Late night in downtown Gotham, Dick
Grayson, better known as Nightwing, runs on a rampage,
terrorizing helpless citizens, laughing like a madman. Suddenly Nightwing
hears a familiar
sound approaching him from behind: the Batmoblie.
Turning around he sees his mentor, Batman, jump out of the
sliding door. "Dick," Batman says
calmly to his ex-ward, "I know you're under the Mad Hatter's mind
control, and that there's no
chance of you taking control of yourself. I just want to say I'm sorry for
what I have to do."
Nightwing screams and lunges at Batman. Jutting to the side
Nightwing misses and gets a knee
to the chest. Cringing in pain for only a moment, Nightwing quickly counter
attack with a
uppercut to Batman's chin. A lightning face kick toward the face is prevented
when Batman grabs
Nightwing's leg and tosses him through the air. But his acrobatic skill shines
as Dick flips in
mid-flight and lands in an attack ready position on the sidewalk.
Cautiously approaching him Batman is taken by surprise when
Nightwing grabs a lamp post,
swings around it and kicks Batman through the glass pane window of a closed
comic book store.
Red light flashes in Bruce's head as he tries to stand up from a pile of
Pokemon cards and
regain composure - but not soon enough as Nightwing decks him over the head
with a metal cast
Scully statue. Grabbing a Metapod card Batman flings it at Nightwing slicing
through the
costume and skin of his forearm. Dropping the statute and holding his wound
Batman has all the
time his needs to press a button on his belt. Light fills the dark store as
the Batmoblie
storms toward Nightwing and hits him, sending him into a rack of new issues.
Batman stands and
attends to his unconscious partner and removes the mind-control chip.
"I said I was sorry."
WINNER: Batman
___________________________
COMIC REVIEWS
(BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES by Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton)
(BATMAN BEYOND by Tim Wan)
(SUPERMAN ADVENTURES by Dick Grayson)
BATMAN BEYOND (ongoing)
ISSUE: "Perfect Pitch" (#5)
WRITTEN BY: Hilary J. Bader
PENCILLED BY: Craig Rousseau
INKED BY: Rob Leigh
ISSUED: January 26, 1999 (cover date, Mar 2000)
RATING (out of 5): *****
I’ve decided to change the format of this review
slightly. It’s hard to review a comic without
spoiling it (for example, BB #4’s twin fiasco), but I know that it’s hard
to decide whether or
not to buy the comic without reading a review of it in the first place. One of
the those Catch-
22’s I guess. From now on I’ll be reviewing whether or not the comic’s
worth buying, and then a
full review complete with spoilers.
Buy Batman Beyond #5. Period. If you like Batman
Beyond, go buy it. I know you might have been
disappointed with Shriek in the cartoons, but this story really rocks, and is
by far the best
BB comic I’ve ever read. This includes the awesome Batman vs. Batman #1. If
you don’t already
own it, go buy it then come back and read the review as I’d hate to spoil it
for you.
THE REVIEW:
The first good point is that the issue is a
continuation of the cartoon. The first page opens
with a deaf Shriek. If you remember at the end of "Shriek", Shreeve
was deaf when Terry
destroyed his sound nullifier and overwhelmed his ears. The only way Shriek
can listen to
others is by reading their lips. Compared to BB #3 where there was basically
no connection to
the Splicers episode, it’s nice to know that the writers are expanding on
the cartoon. I’ll
have to admit that the ending to the comic might mess with continuity a bit.
Shriek’s ability
to shatter anything is a bit too powerful and he’s going to need to be tuned
down a bit. Either
that or Batman’s got to get stronger.
Throughout the comic, Shriek uses his powers in
interesting ways. He masks out Batman’s Sonar,
flings around Batman’s own weapons, among the usual blowing things up. His
powers are drawn
beautifully with this sort of white mist that hangs over the drawings. It sort
of looks like
they just erased parts of the comic, but the effect is perfect.
Terry using Bruce’s weapons was a nice touch,
but you could see the part with the grapple
coming over a mile away. It was still a nice moment though. The best part had
to be when Terry
got his suit shattered, but then came back and gave Shriek a beat down...all
without his suit!
The whole "reading lips" gimmick worked
wonderfully during the final battle scene, and was
especially humorous on the last page. I’m hoping Shreeve stays deaf, so the
writers will be
able to explore this weakness and how he compensates for it a bit more.
When you add in a classic Terry ditching Dana
scene that was reminiscent of Spider-Man and Mary
Jane, you’ve got a classic story that was just amazingly fun to read.
-Tim Wan (who posts his current favorite two
comics on his dorm wall, and BB #5 has held that
position for two weeks now )
___________________________
COMIC SCHEDULES & COVERING THE BASICS
This section gives a little bit more
in-depth look into each monthly issue of BATMAN: GOTHAM
ADVENTURES, BATMAN BEYOND, and SUPERMAN ADVENTURES. Below each comic listing
is a link to the
cover of that comic. TALK ABOUT SERVICE!
The price for any of these issues, unless otherwise posted, is
$1.99 in the US and...grrrrr...a whopping $3.25 in Canada. (Both our editors and many
subscribers are
Canadian, hence the "grrr".)
If we are unsure of the exact date of when an issue is being
released, just check out
"DIRECT CURRENTS" at
http://www.dccomics.com
for details.
BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #24
March 1st
Synopsis: Members of the Bat-team are being kidnapped one-by-one. But who is
behind it all?
Cover: Unavailable
BATMAN BEYOND #6 (ongoing)
February 23rd
Synopsis: When Terry McGinnis and his friends try to go on a quiet camping
trip to a river
island near Gotham, they enter a lost world of genetically altered creatures
kept prisoner
there for the amusement of the world's most dangerous gamehunter: Stalker!
It's up to Batman to
keep himself and his friends alive, if he can outrun, outwit and outfight the
half-
dinosaur/half-jungle animals populating the island!
Cover:
http://www.dccomics.com/directcurrents/comics/covers/bmb6.jpg
FOLLOWING MONTH: Issue #7.
Synopsis: The return of another popular BEYOND villain (we're not telling WHO)
makes Terry's
life a living hell.
Cover: Unavailable
SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #43
March 8th
Synopsis: Unavailable
Cover: Unavailable
FOLLOWING MONTH:
Synopsis: Unavailable
Cover: Unavailable
____________________________
NEWS AND RUMORS
OTHER COMICS
-The first issue of Greg Rucka's BATMAN/HUNTRESS: CRY FOR BLOOD will hit the
shelves on April
12, 2000.
-An interview of Devin Kalile Grayson can be found at the CNN website. Here's
the URL:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/02/15/
comics.writer.batman/index.html
-DETECTIVE COMICS #748 and 749 will be told from Commissioner Gordon's POV.
-Calendar Man will be the featured villain in DARK VICTORY #7, due out in
April.
-The first ever 80 PAGE GIANTS for ROBIN and NIGHTWING will be released in the
near future;
Chuck Dixon is attached as the writer for both of them.
-DARK VICTORY #5 was supposed to be shipped on February 16, but for reasons
unknown, it was
not; it WILL be in stores on February 23, however.
-The ongoing HARLEY QUINN series will commence in September.
MOVIES
-BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER will now be released on October 31, 2000,
instead of
November 7.
-In BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER, the Joker WILL in fact pop up in
future Gotham, not
just in the flashback episodes. His target will be Bruce Wayne - but why?
-It will be directed by Curt Geda.
-It's been confirmed at BATMAN: DEFENDER OF GOTHAM and the WORLD'S FINEST NEWS
PAGE that WB has
brought the following URL:
http://www.batman-yearone.com
For the full story, please go to this URL:
http://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/news.html
-Oh, and look at all these OTHER domains they've acquired:
batman5.net
batmanbeyondmovie.com
batmanbeyondmovie.net
batmanbeyondthefilm.com
batmanbeyondthefilm.net
batmanbeyondthemovie.com
batmanbeyondthemovie.net
batmanfive.com
batmanfive.net
batmanv.com
batmanv.net
batman-yearone.com
batman-yearone.net
batmanyearone.net
batman-year1.com
batmanyear1.net
-Two more Batman Beyond videos are going to be released on May 16th, 2000:
volumes #4 and 5.
One is entitled "Spellbound", and the fifth is entitled
"Crush". The exact episodes shown on
each tape haven't been released as of yet. The cover of SPELLBOUND can
be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/bbvid.jpg
-Rumour has it that the second RETURN OF THE JOKER trailer - the one featuring
actual footage
of the film - will appear on the new BATMAN BEYOND videos being released on
May 16.
-For a picture of what the Joker will look like in the future, go to this pic:
http://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/bbjoker.jpg
LIVE ACTION TV
-REGARDING "BRUCE WAYNE":
GENRE: Action / Comics Adaptation MEDIUM: Television Series
STUDIO: Warner Brothers NWTWORK: Either WB or FOX
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Warner Brothers & ?
PHASE: Pre Production START DATE: NA
CAST: N/A
PRODUCTION CREDITS: Batman: TAS and Batman Beyond mainstay Paul Dini is
said to be involved;
current pilot script written by "Iron Giant" screen writer Tim
McCanlies
PREMISE: Young Bruce Wayne, alone in the world after the tragic murder
of his parents, goes
out into the world to become the Dark Knight of Gotham City, The Batman.
Based on the Batman
character created by Bob Kane.
RUMORS AND NEWS: With all of the movement going on in the world of the
Bat-franchise, it
was time to create a "Bruce Wayne" page. A source at the WB network
emailed me this morning
with a little news about the project and a possible FOX Network involvement:
"Some of us
here are circling the wagons around Bruce Wayne. FOX is pressing hard to
pick up the series
but we'd really like to have it. I mean, we built our whole network on
brooding young adults
and who broods better than Batman?" A move to FOX could hurt a new series
like this one (the
pilot script is said to be very dark and moody - I'd love to get a look at it
if any of you
guys have it!). FOX hasn't been the best place to nurture new series,
especially ones of the
dark variety. If it hasn't pulled stellar numbers out of the gate, it's
dead. Which makes on
wonder, why does FOX keep buying odd shows like Tick and hopefully Buckaroo
Banzai if they're
just going to can them in 13 weeks? More as it happens....Thanks to
"Michigan J. Droogie"
for the info
TOYS, BOOKS, AND OTHER MERCHANDISE
-Thanks to THX1138 for the following!
GameSpot News has learned that Ubi Soft has some major plans for future
titles based on the
Batman license. The company currently has two lines of games in the works -
one based on the
Batman animated series, and one likely based on the Batman: The Dark Knight
returns line. Both
titles are currently headed for the PlayStation2 and could likely end up on
others platforms,
such as the Dreamcast or the Dolphin as well.
While Ubi Soft has been extremely quiet on both projects, we expect to
hear new details
leading up to this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Stay tuned.
By Sam Kennedy, videogames.com
-Wanna see the new line of animated Batman figures? Most of them seem to just
be repaints and
variants, but at least the line isn't dead, right? (It looks like
there's a SHRIEK figure
there, but I could be wrong...) Thanks to HarleyQ for pointing this out to us!
http://www.primenet.com/~btn/2000tf/hasbrotf.html
SPECIAL NOTE
For more BATMAN, SUPERMAN, AND BEYOND news throughout the week, check out the
WORLD'S FINEST
NEWS PAGE at:
http://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/news.html
__________________________________
FEATURED BAT-SITE FOR THIS ISSUE
