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I’d heard great things about the Catwoman revamp from Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker (Cooke only stayed on for the first four issues, but redid the costume and logo, while Brubaker did 3 years worth) a long time ago, and I’d even bought the first trade, but it hadn’t struck me as all that special. Nothing bad, just not so interesting.

Then, for whatever reason, years later, I decided to give it another chance last month, starting with the first 24 issues.

I kept reading after that, all the way to the end.

The early issues of Catwoman take away a lot of the super powered insanity you see in the other Batman universe titles; it’s not about super heroes or villains here, it’s about Selina Kyle and her friends. More character driven then superhero driven.

It works. It feels different, but as you read more and more, you’ll really like the difference in storytelling.

This is the reverse of the Batman titles. I’ve been unhappy with the Batman series’ for a long time, and this especially hurts because I’m such a big Batman fan. I think Batman, whose appeal partly lies in the fact that he seems to be the most realistic of the superheroes (You could be like Batman if you were in similar situation, while you could never be Superman), is very unrealistic. Batman is supposed to be a “What If” in an extreme situation, what could happen. Yet, when you see so many people in masks just being super villains or heroes, it doesn’t feel like the extreme created a Batman, that’s just how things are.

In Catwoman, though, Brubaker keeps a realistic feel to it, though I’m not sure that’s quite the right word. It just seems smarter, and not for your average teenage reader. You feel like you’re delving more into each character, rather than watching them fight all the time. You’ve got Selina Kyle, her best friend Holly, noir detective Slam Bradley- the focus is always on them as people. There’s something that you can identify with and understand.

Unfortunately, as Brubaker ends his run, this focus, and the quality, go away as well. While there are some interesting plotlines over the next 40 issues, with Will Pfeifer primarily in control, Catwoman slowly becomes like every other comic- event driven, not character driven. It feels like a generic superhero comic. The Catwoman series was cancelled in mid-arc earlier this year, but once you get to issue 75, you can understand why- it’s not so bad, just not good.

My recommendation: Follow Brubaker’s run from in issues 1-33 (the Wargames issues are worthless, though that’s probably how I feel about all crossovers), after that read until you find it boring. There’s no recovery in quality over time, it just falls away.

Some of the covers from the series (software courtesy of ComicRack- not ComiCrack)

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Tonight was the first night of Dark Knight’s release in Vietnam. I saw it at Vincom in Hanoi, had the best seats in the house, in my opinion. (Thanks Thuy)

As much a Batman fan as I am, I have to side with Kyle “you won’t be disappointed. you just may not think it’s the greatest movie of all time.” it’s not but it is very, very good” and Trench.

John said it was the best movie of all time, something I suggested myself in January, but more jokingly. Emil and Mike really liked it as well.

So, it was very very good. But there was something…missing.

For me, a movie has to hit an emotional edge to really get me to just love it. Batman Begins was excellent but was missing this. The Dark Knight is the same way. I never felt extremely excited, happy, or sad, just not real super strong reaction to the movie. Movies that can make me feel a certain way keep on resonating through time. For me, The Matrix, My Sassy Girl, Heat, Godfather, those are the movies that ultimately rank among my favorite movies of all time.

The story has incredible depth. I can tell it will hold up amazing through multiple viewings, and I think I will end up seeing 3 times with various people within the next 2 weeks. The movie is about constant struggle for balance. An action means a equal reaction. Things that should happen (but usually don’t in movies for the sake of a good or happy ending) do happen here. Things in this world are “fair”, which make not make sense until you watch the movie. Characters have to balance each other, events have to balance. To me, this is the ultimate Joker story regardless of whether you’re talking about the comics, animated series, whatever. This is the true Joker. I just reread The Killing Joke, and some of the interactions between Joker and Batman are similar to those in The Dark Knight.

The movie asks so many questions about the character of humanity, question of sanity, I would use the term “morality play”, but I don’t even know what that word means.

I gave it a 9/10 on IMDB.

Other random notes:

• It’s long. Not that I don’t like long movies, or that maybe this was too long, but I did notice it was long.
• Everything shown in the various trailers, (I think I’ve seen 6 or 7 different ones) only takes you to half of the movie. I was quite surprised, and basically had no idea what was coming. What I assumed what was the end of the movie was just the middle part of it.
• Normally, you see a great movie, and you’d love to see the sequel ASAP. But with this, I feel like it was such a deep story, that you need time before seeing another one. Especially with the movie’s ending, we actually need a good length of real time to transpire so we can be ready for the next story.
• Batman Begins was focused on making a real-life based what-if version of the character, but Dark Knight starts to lose some of that. This is where you get into an extreme of an extreme unlikelihood.
• This is a mature and adult story. Like I said, it will hold up for a long time and repeated viewings.
• “Why so serious” “Let’s put a smile on that face”- I am fairly certain the way they sound in the trailers versus how they sound in the movie is not the same.

As a side note, I’m going to try to buy the Vietnamese version of the Dark Knight movie (Vietnamese text) poster. I’ll put up a picture of it if I’m successful.

There’s two I’ve seen, one’s the motorbike one, and the other is this one, the Joker one. I’ll be wanting the Joker.

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I think I’ve already seen this, I think Kyle showed me this a long time ago, but it was taken down (bootleg camcorder footage in a theater). I think it’s even in a previous post of mine.

Nonetheless, watch this hopefully more legal (have not watched, speed to slow for me at home) version:

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Batman Gotham Knight is to the upcoming Dark Knight movie what the Animatrix was to the Matrix movies: sharp, anime inspired animated shorts featuring different takes (from different creative talents)and different stories surrounding the subject material. (by the way, isn’t it great that for once, a sequel doesn’t add on to the original’s name for franchising/marketing reasons? Batman Begins: The Dark Knight would be bleh.)

The visual look varies throughout each short (each about 12 minutes long), some feel more anime inspired than others, but overall you very high production values, fluid animation, good CG. The look in terms of the style is definitely not related to the Batman: Animated Series, and whether that’s good or not is up to your personal style.

The DVD is all new material and is meant to be, in at least a superficial sales-boost way related to the Dark Knight movie- they’re both released in the same week or so. David Goyer, one of the screenwriters for Batman Begins, writes one of the stories, a look at Scarecrow post-Begins storyline.

For me, the stories didn’t really excite me. The presentation is extremely stylish, but there’s no real depth to the characters or actions. You don’t really learn anything that’s important to the core of the characters, showing a new side of Bruce Wayne or Batman. If I were to compared these to the Animated Series, these stories would rank in the middle, basically be average or perhaps slightly below average episodes.

I would have preferred stories from Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, the big driving forces behind the Animated Series, even though you’ve got a lot of big names associated with this project.

I think kids will like it because of the flash and action, but the violence is more bloody than what you’d find with a TV cartoon.

Worth a rental, but that’s it.

If you really want to see quality, check out Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (still in my mind, the best Batman movie) or of course, the Animated Series.

More information and the trailer follows:

From: http://www.warnervideo.com/batmangothamknight/

Batman Gotham Knight is a fresh and exciting new entry into the Batman mythos, spinning out of a 40-year history in animation including the Emmy®-winning Batman: The Animated Series, widely considered a pivotal moment in American animation.

Six standalone chapters, each with stylish art from some of Japan’s greatest anime visionaries, weave together into a larger story that follows Batman through his transition from beginner to The Dark Knight.

Chapter-by-Chapter Synopsis

In “Have I Got a Story for You,” Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) tells the story of how chance encounters with Batman by a group of youngsters leave each kid with a very different impression of the Dark Knight.

In “Crossfire,” acclaimed novelist/comics writer Greg Rucka tells the story of Gotham City police having to get over their distrust of Batman – while under fire from the mob.

In “Field Test,” writer Jordan Goldberg showcases the incredible high-tech arsenal Batman commands and reveals that there are some things even Batman won’t do in his pursuit of justice.

“In Darkness Dwells” takes Batman into the Gotham sewers to face “Killer Croc,” a deformed thug who seems even more monstrous after the Scarecrow, and his fear toxin, makes a resurgence, in a story by David S. Goyer, co-screenwriter of “Batman Begins.”

Award-winning comics writer Brian Azzarello explores an early chapter of Bruce Wayne’s training in “Working Through Pain,” showing how a mysterious and exotic Indian woman named Cassandra introduced Batman to techniques that would help him to conquer the physical and spiritual consequences of what he does.

Finally, in “Deadshot,” four-time Emmy Award-winning writer Alan Burnett ties together threads from all the Batman Gotham Knight chapters, as Batman must thwart an unerring assassin whose love of guns and disregard for human life lets him cross lines that even a Dark Knight shies away from.

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I suggested it before, in half seriousness, half-joking.

Even from Vietnam, well, for someone obsessed with Batman who loves to read and watch more and more about this stuff, the buzz seems deafening. Every trailer I watch, I ask myself, how could this not be so damn good?

Every trailer shows a different aspect of the movie, another level of depth, and I refuse to believe it’s not going to be supremely fantastic.

You watch these trailers, and you tell me it’s not good, that it cannot be one of the best movies of all time. Screw “best action” or “best super-hero”, I mean BEST MOVIE.

Either that or these trailers alone deserve to get some kind of special award. I’ve listed these in order of age (from what I can tell by YouTube)

Comes to Hanoi/Vincom/Vietnam end of August.

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I’m honestly surprised that no one seems to have made this connection

Carl Landry (http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Carl-Landry-461/stats/) is Hammerhead (http://www.marvel.com/universe/Hammerhead)

I suppose now that I’ve put pictures of them side by side it’s not so obvious, but I’ve always thought to myself whenever I saw pictures of Car Landry, whoa, that’s a big forehead. That’s coming from someone who has one himself.

The visual connection, while it was always there, took me a long time to figure out I was thinking Hammerhead the whole time.

Carl Landry (from NBADraft.net):

Shows good mobility running the court … Tough nosed player who fights hard every game … Does an excellent job of obtaining space in the post where he gets his body wide for guards to make easy passes … Post footwork, shooting touch and soft hands enable him to convert most opportunities in the paint … Offensively Landry is crafty as he will use a number of fakes to get his defender off balance and draw fouls … Back to the basket skills are quite advanced, displays a nice jump hook and turnaround jumper … Shows mid range shooting ability from 14-16 feet that he makes with regularity … Underrated post passer who is unselfish and sees the floor well … Quality rebounder in his area … Fundamentally sound as he understands how to read where the ball will go on missed shots when boxing out … Upper body strength enables him to finish after contact occurs … Basketball IQ is solid as Landry understands what his strengths are on the court and rarely goes outside of his comfort rang

Hammerhead:

Powers
Portions of Hammerhead’s skull and skeleton have been surgically replaced with a nearly unbreakable steel alloy, making him extremely resistant to physical injury; in particular, his head is virtually impervious to physical damage.

Abilities
Hammerhead is an exceptional athlete and hand-to-hand combatant, although his most frequent battle tactic is to charge his opponents headfirst. Although thought dim-witted by many, he possesses a keen criminal mind and is proficient in the use of most forms of firearms, especially machine guns.

As players, in their respective domains (for Hammerhead, the game of comic book crime), they’re similar too- physical, athletic, intelligence, big a** heads.

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From Hell - New Cover Edition by Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell Read more about this book…

I’m a HUGE fan of Alan Moore’s.

Kyle is not. For some reason, if he’s reading this, I imagine Kyle’s thinking “Alan Moore? What a hack.”

But for me, I think Moore is consistently the best writer around. I’m sure many people agree, and for me the reason behind this comes from my belief that no one like him can so seamlessly change characters and genres, yet still create a compelling story around them. When he wants to be funny he is, even when it’s a 50’s style (Tom Strong) golden age way. When he wants to be serious he is. He can even do high quality porn! (Lost Girls)

At the same time, I can see why other people might not like him. I was reading through Marvelman, which I don’t even think can be purchased in stores due to 20 years of legal issues, and it shows typical Alan Moore issues.

In a lot of ways, it’s great, and typical of Alan Moore, the starting points of his works tend to be absolutely amazing. And then as you read more and more, it gets a little…off? Moore is so amazing in terms of the detail of his worlds and his characters, there’s definitely a different feel for each of his works, and I don’t really feel this is true of other writers, even good ones. So while he starts well, at some point, it gets a little too dense. A little too detailed. A bit too high-end, and it can distract from the main plot.

Even though I was a Comparative Literature major (don’t ask), I really just like to read stories. Do whatever you want in terms of depth, and “literature”, but make it a good story. If not, I don’t really care. This is probably why I hate poetry- there is rarely any story.

So with Moore, I know he is doing the equivalent of high end “literature”. But sometimes he gets a little too crazy, and it distracts from the story, which to me makes things unreadable.

And if that makes me stupid, I can accept that. In Marvelman (I was reading the original issues in digital scanned form), it begins to become like that, and I even read a letter in the original issue that pointed out this problem.

In Watchmen, this issue is throughout the book, and for me I ended up having to ignore it, because as impressive as it is from a literary and depth standpoint, it makes it hard for me to focus on the story.

But let’s talk about From Hell, Moore’s graphic novel about the Jack the Ripper murders in the late 19th century, which suggests a possible suspect and back story behind the entire events.

It’s boring literature.

You can tell there’s a cool story underneath, but on the outside there’s just too many parts where it’s not coherent. But you’re sure that it’s super well thought out, super detailed and researched, and also high in fiber.

I liked parts of it, while losing the grasp in the story in many others.

Eddie Campbell, however, is another example of the great line of artists Moore has worked with. When I read Marvel or DC comics, I think to myself, jeez, there aren’t truly that many good artists out there, and yet everything that Moore works on, his artist is fantastic, whether that be Marvelman, Promethea, Swamp Thing, Top Ten, Tom Strong, etc.

From Hell is in black and white, but the imagery is amazing. It’s more in an abstract sense, but the images truly recreate a feeling, a sense of life and lifestyle from the 19th century. Characters and scenes are amazingly detailed, yet up close, they really aren’t.

Jim Lee may be amazing and detail and super fine drawing, but Campbell’s work feel just as detailed yet show no similarities with Lee’s work.

Anyway, my final verdict on From Hell is that if you like Alan Moore, even when he does get a bit excessive, you will love From Hell. Otherwise I’d avoid it because there’s too much of abstract sense to his work to really focus on the story, even though it really is well written, well researched, and extremely interesting at points.

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Yeah, it’s true. Iron Man is pretty good.

It just came out today in Vietnam, just got back from Vincom in Hanoi.

It’s hard to classify why I enjoyed Iron Man. And when I think about it, I reminded of how movie endings can really impact how you feel about the movie when you leave the theater.

I love how this movie ends, and I don’t mean there’s a super boss fight, I literally mean the last moment of the movie, the credits rolling with music playing (really good soundtrack), and then the bonus scene after the credits- it’s more geared towards people who know Marvel comics, but it just all added up to me thinking right now, “well, that was a ton of fun”.

I think something that stands out about the movie is that it doesn’t so obviously follow the flow or maybe I’d say the cheesiness or whatever negative things you might say about the “other” movies. While I felt that the beginning of Iron Man wasn’t that exciting, and the action isn’t over-the-top insanity (like Transformers), everything seems to be will placed, a hint of something here, a hint of something there.

What does happen is always quality, measured out so you enjoy it and then move on, whether it’s subtle hints of character interaction, comedy, or action.

Iron Man feels like something you haven’t seen before, and I think that’s rarely the case for a “popcorn” movie.

Go see it, even if you’re not a superhero fan. A female coworker of mine came in not knowing much about the movie, but came away saying, I want to see that again. I don’t think Vietnamese have the same mentality of Americans of seeing things over and over again either.

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Hotness!

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Books:

• Comics:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 1: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Andy Owens, Jo Chen Read more about this title…

Strangers In Paradise Pocket Book 5 (Strangers in Paradise (Graphic Novels)) by Terry Moore Read more about this title…

Strangers In Paradise Pocket Book 6 (Strangers in Paradise (Graphic Novels)) by Terry Moore Read more about this title…

• Video Games:

Game Over Press Start To Continue by David Sheff, Andy Eddy Read more about this title…

The Making of Doom(r) III: The Official Guide by Steven L. Kent Read more about this title…

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner Read more about this title…

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon–The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World by Steven L. Kent Read more about this title…

• Work:

The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business (Collins Business Essentials) by Clayton M. Christensen Read more about this title…

• Basketball:

Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin’ and Gunnin’ Phoenix Suns by Jack McCallum Read more about this title…

DVD:

• Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, $36.58

From Amazon, Half.com, and DeepDiscountDVD.

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