Logan, Batch, and Marc Chevaliehhhhhhh sit at the geek round table for this month’s Small Screen Heroes. Logan actually read a DC comic and loved it. Batch is ecstatic because it was a goddamn Flash book. Marc talks about Absolute Carnage, Logan talks Spider-Man: Life Story and it’s conclusion/the overall run by Chip Zdarsky. Everyone is upset because Spider-Man is out of the MCU. The three dry their fucking tears to talk about The Boys for a bit. And scene.
Batch and Logan are here to discuss the biggest movie of 2019 (sorry Rise of Skywalker)….but before they get to that, they talk all about Shazam! They detail the history, the Geoff Johns run, and of course, the new movie. And still before they get to fifing all overthat yuge flick, they talk about some comics. And how much Batch loves Doom Patrol. And then the boys congratulate past guest of the show Chip Zdarksy on his Will Eisner nomination. And then Batch lays into Tom King for damn good reasons. Oh and they do some Google Voice (708-232-3182). And then….ENDGAME.
Take caution, there are plenty of spoilers within. So don’t go saying you weren’t warned, you fucking cocksucker.
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.
Its comic book commentary time as we spotlight some awesome stuff you should be reading. In this episode of Small Screen Heroes, Batch and guest Denny Luis go through and give some detailed spoiler filled notes on the first 3 issues of the new Flintstones reboot from DC.
We then segue into Watchmen and how the classic characters are starting to impact the mainstream DC universe, with Tim Drake robin getting killed in this week’s detective comics (allegedly).. and how the “Before Watchmen” miniseries from a few years ago set the seeds for what is going to happen the next few years,
What would you like us to tackle in our next commentary, let us know in the comments below.
Another Summer box office weekend, another “record-shattering” movie release. This past weekend, Suicide Squad came along to set the movie world on fire, immediately dividing the masses into two main camps. You either like the movie or you hate it. Well, that is, unless you’re trying to protest against Rotten Tomatoes, take down critics for disliking the film and picketing against Marvel. In the age of Social Justice Warriors, entitlement and parity for all, the movie-going world is changing for the worse. Marvel, for all the good they have done since 2008, clearly have had a negative effect on the studios around them. This is no more evident than their main comic book rival DC and their handling of the creation of an inter-connected movie universe of their own.
Man of Steel was supposed to kick these films off, a film which included a Superman that doesn’t smile. That was followed up with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, a patently idiotic attempt at launching a wave of DC cinematic goodness that fell flat for being poorly written and horribly conceived. Now, Suicide Squad, a film whose trailers looked genuinely interesting, featuring a new take on arguably DC’s greatest villain ever, was a disjoined, badly made and stupid movie. There is an argument to be made that all comic book movies are kinda stupid, and I get that, but Suicide Squad is the kind of movie that forgets about its own logic halfway through the film. DC is going south quickly, and despite the amount of money they earn on opening weekend they are failing many of their fans, myself included, consistently.
I know this seems like a simple thing to say but there is a simple way to combat the slew of shitty films that get thrown out way. Simply put, do not go and see these films. We are at a point where audiences are more interested in seeing a certain character on screen than caring about the actual story in the film, and that is a shame. Suicide Squad, for all its faults, does have an interesting story to be told…it’s just 100% different than what they went with. But studios aren’t going to stop shoveling this shit in our faces until we decide to do something about it.
This past year we had a Snow White sequel, a Tarzan reboot, more young adult novel adaptations like Allegiant and a few other genuine pieces of trash. While those were properly ignored by the masses movies like BvS and SS are manipulative in the way they are made. SS featured Batman in the trailer, and of course anyone would want to see him in the film. His screen time amounts to 2 minutes that mean nothing to the story, but at the point most people understood this the ticket was already sold. Take, in comparison, Marvel’s Civil War, featuring the first appearance of ***SPOILER ALERT*** Giant Man on screen. They didn’t play this up in the trailers, they didn’t advertise it elsewhere. Marvel knew the strength of its story was enough to intrigue people and didn’t resort to masking a shitty movie with a lot of pomp and circumstance.
It is tough to know what will be a good film and what will be a bad one these days. Trailers are made to sell you on a film, and oftentimes those are better than the finished film. I think we need to be more conscious of movies and pay attention to the ones that deserve more exposure. Sing Street, The Nice Guys and Hail Caesar are the types of films I want to see more of in theaters. Movies that are well made, sure to entertain and are different than a bunch of people in costumes punching each other with their laser-penises. Let’s try to be better fans and give love to the stuff that needs it or else it may not be around much longer.
On this week’s action packed spectacular Batch is joined by the one and only Super Marcy to talk all things all things comic culture.
Super Marcy reviews the most recent Poison Ivy mini-series from dc as well as breaks down Dc’s Superhero Girls line of toys and Comics and cartoons directed at little girls and fanboys of all ages.
This week’s casting call is Fantastic Four and exactly which It’s always sunny in philadelphia characters would be the best fit as the fantastic four.
Batch also covers The 100 first 3 seasons and tells why you should be binging it.
We also get a big Spoiler filled update to the going ons in Marvels Civil war 2 event and the big death in issue 3
Let us know who you would like in a new fantastic four movie as well as a director , or what comic properties you want us to do for a upcoming casting call as well as what you’re reading /binging/ geeking out about below and we will cover it on future episodes of small screen heroes!
Comic Pick of the week is Mark Millar’s Jupiter’s legacy Vol 1
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…
It finally happened. One of the geekiest meet-ups in geek history, Batman V Superman, is here, and with it a whole lot of stylistic choices that we need to reconcile. Some like the flick, most kind of hate it, but there’s been a real groundswell of love for Affleck and his iteration of both Bruce Wayne and Batman despite the problems many have with the script, myself included. I, personally, loved Affleck in the role and would not have changed anything about the performance. There seems to be one detail that the fanboys and fangirls are up in arms over, and that is Batman’s alleged vigilantism crossing the line of him breaking his moral code of not killing people. While I absolutely, 100% agree that making Batman into a murderer breaks the essence of this character, I honestly don’t understand what people are complaining about. This isn’t the first time these types of kills have happened in a Batman film or comic. Furthermore, I did the legwork for you and present three distinct examples of Batman directly killing the bad guys. You believe this? Me, Jack Valley, defending Zack Snyder? Miracles do happen people. On with the article.
Batman
If we are going to nitpick Batman to death we have to start here. Tim Burton, for all the good he did, admittedly had little interest in the comic book iteration of the Bat. With several direct allusions to Batman being an actual BAT-man, Burton brought a lot of style and darkness to the universe. There are staples of the character that were brilliant here, such as the Anton Furst Batmobile and choosing to not tell the origin story. Michael Gough’s Alfred is still the guy that comes to mind when I hear that name anywhere. For all the good things in this film, there are some bad, and that has been detailed on this site before. Most of all, though, what is likely one of the biggest problems in this film, Batman kills indiscriminately, and in, I would argue, a much more brutal fashion than Affleck ever does. Not only does the Bat drop grenades next to a handful of henchmen at the chemical plant, he throws another guy off of the bell tower at the climax of the film to his death. Furthermore, he brings Joker to his demise as well. While a lot of people like to forget these details, I do not.
Batman Returns
In the admittedly very dark sequel, the Caped Crusader may actually be a more deranged psychopath than the previous film makes him out to be. While one could argue that Batman had no choice in taking out Joker in the last movie’s climax, here Batman is killing fools with style. For instance, he gives a fire-breather a taste of his own medicine by using the Batmobile’s jet-engine to light that fool up. There are at least a dozen ways he could have easily avoided burning the guy alive, especially when you consider all the “wonderful toys” that must be outfitted in the Batmobile. Within that same sequence, the Bat straps a ticking time bomb to one of the circus performers, making his death an absolute certainty. Also, although again this may be more of a crime of inaction, he allows the Penguin to just fall to his death at the end of the film. These are all hardly the type of vigilante justice we believe we are entitled to when it comes to Batman lore.
Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan’s first entry in the series was and, I would maintain, still is a game-changer. Nolan found a way to keep the subject material light while also maintaining a bit of that comic book levity to keep us both grounded in reality and in awe of the spectacle on screen. Of the more clever ideas in the film, the way Nolan uses Ra’s Al Ghul as a title rather than an individual’s name is truly inspired. The death of the first Ra’s Al Ghul, however, is problematic, because not only does it show Bruce Wayne as willing to kill, it makes for a really confusing situation. The entire reason Bruce lights Ra’s temple on fire is because he disagrees with their methodology. While everyone focuses on how Bruce saves Ducard, we forget that the petty thief and, most likely, others like him probably burned alive in the temple. Say what you will about the League of Shadows and whether or not they deserved what was coming to them, this is a morally grey area that the movie does a great job misdirecting the audience from. Make no mistake, however, because Batman probably killed a bunch of people in this scene. Deal with it.
P.S. Depending on how you look at it, he probably should be brought up on a charge of manslaughter for letting Ra’s bite it on the tram.
All this and I didn’t even mention the one truck driver that gets DESTROYED by the Batmobile in The Dark Knight…
So there you have it. Say what you will about the problems with Batman V Superman (of which there are PLENTY) but this repetitive argument that Batman is an indiscriminate killer now is baffling to me. That whole “have to break some eggs to make an omelette” adage applies here. Collateral damage has ALWAYS happened and will ALWAYS happen in comic book films. Granted, the Darkseid-nightmare sequence has Bats using a handgun, but that was a dream sequence. That may be his ultimate dream, to be able to just gun down the bad guys, but the fact that he struggles with this idea is part of what makes him a phenomenal character. Also, that one scene where (SPOILER) he blows up the KGBeast’s flamethrower? That’s taken DIRECTLY FROM THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, so let us all take a step back and question what the hell we are complaining about. With the twenty-four-hour news cycle being what it is, this whole idea became a “thing” over the weekend and I think any real Batman fan would fully appreciate and understand the choices they make with Batfleck. This one little detail seems to be deterring some from even giving this iteration of the character a fair shake, and that is Why This Sucks!
While Comic Binge has been on a month long hiatus, we haven’t had a lot of time to read and life got real serious. But on that extra day of the year this year, some magic happened and we were able to finally get some shit read! What better way to get back into the reading mood than to pick up the gigantic, Morrison epic The Multiversity. The Multiversity did its best to feature all of 52 separate worlds within the DC Universe. It was really fun reading Grant Morrison write all of the different stories within the DC Universe but each with its own world. The characters varied from story to story, but the illustrations and overall structure of the story would almost shift and transition to and from. I loved how the art styles would go back and forth to different artists, and the stories would build upon each other while telling similarly separate stories about Multiversity. The concept of course as well, is brilliant. Leave it to Grant Morrison to yet again knock an original story of his out of the park. I generally hate large event books, but The Multiversity was well worth my time to read. I would consider buying this one if it didn’t cost so damn much, but I would highly recommend it to every DC Comics fan at least to read. The Multiversity features an assorted cast of characters assembled from all the different walks of the DCU, and holds a special tone and storyline throughout to create a truly unique comic book experience.
Next was a book I have been wanting to pick up for awhile, and that is Stan Lee’s comic book memoir. As if there was any other way to tell the story of the legend Stan Lee, he has written a comic version of his memoirs. I for one found this to be an incredibly grand and perfect way to tell the life of a man who created a lot of the classic Marvel characters. There was plenty of drama, and especially at the beginning you really get a feel for Stan Lee’s troubles as a young man. What all Stan Lee had to grow up through and then overcome in his later years was nothing short of impressive, and is a testament to the man we know of today. He is truly a legend, and even though he tells this story himself, you really can see why he is so good with the fans. The book is full of historical facts about himself, plenty of humor, wit, and self-awareness. There was no mention of Kevin Smith, which I was sort of hoping for, but my other favorite guy in the biz Ron Perlman sort of gets a cameo. Not only was Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, but it was incredible read for anyone at all. It’s a great graphic novel but it’s also just a great book and shows why comic books can be really relevant too. Stan Lee obviously tells his own story best in this comic form, and this is another book that I’m adding to the list to buy here at Comic Binge.