Hello and welcome back to DOOM!’s exploration of the Comic Book film genre hosted by Aaron Fever and JJ Hawkins.

This month we We take a look at the second of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series The Dark Knight. Widely thought of as the greatest comic movie of all time, our heroes have been somewhat reticent to take on this one. But eventually, fears must be faced, and although this may not be the commentary you want, it is the one you need…

You will believe a man can turn his head!

And although Heath Ledger is undoubtedly the stand out performance in this movie…

DO NOT underestimate the power of Eckhart and his dimple!

Download this episode (right click and save)

View the RSS feed!

The final 18, probably containing the best and the worst of the lot.

Looking back, I really should have chosen books that I was going to buy a bit more sparingly. Ending up with 19 out of 52 seems like far too much. Most of my friends are keeping it under 10 books. I like to pretend that I’m Mr. Moneybags (read: outdated reference to a rich guy) but I work a part-time job and have bills and really probably can’t afford all of these books. That is the sacrifice I make for you, faithful reader. I do this all for you…and me. Well, mostly for me. Well…yeah, all me.

35. Grifter #1
Written by NATHAN EDMONDSON
Art by CAFU

I really liked Who is Jake Ellis? when I could get a hold of it, but its the only exposure that I’ve had to Edmondson. Cafu, I’ve had even less exposure to, only remembering him from his cover work on Superman and Action comics, which, admittedly, I liked quite a lot, but I’ve not seen his interior work outside of what a quick google search shows me. I’m a bit hesitant about picking up a series with such big unknowns.

That being said, I’m a bit of a sucker for Grifter. When I was about 10 or so, I inherited some of my brother’s collection of comics. It wasn’t the largest collection on Earth and it was a bit piecemeal due to rare visits to the comic book store with our uncle, but I loved WildC.A.T.S. with a foolish passion. My comic book knowledge at that point was sparse enough that I didn’t see where the team was pulling from existing comic ideas, I just thought that they were cool dudes and looked awesome. Its the same childish passion that made me tolerate and even enjoy the Green Lantern movie on at first that makes me want to read this book so very much. Grifter was particularly interesting because he didn’t really have powers, his costume was fairly simple, and he was a loner. I quite liked pretending to be him in my younger years. I will pick up this book because it has a hell of a lot of potential, an almost guarantee of being an enjoyable read, and not a lot of risk of being bad.

Verdict: DOOM!

36. Legion of Superheroes #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by FRANCIS PORTELA

Paul Levitz is a name that’s nearly synonymous with the Legion of Superheroes with about 100 under his belt. He has written consistently solid comic books in a company that often goes awry. Portela has worked with Levitz before on Legion, so I think we have a good team here, but I’m not really a fan of Portela’s art, which doesn’t win this title any points.

To me, Legion has always been a book that’s easy to drop. Its always fun and it is always written pretty well, but its just not a story that I could ever get invested in. Even less so now with the reboot making everybody’s back-story so unclear and having so little confirmation that this will be the team that is familiar or a splinter group as it seems it will be. Covert-Ops is obviously a theme in this reboot. There are at least 7 comics out of the 52 that are advertised as such, or some other vague sort of secret agent team doing a job that nobody else can do. Lots of secret, very specific villainy going on post-Flashpoint. I might pick this up if it gets good enough reviews, or I get one of my vehement friends telling me how good it is.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

37. O.M.A.C. #1
Written by DAN DIDIO and KEITH GIFFEN
Art by KEITH GIFFEN and SCOTT KOBLISH

The only thing at this point can make me read a book that DiDio wrote would be morbid curiosity. He hasn’t really done something that would draw me to a title he’s writing and his recent actions and words have confirmed that he’s the craziest person at DC. I do immensely regret that a writer and artist of Keith Giffen’s quality is attached to this book too. Koblish isn’t overly impressive, in my estimation, but even if he was amazing, I doubt I’d pick this book up.

O.M.A.C. hasn’t been something that I’ve enjoyed reading in comics. I don’t know how or why the heads at DC decided that this book deserved to be done rather than continuing/rebooting Red Robin, or Power Girl, or Superman/Batman, or Adventure Comics, or even Tiny Titans, or maybe even BRING BACK STEPHANIE BROWN YOU ASSHATS!.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

38. Batman: The Dark Knight #1
Written by DAVID FINCH
Art by DAVID FINCH and RICHARD FRIEND

I feel like I’ve talked about this before. Maybe that its the same situation as any Tony Daniel book that dips in quality of both art and story because the one man is working both jobs, but Finch is also notoriously late. I still haven’t seen any of the last few issues of The Dark Knight that he promised that he was going to finish before the reboot, and after having read his other The Dark Knight #1 not too long ago, I’m not looking forward to the story.

This is a Bat book that doesn’t need to be made. There’s better ideas that could have been put into action and better teams that could be doing it. Finch is a great artist, and a good writer, but not a great writer/artist.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

39. All-Star Western #1
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by MORITAT

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti knoww how to write period work, they wrote the hell out of Jonah Hex and they did a pretty good job on the Freedom Fighters.Moritat has done a damn good job pulling art duties on Elephantmen and the less known Outlaw Territory. This book has a good team on it, and I can find nothing that says it won’t be a top quality book.

I do, however, have little interest in reading a Western comic book. I’ve never been too much of a fan of Western’s in general (I know how un-American it is to not like Cowboys) but they’re just not my game. I’m a sci-fi kid, and I just don’t know if I care enough to read this. This might end up being a book that I try out from a friend. I want to read it, its just probably going to end up being a casualty of budget.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

40. Justice League Dark #1
Written by PETER MILLIGAN
Art by MIKEL JANIN

Peter Milligan, yes. Mikel Janin, I don’t know. I really have no idea what he’s done before. His raw pencils and cover work is great stuff, but I haven’t seen any of his interiors. I hope the quality carries over. I do see Heavy Metal on his credits which is either a good thing or a very bad thing. I’ll have to wait and see.

I would pick this book up based on Milligan writing Constantine, but the fact that the book also has Shade and Zatanna put it immediately on my pull list. It seems like a great idea for a comic, and it also seems like a comic that won’t get the attention it deserves and will likely be a book that dies a quick death. I want to read it as long as I can.

Verdict: DOOM!

41. Demon Knights #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by DIOGENES NEVES and OCLAIR ALBERT

Cornell is a damn fine writer. I’ll give everything he writes the benefit of the doubt until it proves itself to be less than good. The team of artists were a close second on having the best names of the reboot, but are also artists that I haven’t seen a lot of. Albert did a lot of cover work on Green Lantern that I’ve seen, and Neves I just can’t bring to mind anything of his I’ve seen. Google tells me he does solid work, so I’ll believe that.

The idea for the book had me worried at first, mostly because I heard rumors that it wasn’t, in fact, Etragian on the cover but some other demon. It didn’t make sense. It also taught me that I should pay less attention to rumors. I am glad to see Etragian in a more regular station in the DCU. This also seems like a book that they might be able to pull together with Justice League Dark very easily as they’re both on “The Edge” and that might be the idea that saves one or both of them if it comes to cancellations. This is another book that I want to read for as long as I can, until DC management realizes that they have a good thing going and decides to get rid of it.

Verdict: DOOM!

42. Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by ALBERTO PONTICELLI

I’ve already spoken of Jeff Lemire, so I won’t do it again here. Ponticelli, I know from Unknown Soldier and therefore will trust him unreservedly…but there is those Heavy Metal credits again.

This is one of the few Flashpoint books that I picked up (the others being the main series and Batman). Mostly because I was a fan of Lemire, but it also seemed like it was a bit more interesting than the other ones. After finishing the 3 parter, I’m not so sure that I want to read this. It didn’t sell me. The team that it developed was lost, and Frankenstein wasn’t treated as a main character or even a character with a distinct personality. I’m hesitant about this one.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

43. Resurrection Man #1
Written by DAN ABNETT and ANDY LANNING
Art by FERNANDO DAGNINO

If one thing can guarantee I’ll look at a book, its seeing DnA on the cover. Their Marvel cosmic work, for a while, was the best thing that I was reading. Annihilation is still one of my favorite arcs and I was absolutely frustrated with Marvel and the comic-buying public in general when the cosmic line was cancelled and these two are machines, boasting credits longer than most writers can dream of, so there’s no worries about scheduling. Dagnino did a great job on Generation Lost and I think that this will be a great title with him on it.

I don’t know a lot about Resurrection Man. I know that he is an older property and what I’ve read about him seems like it can make for some damn good comics. This was one of the few comics that really killed me, because the more I read about it, the more I really want to get it, which is really putting a strain on my budget. I suffer so much for you, so that you can know comics vicariously through me.

Verdict: DOOM!

44. I, Vampire #1
Written by JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV
Art by ANDREA SORRENTINO

No clue what to say about this team. I’ve heard a lot of people excited about Fialkov but I haven’t really seen why. Sorrentino gets a lot of acclaim too but all that’s credited is Gears of War…so there’s that. I just don’t know

The story doesn’t seem very compelling to me either. Vampires are starting to frustrate me. Guillermo Del Toro made me love them again with The Strain, but forcing them into the main DCU, like Marvel did with X-Men, just doesn’t feel lovely enough for me to pick this one up.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

45. Voodoo #1
Written by RON MARZ
Art by SAMI BASRI

Ron Marz will always have a little bit of my heart, a little bit that will always try to convince the rest of me that he can do no wrong.That piece is not always correct, but it is very insistent and I usually don’t have the energy to beat it in an argument. He has this bit of my heart because he created Kyle Rayner, and because he performed an ancient ritual to steal that bit of my heart and put it in a jar that he keeps in his bottom drawer. Basri, I like because of Power Girl, but I really dislike Witchblade for some reason, and both he and Marz have done a lot of work on that.

A concept that I can’t understand about Voodoo and Grifter is that Grifter never had that extrasensory perception of beings, that was more of Voodoo’s gag. She could detect the Daemonites. Grifter could use his senses a lot better. Even wikipedia knows that much. It makes me wonder why they’ve given him that power. I’m interested to see why she’s on the run though.The promos imply that she’s probably doing her Daemonite thing and the people she kills are really just them in disguise, but I’ll pick it up to find out.

Verdict: DOOM!

46. Static Shock #1
Written by SCOTT McDANIEL and JOHN ROZUM
Art by SCOTT McDANIEL and JONATHAN GLAPION

As I said to my good buddy ol’ pal Colin, Scott McDaniel hasn’t done a lot of stuff that I’ve been interested in. His writing credits are sparse to say the least, and while I’ve liked a bit of the Nightwing and Batman work he’s done, his art isn’t enough to make me trust him as a writer. Rozum, on the other hand, wrote Zombi, which I liked very much and wish was still around. Frazier Irving is also a talent that I’m sad is missing from DC’s roster. I very much hope that Rozum gets the lions share of the writing duties. And while Galpion has done mostly inking work,and very good ink work at that, I wonder why they need two men for this team when Rozum could probable handle the writing on his own with McDaniel doing the art. Its a funny kind of system DC is working with.

As for Static, I really want to read this book. To be more accurate, I really want to want to read this book. There is little interest for me here though. They haven’t shown me anything that would be different from how they treated him in the special earlier this year or any of the last few times they’ve tried to bring him into the DCU and not known how to handle him as a character. It really makes me miss Dwayne McDuffie.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

47. Hawk And Dove #1
Written by STERLING GATES
Art and Cover by ROB LIEFELD

I’ve been reading Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost via a friend and haven’t really been impressed. How much of that can be contributed to Johns’ creative insight forcing him to push the character(s) in certain directions is unknown, but it just hasn’t been very great. Rob Liefeld…is a walking joke. Sadly, he is a walking joke that consistently sells comic books. Much like I loved WildC.A.T.S. when I was younger, I loved Youngblood and Youngblood still has those characters that I’ll love. It does not, however, have art that I love. All I see are footless angry people with lots of detail lines for no good reason (read:because detail lines = awesome).

Hawk and Dove, similarly, fill me with little confidence. If DC wasn’t putting out O.M.A.C., I would call this the worst book out of the 52. At least this book has the potential to sell some copies. To be fair, I think its a good idea to give Hawk and Dove a fresh start as superheroes, because I’ve read back, way back into the DC catalog and I still don’t know exactly why Hawk and Dove have always been treated as these absolutely pivotal characters during big events and then disappear for a good 8 years before they’re needed again. I’m going to be avoiding this one like the plague that it is.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

48. Sgt. Rock And The Men Of War #1
Written by IVAN BRANDON
Art by TOM DERENICK

I’m not sure if the title is going to be just Men of War or Sgt. Rock and the Men of War, but I like the latter. It at least pays homage to the book and it might bring in some nostalgia business. Men of War just sounds too generic and, honestly, not very comic book. I’ve never read Viking or Doc Savage, so I’m going off of Brandon’s Streets of Gotham books which were, actually, pretty good. I know Derenick did JLA with Bob Harras back in the late 90’s which were some fun comics and I know he did work on Countdown and Trinity, but I can’t quite pick him out of the swath of writers on both of those.

This Sgt. Rock is not the WWII Frank Rock. This is his grandson Joe, in modern day, fighting in the “battle-scarred landscape carved by the DCU’s Super-Villains”. I think its a great concept, just like Gotham Central or Damage Control for Marvel, where the average people deal with superhuman problems. I’m not as much of a fan of them being “contractors” instead of soldiers, but I suppose they do need a certain amount of freedom of action that military life wouldn’t offer. I can imagine some great stories coming out of a military unit trying to contain a minor villain or a secondary villain while a superhero takes on a major threat. This book will likely be a casualty of budget, though.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

49. Stormwatch #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA

I want this book to be so much better than I think it’s actually going to be. Cornell, I’ve already shown my love for on Demon Knight, but it might not be enough to bring me to this title. I absolutely adore Warren Ellis’ run on Stormwatch back on Wildstorm as well as The Authority and Planetary, but again, it might not have a place in DC as it stands. Miguel Sepulveda has drawn some of the best splash pages I’ve seen in recent years during The Thanos Imperative and he’s definitely an artist on the scale that Stormwatch needs.

However. HOWEVER, this book doesn’t really need to exist. This is, again, and excuse for Jim Lee to keep his properties alive and shoehorn big heroes like Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor and Adam One into the main DCU. It all feels unnecessary and I think that every book in the 52 is going to suffer because they’re trying so very hard to be unified. I like Martian Manhunter, but if you have these other universe characters and they never deal with the same problems that the other big heroes deal with, then its still just Wildstorm and DC doing their own, isolated thing. The only thing that will keep me from getting this is how very unsure I am about the story. Maybe on issue 2 or 3 I’ll pick it up, but not now.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

50. Deathstroke #1
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT

This is probably the book that I want to read most right now. Wonder Woman might have given me the least worry, but this book has a lot of awesome potential; that is to say, potential to be awesome. Higgins hasn’t done a lot, but I’ve liked everything of his that I’ve read. Gates of Gotham is pretty amazing right now, Supreme Power is great, his Batman annuals were damn fine comics and even his issue of Captain America was pretty great. I have nothing but confidence that he’ll bring The Terminator back into the spotlight.

I’ve always liked Slade. His portrayals have been less than consistent in the cool factor, but I like the mercenary. I think he might have been a great guest star on Secret Six or something similar. I’m just really excited to see him get his own running series because this can and will probably be the funnest thing DC puts out next month.

Verdict: DOOM!

51. Suicide Squad #1
Written by ADAM GLASS
Art by MARCO RUDY

Don’t know much about Adam Glass, but Deadpool: Suicide Kings was fun at least, so he has the right sadistic sense of humor for this kind of book (though he’s no Gail Simone). Rudy goes good work in everything I’ve seen of his so I don’t have a lot of worry about the creative team. There are other issues with the book though.

So…Harley’s new costume, eh? Its very much…not Harley. Neither is Deadshot really. He looks more like a nameless goon in some cyberpunk anime and until I read it, I wasn’t sure if that was King Shark or not. He’s not supposed to be a hammerhead, right? That being said, I like the idea of Sucide Squad, not as much as Secret Six, but its still fun to see villains doing their thing.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

52. Blackhawks #1
Written by MIKE COSTA
Art by KEN LASHLEY

Costa has written a lot of Transformers, which is sure to make Sharp-O giddy with anticipation, but its always been kind of drag-out writing for me that takes way too long for something to happen. I have nothing bad to say about Ken Lashley, though, but that’s kind of the general tone for the reboot. A lot of artists that are good, but they don’t stand out as amazing or even unique.

I don’t know what to think about the Blackhawks team. I can’t get a lot from the promos other than the “Real American Heroes with a Vengeance” vibe, and I’ve heard some rumors about it being a super-science police. Like DC’s reverse version of Marvel’s A.I.M. but I don’t know. Its another legacy reboot from WWII days and it seems like it might be fun, it just won’t be for me.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

TOTALS FOR BOOKS:

DOOM! – 19
POSSIBLE DOOM! – 17
NO DOOM FOR YOU! – 16

THE BOOKS I’M PICKING UP:

JLA #1
Action Comics #1
Batman #1
Batwoman #1
Nightwing #1
DC Universe Presents #1
Green Lantern: New Guardians #1
Swamp Thing #1
Blue Beetle #1
Wonder Woman #1
The Fury of Firestorm #1
Aquaman #1
The Flash #1
Grifter #1
Justice League Dark #1
Demon Knights #1
Resurrection Man #1
Voodoo #1
Deathstroke #1

Next week I take on JLA #1 and will start on my weekly reviews. Or maybe I won’t and instead write a 5,000 word diatribe on why Hal Jordan sucks and Kyle Rayner is awesome…you never know.

I think what we need now is not criticism. I like to believe that movie critics think their role is to steer you toward a great film. However, new film gets all the spectacle and noise, and the fantastic library of great work gets tossed out for the shiner model. I am going to try to rectify that.

The role of the movie critic is evolving; it is the pinky on the movie industry’s hand. We may have thought it had a use at some time, but it certainly hasn’t made a difference in my life, except maybe to scratch my ear. In a time where movies were a primary source of entertainment, and information was hard to come by, I can see that a review in the paper might have informed which part of town you drove to. However, between the multiplex showing all films in one location, the internet making sure you know every detail of a film before it is done filming, and the window between cinematic release and home viewing getting smaller every day, they don’t have much sway anymore.

Of course, the most damning thing is the fact that entertainment is subjective. It doesn’t matter how many people tell you a movie is fantastic; if you don’t enjoy yourself, then it was a waste of your precious time. I think back to a conversation where The Website Of Doom’s own Aaron Poole and I failed to agree on the film Anchorman. Aaron is of the opinion that it is a very funny flick, whereas I can’t seem to get into it. The masses agree with him, but that can’t shake my opinion that it seems flabby, slow, and gets in its own way, killing a funny premise. Still, we are both right. If he has fun, great. If I avoid it, great. Everyone wins.

The subjectivity of enjoyment seems to come into focus every year around this time. We made it through the end of the year’s movie releases- you know, the “Oscar Bait.” The public is trained to accept films in degrees throughout the year. January and February are the throwaway films, May through September are blockbusters, and the quality dramas are released in November and December. What happens then when a film like The Dark Knight comes out? Well, as we all saw the Oscars freaked out. There is no doubt that The Dark Knight was a favorite of the public and there was a bit of outrage when we geeks were not given the chance to enter the mainstream that we all thought a quality super hero flick would give us. However, I for one, cannot say that No Country For Old Men didn’t deserve all the love the Academy Awards gave it. Honestly, when you consider 2008 gave us No Country For Old Men, The Dark Knight, and There Will Be Blood we should just call that a banner year for cinematic quality. Of course, we all know that only two of these got Best Picture nods, and the public declared the Academy Awards out of touch with the common man. They volleyed back by letting ten movies be nominated for Best Picture. Because the best way to seem “hip” is to lessen the importance of the nomination, or as The Incredibles’ Elastigirl and Dash summed up so aptly…

Dash: Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of. Our powers made us special.

Elastigirl: Everyone’s special, Dash.
Dash: [sullenly] Which is another way of saying no one is.

Now, I don’t say all of this to rail against the system. I don’t think that movie critics should be completely abolished. There will always be those who are not as tuned in as the rest of us. Also, people like to know if a film is good before they plunk down a few hours pay to have Hollywood’s finest provide a bit of well deserved escapism. However, we all need to know that there are lots of voices out there. The key is to find someone you agree with and listen to them. This is where the modern era steps in: Due to social networking one can align oneself with those possessing similar tastes. Any form of media that is recommended by a friend has a better chance of being right then some random guy at the paper who took some film appreciation courses in school. If it hadn’t been for internet friends, I would never have discovered the series Firefly, a personal favorite. Roger Ebert and I don’t agree as much. Sorry, Roger. Glad you are coming back to television.

Now this diatribe has been largely influenced by a side effect of the modern age I have witnessed. When I was a kid, movies played on television all the time. It was what stations used to fill all the hours without original content. I can remember flipping through the channels and settling on many a film that I might have not watched, as I had classified it as “Classic.”

“Classic,” as we all know, means BORING! But, as I flipped channels something might catch my eye, and boom I was sucked in for the ride. I think that my love of movies was helped by the fact that I wasn’t faced with the sheer amount of options that are provided now. I love Netflix, but if I had had it when I was 15 I might have never discovered the wonders of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies, as I would have never sought out Desk Set or Pat and Mike, and that would be a shame.

From time to time I am going to use this column to bring attention to the rich history of cinema. I want to recommend films that should be a part of every cinephile’s mental library. Maybe together we can cut through the fog caused by the availability of plenty and my hope is that my love of film will be contagious.

I will do my best to make sure every film I talk about will be easy to find. I’ll have my write-up, but I am really hoping that I will hear back from you. Tell me what you think. Because the best part of recommending a film, is the conversation that you can have with your friends later.

Drop me a line at Marsneeds@gmail.com or in the comment section below.