I actually bought the No Man’s Land novel when it first came out as a hardback. I remember enjoying it the first time I read it because it had Batman. Then a couple years later, I read it again and realized it wasn’t a good book. Come to think of it, that’s how I felt about the comics, too. There’s just certain things I enjoyed when I was younger, but rereading them just about kills them for me because I am a lot more critical now than I was back then.
The curse of the cynic.
don’t worry, I’m the same way.
maybe I just DO like bad stories. Afterall, I like Knightfall too. But I like it BECAUSE it’s bad. I revel in the cheese!
I’d say Death in the Family, but we had that discussion in the DC Thread. It’s unreadable nowadays, just because the plot is so cookie cutter (despite the long-lasting impact it had on Batman and the mythos thereafter).
See, if it’s bad, it’s got to be GOOD bad. I’m talking… Street Fighter the movie GOOD bad. That’s legendary tier. I still haven’t found a comic (or, frankly, anything else in life) that comes close to replicating the experience of hearing Jean-Claude say, “Eyem going to kick (pause) that SONFABEESH Bison’s ass SO HORD (long pause) that the next Bison WHANNABE (even longer pause) isgonnafeelit.”
A Death in the Family comes pretty close, though. That really great Jim Aparo art just does not jibe with the terrible story at all, and it’s almost a classic. Just look at the facial expressions Aparo drew on a lot of those characters in that story. Comedy gold.
I’d take you up Zephy, Hush and Prometheus are in my top ten baddies of the DC universe lol. I still need to read A Death in the Family, though I think the surprise ending would be lost on me. Red Hood stuff looks great as well, damn these Bat comics…so much good…
I just happened to read that No Man’s Land novel as well, but it’s silly to say that I have to read and enjoy a novel first to appreciate a series of comic books. So it’s my fault I didn’t read five thousand pages of text so that I could properly appreciate a 22 page issue? Come on.
Comic book crossovers are always terrible, and with good reason - there’s just too many titles, too many writers and artists to properly coordinate the telling of a single story. The work’s way too uneven and there’s no way you can call it a subjective opinion that its mainly a marketing movement when high selling books like Batman or Detective Comics force you to read Azrael or Gotham Knights to find out what happens next in this watered down series of stories.
Some comic book fans enjoy the whole mythology or factual history of a character or a property more than the actual stories in which those things happen though, and I understand that. There’s lots of fans that enjoy reading the Wikipedia page of a comic book character rather than the actual comic in which they appear, I get that, and that’s been a constant of the medium all throughout. People want to know what happened instead of reading about how it happened. That explains the huge 52/Countdown readerships and fan bases, in which stuff happens, but in the most horribly boring way possible in a comic book.
That was what those big crossovers were to me - no actual story in there worth reading with the actual merits of a good story, but lots of meaningless plot developments that fans like to dig and feel proud about being experts of comic book character histories even though they’ve barely read the issues in which those events have happened in.
A Death In The Family was also kinda funny because the three women they had narrowed down included an Israeli, a Chinese woman, and a blonde American - honestly, the world’s greatest detective couldn’t have figured out which one it was?
Also of course, the whole idea that so many fans actually voted for Robin to die - that’s just some spiteful stuff. I still find that hilarious, that Jason Todd was such an ass that the fans overwhelming voted against him. People took time out of their lives to call in and ask for him to be beaten senseless with a crowbar and exploded. Like did DC outsource this voting process to a call center in India, and people were answering phones, asking voters “Robin dead - yay or nay?”
Asking comic book fans to vote to decide the outcome of a story…never a good idea, but always sky high in unintentional comedy.
That’s just not true though, because Street Fighter was like legitimately good - to this day, I can’t take Hollywood seriously because of the lack of respect this movie gets critically.
The tragic heartbreak when Captain Guile realizes that Blanka is his old buddy Charlie? The amazingly intricate layers of sexual tension between Kylie, Mulan, and Van Damme? The sophisticated homosexual undertones between Ryu and Ken, and Honda and Balrog that predated Brokeback’s “groundbreaking” plot by over a decade? The masterful comedic timing of Deejay and Zangief? The sheer drama of Guile’s realization when he went to that island expecting to find a madman, but instead FOUND A GOD!?!
Fuck Forrest Gump. Fuck Pulp Fiction, fuck Shawshank Redemption. That '94 Oscar should have gone to Street Fighter - everyone knows this.
Bub, you’re way too easy to bait today. Must be a Tuesday.
This one is just for you Linty.
Holy shit. I need that comic now. Deathy, do you have it?!
Unfortunately, I do not own this. I do own the Batman Forever adaptation. AND I once owned the Batman Returns adaptation. It was a nice prestige format issue as well. 4 dollars.
I will pay you double of whatever Zephy offers if you do in fact have that comic, and whatever bizarre sexual favours you demand.
EDIT: FUCK!
Street Fighter makes me cry every time I watch it - seriously, tears of joy for what humanity has managed to create, tears for the final glorious swan song of Raul Julia’s illustrious career, and tears of sadness that the pedestrian minds of the common people will never be able to fully grasp the full scope of pure magic that this movie was. I fear that I will not be able to teach my children to fully appreciate this movie, and that my grandchildren will grow up not knowing its greatness, and eventually there will come a time when a whole generation of human beings will not know what it feels to be lovingly embraced by the Pax Bisonica.
When Guile tells off that snooty UN ambassador claiming that “CHOVE LOST CHOR BALLZ?” Goosebumps. THAT is acting, my friends. Take note, for there is history in that movie.
I have it. I found it at a comic shop for a dollar. Sure you can find it at any random con without trying too hard. There’s some really bad artwork inside. The characters don’t look like they do in the game or even the actors that played them in the movies. Cover is very misleading if you think the interior looks anything like that. Very bad, and not so bad it’s funny bad, just bad. Like if a high school student drew it or something.
EDIT: See if you can get your hands on the magazine when Cracked made fun of the SF movie. That was a high level comedy issue there and the characters do look their movie counterparts. The majority of the issue pokes fun at SF. There was a story in there of Chun-Li dating Raiden or somebody from MK. 
I’m telling you, Batman knew Jason’s mom. He’s the world’s greatest detective, there’s no way he couldn’t know.
he wanted the little runt deader’n the Joker did, but he wanted his hands clean of it, so he made it look like he didn’t know, and it all worked out for him in the end.
heh.
Nah man I didn’t mean you had to read the novel if you are referring to me. It was the only thing I had to read on it at the time, so I picked it up and enjoyed it. I particularly like Two-Facr as the Judge and the sexual tension between him and Montoya. Another powerful moment was Joker and Gordon’s wife, messed up as well when I saw the comic image.
Oh god I saw the SF movie in it’s entirety on Starz the other night. I hardly know what to think of it. Dr. Dhalsim? Charlie into retarded looking Blanka? Raul Julia and some retard native american as Bison and Sagat?!
Brilliant, pure brilliance.
I have seen this film (that’s right, FILM) literally dozens of times in my lifetime. I will not hear anybody speaking ill of Street Fighter the movie. I can’t. I won’t.
If I remember correctly, it was actually a close vote, and there were two hotlines–one for Robin to live and one for him to die. By a narrow margin, the Jason Todd HATERS got their way.
The only Batman movie comic I ever had was Mask Of The Phantasm. I had two copies. I gave one away as a gift, and I’m regrettably not sure what happened to the other.
sniffle That was beautiful.
Next time we start a betting pool, I’m saying that the prize has to be sano’s issue of the Street Fighter adaptation.
Sure why not.
Exactamundo, sano. You gotta give us something to live for, man. We all have a new purpose in life now thanks to you.
I read through all of the Batman and Joker wikis and saw no mention of The Joker being gay. Anyone else heard this before? I have a magazine where they had a little blurb about him being gay and one of the writers or creators talked about it a little. I’ll type it up if anyone wants to check it out, thought it was kinda weird. Specially since you know he’s banging Harley dammit.
As with most cases, this one is usually open to the interpretation of the writer. Frank Miller’s characterization of the Joker in DKR was rather gay. And Harley is a relatively recent inductee into the world of the comics.
I don’t think the Joker is interested in sex, whether it’s with men or women. He’s too insane - he operates on a plane of existence far beyond mortal ken.
J.M. DeMatteis wrote this great story in Legends of the Dark Knight back in the day called “Going Sane.” The Joker thought he finally killed Batman, and his mind snapped and he became a sane, average, everyday man. Then he started to live a normal life, and he even got himself a woman.
On the other hand, Joker clearly has an uncontrollable mancrush for Batman. So who knows?