It was pretty obvious around the time the fourth season of the dubious success of “The Batman” had all but been questioned, and the writers had run out of ideas. This is when Batman finally took a back seat and a range of characters were introduced which would set the stages for the fifth season which became mainly a jumping point for potential spin-offs of better superheroes in the DC Universe. “The Batman” had run out of ideas by this time, and a slew of new characters were introduced, further bringing the watered down concoction to a level of a chaotic ensemble piece.
Here we saw the likes of Robin and Batgirl, both of whom became Batman’s smart mouthed sidekicks Batman interacted with while on the battlefield. Suffice it to say, they’re the most irritating parts of this new season.
Tag Archives: Batman
The All New Superfriends Hour: Season One, Volume One (DVD)
Form of Sexy Hispanic!
Shape of Comic Fan Boy!
I loved “Superfriends.” It cashed in on the Scooby-Doo franchise by giving us two human teen characters and an annoying dog, and also introduced some of the stupidest superheroes of all time like Apache Chief, and the Wonder Twins. Ah, the Wonder Twins, a product of the disco era with a bit of “Xanadu” and pure retardation thrown in for good measure.
Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face (2006)
Co-director Longstreth once told me that Batman is pretty preposterous because he just doesn’t see how a man in a suit can scare criminals and provide protection. Because while his suit protects him from bullets, if a criminal wanted to shoot him in the face, he’d be down for the count within an instant. Longstreth just isn’t that fond of Batman, and neither am I, and one of his newest films pretty much sums up what he feels about the character. “Batman’s Gonna Get Shot in the Face” is a spoofing of the character Batman, a brutally overrated superhero. Now, Longstreth and Jacob Drake are big fans of the comics as I am, and the character of Batman is thrashed back and forth in one of the funniest online cartoons I’ve ever seen.
The Batman vs. Dracula (2005)
“The Batman” is one of the only series featuring Batman that hasn’t been animated by the well known and widely accepted form of Bruce Timm’s design, and as a series it’s always been a very poor successor in simple fact that it’s only basically been invented to cash in on “Batman Begins”. The series was created and rushed in to premiere showing on the WB network months before “Batman Begins”. The series as a whole is terrible; it’s bland, lifeless, and often uneventful. “The Batman vs. Dracula” is the first animated film from the Batman franchise that didn’t feature artwork from Bruce Timm et al. But this isn’t the first time Batman and Dracula have crossed paths, any respectable comic fan knows that Batman and Dracula are pure rivals, and this makes the distinct hinting that this is the first time they’ve ever crossed paths.
Catwoman (2004)
Funny thing about bad movies. They can reflect either the utter refusal to be resourceful from a filmmaker, or they can mirror the utter vanity of its makers. Such is the case of “Catwoman” a film touted as a bonafide hit before we saw the true horror. Bad movies with large budgets, and big stars ensuring a hit regardless of pre-conceived notions and even ensuring a good film after the general reservations from looking at the monstrosity that is the Catwoman costume. Films like these, from the standpoint of a movie-goer, and a comic book fan make me blood thirsty, and I revel in bringing out the claws (Pun not intended) and knocking it down a notch. There is NOTHING redeeming about this film, there’s nothing here that I can point out was a mild positive aspect. This is a film that screams sheer vanity from its star and filmmaker, and is truly thirty minutes longer than it has the right to be.
A Joker’s Card (2004)
“A Joker’s Card” is possibly one of the more ambitious DC fan films I’ve come across in years. As a comic geek, I’ve admittedly seen very little fan films, but this one was surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of quality, but director Wu takes what he has and turns it in to a very colorful off-beat fan film that spoofs Batman’s rogues gallery. Imagine the villains and heroes off-spring attempting to create their own crimes and chaos. Dick Grayson’s son Nick has a bondage fetish, the Joker’s and Mr. Freeze’s sons are working together to kill Gotham’s off-spring of heroes to inflict their own crimes but are met with obstacles when Wonder Woman’s daughter decides to save the day. I was just laughing my ass from beginning to end because while it is a fan film, its intention is to charmingly spoof the Batman lore and it pulls it off well.
Batman Begins (2005)
You’ve probably heard this a lot since this film came out, but fuck it, I feel like saying it too. They finally got it right. Finally. After long years of imagining what the Batman franchise could have been, my hopes finally come to fruition. Finally. Batman is now Batman. Finally. Batman is a dark menacing figure who doesn’t wear silver specks on his costume. Finally. Batman is a really layered character. Finally. And here’s an incredibly wild concept: Batman gets more screen time than the two villains in the film. Finally. This is “Batman Begins”, this where it started, and I couldn’t be happier. There’s this feeling from beginning to end that we’re being given something that we were missing in the old franchise. There’s depth, psychology, warmth, heart, subtext, and so much amazing storytelling, all of which lacked for the better part of the first “Batman” franchise.