Batman: Gotham Knight review

I got a chance to watch the animated companion piece to Dark Knight, Batman: Gotham Knight, last night. (Lots of nights in that sentence, ha). It's an anthology and, as such, it's pretty hit or miss. For an obvious cash in, though, it's pretty good. With executive production by Bruce Timm, Gotham Knight casts Batman in many different lights. Or shadows, as it were, giving Batman different costumes, character designs, and animation styles in each piece. In terms of story, Gotham Knight portrays the little seen aspects of the Batman mythos. These shorts find Batman training in India, testing new equipment, and tripping balls, respectively. Also, a fair bit of focus is given to Batman as he is seen by bystanders, cops, and other villains. Only the last sketch, Deadshot, really gives the viewer an A to B to C story, and I think that it was the weakest of all of them. The animation quality leaves a little to be desired. There are some instances of that classic anime trick of placing a soundtrack against still cels. I would say that this merits a rental, unless you're a die-hard Bat-Fan.

Haiku Review: The Dark Knight

Heroes must maintain
balance of mayhem and calm
in fighting crazies

image by Bill Sienkiewicz, www.billsienkiewiczart.com

Unknown Soldier preview via Newsarama

Newsarama has a preview of the new Unknown Soldier series from Vertigo, written by Joshua Dysart, with art by Alberto Ponticelli. Read the press release article here. Billed as an "all new interpretation," I assume this iteration of Unknown Soldier will be closer to the Unknown Soldier of the 80's (revisited a few years back by Garth Ennis) than the Unknown Soldier that was originally conceived by Joe Kubert for Star Spangled War Stories. See wikipedia article.

I am quite looking forward to this book, as I thoroughly enjoyed the cynicism and vitriol of Ennis' version of the character. The story, centering on the political strife in Uganda circa 2002, looks like it has a lot of potential.

Here is the 5 page preview.

This preview sets the stage for what could be a very ambitious, engaging story, capable of bringing a number of very important issues to light in an entertaining way. However, I do take some issue with the script. Take a look at page two, panel two, where the translator says "The child, he say he walk to look for jack fruit in the bush. He say he find rebels, but he got away." I can tell the writer was going for a modest, but dignified, type of dialogue, but the incorrect subject verb agreement gives a connotation of ignorance that doesn't do much to authenticate the setting for me. Also, shouldn't the "Doctors!" (in panel one of the same page) be to indicate that another language is being spoken? An oversight like that creates the illusion of an even wider social divide between the Doctor and the people she is helping.

Script issues, or no, I'll be taking a closer look at this series.

The Superhero

Rummaging through the YouTubes today I came across an excellent, albeit exhaustive, documentary on the comic book hero. TONS of industry visionaries sound off on what makes a good hero. It examined DC and Marvel and their differing approaches to superheroes, paying particular attention to the sixties, when a lot of dimension was added to superhero stories.

Interviewed: Quesada, Kaluta, Adams, Evanier, Infantino, Simon, Sienkiewicz, Dini, Buscema, Stan Lee, Jim Lee, Kubert, and more.

Highlights:

• Neal Adams explaining comics as "an exercise of fantasy".
• A very intelligent extrapolation of the very obvious notion that superheroes simply don't work as well when taken out of the urban environment ("the prison-like grid"). I had never given this much thought, but when I consider it, it adds a lot of dimension to modern comics

• Stan Lee to Marvel artists in the 60's: "Stay modern and draw what the kids are wearing."

You can see it here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10