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Batman comics

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Posts

  • Me Too!Me Too! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    I want a book about Bruce time-travelling and going on wacky hijinks

    Like

    You remember when every comic featured the heroes personally beating up Hitler?

    I want that

    Me Too! on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Playing Arkham Asylum this jumped to mind, going back to the earlier debate that Batman is insane.

    Hes rich. He could build his own asylum and make it secure enough that Joker could never escape, that none of them could ever escape and he could even visit him as batman to try and break his pattern.

    But he doesnt.

    Because he needs them to keep escaping.

    DarkWarrior on
  • FaynorFaynor Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Assuming an Asylum built by Batman would be any more effectual is kind of silly. Arkham had a ton of WayneTech all up ins and still failed because of it's ineffective staff.

    Faynor on
    do you wanna see me eat a hotdog
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I'd actually like to see a story where security is upgraded at Arkham and, for a few years, there are no inmate escapes, and consequently no stories about the usual rogues. It'd force writers to start creating brand new villains, and telling new stories, for at least a few years.

    Then, naturally, order would break down and the old rogues would escape to plague Gotham again, but at least the whole, "Why the fuck can't they keep these guys incarcerated?" question would be addressed.

    Of course, I kind of get the feeling that this is the direction the Bat-books are going in at the moment, with Joker missing in action, Riddler reformed, and Ivy, Catwoman, and Harley acting in more of a protagonist capacity.

    Munch on
  • FaynorFaynor Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    It'd also be interesting because after the first six months, you'd have people doing copycat crimes and becoming "the new Joker" or whatever.

    Then Joker would get pissed when he got out.

    Faynor on
    do you wanna see me eat a hotdog
  • Professor SnugglesworthProfessor Snugglesworth Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Faynor wrote: »
    Assuming an Asylum built by Batman would be any more effectual is kind of silly. Arkham had a ton of WayneTech all up ins and still failed because of it's ineffective staff.

    They could just re-hire Lockdown. He actually managed to keep those bastards locked up. And terrified.

    Batman was probably just jealous.

    Professor Snugglesworth on
  • HenslerHensler Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Man, just hire Bane to keep all the super villains in his private South American prison.

    Hensler on
  • LuxLux Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    They should just send them to another planet!

    Or did that already come and go with no repercussions or effect on the universe at large.

    Lux on
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Playing Arkham Asylum this jumped to mind, going back to the earlier debate that Batman is insane.

    Hes rich. He could build his own asylum and make it secure enough that Joker could never escape, that none of them could ever escape and he could even visit him as batman to try and break his pattern.

    But he doesnt.

    Because he needs them to keep escaping.

    I disagree with this.

    Batman/Bruce believes in the system. He wants the system to work. That's why the Wayne Foundation is such a huge contributor to Arkham Asylum and Penitentiary.

    Its also the reason why Batman always turns his villains over to the authorities each time, rather than locking them up in his own Bat-Jail.

    Batman doesn't need his villains. But Gotham needs Batman. Bruce is a realist and he knows that he has the means to accomplish things that the system cannot. He has money, training, smarts, and know-how to get jobs done that the law simply cannot manage.

    But the ending of Dark Knight summarizes Batman perfectly. He will be whatever the city of Gotham needs him to be. If the system was able to manage 100% of all crime, then the city wouldn't need him and I think he would accept that. But the law cannot account for 100% of the problems, thus there is a need for Batman to exist.

    Lucascraft on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    Playing Arkham Asylum this jumped to mind, going back to the earlier debate that Batman is insane.

    Hes rich. He could build his own asylum and make it secure enough that Joker could never escape, that none of them could ever escape and he could even visit him as batman to try and break his pattern.

    But he doesnt.

    Because he needs them to keep escaping.

    I disagree with this.

    Batman/Bruce believes in the system. He wants the system to work. That's why the Wayne Foundation is such a huge contributor to Arkham Asylum and Penitentiary.

    Its also the reason why Batman always turns his villains over to the authorities each time, rather than locking them up in his own Bat-Jail.

    Batman doesn't need his villains. But Gotham needs Batman. Bruce is a realist and he knows that he has the means to accomplish things that the system cannot. He has money, training, smarts, and know-how to get jobs done that the law simply cannot manage.

    But the ending of Dark Knight summarizes Batman perfectly. He will be whatever the city of Gotham needs him to be. If the system was able to manage 100% of all crime, then the city wouldn't need him and I think he would accept that. But the law cannot account for 100% of the problems, thus there is a need for Batman to exist.

    It wouldnt be a bat jail, he could create and fund a Wayne Asylum staffed with bat-secure procedures so that corrupted staff could be dealt with quickly. For instance giving staff masks so they don't go breathing in funny spores that make you controllable. When theyre processed by the system they can be sent there guarded by mechs and shit that Wayne can afford.

    He believes in the system but without those super villains hed be kind of empty in the same way Joker is without Batman to corrupt.

    DarkWarrior on
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    This makes me wonder why there isn't a JLA jail somewhere. The moon is huge!. Beat them up, try them, but in the meantime they sit in JLA jail away from innocent people to kill. But nooooo, Batman has to let everyone else's parents die in some sick tit for tat.

    For as much shit as Salvation Run got, that was actually a good idea. If only Kanjar Ro didn't send them to another planet.

    TexiKen on
  • Me Too!Me Too! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Faynor wrote: »
    Assuming an Asylum built by Batman would be any more effectual is kind of silly. Arkham had a ton of WayneTech all up ins and still failed because of it's ineffective staff.

    They could just re-hire Lockdown. He actually managed to keep those bastards locked up. And terrified.

    Batman was probably just jealous.

    Lockdown kept them contained under threat of death

    Me Too! on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Why cant I find a Wiki page on Lockdown?

    DarkWarrior on
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    His name was Lock-Up

    He also ran Blackgate during No Man's Land, and made it a Hell Hole. You know where you stand in a Hell Hole. Dick lent a hand in that Hell Hole.

    TexiKen on
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    TexiKen wrote: »
    This makes me wonder why there isn't a JLA jail somewhere. The moon is huge!. Beat them up, try them, but in the meantime they sit in JLA jail away from innocent people to kill. But nooooo, Batman has to let everyone else's parents die in some sick tit for tat.

    For as much shit as Salvation Run got, that was actually a good idea. If only Kanjar Ro didn't send them to another planet.

    I liked that, for a short time, Shiloh Norman was the Warden of the metahuman prison, The Slab.

    I wouldn't mind seeing that idea return in some form, with a bunch of retired superheroes staffing a new prison constructed by the greatest scientific minds in the DCU.

    Munch on
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Superman willingly kept Zod, Ursa, and Non (plus a dozen or so other nameless Kryptonians) locked away in the Phantom Zone. They should adopt the Phantom Zone as a holding facility for all metahuman criminals.

    Lucascraft on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Oh man, this Scarecrow level...best comic game ever?

    DarkWarrior on
  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    edited August 2009
    TexiKen wrote: »
    He also ran Blackgate during No Man's Land, and made it a Hell Hole. You know where you stand in a Hell Hole. Dick lent a hand in that Hell Hole.

    :lol:

    --

    Honestly, the Arkham Asylum and escaping prisoners issue is one of the big fault lines of the Bat-mythos for me, and the thing I try hardest to not think too much about. Because while I recognize the creative and financial realities that will always keep the Joker free to terrorize Gotham, I don't like the way that it creates this sort of sub-narrative about how the authorities are perpetually ineffective, doctors and psychiatrists are a joke, and the mentally ill are all super-genius serial killers who easily outwit the dumb cops and doctors and will murder hundreds at the drop of a hat yet suffer no repercussions and never stay incarcerated. It turns everything Batman does into a cruel joke that costs the lives of thousands every time Poison Ivy or the Joker get out; and the writers know this and have characters comment on it, but nothing is ever allowed to change, which makes it even worse.

    With other superheroes, like Spider-Man, it works a bit better because his villains are mostly penny-ante crooks with metal arms or vibro-gauntlets who just want to knock over a few armored cars or whatever - and half the time they get away, anyway, so my suspension of disbelief is able to squirm past. The ritual of Batman bringing villains into Arkham only to have them free and committing acts of mass murder the next issue is so out there and in your face that it's really hard to avoid noticing.

    Jacobkosh on
    rRwz9.gif
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I agree.

    I really wish DC would make Gotham go through some kind of NYC under Giuliani approach, make there be a real effort to get over the whole corrupt cops/public officers thing, and make the city get out of that always rainy, always dark place it is. Really, why would anyone live there the way it never gets better? If I was a super duper company not owned by Wayne, I would relocate to NYC or Metropolis. You don't have to make it squeaky clean, but show some kind of progress. That is why the Penguin making his own club built on his past profession, realizing he can make more through merchandising and licensing than being a mobster was such a great idea.


    That's why Bludhaven never really clicked in Nightwing's book. They had to get Dick away from Gotham, that's fine, but to state there is someplace worse than Gotham? Come on.

    TexiKen on
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    TexiKen wrote: »
    I really wish DC would make Gotham go through some kind of NYC under Giuliani approach, make there be a real effort to get over the whole corrupt cops/public officers thing, and make the city get out of that always rainy, always dark place it is. Really, why would anyone live there the way it never gets better? If I was a super duper company not owned by Wayne, I would relocate to NYC or Metropolis. You don't have to make it squeaky clean, but show some kind of progress. That is why the Penguin making his own club built on his past profession, realizing he can make more through merchandising and licensing than being a mobster was such a great idea.

    Morrison actually said he wants to address this in Batman and Robin.
    I also wanted to show a healthier Gotham City too. That whole Son-of-Sam, Rorschach-narration - 'This city is an open sewer where the rats feed on the broken dreams and filth of umm...other rats...where sneering, gnawing urban predators...blah blah...' - has become clichéd, tired and unconvincing. If Gotham was so bloody awful, no-one normal would live there and there'd be no-one to protect from criminals. If Gotham really was an open sewer of crime and corruption, every story set there would serve to demonstrate the complete and utter failure of Batman's mission, which isn't really the message we want to send, is it? You've got Batman and all his allies as well as Commissioner Gordon and the city still exudes a vile miasma of darkness and death? I can't buy that. It's simply not realistic and flies in the face of in-story logic (and you know I like my comics realistic!) so my artists and I have taken a different tack and we want to show the cool, vibrant side of Gotham, the energy and excitement that would draw people to live and visit there.

    Gotham needs as many faces as Batman - it should be the loudest, sexiest, jazziest city on Earth. It has the best restaurants, the best theaters, the best art, the best criminals, the best crimefighters etc etc. People put up with the weird crime for the sheer buzz.

    Munch on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    To anyone in doubt, this could easily be expanded to be a No mans Land style city-wide game, its almost that already. Its beautiful. Throw in the batcave to return to and tool up? Ill buy it even if its £100.

    DarkWarrior on
  • FiarynFiaryn Omnicidal Madman Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I don't know, I think half of why Arkham Asylum is so good is that it's open while still being linear. Making it too sandboxy would cost it some of that sense of coherency. The pacing in this game is wonderful, and there's a great attention to maintaining it (Detective Vision for example), and make a city-wide game out of this would cost them all control over pacing.

    In short I'm saying they need another contained locale.

    Fiaryn on
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  • emnmnmeemnmnme Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    Superman willingly kept Zod, Ursa, and Non (plus a dozen or so other nameless Kryptonians) locked away in the Phantom Zone. They should adopt the Phantom Zone as a holding facility for all metahuman criminals.

    Then the villains wouldn't have a chance to escape every other issue ...

    emnmnme on
  • HenslerHensler Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Yeah, I don't want to see Arkham Asylum 2, or whatever the call the inevitable sequel, be an open city game. All the backtracking and awesome Metroid-style exploration moments of the Asylum would be lost.

    Is DC still making the Green Lantern: Escape from Super Max movie? Everyone would call it an Arkham Asylum ripoff, but that setting would work great for a game like this.

    For the Batman sequel, let's see Batman locked up in Bane's prison.

    Hensler on
  • Robos A Go GoRobos A Go Go Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Green Arrow, not Green Lantern.

    Robos A Go Go on
  • HenslerHensler Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Well, they're basically the same character, but yeah, I meant Green Arrow.

    Hensler on
  • Robos A Go GoRobos A Go Go Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    If Green Lantern only used his power ring to make arrows, then yes he'd basically just be Green Arrow.

    Robos A Go Go on
  • HenslerHensler Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    If Green Lantern only used his power ring to make arrows, then yes he'd basically just be Green Arrow.

    Man, you think just like me.

    Hensler on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Yeah, I was looking into that Supermax movie earlier today.

    No idea if it's still being made or not. Couldn't find any details at all from the last few months.

    HadjiQuest on
  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Hensler wrote: »
    Well, they're basically the same character, but yeah, I meant Green Arrow.

    This is the weirdest thing I've ever read.

    Do you think Red Hood and Red Skull are the same? Is it some kind of weird color/hero dyslexia?

    Sentry on
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    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Have you ever seen Green Lantern and Green Arrow in the same place at the same time?

    Ah HA!

    KalTorak on
  • 8ullfrog8ullfrog Registered User new member
    edited August 2009
    I have been reading comic books with batman in them for many years.

    The comic for August 28th contains the finest batman I have ever seen.

    I was directed to post this here.

    8ullfrog on
  • ManonvonSuperockManonvonSuperock Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I'd find it entertaining if Gotham wasn't anywhere near as bad as its made out to be, and that a lot of the police corruption and stuff like that was part of batman's sociopathic illusions.

    definitely wouldn't work in continuity for obvious reasons but would be a fun branch to explore.

    ManonvonSuperock on
  • Me Too!Me Too! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Hensler wrote: »
    Well, they're basically the same character, but yeah, I meant Green Arrow.

    Yeah the ultimate liberal who became the world's greatest archer while trying to survive on a desert island and the definition of a conservative who is a fucking space cop they sure are the same character

    Me Too! on
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    One of the ways I always looked at Gotham was that we were only seeing the worst of it, and even that through Batman's eyes. That kind of made up for why everything was always so grim and broken.

    Langly on
  • Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    8ullfrog wrote: »
    I have been reading comic books with batman in them for many years.

    The comic for August 28th contains the finest batman I have ever seen.

    I was directed to post this here.

    Batman and Robin? Yes, it was amazing. Here's hoping Philip Tan produces some good artwork and doesn't delay the book for his three issues (unlike his couple of GL issues...).

    I thought Detective Comics was great too, though I hope Rucka will move on from the Crime Bible shit some point soon (though I do like crazy lady).

    Unco-ordinated on
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  • MutilateMutilate Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Daunting question I am about to ask, but I have been out of comics for some years now and have had a renewed ineterest lately. What would be the required reading to get up to date on current Batman continuity?

    Mutilate on
  • HenslerHensler Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Me Too! wrote: »
    Hensler wrote: »
    Well, they're basically the same character, but yeah, I meant Green Arrow.

    Yeah the ultimate liberal who became the world's greatest archer while trying to survive on a desert island and the definition of a conservative who is a fucking space cop they sure are the same character

    Well, I didn't say they were EXACTLY the same, just basically.

    Hensler on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    One never helped the black man

    One never helped the purple man

    HadjiQuest on
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Mutilate wrote: »
    Daunting question I am about to ask, but I have been out of comics for some years now and have had a renewed ineterest lately. What would be the required reading to get up to date on current Batman continuity?

    Morrison's run is the best place to start. There are a few trades available that collect the essential storyline:

    -- Batman and Son
    -- Batman: The Black Glove
    -- Batman: R.I.P.

    You might also want to check out Final Crisis. It isn't a Batman book per say, but it does feature Batman, and the event that is directly responsible for the current continuity shift happened in Final Crisis so it is well worth reading if you are a Batman fan. However, I will also offer a warning regarding Final Crisis: Grant Morrison was experimenting with a different writing style in FC and the story tends to be very fragmented and disjointed. He uses a lot of minimalism and leaves a lot of the action to the imagination rather than explicitly showing the reader what is happening.


    I would also suggest that you read some of the more recent trades that are collected from Paul Dini's run on Detective Comics.

    -- Heart of Hush
    -- Batman: Private Casebook

    Lucascraft on
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