Batman

Batman: The Long Halloween (Part One)

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Batman: The Long Halloween (Part One)
  • IMDb: link

Batman: The Long Halloween (Part 1) DVD reviewWarner Bros. Animation finally gets around to adapting the thirteen-issue maxi-series from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale which follows Batman (Jensen Ackles) over one year as he attempts to catch a murderer know as Holiday for a killing on every major holiday tied to the Falcone crime family.

“Part One” takes us from Halloween and the first crime through New Year’s Eve (roughly through the first 4 issues of the storyline). As in the comic, we get appearances from several of Batman’s rogues gallery including the Joker (Troy Baker), Calendar Man (David Dastmalchian), Solomon Grundy (Fred Tatasciore), and Catwoman (Naya Rivera). Both Catwoman and Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) have large roles in the story as along with Jim Gordon (Billy Burke) they all are looking to take down crime boss Carmine Falcone (Titus Welliver). The dense storyline has been simplified a bit, and the Joker’s extended sequence remind me of one of the comic’s original failings as the more colorful villains distract from the narrative as they take over center stage.

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Batman: Soul of the Dragon

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Batman: Soul of the Dragon
  • IMDb: link

Batman: Soul of the Dragon Blu-ray reviewBatman: Soul of the Dragon leans heavily into 1970s style with a tale of Batman (David Giuntoli) teaming up with the other former students of his former sensei (James Hong) to prevent evil being unleashed in by the Kobra Cult. I was quite impressed with the first-half of the movie, although the straight-to-video movie reminded me more and more of Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which also started off quite strong but lost its way a bit in its second-half.

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Batman: Black and White #6

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Batman: Black and White #6 comic reviewThe latest volume of Black and White ends with a quintet of stories featuring Batman from different writers and artists in black and white. While the issue doesn’t include a stand-out story, perhaps the most interesting of the bunch is “The Abyss” in which Hugo Strange interviews three different people with recent interactions with Batman who are all left with decidedly different impressions of Gotham City’s vigilante.

“The Second Signal” offers up a pair of students who create their own Bat Signal in order to call on the Dark Knight Detective to help with a series of kidnappings committed by the Mat Hatter. The big-name team of Scott Snyder, John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson deliver a solid story about a photographer who has made a name for himself taking black and white photos of Batman over the years in “A Thousand Words.”

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The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #2

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The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #2 comic reviewAfter helping the Dynamic Duo investigate a haunted fun house at a carnival which turns out to be the work of the Joker and his henchmen, Mystery, Inc. earns a trip to the Batcave as a reward with their latest trophy in tow. However, shortly after arriving in the Batcave, the Caped Crusaders are threatened by the sudden appearance of a ghost (which for Shaggy is only slightly more scary than every other piece of the Batcave).

Although it takes a little while for Batman and Robin and the gang to figure out what is causing the ghost, especially given the large clue that both the bats and Scooby-Doo deliver, eventually the cause of the craziness leads back to the item the group brought into the cave..

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Batman: Black and White #5

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Batman: Black and White #5 comic reviewFive more stories of Batman in black and white are presented in Batman: Black and White #5. The most interesting of the issue is the Choose Your Own Adventure style tale from writer Kieron Gillen and artist Jamie McKelvie which pits Batman against both the Riddler and Killer Croc allowing the user to choose Batman’s actions and jump forward to another panel further in the issue to discover the results. While the concept works better in print than digital, it’s still a fun exercise (especially for those of us who grew up with Choose Your Own Adventure novels).

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