Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

Batman

Ed Brubaker on Batman: Caped Crusader, Streaming Comics, & Comics Adaptations!

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Ed Brubaker is one of my favorite writers in comics (I counted: I have 13 of his works in my top 500 favorite comics of all time!). I still kind of can’t believe I got to interview him for nearly two hours!

You can hear our full conversation on Comic Book Herald’s interviews on the podcast.

But since some people prefer the ancient art of “reading,” we’ve also transcribed a segment of the interview below, focused on the status of Batman: Caped Crusader, adapting comics for Hollywood, and some insights into digital comic book streaming. The transcription has been slightly edited for clarity. Read and enjoy! [Read more…] about Ed Brubaker on Batman: Caped Crusader, Streaming Comics, & Comics Adaptations!

Gotham City is Hell: Why We Deserve Batman

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In Gothic: A Romance, a 1990 Batman story from the pages of Legends of the Dark Knight, Batman finds himself battling a satanic monk who attempts to kill everyone in Gotham City, and offer their souls to the devil in exchange for immortality. His plan rests on Gotham’s specific architecture, utilizing a series of cathedrals designed to place the stress of their weight up towards heaven. Batman eventually stops him, but this poses an interesting question: If the cathedrals of the city point up to heaven, then where is Gotham? The answer of course, is hell.

Gotham City is Hell.

Legends of the Dark Knight #6

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The Inmates Run the Asylum in Rocksteady’s Arkham Trilogy

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I love video games. I suppose I always have. Growing up in the early years of economic liberalisation in India, you took your first steps into the world of gaming on bootlegged consoles, manufactured by local companies that had cropped up all over the country to meet the demands of a large population with growing purchasing power and aspirations to live the life their relatives “abroad” and the stars of their movies did, all the while the companies that actually manufactured those consoles scrambled to set up shop in the nation. My earliest memory of gaming is playing Contra and Super Mario on one of these bootlegged “NES,” plugging in those “99999 in 1” game cartridges and setting up the system on those huge CRT television sets that took up an entire corner of your living room.

I am telling my age, aren’t I?

Well, kids, playing video games for as long as I have teaches you a lot of things, especially if you are interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff – how they are made (the tools and technologies that go into making a game and how they evolve over time), the politics of it (because, as with everything else in life, there is politics involved here as well), the economics of the gaming industry (and how it, at times, becomes the primary driving force for innovation) – which, I suppose, you become at least tangentially aware of if you stick with a particular hobby long enough. But, perhaps more than that, it teaches you to see that hobby differently. You learn to notice and appreciate the craft behind it. You learn to see video games as art.

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BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES – The 30 Greatest Episodes For 30 Years

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On September 5, 1992, Batman: The Animated Series premiered on Fox Kids, introducing the world to a vision of The Dark Knight that appealed to all age groups. Created by Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm, with writers including Paul Dini and a voice cast centered on Kevin Conroy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Loren Lester, Bob Hastings, Robert Costanzo, Mark Hamill, and more, Batman The Animated Series was both a distillation of everything that made The Caped Crusader popular for decades as well as an inspiration for countless TV shows, comics, movies, and of course fans, in the years that followed.

Personally, BTAS was the thing that not only made me a Batman fan, but got me into superheroes in general. From its initial season to its rebranded second season of The Adventures of Batman & Robin to its update in The New Batman Adventures, I was obsessed with Timm and company’s interpretation of The Dark Knight. In my eyes, it’s the version of the character that I see first when I think about Batman. Every interpretation is ultimately compared to this version, and in its balance of all ages thrills with a mature storytelling style, the animated series encapsulated everything that makes this character special.

So to celebrate 30 years of Batman: The Animated Series, I’m ranking my 30 favorite episodes from across the series’ 109 episodes that were made from 1992 through 1999. And while this doesn’t include the animated movies, Batman Beyond, or the 3-part “World’s Finest” from Superman: The Animated Series, those stories also have a special place in my heart. [Read more…] about BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES – The 30 Greatest Episodes For 30 Years

Cassandra Cain Reading Order!

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Created by Kelley Pucket and Damion Scott, Cassandra Cain, one of the Batgirls, has been through a lot in the DC Universe, she even disappeared for a while after the “New 52,” but the recent years have been fantastic for her.

Introduced in the “Mark of Cain” story-line, Cassandra suffered years of abuse and was never taught how to speak or write, all so she would accurately interpret and read body language to the level she would even be able to predict it. Cassandra was trained to be a killer, but she escaped that life and, nowadays, does her best to save people and dedicate herself to justice and heroism. With an obsession that surpasses and even scares some of her friends, like Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown, Cassandra wants to be Batman; she wants to grow and be the same symbol that said she could change and be better.

As I said, Cassandra went through a lot, even lapses into villainy and weird mind control. Those things are never good. But they only represent a tiny fraction of her story, and I’m sure you won’t want to miss the rest of it. She’s not just the best Batgirl, she’s one of the best characters from DC Comics. [Read more…] about Cassandra Cain Reading Order!