In honor of the release of Final Crisis #7, which finally deflated my three-year-old theory that Batman would become the Spectre, I give to you another theory: 4thletter: Beetle for the Cowl. Like Batman-as-Spectre, Gavok’s theory is remarkable for its utilitarian brilliance. It’s full of supporting research that validates the comic reading experience by honoring…

Since Doomanchu is proudly serving pancakes (and his country) right now in Iraq, I’m taking this opportunity to honor him by revisiting his lone post on Doomkopf. And by “honor” him, I do in fact mean “blatantly steal the idea from his post and relate it to something that came out this week.” The issue…

In a recent interview with Newsarama, DC Comics writer Grant Morrison, the man behind Batman RIP, Final Crisis, and Superman: Beyond, does a little complaining of his own about internet complainers. In his words: Every time I read about the agonizing pains of ‘event fatigue’ or how ‘3-D hurts my head…’ or how something’s ‘incomprehensible’…

So I finally caught an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the newest DC show on Cartoon Network. A friend drew my attention to it a few weeks ago, saying it was very “old school,” and that I should check it out. Several DVR cycles and auto-erasing due to space constraints later, I…

Now that Batman’s fried and shriveled with only one chapter left in Final Crisis, it’s time to take a look at the theory that Batman will become the new Spectre and see how it’s holding up. There are some new developments that continue to point that direction: • Killing Batman in the penultimate chapter has…

This started as a comment, but has segued into it’s own list based on Doom DeLuise’s. Before X-Men, most comic book movies were laughable at best, cripplingly bad at worst. Del does a good summation of the familiar garbage. There is no defending The Hockey Team from Hell in “Batman and Robin.” And though the…

Last month, I wrote a blog that took a look at Newsarama’s list of the Top 10 Comic Book-Based Movies of All Time, and, after watching The Spirit last night, it got me to thinking about how many truly dreadful comic book movies have come out over the years. So, in the interest of fairness,…

It seems these days that the default mentality of comic book writers when drafting up the rosters for the various superhero teams is a simple mindset of including all of their favorite characters from the Silver Age, when they first got hooked on comics as little kids. It’s why Geoff Johns has such a mad-on…

“Well Marvel, I see your ‘douchebag’ and raise you a ‘Goddamn’ (Final Crisis #5) and a ‘Tits’ (Final Crisis: Revelations #4).” I noticed fairly early on as a child that DC comics always had harsher language than Marvel, particularly in Batman, with its occasional “hell” and “damn.” To a kid, it simultaneously made Batman seem…