Right, OK. So, where do I start?

Well what are you looking for?

"Classic" stories?
Non-Continuity stories?
Current stories?

Basically something I can follow fairly easily in terms of collecting (i.e. no cross-overs or spin offs). I'm looking to collect so non-continuity isn't a problem (i.e. looking for something continuous that I can follow). Something similar in story/styling to the recent films and/or game preferably.

Check out some lists on Amazon. They've got tons:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Batman-Chr...res_rpli_alt_3

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/lis...=cm_pdp_lm_all

Read

Year One
Arkham Asylum
Long Halloween
Dark Victory
Hush vol 1 &2
The Dark Knight Returns


In that order.

Don't really care what you're looking for, Dark Knight Returns is a must have.

Read Superman Red Son while you're at it, because Batman's awesome in it. Plus it's awesome in general

Honestly think Dark Knight Returns is way overrated. Its good, but isn't the be all and end all of Batman like some people think it is. (Not saying people here think that, but I've seen people who do)

I think Red Son plainly and clearly states the relationship between DC's Trinity - Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. That trap scene was great. I love Red Son.

Warner Bros. has confirmed that The Losers, which is based on Andy Diggle’s Vertigo comic, has been moved from its original debut date of April 9th to June 4th. With Fox’s The A-Team opening just a week later on June 11th, the move sets up a box office battle royale between competing teams of highly-trained Special Forces soldiers who find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Comparisons between these two films were inevitable, but this scheduling move could well end up backfiring for one or both of the films.



Movie scheduling is an art and an extremely difficult one at that. One of the few ironclad rules that the studios have come up with for this often treacherous process is “Don’t compete with yourself,” and this is the stricture behind the scheduling change for The Losers.



Warner Bros.’ Avatar-fueled decision to make its Clash of the Titans into a 3-D film via a computer process (see “Clash of the Titans in 3-D”) had consequences. By opting for 3-D at the last minute, Warners was forced to move back the opening of Clash of the Titans by one week to April 2nd to accommodate the 3-D processing. This left only a one-week gap between Clash and The Losers, which stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans and Idris Elba. Warners decided to move The Losers to June for a face-to-face combat with The A-Team, which had long since staked out its June 11th opening date. This could be a risky move for Warners since The A-Team, thanks to its long exposure on TV, is the far more well-known property, but it could also allow The Losers to steal some of The A-Team’s thunder.

?:

Rumors start up again for Batman 3's possibly plot and characters. Being that this would be the umpteenth time we've heard about the Riddler's inclusion, I'm beginning to find this factual. Riddler would be a villain right up Nolan's thematic alley, and the videogame Arkham Asylum's audio recording show that he can be just as disturbed and unsettling as The Joker - even if he isn't as iconic. Now let's address these other rumors...

The appearance of Babara Gordon and Dick Grayson sounds like hogwash, but not of the cameo table. Nolan went on record saying Robin's not swinging in his series, but a cameo would be fair. Barbara was in fact in The Dark Knight, held captive with her brother at the film's climax. She was a child there so yeah... no sidekicks anytime soon.

The mention of Lex Luthor was interesting. With Nolan overseeing a Superman reboot it wouldn't be out of the question for him to play with his newly extended sandbox of characters. If he introduces his Luthor early in Batman 3 and let's his vision loose in a proper Superman movie, I can buy that. Especially if Nolan presents the white-collar criminal Luthor (also in Nolan's thematic alley), perhaps an antagonist to Bruce Wayne?

All rumors, though.

I haven't really been following this thread, so sorry if I'm a bit off-topic here, but just wanted to say I always thought Batman 'Hush' was way overrated. Great artwork (Jim Lee right?) but overall thought the story was kinda lame and just an excuse to get loadsa different characters into it.

War Games on the other hand is truly epic IMO.

I haven't read the entirety of Hush but I do have all of War Games and it is an epic Batman story.

The whole war games/ war drums saga is awesome.

Black Mask is so great in it.

Return of Hush and Heart of Hush stories are better than the original Hush story in my opinion.

I would agree with that, but I like Hush better anyway, just for the art alone.

I'm just about read Long Halloween.

Now what's a good Superman graphic novel to read? I suppose I'm looking for like a classic story?

I liked 'Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey' I think it was called. It's quite old now, but to be honest I never really cared much for Superman unless he was against Doomsday.

Non continuity Superman stuff:

Superman: Red Son - What would happen in Superman's rocket landed in Soviet Russia?

Kingdom Come - Set in "the future", where Superman has given up. (he comes back)

Superman: Secret Identity - Set in the "real world", where a dude named Clark Kent discovers he actually does have the powers of Superman

In continuity stuff:

Superman: Birthright - Ok, so this actually isn't in continuity anymore. An origin for the "modern age" Superman, that was retconned away less than two years later. Awesome story though.

As for classic, you can't go wrong with The Death and Return of Superman.

Superman: For All Seasons is also good and is done by the same people who did Long Halloween.

Yeah I will def read Red Son eventually. I think right now even though it isn't what I said I wanted I might go with Whatever happened to the Man of tomorrow. Since I really like Alan Moore.

Did Superman Returns take any stuff from any Graphic Novels?

I think the Death/Return story is what I might end up getting first.

O also Long Halloween was really good.

Superman Returns is actually funny, because around the same time in the comics they were having a story where Superman "returns" after a year of having no powers and it is very similar. Only instead of using the krpytonian crystal to scam real estate, Luthor uses it to try to destroy Metropolis and Superman.

The story is called "Up, Up, and Away" and it is actually pretty awesome. So is the story right after, "Back in Action".

Excellent stuff there, Lock Jaw. Putting them on the list.

Should definitely check out J. Michael Straczynski's Superman: Earth-One when it comes out: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/JMS-...ne-100216.html

It will probably be Awesome.

Superman? Anything by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.

http://i.livescience.com/images/smso...rev-4-copy.jpg

http://www.dccomics.com/media/produc...21_400x600.jpg

:y::y:

Fucking hate superman. Only time I've ever enjoyed him is in all the elseworlds stuff. He's awesome in Kingdom Come, All Star Superman, and Birthright, I think it's called. Have yet to read Red Son, but I hear it's awesome.

Tried to get into the main continuity superman, but he's just boring as hell to me.

This. I always preferred Batman (and even Flash and Green Lantern) to Supes because Supes is too overpowered. Bats you know, deep down, is mortal. Flash is mortal. And even with the mighty power ring, Green Lantern is mortal. I don't get that feel with Superman. Only time I cared about him was during the initial fight with Doomsday.

Anyone seen the new Justice League Cartoon movie?
it really sucks balls

I like Superman.

Also, he's so damn cookie cutter.

I grew to love Superman for what he represents. He's such a classic mythological character. He's so iconic that there's a lot you can do with that.
He just needs to be approached the right way. Stories like Red Son and For All Seasons do it perfectly.
He's very human when you consider what it's like for him to live here on earth and be overpowered.

Plus there's the whole dynamic of Superman being his true identity, and Clark Kent the adopted persona. The complete opposite of most other superheroes.
I think he's interesting from a literary standpoint.

And yes, he's pretty cookie cutter but he made the mold.

My thoughts exactly

I enjoy Superman.

This part reminds me MUCH MORE of Bats. Bruce Wayne truly died the night his parents did. He then went on a mission to become vengeance. The only reason why he exists as Bruce Wayne at this point is to bankroll being Batman.

Also, I would like to add that Nightwing is the greatest name for a super hero EVER.

I am interested in seeing The Spectre short that is on the new Justice League: Crisis on Two World's DVD. The main feature I am kind of indifferent to.

I still don't see where people get the idea that Superman is "overpowered" or just otherwise never gets hurt, considering that he gets the crap beaten out of him on a pretty regular basis by his villains. Sure, he wouldn't have any trouble taking on most of Batman's guys, but neither would Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, or even most of Marvel's heroes.

Plus I think Clark Kent is way more of an identifiable character than Bruce Wayne. Guy was raised in a working-class family, works a regular blue-collar job where he isn't the most popular guy, had to bust his ass to get the attention of the woman he likes, and still has trouble determining his identity and place in the world. Bruce Wayne on the other hand is a billionaire ninja who inherited his fortune without having to actually work a day in his life to support his habit/obsession, and not only never loses a fight but never even loses an argument. Blah.

And he endangers children, tortures, lies to his friends, and will beat the shit out of you for robbing a 7/11 on his watch. The guy is crazy cakes.

I'd like to point out that despite being more of a Supes fan, I'm a huge fan of the Batman mythos- just not Batman himself. All of his villains are either frightening or at least intriguing, all of his sidekicks have very definite development and growth as characters, and the hype surrounding the Bat is just all kinds of cool. But Bruce himself is just...meh. He only has the two emotions: brooding and snarling. And the more I think about it, the less sense it makes that the JLA even keeps him around, considering how much of a douche he is to most of them.

I guess being a master strategist badass keeps him in the gang.

I think him being the most popular superhero and selling a ton of comic books has a lot to do with it

There's the business discussion and the fictional discussion.

But no matter how you slice it, the former dictates the latter

Crazy cakes > boring cakes

Superman is the ultimate pussy.

Give me Sentry over Supes, any day of the week.

Superman is by far my favorite superhero, but I have long since given up any hope of defending him in the eyes of others.

It has dawned on me while watching Memento that Carrie-Anne Moss absolutely has to portray Selina Kyle if Nolan's including Catwoman in the next Bat-film. I still have a soft spot having Rachel Weisz in the role, if anything but for her eyes, but I think Carrie-Anne would add some power to the movie as Catwoman under her former director.

I've never really followed DC at all except for Batman so I don't know if this is talked about ever, but I always wondered how everyone always seems to know about and where to find kryptonite?

it's weird to me

Kryptonite was actually quiet rare until the Superman/Batman arc that introduced Supergirl. After that everybody could find all sorts of the stuff (though Batman had heroes collect them all over the world).

It's currently back to it's rare status.

I think it'd be pretty sweet to end Superman by having someone go crazy and just beat him to death with a kryptonite pipe

In other news Batman & Robin is on right now. Beyond Awesomeness

The greatest part of Batman and Robin has to be the ticking tock during the end scene, which only ticks down one second per time it's shown (once every 5 minutes)

The computer simulation of Allferd in the Batcave is pretty high up there.

Coolio Biker Gang

Superman isn't cookie cutter, he may seem that way, but he isn't. Look at the recent arc with the 100,000 Kryptonians, he sticks out among all of those guys.

There's no such thing as bad character, only bad writing :)

Hell watch Superman the Animated Series, it fucking rocks. All of the Bruce Timm cartoons rock.

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What?!

It was awesome! I like all of the DC DTV DVD's, but this was the best one yet. And most people who saw it by now agree.

What made you dislike it?

The Bruce Timm DCAU is epic. Over a decade of awesome quality. No other comic book TV series compares.

I like the new Batman: Brave and the Bold series. Mostly because it is just so campy that it is hilarious.

The Timm DCAU will probably always rank as the single best animated interpretation of a superhero franchise (although I gotta admit, Spectacular Spider-Man is right up there, or at least probably will be if it gets a third season). I quite enjoy Brave and the Bold too, just because it goes into a lot of really obscure characters. And The Batman from a couple years back is actually pretty damn fun, too, once I finally got past the art style.

Overall, I gotta say DC has had way better luck with their cartoon franchises than Marvel. Definitely more hits than misses, the crappy old Superfriends cartoon notwithstanding.

^ This.

Also, on the subject of Superman whooping some ass:

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Let's see Batman do that.

^Why were they fighting?

If I remember correctly, that episode was while Lex Luthor was pretending to be reformed and was running for President. As part of his whole "hey, I'm not a would-be-dictator supervillain anymore" image, Lex was unveiling a new city powered by some awesome free-energy source, and got Captain Marvel to endorse him, since he's even more of a 'boy scout' than Superman.

Supes naturally doesn't trust a damn thing Luthor says, and assumes that the whole thing is some kind of trap, which is confirmed when he sees that ticking time-bomb at the end of the video. He starts tearing up the place to get to it, Captain Marvel stops him, and they end up throwing down. The twist, then, is that the "bomb" Superman melted down was actually the generator for the city's power (made to look like a bomb so he would destroy it ), making Supes look like the bad guy and causing Marvel to quit the Justice League altogether. Basically, Luthor played them both for chumps in order to ruin Superman's image, like the magnificent bastard he is.

Which kinda goes back to the argument about Supes being "overpowered" being rubbish- guys like Luthor or Brainiac (or yes, like Batman) can put him in situations where being able to punch stuff really hard doesn't do him any good, where winning the fight still doesn't solve the problem. The guy can be duped, tricked, and humiliated, just like anyone else, without a speck of Kryptonite in sight.

Trivia: Because of the old legal dispute between the Captain Marvel and Superman creators (because the characters are so similar), there's been a tradition of having them fight and making it as over the top as possible - as a nod to the old legal battle. Not to mention Kingdom Come's epic finale with the two.

Luthor's awesome, BTW.

Score.

they just did a smallville episode where the villain was kindof like captain marvel where some kid read a magic comic and became a grown up superhero. But he turned into a villain so whatever.

There are variations of Captain Marvel's powers that have similar effects.

im not sure they were trying to make him a smallville variation of captain marvel but whatever it was cool

especially since there was no lightning shit, just regular superman powers

With Smallville likely having a 10th season, and it being the last most likely, it's time for the most wanted cameos (or semi regulars?) to come about:

Bruce Wayne and Princess Diana.

I don't care what deals need to be made. I don't care what continuity liberties need to be taken. DC, CW, producers, writers; make it happen. DC's Trinity needs to finally party up on Smallville.

bruce wayne would be hard to do since it seems he would be too young to actually be batman. I think they are and have been using the green arrow as the role of batman... they gave him all the same story arcs. Hes a wealthy billionaire with murdered parents, spent time in a secret society learning his skills, is a darker hero to counterbalance clark, uses a ton of gadgets.

im also hoping zod turns into dark seid

Which is why I said Bruce Wayne specifically. And I have noticed Oliver's role on the show. I'm thinking something more along the lines of the Bruce coming across Metropolis on some business sort of deal. He'd hate having to suspend his training for something he needs to handle (perhaps some left over loose end from the family company). He gets caught up from some villain of the week and The Blur decides to help, but quickly learns the young playboy is more than capable.

All this could be done in one episode. Oliver keeps his Batman-ish role, and the show could do the whole 'everything's normal after a major event' thing it's known for.

yea id love to see him in it too. a lanturn would be cool too

DARKSEID! ONE WORD!

David Goyer is writing the next Superman feature titled "The Man of Steel". It is not an origin story and will feature Lex Luthor and Braniac as main villains. With Brandon Routh and Kevin Spacey not returning (confirmed), the only thing that gives me hope is the inclusion of a rarely used villain, using the early 90's reboot Man of Steel as a tonal base, and David Goyer knowing a thing or two about writing comic book movies (Blade 3 notwithstanding).

Good to hear it's moving along, now I wonder if this movie will play off the GL film shooting now. It's time the JLA get together.

Sounds allright. Brainiac is one of my favorite villains, but I really really really don't like the 90s Post-Crisis take on the Superman franchise, what with Luthor turning into a half-assed Norman Osborn and whatnot. I mean, I guess tuning Clark's powers down to 90s level will make it easier to have him get into fights, but I half the fun of Superman is watching him do crazy shit that no one else can do. If they go with the MoS-era power levels, he's just a harder-to-write Iron Man with a less shiny suit.

Still, at least they're finally moving forward with it.

Just got Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On A Serious Earth

I like Superman being depowered, some of my favorite Superman stories had him depowered. Sneezing away galaxies and reversing time just isn't fun for me. So yeah a mech gave Superman a hard time in his DCAU pilot, but the scene was awesome. It doesn't have to be forced like Justice League S1, though.

Justice League: Crisis is fucking awesome. Owlman's gonna be my favorite villain for a little while. Kick-ass fight scenes.

Just downloaded the new episode of Smallville, not actually watched it yet so i don't know if this is part of the episode...

...But there was a small promotional poster with the download

http://i36.tinypic.com/4pz990.jpg

I seeeee..

thats a fake but it would be awsome

Interesting announcements pertaining to The Flash, Man of Steel, the 3rd Batman, and the Justice League may be on the way.

Nolan's Batman may be primed for the Justice League after all, so long as Nolan or his brother on JLA detail, that is...

this.

"...it doesn't matter."

Quote of the fucking year right there.

Seriously with the 3D shit...

Until televisions begin to get the capability to go 3D, 3D is the newfound "draw" of movies. They haven't had a big draw since they went color.

It's a fad, I give it one or two more years before people tire of that shit.

its not a fad... its a way for the film industry to prevent piracy so get used to seeing big movies in 3D

Kalyx, did you go see Avatar in 3D? Or are you just talking out your ass?

Televisions are already getting that capability. In fact, you can buy some TVs that are 3D ready. ESPN has started experimenting broadcasting sports in 3D.

Are you inferring that because a few movies used it well, that 3D will become a stable in the film industry rather than a passing fad?

And I'm talking out of my ass?

I'll say the same thing gaming and movie industry heads have said over the matter; the often required glasses betray the physical vision and inclusiveness experience of the viewer. People shouldn't have to 'suit up' in any way to enjoy a feature or videogame. The success from a few well uses will not make it standard, nor should it be, anymore than The Dark Knight ushering in gritty takes on superhero movies.

Fad.

And Smallville is picked up for an impressive 10th season (and presumably final). Congrats to the production team and all that, never thought it'd go that far when I was looking at Clark crucified in that corn field on that WB teaser image.

Smallville has been pretty consistent in its "not great, but just enough to keep you watching"ness.

The only really bad season was season...uhhh... whichever one had all those witches and crystals and stuff.

Season 7 was probably the best one.

Yeah, there was some high concept silliness in the mid seasons before they finally succumbed to digging into DC lore. One time there was a kung-fu episode with Lana going all wu-xia, as well as that 'Charmed'-esque episode. Kinda embarrassing looking back.

You don't HAVE to wear the glasses kalyx.

And fad or not, the 3-d technology out there right now is freaking awesome, and I would much rather watch any big budget action movie in 3-d than without.

Glad you enjoy it.

It's not like every movie should, or will feature 3D.

A great movie can be enjoyed without it. Still, for event pictures and blockbusters it could become a staple.
It's a feature, just like color or surround sound, or stadium seating. It's part of the theater experience, which needs to continually evolve to keep people coming.
If not, people will stay home like they have been doing.

The movie industry will get behind this, and it will not be a fad unless close-minded people think they're above it.
I'm not suggesting Coen Brothers movies should be in 3D. But if you're going to make a special effects heavy event picture, the bar has been raised.

Imax3D will not go the way of Cinerama.

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The plans Nolan and Goyer have for Superman will be similar to their Batman, in that Superman seems to exist in a world where there are no other superheroes. While that may be a decent approach, it doesn't seem very different from past live action presentations. What I think they mean is that Superman will be grounded in a rational sense, or as rational as a Kryptonian demi-god can possibly be.

Interestingly this approach, if taken literally, would be contradictory to WB's plans to unite established heroes after their time in the sun. Nolan has called Batman 3 the conclusion to his grand narrative, so it's doubtful he'll carry on as director after he's through. The director of Man of Steel may feel differently at least after the initial reboot. I mention these because it would seem WB's JLA plans are still very likely despite Nolan's [possible] approach to Superman.

Still, it would benefit them to keep the Nolans happy.

Fuck, WB should just give up. Finish Batman 3 and then stick to animation. They just can't do this right otherwise.