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The episode of Smallville thats due to run this Friday, from what i see its being shown as a 2hour episode?

Does anyone know if its one complete episode or more of a two-parter?

If i remember this was down to the Haiti earthquake so everything had to be shuffled around.

It is a two-parter that makes one complete episode.

Calling it a "TV movie".

Superman... Begins?:

Christopher Nolan, father of the current money printing Batman movie series, is reportedly put on task for Superman's reboot. Under what duty nobody knows for certain. He'll 'oversee' the project in some fashion. A phrase that stood out was "No Singer, no Routh".

Don't know what to think.

I think "Just somebody... anybody... make a Superman movie!"

This seems like as good a place as any to ask this question...So, if I wanted to "get into" Batman comics, where would be a good place to start?

I really liked the style of the stuff they did with the Arkham Asylum game, did they take inspiration from any vein of the comics or did they go in their own direction?

You're in luck, you can use Wiki to catch up on what's going on in Batman in the ongoing comics.

Arkham Asylum is a comic by Grant Morrison but the game was not based on the book, just maybe some influence. I would check out the ever popular and (considered over rated) but still really damn good (but short) book, it's called Killing Joke. This has Joker shoot Batgirl, cripple her, take her to an abandoned amusement park and take pictures of her naked in a cage...

Year One
Arkham Asylum
Killing Joke
Dark Victory
Long Halloween
Hush vol 1 and 2

Those are some of popular (and good) Bat-books you can pick up to get into it. I would def hit up wikipedia first though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Batman_comics

Look under Modern Batman.




Important arcs

* Daughter of the Demon and major battles with Ra's al-Ghul: #243 - 245.
* Year One: #404 - 407.
* A Death in the Family: #426 - 429
* Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying #440 - 442
* Knightfall #491 - 500
* Batman: Prodigal #512 - 514
* Batman: No Man's Land #563 - 574
* Hush #608 - 619
* Broken City #620 - 625
* Batman and Son #655 - 658
* Batman R.I.P. #676 - 681

Don't start with RIP. Batman isn't 'dead', he's just been transported back in time with no memory.... but he's getting out of this.


http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2...nrobw01cvr.jpg

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2...nrobw02cvr.jpg


http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2...nrobw03cvr.jpg

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2..._robw04cvr.jpg

To sorta explain those pics-

Look at this brilliant catch from CBR-

Source

Or check out DCs graphic novel page: http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/

Many Batman things to choose from there. Make sure to check under "G" for Gotham Central as well, because that was a pretty awesome series.

Tim Robbins is set to join the Green Lantern feature cast as Senator Hammond, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog. The Senator is the father of villain Hector Hammond (played by Peter Sarsgaard, see “Green Lantern Villain Cast”).



Other cast members include Blake Lively as Carol Ferris (see “Gossip Girl Is Carol Ferris”) and Ryan Reynolds in the title role (see “Green Lantern Gets a Date”).



The film is set to start shooting in March in New Orleans (if it’s cleaned up after the post-Superbowl parties by then).

Thanks for the help there guys. Is it possible to collect the Graphic Novels in a straightforward way? I don't really wanna be spiralling off into spin-offs and crossovers if I can help it.

Tim Robbins is an excellent actor. Should be good. Still think Ryan Reynolds is a horrible choice for Hal Jordan. Especially considering how perfect he'd be for Guy Gardner.

This. 1,000 times THIS.

Yeah, you can. Most trades 'are within its own book' collected story arcs. Most of them. Crossovers just add to the story from other comic/character perspectives.

Or Ryan as Wally West, at least how the DCAU portrayed him. Happy for Ryan professionally, with him punching his ticket to the JLA movie, but I imagined other guys being Hal Jordan - and so many other characters fit for Ryan. Kyle Rayner (if he's gonna be a GL), aforementioned Guy Gardner, Wally West (that he was so going to do after Blade Trinity with David Goyer), others that I may forget.

They could save face by casting David Duchovny as The Question. Just cause.

XL, if you want to read one of the best Batman stories (although it takes place outside "current continuity"), you need to read The Dark Knight Returns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_Returns

Or would they use the Renee Montoya version? If so, I could maybe see Janeane Garafolo in the role.

Are you serious?

Which part?


I'll tell you tomorrow. I'm signing off for the night.

I would hurt you if you used the Renee version of the Question. Persobally I vote for Jeffery Coombs. He was kinda...perfect.

Right, OK. So, where do I start?

Well what are you looking for?

"Classic" stories?
Non-Continuity stories?
Current stories?

Basically something I can follow fairly easily in terms of collecting (i.e. no cross-overs or spin offs). I'm looking to collect so non-continuity isn't a problem (i.e. looking for something continuous that I can follow). Something similar in story/styling to the recent films and/or game preferably.

Check out some lists on Amazon. They've got tons:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Batman-Chr...res_rpli_alt_3

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/lis...=cm_pdp_lm_all

Read

Year One
Arkham Asylum
Long Halloween
Dark Victory
Hush vol 1 &2
The Dark Knight Returns


In that order.

Don't really care what you're looking for, Dark Knight Returns is a must have.

Read Superman Red Son while you're at it, because Batman's awesome in it. Plus it's awesome in general

Honestly think Dark Knight Returns is way overrated. Its good, but isn't the be all and end all of Batman like some people think it is. (Not saying people here think that, but I've seen people who do)

I think Red Son plainly and clearly states the relationship between DC's Trinity - Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. That trap scene was great. I love Red Son.

Warner Bros. has confirmed that The Losers, which is based on Andy Diggle’s Vertigo comic, has been moved from its original debut date of April 9th to June 4th. With Fox’s The A-Team opening just a week later on June 11th, the move sets up a box office battle royale between competing teams of highly-trained Special Forces soldiers who find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Comparisons between these two films were inevitable, but this scheduling move could well end up backfiring for one or both of the films.



Movie scheduling is an art and an extremely difficult one at that. One of the few ironclad rules that the studios have come up with for this often treacherous process is “Don’t compete with yourself,” and this is the stricture behind the scheduling change for The Losers.



Warner Bros.’ Avatar-fueled decision to make its Clash of the Titans into a 3-D film via a computer process (see “Clash of the Titans in 3-D”) had consequences. By opting for 3-D at the last minute, Warners was forced to move back the opening of Clash of the Titans by one week to April 2nd to accommodate the 3-D processing. This left only a one-week gap between Clash and The Losers, which stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans and Idris Elba. Warners decided to move The Losers to June for a face-to-face combat with The A-Team, which had long since staked out its June 11th opening date. This could be a risky move for Warners since The A-Team, thanks to its long exposure on TV, is the far more well-known property, but it could also allow The Losers to steal some of The A-Team’s thunder.

?:

Rumors start up again for Batman 3's possibly plot and characters. Being that this would be the umpteenth time we've heard about the Riddler's inclusion, I'm beginning to find this factual. Riddler would be a villain right up Nolan's thematic alley, and the videogame Arkham Asylum's audio recording show that he can be just as disturbed and unsettling as The Joker - even if he isn't as iconic. Now let's address these other rumors...

The appearance of Babara Gordon and Dick Grayson sounds like hogwash, but not of the cameo table. Nolan went on record saying Robin's not swinging in his series, but a cameo would be fair. Barbara was in fact in The Dark Knight, held captive with her brother at the film's climax. She was a child there so yeah... no sidekicks anytime soon.

The mention of Lex Luthor was interesting. With Nolan overseeing a Superman reboot it wouldn't be out of the question for him to play with his newly extended sandbox of characters. If he introduces his Luthor early in Batman 3 and let's his vision loose in a proper Superman movie, I can buy that. Especially if Nolan presents the white-collar criminal Luthor (also in Nolan's thematic alley), perhaps an antagonist to Bruce Wayne?

All rumors, though.

I haven't really been following this thread, so sorry if I'm a bit off-topic here, but just wanted to say I always thought Batman 'Hush' was way overrated. Great artwork (Jim Lee right?) but overall thought the story was kinda lame and just an excuse to get loadsa different characters into it.

War Games on the other hand is truly epic IMO.

I haven't read the entirety of Hush but I do have all of War Games and it is an epic Batman story.

The whole war games/ war drums saga is awesome.

Black Mask is so great in it.

Return of Hush and Heart of Hush stories are better than the original Hush story in my opinion.

I would agree with that, but I like Hush better anyway, just for the art alone.

I'm just about read Long Halloween.

Now what's a good Superman graphic novel to read? I suppose I'm looking for like a classic story?

I liked 'Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey' I think it was called. It's quite old now, but to be honest I never really cared much for Superman unless he was against Doomsday.

Non continuity Superman stuff:

Superman: Red Son - What would happen in Superman's rocket landed in Soviet Russia?

Kingdom Come - Set in "the future", where Superman has given up. (he comes back)

Superman: Secret Identity - Set in the "real world", where a dude named Clark Kent discovers he actually does have the powers of Superman

In continuity stuff:

Superman: Birthright - Ok, so this actually isn't in continuity anymore. An origin for the "modern age" Superman, that was retconned away less than two years later. Awesome story though.

As for classic, you can't go wrong with The Death and Return of Superman.

Superman: For All Seasons is also good and is done by the same people who did Long Halloween.

Yeah I will def read Red Son eventually. I think right now even though it isn't what I said I wanted I might go with Whatever happened to the Man of tomorrow. Since I really like Alan Moore.

Did Superman Returns take any stuff from any Graphic Novels?

I think the Death/Return story is what I might end up getting first.