I watched Batman: Gotham Knight last night. This is the third movie in the recent trend of straight-to-DVD animated features from DC Comics and Warner Brothers. This is how I would rate the movies thus far:

-Superman: Doomsday - Only ok. However, it was at least better than Superman Returns (but seriously, what wasn’t?)
-Justice League: New Frontier - Better
-Batman: Gotham Knight - AWESOME

The movie is broken up into 6 stories, each drawn by different animators, which are self contained yet interconnected:

-Have I Got A Story for You
-Crossfire
-Field Test
-In Darkness Dwells
-Working Through Pain
-Deadshot

Timeline wise, the film falls after Batman Begins and before the upcoming The Dark Knight. The 6 stories are in chronological order, as this is not a Tarantino movie, and bring together a film in which Gotham City is still trying to get used to a vigilante in a Bat costume and Bruce Wayne is getting used to being Batman. Therefore these stories represent different aspects of Batman: how Gothamites view him, how the police view him, and how he views himself.

Although it does tie in with the two live action films, don’t look at this animated film as a method the production studios can capitalize on the attention Batman is getting with the upcoming feature film. There is an emphasis on quality storytelling here and combined with the stellar animation that utilizes the Japanese anime style, Batman: Gotham Knight is easily on par with Batman Begins and the upcoming The Dark Knight, which is already drawing raves.

As an aside, I was a bit distracted while watching the first story because its plot was the same as an episode of Batman: The Animated Series in which Gotham City kids talk about their stories of Batman. In the episode, each kid’s account was wildly different and conflicted with each other. Before I could pat myself on the back for making the connection, I found out that this particular episode, Legends of the Dark Knight, is included on the special edition DVD.

Highly Recommended.

By the way, this doesn’t mean that I have lost my love for Superman who still ranks as my favorite superhero. I’m still allowed to appreciate Batman, especially because this character always seems to have the best animated series and movies connected to him. I have to admit though, in my mind Kevin Conroy is Batman so when he doesn’t provide the voice acting, as he doesn’t in WB’s The Batman, I won’t bother watching it. However, everything else has almost consistently been great (ok, maybe not Batman: Sub Zero as much but even that was still pretty good).

Until next time (which I believe is Wonder Woman)…

I got my first Mac a while ago and it came with all this cool stuff, including Garageband. I always wanted to try it out so I figured I would create a podcast, which I finally did over this weekend. So here it is folks, my first podcast.

Download Bushra’s First Podcast: The Effects of Reading Post Apocalyptic Fiction

Show Notes:
1. Yes, I realize that although I’m a 26 year old girl the sound of my recorded voice sounds like that of a little boy. What can I say. . .
2. This podcast is a bit disjointed, with a lot of “you knows” in there. I don’t have too much time to edit at this point because I have to get ready for England.
3. The books discussed: Y: The Last Man, World War Z, and The Road
4. The song played at the end: Re: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton. I bought this song legally off his site :p
5. I didn’t really include any musical accompaniment in this podcast. Therefore, you are just really listening to me.
6. I ramble.

It runs about 14 minutes with the song at the end.

Thanks.

(Ok, so you really don’t have to listen to this if you don’t want to. It really is just meant to be a learning experience for me )

Years ago, I used to read Superman comic books. One comic came out every week and I got all of them. I did that for 5 and half years. While I never stopped being a Superman fan, I didn’t want to keep reading because the weekly comics just didn’t hold my interest anymore. However, reading Superman comics was tied enough to my identity that I wondered what would happen if I stopped reading and collecting them. I know, I know, that sounds a bit weird but if you have doubts, check out the comments in my high school yearbook. Almost everyone mentioned Superman as if it were some kind of inside joke or something. Actually, wait, don’t check out my high school yearbook.

After I stopped actively collecting comics, I would still venture into a comic bookstore now and then (if I happened to pass one by) and maybe buy a trade paperback if a story looked interesting. But those times were few and far in between. I never really got sucked into anything that I had to read.

That sort of changed last week. I heard aboutY: The Last Man from various places and wanted to check it out. This story, about all the males on the planet dying off at once save for one guy, Yorick Brown, seemed intriguing enough that I wanted to see what it was all about. This finite series consisted of 60 issues, which started in 2002 and just ended this past January. Most of the comics were collected in trade paperbacks - 10 different volumes including the final yet to be released volume containing the last issues.

I read the first volume at the Borders by work during my lunch one day last week. Since they didn’t have the 2nd volume, I walked over to the nearby Barnes and Nobles to see if they had it. They did.

So during my lunches for the past couple of weeks, I was reading all of the volumes of Y: The Last Man, switching from Borders to Barnes depending on who had what. Getting closer and closer until the end, I didn’t give much thought about how the final issues won’t be compiled into volume form until June. “I can wait,” I told myself.

Turns out I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) so yesterday I ventured into a comic bookstore in Fremont that I had never been to and hoped they had copies of the last 6 issues. They did. The guy behind the counter said that the ending was sad but that he wasn’t really giving anything away because, really, what else would I expect. I figured he just spoiled for me since now I knew to be prepared.

And yet. . .

Even though I crammed the entire length of the series into two weeks as opposed to the people who had read it over the past 5-6 years, I got really attached to the characters and so the final issue carried an emotional impact. I won’t spoil it or anything but I did sort of get a bit sad and a twinge depressed.

Fiction is so weird sometimes. You know these people aren’t real. The situations may not even be realistic as it was in this case and yet it doesn’t even matter because it will still get you, y’know?

Yeah.

As an aside, I’m wondering why I don’t feel any shame by the fact I didn’t buy most of the series, that I read most of these in bookstores so I didn’t have to buy them. Oh well.

I’ll do a post soon about all the post-apocalyptic fiction I’ve been reading. Stay tuned.