The Good

The new Batman: Arkham Asylum is easily the best comic book/ video game adaptation released to date. The story is interesting (written by legendary Batman Scribe Paul Dini); the voice acting is mind-blowing (most of the voices are provided by veterans of the 1990’s Batman the Animated Series), and the fighting is fluid.

By providing a simple attack/ defend method, the game designers created a superb fighting system that is easy to learn, but takes some art to master. I also love the variety of ways you can take down thugs… which is also my favorite part of the game. The planning that is necessary to take down a room full of armed thugs on hard is certainly challenging. One room in particular where the Joker has seven armed thugs wire the ceiling with bombs (essentially removing your ability to go vertical) took me a number of tries to triumph. I can’t remember the last time I had to work so hard to conquer a puzzle in a game; it was intellectually refreshing.

The scenes where you get fear gassed by Scarecrow, and have to escape your own madness, are really trippy and quite cool.

The Not So Good

My only substantive complaint is regarding the boss battles. On one hand, I have to give them some credit because no two boss battles are alike. On the other, they never made me feel like I was Baman beating the hell out of my crazy, ostentatious rogues. The boss battles were never as enthralling as the rest of the game.

One other graphic design issue bugs me just a bit. In cut scenes, Batman looks like he’s sweating buckets. This is probably because the game was created using the Unreal Engine. It’s not a huge issue, but it’s something I noticed.

The Ugly

Nada

Bottom-line

I typically don’t feel the need to complete all of the side challenges in a game, but something about the Riddler’s taunting has compelled me to go back and finish answering his riddles… so I’m not done with Batman: Arkham Asylum.

All-in-all, this game is a triumph. It looks good, is fun to play, and it gives you a reason to play some more after the main story is over. What more could you want out of a game?

I finally had a chance to download the demo of the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum on Xbox 360.

The verdict?

It looks like we are going to finally get a good Batman game.

The combat and stealth controls feels intuitive within a couple of minutes; I had a blast skulking around and darting in and out of combat.

The voice acting is perfect, with many Batman the Animated series veterans reprising their roles:

Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) as the Joker, and Arleen Sorkin as the lovable lunatic, Harley Quinn.

The graphics are pretty slick, although I’m not crazy about Batman’s cape (it’s really hard to animate a cape properly), and sometimes things look a little too shiny. Nothing unforgivable here.

You can expect a more through review after the game is released on August 25… but for now, this game is looking like it will be a “must play.”

Have they forgotten what original thought and new properties look like out in California?

Over the last decade, the volume of comic book properties that have been turned into movies has been growing.

I reflected over this rapid growth, then I  started to list all of the comic book movies that are due out over the next few years.

I made this staggering list off the top of my head in less than five minutes:

(In no particular order)

1. Spider-Man 4
2. Nick Fury
3. GI Joe
4. Jonah Hex
5. Man of Steel (Superman)
6. Green Hornet
7. Sin City 2
8. Deadpool
9. Green Lantern
10. X-Men Origins: Magneto
11. Wanted 2
    
12. The Avengers
13. The First Avenger: Captain America
14. Thor
15. Iron Man 2
16. Scott Pilgram vs The World
17. Magdalene
18. 300 2 (Yeah, forget the fact that damn near all of the characters died… that gives me an idea. “THIS IS ZOMBIE SPARTA!!!”)
19. Batman 3
20. World of Warcraft
21. Castlevania (Not a comic, but a video game is still close enough. This is only being made because of the current vampire boom in pop culture.)
22. The Last Airbender, which is  live action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender (A cartoon, but another geek favorite)

That’s 22 right there, and this isn’t even counting novel adaptations and movie remakes (Twilight anyone?). I think they are all due out within the next two to three years.

I am also fairly certain that I forgot a few.

It’s kind of shocking isn’t it?

My feelings on this are mixed. On one hand, I’m sure a few of these will be great, but on the other hand, a lot will be steaming piles of poo.

Additionally, I am troubled by the lack of original thought. I understand that when the economy is in the toilet, studios (and everyone else in media) want to put their money in a “sure thing,” but this trend began when the economy was booming.

Most of these adaptations don’t add anything to the characters, they usually detract. When they are done well, they usually match the comics at their best.

Make something new, unique and good, and I promise I will go to see it. As far as this current wave of geeksploitation that we are experiencing goes, I think I am going to have to be more picky with the comic movies I support. I hope you will too.

Yeah, someone is actually making a shark repellent.

If you don’t know why this is freaking hilarous, I recommend viewing this epic clip from the 1960’s Batman show staring none other than Mr. Adam West.

This trailer looks even more impressive than the previous ones.

It seems that the release date has been bumped up to August 25th. I don’t have to tell you what my plans for that evening are do I?

I spent all day zipping across Six Flags Great Adventure with two of my good friends from college; Andrew & Dave (they’re twins). They live in Buffalo, NY and don’t have the opportunity to come down too often, so they decided to splurge and buy us a Flash Pass.

Basically, the Flash Pass is a big red tamagotchi (remember those pieces of garbage?) looking thing with some form of receiver/ transmitter. It allowed us to book our rides without having to wait on the line – Freakin’ sweet! Especially when you don’t have to pay for it.

I forgot my camera, so I need to use old photos or steal them from promotional sites.

So, we zipped around all day, enjoying the beautiful weather, and going on more rides than I can count.

Here’s the scoop on big attraction rides (In no particular order):

Batman the Ride

The original Batman coaster still rocks. This short but intense ride never disappoints. I think I’ve gone on it about 12 times in three visits over the last year.

El Toro

This wooden roller coaster is anything but your typical wood coaster. It’s fast, smooth, and exceptionally intense. I think it’s the best one in the park (Andrew & Dave agreed).

(I took this one)

Nitro

A great steel coaster with an incredible drop. Ride this one before you go on El Toro because as great as it is, it won’t measure up next to wooden awesomeness.

Kingda Ka

I really want to go on this record holding (height & speed) 456 foot tall, 128 mph phallic symbol, but it’s always closed when I go to the damn park.

The Dark Knight Coaster

Great movie. Abysmal ride. Don’t waste your time on stupid thing.

Great American Scream Machine

It twists, it turns, it cork screws, and it loops… a lot. This classic coaster is a lot of fun, but it can beat you up a bit.

Superman: Ultimate Flight

You fly through this ride in a horizontal position. Nothing underneath you except for the harness. It’s fast and unbelievably smooth; you really feel like you’re flying. I love this one.

Bizarro

Bizarro is awesome!

For those of you who don’t know, Bizarro is the anti-Superman, and he inverts the definitions of words. When Bizarro say’s he is “here to save you,” he actually means he is “here to kill you.”

So, when I say “Bizarro is awesome,” I mean it’s not.

The Bizarro coaster  is a slightly modified version of the old ride Medusa. Medusa was boring. The minor improvements along with some special effects don’t do nearly enough to revitalize this ride.

A woman who was on the line for Batman with me put it best:

“Medusa wasn’t great, but it was ok because it never had a line… Bizarro sucks because it isn’t great and the line is insane.”

Tips

1. Don’t keep your cellphone or keys in an unzipped pocket. Dave’s phone was “stolen” by Superman (Not very Superman like). It’s a very strange feeling watching your friend’s phone drop from a great height.
2. Riding at the front of these coasters is more visually intense, however, the back of the coaster is physically more intense (Especially on Superman and El Toro).

The video game, Batman: Arkham Asylum has been delayed from June 26, 2009 to Q4 2009.

Bummer.

Back in 2005 comic legends Frank Miller and Jim Lee teamed up to create All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.

This book was so hyped up, then it hit the shelves and it was a special kind of bad. I’m a fan of a lot of Frank Miller’s and Jim Lee’s work but All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder is a train wreck. The book is so bad, but I keep picking up the new issues (when they actually come out) to see what ridiculous thing they will do next.

A spectacular failure!

The book is bad on an epic level. It’s a masterpiece of terrible. It’s the Mona Lisa of crap… and i can’t seem to stop reading it [This is the toned down version. I couldn't bring myself to print one of the more graphic sentences that I wrote].

Miller & Lee have boldly created a funhouse mirror reflection of Batman and the DC Universe in what seems like an effort to just do something completely insane. Frank. Jim. If that was your goal I congratulate you on your success.

Moving on…

Today, Dan Didio announced that writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, the same team that has created the excellent book All Star Superman, will be writing a new series titled Batman & Robin. I hope the do the characters justice.

A page of Frank Quietly's art from the upcoming series "Batman & Robin"

“Who would win in a fight, Superman or Batman?”

I wish I had a dollar for each time someone has asked question like that.

The answer to any “Who would win in a fight” question is typically on the cover of the comic, movie, or book. If it says “Superman,” he will probably win. If it says “Batman,” he will probably win. Get the picture?

The modern incarnations of Superman are troublesome in storytelling. How do you find an interesting threat for a character who is super in every facet of his being: strength, speed, senses, flight, intelligence, muscle control, he can freeze things with his breath, and shoot deadly beams from his eyes, and he’s even super good with his personal relationships. He has no real faults. 

The answer to this problem is frequently one of two options:

Option 1

Make a bigger, badder, nastier villain. This has been used over and over again, and most of the time results in a boring slugfest that is ultimately unfulfilling.

Option 2

Lower Superman’s powers without saying anything.

This happened all of the time on the Justice League and Superman animated series (which I love nonetheless). Often times in Justice League, a villain would kick Superman’s red and blue ass (establishing the villain as a nasty threat) only to have Hawkgirl snuff him with her mace. It just doesn’t work. In this case, Superman is only as strong as he needs to be in order to resolve the conflict after getting beat up a bit. 

Superman is problematic because he is a god in a world of mortals and writers have to resort to odd or inconsistent storytelling in order to manufacture a threat. For example:

Think back to the movie Superman Returns. Supes is on that kryptonite island with Lex and his goons. He can barely stand. They stomp on him, stab him with a shard of kryptonite, and dump him in the ocean broken and defeated. Then, after a brief recharge of solar energy, he flies down and lifts the whole damn island into space. The island made of kryptonite. He could barely carry his own weight while standing on it, but lifting it beyond Earth’s gravity is no big deal? That’s bad storytelling.

There is a relatable and interesting character deep within Superman, but it is buried beneath all of the powers. DC could make Superman into an exceptional character if they dampened his strength and speed for good. If he becomes weaker and slower, writers could keep his power consistent, more villains could pose a threat to him, and the crux of his stories could be character-based, not strength based. 

The endless strength and speed may be good for beating up bad guys, but they aren’t so good for compelling storytelling.

I can’t wait for this game. It better not disappoint.