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Hey, sorry I haven't posted anything on here in forever! This is just a lazy post of some artwork I did recently, but I hope you enjoy it. The image was sketched in pencil and colored digitally.
Has anyone else heard of this? I just found out about this movie the other day. It is based on a graphic novel by the same name. The story has been described as being what you might have “if Batman were written by H. P. Lovecraft.” Lovecraft – an author of weird fantasy, science fiction, and horror during the 1920s and 1930s – is most famous for his Cthulhu mythos.
I've always admired Batman's gadgets. Chief among them is his car - the Batmobile. While it would be cool to play Batman in a movie, I think the greatest job in any Batman film goes to the stunt driver that gets to drive his car. I have a very cool toy version of the Batmobile from Batman Begins (my favorite Batman film), but I would love to build an actual, real-life Batmobile. Realizing that is a nearly unattainable dream, I decided to settle for a Bat Mobile. It isn't nearly as cool as a sports-tank, but it will do for now.
I built my Bat Mobile in just about an hour using only a few simple materials I already had at home. Below is a picture of the tools and materials I used, and another one of the finished mobile hanging from my ceiling.
Way back in April, I did an article called "Take 2! Another Take on Titles". That article presented poster images along with a brief description of a fictitious television show. Basically, I took the title of an existing TV show and tried to re-imagine what that show might be based solely on the title. Recently, I've been watching a lot of the Batman cartoon from the 90s, so this time I've taken the titles of (relatively) recent movies and re-imagined them as spin-offs of the Batman franchise. Click on the images to enlarge them.
This movie deals with a very young Bruce Wayne, picking up directly after his parents are murdered. It shows his troubled childhood, as he deals with his grief and guilt which eventually turn into bitterness. All the while, his family's butler Alfred struggles to understand the young boy and become a stabilizing force in his life.
This spin-off follows the events of The Dark Knight. Former District Attorney Harvey Dent survived his fall at the end of that movie. The trauma from losing Rachel and the severe burns he suffered has caused a split personality to emerge. Now, as Two Face he goes about taking over the criminal underworld of Gotham City and building his own empire of crime. However, the real Harvey, a man who upheld justice above all else, is still struggling to regain control. Batman, Gotham City and Harvey Dent are all headed towards one last chance at redemption.
Ducard: If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can't stop you, you become something else entirely.
Bruce: Which is?
Ducard: A legend, Mister Wayne.
So, there they are. What do you think? Please let me know by leaving a comment below.
Yeah, I've been watching too much Batman: The Animated Series.
For some reason I decided to burn half my face. Well, actually I snapped a photo with my web cam and did some photo manipulation to create this. I did a Google image search for "burn victim" in order to get some detailed images of burnt skin, then I "grafted" it on to my own face. Altogether it took about 30 minutes. It's not great, but it turned out about as well as I hoped it would.
Superman: Doomsday is a direct-to-video animated film about the supposed death of Superman. The story is loosely based on the comic book story arc: The Death and Return of Superman. The plot begins with Lex Luthor’s company, LuthorCorp, accidentally digging up an alien spaceship buried on earth thousands of years ago. The ship opens, releasing a creature called Doomsday, the ultimate killing machine. Doomsday was created as the ultimate soldier, but he couldn’t tell friend from foe so he was conveniently disposed of on Earth. Before long he makes his way to Metropolis where Superman must intervene.
Here is where the biggest mistake in the plot occurs. After a lengthy and brutal battle, Superman finally destroys Doomsday by grabbing him, flying him out into space, and then slamming him back down into the Earth. The reentry through the atmosphere and the final impact kill both Doomsday and Superman. Question: Once Superman got Doomsday beyond the Earth’s gravitational pull, why didn’t he simply hurl him into the sun? There was no indication that Doomsday could fly, so even if the sun didn’t kill him he would have no way of getting back to Earth. I guess Superman just didn’t think of that, which is why Superman will never be as cool as Batman. Batman would have thought of it.
After Superman’s death, we see a little of what the DC Comics universe would be like without him. Crime rates skyrocket, and super villains stalk Metropolis with no one to stop them. Lois Lane and Martha Kent mourn his passing. Then, as suddenly as he was gone, Superman returns. Digging his way out of his grave, he flies to Lois’ rescue as she faces death from the Toyman. All is not as it seems, however. It’s quickly revealed that Lex Luthor secretly removed Superman’s body from his grave and clone him. The returned Superman is actually Lex’s evil clone. For now he is impersonating Superman well, fighting crime and protecting the citizens of Metropolis, but at the same time he is doing the bidding of Lex Luthor.
While the clone Superman genuinely wants to protect Metropolis, he lacks the strong moral center of the original Superman. After seeing a news report that Toyman, one of Superman’s villains, has killed a small child, Superman kills the criminal instead of turning him over to the authorities. Lois Lane becomes suspicious and begins investigating Luthor. She discovers the true nature of the returned Superman, and that Lex is cloning an army of Supermen. The clone Superman has rid himself of Luthor’s control and destroys the unfinished clones along with the cloning facility. By now, however, the government has become concerned about Superman’s recent lack of discretion, and sends the military to apprehend him. The attempt is futile, of course, and it seems that the clone Superman’s reign of terror is unstoppable. Until… The REAL Superman returns from the grave. As it turns out Superman is truly invulnerable and he has merely been in a death-like coma while he’s been gradually recovering. After being resuscitated in his Fortress of Solitude, the real Superman flies to do battle with the clone Superman, and saves the day.
Other than that one HUGE error in the plot near the front of the film, the rest of the story is fairly interesting and coherent. The portrayal of Superman and the other characters was appealing, especially the clone Superman as a foil for the real Superman. Lois Lane almost did more in this movie than Superman actually did. The art was in the action-cartoon style typical of DC’s superhero cartoons. It wasn’t anything exceptional, but it wasn’t bad either. This movie was rated PG13, which is unusual for an animated superhero film. However, the action was quite brutal at parts, with a fair amount of onscreen animated blood. There was also some PG13 rated language that you wouldn’t expect in a Superman cartoon. This Superman may be animated, but it is definitely not a kids’ movie.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Superman: Doomsday.
The Altruistic Villian: The clone of Superman genuinely believed that he was doing what was best for Metropolis, even in fighting the real Superman at the end. It reminded me of the value of the misguided villain, who wants to do good but goes about it the wrong way. I’ll have to use that archetype more when I’m the GM for a game.
The Danger of Being Invincible: Superman is one of those characters who, in my opinion, are just too powerful. Stories about Superman have a major weakness. The only way to effectively threaten Superman is to resort to a gimmick, like Kryptonite. This means that you either lose the tension in your story, or the gimmick gets old very fast. The only way this kind of character seems to work is if you plan for them to have only a finite story arc before moving on, such as the major villain whose one weakness the heroes must discover before they can finally destroy him. This isn’t so much inspiration for roleplaying, but rather a warning for GMs: Don’t let characters get too powerful if you expect to keep them around.
Not long ago I purchased the entire collection of Batman: The Animated Series. I recently finished watching the first volume, or season, of the show. The show first aired in 1992 to 1995. I watched it as a kid, and it definitely shaped my perception of the Batman character growing up. It’s interesting watching it again so many years later, and noting how many episodes I still remember.
The cartoon has a very distinct animation style. The art is very dark, minimalist, and stylized. Having grown accustomed to watching recent anime, it was a bit of a shock seeing American cartooning from the 90s. At first it seemed really crude. After awhile though, I’ve come to appreciate the simplicity of it. The animation tells the stories adequately and occasionally exceeds my expectations. I like how they combine Batman’s sci-fi elements with a sense of nostalgia. The cars, buildings, and clothing are styled after the fashions of the 1940s. All television and computer screens are black and white. I like the title cards at the beginning of each episode, which mimic the style of old movies. The music has a dark, theatrical style, and is pretty good, but lacking much variation in style. The whole thing has a certain amount of film-noir inspired style to it.
The writing for this show is the greatest point in its favor. So far, each episode has held my interest, with none of them coming across as boring or repetitive. A few have struck me as really well written, but I’ll mention just two specifically.
“Heart of Ice” introduces the character of Mr. Freeze to the series, and put a new spin on his back-story that turned him from a stereotypical mad scientist into a tragic character motivated by vengeance for a lost love. This episode won the show an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program.
“Joker’s Favor” is about an average family man named Charlie who runs afoul of the Joker by cursing him out on the busy highway after a bad day at work. After pleading for his life, the Joker spares him in exchange for a favor to be performed at some later date. Two years later, Charlie has changed his name and moved him and his family out of Gotham, but the Joker has been keeping track of him for these past two years and is ready to collect on the favor owed. This episode introduced the Joker’s sidekick Harley Quinn for the first time in any medium, and featured one of the best plot twists at the end of any episode in volume one.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Batman: The Animated Series.
Recent History Setting: Batman: TAS is interesting in how they portray the setting, mimicking the styles of the 1940s while being very vague about the actual year(s) in which the story is set. I’ve played in modern settings, sci-fi settings, and a host of other universes, but I’ve never played a game set in recent history. That might be interesting, depending on the type of game.
Rogues Gallery: One of the fun things about Batman: TAS is the recurring villains. Not every episode features one of Batman’s more recognizable foes, but it is fun to watch them escape Arkham and hatch new plots against Gotham City and Batman. The nice thing about recurring villains is that they carry certain themes with them, and you can often identify the mastermind behind a particular crime by the nature of the crime or the way it was committed, before the criminal is even revealed on-screen. It allows you to set certain expectation for the audience/players, and either reward them for paying attention or surprise them with a twist.
Batman: Gotham Knight is the second Batman film in my DVD collection. It is an anime follow-up to Batman Begins, taking place before the events of The Dark Knight. The film runs a little over an hour and consists of six different animated shorts. Each short was written, produced, and animated by different people, but there are a considerable number of connections between them. In fact, having seen it a second time, I was actually surprised just how connected the six segments are. It could almost be one continuous story. Overall I liked the anime pretty well, but I’ll review each segment separately below.
“Have I Got a Story for You”
This segment has three kids telling about their encounters with the Batman in reverse-chronological order. Each story presents a different idea of what exactly Batman is in the eyes of those who witness him. This was an interesting idea, but I think it was an oversight to have the story take place in the daylight. It makes it harder to believe that the kids would mistake him for anything but what he is – a man in a suit – and besides, we know Bruce doesn’t operate as Batman during the day. The animation in this one wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was my least favorite. I just don’t care for the style.
“Crossfire”
This segment focuses on two detectives who are working closely under Gordon in Gotham PD’s new Major Crimes Unit. It connects with the previous segment by having these two cops take the bad guy that the kids witnessed Batman fight down to Arkham. It introduces Sal Maroni and The Russian, two rival mob bosses who will appear again in later segments. While dropping off the captured villain, the two cops argue about whether Batman is good for the city. One of them doesn’t trust Batman, the other does. On their way back from Arkham, they get caught in the crossfire of a street fight between the rival crime gangs and are rescued by Batman.
“Field Test”
Lucius Fox invents a new device for Batman’s arsenal. It generates an electro-magnetic pulse at the sound of a gunshot that will deflect bullets. Armed with this new tool, Batman forces Sal Maroni and The Russian together and then takes on both of them at once. This segment featured some of my favorite animation, including my favorite version of the bat-suit presented in this film. It was a unique and original design, without radically altering the basic concept. The story was also pretty interesting. It’s neat how Batman deals with the rival crime bosses, and the story also gives a good reason why Batman doesn’t have his “invincibility device” in future stories. Early in the segment, Bruce Wayne steals a PDA that will come into play in the last segment. Near the end of this segment a thug tosses his pistol into a gutter, which will come up again in the segment “Working Through Pain”.
“In Darkness Dwells”
The police respond to a riot in a cathedral where a cardinal was kidnapped by the villain Killer Croc. Batman meets with Gordon and the two cops from “Crossfire” before heading into the sewers in pursuit of the kidnapper. After a brief fight with Croc, he stumbles upon a cult of drugged lunatics following Scarecrow. Batman must prevent them from killing the cardinal. Nothing about this segment really stands out to me as note-worthy, though it wasn’t bad. It seemed a bit like a filler episode.
“Working Through Pain”
Picking up right after the last segment, Batman is still in the sewers trying to round up a few members of the Scarecrows cult. One of these shoots him in the stomach. As batman struggles against the pain of the injury, trying to get out of the sewers, he experiences flashbacks to previous experiences. Most of these revolve around his training under a woman named Cassanda, who taught Bruce a meditative technique for mastering pain. This segment has my favorite anime depiction of Bruce from this film. At the end, Batman discovers a cache of weapons in the sewers, a link to the earlier “Field Test” segment. Warning: This anime has some amount of blood throughout, but this particular segment has the goriest visuals, including an animated depiction of surgery being performed on a man without anesthesia. It’s probably not appropriate for children or those with weak stomachs.
“Deadshot”
A skilled assassin called Deadshot scores a contract to take out Gordon. Batman follows Gordon’s motorcade trying to intercept the killer. Early on, we see the cache of weapons Batman pulled out of the sewers in the last segment, and there are also several connections to the earlier “Field Test” segment. This story provides an interesting twist: Deadshot is really out to kill Batman and the threats against Gordon are just a means to flush him out. In my opinion, though, it fails to really address the significance of this. It’s the criminal underworld’s first direct counterstrike against the Batman, acknowledging him as their chief persecutor.
All together, I think Batman: Gotham Knight is a pretty entertaining watch. As an aspiring artist, and someone who watches a lot of animation, I enjoyed seeing the variety in the artwork. Most of it was very high-quality, even if all of it wasn’t to my taste. If you're interested, you can find a very good sampling of the artwork in this film here.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Batman: Gotham Knight.
Making Connections: I liked how each segment of this film told its own story. But, they also made connections between the segments that an observant viewer could follow. This reminded me a lot of how RPG sessions can tend to be episodic sometimes, but even in that case a GM should try to make little connections here and there.
Eyewitnesses: In the first segment it was interesting how three different people give very different accounts of the same person. I think I ought to use that in a game sometime where the PCs are investigating an NPC that none of them have encountered yet.
Flashbacks: The segment “Working Through Pain” makes good use of flashbacks. In fact, most of the story in that segment takes place in the flashbacks. I’ve never tried incorporating flashbacks into an RPG, but I think it could be cool if it were done well.
I suppose I could have folded this article in with my review of Batman Begins, but the movie has so many good lines that I wanted to write a separate article.
"There are those without decency who must be fought without hesitation, without pity." "The training is nothing! Will is everything! The will to act."-Ducard
These sentiments really strike a cord with me. They fit well with the honor codes of Chivalry and Bushido that I admire. Ducard is one of my favorite characters in Batman Begins and I like how his philosophy, tempered with the kindheartedness of Bruce's father, really have a profound impact on Bruce's character. You can very easily see Ducard and Batman becoming allies if their methods were just a little more compatible. While I won't endorse literally fighting evil, there are times when we must do the right thing without hesitation. That's why Phinehas (Numbers 25:7-11) is one of my biggest Biblical heroes.
Alfred: Why do we fall, Master Wayne? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Bruce: You still haven't given up on me, have you?
Alfred: Never.
This exchange says a lot about how we should view our own failings and those of others. Don't be discouraged, learn from your mistakes, and never give up on your friends.
"It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you."-Rachel Dawes
I know, probably one of the cheesiest lines in the movie, but it still holds a grain of truth (or is that the truth about grains?). I also like how Batman later turns the line around on her. There are quite a few lines that get turned around in this movie, actually, including Thomas Wayne's last words being repeated later by Ducard. It's rather clever.
"Does it come in black?"-Bruce Wayne
Bruce Wayne's response to test driving the Tumbler. It's never a mistake to ask this about anything you like. Clothes, cars, anything. It kind of reminds me of Roger Smith (from The Big O).
What about you? Are there any lines from Batman Begins, or other movies, that really strike a cord with you?
I've begun watching all of my Batman DVDs in "chronological order". I watched Batman Begins last night, next I'll watch Gotham Knight, then I'll move on to Batman: The Animated Series, and finally Batman Beyond. Batman is my favorite superhero by far, and Batman Begins is an awesome portrayal of the character and his origin.
What I really like about Batman Begins is that it is a deep, character-driven story about one man's determination to become more than just a man - to become an elemental force of justice - and how he masters his own fear and anger to turn those against the criminal element that made him a victim. As Bruce Wayne puts it himself: "I seek the means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful." Unlike the majority of superheroes who are either born with their powers or obtain them by accident, Batman is a man who chooses the path of the superhero, and puts forth a tremendous amount of effort to become what he is.
Another thing I like about the movie is it's great writing and casting. Some of the dialog is just so fundamental to the image I have of the Batman character and mythos - it's cool to see how Alfred, Ducard, and even Rachel all helped shape Bruce Wayne’s identity. The acting in this film is superb, and I think they definitely hit the mark with their casting choices. Christian Bale makes a great Batman. He portrays the character and his personal struggles superbly. Michael Caine and Gary Oldman were perfect in their roles as Alfred Pennyworth and Jim Gordon. Gary Oldman is to Jim Gordon as J. K. Simmons is to J. Jonah Jameson (a better match could not be found in both character portrayal and physical appearance). Liam Neeson is also an actor I enjoy watching, and he was well cast for the role of Ducard. Katie Holmes did a fine job as Rachel Dawes, though the film's sequel showed that another actress could do just as well. Rachel Dawes was actually one of the things I like about the film. In what seems to be a continuing trend in superhero films, Rachel is more than just a love interest for Batman, but is an interesting character herself and plays an important role in Batman's fight against crime.
I think Batman Begins did a good job of making Batman believable. We could see how someone with Bruce Wayne's history and resources could become a crime-fighter. I liked how they even gave a convincing explanation for why such a character would choose to don a very theatrical costume with a bat motif. The "Tumbler" is the single most awesome and believable version of the Batmobile. As cool as it would be to play Batman in a movie, I think the best job in the production of this film went to the stunt driver who got to drive that sports-tank.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Batman Begins.
Superhero Origins: Previously, when I played a superheroes game, we simply jumped right into the action at the point where the heroes were coming together to form a team, and skipped their individual origins. If I ever run a superheroes RPG again, I think it would be cool to tell character-driven origin stories for the superheroes involved.
What Makes a Character: In this movie we see various people and events that shaped Bruce Wayne's character. I think it is cool to play an RPG where characters experience considerable changes as the story unfolds. Dogs in the Vineyard's conflict resolution system makes this kind of character growth a built in function of the rules mechanics, but I think the same kind of character development can be accomplished in any game system, so long as the players make a conscious effort to produce it.