Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Lost Issues on Near Mint Radio - Tonight!
I will be on Near Mint Radio on the Non-Productive network tonight to discuss the Lost Issues blog and announce the big change that's coming up! The program begins at 7PM EST and I will be on around 7:30PM. You can listen live at non-productive.com tonight... and if you miss it, the program will be listed in their podcast archives in a few days.
Batman and Tigra
I have been a fan of Tigra since her original appearances as The Cat, to her fully felinte transformation and then her time as an Avenger. She is currently being featured in Avengers Academy. I get a kick out of the fact that she is still rocking the bikini... I don't ever remember any of my teachers dressing like that!
I was glad that this pairing finally gave me a chance to do an all Bruce Timm cover. He has a great grasp of body language and the ability to distill a character down to a simple streamlined iconic look.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
Bruce Timm,
DC Comics,
Marvel Comics,
Team Up,
Tigra
Friday, December 9, 2011
Batman and Thor (Retro)
Well, I have seen the Thor film a few times now and for me it is a mixed bag. The casting was great and I really enjoyed the performances, particularly by Tom Hiddleston as Loki. OK, maybe they should have gotten a fatter actor for Volstagg! Asgard looked great and the battle with the Ice Giants was suitably epic. My problems with the movie are that Thor spends way too much time depowered and out of costume... and even when he wears the costume it is without the helmet save for five seconds at the beginning. And the helmet looks great, there's no reason not to have it on in battle (a trend that looks to be continued in the Avengers). The battle with the Destroyer and final battle with Loki both seemed a bit abrupt as well. Still, Thor is one of the tougher characters to pull of on film and Kenneth Branagh did an admirable job. He is not returning for the sequel and the replacement director has already left the project so the next installment is currently up in the air. Hey, Marvel - give Peter Jackson a call!
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Jack Kirby,
Marvel Comics,
Team Up,
Thor
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Batman and The Young Allies (Retro)
Long before the likes of the New Mutants or even the Teen Titans, the Young Allies blazed the trail for future teenage superhero groups. Indeed they were Marvel's first ongoing team book. Bucky, Toro and a plucky group of kids helped foil plots by the Red Skull and real world Axis Leaders. With a renewed interest in Bucky these days due to his high profile return as the Winter Soldier as well as his recent cinematic exposure, I hope to see some new tales of this WWII super group hit the stands.
Labels:
Batman,
Bob Kane,
Brave and the Bold,
Bucky,
DC Comics,
Marvel Comics,
Team Up,
Toro,
Young Allies
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Batman and Marvelman (Retro)
Marvelman is one of the comics I would most like to read and have not gotten the chance to. I've read great things about the character, especially the stories in which he was renamed Miracleman. These tales have been tied up with legal issues for years, preventing any reprints from being produced. The original issues have skyrocketed in price as a result. In recent years much has been written about Marvel Acquiring the rights to the character (meaning use of the Marvelman name is no longer a problem), but thus far I have only seen some of his most early adventures collected. Hopefully whatever legal red tape remains will be unraveled soon and the rest of his tales can be brought back to the market.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Marvelman,
Miracleman,
Team Up
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Batman and The X-Men (Retro)
Well, I've had Batman in retro adventures with each of the individual members, I guess it's time for him to meet the merry mutants as a whole. Now, here's the First Class I was really hoping to see on the big screen. Alas, with the X-films wonky continuity, it seems as though only a full franchise reboot will allow for that to happen. It was great at least to finally see the traditional yellow and navy blue outfits on screen at last, proving they could look cool regardless of any comments made in earlier films.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Batman and The West Coast Avengers
I was a big fan of the first West Coast Avengers mini-series and the ongoing series that followed it. The Avengers had included a lot of cool members over the years and the idea of a second team operating concurrently would allow more characters to be showcased. Little did I realize what a trend that would start! Now not only are certain characters diluted by multiple versions of them running around, entire teams have their own variants. There are multiple versions of the Avengers, X-Men and the Justice League operating simultaneously and it's getting pretty crowded out there. It used to be an honor to join the Avengers or the JLA... now it makes a character more unique if they've never been a member!
Labels:
Batman,
DC Comics,
Hawkeye,
Iron Man,
Jim Aparo,
Marvel Comics,
Mockingbird,
Team Up,
Tigra,
West Coast Avengers,
Wonder Man
Friday, December 2, 2011
Batman and The Vision and The Scarlet Witch
I have featured each of these characters before, but wanted to use them together because I always enjoyed them as a couple. Sure, a romance between a mutant and a synthezoid was a little freaky, but that's what made their relationship so compelling. Unfortunately, both characters have been through the wringer for the past few decades, with The Scarlet Witch growing increasingly more unstable and The Vision receiving personality wipes and new bodies. Their romance was one of the first casualties of all of this tampering. I think it is time to get them both back to a more stable, iconic place and see if there is any of that old magic left. I'm just sentimental enough to think that these two crazy kids could still make it work after all of these years.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Marvel Comics,
Scarlet Witch,
Team Up,
The Vision
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Batman and The Viking Prince
A pretty obscure character today, but I figured as one of the original stars of The Brave and the Bold (predating the Batman team up era), the Viking Prince deserved and inclusion here. Of course, the fact that his adventures were illustrated by the incomparable Joe Kubert makes him even more appealing to me. DC recently released a collection of all of the Viking Prince stories and I highly recommend it for any fans of swashbuckling action and top notch artwork.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Joe Kubert,
Neal Adams,
Team Up,
Viking Prnce
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Batman and the Thunderbolts
Thunderbolts is one of Marvel's best concepts in the past few decades. The original run by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley came out at a time when comics were all about gimmicks - lots of foil covers and variant issues to drum up interest. The Thunderbolts had the best gimmick of all though, a great plot twist at the end of the first issue which gave the series a unique hook. Having villains disguised as heroes led to a lot of fascinating character arcs, as each member of the team reacted differently to their newfound hero status. Some embraced the new outlook and tried to stay on the path of the truly heroic, while others relished in the deceit and grew even more devious. It was a great exploration of some characters that had been around in comics for many years, and it gave them all some real depth. Busiek and Bagley proved once again that every character has growth potential when placed in interesting enough circumstances.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Mark Bagley,
Marvel Comics,
Thunderbolts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Batman and The Thing (Retro)
It was fun to go back to a Thing cover again... this actually makes my fourth pairing with these two (sixth if you count Fantastic Four covers). They are my two favorite characters from their respective companies so I really dig the idea of them sharing adventures together. How I would have loved to see Jim Aparo illustrate The Thing in B&B, or John Buscema give us a Marvel version of the team up in MTIO... Such wishes filled my head as a child and the untapped possibilities they suggest are the basis for this blog.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Marvel Comics,
Paste Pot Pete,
Riddler,
Team Up,
The Thing,
Trapster
Monday, November 28, 2011
Batman and The Super-Skrull
It was a fun moment at the end of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer when Johnny Storm temporarily gained the powers of the entire team. It was clearly a nod to one of the Fantastic Four's coolest villains, the Super Skrull. That was a nice tease but what I as a fan really would have preferred was a full out adventure with the actual Super Skrull. I had the same feeling when watching Ang Lee's Hulk - Lee made the strange decision to combine the Hulk's abusive father with classic villains Zzzax and The Absorbing Man. I would have much rather had a solo appearance by one of those villains rather than the odd mashup we got. There's still hope for future movies, though. With a FF film reboot on the horizon as well as rumored Skrull involvement in the Avengers film, maybe there's a chance we'll finally see the Super Skrull on the big screen one day.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Batman and The Sub-Mariner (Retro)
Namor has been getting around a lot lately. Already a current or former member of The Invaders, The Defenders, The Avengers and The Illuminati, he has most recently been hanging out with The X-Men. Boy, for a supposedly anti-social character, he sure joins a lot of teams! I guess it was only a matter of time, given his status as Marvel's first official mutant. I don't mind seeing the Sub-Mariner in a team setting - it's fun to watch him interact with other characters with his no-nonsense attitude.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Jack Kirby,
Marvel Comics,
Namor,
Sub-Mariner,
Team Up,
Ty Templeton
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Batman and The Sinister Six
It will be interesting to see a new take on the Spider-Man film franchise, but part of me was hoping that the new films would continue in the previous movie's continuity. That way we could have Spider-Man 4 with Kraven hunting the Lizard and Spidey in the middle, then a Spider-Man 5 with Mysterio and/or Electro as the villains... all setting the stage for Spider-Man: Sinister Six!, where the foes from each movie unite to finally try an take the web-slinger down for good. It would be a crowded film but so cool to see one of my favorite Annuals come to life. Ah well, perhaps it is never meant to be, but we still have the comics and the animated adaptations of the Sercret Six to enjoy.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Batman and The Silver Surfer (Retro)
Before the studio decided to reboot the Fantastic Four film franchise, there was talk of a Silver Surfer spin-off movie. I don't know if the reboot plans have scuttled this, but it is something that I would still be interested to see. The Surfer was easily the best part of the FF sequel, he looked spot on and I liked Laurence Fishburne providing the voice. They could have a film set completely off of Earth and finally do Galactus justice (no clouds. please). Throw in an appearance by Beta Ray Bill or a trip to Ego, the Living Planet and you would have a summer blockbuster like no other!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Batman and The Secret Wars
Marvel and DC have fallen into a repetitive cycle with one major line wide event after another, complete with countless spin-off mini-series and tie-in issues and the sheer abundance of them has certainly diluted the impact for me. When Marvel first released Secret Wars, huge crossovers were still a rare happening and I have very fond memories of devouring the issues as they came out. Marvel's move of featuring it's characters returning from the Secret Wars on Battleworld with all of their changes (Spider-Man's new costume, She-Hulk in the FF, etc.) was a clever one, it really made me want to read the year-long series to find out what had happened. I also loved the Mike Zeck art and wish he could have completed the full twelve issues. Like DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, there are some flaws to be found upon rereading, but I will always hold it in high regard due to the memories it conjures up.
Labels:
Avengers,
Batman,
Black Bolt,
DC Comics,
Fantastic Four,
John Romita Jr,
Marvel Comics,
Sasquatch,
Secret Wars,
Spider-Man,
Team Up,
X-Men
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Batman and The Rawhide Kid
I was glad to see that with the Recent DC reboot, they are still giving the western comic a chance in today's market. I was a big fan of Marvel & DC's Western Characters like Jonah Hex, The Two-Gun Kid, The Rawhide Kid and Scalphunter. I think the genre is well suited for comics and provides a nice contrast to all of the super science and fantastical action found in the majority of titles. John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake's The Kents was a great read and I keep meaning to try the current Jonah Hex stories. Marvel brought The Rawhide Kid back in a controversial mini series a few years back, but the less said about that, the better.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Jack Kirby,
Jim Aparo,
Marvel Comics,
Rawhide Kid,
Team Up
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Batman and The New Warriors
When the New Warriors first appeared, I wondered why it had taken Marvel so long to put together a team like theirs. There had not been a team of non-mutant teenage heroes since The Young Allies in the golden age (OK, they did have Power Pack, but that group was pre-teen). I think the Success of DC's New Teen Titans at the time encouraged them to give the concept a try. The formula must have worked for Marvel, as we have seen teen groups The Runaways, Young Avengers and The Future Foundation follow in their wake. The New Warriors was the first though, and it would be nice to see them make a return. They have never seemed to quite recover form the destruction of the group in Marvel's Civil War event. There have been a few attempts to relaunch a New Warriors comic, but nothing has stuck yet. The original team had an interesting roster of characters, and hopefully we will see a more permanent return soon.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Batman and The Matrix
I was lucky enough to see the first Matrix on opening day and thus did not have any of the movie spoiled for me beforehand. I never knew where the movie was going and it was a wild ride from start to finish.The two sequels each had some cool visual moments but didn't really capitalize on all the potential from where the first film left off, in my opinion. On the other hand, I wholeheartedly endorse The Animatrix, the direct to DVD film with six stories set in the continuity of The Matrix, each one animated in its own unique style. Even if you are not a fan of the 2 Matrix sequels, it is still well worth seeking out.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
Matrix,
Team Up
Monday, November 14, 2011
Batman and The Mask
I did not know much about The Mask as a comic book series other than the basic concept and the fact that I liked the John Arcudi artwork. So when the movie version of the comic came out, I went in with an open mind. I thought it was a perfect vehicle for Jim Carrey and it is still one of my favorite performances of his. I was hoping to see a sequel, but unfortunately the studio went the cheap route and cut the budget and star power form it. The results were forgettable, and it's too bad. This was a property that at one point had a successful comic, movie and cartoon series running, and I hope to see new material from it in the future.
Labels:
Batman,
Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics,
JL Garcia Lopez,
John Arcudi,
Team Up,
The Mask
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