A lot of Batman fans these days may not be familiar with the story of his ever-faithful side-kick Robin what with his omission from these past two films. Actually, Robin barely gets any screen time these days. And in addition to this, most casual fans of Bob Kane’s classic creation have no idea that his side-kick’s shoes have been filled by more than one person.
To fill this woeful gap in your knowledge I present to you a true gem of the internet age: a drunks guide to Robin.
I wish I could take credit for this but I only found it and am passing it on to you. I especially like the voice over work.
None other than Keaton Batmobile number five is up for sale on Ebay! The price is currently up at over $110,000 with the reserve not met and around 20 hours to go, this is wee bit on the expensive side. On the other hand, there were only four more of these Impala based and Chevy 350 powered icons ever made with the added bragging rights of being a genuine movie car! If this 20 foot monster is even street legal, could you imagine showing up to a cruise night in it? You’ll get even more attention than the similarly valued Mopar wing cars, lame Italian exotics, basically anything short of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile or the Wonder Woman Invisible Plane! Of course, if I had that kind of dough to spend on a car, I’d have several different ones, but right now, I’d have a 1970 El Camino SS, 1967 Pontiac GTO ragtop, a 2008 Harley Davidson Night Rod and a Subaru Outback sedan with an STI motor in it, with the latter being my all-weather daily driver. But that is just me and if you’d ask me tomorrow or in ten minutes from now, my answers would probably change. Anyway, feast on what you cannot afford.
Guess what cheeseballs, it is Summer Olympic time! I was too cool to watch them in 2000 and in 2004 but after watching a little bit of the Beijing games, I am hooked again! I spend my nights with the Olympic broadcast on the left side of the screen, The Wire on the right side of the screen (I am re-watching my favorite series from beginning to end) and my GRE vocab book on my lap! Shelling out for the 24” Imac has its pluses sometimes. I even have space at the bottom of my screen to look up worthless Olympic facts.
If you find yourself too cool to watch the Summer Olympics, you may also find yourself too cool to be a fan of Superman, and there are probably many of you based on the chilled reception that Superman Returns received at the box office in 2006. Nonetheless, Supes needs a healthy injection of badass mojo especially since Bats has made a bunch of new fans this summer.
Would Superman blowing out the Olympic torch be cool enough for you misanthropes? I’ll leave that for you to decide, but here is the hilarious scene from Superman III where Superman(Christopher Reeve), who has been turned evil by some mis-formulated Kryptonite, flies to what is presumably the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, blows out the Olympic Torch and flies away. Classic!
My stalking habits of Jason M. Burns and Joe Eisma continue with this review of Serpo out of Devils Due Publishing. What can I say, these guys seem to have single handedly sucked me in using their tractor beam from their mother ship. Serpo is a sci-fi story that is based on the “true” events following the alien space ship crash in Roswell, New Mexico.
The Dummy’s Guide to Danger: Lost at Sea team of writer Jason M. Burns and artist Joe Eisma have re-united on a project spearheaded by the TV producer Vin Di Bona. The interesting thing about this story is that is based on the true events that played out of the UFO that supposedly crashed back in late 1940’s. The events that transpired are documented in extensive detail on the website www.serpo.org. Assuming this story did indeed happen, reading the graphic novel plays out more like a documentary than a sci-fi thriller. Read the rest of this entry »
For all you Street Fighter die-hards out there wondering where your favorite character has disappeared to in Street Fighter IV have no fear! Capcom has just announced a new secret character in their arcade build of the game and it’s none other than Akuma.
There’s no word on if Akuma is already in the Japanese arcade hardware or if he will be region-specific to North America. Also left unstated was whether or not Akuma would be in the console versions of the game and whether he would be a playable character. Read the rest of this entry »
A new chapter in in the interactive history of the Civil War has been announced by Activision Publishing. The press release describes Civil War: Secret Missions as “a completely new episode inThe History Channel’s Civil War franchise, the game will allow players to assume the role of Union and Confederate soldiers fighting behind enemy lines in legendary battles.”
The first game was generally received as lackluster when released due to non-dynamic environments and clipping issues as well as a lack of any coherent narrative or campaign mode. Another point of contention that should have been addressed was the bumbling enemy AI. But the new game promises to add a deeper tactical element to the franchise.
There is a rich history to the Civil War, especially in terms of covert military tactics,” said Dave Oxford, Activision Publishing. “American warfare in the 1860’s was brutal yet surprisingly sophisticated, so it was essential for us to capture this duality.
Fans of the very popular Lineage II MMORPG (19 million subscribers) need to ready themselves for some changes coming to their game. In the first of three new updates to the game, called Gracia – Part 1, NCsoft has changed up their game mechanics to basically make it easier to level up and thereby make it easier for newer players to more quickly advance and gain experience in the game.
According to NCsoft’s North American Producer, Tim Tan, “Gracia represents a huge change to Lineage II. The increase in leveling speed allows players to create new characters and advance nearly twice as fast as before.” But he’s quick to mention that “this game is still a hardcore game,” just easier for noobs. Read the rest of this entry »
As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a huge fan of books. I’m a veritable bibliophile. So when I first heard about an anime about militant librarians protecting the freedom of expression from an oppressive government I just had to check it out.
The world of Library War is Japan in the year 2019. To combat growing government censorship of media and expression the libraries have militarized to protect the art and media of all Japan. The Media Betterment Act gave the government the authority to repress freedom of expression while the libraries act under the Freedom of Libraries Law.
In the year 1999 the Hino Library was attacked by a mob supporting the Media Betterment Committee and killed 12 people loyal to the ideals of the Freedom of Libraries Law. This act, known as the Hino Nightmare, was the impetus for the libraries to take up arms and defend themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
The statement is briefly mentioned in Batman: A Long Halloween, but belief in all things hopeless and Gotham related is a theme in this book. Readers with Superman-tinged hearing will also remember the quote from permeating The Dark Knight, in case anyone has seen it. 400 million dollars later, the last statement is as dry humor as I can produce and after having written Bat-mania for three consecutive months, I have only now begun to get a little bored.
Anyhow, Long Halloween is a follow up to Batman:Year One, and the sequel you will note has not been crafted by Miller and Mazzucchelli as the first was, but be aware that Jeph Loeb and Sale did get permission from the legend to write it. This follow up chronicles a period of time after the original post-Crisis origin story and follows Batman on the hunt of a killer known only as Holiday since they only strike on holidays. In the meantime,every classic Batman villain becomes entangled in the plot including the Joker, Catwoman, Riddler and even the Mad Hatter. A mob war has also exploded between the Maroni and Falcone families keeping Batman, Dent and the police in general as busy as possible during the course of the 368 page book.
Having never read anything by Jeph Loeb or having ever investigated Sale’s artwork, this was a very pleasurable first experience, in which a highly structured story is enveloped in mythical, dramatic, Art Nouveau-esque visuals.
You knew it was coming and now it is upon us. Eidos has just announced a new Batman game in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The new game is titled Batman: Arkham Asylum which promises to be “a dark, action packed videogame adventure.”
The setup of the game is Batman is delivering The Joker to Arkham Asylum where a trap is set for him by the myriad denizens of Gotham’s madhouse. The press release says Arkham Asylum will deliver an “immersive combat gaming experience” with an original script by Paul Dini. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know about the rest of you but I’ve been eagerly awaiting the new Mega Man 9 soon to be available on all three current-gen systems. And today Capcom has released information on three of the new bosses to be featured in the game.
From their press release:
Magma Man:
Magma Man serves as the safety control robot at a large geothermal power plant. He is able to work in incredibly hot environments and loves to visit hot spas.
Weapon: Magma Bazooka
Magma Bazooka shoots a cluster of fireballs that spread out after launching. It can also be charged by holding down the shot button. Read the rest of this entry »
In the year 2239 war rages across the European continent as Africa and China fight a bloody and brutal conflict. A deadly virus known as FCN, “the deadliest pandemic that the world had ever known,” has killed untold masses of people across the world. The survivors are left to try to live through a war they neither asked for or deserved.
Whereas the Chinese fight with human soldiers, the African soldiers are transgenetic creatures made by the shadowy company Mappo which rules Africa in all but name. In other words Europe (the backdrop for War Toys) is being overrun by an army of African animals genetically modified into humanoid forms.
War Toys is essentially a prequel to the larger Elephantmen universe. It’s the story of how that world came to be born out of the ashes of the world we know. Aside from just being a very engaging sci-fi war story, War Toys is also a thoughtful exploration on what it means to be “human.” Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever found yourself playing a platformer and thought to yourself “This game could really use some puzzles right about now,” or conversely been playing a puzzle game and acutely felt the urge to run, jump and shoot stuff? If this sounds like you then EA may just have the game for you.
The game has been tentatively titled Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure and it’s being developed by EA Casual Studios for the Nintendo DS. While the press release doesn’t go into the puzzle gameplay very deep other than to call them “combo puzzles,” the platformer side of it seems pretty straight forward. From the press release: “Jump, fight, and shoot your way through more than 30 levels, including nearly a dozen hidden levels and take on outrageous world-ending bosses.” Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most successful Xbox Live Arcade titles of all time has finally got a true sequel and, not surprisingly, it’s just as awesome as the original. Of course I’m talking about Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. Not content with the two game modes available in the first game, GW:RE2 ups the ante with six very addictive new game types.
In addition to the new game types, Bizarre Creations have also tweaked the gameplay in subtle but significant ways. After an enemy is destroyed there will be small “geoms” floating about in the debris. Pick these up to increase your multiplier and start racking up the points. Also be on the look out for new enemies with new attack patterns to learn. Finally, there are no gun upgrades in the single player mode. You’re always going to have the same gun you start out with.
When you first download the game only one of the modes is open to you, but the other five modes are easily opened up by after playing for a few games. The first mode is Deadline. You have unlimited lives and a limited number of bombs to rack up the highest score possible in three minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
The most exciting thing to ever happen to WiiWare is finally upon us. Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner has finally hit the Wii for 1000 points and fanboys everywhere are surely up in a tizzy. I know I’m kind of excited.
From everything I understand SBCG4AP is a point-and-click adventure in the same vein as Roberta Williams’ King’s Quest games. I’m curious to see what state-of-the-art cell shaded graphics will do for the genre, but I’m more interested in how the developers will take advantage of the point-and-click interface given Homestar Runner’s predilection for Easter eggs.
