So I’ve been doing a lot of Batman reading. And a lot of it happens to be written by Grant Morrison, who a lot of people love and a lot of people hate. I just previously reviewed Batman and Robin Volume 1, which is basically the adventures of the newest Batman: Dick Grayson and his sidekick Robin: Now the young, and mouthy Damian Wayne. I loved that trade even when I hadn’t yet seen when Damian Wayne first showed up on the scene. But now I finally am after reading Batman and Son.
In danger of sounding cliché’, I’m going to say it anyways: Grant Morrison has done it yet again.
He has time after time redefined comic titles, whether it be the X-men, Superman or Batman. He did it with Bruce Wayne, and now he gets a chance to do it with the newest Batman, Dick Grayson.
The War of the Green Lanterns rages on this week in Emerald Warriors #8, featuring the ‘love him or hate him’ Green Lantern Guy Gardner. I personally used to hate him, and nothing was better than the time Batman decked him in the face.
Now I see Guy Gardner as the one who balances out the personalities of his fellow Earth Green Lanterns. He is the one who will get down and dirty if things need to get done when the stoic John Stewart, good-hearted Kyle Rayner and noble Hal Jordan can’t.
VIDEO GAME
We got all sorts of stuff here. Let’s start with the game. The other day I did a write up on the upcoming Arkham City game. In said article I mentioned how the Riddler’s clues were now gonna be more…involved. Well it seems like the man himself will be more involved as well. Unlike the first game it seem like Riddler will actually appear in this one, not just his voice.
Rocksteady Marketing Game Manager Dax Ginn: The Riddler experience is not part of the main story, but you can see how much work we put into it. It seems to do them a disservice to call them ‘side missions,’ because we take them really, really seriously.
The follow-up to the immensely popular Arkham Asylum, released in 2009, is set to hit stores in October. The game is titled Batman: Arkham City and it is without a doubt, the most excited I’ve ever been for the release of a game. I’m not a huge ‘gamer’, so for the most part I wait and buy my games used. Arkham City however, has been building anticipation far too long for me to wait on. With this game, I’m gonna be one of the cool kids, and I’m gonna buy it on day one. No waiting around this time.
My excitement has been building since December of 2009 when we got this teaser trailer:
No big surprise that the Joker has recovered from the wounds suffered in the first game, but his appearance definitely set a tone, and people got excited.
As 2010 progressed we discovered more and more details, and suspicions about which characters would appear started getting confirmed. In the fall of 2010 the game developers released a large number of screen shots online, and again, excitement swelled.
Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle are both sure to complicate things for the Bat…Harley! You’re animated, stop being so hot!
Then, come December they gave us this:
That was enough for me. I was sold. After all, the first game was undeniably the best superhero game ever made, there was no way I was skipping this. Plus you know, my whole ‘Batman Obsession’ thing…
Earlier this week, Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros released the first full length trailer. No more teasers, just a good old fashion, over 2 minute trailer.
This, is that trailer…
Holy Crap. That was awesome.
“This Ain’t No Place for a Hero.”
Those are the lyrics that so brilliantly echo throughout the trailer for Arkham City. They seem to ring true as Gotham appears to be over-run by Batman’s ‘Rouges Gallery’. What was once a great city now appears little more than a run down Hell-hole. And that’s no place for a top-notch Hero to reside, but like Jim Gordon said at the end of The Dark Knight:
“Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.”
“This Ain’t No Place for a Hero.” Just think about that. The most famous “hero” in all of the comic book universes is Superman. Supes resides over beautiful Metropolis. A big shiny city full of live. Gotham on the other hand is dark and dank and mostly filled with despair. The great twin cities of the DC Universe are as different as their protectors. And while Superman is for sure the protector of Metropolis, I look at him as more of a do-gooder than a hero. Superman faces very little personal risk, as he is almost never in peril, while the Batman is subject to all sorts of deathly situations. Metropolis completely accepts and embraces Superman, an outsider, while Gotham native Batman is hardly afforded the same accommodations. That makes Batman endeavors even more heroic. Jim Gordon was right, Batman is not their hero, he’s more than that. He is what the city needs, even if it doesn’t want him.
This time around though, you will have to be the best Batman you can be if you want to save Gotham again. IGN is reporting that the Riddler and his trophies will be back, but significantly harder to obtain this time:
In Arkham Asylum, Riddler trophies were found somewhat easily — you just found them by spotting question marks painted on walls and ceilings. Things aren’t as easy this time around. Though there are question marks viewable only in Detective Mode (Batman’s version of x-ray vision), they often point in the direction of informants who know the nearby locations of Riddler trophies.
Find these goons and you can beat the information out of them. But knowing the location of a trophy (which appears on your map) doesn’t mean getting it is easy. Many trophies are surrounded by traps or require some ingenuity from Batman to nab.
IGN also noticed something I missed in the trailer. What appears to be Black Mask, getting quite the beat down around the 26-second mark.
“This Ain’t No Place for a Hero.”
Arkham City is set to officially hit stores October 18th in the U.S., and on the 21st in Europe.
And in a complete and utter shock to absolutely NO-ONE, The Joker tops my list. Sorry for the lack of surprise here gang, but there is a reason he’s the obvious choice. He is, plain and simple, Batman’s nemesis.
So I’ve been doing a lot of Batman reading. And a lot of it happens to be written by Grant Morrison, who a lot of people love and a lot of people hate. I just previously reviewed Batman and Robin Volume 1, which is basically the adventures of the newest Batman: Dick Grayson and his sidekick Robin: Now the young, and mouthy Damian Wayne. I loved that trade even when I hadn’t yet seen when Damian Wayne first showed up on the scene. But now I finally am after reading Batman and Son.
Continue reading Grizzly Graphic Novel Review: Batman and Son 
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