Moe Lane

Via AoSHQ:

Yeah, I’m going to get sucked into this. Can’t Wish List it, alas.

The whole plot was more or less ripped off of from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, or at least the central conceit was.  Add to that the simultaneous profound betrayal felt by Batman at a crucial moment in the movie – one that pretty much called into question the very pillars of his emotional stability as Bruce Wayne – and the final moments that evoked so perfectly Ken Hite’s thesis in The Man Who Shot Joseph Curwen, and you have a surprisingly Lovecraft-inspired movie.  I say ‘surprisingly’ because the movie is in itself not actually all that horrific.

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…I’d be a lot more nerdrage about it if I actually had a good candidate for Batman.  It’s a hard role to cast.

Moe Lane

PS: My wife said Will Smith.  I said no.  My wife said point taken, but Will Smith ten years ago, playing Spider-man.  I said …THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME.

PPS: You know who else is AWESOME?  Richard Dreyfuss. Via CNN:

You read for a part, you feel good about it, you feel confident, then they cast Ben Affleck.

— Richard Dreyfuss (@RichardDreyfuss) August 23, 2013

When it comes to WHAT MUST BE the essential nature and conflict in the upcoming Batman/Superman movie, take Jon’s words as if they had come from my throat, with my voice. I mean no disrespect to Nolan, mind, but Jon’s point is well-taken:

In Miller’s world, Superman and Batman embody two polar views of the human condition. Superman believes in the perfectibility of man and the eventual triumph of the City of God over the City of Man. Batman does not. In fact, he views even the City of Man as a tenuous achievement, and one which must be constantly defended against the depredations of human nature. He believes in the Enlightenment, but not in its inevitability. And because of this, he believes that an übermensch such as Superman is at least as much a threat to civilization as he is its savior.

This is satisfying in a way that using the Nolan Batman could not be. Christopher Nolan’s Batman exists in a very different universe that Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. A movie that sought to bring them together would struggle for coherence, because Nolan’s Batman would ultimately welcome a Superman. But a Superman-Batman movie must have tension between the two characters if it’s going to have anything interesting to say.

Although I will add this: Nolan’s Batman likewise labors under the burden of being, at the end, alone. There can only be one Dark Knight in Nolan’s universe at a time. Heck, the entire plot of The Dark Knight Rises would be nonsensical in the DCU.  But Miller’s Batman can live, easily enough, in a wider super-heroic milieu.

Moe Lane

This is a true thing.

The world doesn’t end until the Batman says it does.

— The Batman (@God_Damn_Batman) December 21, 2012

I find this… disturbing.

In a cute sort of way. (more…)

It’s pretty clear from the narration of events that he and his team (this story is from the 1980s, when O’Brien was a member of the infamous Harvard Lampoon) succeeded. I don’t think that they were planning to keep Burt Ward’s Robin costume; in fact, I’m getting the impression that Ward thought that this entire thing was both hysterical, and flattering (I’d say that it was both, myself).

I have no idea why I wanted to get this on the record, either.  It’s just been kind of bugging me.

Batman and Evil, Ben Domenech.

The Man Who Shot Joseph Curwin, Ken Hite.

Postulate: If HP Lovecraft had lived and gotten a job with DC he would have been one Hell of a writer of Batman comics*.

Discuss.

Moe Lane

*Admittedly, I’m kind of stealing at least the skeleton of that postulate from Ken.  Hopefully, he won’t mind.

H/T Pejman.

“CONDOR GRIP!”

This is an old story – one that Jim Geraghty (via the Morning Jolt) reminisced about while noting the time that Mitt Romney saved a bunch of people* from drowning – that relates the time that Mitt Romney had somebody take a swing at him on a flight.  Supposedly, Romney had asked the guy in front of him to put his seat up before takeoff (Romney and his wife flew economy class, by the way**), the guy swung on him, situation resolved by local security forces.  Nothing unusual, right? …No, that’s just what THEY want you to think. There’s a conflicting report. (more…)

Apparently it’s going to be Geek Friday here at Chez MoeLane.com.

Via Do Gooder Press.  I have a complex reaction to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  On the one hand, it’s brilliant.  On the other hand… well, the Internet has had many the discussion about whether this and/or Watchmen permanently sent the comic book genre spiraling down into an existential pit of horror, despair, and absurd poses.

On the gripping hand, The Dark Knight Strikes Again frankly sucked.

“Yes, sir, I’m sure that you are.  You also don’t have tags on your car.”

That’s… fair, by the way.  Admittedly, a license plate on your Lamborghini quasi-Batmobile detracts from the general image, but we all must accept that there will be restrictions to our art in this fallen world.