Bruce, You Magnificent Bastard.

… how can it ever truly be Batman without you?

You might’ve already heard: next April in the comicbook world, we’ll get to see the Return of Bruce Wayne.

As revealed by The Source, (and as we’ve seen in the last pages of Final Crisis) instead of outright just dying, Darkseid’s Omega Sanction just sent Bruce to the past.  (Another type of Omega Effect is the Omega Sanction, that traps the organism in a series of alternate realities, each worse than the previous one.)  News: Bruce is still alive, etching bat symbols in prehistoric caves.

In a USA Today  interview with Grant Morrison about Bruce Wayne’s return, it would appear that Bruce has also lost his memory.  And from the preview images, it would also seem that he’d be doing like a quantum leap across time, without fully knowing why or to when.

With all his friends and enemies thinking that he’s dead, what lies in store for Bruce Wayne?  And what of the Dick Grayson Batman?  (Admit it, the Dick/Damian partnership’s growing on you…)

We’ll just have to wait for 2010 to find out.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t return as a baby or something.

[Info/images from The Source and USA Today!]

kick-ass trailer!

Only because you’ve all seen this one while I was away…

And to think I was talking about the first preview just over a year ago… and we’re still waiting for the KICK-ASS conclusion!  W00t!

Planetary #27 Review

“It’s a strange world, Drums.  Did you think for a minute that I wasn’t going to keep it that way?”

-Elijah Snow, Planetary #27

It is a strange world.  Warren Ellis made sure of that — issue 26 (released October 2006) — Planetary has defeated The Four’s suppression of human technological advancement, they have defeated an alien threat and were well on their way to unravel the mysterious mysteries of the world.

There are probably many, many more Planetary tales to tell, and issue 27’s probably the most fitting: saving Ambrose Chase.

Scenes in the beginning show Elijah Snow getting ever-more-impatient: he’s saved the world, gave it the great technological leap, and now he wonders when he’ll get to save his friend.  If you’re not into quantum physics (like me) then the concepts may confuse you — to sum it up, there are several great scenes where The Drummer discusses that they either save Ambrose, or cause history to cease.  (Schrödinger’s, “Yeah.  An infinite number of dead cats arrive at your doorstep at once.” -The Drummer)

It took several re-reads, but Warren Ellis and his pseudo-science may have possibly crafted the most brilliant use of time travel in any media plausible, and not full of holes and flaws that plague so many stories that try to use it.  There’s also a little reference to the “time loop” from JLA/Planetary – Terra Occulta. 

Jakita grows bored that she can’t hit anything.  She gets a moment here, and even a little something to look forward to.  What follows is Elijah seemingly-knowing full-well of what will happen once they try to save Ambrose, gets it right.

What’s even more amazing than the in-book story is the story of Planetary itself as a series — a comicbook take on the superhero genre, pop culture, literary figures and overall everything.  10 years to get the story told, and here are the original creators, Warren Ellis, John “we-missed-you-doing-interior-artwork!” Cassaday to bring a proper end to the tale.  Fantastic.

It then starts feeling like the closing of a book you thoroughly enjoyed — you know at one point that you’d read it again, but for now, you let the thing settle.

5/5

Christmas wishlist: a hardcover of the complete, complete Planetary.  That’d be amazing.  Or maybe a time loop to take me back to 2003 when I was holding a copy of Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth that I dug from the bargain bin at CCHQ.  (But, if you read this issue, then you must know that (based on Planetary-universe science, and this is a double parenthesis) time loops can only work forwards, backwards into the time when the time machine was first turned on, so, 2003, being a time that I didn’t have an idea about time loops and the possibility of them, it wouldn’t be possible.)

***

Want more Planetary stuff?

Here’s an archive of ALL the past Planetary covers, and here’s the complete publication timeline of Planetary.  Also, try looking for Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth — that one-shot is just good.  Really, really good.

Superman/Batman Public Enemies 09.29.09

Goes to show how much I HAVEN’T been keeping up — there’s a new DCU Animated Feature out — this time, it’s Superman/Batman Public Enemies!  Although not knowing about this until today gave me a pleasant surprise, so there!

Obviously, this one’s based on Jeph Loeb/Ed McGuiness’ first story arc on the Superman/Batman comics.  A DCU Animated feature BASED on Ed McGuiness art?  Awesome.  Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy voice acting?  YES!  (Somewhere out there, Jeph Loeb is laughing hysterically.)  What’s exciting is FINALLY seeing some McGuiness art rendered in animated form!  (Damion Scott Batgirl next feature, please?)

Also, Composite Superman/Batman robot wut wot!

Here’s a link to the official Superman/Batman DVD site, and here’s the trailer from that site:

Superman Batman: Public Enemies – Official Trailer

Also, they have twitter!  Release is on 9.29.09!  Woot!

Batman: Arkham Asylum Gameplay Vids

Unless you haven’t seem ‘em already:

The realism route that the developers/artists chose takes quite a while to get used to, but you’ll get there.  Conroy as Batman and Hamill as Joker is.just.right.  Voices are sort-of out-of-sync — maybe they’ll get that fixed.  (also, the new Harlequin costumesssssssss)

Various styles of play are shown, Final-Fight-style or stealth-mode ninja fighting.  I’m liking the “Detective Mode” vision, instead of struggling around a level, the game helps you by providing a new sense of … intuition.  Highlighting objects in the game that can be manipulated.

jiban!

Idol kita dahil may bakal ka na chapa.

[Nostalgia wave courtesy of Mikko]

Older Posts »