Tag Archives: Batman

Comic Book Question 8

by Revis Edgewater

It has been another awful week at work, so I’m picking a question that’s relatively quick for me to answer.

If you switched the rogue galleries of Batman and Spider-Man, which one would have the easiest time defeating the others?

To me, this one is simple. It’s Spider-Man. Spider-Man would have an easier time defeating Batman’s villains than Batman would have defeating Spider-Man’s villains.

I can hear all the DC enthusiasts now: “But, if you give Batman enough time to study his opponents, he could beat all of Spider-Man’s villains!” While that may be true, you don’t always get the time to study your opponents in the crime fighting game. If Batman were to come across Carnage in a dark alley, with no idea what the symbiote’s weaknesses were, I’m taking Carnage in that fight.

On the other hand, if you were to pit Spider-Man against any of Batman’s villains, he’d win those fights even without any prior knowledge of them. Plus, his quips and one-liners would probably annoy the crap out of villains like the Joker and Riddler.

What do you think? Do you agree with me, or do I have it wrong?

Comic Book Question 7

by Revis Edgewater

Who is the lamest Batman villain?

Batman has had many villains over the years. Some are iconic. Some are laughable. Which one do I think is the worst, as far as having a lame power/gimmick? If I actually sat down and thought about it, I may have a different answer, but I’m just going to go with the first one to pop into my head.

The Ventriloquist.

Now, I don’t know if he was ever in any comics, but I only saw him in the 90s cartoon. He showed up on multiple occasions in the background at Arkham Asylum, but he was the main villain in at least one episode. His gimmick, like his name suggests, is that he commits crimes with a ventriloquist dummy. Only, in his mind, he’s a good guy, and it’s the dummy that’s evil, forcing him to commit these crimes.

If I remember correctly, which is a big “if” considering how long it’s been since I watched the 90s cartoons, he ditched his original dummy, Scarface (a 1930s style gangster), when he got tired of Scarface bossing him around, completed his therapy, then had something bad happen to him, and got a new dummy that was even more evil than Scarface.

It could just be me, but all of that is incredibly lame. It’s like they ran out of ideas and had to throw something together in five minutes. How this character appeared in more than one episode is beyond me.

Who do you think is Batman’s lamest villain?

Comic Book Question 5

by Revis Edgewater

IF YOU COULD CREATE YOUR OWN AMALGAM UNIVERSE CHARACTER, WHO WOULD IT BE?

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s (I could look it up, but I’m feeling lazy at the moment), the Big 2 in the comic book industry, Marvel and DC, did a huge crossover event. During this event, the main Marvel universe and the main DC universe merged together, creating the Amalgam universe; a universe whose heroes and villains were a combination of one character from each of two original universes. For example, years ago, I mentioned in a post that the most badass character in comics came from the Amalgam universe: Dark Claw, a combination of Wolverine and Batman. Imagine Wolverine, with his adamantium skeleton, claws, and healing factor, but also having Batman’s intelligence, resources, and fighting skills. Most badass character in comics.

His nemesis, Hyena (a mixture of Joker and Sabretooth), was pretty badass too. Some of the others I remember are: Super Soldier (Superman + Captain America), Amazon (Wonder Woman + Storm), Speed Demon (Ghost Rider + Flash, a combination I never would have thought of), and Sparrow (Robin + Jubilee). There were many more, but those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

As for my answer to the question, I put a lot of thought into it. I wanted to create a conflicted character, so I started thinking of two characters who were complete opposites. The first thing that came to mind was Superman and the Punisher, but Injustice Superman was basically that combination. Then, I went to Deadpool and Batman, the least serious comic book character and the most serious. But, finding a balance between the two would be tricky. It’s probably a little too tricky, so I moved on from that. That’s when I thought that maybe I should do two characters with opposite powers as opposed to opposite personalities. After pondering that one for a bit, I realized I was overthinking it, and I should just go with a combination I liked.

That’s when I came up with the Cajun Hood. I’m still not sold on the name, but I was trying to include both characters in it, and it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. The Cajun Hood is a combination of Gambit and the Red Hood. Both already wear body armor. When fighting up close, he’d use Gambit’s quarterstaff. When fighting from a distance, he’d use Red Hood’s guns, but he’d imbue his non-lethal rounds with Gambit’s mutant kinetic energy ability. He’d have Remy’s Cajun heritage and thief upbringing, but the Jason’s tragic backstory of being killed and brought back to life.

Personally, I think that would be an awesome character.

What about you? What would your Amalgam universe character be?

What About Bob?

by Revis Edgewater

I watched the original Michael Keaton/Tim Burton Batman last night. Despite how long ago it was made, I think it still holds up fairly well. As I was watching it, I was struck by the untimely demise of an undervalued character in the movie. But, I thought to myself, what if he didn’t die? What if we just thought he did? What might have happened next for him if he were to survive his near death experience?

He woke up in a hospital bed. Tubes were sticking out of him. His heart monitor was beeping steadily. He went to remove some of the things that were either in or on him, but found that he couldn’t. Handcuffs kept his hands from being able to move far enough to get the job done.

Handcuffs? Why was he in handcuffs? His thoughts were going a mile a minute as he tried to remember what had happened. It didn’t come to him quickly. He lay in that bed for a few days until it all came back to him.

He’d been in a parade. His boss had to stop the parade early because of a troublemaker. The boss asked for a gun. When he’d obliged, the boss had shot him. Shot him for nothing. He had done everything that had ever been asked of him, including things that hadn’t been asked. He’d protected his boss. He’d followed people and photographed them for his boss.

With all of that, he’d still been shot over something another person had done. It wasn’t his fault that Batman had shown up. It wasn’t his fault that Batman had stolen the balloons his boss was using to poison the crowd. It wasn’t his fault that, once again, his boss’ plan had failed.

He had given everything to his boss. His loyalty. His trust. And it was all for nothing. Not only was it not appreciated, it was thrown away like it was nothing. He’d been shot and tossed aside like a piece of garbage. Only sheer luck had allowed him to survive. He heard the doctors talk about how it was a miracle that he was still alive.

While he was waiting for his memory to come back, he was able to glean what had happened after he was shot. One of the cops that checked in on him had left an old newspaper near his bed. He couldn’t reach it, but he was able to read the headline: JOKER KILLED IN FIGHT WITH BATMAN ON TOP OF GOTHAM CATHEDRAL.

He should have felt relief. The person who had hurt him the most was no more. The Joker couldn’t hurt him anymore. That wasn’t enough for him, though. He wanted to be the one to end Joker’s life. He wanted to feel the life leave the Joker’s body as he squeezed his throat and cut off his air supply. He wanted to pistol whip the stupid grin on the Joker’s face until it was nothing more than a pile of teeth and blood.

That would never happen now. Batman had taken that away from him and, if it was the last thing he’d ever do, he’d make sure that Batman paid for that.

It wouldn’t be now, though. It wouldn’t even be anytime soon. First, he had to recover. Then, he needed to learn how to fight. He wasn’t deluded enough to think that he was a match for Batman. The last time the two had fought, he’d turned and ran despite having a knife against the unarmed Batman. It was the smart thing to do. Now the smart thing to do was to fall back and regroup before he went after Batman.

He couldn’t do that in police custody, however. His body wasn’t in any condition to mount an escape attempt at the moment. He’d have to bide his time and be ready when the opportunity presented itself. He also needed to come up with a name for himself before he attacked Batman. After all, he wouldn’t command much respect attacking the Batman with his real name. Nobody was ever intimidated by a guy named Bob.

Amalgam Comics

by Revis Edgewater

This should probably be categorized as one of my random thoughts (because it was), but I’m going with having it on its own. It was just a random thought that made me remember these comics. And, now that I think about it, I may have already blogged about this before. Hell, I’ve been doing this blog for a long time. It’s certainly possible. So, if I have, prepare to hear this again.

Around 20 years ago (I could actually look this up, but I’m lazy), DC and Marvel got together and did a big crossover event where they pitted their heroes against each other and let the fans vote on who would win. Some of the matchups were cool: Hulk vs Superman (Superman won), Batman vs Captain America (draw), Thor vs Shazam (Thor won). Others pretty much blew: Wolverine vs Lobo (take a wild guess on who won that one), Quicksilver vs The Flash (again, you can pretty much figure out the winner), Robin vs Jubilee (who cares?).

Out of this story came the Amalgam Universe. It’s a universe that contained mashups of DC and Marvel characters and some of them were pretty badass. There was Amazon, who was a mixture of Storm and Wonder Woman. Or, Super Soldier, who was a mix of Captain America and Superman.

My favorite, however, was Dark Claw. If you don’t know already, can you guess which two characters they combined to make him? No Google either, you cheaters!

Think you got it?

The correct answer is: Batman and Wolverine.

Now, I want you to stop and think about that for a second. Here’s a character that not only has Batman’s resources, fighting abilities, and smarts, but also Wolverine’s adamantium claws and healing factor. Do you know how much ass Dark Claw could kick with that particular set of skills? (You just read the phrase “particular set of skills” in Liam Neeson’s voice, didn’t you?)

A lot. He could kick a lot of ass

A while back, I did a post with my ultimate comic book team, five characters from any comic book company that would be my crime fighting team. I chose the five I did based on how much I liked the characters, not on their abilities. If I was to make one based solely on ability, Dark Claw would certainly be on my list.

Unfortunately, the Amalgam Universe was something that DC and Marvel had no intention of maintaining. They did a #1 issue for around 12 different characters or teams to coincide with the launch of the main DC vs Marvel storyline. Then a year or two later, they did the same for around 12 new titles, with nothing else ever since.

Sadly, we may never know how Dark Claw’s struggle against his villainous foe, Hyena (Joker and Sabertooth combined), concluded. Maybe the companies will get together on an anniversary of the original story and release something new from the Amalgam Universe.

I seriously doubt it will ever happen, but I can dream, can’t I?

How to Properly Choose Food.

by Revis Edgewater

Me: *puts box of Pop Tarts in shopping cart*

Mrs. Revis: Why are you getting those? I thought you didn’t like that flavor.

Me: It’s not that I don’t like them, I just think other flavors are better.

Mrs. Revis: Why don’t you put those back and get a flavor you like better?

Me: Because those other flavors don’t have Batman on them. 

DC Shows

by Revis Edgewater

This is actually a post that I’ve wanted to do for a while. I’ve held off on it, however, as I wanted to wait until the two new shows had a chance to get at least half a season in. I didn’t think it would be very fair to judge them before then. I’ll go ahead and start with the first show to air, which is now in its third season, Arrow.

When this show first came out, I really didn’t want anything to do with it. I hadn’t really seen, or read, much with the Green Arrow in it, but what I did see didn’t really interest me. This will probably sound ridiculous, as Green Arrow came out at least ten years earlier, but he always seemed to me to be a lamer version of Hawkeye. Hawkeye’s arrows were more technological and badass. Plus, the Green Arrow was walking around in the movie costume from Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

After the second season of Arrow ended, one of the guys I worked with told me that I needed to watch it. I told him everything I said above. He admitted that he didn’t really like Green Arrow that much either, but that Arrow was a very good show. Still, I was leery about watching it. Finally, I agreed to give it a shot.

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