Tag Archives: batgirl

February 5, 2016

Batman: Bad Blood

Before we get in to the movie we have to address the elephant in the room. There is no way to talk about this movie without first thinking about the Taylor Swift song. I’m sure that DC Animation Studios picked the name for this movie way before Taylor Swift released 1989 but it doesn’t really matter at this point. The name Bad Blood will forever be associated with Taylor Swift and we just have to deal with it. It’s Taylor’s World, we are just visiting. So that being said here is the music video for Bad Blood so you can just have it playing in the background while you read the rest of this post.

While this is a stand alone film it lives in the same world and continuity of the Son of Batman films. The first film of this series is Son of Batman, followed by Batman vs. Robin, bringing us to the third entry Batman: Bad Blood. While all these movies live in the same continuity you definitely don’t need to see the first two films to understand what is going on in Batman: Bad Blood. There are a couple of little nods to the first two films but it is mostly original material.

This film is loosely based on the 2009 Comic Book event Batman: Battle of the Cowl. The key word here is loose. Battle of the Cowl takes place following Batman R.I.P. where Batman was killed (kinda) and was lost in the time stream to become Batman during various ages in time. Bat-mite is involved, its written by Grant Morrison and barely comprehensible (comics be crazy yall). So Batman: Bad Blood is like that, in that Batman is out of commission and Nightwing (Dick Grayson) takes over the mantle of Batman, just for a lot shorter duration.

During the year or so that Batman was out of commission during Batman R.I.P. we were also reintroduce to Batwoman as she took over Detective Comics for issues 854-863. So it’s fitting that we also see the modern Batwoman (Kate Kane) introduced in this film. There was a DC Animated film, Batman: The Mystery of the Batwoman in 2003 but this Batwoman isn’t anything like the modern new 52 Batwoman. If you want a kickstart into the character of Batwoman, Batman: Bad Blood is your best bet.

The movie starts with typical bust up job where we think we see Batman taking care of business, but surprise, its Batwoman. Batman does wind up joining her and the two take care of the lower level baddies and confront a new villain “The Heretic”. The fight moves over a giant catwalk, because of course they do, and Batwoman winds up falling off. Batman saves her but in doing so is stuck in the building as the Heretic blows it up and is persumed dead. Cut to two weeks later and Batman has not been seen since the accident. Nightwing (Dick Grayson) and Robin (Damian Wayne) come back to Gotham to help figure out what happened. I don’t want to just spoil the whole thing so I’ll just leave it (more or less) at that. Batwing gets involved and the four of them (Nightwing, Robin, Batwoman, and Batwing) have to work together in order to figure out what happened.

The movie is great. It fits in the same tone and world as Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin so if you enjoyed those movies you’ll likely enjoy this one. Because these Batman movies have started to tie together it gives a lot more weight to the events in them and gives you a feeling of actual stakes to these films. There are a couple of deaths in this movie and they have a real impact to them. They definitely aren’t just trying to keep the status quo in these films and are taking the story where ever it needs to go.

The introduction of Batwing and Batwoman are done well. We get a lot of backstory on Kate Kane, who she is, why she’s doing what she’s doing. We don’t quite get as much for Batwing. We see his origin on screen but other than a line or two about him being in the military we don’t really get a lot of information about him. There is only so much time in these films so I don’t fault the film makers that much for it. If you had to choose between spending more time on Kate or Luke, I’d rather it have been Kate.

If you don’t already know Kate Kane is a lesbian and this part of her life is in the film. We see her go on an awkward first date with Renee Montoya and her father keeps trying to get her to go out and find a nice girl. This was all handled matter of factly and as a part of who she is instead of her defining characteristic.

We also see Damian has grown a lot as a character since his introduction in Son of Batman. He’s no longer blood thirsty and genuinely living by the code of justice, not vengeance. He’s no longer just doing this to please Batman but it really seems to be a part of who he is now.

We get a closer look at the relationship between Nightwing and Batman and a explanation of why Dick felt he needed to take up the mantle of Nightwing and leave Gotham. Grayson takes up the mantle of Batman in his absence for the sake of Gotham but only reluctantly. Grayson has been trying to get out of Batman’s shadow his entire life and the movie does a good job of inner conflict within him.

We’ve never gotten a “Marvel Style” teaser at the end of any of these DC Animated films but Batman: Bad Blood may have given us just that. At the very end of the film we see the Bat Signal turn on and Batman, Batwing, Nightwing, and Batwoman all suit up and respond. And then, right before the credits roll, BOOM! Batgirl! We’ve never seen Batgirl in any of these DC Animated films and not only is this Batgirl but it’s the Babs Tarr New 52 Batgirl as well! We haven’t heard any announcement of what the next Batman Animated film will be but I would bet money we are finally going to see a Batgirl solo movie.

1 Comment | tags: batgirl, batman, batman bad blood, batwing, batwoman, Comic Books, Comics, dc animated, dc comics, dc comics original animated film, dc films, nightwing, robin, warner brothers | posted in Comic Books, TV Shows

September 22, 2015

Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl

By Jasomania

Today’s installment of Elseworlds we’ll be discussing 1998’s Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl. If you would like to read along at home you might be able to find a copy at your local comic book shop but the easiest option would just be to get it from Comixology here for 1.99.

While this is definitely an Elseworlds story the main two characters, Supergirl and Batgirl, have their normal identities of Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon. In this world there is no Superman and Kara Zor-El is the true last daughter of Krypton. Bruce Wayne exists in this world but rather than his parents getting killed, Barbara’s parents were killed and she was raised by the Waynes.

This is an interesting twist. Barbara and Bruce are roughly the same age in this universe and have a Brother/Sister relationship. Bruce acts in a support role similar to Alfred, while Barbara is Batgirl. Barbara is still a computer genius and uses her “Oracle” computer program to protect and isolate the entire city of Gotham. No one is above Batgirl’s reach and neither the Justice League or anyone with powers is allowed to enter Gotham. Barbara keeps Gotham in a police state and while it may be safer it is clear there is mixed feelings from the citizens.

In this world Lex Luthor is not a villain but instead a benefactor of the Justice League. The story kicks off with Luthor receiving an award from Barbara Gordon (and the city of Gotham) for his work in renewable energy. A super buff Joker who has been taking Bane’s venom uses the opportunity to kidnap Luthor. This super buff Joker of this world is obsessed with Batgirl and uses the kidnapping as an excuse to gain her attention.

Lex Luthor was the one who found Supergirl when she landed on Earth and represents a father figure to her. She becomes distressed learning he has been kidnapped and, despite knowing Gotham is off limits, enters the city anyway to rescue him. Batgirl is immediately alerted and confronts Supergirl. Once seeing how distressed Supergirl is, and possibly realizing that she is overpowered, Batgirl invites Supergirl to assist her in finding Luthor.

Meanwhile Luthor cuts a deal with Joker and gets Joker to work with him in exchange for an unlimited supply of venom.

Batgirl takes Supergirl to a secret underground lab of Lexcorp where we learn the true nature of Lex Luthor. Superman had in fact come to Earth but Lex got to him first and used the Kryptonite from the crash to kill Kal-El while he was still a baby. Lex has since been using Kryptonian technology and Kal-El’s own corpse to further Lexcorp.

Supergirl naturally goes into a blind rage and is set on killing Luthor for the horrible acts he has committed. Batgirl manages to stop Supergirl from killing Luthor and we then learn Batgirls backstory. An aging Joe Chill winded up getting a commuted sentence for killing her father in exchange for naming names. One of the people he named was Luthor as the man responsible for contracting the murder that killed her father. Jim Gordon was never the target that night, Joe was suppose to kill the Waynes but when Jim Gordon intervened he was killed instead.

The award was a set up from the start. Batgirl planned it to get Luthor out of Metropolis long enough for her to gather evidence against Luthor. Luthor plays it off that it doesn’t matter anyway because he is beloved and no one will believe their story against him. However Batgirl had been live streaming the entire encounter which Luthor had confessed all.

The comic ends with Supergirl burying Kal-El’s body and that start of a friendship between Supergirl and Batgirl. Barbara however hides away a kryptonite ring stolen from Luthor “just in case”.

Overall I really enjoyed the comic. I think it was a fresh take on both of the characters. Rather than just being side characters or part of a bigger bat or super family this had Batgirl and Supergirl front and center as the leaders of their world. I did think it was odd that they didn’t go by Superwoman and Batwoman seeing as they were the main forces in this world. This isn’t a huge deal but would have helped to separate this world from the typical DC Universe.

I liked the different take on Batman’s origin in which it is the Gordon’s that died instead of the Waynes. I liked that Bruce Wayne takes on the role of Alfred and helps assist Batgirl while she’s out in the field. They appear to have a romantic relationship in the public eye but seem to be truly platonic while in private.

My only real complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the rest of the world this comic takes place in. We got to see some bits and pieces on how things are different such as Abin Sur as this worlds Green Lantern but it never really goes into any depth. This is just a one shot comic so they are limited on what they can tell in this story but it would have been nice to see more. Part of what I really love about these elseworlds comics is the details and smaller changes.

Anyway if you like Elseworlds and are a fan of Supergirl and Batgirl this is definitely a book you should check out.

Leave a comment | tags: Barbara Kesel, batgirl, Comic Books, Comics, dc comics, elseworlds, elseworlds finest, Matt Haley, supergirl, Tom Simmons | posted in Comic Books, Elseworlds

August 18, 2015

Batgirl Annual 3

By Jasomania

I spent some time over the weekend tearing through my back list of unread comics and finally got to reading Batgirl Annual 3. I was actually pretty surprised when this came into my stack a couple of weeks ago. DC has been sportatic with these annuals and there doesn’t seem to be a pattern of when these come out (even stranger this Annual came out the same date as Batgirl issue 42).

Annuals come in a lot of different forms but usually one of three ways. Either an over sized self contained story, an over sized issue to end a big story arc, or an anthology issue (a single issue made up of several short stories). This issue is the first time that Batgirl has done an anthology issue which is one of my favorite types of comics.

Each part of this anthology has Batgirl teaming up with a different member of the Bat family in order to solve the case of the Negahedron. Batgirl works with Huntress/Grayson, Spoiler, Batwoman, and Maps/Olive of Gotham Academy. Whats cool is that this issue changes the art depending on who Batgirl is working with in the story.

The first part Batgirl is on a mission with Huntress (and Dick Grayson although she doesn’t know it) to take down the Negahedron. It features art by Bengal in the style of the Grayson ongoing series which is drawn by Mikel Janin. Here is a sample what it looks like.

The second part continues the Negahedron story with Batgirl working together with Spoiler (aka Stephanie Brown, aka Batgirl number 3). At first I thought the art (drawn by David LaFuente) was in the style of the Catwoman ongoing series drawn by David Messina, since they reference Catwoman 42 in the story. However, looking at the art I think they style they are actually going for is a style based on the art of the current Batgirl series drawn by Babs Tarr. It has a similar stylized and animated look, which you can see in a sample below.

The next part continues the Negahedron story with Batgirl working with Batwoman and is drawn by Ming Doyle. It is drawn in the style of the recently canceled Batwoman ongoing series which was originally drawn by J.H. Williams III. You can see a sample of the art looks like below.

The last part takes place in Gotham Academy and concludes the Negahedron story with Batgirl teaming up with Maps and Olive of Gotham Academy. This part is drawn by Ivan Plascencia in the style of Karl Kerschl. Even though this is the last part of the story this is actually when I noticed the art was not just changing each part, but changing to match the comic of the person Batgirl is teaming up with. The art style of Gotham Academy has a distinct anime / Japanese art style that it is unmistakable (check out the sample below).

For a Annual that I didn’t even know what coming out I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Rather than just a story about Batgirl you basically get a Batgirl comic along with sampler of 3 other comics. I like this issue a lot and hope some other comics use annuals as a way to try out cool new ideas.

Leave a comment | tags: annuals, barbara gordon, batgirl, batgirl annual, batgirl annual 3, batwoman, Comic Books, Comics, dc comics, gotham academy, july comics, spoiler | posted in Comic Books

June 16, 2015

DC Comics Plans After Convergence

By Jasomania

DC Comics plans for what is going to happen after Convergence are finally becoming clear. It looks like they are doing some major housecleaning and not resetting numbers across the line. Staple books like Batman, Superman, Detective Comics, Wonder Woman, etc. aren’t renumbering to 1 and will continue with their “New 52” numbering (all are at issue 41 right now).

Overall there will be 25 comics that were being released before convergence that will continue being ongoing series and not being renumbered to number 1.

Action Comics by Greg Pak/Aaron Kuder
Aquaman by Cullen Bunn/Trevor McCarthy
Batgirl by Cameron Stewart/Brenden Fletcher/Babs Tarr
Batman by Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo
Detective Comics by Brian Buccelato/Francis Manapul
Batman/Superman by Greg Pak/Ardian Syaf
Catwoman by Genevieve Valentine/David Messina
Deathstroke by Tony Daniel/Tony Daniel
Flash by Rob Venditti/Van Jensen/Brett Booth
Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan/Brenden Fletcher/Karl Kerschl
Gotham By Midnight by Ray Fawkes/Juan Ferreyra
Grayson by Tim King/Tim Seeley/Mikel Janin
Green Arrow by Ben Percy/Richard Zircher
Green Lantern by Robert Venditti/Billy Tan
Harley Quinn by Amanda Conner/Jimmy Palmiotti/Chad Hardin
Justice League by Geoff Johns/Jason Fabok
Justice League United by ?/Travel Foreman & Paul Pelletier.
Lobo by Cullen Bunn/Cliff Richards
Secret Six by Gail Simone/Dale Eaglesham
Sinestro by Cullen Bunn/Brad Walker
New Suicide Squad by Sean Ryan/Carlos D’Anda
Superman by Gene Luen Yang/John Romita Jr.
Superman/Wonder Woman by Peter Tomasi/Doug Mahnke
Teen Titans by Will Pfeifer/Kenneth Rocafort
Wonder Woman by Meredith Finch/David Finch

There will be 24 new series coming out that will all be number 1 issues. They are:

Robin, Son of Batman by writer/artist Pat Gleason
Black Canary by writer Brenden Fletcher and artist Annie Wu
Martian Manhunter by writer Rob Williams and artists Ben Oliver and Paulo Siqueira
Earth 2: Society by writer Daniel H. Wilson and artist Jorge Jimenez
Midnighter by writer Steve Orlando and artist ACO
Bat-Mite by writer Dan Jurgens and artist Corin Howell
Batman Beyond by writer Dan Jurgens and artist Bernard Chang
Cyborg by writer David L. Walker and artists Ivan Reis and Joe Prado
Dark Universe by writer James Tynion IV and artist Ming Doyle
Doomed by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Javier Fernandez
Harley Quinn/Power Girl by writers Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Justin Gray with artist Stephane Roux
Red Hood/Arsenal by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Denis Medri
Starfire by writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, with artist Emanuela Lupacchino
We Are Robin by writer Lee Bermejo and artists Rob Haynes and Khary Randolph
Justice League of America by writer/artist Brian Hitch
Bizzaro by writer Heath Corson and artist Gustavo Duarte
Prez by writer Mark Russell and artist Ben Caldwell
Omega Men by writer Tom King and artist Barnaby Bagenda
Mystic U (tentative title) by writer Alisa Kwitney and artist Mauricet
Section Eight by writer Garth Ennis and artist John McCrea
Dr. Fate by writer Paul Levitz and artist Sonny Liew
Green Lantern: Lost Army by Cullen Bunn, art by Jesus Saiz and Javi Pina.
Justice League 3001 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Howard Porter
Constantine: The Hellblazer by Ming Doyle and Riley Rossmo

This isn’t the first time DC has cleaned house. DC has had sweeping line changes since the launch of the New 52 back in 2011. Every 6 months they have fairly consistently ended series and added new ones in.

The biggest difference in this change that I can see is that DC won’t be calling their line the “New 52” anymore, which make sense since the “New 52” is now 4 years old. The DC Comics line of books will now be called “DC You”.

New number 1 issues always sell a lot and make for easy jumping on points so the big two (Marvel and DC) renumber series on the regular when series take new creative directions. DC seems to have held off on this more than Marvel lately. We saw this when there was sea change in creative for Batgirl and Wonder Woman and DC continued with the “New 52” numbering rather than go reverting to number 1. DC has also (so far) kept to the “New 52” numbering without reverting back to the old numbering, even for major anniversary issues. Issue 19 of Detective Comics would have been issue 900 in the old numbering. DC still made this a special oversize anthology issue but actually kept the issue number of 19 and resisted renumbering the issue to 900.

I’ve been a big fan of the “New 52” so while I’m sad to see the name go, it looks like DC isn’t rebooting everything and this is just a shake up of things. The new books in this shake up aren’t all that interesting to me. So far the only book I’m planning on buying is Bryan Hitch’s Justice League of America, but we shall see.

1 Comment | tags: batgirl, batman, Comic Books, Comics, convergence, convergence event, dc comics, dc you, divergence, summer comics, the new 52, wonder woman | posted in Comic Books

May 15, 2015

DC Comics Bombshell Variants Return!

By Jasomania

If you are a fan of DC Comics Bombshell Variants from last June (June 2014) then strap in, because you are in for a treat. First up will begin releasing a new Digital first series centered around the Bombshell characters. It will be written by Marguerite Bennett and have art by Marguerite Sauvage. The series “Introduces retro-bombshell versions of Batwoman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl in an alternate reality where super-powered female heroes are on the front lines in WWII (DC Comics).” The series will begin releasing digitally first in July with the first print version released August 12th.

I assume the series will be like most of their other digital first series where digital versions will be released weekly for 99 cents and print versions will collect every three to four digital issues and release for 2.99 to 3.99. This isn’t the first time DC has released a comic series based on one of their lines of figures. Back in 2012 they had a Digital first series based of the Ame-Comi statues that was actually pretty good (check it out here on Comixology).

There will also be new Bombshell statues! DC released pictures of the first two featuring Killer Frost and Cheetah.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is no secret that the of the DC Comics Variant Cover theme months the most popular by far has been the Bombshell themes. Since their release DC has put their Bombshell characters on statues, glass wear, t-shirts, lip balm, you name it. So it’s pretty exiting then that DC have just announce that they will be releasing another set of 21 Bombshell variant covers this August! Not only did they just announce they are coming out but they also released them all on their website! So check them out and start saving your money now!

1 Comment | tags: action comics, aquaman, august comics, august covers, batgirl, batman, bombshells, catwoman, cheetah, Comic Books, Comics, DC, dc august 2015, dc bombshell, dc bombshell variant covers, dc bombshells, dc comics, detective comics, justice league, killer frost, superman, The flash, variant covers, wonder woman | posted in Comic Books

April 27, 2015

Mystery Comic 1: Detective Comics: Batman – 734

By Jasomania

This is a great comic to start with because it’s a batshit (pun intended) crazy. First of all its part 20 of the of 88 “No Man’s Land” crossover event that took place during the entire year of 1999. Let’s take a minute to let that marinate. There was a crossover Batman event in 1999 that took place across 13 titles and various one shot comics. So if you were trying to follow along in this series back in 1999 you would have had to buy 88 issues costing roughly $175 dollars. Even though that’s over an entire year that’s a hell of a lot of comics if you want to get the entire series. It also means is confusing as shit if you were to be a new reader trying to get into a certain comic.

It’s intimidating enough when you see a number like 734 next to a book. If you are new to comics you are going to ask yourself, “Do I need to read 733 issues to know what’s going on?” Not only that but this is part two of a two part story, “No problem!” you exclaim, “I’ll just buy Detective Comics 733 and all will be well.” So you go to Detective comics 733 but when you do its list as “Crisis of Faith” not “Mark of Cain”. No “Mark of Cain” part 1 is in Batman Comics issue 567. And not only is Detective Comics 733 not the first part of the story you were looking for but it also is part 16 of No Man’s Land not part 19. So within one month you have lost three parts of the No Man’s Land arc.

This is a perfect example of why it’s so hard to break into comics if you are an outside reader. Of course with the internet its easier now to find out what is happening with comics month to month but it’s still pretty damn difficult. If comic book companies are scratching their head to why people don’t buy comics this serves as a huge example. First it’s a huge crossover that involves close to 100 books, second they are spread out randomly across 13 titles, and third within a year afterward none of the events of No Man’s Land even mattered. I get the need to keep the status quo when it comes to a character like Batman. You can’t really kill or injure characters and so that happens the impact that stories are going to have. But to have an event like this that last an entire year and involve so man titles have all most no lasting impact in the Batman or DC universe, its little wonder how this kind of thing can lose more readers than it gains. It’s another example of the comic industry desperate for sales squeezing as much money from their base as possible rather than do something that might gain new readers.

Ok enough rant back to the comic itself.

So needless to say it’s a little confusing coming straight into this book. You get a one sentence blurb kind of describing what No Man’s Land is and then it jumps right in. Cain is trying to kill Commissioner Gordon and his daughter tackles him out a window to stop him. Batman saves the both of them holding on to Cain with a rope and Cain holding on to his daughter by the hands. He drops her and it picks up with Cassandra (his daughter) in a graveyard (hanging out not cause she’s dead) not exactly explaining how she survived the fall.

Batman then talks to Cassandra for a while (no explanation why or how he got there) and finds out that Cassandra can’t speak any language, she only knows the language of violence.

Are you shitting me? The language of violence… I know enough about Batman to know that Cassandra Cain later will become Batgirl. I have also read enough Batgirl that they use this whole she can’t speak thing for a while in the comics. It leads to interesting stories but she understands language she just can’t speak it. I don’t know how this kind of thing works but it seems to me if you can understand English perfectly you should be able to speak it to some extent. It lead to some interesting stories but they winded up dropping the whole thing by a very random contrived method. They had some random meta-human who we have never met and never see again. He has the ability to fix peoples brains and he happens to run into Cassandra, fix her brain, and leave. So from then on Cassandra can speak and write. It was a total cop out and you can tell it was only done because the writers were tired of skipping around how she couldn’t speak and picked an easy out. So knowing what I know about the character this whole section about Batman’s shock at her only knowing the language of violence is pretty lame.

Back to the story, Batman finds Cain and fights him while Cassandra dons a black mask and attacks/steals money from Two Face. It cuts back to the Batman/Cain fight and right before they land a devastating blow on each other Cassandra breaks up the fight distracting them by throwing the money she stole from Two Face at them. Then it cuts to Batman introducing Cassandra Cain to Barbra Gordon (Original Batgirl) who thanks her for saving her father and tells her she was once Batgirl. It ends with Batman saying to Oracle “Oracle. Call them”, with no explanation of what that means.

Over all it’s not a bad comic just really hard to follow completely out of context. I luckily had some history about No Man’s Land and Cassandra Cain but which helped a lot. Had you just picked this up without any context it would probably be a lot of non-sense. Overall I give it a 6 out of 10.

Here are a couple of my favorite vintage ads from it.

Leave a comment | tags: batgirl, batman, Comic Books, comic books and cats, Comics, dc comics, detective comics, mark of cain, mystery comics, no man's land, woot | posted in Mystery Comics

October 13, 2014

Shock-tober! DC Comics Monster Variant Covers

By Jasomania

We may all ready be half way into Shock-tober, the holiest of months, but its never too late to start celebrating. First thing we have is that all month long DC Comics is going to be releasing Monster Variant covers to a lot of the comics coming out this month. In the past these line wide variants had been more rare but since March of this year there has been some sort of line wide variant every month.

There was Scribblenauts, Steampunk, Robot Chicken, MAD Magazine, Batman 66, Bombshells, Batman 75th Anniversary, Selfie, and now Monsters.