Tag: Batman

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 74: ARMAGEDDON 2001 PART 1

Episode 74: Armageddon 2001 Part 1

Welcome to the seventy-fourth episode of From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast! This podcast has a simple premise; examine just about every Superman comic published between Man of Steel #1 in 1986 to Adventures of Superman #649 in 2006 in an informative and hopefully entertaining format.

Part index. Part commentary. Part history lesson. All podcast.

Armageddon comes to From Crisis to Crisis…Armageddon 2001 that is. Mike and Jeff dive into one of the major crossovers from 1991 and kick off part 1 of a 2 part episode looking the adventures of Waverider as he plies the time stream searching for the hero that becomes the greatest villain of all…MONARCH! In Armageddon 2001 #1 we see the origin of Waverider and a glimpse into a dark future for the DC Universe. The boys follow Waverider into Superman Annual #3 which shows a future where Superman goes too far leading to a final battle with…BATMAN! Then in Action Comics Annual #3 we see a world where Superman runs for President and actually wins. Its two hours of time spanning audio and we see two possible futures for the Man of Steel plus the origin of a character that will be popping up here and there in the Superman books for the next few “years”.

No scans this time out (or next time out for that matter) because these books are bigger than the average issue and have a square binding so putting that on Mike’s scanner is rather difficult and would pretty much ruin the issue.

You can subscribe to the show in two ways. First there is the RSS Feed and there is also the iTunes link .

If you want to comment on the show or contact the hosts you can always private message Mike and Jeff, at the Superman Homepage, leave comments here or at the Homepage or here or email them by clicking this link.  All questions, concerns, fears, trepidations and cheap shots are welcome.

Seriously, let us know what you think.

Next week: The second and final part of the Superman end of Armageddon 2001. Lois dies and Superman hooks up with a certain red head.

SUPERMAN ON BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD

So I was checking out the Superman Homepage the other day (as I am wont to do) and caught this piece regarding Superman making not one but two appearances on Batman: Brave and the Bold.  I will admit that my initial reaction was, “Awesome,” followed very closely by, “Well it’s about damn time,” followed immediately by, “Are they going to f*** this up?”

Batman: Brave and the Bold is an odd duck of an animated series for me.  There are episodes that I absolutely love and then there are episodes I absolutely hate and it is fifty/fifty on what my reaction to a given episode will be.  Sometimes it’s really fun and sometimes I actually feel a little silly watching it.  I mean I am glad the show exists because I do believe it is a fantastic way to introduce a new and possibly younger audience to the broader DCU much like the various incarnations of the Super Friends did for me when I was a lad, but…I don’t know.  It’s weird.

From the very beginning of the show’s existence people have been clamoring (i.e. making numerous posts and comments online) for Superman to appear on the show.  It seems like a no-brainer.  People like seeing Superman and Batman together in just about every medium and for awhile there it seemed like Superman would never find his way on to B:BATB.  The interviews with the creative side of the show seemed to indicate that they really didn’t want Superman around but in all honesty that could have been me reading something into the comments that just wasn’t there.  In any case it seems that the time has come for Superman to guest star and I’m left feeling…

Well, in all honesty I don’t know how to feel.  One of my chief complaints of B:BATB is the fact that Batman is treated as THE GREATEST THING EVER in just about every episode.  It doesn’t matter who the bad guys or fellow heroes are or how powerful those heroes and villains might be Batman is always better, smarter and more awesome.  Frankly I blame Grant Morrison for this.  It was during his run on JLA that the idea that if Batman had five minutes and a Swiss Army knife he could take down any threat.  B:BATB takes this idea and kicks it up to the infinite power.  Yes, I know Batman is going to win.  It’s his show but there’s really no drama because Batman is always treated like THE GREATEST THING EVER.

So I’m a tad worried because I don’t want Superman to come on to the show and get treated like a subordinate.  Superman doesn’t have to take center stage but the two heroes should be treated like equals and with the way the show has been going I have my doubts that this is going to happen.  DC has not had a good track record of late of giving the Man of Steel his due and I am afraid this is going to translate into Superman’s appearance on Batman: Brave and the Bold.

Then again I could be wrong and Superman and Batman teaming up with each other and then with Wonder Woman could be thirty-one flavors of awesome.  Only time will tell.  For the moment I will leave final judgment until I see the actual episodes.

I’m just nervous is all.

More to follow…

YOUTUBE TUESDAY FOR 08/10/2010

Welcome to another YouTube Tuesday!  This week I present the First Look at Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, the next in DC’s line of animated films.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qywcjx1ISYs&feature=player_embedded

I re-read the story arc from Superman/Batman just yesterday and in addition to enjoying it more than I thought I would have on the second re-through and finding some problems with the story that I didn’t notice the first time I also found that there wasn’t all that much “fat” that you would have to cut for an animated version as opposed to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.  It’s a pretty straightforward story and moves briskly, thanks mainly to Michael Turner’s two page spreads.  So while I am still very much in a wait and see position I am a little more on the positive side going in than the negative.

More to follow…

YOUTUBE TUESDAY FOR 07/27/2010

As I have mentioned once or twice in the past month I have pretty much walked away from the current DCU as far as the comics are concerned but I still love that universe and the characters that live in it.  Sometime back it was announced that there would be a Young Justice animated series coming soon from Warner Animation and today’s YouTube video is something that came out of San Diego this weekend and I thought it was keen.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiOjAmXDjW4&feature=player_embedded

I have to admit that all signs point to pretty darn awesome if this video is any indication of how the series is going to go down.  I have enjoyed the episodes of The Batman that I’ve seen written by Greg Weisman and Brad Douglas and my other friends over at the Spider-Man Crawlspace have said nothing but good things about his work on the Spectacular Spider-Man so I am confident the guy has a good handle on comic book characters in animation.

The biggest surprise is that the members of the Justice League are involved in the series, especially Batman and Superman.  Usually when these sorts of series are produced the mentor characters are either mentioned and never shown or never mentioned at all, so it is kind of cool that we’re going to be seeing the adults as well as the younger heroes.  The animation style reminds me of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which is fine by me and the shot of the Hall of Justice put a big ol’ smile on my face.  Would I have preferred a more direct adaptation of the comic series that the series takes it’s name from?  Sure.  I am a huge fan of Peter David’s Young Justice series, but I figured they were going to make some sweeping changes and was prepared for that eventuality.  Frankly I am glad the show looks as good as it does.

So yeah, I am going to go out on a limb and say I am excited about this series and look forward to it’s premiere.

That’s it for today.  Come back tomorrow for more Superman goodness.

More to follow…

YOUTUBE TUESDAY: THE LATE EDITION FOR 07/20/2010

Sorry I am running late today.  This morning was crazy, so I didn’t get a chance to post this earlier but here’s your YouTube Tuesday for the week.

This time out I present the trailers for the Superman related DC Universe animated films, starting with Superman: Doomsday.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3keuiWzY-Q

While I have a fair amount of quibbles with this movie I rather liked it overall.  I went into it realizing that they were not going to do an panel for panel adaptation of the original story, so that helped.  This is an enjoyable movie though I still hate the lines on Superman’s face.

Continue reading YOUTUBE TUESDAY: THE LATE EDITION FOR 07/20/2010

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 57: JUNE 1990

Episode 57: June 1990

Welcome to the fifty-seventh episode of From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast! This podcast has a simple premise; examine just about every Superman comic published between Man of Steel #1 in 1986 to Adventures of Superman #649 in 2006 in an informative and hopefully entertaining format.

Part index. Part commentary. Part history lesson. All podcast.

This week Superman receives a visitor from Gotham City as the Dark Knight is over Metropolis. Yes it is your two favorite heroes together in one adventure that stretches through all three of the main Superman books this month. The story begins in Superman #44 where Intergang makes a move against Cat Grant and a certain radioactive ring piques Batman’s interest and leads to him traveling to the Big Apricot. The action and intrigue continues in Adventures of Superman #467 where Superman and Batman finally team-up, Batman meets Gangbuster, Lex Luthor meets Bruce Wayne for the first time again and Intergang strikes again! The story concludes in Action Comics #654 where the fight is taken to Intergang, Batman reveals everything about the Kryptonite ring to Superman and Superman places the ultimate trust in the Dark Knight.

But that’s not all, folks! We have Superboy: The Comic Book #5 that sees three teenagers from the future coming to visit Superboy and acting like complete jerks. We have a story in Secret Origins #49 where the Newsboy Legion gets into all kind of hi-jinks. We have Elsewhere in the DCU and Elsewhere, Elsewhere. Plus the usual banter and arguments and Mike even gets on a soapbox a time or two.

Oh, and before we forget Mike reads a letter that was printed in the Superboy issue by the Superman Homepage’s own Barry Freiman, which the guys thought was just plain awesome.

As promised here’s that final page from Action Comics #654 that Jeffrey suggested Mike scan.  It’s pretty keen.

Starting with this episode we thought it might be fun to include scans of some of the more interesting ads that were mentioned during the course of the episode.  First up this week is the Dick Tracy ad that Mike and Jeff liked so much.

Next and finally for this week is the subscription ad and if Mike can remember to do so and finds the time he might go ahead and scan past Superman related subscription ads because some of them are quite cool.

Next week: Superman in Smallville, the return of a certain doomed astronaut and Lois gets into trouble yet again. Plus, a diary, a journal and a scrapbook.

You can subscribe to the show in two ways. First there is the RSS Feed and there is also the iTunes link .

If you want to comment on the show or contact the hosts you can always private message Mike and Jeff, at the Superman Homepage, leave comments here or at the Homepage or here or email them by clicking this link. All questions, concerns, fears, trepidations and cheap shots are welcome. The guys will try to incorporate e-mails into the episodes once the show gets rolling.

Seriously, let us know what you think.

MAN OF STEEL MONDAYS: PUBLIC REVISIONS

Installment Three

Trade Revisions

A week or so back the “news” was broken that the next DC direct-to-DVD animated feature after Green Lantern: First Flight will be Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.  I was rather excited to hear this.  While Superman/Batman as a title has fallen on hard times and is now an obligation buy more than a just gotta have it buy I really liked the series when it first came out back in 2003.  Sure I wanted it to be called Worlds Finest but I can be rather old school when I want to be.

Superman/Batman was a big deal when it premiered, though.  It came out a month after the first issue Superman: Birthright hit the stands and was part of an attempt to reinvigorate  the Superman line of comics.  It was a weird era for me as a regular follower of the Man of Steel as it was the first time I really questioned the lifelong dedication that I had sworn.  There wasn’t much that was lighting my fire with the regular titles and the announcement of a new origin didn’t exactly fill me with elation.  Despite those feelings I was definitely excited when it was announced that Jeph Loeb was coming back to a Superman title.

I know that Superman/Batman is technically a Superman and Batman title, but I file it with my Superman books so to me it’s a Superman title.  I can make a firm decision on this because it is so inconsequential.

The opening arc was called Worlds Finest.  Yeah, I know.  The trade is called Public Enemies and thus the movie is going to be called Public Enemies even though Superman/Batman: Worlds Finest would have been just as good if not better, but maybe that’s just me.  Anyway, I liked the story.  I had some problems with it to be sure but I liked it a lot.  It was fun.  For a while there Superman/Batman was my favorite Superman book, which made me kind of sad at the time.  I mean shouldn’t one of the regular Superman books be my favorite and not a team-up book?

Thankfully that has changed, but I digress.

Continue reading MAN OF STEEL MONDAYS: PUBLIC REVISIONS

YOUTUBE TUES…FRIDAY- SUPERMAN VS. DARKSEID

With all of the whining I did this week I just plain forgot to post my usual YouTube Tuesday.  I’ll rectify that today.

It is no secret that my all time favorite animated super-hero series ever is Justice League/Justice League Unlimited.  Loved it.  Loved it to pieces.  I watched the series as best as I could when they first aired and I have gone through my box sets on numerous occasions.  I just dig the way Bruce Timm and crew animated the DC characters.

On two separate occasions the series had Superman and Darkseid duking it out.  I am a sucker for a good Superman/Darkseid fight.  When done right it is an awesome thing to see and Bruce Timm, along with the various writers, producers, animators and other people that worked on the show, lived up to that on both occasions.  What I enjoyed about those fights is how personal they were.  In the final two episodes of Superman: The Animated Series Darkseid took control of Superman’s mind and very nearly conquered the Earth before Superman broke free of his control.  Even though Superman fought Darkseid to a standstill it was apparent that the citizens of Apokolips were still going to love and support their dictator.

In the opening two episodes of Justice League‘s second season Darkseid came to Superman for help.  Brainiac had come a calling and was fixing to destroy Apokolips and New Genesis.  Turns out Darkseid was working with Brainiac and at the end of that particular story Superman got another chance to take his revenge.  Darkseid apparently died at the end of that battle, though not at Superman’s hands.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGWvW339Qp0&feature=related

Gotta love Superman burning through Darkseid’s foot.  What I like about that particular brawl is how it was one of the rare times that Superman was willing to let someone die.  To him Darkseid had to go.  I don’t know if anyone had a problem with this though I can see why they did.  I saw it as an interesting character exercise.  This scene also had two interesting exchanges between Superman and Batman the first being when Batman stopped Superman from killing Darkseid.  The relationship between these two characters went through an interesting evolution over the course of the series.  My take on Batman getting Superman out of there was that Batman didn’t want Superman to cross that line, which deepend their friendship.  “You are not going to cross that line and I am going to make sure of that.”  All throughout this two-parter Batman had been pushing Superman’s buttons, which led to that neat line at the end where Superman told Bruce that he wasn’t always right.  So not only was this a great fight, but a great moment between Superman and Batman as well.

In the final episode of the series Darkseid returned in a big way and he was gunning for Superman.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOmMTRZyoIY&feature=related

Best.  Fight.  Ever.

Seriously.  While some may believe that Superman was acting out of character I thought that it was an interesting exploration of how far the Man of Steel could be pushed.  Superman was different on Justice League/Justice League Unlimited.  He had more of an edge to him but not in a bad way.  Most of the time he was reacting to the world around him and on more than one occasion his actions were manipulated by outside forces.  While it may not be my favorite version of the character I still dig on it quite a bit.  I thought that George Newbern did a fantastic job as the voice of Superman and was not only able to bring the edge to the character but also get the subtler, almost funnier side to the Man of Steel.

Great.  Now I want to watch all of it again.  Not that that’s a bad thing mind you.

More to follow…

DC CHRISTMAS PLATE or MAN, I AM GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL

I have a number of comments and observations pertaining to this issue.

Superman has a rather pleasant look on his face and is inviting Batman to come in.  Secretly he’s thinking, “Great Rao, Bruce, get that batarang out of your ass and join the Rao damn party.”

Why is Plastic Man giving Hal Jordan a back rub?

Plastic Man is also checking out Superman’s behind.  It’s why he wears the sunglasses, by the way.  That way he can just stare and stare and no one will notice.

Hawkman is not having a good time because Hawkman NEVER has a good time.

Hawkgirl is about five seconds from telling Carter that he needs to get the mace out of his ass and have a good time or so help her Ra she is leaving him and shaking up with Green Arrow.  She doesn’t care that Green Arrow is with Dinah because secretly Dinah’s into that kind of thing and Hawkgirl knows this.

Wonder Woman is enjoying herself because the pagan nature of the Christmas tree appeals to her upbringing.

Aquaman really wants to ask Zatana out.  Zatana doesn’t even know he’s alive.

Zatana…I really have nothing here.  Zatana is just having a good time and misses her Dad.  I mean he’s dead, right?  Has DC retconned that yet?

Captain Marvel doesn’t get any of the jokes that Ollie tells, but he laughs anyway so he doesn’t look like a dork.

Barry so wants to call him out on that.

Ollie is secretly thinking how awesome it would be to bag Hawkgirl and Black Canary at the same time and be part of a Pretty Bird Sandwich.

Dinah wants to leave Ollie for Hawkgirl.

What…in the hell…is Red Tornado drinking?

J’onn is on his fifth Manhattan and is getting to be a bit of a jerk.

Batman is thinking about how he is an orphan at Christmas time.  Because Batman is ALWAYS thinking about the fact that he is an orphan and everyone wants to tell him to knock that crap off but he has those files on how to kill them so they keep quiet and Batman really, really likes that.

Oh well, I think I’ve done enough today to ensure my place in Hell.  I swear my next two Christmas posts will be much more festive and not as snarky.

At least that’s the plan.

More to follow…