News & Notes

DC and Warner Bros. have announced that they plan to make a Suicide Squad movie. This is Batman-news, because Deadshot would almost certainly be featured in any Suicide Squad movie, and it's doubtful that Warner Bros. would go ahead with production on two different movies with the same villain (since there's the chance that audiences don't like him in whichever movies comes out first, which in turn would tank the second movie).

Oh, and Dan-El_2 made the poster above.

News & Notes

Mindreaper21's poster.

Writer/Director Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, and Dollhouse) was asked by Maxim about comic book movies, and had a fair amount to say about Batman:

DC's characters, like Wonder Woman and Superman and Green Lantern, were all very much removed from humanity. Batman was the only character they had who was so rooted in pain, that had that same gift that the Marvel characters had, which was that gift of humanity that we can relate to.

He also spoke about a draft he wrote prior to Batman Begins for a Batman movie:

It was more about the progression of him and it was more in Gotham City. He didn’t go to Tibet and meet cool people … In my version, there was actually a new [villain], it wasn’t one of the classics — which is probably why they didn’t use it.

News & Notes

Gato Chico put together this poster, the first time I recall someone wanting Casey Affleck to play the Riddler.

Just the one piece of news today. Batman on Film is reporting that even though Warner Brothers fully expects Christopher Nolan to direct the next Batman movie after he finishes Inception, should that somehow fall through, their backup plan will be Watchmen/300 director Zack Snyder. I'll reserve judgement on Watchmen until I've seen it, but I worry it will end up like 300. Very slick looking, great trailer, great attention to detail, but in the end not all that good. Other than Nolan being my first choice, I'm not sure who I'd prefer... David Fincher comes to mind, but I recall hearing that he has no interest in superhero movies. Martin Campbell maybe? Though other than Casino Royale, he hasn't done all that much that I've liked. Feel free to leave any thoughts in the comments.

News & Notes

Arist Nate Bellegarde's Bletchskog featured the above Joker.

• MTV's Splash Page asked writer Greg Rucka which villain he'd put in Batman 3:
  

  It would seem to me logical now that — spoiler alert — miss Rachel Dawes passed away, now would be the time to bring in Selina Kyle. That would be the appropriate time to introduce another love interest.

• That apparently inspired a blog@newsarama post with an unusual casting selection for Harley Quinn.

News & Notes

• As expected, Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The Dark Knight picked up a second award for Richard King's Sound Editing.


• The Dark Knight also passed the $1 billion world wide box office mark.


• A blogger convinced a series of other comics bloggers to each write an article analyzing panels in whatever comics they chose. Sean Witzke looked at Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope.

News & Notes

Dustin Nguyen, who's been providing great art for Paul Dini's run on Detective Comics, and is as far as I know not related to Dustin Nguyen the actor, posted the above pile of redheads on his blog, featuring Ivy, Batgirl, Batwoman, and plenty of others from DC and Marvel comics. IMO, it could've used a little Atom Eve, but it's still great work.

• A man in South Africa, distraught over the recent "death" of Batman in the comics, took out an ad in the paper to share his grief with other Bat-fans. There are sort of spoilers, but he didn't seem to exactly grasp what happened.


• In his review of the first part of Neil Gaimain's new Batman tale, Douglas Wolk argues that the South African gentleman need not worry either, since a villain greater than Darkseid is controlling the events in comics:
  

  No threat of change can be effective any more; the gravitational force of How It Was in '83 is impossible to escape, and growing stronger all the time. Any change, any breakup, any death, any exploded planet will revert to its early-'80s form sooner rather than later.

• To raise money for a friend's medical bills, Darwyn Cooke, Cameron Stewart, and Adam Hughes (who are all fantastic artists) are auctioning off original work. check out the auction page for what you can bid on. There's a kickass Stewart Catwoman, but I'm not sure it gets any better than Cooke's Batman though:
  
  

News & Notes

Mark's Evil Twin made a cool looking Ventriloquist and Scarface, though I'm not sure about the red Terminator eye.

• First, Batman on Film reported that Christopher Nolan's deal to direct Inception at Warner Bros. included a deal for Batman 3.


• Then MTV's splash page asked one of Nolan's reps about it, who said "We haven’t announced any deal or anything on the next Batman as that is all speculation."


• And IGN is saying that Warner Bros.' reports to the writer's guild lists Christopher Nolan (and only Christopher Nolan) as the writer working on the next Batman sequel.

I'd say this all adds up to us not knowing any more than we did yesterday.

The Batman Library, Part 4

Last time, I looked at Elseworlds, Batman stories that don't take place in the regular comics continuity. This time, I thought I'd go in the opposite direction.

In the 1990s, comics changed drastically with the market driven by speculators who saw thousands paid for comics from the 30s and 40s, and bought 50 copies of every "significant" comic in the hopes that it'd someday be valuable. The publishers responded by trying to make every comic seem significant (like the The Death of Superman). Batman was no different, with a series of events that crossed over between the two main Batman titles (Batman and Detective Comics) and related titles like Nightwing, the Birds of Prey, Gotham Knights, Shadow of the Bat, Legends of the Dark Knight, and Robin. I should warn ahead of time that these stories aren't always great, but they're epic, so if you're into that sort of thing, give them a shot.

• Batman: Knightfall, Part One, Part Two, Part Three by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and others. (and the follow-up Prodigal that appears to be out of print)
  
  The gist: A dangerous new villain comes to Gotham City to prove that he is better than Batman. A new vigilante comes to Gotham as well, fighting alongside Batman and learning from him. A lot more happens, but I don't want to give much away. Some fans absolutely love parts of this, I don't exactly love it, but it is an important event in the history of Batman.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: Not that I can think of. Knightfall is heavily immersed in the history of Gotham as a city full of costumed freaks fighting on the rooftops at night.
  
  Villains who appear: Just about all of them. But the major players are Bane and Azrael.



• No Man's Land: Cataclysm (Prelude), Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5. By Chuck Dixon, Devin Grayson, Greg Rucka, and many others.
  
  The gist: A massive earthquake strikes Gotham. Almost every building has either collapsed or sustained so much damage that it's on the verge of collapse. The cost to rebuild is so massive, and the public perception of crime-filled Gotham is so negative, that Congress votes to abandon the city entirely, giving residents a few days to evacuate before it's walled off and the bridges out closed. Some Gothamites can't make it out, or won't leave their homes. The criminals stay to wreak havoc on a lawless city. And of course the heroes stay to try to stop the criminals. This was a hugely ambitious event, running for what seemed like forever, with about 100 issues in some way tied into No Man's Land or the buildup to it.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: Again, I don't think so, but it's so much material that I could've missed something.
  
  Villains who appear: Again, just about all of them. Black Mask, Huntress, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Zsasz, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Scarface, and Two-Face all carve out a piece of Gotham to try to rule. And the Joker runs around doing Joker-ish stuff.


• Bruce Wayne - Murderer?, Bruce Wayne - Fugitive, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Chuck Dixon, and others.
  
  The gist: Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriend is found murdered in Wayne Manor. Bruce is innocent, but his only alibi is that he was punching villains in the face while wearing a cape. This obviously creates some problems.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: Not that I recall.
  
  Villains who appear: Some villains appear here and there (including the one who was actually the murderer, obviously), but the story is more about the importance of Batman's identity versus Bruce's exoneration and/or freedom.


• War Drums (Prelude), War Games, Act One, Act Two, Act Three, and War Crimes, which ties up some loose ends. By Bill Willingham, Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Devin Grayson, and many others.
  
  The gist: The new Robin accidentally starts a massive gang war.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: The Dark Knight features the mob families in disarray, but I'm not sure I can make the leap that this idea was borrowed from War Games.
  
  Villains who appear: Quite a few, though this features Black Mask's big moment, so he's the one that sticks out.

News & Notes

Pennyworth made this Riddler poster that sort of reminds me of the Mad Men opening credits.

• At the Art Directors Guild awards, Nathan Crowley picked up the award for best production design in a fantasy film for his work in The Dark Knight.


• And Topless Robot has a list of the 9 most dysfunctional couples in comics featuring some familiar faces.

News & Notes

Another Riddler poster, this one from jamce.

• The Ultimate Joker, a site with a petition to not recast the Joker ever, has been getting a lot of attention the past day or so. I completely agree with the idea that no one should be playing a live-action Joker anytime soon, but given enough time, I don't see why it'd be a bad idea. It was about 20 years between Cesar Romero's Joker in the Adam West Batman movie and Jack Nicholson in the Michael Keaton one, and another 20 between Nicholson and Ledger, so that seems about right.


• We haven't had a stupid rumor in a while, but thank goodness for the Daily Star. As I mentioned earlier this week, Batwoman, who happens to be a lesbian, is set to return in the pages of Detective Comics soon. She is one of many gay superheroes and was introduced almost 3 years ago. But today, the media latched onto this story, ignoring those two facts, mixing in some ridiculous headlines, and mostly just getting excited over a "hot lesbian" version of Batman (Robot 6 has a nice rundown of the coverage). But the Daily Star tops the others with a made up casting rumor:
  

  And lady-loving redhead Lindsay Lohan is already being tipped to play Batwoman on the big screen.

  Note that this article is and relies on "a Hollywood source" for all the parts about Lindsey Lohan. Apparently this source thought that potentially damaging a billion dollar property like Batman by giving the role of a secondary character someone who did not appear in a movie in 2008 (and was in 3 movies no one saw in 2007) and seems to have changed careers to professional tabloid headline generator. So anyway, not gonna happen. And yet I visited the page and I'm linking to it, rewarding their stupidity. Now I hate myself, too.

News & Notes

Wanderingbert on flickr still has The Batman Villain Project going, and he did a nice Cavalier that I thought was worth sharing. There are actually two relatively newsworthy news items today:

• Christopher Nolan's next film is not Batman-related, it's Inception, described as "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind" and written by Nolan himself. This is not unexpected, remember that it took three years between Batman Begins and the Dark Knight, with Nolan-directed The Prestige in between. Like all the Batman movies, Inception is a Warner Bros. production, and I suspect they're happy to give him whatever he wants in the hopes that he'll make Batman 3.


• MTV, who seem to ask everyone about playing a Batman villain, spoke to Paul Giamatti about playing the Penguin (but did not ask him about playing the Ventriloquist, which he would also be good for):

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

The Batman Library, Part 3

After covering Batman's early years and modern classics, I'd cover some of the "Elseworlds" books, out of continuity stories where creators can be imaginative without a Bat-fan riot over inconsistencies with facts from older stories.

• Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola
  
  The gist: Set in the late 1800s, Bruce Wayne is returning from Europe where he's trained to be a crimefighter. He arrives in Gotham to begin his life as Batman. At the same time, after terrorizing London, Jack the Ripper has come to Gotham as well, and Bruce Wayne becomes the main suspect. And there aren't many better than Mignola at creating moody, dark art.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: Not at all.
  
  Villains who appear: Jack the Ripper, although there is a brief appearance by the Joker.



• Gotham Noir by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
  
  The gist: Batman reimagined in a film noir style tale. Jim Gordon is a private detective, Selina Kyle is the femme fatale, a nightclub owner. It's not the greatest thing ever, but if you're a fan of film noir and Batman, it's a fun read (though it's out of print, I think, so it's annoying and/or expensive to find).
  
  Any relation to the movies?: There is a Joker element that ended up in the Dark Knight, but I don't think it's unique or original to Gotham Noir.
  
  Villains who appear: Catwoman, Joker, Harvey Dent.



• Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope.
  
  The gist: Long after Batman disappeared from Gotham, and 100 years after his first appearance, the city has become a police state. A new Batman appears in a makeshift costume, and Captain Gordon, grandson of the police commissioner who tracked the original Bat, is in charge of hunt for this new vigilante.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: Not as far as I could tell.
  
  Villains who appear: None that I recall (it's been a while, though).
  



• All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder by Frank Miller and Jim Lee
  
  The gist: A slightly insane version of Dick Grayson's origin as Robin (with some Batgirl origins as well). "All Star" is DC's line of comics where they get top creators to work on top characters in out-of-continuity tales, so they got fan favorite artist Jim Lee to work with legendary writer Frank Miller. What followed was uneven and on more than a few occasions I became convinced that Frank Miller had lost his mind. But the whole time I was laughing, whether it was intentional or not. This book got some press for releasing an issue where black bars covering obscenities hurled at Batgirl failed to really obscure the lettering (I don't know why they would actually write the words out, but oh well), and most of the copies were shredded. Anyway, the first volume is worth a read if only for a great scene with Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
  
  Any relation to the movies?: Nope.
  
  Villains who appear: Joker, Catwoman, Superman (and the rest of the Justice League).
  

News & Notes

Joshmc at fan art exhibit did this Batman/Catwoman poster. It's really good, but even though she seems to be the popular actress for these photoshopped posters, I still don't see Marion Cotillard as Catwoman.

• Movie Jacuzzi offers 5 reasons they don't want another Batman movie.


• I forgot to mention that in addition to the BAFTA for Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight also picked up a grammy for best score soundtrack album for James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer.

News & Notes

The Ventriloquist and Scarface are featured in yet another good poster by Mrbrownie.

• Heath Ledger won the BAFTA best supporting actor award this weekend for his performance as the Joker in the Dark Knight.


• The New York Comic Con was also this weekend, and the big Batman news was that Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III will be doing their long awaited Batwoman series in the pages of Detective Comics (beginning with #854). Though there was also an older Batwoman dating back to the 50s, the current one, Kate Kane was introduced in DC's event series 52. She's notable for being a lesbian, involved in a relationship with Renee Montoya. This was a big deal in the media when it was announced, but like many homosexual characters in comics, she's been mostly ignored since her introduction. But this weekend's announcement is great news, just cause Rucka and Williams are great, and chances are really good that them collaborating on anything will turn out well.


• The other Batman news from NYCC is the list of Bat-tiles that will be around after the upcoming Battle for the Cowl:
  

  Detective, Batman, Batman and Robin, Batgirl, Batman: The Streets of Gotham, Red Robin, Outsiders, and Gotham City Sirens.

  Robin, Nightwing, and the Birds of Prey were all canceled along with the end of Batman: RIP, but it looks like there will end up being a couple of corresponding titles, and overall more Bat-family books. Which is great news for the characters, not so great for my wallet.


• And if you ever wanted to stay warm while sorta looking like the Joker, this is perfect for you.

News & Notes

Another fine fan poster, this one from bunk2 featuring Catwoman.

• I forgot to follow up on my lengthy and spoiler-filled recap of Batman RIP and Final Crisis #6, but there were some more developments in FC #7 which io9 covers nicely (more spoilers).


• And some kids asked President Obama who his favorite superhero is:

MTV Shows

News & Notes

Today's poster from Hobo123.

• Slashfilm says that Warner Bros. wants 4 more Batman movies:
  

  We look at Harry Potter. It’s fantastic to have franchises that last that long. We want to do that with Batman and Superman and perhaps Sherlock Holmes.

  Given how few people seemed to love Superman Returns, they're going to have a hard time making 6 more of those anytime soon. But if they keep the quality in the ballpark of the first two, I'd have no problem with Batman 7.


• If by chance you were heading to the New York Comic Con to meet Batman R.I.P. writer Grant Morrison, you're out of luck.

News & Notes

Luke1234 put together this Riddler poster, another really good one (most of the best ones have been Riddler posters, but there are still plenty of other good ones). The use of Two-Face's coin and the joker cards to make the question mark is a nice touch.

Only one piece of news today, Nikki Finke (a well-connected reporter/blogger, mostly known for breaking insider type stories) is writing about an Oscar telecast boycott organized by Dark Knight fans angry over the lack of a Best Picture and/or Best Director nomination. The only real evidence I can find that such a thing exists is this facebook group, which appears to have fewer than 300 members. I can find quite a few blog posts speculating that people might boycott, but no real organization in the kinds of numbers that ABC or the academy would notice. A few reasons a massive boycott won't happen or matter:

• The Dark Knight got 8 nominations, more than any geek movie I can think of besides Return of the King, so lots of people are pleased.


• Lots of fans really want to see Heath Ledger win an Oscar.


• Your stereotypical Dark Knight fan is probably less likely to watch the Oscars ceremony than a non-fan. It's not much of a boycott if the ones boycotting weren't going to watch anyway.

News & Notes

Another solid poster made by MrBrownie, this time with Mr. Freeze.

• There's a six page preview up of Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" which comes out next week. It looks pretty good.


• One of my favorite comics blogs, The Weekly Crisis, is back, with technically no Batman content, but it's a good site (and will sooner or later include some Batman), so check it out.

Fan Art

Here's that compilation of the fan art I've linked to since starting the site. When I know who made it, clicking on the picture will take you to them. Otherwise, if it's yours or you know who made it (or you know of some other good stuff I've left out), please let me know with a comment (or, technically, if it's yours and you want it taken down, I can do that too, but I'd rather not, it's here cause I like it and want to show off your work!).

'Batman 3' Posters and Concept Art

(the above 4 "Gotham City" posters are by the same guy, who has a nifty blog full of his art)

(Harley Quinn "Nolan-ized")

(what the rumored actors would look like in their villain costumes)

Oscar Campaign Images:





Miscellaneous:

(Doctor Phosphorus)

(the origin of Two-Face in Legos)

(Click the image for a pdf and instructions on how to make your own papercraft South Park Batman)

(more from this artist here)

(lots more Simpsons-ized Batman here)