Bad nerd!

Hello, my name is Marty, and I am a bad nerd.

This not a good time to be a bad nerd.  There's all these nerdy things all about us in various media.  I have many nerd friends (people I only know on the internet still count as friends!), and they're all very excited.  I can't go on much of any social media without seeing something about recent nerd movies/TV shows/ whatever or one of the same coming out this year.

And I just don't care.

And this is troubling to me!  I'm not trying to be Hipster Nozz over here!  I wish I was excited about all these things that're coming out!  Aside from the Marvel Netflix stuff and some of the comics I read nothing is really getting me stoked.  Its really depressing.  Not totally terrible of course.  I still have The Walking Dead comic, and a lot of the Marvel stuff since the re-launch has been a lot of fun.

However, much of what a lot of people seem to be excited about doesn't appeal to me.  And its weird in that much of it has gotten so mainstream that the people I know who aren't really part of the "nerdcore" see it, like it, and think of me.  "Marty must be really excited by all of this!"

And I'm not.  Let's review my bad nerd credentials.

* I hate the new STAR WARS  movie.  I really do.  Its not a bad movie.  Its very well done.  I wasn't terribly excited about going to see it.  The Missus wanted to check it out, so we went.  If you haven't seen it yet I'm going to dance around a spoiler as best I can.

If a fictional character that I have loved since childhood, one that was the epitome of cool for me as a kid, and my favorite thing in that entire fictional universe, gets horribly murdered in a film, I'M NOT GOING TO LIKE THAT FILM!!!  That's the only thing I think of in regards to that movie.  All the other stuff has just become a grey haze to me because of that one part.  I'm seriously to the point where I want nothing to do with STAR WARS because of that one thing.

There's no logic behind it.  Its purely, 100% emotionalism.  The last thing that really had me vested in the franchise got bumped off, and with that I've out grown STAR WARS.

* I hate THE DARK KNIGHT.  This is not news to those who have followed me for a while.  The movie that a lot of people hail as the most amazing Batman movie ever, I rank it right down with BATMAN AND ROBIN.  It was a great Joker movie, but made Batman out to be a two-fisted moron with Morgan freeman there to do all the heavy thinking for him.  I found it just hard to watch.

And unfortunately it started a trend with Warner brothers to which ever Superman got very grim and gritty.  MAN OF STEEL  looked like something I needed to keep my children away from, and like the brilliant writer Greg Rucka put it "Any Superman movie that you can't take your kids to isn't a good Superman movie."

So, no I'm not excited at all for the SUPERMAN VS BATMAN movie.  Ben Affleck does look like he'll make a great Batman, but I have no interest in a movie which Martha Kent tells Clark he doesn't owe the world a thing.  In these movies, Ma and Pa Kent are the worst parents ever.  And honestly, I don't feel like going to a movie to watch two superheroes I like beat each other up.  Go fight a villain.  You've both got plenty of them.

Which brings us to...

* CIVIL WAR.  Damn it all anyways.  Why?  Why on earth do people praise that comic?  Its terribly written.  The artwork is really nice, but the book portrays Captain America as being a freaking nut and not much better than the Punisher.  And ever since then Ironman has been a almost a villain with no one really trusting him.  Now, we've had a reboot and Ironman is really awesome again!  But now there's going to be another CIVIL WAR comic which pits Ironman against Captain Marvel.  Yes, the Captain Marvel that's going to be getting her own movie in a couple years.  We couldn't go six months since SECRET WAR in which everyone got along and fought bad guys?

Oh and the movie?

OK, let's take two characters that we've been made to like and put them against each other.  And that last scene with Cap and Bucky being the crap out of Ironman was disturbing.  They looked like a couple of bullies.  This may well be the first movie that Marvel studios puts out that I full on avoid.

* Speaking of Marvel movies: screw DEADPOOL.  I hate that character.  I'm annoyed by his rabid fandom.  I'm absolutely stunned that a movie actually got off the ground and fully expect this thing to flop, because I think more people will just illegally download from somewhere instead of shelling out the bucks to go see it.

* SUICIDE SQUAD.  Yeah, concerning that: I've taken all of my f--ks and put them in a time capsule which is not to be unearthed until well after I'm dead because i won't be giving any of them.


Fortunately there's still so good nerdy TV for me to enjoy.  I really wish LEGENDS OF TOMORROW was going to be on on a night that I won't get home until after its over, but those are the breaks.

There's all these things out there that people are going to be buzzing about.  It'll likely come up at shows when I'm trying to sell my comic, and I'll smile uncomfortably and make some excuse about not finding time to go see it, but I'll catch it of DVD, and hey, let's talk about my book.

Its very frustrating.  I want to enjoy these things, but its just all so wrong to me.  I'm having people who didn't start out nearly as nerdy as me knowing a lot more about some of this stuff than I do.  I've gotten pretty good at smiling and shrugging my shoulders over it.

I will say this, its kinda tough when the stuff everyone's so excited about bums you out.

Little free advice for DC.

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. premiered this week and its getting good reviews and people are liking what they see so far.  Marvel is firing on all cylinders to the point that in an interview Chris Hemsworth was asked about the rivalry between marvel and DC and he pretty much replied "What rivalry?"  Such is the extent of whupping Marvel is putting upon DC on both the large and small screen.

Right now, I'm firmly in the Marvel camp.  They're giving us these really fun movies and on the DC side we and given a whole lot of dark and grittiness.  The creative directors over at DC are pushing the dark crap to the point that they don't want their heroes to have pleasant personal lives.  They're current big event is all the villains taking over their books.  Meanwhile, Marvel is serving up insane space adventures with its heroes rising up against threats that I can't begin to fathom how they're going to beat, but the good guys have Captain America so we know the good guys have got this.

Right now, Marvel's got a better paradigm about its creative direction, but what I'm looking at is its paradigm in its direction into other media.  They have major movies in different franchises linking together in a shared universe, and now a network TV show linking to that.  Disney is loving this.  They don't have to look far to get their stuff out.  They have a successful movie business already and they own ABC.  They're being smart.

DC Comics is owned by Warner Brothers.  Warner Brothers has a TV station, the CW and they make movies.  So why can't they put two and two together and start making things exciting for fans?  The season premier of ARROW will be hitting soon.  Think they'll mention the huge alien invasion in another city?  Even in passing?  Of course not.  They refuse to let the chocolate mix with the peanut butter.  So instead of dropping a line or two and linking the show to the new Superman franchise MAN OF STEEL launched, their big news is a TV show about Commissioner Gordon before Batman came on the scene.  

Everyone, including Warner Brothers, wants a Justice League movie to happen.  The new Superman movie will have Batman in is played by Ben Affleck.  Some of you are upset by this casting choice.  I'm upset that they aren't firing Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder and letting Affleck write and direct it as well as play Batman.  There was the GREEN LANTERN  movie that did not do too well, but it did indeed happen and has established the character.  There's talk of a Flash TV show spinning off from ARROW.  A big hang up for a lot of people is that Wonder Woman hasn't made it to the big screen yet.  We can work around that a bit.

My suggestion: link the TV and movie properties.  This gives you Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, the Flash, and possibly Black Canary to play with.  The Justice League movie can introduce Wonder Woman.  Give people something to really get excited over.  

Joe Bereta > Batman

If you've paid attention to pop culture-y type things you likely heard about flap over Media from the Pixar movie BRAVE getting a makeover.  SourceFed did a piece about it.

I like leaving comments on such things, and I did.

What have we learned from this? Always be yourself. Unless you can be Joe. Then be Joe.

 Joe of course being SourceFed host Joe Bereta.  My comment was quickly responded with an "Or Batman" from another user.  The implication of course being that if you could be either Joe or Batman you may want to be Batman.

"Balderdash", says I.

Joe Bereta is obviously the easy pick over Batman.  Now, before you go naysaying me and calling me a damn liar, allow me to present my evidence.

First, it is apparent that Joe has telepathic powers, or at least some sort of psychic rapport with fellow SourceFed host, Elliot Morgan.  That is the only way to explain this;

As we all know Batman has no telepahic powers, nor a psychic rapport with Elliot Morgan that we know of.

Second, Joe regularly does a segment called "Feelin' Good" in which he takes a look at news stories that are uplifting.

Last time Batman was feelin' good he had been dosed with Joker Venom.

Third, is Joe's professionalism.  Batman seems to lose his edge around beautiful women, especially Catwoman.  This isn't good!  She's a criminal!  And yet Batman can't seem to keep it together enough to bring her justice.  Then there's Joe who has to deal with not one, not two, but THREE drop dead gorgeous women on a daily basis!

If Batman had to be around Trisha Hershberger, Meg Turney, and/or Lee Newton for any amount of time, he wouldn't be able to remember his own name much less do anything productive.  Such is the mountain of self-control Joe possesses.

Forth, Batman has been the topic of much debate as to whether or not he could defeat Superman.  There is no such debate as to whether or not Joe could defeat Superman.  As such, Joe ellicits no fanboy ragegasms, thus adding to internet civility.

Fifth, this is Batman with a beard.

This is Joe with a beard.

Any questions?

Sixth and final, no matter what happens, no one and I mean NO ONE, can reboot Joe Bereta.

Not looking good...

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is coming soon wrapping up Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  Not particularly excited about it, because I didn't like THE DARK KNIGHT.  The movie, while well done, was really all about the Joker, and I was there to see him lose, not win.  Even the staunchest supports of that movie have started to admit that it was too long, too depressing, and batman got his cape and cowl handed to him.  However there's the notion in the air that the previous movie being the second of a planned trilogy would be made up for by Batman's ultimate triumph in the last installment of the trilogy.


The previews don't really fill me with confidence.  


What makes me even less confident is that a tie-in game is being released.  In this game you play a criminal that is looting Gotham during bane's attack on the city.  You can't play a good guy.  You can't play a policeman.


This further gives me the impression that in the Nolan films, the villains are the real stars, and Batman's just there to give them someone to fight.  Yes, Batman does have one of, if not the best rogues galleries of any superhero.  However, we've seen what happens when the villain gets the top billing in a Batman flick.  Schwarzenegger.  'Nuff said.


I'm really on the fence about even seeing it for the sake of reviewing it at this point.

Everybody Be Batman Day?

Holy Blogging Dorks, Batman!  Its Sunday, April 1, 2012, I know better than to try to fool you people and this is The Side.  Time flies, especially when you work a lot.  By the time I had it figured out where February went, March had slipped by.  Of course, its easy to say that in hindsight since so much time is spent waiting.  I've waited for the big karate tournament.  Waited at stop lights.  Waited for building inspectors.  Waited to hear news about family members.  


All the times I wished things would hurry up, and then it all seems to have gone by so fast.


Guess you can get what you wish for.

DO-GOODERS!!

Remember that picture from last week in which Batman got pulled over by the police?  It went viral, and made the rounds on news shows as a little something amusing.  Lots of folks got a good chuckle out of it.  I got a laugh too, because frankly, it was pretty funny.  The guy in question got pulled over because of the tags on the car, which weren't legal tags.  He didn't get a ticket because he had the proper tags in the car, so no problem.  No resisting arrest or anything like that.  Just some funny pictures, and probably a great story for the officers involved.  Imagine one of them getting home and having a kid ask how their day was.  Priceless.


Here's a bigger question: why was the guy dressed as Batman?  Because he's awesome.


His name is Lenny B. Robinson and as far as a lot of people are concerned, he's Batman.  He's a businessman who did quite well for himself and now he dresses up as Batman and drives a cool Bat-Lamborgini.  He spends about twenty-five thousand dollars a year on Batman stuff.  And he gives it to kids in hospitals.  Robinson has been doing this and visiting kids in his area's hospitals for a while now.  He's not a professional actor (some hospitals do have professional actors come in from time to time as various characters to help lift kids' spirits), he doesn't make anything for these appearances.  He says now that he feels almost a responsibility to do what he does.


A guy feels a responsibility to dress up like a bat and go out to try to make the world a better place.  Sound familiar?


There was a notion among the fanboys that was along the lines of "Batman is awesome because he could really exist".  What they were thinking was somebody could go and train themselves to become a crime fighter.  We've seen how that turns out.  So, the fanboys are, of course, morons.  However, time marches forward, and thanks to Grant Morrison, the dopes may have inadvertently been onto something.


Batman as a character has been open to a wide variety of interpretations.  Many writers have approached the character as being a complete prick, because it seems to many that equals "bad ass" somehow.  Morrison comes in at the near height of Bat-douchebaggery, and sits ol' Bruce in a cave for a month and after some hardcore meditation he comes out a better Batman.  He became a character that after crawling out of the river after a helicopter crash involving a fight with a person whom good have possibly been the devil himself, stopped to have a brief chat with a girl who was a hooker that he directed to get a good job at Wayne Enterprises, and tell her with a smile that he was glad it all worked out.  He was a stand up guy who found himself in a position to help others.


Here we are at the Idea of Batman.  Again, there's a ton of interpretations, and so many of them are completely valid.  This is because Batman represents humanity in the superhero genre.  That was the key to the entire years long "Once and Future Batman" epic Morrison wrote.  Batman is who he is because of his ties and connections with others.  Sure, the idea of Batman as ultimate bad ass is still valid, however the idea of Batman as a "decent bloke" (via Teatime Brutality) is also now a valid one.

On the heals of "The Once and Future Batman" came "Batman Incorporated" in which the idea of Batman went global.  We saw characters like Nightrunner using the mask so as to be a force for justice between the clashing Parisian Police and the citizens.  Even more educational is the example of Man-of-Bats, the Native American Batman who operates out of a little shack.  Any funding he gets and/or rises he passes on to the people who need it.  "It doesn't have to take millions, does it.  The idea works.  Batman on a budget."


I go into Chik-fil-a and make an order and they ask for my name and I always tell them "Bruce Wayne".  I've had a couple of kids do a double take.  I've had an old fella get an absolute kick out of the bit.  I'm not doing nearly as much good as Lenny Robinson.  I do wish I was in a position to do something like he does.  I sit and think about how much stupid and hateful stuff I've seen spring up on the internet like "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day", and wish I could do something positive in the spirit of Batman Incorporated.


Think about this: Everybody Be Batman Day.


People all over doing charity work, good deeds or whatever.  Mowing an elderly neighbor's lawn.  Reading to kids.  Volunteering.  And everybody wearing Batman shirts.  No patrolling the streets or crime fighting.   No politics.  No agendas other than making the world a little better.  Recognizing Batman as the funnybook representation of humanity by going out and being human.


Come on.  Who wouldn't want to be Batman for a day?

MUSIC!!!

Sticking with the Batness.





That'll do it for me today.  Time for some coffee, and and Eggo waffles.  See y'all Wednesday.

No Dancing with the Devil by the pale moon light for YOU!

WAK! Its Wednesday, October 12, 2011, time to talk some movies, and this is The Side. I hadn't planned on discussing this, but it just seemed like everything was steering me towards this topic. Happens a lot actually. Good thing about the world: there's no shortage of stuff to talk about.

MOVIES!!

I was talking with my buddy the other day about Batman movies. His son his the same age as my daughters. We've known each other since we were in diapers, and he knows that when it comes to superhero stuff, I'm a pretty good guy to direct questions to.


The issue was BATMAN RETURNS. It was on TV and his son perked up because it was Batman. He loves batman. He's already got his batman costume for Halloween this year. He got excited that there was a Batman movie on TV. I shot him an "uh-oh" look.

"Dude, that thing was gory." Yeah, the Tim Burton flicks aren't made for kids. My friend had to cut the viewing short when things got a little rough. He asked me about other Batman movies. We were teenagers when Warner Brother kicked off their franchise, and he's not as much of a movie buff as I am. I own the old 1989 BATMAN movie. He asked if they might be OK for his son, and I had to tell him "no". "I don't let the girls watch it."

None of the Batman live action movies are kid friendly, except the old Adam West flick. Many of the animated features aren't very appropriate either. I enjoy a lot of them. I do like the Tim Burton Batman movies, but I'm not going to let my kids watch them. It sucks. My girls see a Batman DVD. They recognize Batman. They like Batman, but they don't understand why they can't watch it. They've watched Batman on the SUPERFRIENDS cartoon. They like BATMAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES. They've seen an episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED which they saw batman fighting robots and being awesome. They love watching the Missus play LEGO BATMAN on the Wii. But the movies are taboo.

There's of course the flip side to this that there's all this stuff for the kids, and there's a definite market for Batman stuff for adults. Fine. I've got no qualms about keeping the Nolan films as far away from my kids as possible. It does irk me a little seeing merchandising for those movies, like toys, being aimed at kids. "Here's the toys for the movie you're not allowed to watch."

Not a fun position to be in when I'm asked what batman movies are appropriate for a little kid and my answer has to be "pretty much none of them".

Fortunately, my kids are happy enough little campers seeing cool stuff like THE AVENGERS trailer.

MUSIC!!

Music can inspire. Sometimes you just need the right song to put everything in place for you and get you out into the world ready to be awesome. This song's done that for me a few times.



Alrighty! Time for some more demolition and clean up. Been quite a week so far. See y'all Friday.

Lies, Hate, and Batman

To the Bat-pole! Its Wednesday, September 21, 2011, good-bye Summer, and this is The Side! Months ago I walked into a Chik-fil-a and was asked for my name to go with my order. That's happening more and more in quick service type places. So I gave my name as "Bruce Wayne", because I could. I figured I'd just cycle through the Justice League secret identities for a while.

But the next time I went into that store I got a "Hey, its Bruce Wayne!" Now I'm known as Bruce Wayne there. Let that be a lesson for you people. If you're going to pick a fake name, you need to be ready to commit to it.

One of my Karate students tried going into that Chik-fil-a and claimed his name was "Bruce Wayne". They just looked at him and said "You're not Bruce Wayne."

Damn right. BECAUSE I'M BRUCE WAYNE!!

POLITICS

I was accused of spreading hate speech over the weekend. What did I do to receive such an accusation? I made fun of Al Gore. Now, you're probably thinking that those must have been some really brutal jokes to be called hate speech. Actually, they weren't. I mentioned that for someone who is so concerned with the environment its funny that his house uses more power than about thirty other houses in his state. I also said that the private jet he flies around in must run on fairy dust. I also said its pretty funny that he's such a proponent of buying "carbon credits" to offset energy usage, and he owns the company that sells carbon credits. I pointed out the truth. That was hate speech.

At least, it was considered hate speech by one moron who was an Al Gore supporter, and couldn't come up with an effective counterpoint. I informed him that you can't call something "hate speech" simply because you don't agree with it. He insisted I was still spreading hate speech. I told him to specifically point out where I had spewed the alleged hate speech. That ended things because he couldn't. It would be a whole other matter if I had started slinging slurs about his ethnicity or religion. I didn't. I pointed out his hypocrisy which is a matter of public record.

This is intellectual bullying, which is a funny thing to call it because it requires the mental capacity and debate skills of a ten year old. If you can't defeat the argument, you must vilify the person making it. The goal is to make the person making the point out to be a bad person and therefore turn opinion against their the point. If Hitler told you it was a nice day, your gut reaction would be to disagree because he's a bad person.

This is an old game in political topics. How many times have you heard that talk radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity were racist and spread hate speech? There are people who have actually taken these claims at face value. I listen to a lot of talk radio because I spend quite a bit of time driving around. I've never heard either of these people say anything racist. The hate speech allegation is the same as the one was levied against me this weekend. There are people who don't want to hear what they have to say and cannot come up with an effective counterpoint, so they try to vilify them.

A high school kid was told he was racist by another student because he thought that Barack Obama wasn't a very good President. The student said calmly and intelligently that he disagreed with the President's policies. Still he was called a 'racist'. I don't like the President's policies. I think he's wanting to take the country in the wrong direction. I'm looking forward to voting against him and hopefully getting him out of office next year. None of this has anything whatsoever to do with skin color. You can call me a racist for stating any of it, but that only makes you intellectually inferior and a flat out liar.

I've seen hate. Its nasty. There are things that I do hate, but there's a whole lot of justification for it. I don't hate people for simply having a different opinion than me. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, although not their own facts, but that's a rant for another time.

MUSIC!!

This hater is gonna hate!!



Don't hate me because I have to go! See y'all Friday!

"$@#& You!", said the hero...

I'm a baaaaaad man! Its Friday, August 19, 2011, I'm trying some new stuff, and this is The Side. Comic reviews will be up on Sunday from here on out, for those of you who didn't read that on Wednesday. Also, Firefox for whatever reason decided to just stop working on my computer. I spent some time trying to get it squared away. I uninstalled it, and installed a fresh file. No good. So we're going to be using Google Chrome for bit and see how that works out.

I will say this: Its working faster.

SOCIETY

Something really caught my attention in regards to the BBC's SHERLOCK series. It was profanity. Actually, it was the lack of profanity. The bad guy didn't use any. Actually, as far as bad guys go he didn't look all that bad either. I'm not referring to attractiveness. Its just that this guy was evil and he didn't look evil.

Things have changed a bit. I remember listing to Mike Powers on 96X before Bob Fresh came on board they formed the Mike and Bob Show, so I'm going back over 12 years. Mike was interviewing a professional wrestler from the old ECW promotion. They were doing a show in town. I can't remember that guy's name for the life of, but he was one of the bad guys or "heels". Mike's big strength on the radio is that he's one of the best interviewers I've ever heard, and he really got the guy open up. He asked what it was like to play a "heel", because the guy sounded like a really nice dude. He said he struggled a bit with it but another wrestler, Tazz, gave him some of the best advice, "Don't curse.", and it worked beautifully.

So wrestlers who didn't curse had an easily time being accepted as villains? Wrestlers who did came off as more popular? Yes, to both. Maybe it was that particular crowd which liked seeing "anti-heroes", who have no problem being horrible bastards, but didn't cross certain lines. Maybe no cursing made the wrestler sound more "elite" than the crowd, most of whom I imagine have no trouble cursing, and it played into a subconscious class warfare mentality.

Things that we used to identify with people that probably should be avoided are now the norm. Tattoos are another example. More to the point, excessive tattooing. Back in the day, if you saw someone covered in tattoos they were probably in the freak show at the travelling carny. Now you can fine them in the mall. Mohawks were the haircut of rebels and punks, and now I keep seeing two year olds with them.

You can tell a lot about people by their heroes. We're at a time now in which Batman is a lot more popular than Superman, but the key thing is why. Ask some comic fans and they'll tell you about Batman will do "whatever it takes" to win. "Sure, he could beat Superman. He's nothing but a big blue Boy Scout." Being a Boy Scout is a bad thing now? Here's another favorite. "It doesn't matter that Captain America is a better fighter, Batman would win because he'd cheat." So how Batman is victorious doesn't really matter to some people so much as that he's victorious. In fact, if he does it in a really "bad ass" manner then he receive even more praise from these fans.

Not sure where being a true-blue, stand up guy fell out of fashion with our heroes. Not sure when having more tattoos than a convict became the norm. Not sure when not swearing started becoming the best way to turn a crowd against you in some circles. Maybe we want our heroes to be flawed like we are. Do we still want heroes to inspire us and give us an example to aspire to? Or do we want to identify with them because of their flaws and see them do awesome things which may make us feel better about ourselves and give us hope that we ourselves may one day do awesome stuff.

"Bad" may be good, but I certainly hope "good" doesn't start really getting equated to bad.

MUSIC!!

I'm just in an Elvis Costello mood this week.



That's all for me today. I'll see y'all Sunday. Have a great weekend.

The Goon will never be lonely

HACK! Its Friday, July 1, 2011, I'm under attack from killer mucus, and this is The Side. I'm still sick, and honestly not feeling much better, but I wanted to get this weeks reviews out because the book were really good this week. I've been flip flopping back and forth all week before doses of DayQuil and NyQuil because I honestly don't have time to just be sick. Hopefully with the long weekend I'll have a chance to rest a bit.

COMIX!!!

Its about damn time THE GOON #34 came out. Eric Powell has been really busy lately churning out content, so its not like he's been slacking, but I've missed this book so much. After an all-to-brief prelude of pounding the crap out of sparkly vampires, the kids at the McGreg Home for Illegitimate, Wayward, and Possibly Homicidal Youths have a problem with the new girl. She's a Tween and, therefore, the devil. Can the Goon save kids even though he's liquored up to the gills? This comic is an out and out blast. If you've never picked this book up before you're in for a treat. Its flat out hilarious, and doesn't apologize for being just venomous in its humor. Rarely do I get a complete laugh out loud and confuse the missus moment in a comic but this one delivered repeatedly. Buy this book. Drop what you're doing and go buy it right now.

BATMAN INCORPORATED #7 takes us out west for a visit with Man-of-Bats and his son Raven. We get to see how things are with a "Batman on a budget". Gang activity on the reservation turns out to be much more as Man-of-Bats is targeted by Leviathan. There's a lot in this issue about the plight of Indians in this country, but it doesn't come across as too heavy handed. It illustrates what these characters have to deal with on a regular basis. This was a really good issue with a few twists and turns in it that made it very enjoyable. I expected the story to take one direction, but Morrison didn't take the easy, clichéd route. Chris Burnham continues to impress on the art. Great issue.

DETECTIVE COMICS #878 wraps up the "Hungry City" storyline. Snyder did some really great thematic stuff here, while still delivering a good story. It deals a lot with our expectations of people and our gut instincts about them. The plot line with return of James Gordon plays heavy here. There's been so many questions hanging in the air about this guy and we get a lot of them answered here. Great use of the story involving Tony Zucco's daughter in that. Snyder is showing himself as an excellent storyteller here. He's also got an incredible handle on Dick Greyson as Batman. Very good stuff.

THE WALKING DEAD #86 is still dealing with the aftermath of the "No Way Out" storyline. This isn't a bad thing as people who have read this comic for a while know that this isn't a rushed book. Kirkman knows how to take his time. This is great as it builds a lot of suspense and interest in the characters. This has always been a character driven book. Yes there is a little shirmish with some roamers, but we're led to worry more about Carl's fate, how Rick is handling it, and what may or may not be going on with him and Andrea. There's nothing there suggesting there's an affair going on or even building. These are two characters in this story that are still around from the first group, so they've got a lot of history. It could be a healthy amount of respect and friendship between the two. We'll see. Very compelling reading and that's what I've come to expect from this series.

ELEPHANTMEN: MAN AND ELEPHANTMAN #1 was on the flip side of THE WALKING DEAD this week, so you got two comics for the price of one. This comic has been around for a while but this is my first time checking it out. Its very solid sci-fi, with a detective story sitting in the middle of it. Our main character, Hip Flask, gets taste of what its like to be a human. By the end of it he's not sure if being a human is a good or a bad thing. I'm a little curious about this series, but that curiousity is a tad morbid. Its obvious that human women are romantically involved with some of the Elephantmen which is just really weird, and a bit kinky. So I can't say that I'm "in" as far as this book goes, because while I am curious about this world the storyline isn't what drew me in. I'm a bit on the fence, and might have to buy issue 2 before I really get on board here.

MUSIC!!

Federali over at Kings has a new video out. Check it!!



That's all for me today. I'll hopefully see you guys on Sunday with my thoughts on Google+. See y'all then. I hope.

Vulcan Doomsday!!

Hey there, sports fans. Its Sunday, May 29, 2011, I'm needing more coffee, and this is The Side. Typically, this is when I'd start talking UFC as there was card last night. Unfortunately, I didn't get my kitchen pass, so I wasn't able to go watch it. More unfortunate was how the card shaped up in light of the number of injuries going around.

The scheduled main event was Frankie Edgar in his rematch title defense against Gray Maynard. Their last fight was a war that went to a draw. Unfortunately, Edgar has a couple of bulging disks in his back and can't fight right now. He's probably going to need surgery and I wish him well. This put the Jackson-Hammill fight in the main event, and Jackson had a broken hand going into it, so he wasn't able to throw his big bomb punches. Didn't make for an exciting card.

Injuries happen. It seems sometimes that I'm always injured, either with something new, or an old injury flaring up. When you're not training competitively, you can train around it. However, if you try to do that when you're looking to keep your championship you're either going to lose that championship, get hurt worse, or most likely both. I respect the heart of a fighter who wants to step in the ring even though they aren't 100%, but I'd rather these guys take care of themselves and be healthy. That's how sports like MMA keep going strong.

COMIX!!

My books didn't get in until Friday, which would make posting my reviews Friday morning rather difficult. So, here we go.


A massive object is heading for Earth at near lightspeed that'll wipe out all life on the planet upon impact. Inside it are a bunch of homicidal Doomsday clones. This looks like a job for Superman. ACTION COMICS #901 gave me what I've been waiting for: Superman and his allies up against incredible odds with world at stake. Its a cat-and-mouse game as the heroes race to figure out how they can possibly stop a bunch of Doomsdays, and it gets worse when they learn that giant space station thingamahoozits they're on is heading straight for Earth and not in a good way. Forget the whole Superman walking around and being a douche. Paul Cornell serves up tight action with Superman in what feels like a space horror story. Kenneth Rocafort and Jesus Merino are definitely up to the task of bringing the tension and action to the page. It was weird to see an Obama analog for the President in the issue. I do like that DC had a history of having a fictitious government type folk. That was one of my gripes about the JMS stuff. I don't read comics for diatribes about "real world" stuff. I want escapism and a good story. That's what I got here. Kind of funny that there was that flap over the idiotic Superman story in the last issue about Superman renouncing his United States citizenship and in this issue we get "Superman, your country needs you now!" Love it!

Also this week DETECTIVE COMICS #877 continues "Hungry City". Scott Snyder and Jock continue to deliver with this book. Dick Grayson is trying to help a business owner who is being pressured by criminals to launder money. That businesswoman also happens to be the daughter of the thug who murdered his parents. Oh, and there was that whole whale inside of a building thingie to figure out. Snyder really has Dick Grayson-Batman figured out. He plays the Dark Knight role very well when battling thugs and tracking down leads, but he's still the Grayson we know and love when Tim is giving him grief. The story itself is revealing slowly. We're fully on-board with Dick as he tracks down leads and presses for information. We don't see what's coming, and this is so important for detective fiction. We're having to put the pieces together right along with Batman, and it keeps us engaged. This isn't so much a "Sherlock Holmes" Batman in which he's five steps ahead of everyone in the story as well as the audience, with the reveal of how he figured everything out later. This is the audience righting shotgun on a mystery, and I'm loving the ride.

One last thing. There's a lot of rumors going around about a big announcement that's going to be coming out from DC. A lot of it seems to be that they're going to re-set all their comics back to #1 to try to get more readers. That's just rumors at this point, but let's remember that we just had three big centennial issues, with the fans voting to have WONDER WOMAN renumbered so that she could get the centennial issue she deserved. DETECTIVE COMICS is about a year out from hitting #900. Not saying that's ruling out a re-set stunt, but doing so would be aggressively stupid.

MUSIC!!

Because when you're Mister Spock everyone else and sod off.



That's it for me today. If you see someone who served our country, tell 'em "thanks". We'll see y'all Wednesday.

Geek Overload!

Hang on, I'm comin'. Its Sunday, May 15, 2011, I'm limpin' like a pimp with polio, and this is The Side. Blogger was down for most of Thursday and Friday, so I'm making up for that today. As for the limp, I'm pretty sure I aggravated an old injury. I came off a roof years ago and broke my heel. Taking the down time necessary to let it heal right wasn't an option, so I kept going on with things, and typically its fine. However, work this week involved jumping over some railing repeatedly, and eventually I landed wrong.

Guess its time to put my feet up and talk some comics.

FALL OF THE AMAZON

Well, I said the Wonder Woman TV show was looking and sounding pretty bad, and it seems that upon seeing the pilot episode NBC agreed with me. I've followed this story and read a bunch of articles about it and I've looked at comments attached to the articles. No one had much of anything nice to say about it.

Look, the girl was pretty, and she might be a pretty good actress, but she looked either freaked out or constipated whenever she was photographed doing any stunts. The costume was redesigned three times based off the latest Jim lee design which no one really cares for. It doesn't look like Wonder Woman, plain and simple. Word is the script was atrocious. I heard there was a seen with Wonder Woman crying over her ice cream with Etta Candy over the stress of being Wonder Woman and running a business, which wouldn't surprise me one bit since David Kelley was behind this.

This thing didn't have a prayer.

Fans keep bitching and moaning about the lack of a live action Wonder Woman project. I still say be happy with the awesome animated feature from a few years ago. But, if you want to do this right you put Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, and Eric Kripke in a room together, and you let them have it out. Rucka and Simone understand what is great about the character of Wonder Woman and Kripke knows how to make epic TV and still ground it. You let them get the ball rolling. You then find an actress who is athletic, and preferably with a strong background in dance. Dancers perform incredible physical feats while making it look graceful and easy. Wonder Woman is as tough as they come, but she's incredibly graceful. This is important, just as much as having the acting chops to pull off a character who is elegant and caring and very compelling.

This can be done right.

COMIX!!

This week FLASHPOINT #1 came out in which DC let's us all know that Barry Allen is the greatest hero ever and without him the DC Universe would be doomed, but not in a way that made sense like "Chain Lightning". The effects of this story will be felt through out comics everywhere. In fact, Marvel's "Fear Itself" storyline concludes with Barry Allen telling everyone that 'everything will be alright' and then resurrecting Johnny Storm with the power of his awesomeness.

Let's light this candle with BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 in which we discover quite a few things, but foremost is Chris Burnham is one hell of an artist. Love his work here, right down to him drawing Bruce Wayne's eyebrows to suggest little bat wings. These previous issues have been a lot of build up. We've got an idea of what's going on. If you haven't been following but were thinking about maybe trying to jump on this train, this is the issue to do it. I've talked a lot about how Bruce Wayne is structuring this thing and here it all is laid out pretty for us. We also get a good taste of how this organization is going to operate. There's a couple of new members including a mysterious new Wingman who will be Bruce's ace-in-the-hole in the upcoming fight with Leviathan (Its Barry Allen, because Barry Allen is the awesome-est hero ever). This new foe has been creeping me out. He weaponizes children and its revealed that the youngest one is 18 months old. That pushes all the buttons I need to make me want Bruce Wayne to take this guy out. This book is flat out cool.

Moving it on over to R.E.B.E.L.S. #28. This is the book's final issue. They've had a great run. This was definitely a sleeper book which I don't think had a huge following, but everyone who got onboard really dug it. Word is this book got axed to make room for all the FLASHPOINT stuff, because Barry Allen is so awesome that there's just not enough room for all of the existing DC titles and the amount of awesomeness Barry Allen possesses. We get the conclusion of the battle with Starro. There wasn't a ton of loose ends to get wrapped up, so this book is nice and tight. Thank you Tony Bedard, Claude St. Rubin, and the rest of the creative team for a really fun ride.

In RED ROBIN #23, Time is up against assassins who are in competition to kill important people and he's got to stop them before they get to Barry Allen thus depriving the world of his awesomeness. Tim's running a nasty risk trying to get the inside track to take this group on, and its one that Commissioner Gordon and Batman don't quite approve of. Marcus To is back on pencils, and thank goodness for that. The story is pretty good. Tim's walking a fine line, and I'm hoping to see this pay off.

Things are getting thick in BATGIRL #21 as the Reapers send their latest agent, Harmony, on missiony types things which our gal Steph has to stop, which she does with a "huzzah", thus validating me for bringing back "huzzah". She also has to deal with her stalker, The Grey Ghost, who turns from annoying to creepy to jerk. I've enjoyed the dynamic in this book with Steph and Wendy, but its looking like that's coming to an end as Wendy is leaving to go to Nanda Parbat to try heal herself and start a church devoted to the Awesomeness of Barry Allen. This book continues to be consistently entertaining.

BIRDS OF PREY #12 has Jesus Saiz joining Gail Simone in this new storyline, and I'm one happy little nerd. I totally dig Saiz. I loved his stuff on the old CHECKMATE series and hes true to form here. The Birds latest case connects with one of The Questions, so we get a Question/Huntress team-up which is always a blast. We have the Birds working an infiltration, which makes it so fitting that Saiz is onboard with a superhero/espionage angle. I'm going to be honest, this felt like a Greg Rucka book. This is what I think it would be like if Rucka took a turn writing BoP. I mean this as a complete compliment to Gail Simone, as Rucka is in my eyes one of the top espionage story writers working today. I loved this. I loved this so much that I can't even slip a Barry Allen awesomeness line in here.

In HELLBOY: BEING HUMAN, HB and Roger the Homunculus head to South Carolina to investigate a weird grave robbing that takes a nasty twist. Its a nasty case with some bad voodoo involved. Roger is forced into action which he's not very comfortable with. He's not the violent sort. Fortunately, Barry Allen shows up to tell him that everything is alright. This is a fun little one-shot. If you haven't gotten a good, creepy Hellboy fix in a while, then this should be just what you need.

This has been the word of Barry Allen for the people of Barry Allen. Praise be to Barry. Allen.

NOZZ'S FAVORITE SUPERHERO MOVIES: TOP 10!!

Mike Federali wanted to know, so here we go. These are my favorites, and not based of critical reviews or how much money they made. These are also strictly live action movies, because if I start factoring in animated movies this list changes entirely.

10: The Phantom The first hero to wear tights, and purple ones at that! Billy Zane hit the weights like a champ because he refused to wear a padded costume. Same writer as INDIANA JONES AND LAST CRUSADE. Its a family friendly adventure and a great popcorn flick.

9: The Crow This movie pretty much hit cult status upon release. This was going to be Brandon Lee's star maker, but ended up his swan song. Great film with an awesome soundtrack.

8: Spider-man Tobey Maguire and Willam Defoe really brought their a games. While I'm not a big fan of Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane I'm willing to look past that for the many great scenes in this film.

7: Sin City They filmed a comic and did it well. Brilliant cast. Robert Rodriguez brought Frank miller's comic to the big screen in a way no one was really ready for. This was the big comeback for Mickey Rourke and he played Marv to the hilt.

6: Ironman 2 Speaking of Rourke, notice how the first Ironman flick ain't here? Its because Mickey Rourke drove this film like a champ. Robert Downey Jr. did his thing, but the rest of the cast were just as stellar.

5: Hellboy If you want to talk about great casting, Ron Perlman as Hellboy is spot on. This movie is a blast. Del Toro brought us right into the Hellboy world and mythos without a cop out or apology.

4: Batman Begins This is the best Batman film to date. Christian Bale is a great Bruce Wayne. And just when things got too heavy you have Michael Caine with every bit of charm you'd expect from Alfred Pennyworth. That's exactly what was missing from THE DARK KNIGHT: charm.

3: 300 No prisoners! No Mercy! This movie kicks ass on a primal level. They expanded on the comic quite a bit, but it was done so very well. This movie is one to watch when you need to get fired up to do what you've got to do.

2: Spider-man 2 Alfred Molina was remarkable here. Tobey Maguire again played an excellent Peter Parker. The train fight was remarkable. We really felt horrible for poor old Spidey making cheering him on as he saves the day that much more satisfying.

1: Thor That's right, I'm going there. Like I said when I reviewed it, this movie was a blast. Just a whole lot of fun. Good action. Funny as hell in parts. And it had a very solid plot and story. Top notch work and wasn't afraid to pull us straight into a fantasy world which it showed off gloriously.

MUSIC!!

Been a bit stressed this week. Missing Friday's post due to technical problems didn't help. Still, when you feel down, and Barry Allen is busy saving the world, there's only one thing to do.



That's my load for today. No numbers jump after the Pocoyopocalypse, but I'm keeping an eye on it. I'll see y'all Wednesday. My Barry Allen bless you and keep you.

Batman's Long Form Birth Certificate is FAKE!!

Yeah, that's right. Its Friday, April 29, 2011, its all about the little blue pill, and this is The Side. My Yahoo account got hacked, and my e-mail sent out a bunch of advertisements for Viagra. I got a bunch of e-mails like this as well so it seems like it was a pretty decent sized hack. Oh well, considering what it could have been sending out I probably got off light.

It the news, people are getting married. So now the drones that just drool over royal stuffs will have a new girl to get weird over. I remember when Princess Diana died and people were saying she was the greatest humanitarian in the world. Meanwhile, and without much fanfare Mother Theresa passed away a couple of days earlier.

In other news, Obama finally released his long form birth certificate, which he should have done when the Clintons asked for it back during the campaign. Some people are irked that this is the an invasion of the Pop-Star-in-Chief's privacy, but the document that he had released was one that would say he's from Hawaii if he had been adopted into the country. I know this because my short form birth certificate lists my adoptive parents as my parents with no mention of my biological parents. The document released is an obvious forgery, as while ol Barry was indeed born in Hawaii, his real middle name is actually "Jeb".

COMIX!!

Kicking things off with BATMAN INCORPORATED #5. This book is getting better and better with every issue. The spy game is in full effect with a distinctive super twist. Batwoman's case leads her to team up with British Superspy The Hood and that leads them directly into Batman and Gaucho's path. Big team up, big action, and a ton of utter coolness. Morrison does a great job with Batwoman, and the interaction between her and Bruce is a joy. The old Bruce would have been a prick about her wearing a Bat, but the new and improved Bruce accepts completely in the field and works great with her. Her reaction to learning he's the original Batman was such a nice touch. Kate Kane is such a fun character when handled by talented writers. As for this Hood fella, I ain't so sure about him. Sure, he's all smooth and British, but he fell for the old "I've got an orbiting death ray aimed at you" bit. Tsk. The Leviathan case grows deeper, and we also get to see the Batman of Africa! This book is packed!

Big milestone this week as ACTION COMICS #900 hit the stands. Superman returns to actually doing something in the conclusion of "The Black Ring" epic. Cornell really brought it home balancing out big action with all the really great character moments that have made his run a real treat. This issue also ties into the whole Doomsday crossover that's been going on. I haven't been following it, but I wasn't lost either, so its all good. The issue is 96 pages with a bunch of back ups, but the Cornell story is the best among them. Paul Dini has an interesting little story in there as well. Geoff Johns gave Gary Frank an excuse to draw the Legion of Super-Heroes hanging out in Clark and Lois's place. There was a depressing story about the spaceship the brought Superman to Earth being constructed. Then there's David Goyer's story about Superman going to iran for the protests, and letting us all know that he's officially renouncing his American citizenship. First off, Superman is not an American citizen, Clark Kent is. Second, the bit about the American Way not being enough anymore: real classy, Goyer. So sad to see the douchebag Superman from the JMS SUPERMAN run being carried over. So the book is worth getting if you've been following the awesome Lex Luthor epic, but the back-up stories (aside from Dini's) are skippable.

RED ROBIN #22 dropped me into the middle of a crossover I didn't know was going on. Seems the religious fanatics behind Azrael are planning on destroying Gotham led by a very powerful Meta-human, The Crusader. Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Selina kyle are all being tested on personal levels to see if Gotham is worthy of being spared. I didn't care much for this issue. Freddie Williams II has never been an artist that I've cared for, but to his credit this issue is some of his better work. Its seems that even though Tim Drake is a great guy and does nothing but good by the people around him, the nutbag Crusader sees him as unworthy because he's not religious. I hate characters like this because there's some people out there that think most Christians think this way, so I'm hoping he gets a serious comeuppance. Wasn't a terrible issue, but I wasn't into it.

Finishing on a strong note DETECTIVE COMICS #876 in the start of a new case, and artist, Jock, returns to the title. There's a murder with Tony Zucco's daughter in the middle of it. I'd normally feel that this is a bit weak in having Dick Grayson have to help the daughter of the man who killed his parents, but (and this is a big but) it plays out incredibly well in a scene of Dick and Jim Gordon in which Jim talks about his son returning. So much has been going on with this and its the huge elephant in the room. So the question is front and center: how far can an apple fall from a tree? Well paced and well written stuff here. Scott Snyder sinks a great hook in this new mystery that reaffirms my view that this is one of the best written comics going today. Loved it.

MUSIC!!!

What's sad is that after listening to this beautiful song on YouTube I was informed that Lady Gaga was next. Never before had I clicked away from YouTube so quickly.



That's it for today. Lots of Karate stuff on tap for me tomorrow, and I'll see y'all Sunday. Just remember: if you are watching the royal wedding, somewhere out there, I'm pointing and laughing at you.

Electro-magna-gooperangs GO!

GOOP! Its Friday, April 15, 2011, I'm bewaring the ides of April, not sure why, and this is the The Side. Its been one of those weeks where it seems the only thing that's been going alright has been tiring labor. Bunch of other stuff just seems a bit weird an uncertain from entertainment to keeping the house in order. I like routine. I used to wish for adventure, and now having had a few with their fair share of drama I've learned that I like things nice and normal with not a lot of fuss.

Oh crap... I think I'm maturing. DAMMIT!

Time for some comics to make me feel better.

COMIX!!!

BATGIRL #20 was an absolute delight this week. I can't say enough great things about how well this series has shaped up. Steph and Wendy have the newly revamped Firewall HQ and a bunch of sweet new toys courtesy of Batman Inc. These fancy new items get put to the test as Steph takes on the Reapers' superfast flunky, Slipstream. There's still a bit of mystery in the air about the Reapers and who they're working for. I know its a long shot, but if they're being backed by Leviathan I'll be bouncing off the walls, and the "everything's connected" part of my brain will be satisfied for at least a month. Maybe two. I highly recommend this book.

The conclusion of "Dark Knight vs. White Knight" hit in BATMAN AND ROBIN #22. The White Knight is murdering the family members on Arkham inmates, and its up Batman, Robin, and Alfred to stop him. The question of nature versus nurture is raised due to the White Knight believing that the only way to make sure that the evil and insanity of the those locked in Arkham is to sever their bloodlines forever. We also get a good look at White Knight's origin. This guy is a nice addition to Dick Greyson's rogues gallery. Batman has one of the best rogues galleries of any superhero. I'm very happy to see that now that we have a new batman patrolling Gotham that we won't just be getting the same villains for him to go up against. Tomasi has a firm handle on these characters, and I'm loving his start on his run.

Breaking up is hard to do, and sometimes even more so when you're not even really a couple yet. Huntress and Catman deal with their maybe relationship in BIRDS OF PREY #11. These two characters had some sparks fly when the Secret Six fought the Birds, but with all that's gone on with the respective teams in their own books Gail Simone hasn't had much time to deal with these two and their unresolved unresolviness. Simone really did a great job here. She didn't go an easy route. This is an interesting coupling that barely has any chance at all of working out and everyone knows it, but that doesn't mean that the attraction between the two is just going to go away. On top of that Catman has gone through quite a bit in SECRET SIX and isn't same guy inside that Huntress first danced with. lot of hard choices get made, and its a damn fine read.

Starro is back on the attack and is making a run at the planet Rann in R.E.B.E.L.S. #27. With Vril Dox facehugged its up to his son to come up with a plan to stop Starro. On top of that Lobo and going knuckles to eyebrows with Smite. Its fun space action time as our heroes look to turn the tide of an invasion. I've been a fan of this series since it kicked off, and while I'm ticked that it'll be ending soon, it looks like it'll be ending on a high note.

I hadn't gotten enough weird stuff lately so it was time for Mike Mignola to fix that, and he did with HELLBOY: BUSTER OAKLEY GET HIS WISH. This one shot had a weird demonic summoning which lets us all know that we should do such things or you'll be abducted by aliens. Hellboy nearly has a close encounter of the fourth kind, which is indeed the butt thing. As for the wish of one Mister Oakley, its not fully spelled out, but it seems like maybe he wanted to be like Hellboy. It doesn't really go as planned, but we do get to see them beat the crap out of aliens.

MUSIC!!!

Not my usual taste in music, but this lady sings her ass off, and the visuals in this video are really damned interesting.



That's it for me today. I'm going to go get stuff done because tomorrow I'm going to the circus. That's probably the most adventure my delicate disposition can take.

Radio Free Gotham

My name is Wayne. Bruce Wayne. Its Sunday, March 27, 2011, that's what i tell the people behind the counter at the coffee shop when they ask for a name with my order, and this is The Side. Alright, a few orders of business before we jump right into things.

First off, this coming Wednesday is our third Ask Nozz Day. So if anyone has any questions about anything, leave a comment or e-mail me at d.cnozz@gmail.com and I'll have and answer for you.

Second, my buddies Mike Federali and Drew Moss are getting things together for their comic release and have a Kickstarter going for it, so if you show them some love, I'd appreciate it.

And finally, I've got a working razor again so I got rid of my beard. Amen.

BATCORP

Its easy to interpret things wrong. Our preconceived notions of what we're experiencing can throw us off. This is very true with entertainment. If I told you TWILIGHT was a horror series since it has vampires and werewolves in it and you've never seen anything about it, you'd be a bit surprised when you finally got around to reading the books or watching the movies.

That said its easy to read BATMAN INCORPORATED as a superhero story when there's obviously superheroes in it. But that's not quite accurate. It's much like when Mark Waid wrote "Terminal Velocity" and when everybody expected the death of Wally West, Waid delivered a great love story. More recently Grant Morrison wrote a widely misinterpreted story. It wasn't intentionally misleading, but some of the DC staff got all excited by the notion of Batman dying in what was really part of a greater story involving Bruce Wayne's greatest triumph. So everyone was yammering about Bruce Wayne being dead, when that was furthest from the truth. Now he's on to something new. "The Once and Future Batman" epic has been completed, and now Morrison is doing something very different, and again, he's not meaning to mislead folks, but its happening.

Currently we are five issues into this new story. It began with BATMAN: THE RETURN and is continuing with BATMAN INCORPORATED. There's also a lot of tie in books. There's a bad history of books tying into stuff Morrison is doing, but not understanding what Morrison is doing thus making the whole thing weird in a bad way. But let's lay out where we are going into this for those late to this dance.

Bruce Wayne grew up. No more brooding, spiteful, keeping everyone at arm's reach because he really needs a hug and doesn't know how to ask for one. He's still the baddest sum'bitch on the block but now he's finally taking the experiences he's had and being a man about it. He has a family which he loves dearly, and has fully accepted that. He's proud of his sons. And he's doing what he does because he sees the need for it and knows he's best suited for the task at hand. Its not some dark compulsion. And his family is glad to have him back, especially now that he doesn't seem like a half crazed zealot in his war on crime.

But something is afoot. Bruce Wayne knows something is out there that is going to be very dangerous to the world. Its something subtle and secretive, not the kind of thing you can point the Justice League at and have them hammer it into submission. So he formed a "company".

Intelligence organizations have a long standing history of using business terms for going about their business. So on the surface BatCorp is planning on fighting the idea of crime with the idea of Batman. But is that all there is to it?

This Morrison, people. There's never a "that's all there is to it".

Bruce Wayne is the director of operations. He's also operating in the field since this "business" is this in start up mode.

Alfred Pennyworth is the one who keeps everything together. Without him this whole thing goes off the rails. He's Kate Cooke except not as pretty more use in the field.

Now with most intelligence firms there are two divisions. One is internal in dealing with its home turf. Defending the castle as it were. The compliment branch (which is funny to think about since they tend to be pretty competitive with one another) deals with what's going on outside of the home turf. Now, the lead story in BATMAN: THE RETURN was "Planet Gotham", but that's not really the case. Gotham City is still home base and everything that goes on inside it is a domestic affair. Currently Dick Grayson is in charge of all domestic affairs, and he's aided by Damien Wayne as well as Commissioner Gordon and rest of the GCPD.

Now most operatives lend themselves both to foreign and domestic actions since we have seen Grayson operating in France. But again we're still in start-up phase so double duty is to be expected.

Barbara Gordon is crucial to everything. Something she should be used to by now. She's the desk that every bit of information passes in front of. What's more, she has her own personal unit she's in command of to help facilitate operations. Everything goes through her before getting to D-Ops, and she's got discretion and capability to handle things herself should she see fit.

This brings us to our floater operatives. Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown are both fully vetted and have their missions to attend to. Drake is currently dealing with the Unternet situation because this is an intelligence game and having an evil internet in play makes things difficult. Brown mainly operates domestically, but will soon be on assignment to one of the foreign stations. The status of Kate Kane remains up in the air at this time. She's been vetted by Grayson and Wayne seems to approve but she's yet to take direct action for the Corp. The current case she's on is leading directly into BatCorp's affairs, so we'll likely be seeing a lot more of her soon

Now, for the foreign intelligence you can't just read the newspapers or the tea leaves. You need people on the ground. Wikileaks broke a story a while back telling everyone that governments were using embassies for intelligence gathering. There's was a bit of Oscar Mike Golf about it from folks, but anyone with half a clue pretty much rolled their eyes that this passed for news. Currently BatCorp has three stations up and running and a fourth pending that we know about. These station heads are all field trained and have the added value of a secret identity which allows for more effective intel gathering. There was some debate about who really killed Mister Unknown since Jiro laid to rest the identity along with his mentor and took up the new role of Batman Japan. He pretty much has to since his identity was compromised by Lord Death Man. While its doubtful that Lord Death Man worked for BatCorp's competition, and that wouldn't really matter since his sorry ass was shot into space, he did have a few underlings that could be gotten to.

This also makes me wonder about Nightrunner's relationship with the Parisian law enforcement. Wayne approached them directly. On the surface it seems like he wants his agents to have the same relationship and support that he enjoys in Gotham. In the back of my mind I have to wonder if he suspects corruption in their police force that may be linked to Leviathan.

Wayne has also made use of independent contractors in the past and in this endeavor its no different with him employing Catwoman to help on a case. Of course in this instance its not so much about financial compensation as it is a matter of he trusts her to come through for him.

Using superheroes as spies has been done for a quite a while, but not really like this. They have good covers, and are well trained. The public identities can actually work favorably in gaining assets as being superhero often attracts people who want to help.

We've seen Bruce Wayne in a lot of different lights over the years, but I think many of us weren't quite ready to see him as a spymaster. So as Morrison draws us in deeper and deeper into this fascinating story, keep this in mind. BatCorp is watching.

MUSIC!!

You never need an excuse for playing Elvis Costello.



Alrighty then, that'sll do it for today. Remember Ask Nozz day is Wednesday. I've had some good questions so far and would like to keep this ball rolling. See y'all then.