Special: BATMAN # 13 Dramatic Reading

 Here is an experiment I tried with both BAC of  Laid Back Comics and Xaos when the book first came out. After much deliberation, I decided to FINALLY release this. There was only 3 of us doing the voice so I am sorry if this could be better but I still think we did a good job and it was a LOT of fun. And now the dramatic reading/riffing of Batman # 13 - Seraph/Frankie Rodriguez

Rumor or truth? You decide!! Glapion was fired!!

Rumor or truth? You decide!!

Remember this is just a rumor and I heard it through the grapevine. If the creators or people behind this would like to add their input it would be great, if not this is what I heard.

Rumor has it that Jonathan Glapion was fired from Batman when a fan had pointed out a ugly drawn face in one of the panels within a certain Batman issue, over twitter. This actually agitated Capullo so much when said fan had pointed this out, that he would turn around blame the inker for doing a poor job. Eventually the Inker Glapion knew this would be a disaster if he did not defend himself, and could potentially make him lose his job or prohibit him from getting future gigs.. Thus he had posted many of the original pages he had inked from, thus showing that the ugly face originated by Capullo’s poorly drawn Robin face. This only added insult to injury and was the seeds of Jonathan Glapion’s departure on the title.  

A few months would go by from what I learned, that eventually Glapion thought that the bad blood had passed, but eventually he would learn when Capullo would talk about how great his art would look colored. This made Glapion think he better go check his dropbox. So when Glapion checked his dropbox he noted there was no art. Finally he would contact his editor about where the pages because it had been nearly 2 weeks and no pages had come in. Well he would be told that moment that he was off the book.

Meanwhile Miki didn’t renew with Marvel, and he had contacted his old pal Capullo saying he wanted in Batman to make the big books, and this is when Capullo seized this moment to get Glapion booted from the title due to the insult.

The bad thing here is that Glapion had been friends with both Greg Capullo and Danny Miki, and had even helped Miki start his Inking Studio years earlier, but now  he was backstabbed by his two friends over this entire incident because egos were bruised.

Luckily for Glapion, as soon as he was let go he got a hold of Jim Lee, and was given carte blanche on any title he wanted to work on or so says my source. J

Jake Estrada

CoW: Cover of the Week 2/28/13

Batman Inc. #8

There isn't too much to say about this cover, outside of the obvious. But it's taking home a Golden Udder for what it represents, more than the artistic skill and sweat that created it. It's very Spectre-esque.  Damian, floating there like an angel and an open view into the darkness. It's poetic. As is the lettering on 'R.I.P.' If that doesn't get you to look into this issue. I don't know what will outside of a few spoilers.

Laid Back Comics: Batman Inc. #8

To say that below my following review will be full of spoilers is pretty redundant at this point seeing as we got the new from the New York post about the big moment in it. We will get to that a little bit later as there is a good amount of story that happened as well.

Batman Inc. has seemed like a slow beast getting to this point of the Leviathan Story line but we are soon getting to the end and here is one of the, if not the darkest chapter in it. Do not be fooled by the title of the series, this is a straight Damian story from start to finish. While the rest of the Batman Inc group is struggling to fight their way to get to Batman, currently trapped, it is Robin who comes flying in to suddenly even the odds, taking the fight straight to the tower. And while this is going on, it shows how far Damian Wayne has gone as a character in the books. He might have first shown up and pushed the idea he was ‘the proper’ person to become Batman and take control of his legacy, here it is more about wanting to save his father and call off his mother in her actions.

The best scene in the whole Book is when Nightwing and Robin get to work together again even for the briefest of moments. They lay down the feelings on how much they meant to one another. It is a wonderful written scene harking back to the period of time Nightwing was Batman. Times almost forgotten now save for Morrison who wrote it. It also has this wonder action quality to it all with them sitting and talking this out while hail of gunfire is upon them, before moving out with smoke bombs and classic 60’s style fight sound affects right out of Adam West show.  But, with the knowledge we knew going into this, it was bitter sweet as we knew what would be coming very soon.

Everything this issue had leaded up to was Damian fighting against his much larger self, The Heretic. And it is a brutal one at that. It was more than really just a drawn out fight, this move was enough of a distraction for the group to grab what Heretic was holding and stop Talia if only for a brief moment. And Damian went down swinging and insulting his mother’s followers. And hopefully in this last effort try and convince her to stop this brutal fighting between this and his father, though that may have cost him his life in doing so.

The art work put forth by Chris Burnham in these last few pages is what sells this as not just some would be comic stunt, but a genuine moment in the history of Batman. Yet another tragedy in an already tragedy filled world of Bruce Wayne. And while the cynics of the world may have this off as another Robin dying, we soon forget this was a blood relative of Bruce, and the last time he lost one of these was when his parents died on that night in Crime Alley.

While the artwork though out by Burnham was all around wonderful, there is a credit to Jason Master who did a few pages as well. And while there is a moment where he tries to use the same style, it is slightly noticeable in the two change overs. It isn’t bad art work in any shape, but if you are flipping through it would be little jarring.

The whole series and death is very sad, Damian when introduced was an unlikeable character at first, but the more he was used and groomed under Alfred, Dick, and then later Bruce he was a fresh voice to the Batman Family, he was accepted as well by the fans slowly. So for him to be ‘gone’ is a sad one even it was planned for a while. Will he stay; well I don’t want to be one of the few who says it will only be a matter of time before his return happens. But, never can really say in the world of comics anymore. Though if this is the finale story of this Robin, then it would be a fitting one.

-TT-

OVERALL 8.5 out of 10

Bryan "BAC" Clendening

Twitter: BAClend

Comic News: Robin Damian Wayne Will DIE!

  Funny thing happened on the way to writing a storyline. Damian Wayne had been introduced at the beginning of his run on Batman about 7 years ago now. Time has flew by. Initially, Morrison had stated that he was gonna kill Damian at the end of his run. And that will come to past.

   Leaked by DC Comics themselves, Morrison will kill Damian Wayne, the current Robin, in Batman Incorporated # 8, also finishing off his run with the Dark Knight. Damian Wayne, who is Bruce Wayne's & Talia Al Ghul's son, will be MURDERED, according to multiple sources. And this will not end the Batman & Robin title. It will merely switch up to a team up book for a while.

   Confirmed by Batman & Robin writer Peter Tomasi, Bruce Wayne will go through the 5 stages of mourning. Fresh from the end of Death of the Family, Bruce's own allies have decided to keep their distance from him ... even Jason Todd having a burned face. Damian Wayne will die at the age of 10 years old.

CoW: Cover of the Week 6/13/12

by Darryll "YTC" Carter

Batman & Robin #10

Golden Udder Winner

       I have been waiting for this issue to come out so I could post it as cover of the week. Incidentally, it was almost beat out by the X-men Legacy cover featuring Frenzy. But the powerhouse and brick-house that she is, was not enough to stand up against a cover with; Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian on the cover. Not to mention the cover is letting on that Tim and Damian's hate and more hate relationship may have been revived. As of post new 52 it seemed to have gone with the birds, or Robins in this case.

X-Men Legacy #268
Second Place

COMICS ON SCREEN: THE ROBIN MOVIE

The Robin Movie: An Unhealthy Obsession
Film by Saul Kramer
Review by Hector Ramirez




So Frankie and I were enjoying Free Comic Book Day when I’m approached by one Mr. Saul Kramer. He had noticed me in my Robin caped t-shirt and figured me a Robin fan. So, he came up to me and pitched this movie that he posted on youtube to me. Well, I went online and looked it up.

Ok. Jay is a young man whose father left him with nothing more than an obsession with Robin the Boy Wonder. None of his friends understand why he likes Robin so much and the neighborhood bullies don’t make life much easier. Jay gets sick of the bullies and decides to put on his father's old Robin costume and take care of the bullies himself. Of course, he didn’t stop to think that all those to take on the mantle of Robin went through vigorous training whereas he thought he could simply beat the guys with a broomstick. His sister-in- law explains to him that he took things too far; that being kind and generous is heroic in its own right.

I’ll start off by saying it was well made for an independent film. The acting wasn’t bad and the camera work was great. The theme “you don’t have to be a superhero to be a superhero” was pretty cliché. If I recall correctly, it’s the slogan for the current DC charity campaign. The story was kind of weak.  It was like the beginning of Kick-Ass; a comic loving nerd tries to be a superhero and gets beaten senseless. At least he wasn’t crippled like Kick-Ass. Another thing, his sister-in-law tells him he went too far; yet him standing up to the bully was her idea. And I may be knit picking but he goes on and on about how Dick Grayson is the best Robin yet all his posters and comics are of Tim Drake or Damien Wayne and his costume was similar to Jason Todd’s. All in all, it was good for what it was but not great. I give it a Tim Drake Robin (3 out of 5). Next week, I take a look at Tokusatsu Spiderman as part of our year long celebration. Until then friends, keep clashing.