Hardcore Alfred

Do we really need to see Superman and Batman's origins AGAIN?

Smacks of the DC's stab at what Marvel already attempted with it's 'Ultimate' Universe.

How long before they feel the need to wrap it back into existing continuity with yet another Crisis?

Batman's undies are gone.
It's a whole new world, baby!

Huh. That's...interesting. While you can point to the Ultimate Universe, what makes this different (from what I can see) is that they're making bookstore-oriented trades with Random House's muscle behind it. So it appears to be a shift in publishing strategy rather than subject matter. That...that could be very big, if they put some actual marketing muscle behind it.

I do think the origin stories are kind of a bad place to start--everyone knows Batman and Superman's origins, they could just start in with original stories--and Strackzynkcxinki and Johns may not be the guys to write this (seriously, isn't Johns the chief perpetrator of continuity porn right now?) but that may not matter if they can get a big rollout into bookstores. The problem with the big DC comics isn't anything inherent to the stories, it was getting them in front of the mass audience.

This could still tank if they go too "mature" (not in terms of violence and edginess, because we all know teenagers love that shit, but in terms of "this is SERIOUS AND IMPORTANT DRAMA GODDAMN IT") but if it's a fun story, this could be a very sharp move on DC's part.

Looks a lot like Sam Elliott.

T'fuck would that guy put in my tea?

It looks like a semi decent strategy, but my problem is still I need a book I can hand to kids in Elementary school. And I have their Johnny DC line, but really not much after that to hand to kids at my wife's school as far as the two big publishers are concerned.

Will definitely be worth watching.

Is it just me, or does he kinda look like an old man Christian Bale.

A teabag, of course.

That "Alfred" screams everything that is terrible about Marvel/DC comics generally.

A ruby the size of a tangerine....then hell burn your forest down.
It looks just like the Ultimate Marvel line, which went down the crapper in 5 years flat.

He looks a lot like Kevin O'Neill's Allan Quatermain with added muscle.

I'm still guessing DC will be hanging onto deteriorating direct market sales until the market implodes.

I think the whole point of them publishing them exclusively as OGNs is that they'll never have to tie them back into the main continuity.

The question is whether or not Morrison will be allowed to do anything with them as part of 'Multiversity,' or are they going to be off-limits to any cross-Earth multiverse storylines.

Wasn't this the point of the All-Star comics? Stories that are not set in continuity. Well, if they dropped that line in favor of this stuff, at least we got one great Superman series and a hilarious Batman one.

For some reason I thought this thread was in the wrong forum. The scary thing is, I'm in the thread.

Or they want to keep Miller waaaaaaaay away from it. Which would be a shame.

There's something vaguely awful about reverse engineering comic Batman into a bulky, clunky costume. That tide should be going the other way - the live-action films should have started with something bulky and streamlined as they moved forward. Now our "anything-is-possible" 2D stories will be mired in cumbersome tech and RealTyranny. Boo.

At the risk of beating a tired, digressive horse, isn't that sort of what TDK was going for, in concept if not in execution, with the new suit?

Anyway, don't we also have Miller to thank for the armoured costume routine?

You're talking about this costume?



Doesn't really scream bulky or clunky ...

TDK suit was clunkier looking that the Begins suit, no matter how many scenes they had of Morgan Freeman explaining why. The figure of Batman done correctly is beautiful, and if we can't get that in live-action, we should at least be permitted it on the printed page. (I'm overreacting, as this version isn't quite that bad, but it's inching toward it. We don't need rivets or seams or an extra beveled whatever around the oval, which also doesn't need to be on his neck. I don't need to see Batman's fly. It's definitely trying to meet that TDK mess in the middle. Give it time.)

Only insomuch as you have Alan Moore to thank for "dark" superheroes.

I was talking specifically about Batman's costume being armoured. I'm sure it had been done before, but Dark Knight Returns was the first instance I can remember of showing off that the costume was bulletproof.

I know what what you were referencing.

That's gonna take some getting used to. It looks like he forgot to put his pants on.

Strangely ironic that the Batsuit looks more ridiculous WITHOUT the underwear over his pants than with it. If they were desperate to get rid of it then why not change the color to black ? Also, am I the only fan of cartoonishly large Batman ears ?

1. Fuck Geoff Johns. Leave Batman alone.

2. What's the over-under on how many Burmese women this Alfred raped during his previous career?

3. The return of the yellow oval? Lame.

Young Bruce's resemblance to Adam Lambert and adult Bruce's resemblance to Ray Stevenson is kind of weird. Does he abuse anabolic steroids during his training in this story?

Oh, good. More universes and continuity nightmares.

The only way I'll support this is if they replace Robin with Dick Butt.

The TDK costume is way busier than it needs to be, that I'll grant you, but the overall design is sleeker, and clearly allows for more mobility than the Batman Begins costume. I point to the rooftop scene in TDK where he's talking to Dent and Gordon and just stands there looking like a hunchbacked gimp. It's not perfect, but it's better.

In the comics, Batman's costume is so simple and perfect that needlessly tampering with the fucking thing is really irritating to see. There's all sorts of extraneous shit going on in the above design that doesn't do a thing for the character. Let filmmakers worry about making superheroes look "real" and "plausible".

Wait, does that mask have a hinge on it at the ear? How the hell does that work?

Chris Butcher has some interesting thoughts on the graphic novel thing.

I don't think it's a hinge; it's a hole for hearing.

Yeah I think the move by DC away from traditional publishing is the real and most important story here personally.

I really wish they could get it to under 20 bucks.

I wasn't all that interested in this to begin with, and seeing as how the one comic book I've been interested in the past year or so was Gaiman's Batman story and it's only-in-hardcover status dissuaded me from buying it altogether, that's not likely to change.