Category Archives: Batman

A Brief History of the Knight and Squire

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Man, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it? But with the announcement that Captain Britain and MI:13 writer Paul Cornell’s going to be writing a six-issue mini about them, I’ve utilized my knowledge of Batmanology to offer up a crash course in the Knight and Squire, from 1951 to today!

This was originally meant to be one of my shorter posts, but you can see how well that plan turned out. In any case, I’m crazy excited about this: I love the Knight and Squire in both concept and execution. Doing a story about them has always been one of my dreams, but since that phone call from DC isn’t exactly what you’d call “likely,” Cornell makes a fantastic choice to take the helm. I’m really looking forward to it!

DARPA Launches Projects BaTMAN and RoBIN, I Respond In Kind

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As someone who resides squarely in the overlap on the Venn diagram of Batman fans and people who are really interested in future science guns, I was interested to find out that the Pentagon has begun funding two projects codenamed “BaTMAN” and “RoBIN,” and decided to offer up a few of my own suggestions as to where they could go next!

If whoever named those projects ever happens to read this, then I salute you for your use of “Robustness,” but I’m pretty sure Project COMMISSIONERGORDON tops it. And that’s real.

The Top 5 Episodes of Batman Beyond

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I can make animated .gifs now. Ho ho ho.

Anyway, if there’s one thing I know about the Internet, it’s that it loves Top X lists, which is why today, I’m celebrating Batman Beyond by recapping the top five episodes!

I love the show, but man, watching it all back-to-back-to-back-to-back this past week, I was reminded that it is a pretty dang dark show. But also pretty great.

Batman XXX, or: The Dark Knight Comes Again

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Today at ComicsAlliance, it’s the most anticipated review of a porn parody of the year when I deliver 1600 hot, throbbing words about Batman XXX!

It is, as you might expect, probably not a review that you want to get caught reading at your workplace, but there’s nothing pornographic about the review itself. There is one picture of Evan Stone and Kimberly Kane in mid-coitus, but their lady-and-gentlemen-bits are cropped out, and CA’s rules against profanity meant that I had yet another opportunity to write the word “shtupping,” which I just do not get to do as much as I’d like.

In any event, I actually did my best to contextualize it and provide a good review. I know, you’re shocked: “Chris Sims? Writing a pseudo-brainy essay about something silly and ultimately inconsequential? ALLOW ME TO RETRIEVE MY MONOCLE!” To which I say “Shut up, jerk.”

I do wonder, though… does this mean I’m one a’ them sex bloggers now?

My 18 Favorite Batman Panels Ever (Today)

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Today at ComicsAlliance, I’m celebrating the release of Batman #700 by digging through the archive to find 18 of my favorite Batman panels ever, presented in a fairly arbitrary order for your viewing pleasure!

As is often the case with these things, it’s just a small sampling of panels I love (truth be told, I could’ve put panels of Neal Adams Batman wrecking dudes and calling it a day, but I wanted to have some variety), so I’m expecting plenty of You Forgots and whiny No Love Fors, and I’ll admit that if you ask me again next week, I’ll probably have a completely different set.

Hey, maybe Laura’d let me do that. Every Wednesday: “Here’s ten panels from Batman comics I like.” Sounds like a great idea to me!

The ComicsAlliance Roundtable: Batman #700

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As most readers of this blog are probably well aware by this point, Batman #700 hit the shelves yesterday, and it was our choice for this week’s ComicsAlliance Roundtable, where Laura Hudson, David Brothers, David Uzumeri, Caleb Goellner and I sit around with our Cranky Old Man hats on to talk about how this issue is more than a little bit of a letdown.

I probably come off a little more negatively in the roundtable than I actually feel; aside from some of the art, this issue isn’t terrible, but by all rights, it should be a lot better. At the same time, I re-read Batman #s 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 this week to prepare for it, and as a celebration of Batman, it’s certainly not worse than any of those, but it’s no better either. Well, except #600, where Ed Brubaker does an amazing job creating new “lost” Batman stories with gorgeous, faux-Sprang and Novick art. But the main story holds that one back its fair share. And #100, which tells the story of Batmantown.

What I was hoping for with this one was a big, grand Batman adventure, and while that’s what was delivered, it just feels–and I can’t believe I’m saying this–a little too rooted in what Morrison’s been doing in the title. Which, I suppose, is largely because Morrison wrote it. Either way, it didn’t do it for me, although there are individual pieces of it that I like a whole lot.

So go! Read! Thrill to David Uzumeri correcting me not once, but twice on Batman lore and chill as I plot my revenge!