a bit much. Also killing Cluemaster was pointless, as was having the Court throw Thomas Jr. (Who presumably helped Hush in the Batcave? Don't know if that was ever confirmed) in the box. If anything the ending kinda puts some of the more interesting toys it created away. And a lot of the fine details were left ambiguous which is fine but kinda frustrating in this type of story.
Very much a 'good with great moments' deal more than a great story. But that's true of most Batman epics so it's okay.
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So I'm all for loose continuity, but almost five months later I still can't figure out when the hell Robin Rises is supposed to have happened relative to everything else in the Bat-books/JLA/Earth 2 shenanigans.
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I think the last issue or two of Endgame has been delayed so you might want to go ahead and check out Convergence if you're interested in it.
i thought the last issue was pushed back to 4/29. that's totally waitable. if there's more after that one, then you may be right.
addendum:
i just read the Arkham Manor series. when it was first announced i thought it sounded like a stupid premise and there's no way it would work. then i found out that it tied into Batman Eternal (which i love) so i decided to give it a shot.
then i read it. found out it doesn't really tie into Eternal at all (besides the setup). Plus, the writing is bad and the characterizations are all over the place. so, so bad.
I enjoyed Arkham Manor. That take on Mr. Freeze especially. Wasn't great but I enjoyed it the whole way through.
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So apparently that segment running long caused the main to lose ten minutes. Which is probably for the best because Brock-Roman was an amazingly tight and awesome 15 minute match but probably would have gone to shit by 25.
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I mean it's gotta be kinda hard to stay in biz when married to a guy that now hates it. He's said he wouldn't watch her stuff anymore in interviews and there were rumours of some strife there. Maybe she just decided she had to stand with her relationship over her career.
In the end we won't know unless she tells us. Kind of a sad and abrupt end to a great career. Sort of like Punk himself.
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It's not even that witty.
"LOL You have sex with your husband/long-term partner!"
Well...yeah. Obviously.
Yeah. It's not the crassness that's the problem. It's the notion that's all they're there for that's super insulting.
That was a really good tag too.
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EDIT: Did Jey Uso get hurt for real during the tag title match? It would be weird to remove him so early if not. It sucks for him to get so little time regardless.
He was injured going in.
DC Comics omnibus thread
in READING & WRITING
Posted
An important point of editing. It has infuriated me enough to take me out of a book twice now that Flamingo has been used as a filler villain and had him speak which, part of his deal is that he can't.
Then again, it always bugs me when a villain is used in a throwaway spot in a way that completely opposes the actual character or just feels like a parody of themselves. Bane gets either a lot.