Batch and Logan are back to talk some geeky stuff, including an Endgame theory that involves Thanos’ ass. No, really. It’s out there on the internet. For real. Supernatural and Arrow are ending. The boys get pumped about James Gunn returning to direct Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which of course has them chat about his involvement in the DC Extended Universe…if that still really exists at this point. The dynamic duo talk Shazam of course and how they are both equally ready to jizz all over that movie. Comics talk follows, as Batch discusses Cerebus the Aardvark, Young Justice, and WWE by Boom Studios. Logan of course is reading Spidey books. Big fucking surprise. Logan gives his thoughts on Captain Marvel as a movie, and Batch provides a nice little history on the character. The two wrap up the show talking about the remainder of the first season of Deadly Class and more about Umbrella Academy.
They also discuss porn movie titles for the latter. You’re welcome.
Law and Moreno exchange banter, try to remember what happened last week, answer some quality voicemail, review some television and a couple movies and then do their version of a Fall Movie Preview. Their version includes a lot of peeing, sounder wars, and yelling at each other.
Chad C gets all super hero-y again for JUSTICE LEAGUE and considers crying by himself in a theater for WONDER. Which is better? What should you see? How many nude scenes in each? All (none) of these questions are answered inside your computer right now. Or your phone. Or whatever. Shut up.
This will likely have spoilers, so Binge reader be warned. To preface all of this, I was hardly excited for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. I just wasn’t into it. I love Batman. I honestly hate Superman. Anyone else that was going to be in that movie was only going to be a stepping stone to where we all want it to go. The trailers didn’t make me giddy. The TV spots didn’t have me counting how many weeks until the movie came out. I simply was uninterested in anything this movie had to offer. I wasn’t hateful towards it. I didn’t have any reason to be angry they made it. Zack Snyder was not a concern, though recently he hasn’t been at the strength I once recall. I didn’t think the story was going to be stupid, or that Jesse Eisenberg was going to be awful. I had absolutely zero commitment towards any stance on this movie. Now, I’ve seen it twice, once during each of the last two weekends. I came out of the movie the first time having enjoyed it, but not enough to rave about it. Then I saw it again this past weekend, and I’m completely at a loss to where the hatred for this movie comes from. The following is what I truly believe to be the problem with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Upon a second viewing, I saw this movie as I feel any fan of anything in this movie should, with joy. There was something mysteriously present in Batman V Superman that I didn’t notice the first time. It is the dream of so many people to see these two on screen together, and its finally happened. This equates to expectations of the highest level, which is where this movie first begins to fail its viewers. This goes to show what the main issue with this movie is, and that is the viewer themselves. It’s hard not to enjoy this movie, simply for what it is. All plot points and weirdness aside, this movie was a good time at the theater on premiere weekend. I had a laundry list of issues including Batman’s sudden befriending of Superman, the Kryptonite spear dilemma, Superman in general, and Ben Affleck as Batman. There were so many things to complain about, yet somehow it couldn’t suck this movie to lifelessness as some suggest it is. Nothing about this movie changes the way critics react and what viewers will do or say following. People simply see movies in different lights and viewers will have their minds made up about this one. Nothing is going to change that, and I’m not here to try.
What Batman V Superman has though is tons of awesome. Wonder Woman couldn’t have been any more excellent, as she was totally captivating on screen. I don’t know who Gal Gadot is, but she was cool as all hell in that role and she fit it for me. I’ve never been a particularly die-hard Wonder Woman fan. I like when she shows up in comics and uses her tools to take down villains that the others can’t. She has a pretty decent running title right now and has been exploring some darker characters. After this movie, I want everything Wonder Woman and especially Gal Gadot’s. I’m obsessed with this character, and I am so insanely excited for the solo movie now, which I didn’t even know existed. The fact that she got to show up and kick Doomsday’s ass for the most part, and use her lasso on him was epic. She was done so damn well in this movie, I almost didn’t care about all of its faults. The second time she was no less entertaining, and I found myself seeking out Wonder Woman merchandise. God, she was so great on both sides of the character. And this is where I really saw what about this movie had me in high spirits, and that was what it meant to me as a child at heart.
This movie makes me want to get out the old action figures and make Batman and Superman fight like they did here. Each character had some tremendous scenes in this movie. Batman took a stand against many of the largest foes we have seen him face on screen. Bruce Wayne was faced with age and loss like we’ve never seen before. Superman actually lost hope in himself and society as a whole. Clark Kent was enraged by the potential harm of his mother that was out of even his control. Batman and Superman bantering over mothers and female coworkers was nothing short of hysterical. Superman losing his shit on the rooftop with Lex Luthor was one of the most intense comic book scenes in the DCU. Even when Superman had to admit to himself that he was like anyone else and would have to give up his golden boy reputation, I was on the verge of losing control. Everyone was upset by Superman’s death, but seeing him truly struggle with society’s reactions towards him was outstanding. Seeing an infallible character suffer at the hand of life and deal with that emotionally was just unprecedented for me. It’s something many rarely are able to touch on with Superman to make him a great character to enjoy.
This brings to another thing I ended up loving about this movie, and that was Superman. I enjoyed Man of Steel much more than I thought I would as well. It has a much different take on the character, something that sort of resembled a Superman: Earth One comic or something. A darker approach, but a true cinematic experience was Man of Steel. Then this movie comes along and delivers on several great Superman scenes. The rooftop scene with Lex was the turning point of the film and served as the top of the hill in this roller coaster. The dream sequence showing Superman stalking into Batman was terrifying, knowing how powerful and unhinged a lost Superman can be from Injustice, which is what the Knightmare sequence reminded me of. Then lastly, that touching scene where Super Clark finds Lois and tells her that he has to change Batman’s mind. He acknowledges that he could truly have become corrupted, that even he and his golden heart were susceptible to disgraceful actions. For me to even like anything Superman astounds me, and I thought he far out-shined his counterpart here.
Batfleck was exactly what I thought he would be. A serviceable Bruce Wayne that is not the worst as some claim, nor is he the best, though it’s hard to argue with who is better. His Batman worked for me, and it was really cool to see an older Batman for once. We’ve seen him so many times, getting this fresh take on it and in a different time in his career was cool to see. Robin is dead, not just waiting to show up. Joker has come and gone to ruin the life of Bruce Wayne. Alfred is like a nagging old grandfather begging for a grandchild to replace the void of his loss in Robin as well. There was so much to like about this take on Batman, as I felt it was probably the closest any of them have come to being like an Animated Series style and tone character. This movie is the closest a DC movie has brought me to a childlike sense of wonderment. Star Wars recently did this for me, but nothing has ever quite touched this in the superhero genre like the original X-Men or Spider-Man. I’ve been amazed by Marvel for years now, through the good and bad, which is where the hatred for this flick starts. But for me, it serves as the launching point for DC’s care of their characters, like realized long ago. DC fan service has begun, and if Batman V Superman didn’t give you a Batarang-sized Binge brain boner then I don’t know what will. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was the best DC movie outside of Nolan’s trilogy and either movie based on the works of the legend Alan Moore. Just think about it when you go back to watch it again, because you know you will…
Nick “The Dick” in the house! This week on Comic Binge, I touch base with a couple of the longer running titles of New 52, but should they still be running? The first book this week was a loaner from a friend so I got it a little earlier than normal, had I been waiting to get it from the library. This was Batman & Robin, Vol. 6: The Hunt for Robin, and it was a continuation of the greatness from the previous volume. Now, it’s so hard not to spoil the big story of the previous volume, and talk about this newest volume. While I really don’t give a shit to spoil anyone, I know how big this particular event was, and I’d hate to ruin the epicness of the issue for you. I knew what happened, but I remained in the dark about Batman & Robin‘s pinnacle issue for one reason alone. I knew it was going to be an emotional one, and I wanted to feel that on the first read, and I did. Now, this new volume finds Batman after Ra’s al Ghul for stealing what he believes should belong to him. I can see both sides, but goddamnit Batman wants to have all that he has ever held dear in his life, or so we think. The book opens in a dark, murky ocean, filled with dead bodies and plenty of mystery. The book doesn’t tackle into too much action, because we’re still emotionally hung over from the big event. However, this book is excellent, from the art down to the storytelling. Someone has picked up on the formula of what made the Batman book by Snyder so great. It’s emotion, and good storytelling, excellent writing, suitable art, dark atmospheres that bring out the extra Batsy-ness. I loved this volume, and I would highly recommend it. But, DO NOT PICK UP THIS VOLUME UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE PREVIOUS VOLUME! I cannot stress this enough, but for those who have read it, I’m sure you will understand.
Next up this week was Justice League, Vol. 6: Injustice League. This book has essentially been a long time coming, as the Injustice League as sort of made slight appearances elsewhere before this. I was pretty excited about this one because not only has the New 52 Justice League been pretty great, so have its surrounding titles from the first wave of this new movement. The art in Justice League is one of its strong suits, and I didn’t quite feel like it was to maximum capacity in this book. Also, the story wasn’t nearly as great as I’d hoped it would have been. Honestly, I can’t hardly even remember what the story was about nearly a few days after completing the volume. It was decent, but not memorable. If you’re looking for villain team-ups, look elsewhere. One would hope that such a strong title at the beginning would continue to remain strong, especially after a great previous volume. However, we may be seeing the decline in some of the stronger titles because their stories are no longer there to tell, as most of them have ended and rebooted in a way. Aquaman just did this recently with their fifth volume, without rubbing out what happened before it, they were able to do sort of a soft reset that really resembled Aquaman‘s first volume in the New 52. While I won’t turn you away from Injustice League, but I would certainly recommend making sure it’s the book you want before you pick it up. Because of event books such as Forever Evil, it can make this book a tough pick up from where we left off. If it were up to me, I would go ahead and just stop at the fifth volume and move on to other titles from there. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a proper Injustice League spin-off come from this book, or another, possibly Batman-laced new story for the Justice League to deal with? Either way, after this week, we’ve got plenty of new stuff to review your way. So stay tuned to Binge and we’ll see you next week!
PLOT: Aquaman and the Justice League may have stopped the war between the surface world and Atlantis, but the fight is not yet behind them. The people of Atlantis are reluctant to welcome back a king who fought against his own people, while the surface-dwellers see Atlanteans as little more than terrorists. But before Arthur can regain the support of his people, another Atlantean royal returns: The Dead King. The First King. The king who sank Atlantis!
REVIEW: For those who haven’t had a chance to dive into Geoff Johns’ Aquaman reboot for the New 52, please do that as soon as humanly possible. Quite possibly the best total makeover in the entire lineup of titles with New 52, is Johns’ Aquaman. For years many have wondered how you get Aquaman on the same level as some of our favorite heroes like Batman and Superman. Forever, Aquaman has always played second fiddle to nearly anyone in the Justice League, until now. Aquaman was brought from the depths of the ocean to the light of day, and I have to say this is definitely one of the titles I have looked forward to consistently throughout its run. Johns’ Aquaman is badass, heroic, and presented with great conflict throughout the entire series. This book finds Aquaman in yet another dilemma being the leader of Atlantis, but again he finds his way out of trouble and into this reader’s heart.
The book starts out in the aftermath of the third volume’s events, and Aquaman is at odds with his own people. Many factions have split out with their own agendas as to who should be their leader, but the first Atlantean king comes back to foil everyone’s plans. The problem with the first king is that he is dead, and comes back to reclaim the throne of Atlantis. I loved his powers and how they appeared on the page, because he uses ice and cold underwater which creates really great large spreads within the book. Those aren’t the only art pieces in the book, as the whole thing serves as a great example of why DC’s New 52 far surpasses the Marvel NOW! lineup. The art is just phenomenal, and absolutely beautiful. When you flip to the next set of two pages and it’s a big splash across the entire pages, it’s almost breathtaking. The art team on this book is one of the top notch ones working within the New 52 (see Batwoman for insanity), and kept me flipping the pages as quickly as possible. You can easily jump on the bandwagon with this fourth volume and get with the story, but I would still recommend reading the first three books as they are all just as amazing. Who would have ever thought that Aquaman would be one of the best and most badass superheroes being written at any point in time? Swim out there and read this book now!