Superman/Batman
 

Anyone else reading this book? I swear, it's the best book either character has been in in years. The characters and the way they interact with each other is spot-on. I just finished reading issue #2, and I was completely blown away. I don't know exactly what I expected the series to be when I first heard about it, but it's already my favorite comic, and it's only been out for two months.

Who else is checking this out?

I'll check this out.

Are they fighting each other or is it just a team up?

I'll look into it. Sounds good!

The latter. They're gonna go after Luthor!

I read a review by this gang but I don't know if youcan trust it. They gave it "5 Paws", yet said it was "for the dogs".

http://ebaumsworld.com/random/afrodog.jpg

It's a team up. But WHAT a team-up!!!!

Brief Synopsis (SPOILERS):

Well, basically in issue 1 Superman is on his way to Gotham City to tell Bruce something urgent, and the two end up having to fight Metallo, who is digging up graves apparently searching for his own destroyed human body. Supes is hit with a Kryptonite shard, and him and Bruce are buried alive. In issue #2, Batman uses Supes as a human shield as they blast their way out. Once they get back to the safety of the Batcave, Bruce finds out what Superman was on his way to tell him: There is strong evidence to suggest that John Corben, the man who became Metallo, was the one who murdered Bruce's parents! They start to argue about why it wasn't brought up sooner, but before it gets too far, a mysterious figure appears: A future version of Superman, obsessed with killing both Superman and Batman! Together, they fight him as he keeps repeating how "All of them will die... Lois... Jimmy... Ma and Pa... even Bruce... All Dead!" and how the only way to stop it is to kill Supes and Batman in the present. Eventually, they stop him, and he disappears, but the question as to what he was talking about remains. Meanwhile, a Kryptonite meteor the size of Australia is on a collision course with Earth, and President Lex goes on TV and declares it Superman's fault, offering a one billion dollar reward for whoever brings Superman in for charges of "crimes against humanity". At the end of issue #2, Bruce and Clark ponder what to do next:

Batman: "What do you think he wants?"
Superman: "A showdown at last."
Batman: "...Then let's give it to him."
Superman: "Love to."

A few other brilliant exchanges between the two in the first two issues:

B: "You could've called."
S: "It was faster to fly in."
B: "Faster than a phone call. We'll have to put THAT to a test sometime."

S: "My guess is he dug up a dozen or so to throw you off or at least slow you down until you found HIS grave.... what's the matter?"
B: "Which one of us is the detective again?"
S: "It's called 'investigative journalism', Batman..."

B: "Do me a favor, Clark. lose the sense of humor."
S: "Do us BOTH a favor, Bruce. BUY a sense of humor."

S: "Your butler guards the cave with a shotgun? You didn't have a spare Mr. Freeze ray gun he could use?"
B: "This from a man who uses a DOG with a CAPE to protect his fortress..."

Great book. Buy it. Read it. Love it. It's selling out almost everywhere, so don't dawdle. Sure there are second printings, but where's the fun in that? :D

Batman's parents' murderer was identified years ago as a small-time crook named Joe Chill. But that was pre-Crisis, so I guess they can toss it out the window.

Wonder why the book's not called World's Finest like before? Anyhoo, glad you like it, dude. I almost considered buying it, but at the shop after I'd picked up the last copy some dude asked if there were any copies left so I let him take it.

Actually when the Zero Hour crossover (kind of a sequel to Crisis designed to tie up a lot of the loose ends that remained from the latter series) happened back in 1994, one of the many changes made when the timestream was destroyed and restarted was that Joe Chill was discovered to have an iron-clad alibi on the night Bruce's parents were murdered. Thus, the murder of Bruce's parents remains unsolved, but both Superman/Batman and Batman comics have promised some development on the mystery in the coming months.

But... it was the Joker.

man, im realizing i really need to start reading comics again..aha..

carry on.

In the movies, not the comics. In the comics, Joker (who still has never been given a real name) was a young, struggling stand-up comedian while Batman had already been in business for about a year. The first criminal act he ever undertook was when he was pressured by some gangsters to become The Red Hood and rob Axis Chemicals. He didn't want to, and was scared sh*tless about the entire thing, but his wife was pregnant and he couldn't make ends meet as a comedian, so he figured this one heist would set him up enough for them to live comfortably.

The night before the heist, his wife was killed in a freak accident, but the mobsters won't let him back out. Batman breaks up the heist, and the not-yet-Joker, scared out of his wits, jumps into the vat of chemicals (which he thinks is water) to escape. When he reaches dry land, he sees the reflection of his new face in a puddle, and that, combined with everything leading up to that point, caused him to snap like a matchstick. And so it began.

For the full story in detail, check out The Killing Joke, my personal favorite Joker story of all time, right next to A Death in the Family.

-=Batman gives Supes a Kryptonite enema and tells him to bite the curb=-


THE END

Well, Batman doesn't kill, for one. He's come close a few times, but ultimately he doesn't kill. One thing a lot of people didn't like about the Batman movies is that he seemed to be pretty cavalier about killing people. One that bothered me (though it was a cool part of the movie) was in the second one, where Batman rigs the dynamite to one of the clown's chest and smiles as he blows up. That is NOT Batman.

The biggest discrepancy of all, however? Bane. Bane, the ultimate Batman villain besides the Joker. In the comics, Bane has a genius I.Q. and a body enhanced by the super-steroid Venom. He figured out Batman's secret identity, broke EVERY Batman villain out of Arkham and sent them after him, forcing him to run a gauntlet of his deadliest foes, breaks into Wayne Manor, beats up Alfred, and when a bloody, sleep-deprived Batman staggers home exhausted after days of fighting his most vicious villains, Bane pounds him into the ground and breaks his back, then tosses his broken carcass from the roof of a tall building to the streets of Gotham below. Batman is so demoralized, he passes the Batman mantle onto Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) and considers retiring for good.

In the movies, Bane is a muscle-bound moron who can't talk, reduced to being hired muscle for Poison Ivy of all the two-bit Batman villains. Blasphemy.

Oh, and of course, in the comics, there never has been, or ever WILL be, any nipples on the god damned Bat suit.

Well, there's a reason why Batman is often the most popular comic book character ahead of even Superman: Batman, when handled properly, is the ultimate in human achievement. Driven, possessed, haunted... and never giving up. He's smarter than almost everyone. He can find anyone's weak spot. He's a master strategist who was once kicked out of the Justice League when they found out he had files on how to defeat every single one of them. How'd they find out? When Ra's Al Ghul hacked into his files, stole the info, and nearly killed the entire JLA. (JLA: Towel of Babel)

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of The Dark Knight Returns because it seemed to take the character a little TOO far over the edge. I thought "Batman: Year One", also by Frank Whatsisname, did a much better job of getting to the heart of the character.

As far as the media goes, I think the first Michael Keaton Batman movie, and the first season of the cartoon, were the best representation of Batman besides the actual comic books. And when I say the comics, I don't mean the cheesy 1960s ones that were trying to cash in on the popularity of that awful, insulting TV show. I mean the comics by Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, and the like. The "Dark Knight" Batman. The "criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot" Batman. For a perfect "modern" Batman, just read the recent "Hush" storyline that wraps up this week, the first few issues of which have been collected in TPB.

I'm a Superman fan to the core, but I love Batman when he's handled right. And when the two characters interact, and do it properly, the way they do in the new comic, well, it's a beautiful thing to see the dark and the light, the yin and the yang, come together. The first few pages of issue 1 has a simultaneous narrative by both characters, illustrating just how different -and just how the same- they are.

Oh, and I DO read too many comics. Thanks for noticing.

Glad I got ya interested!

I for one am glad to finally see a Superman title right now that's GOOD. The three monthlies - Superman, Action Comics, and Adventures of Superman - are lousy right now. But Jeph Loeb always did have a knack for the character, and Ed McGuinness does great art as always. Hopefully when the new creative teams take over the S books next year, things will improve. Superman and Batman are the oldest and best-known characters in all of comics... they deserve to be treated like the icons they are, Anything less is an insult.

Hmmm. Lately my opinion of Batman is a little on the low end. He was created as a clone of some of the comics and pulp fiction of the era (such as The Shadow) but happened to have more staying power. Of course, the same could be said about 99% of new comics today, only I don't like those either, so the argument would be lost on me. There is a very interesting article on the Batman topic in Comic Book Marketplace #100.

I agree with Leo on the Batman movies, especially Bane. Knightfall is one of my fav Batman stories, after Dark Knight. And yeah, I;ve read all of these Bat-books Leo mentioned. Neat, huh?

Why read the books when I could watch "Smallville"?! :lol: