Beware The Batman

@LaughingMan: Yes and no. Yes, 'cos, well, just like Kenny said, it's comic book stories and characters we're talking about here — they get revived from the dead or retconed like every five seconds. On the other hand, no, 'cos in the mind of the creator (Bruce Timm) he's already told every story he wanted to and moved on, and I can respect that. Also, returning back to a project that's been over for more than ten years and adding stuff of questionable quality kind of reeks of George Lucas and his OCD when it comes to the original Star Wars trilogy, so yeah...

Besides, it's also important to understand that every show has its special era to which it belongs. For example, B:TAS was (and is even still today, if you take into consideration that it was made in the Tim Burton-influenced 90s) great for its time, but today? I'm not sure... For better or worse, after the comic books, Nolan films, and the Arkham Asylum/City games, younger Batman fans would most likely crave for something a little bit more, well, edgy. You know, kind of like 'Batman: Gotham Knight' or 'Under the Red Hood', only in a weekly TV series format. I mean, hell, that's something I'd love to see (especially if they decide to adapt all the great storylines that've come out in the last ten years or so like 'Hush', 'War Games', 'Batman R.I.P', etc.) instead of that 'Beware the Batman' travesty...

Once again I ask: What the hell is wrong with Warner Brothers?

When it comes to comics, we get shocking, horrifying stuff like this:



When it comes to direct-to-DVD films we get disturbing stuff like this:



Yet, when it comes to TV, we get childish crap like this:

@Cinemax Warner Bros and credibility? Surely you jest... *cough*{smallville}*cough*{thebatman}*cough*

@Everyone elseFor the love of Odin

It's never a dull nerdy moment around here.

It wouldn't hurt my feelings if they distanced themselves from the soap opera stereotypes. After all this is what NeuroPlay was face palming about, correct?

To LaughingMan and CineMax: I found Sam Register's Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 24&sk=wall

wait wait wait wait wait

Joker cuts off his face?

Like, they're gonna reboot his goddamn face???

Why is it DC finds a new way to lose me from their comic book readership every day :V

... what the fuck.

I know, I know. I'm a hopeless optimist...


Err... What is the facepalm referring to, exactly? If it's about going back and adding stuff to B:TAS — a completed series that ended more than ten years ago — then I sort of agree. If not, um... Something you want to share with the class, Sean?


He does so in the end of the new Detective Comics #1 issue, yes. Also, call me a heretic, but I kind of actually liked this twist. After all, as some of you might now, the entire DC Universe has been rebooted in September, and in this new universe Joker has always been a homicidal killer with a body count over two hundred. So, in other words, cutting off his own face to escape from Arkham makes a lot more sense for this new Joker than, say, using a toy boxing glove or a joy buzzer.

As for his face being an iconic part of the character, well, he can always use some underground plastic surgeon to make him a new one. Sure, it wont have white skin like the rest of his body, but hey, he can always use lipstick and make-up a-la the Dark Knight. Besides, if anything, it only adds extra tension to the story, 'cos until he makes his move, nobody knows how he looks like now...

It's not really that...it's more, well, DC taking some extremely strange liberties that don't even let their own good ideas make sense.

I mean it's supposed to be a reboot- and it's supposed to wipe out everythign that's happened before- except the writers seem to have made split decisions over what's staying from before and what's going, and who knows who and where everyone is, and before you know it, some series are actually rebooting, while some aren't- and worse, some are only HALF rebooting, assuming that the reader is able to tell the difference in this completely screwed up mess.

So while a story about the joker getting plastic surgery and cutting his own face off is pretty creepy and intriguing, it does nothing for me because AFAIK it's not a Joker anyone know's, therefore there can't be any impact because he's not supposed to have had a history, therefore for all intents and purposes it comes off as DC having to make a dramatic attempt to piss on what we knew from before in order to make the statement of 'NO GUYS THIS IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT.'

This is why I stayed with Marvel comics- I had to put up with shit like One More Day, but at least they haven't fucked with overall continuity for the sake of selling new comics and showing they're bankrupt with ideas to keep their characters fresh. Also why I think BTAS is so good- DC comics basically borrowed everything that worked from BTAS, and then promptly forgot why they needed BTAS. I'll tell you why, DC, because on one occasion you made clayface 6 different people and expected us to be able to put up with following it :V

@B-Mask: Ok, I'll admit, you've got me there. The whole 'New 52' thing is extreeeemely confusing, to say the very least. Let's take, for instance, the Batman titles.

First you have the aforementioned new 'Detective Comics' series. It's not clear when all of this is happening exactly, and since there's no mentioning of Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, or, more importantly, Damian Wayne; Gordon still has red hair; Bruce isn't in a relationship with Selina and is instead banging some hitherto unknown reporter chick; and when Bats and Joker meet each other in the first issue they act as if though it's their confrontation ever instead of, you know, just another one, one could be forgiven for assuming that this story is supposed to take place in the early days of the Dark Knight's career. Same thing with 'Batman: The Dark Knight', so I suppose these titles fall into the 'fully rebooted' category, then, right?

On the other hand, you've got titles like 'Batman' and 'Batman and Robin' in which Bats still has the 'Batman Incorporated' thing going on, Damian is Robin, and overall, everything seems like it was before the Reboot, save for Dick having a slightly different Nightwing costume. Worse yet, the same kind of thing seems to be going on with most, if not all, of the ongoing series. For example, 'Action Comics' — young, pre-Justice League Superman, 'Superman' — modern day Superman that's virtually indistinguishable from the pre-New 52 days.

I'm telling you, these comic books are worse than Brazilian soap operas!