Batman R.I.P.

I haven't posted in some time, for which I apologize, but I have been very busy with school work, building my Gundam (yay), hanging out with Connor, and of course reading comics. Which brings me to my discussion today, Batman R.I.P.

Those of you who have been following Grant Morrison's (current writer of the Batman comic) run on Batman (which is amazing in this humble reader's opinion) know that R.I.P. is what he's been building up to for the past two years. To give you all an idea of how huge and awesome this story arc is going to be, in an interview at the Comic Book Resource Forums, Grant Morrison said that what will happen to Batman will be,

"so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all. This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman." Full Interview HERE.

Morrison's writing is great and brings back many obscure ideas from past Batman comics (that flew over my head) that seem very fresh. He always keeps you guessing, but gives you just enough information so you won't hate him and will follow the story to its inevitable explosive ending. Every issue is cleverly laced with clues to the storyline. Each one challenging you to figure out what the "answer" is, then smacking you in the face when you're wrong.

With 4 issues out already (Oh man! I haven't read the 4th yet!), R.I.P. is shaping up to be one of the best stories I've read in a long time, defiantly much better than that letdown Countdown. Don't even get me started on that series. On another note, if you are reading Batman R.I.P. or are planning to, you might want to check out GeniusBoyFireMelon's Blog. His explanations have been invaluable to my understanding of this series, which is a little challenging to read, especially for new readers like me.

Batman: Gotham Knight

For those of you who haven't heard, B:GK is a "film" that shows the Batman's transformation from newbie to professional badass. I use the term film loosely because this dvd is actually a series of semi-standalone episodes. Each episode is directed by a different person and has a different visual style. It is also produced by the same people who did Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Now some people might be turned away from this film because its anime visual style but I thought it brought a whole different element to the Batman. There are 3 anime studios who work on this productions. Even anime lovers might question what they're getting into if they're not familiar with the art style in the first episode "Have I got a story for you". I admit at first I didn't like it but I found that it was perfect for the theme of the episode, in which a group of kids tell of their experiences seeing the Batman. The background animation is simply superb; they are full of such detail. Some of the later episodes, most notably "Deadshot", had some of the best animation I've seen.

On a completely different note, Hearing the AMAZING voice talent of Kevin Conroy, voice of Batman in Batman the Animated series as well as Justice League, was one of the best features of this film.

On the whole I would have to rate this an 8/10. The choppiness was a bit jarring at times, and aside from the visuals I was never really blown away. Though there were some great stories in there. It also didn't seem to have much in common with the Chris Nolan films, although it did reference the Narrows and the idea of the gangs could play a part in The Dark Knight. I also have to say it was too short, I wanted more.I would recommend this to any hardcore batman fan or a casual viewer who won't be turned off by the visuals; anyone else should probably rent it first.

Castlevania Sucks

This weekend I played Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the psp. I wouldn't go as far to say that this game sucks, but I defiantly didn't enjoy it too much. Now I've heard really great things about the Castlevania series but I found some things I didn't like about it.

First I have to say, the intro video to this game was incredibly cool and I was totally psyched about it. You can see it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=245TkRS2sGQ. But on to the actual game; why the hell do you jump backward when you double jump? This seemed pretty cool at first but it soon frustrated me as I tried to double jump out of the way of enemies only to land on their heads, damaging me.

There was a particularly stage (4 I think) that required a lot of jumping and so was very difficult for me to complete. Maybe it's because almost all games make you jump higher when you tap twice on the jump button and I wasn't used to it but it was still very difficult. I would find myself getting used to the jump but every time I reacted on instinct in a tense moment I would forget about the jumping back and damage or kill myself.

Another gripe I had about the game is the girl (Sophie I think) you unlock in the 2nd stage. Why the hell is she so much more powerful than the main character? First off, she uses birds! She throws Doves, the birds of peace, at her enemies as a weapon! Not only is this a stupid idea, but it's much more powerful than the main character's whip. Once you use the main character's whip you have to wait till it returns to you until you can use it again (which makes sense). But if you tap quickly on the attack button for Sophie, she can have like 3 birds out a once. Another reason to hate the main character even more is the fact that when you double jump with Sophie she jumps higher on the second jump, not back. So I found myself playing a little pale girl in a white dress throwing birds most of this game.

While not as important as the above mentioned problems with this game, as far as I played there was no storyline. Apart from the intro video and some dialogue in the begining of stage 1 there was no storyline and no explanation for what the main character was doing in a house infested with zombies, ghosts, and floating eyeball things. Then you meet a girl in stage 2 and she persuades you to let her fight with you. No reason for her being in that castle at all or why she wants to fight apart from her parents being "ok" with her being with you.

Now, I'm not a stranger to games with light storylines and a lot of gameplay, I happen to love the Devil May Cry series, but the gameplay in this game wasn't good or rewarding enough for me to stick around to see if there was a plot to this game. I'm sure if anybody reads this post they're going to say that I didn't play it enough or give it enough of a chance. I played this game on and off throughout all of my Sunday. I would play for 20-30 minutes or so, get frustrated, put it down and leave, and then come back to play. I probably played this game for at least 3-4 hours, (I'm a slow gamer) but still couldn't look past the issues I had with this game. I mean I really tried to like it, but I guess me and Castlevania just weren't meant to be.

Blog up!

So, here we go, I'm making my first blog. I have to admit, I've never really gotten blogs until yesterday when I read one that actually had some interesting stuff on it. This is more for myself than anyone else, I mean I don't expect like 1000's of people to visit this site. Just a place to post some cool things that peek my interest. This is the blog the started it all: The Comic Rack , unfortunately it looks as though its writer has stopped updating it.

I also just started using digg.com yesterday. For those of you who don't know, digg is a a site that you can post a site, image, video, etc. and share it with people who might find it interesting. The amount of "diggs" your article gets, the more popular it gets.


Well, I guess now I should get to the part about posting cool things so here is cool thing #1:

Some great ideas being thrown around here. And very nice job on the blog CG.

I have to say, yes I download comics. I first got interested in comics when a comic shop opened a couple of blocks from my house. I went there and bought a whole bunch of comics including some TBP's like Crisis On Infinite Earths.

After this I was hooked, but it didn't take me long to figure out there was a problem...comics are expensive. How does DC expect me, a 16 year old without a job that goes to school and has very little free time, to spend $25-30 a month on comics?

This is why I unfortunately download new and old comics. I agree with most of you here that downloading comics more that 4-5 years old is fine, as long as they haven't reprinted them in a nice TPB recently.

But I do feel that I am hurting the comic book industry and that it is wrong to download new comics, but, how else am I going to get it? I can honestly say that right now my number 1 dream in life is to be able to get to a position in where I don't need to download anything illegally. Whether that be a millionaire investor or just a guy that works at McDonalds. I realize that might sound kind of stupid but hey, I'm only 16 years old. :)

This is a comment I left on The Comic Rack about the issues surrounding downloading comics for free using torrents.

Thats all for now, :)

~John