The Collective RISES!

Justin Bieber as Robin? No.....Robert Pattinson? No......I've got it! PRECIOUS!

 

Attention, attention! It was announced today in an interview with the New York Times that the third Batman movie will be titled "The Dark Knight Rises", and Nolan revealed two more things :
1. It won't be in 3-D.
2. The Riddler will NOT be the villain.

While the first news is a relief (with the exception of a few movies, I'm really sick of 3-D and don't see its popularity at ALL) I am a little surprised by the announcement of the villain not being The Riddler. Of course, Riddler was the logical and expected choice for the movie, and Christopher Nolan does not always do what an average comic book movie would do. This also furthers my hope that Tom Hardy will play Black Mask, although Hugo Strange would be awesome as well.

As for the title? Well it's not the best, but it definitely fits in story wise. For the 4 of you who haven't seen The Dark Knight, that movie ended with The Joker going to Arkham, Rachel Dawes murdered, and Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face (and allegedly dying). Batman allows himself to be blamed for the deaths of the police officers that Harvey murdered, and is now on the run from the very police that he once worked with.  Bruce Wayne has reached the bottom, and from what we can gather from this title, he will "rise" up once more to become Gotham's dark protector.

Anyways...it's Wednesday!!!

Superman: Earth One

Superman: Earth One is the first in a new line of continuity from DC Comics in which many of their top-tier characters are given new and "modern" takes. Yes, it's almost exactly like Marvel's "Ultimate" line.

However, DC is bucking the trend by releasing these new series as stand alone graphic novels and hardcovers. This way they can reach more "new readers" who may be put off by having to pick up a monthly title. Not sure how someone who can't remember to buy a monthly comic book will remember to pick up a hardcover graphic novel every 6 months, but whatever.

Odd scheduling aside, the first hardcover is out, and if Superman: Earth One is any indication, this new continuity will rule. J. Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis (who was one of the guests at Wizard World) craft a new take on the classic Superman origin, presenting us with a twenty-year old Clark Kent who is questioning his place in the world.

Maybe its because I don't read many Superman comics, or maybe it's because I'm still in my twenties, but I really identified with the young Kal-El in this series. Instead of always knowing what is the "right thing to do", here we have a Superman who essentially doesn't know if he should even be superman. "I've been alone all of my life" he says, " and if I show them what I can do, I'll always be on the run."

As opposed to his current regular run on Superman, Straczynski really makes Clark Kent a relatable character here. From a young age he was told how different he was from others because of the rapid rate that his powers were showing up. In order to prevent him from hurting someone, Johnathan and Martha Kent tell Clark about his "adoption" when he's seven years old. From the time that he is a child, Clark knows that he is different, but he wants to be a part of humanity like everyone else. It's not until the alien Tyrell arrives on Earth looking for the "last survivor of Krypton" that Clark must reveal himself to the world, or else watch as innocent people die.

The art by Shane Davis is awesome. His big, epic pages practically leap off the page, and the action scenes between Superman and Tyrell's army were some of the coolest images of the year, especially when they were juxtaposed with Clark's remembrance of his father's speech about "feeling fury and letting everything loose". Davis' pencils were a thing of beauty, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Whether you're a Superman fan or not, this book is awesome. It's extremely accessible with the right balance of action, emotion, and character building, and long-time Supes fans will love the different nods to past storylines and the history of the character. I particularly enjoyed Tyrell's response to being informed that his army is doing nothing against Superman.

DC's main goal with this new series of graphic novels is to generate new readers, and as long as they can get these books into the right places and continue to churn out amazing stories, then it will be a home run. I can't recommend this enough, as I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of emotion and action within this story. Seriously, if you see this at your local comic shop or Barnes and Nobles then you NEED to pick this up (In fact it's already proven to be really popular. We were down to one copy left at Jetpack by this evening!). It's that good. Seriously.

Now bring on Batman: Earth One!