Robin: Tragedy & Triumph, DC: the New Frontier, Civil War
Or, "Hello! I'm a newbie to comics, feel free to ignore me!"
Started out interested in Marvel. Over time, began to like DC better. I've always had a soft spot for Batman, no matter how silly I found the premise to be, because of many mornings spent watching Batman: the Animated Series. As a kid, I could never figure out what it was I liked about it. I knew what I disliked about it -- the pacing was too slow, the dialogue was too simplistic, and the characterization was too shallow. ... I didn't think about it in those terms when I was a kid, but it's what I noticed. Of course, it's a friggin cartoon, and it was meant for kids, so of course it was like that. And at least it was less stupid than the Spiderman cartoon, haw haw.
I never liked Robin either until Tim came along. Which isn't to say I dislike Dick, but he inevitably suffers from golden age characterization and my inability to get over the short shorts. Actually, I liked his depiction in Scarecrow: Year One. Less bouncy, more investigative, tragically entrenched in hero worship. In many ways, that sounds a lot like early Tim, too. I was not at all impressed by the way he became Robin, although I liked what that said about his intelligence, but he's very easy for me to empathize with. He started out pretty normal, in terms of emotional health. Of course, DC's campaign to fuck up his life has fixed that right the fuck up, but Tim has not become a miniature Batman, which I also find interesting. He's lost, in a short space of time, his parents, his girlfriend, two ex-girlfriends, and his best friend. Nightwing retired and Batgirl (apparently) went rogue. But returning to his earlier stories, Tragedy & Triumph, there are so many interesting (but inadvertant, I'm sure) signs of the future. On a more narcissistic note, I find it interesting that I correctly incorporated several characteristics into my own AU Tim despite my relative inexperience with the series. This, coupled with the fact that I too am systematically ruining AU Tim's life >_> (but in a less retarded way, I hope) hopefully evokes a sort of parallel with the canon Tim.
DC: the New Frontier is both fascinating and boring to me. I really enjoy the modern perspective on the original comics, and learning more about heroes I haven't yet begun to look into. What's most interesting to me is its own version of, basically, Civil War. The government seems to have passed some sort of law against vigilantes, and Superman is helping them hunt down those who don't cooperate. Batman apparently had to boot him in the face with kryptonite to get him to back off, and is still operating in Gotham. He's also still talking to and working with Superman but not without being his usual bastard self, heh. Flash zipped onto a live news broadcast to announce his resignation in his typical touchingly straightforward way.
No offense to Green Lantern, but most of Hal Jordan's storyline put me to sleep. I did like what it showed of him during the war, and I found his initial attempts at using the ring amusing. I also enjoyed other characters, like King Faraday; also, J'onn was hilarious and his friendship with King was great. The opening JLU episodes remind me of the plotline with the Center (or maybe it's the other way around, whatever).
Speaking of which, I adore JLU. They remind me of the best of Batman: the animated series with better dialogue and pacing. It consistently makes me laugh out loud and go "aww" at character developments. Its excellent attention to detail lets no cameo or sly reference go unused, and I love its connections with other series -- Batman Beyond, primarily, although Static Shock is cute too. Favorite episodes:
- Kid Stuff. Similar to the issues with Klarion and World Without Grown-ups, the voice acting is hysterically point on as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are forced to revert to their child bodies to fight Mordred. Bonus appearance from Etrigan. I could quote from this episode forever.Wonder Woman: I guess I'll go with Clark. Unless I should go with you. [Meaning Batman]
Batman: Whatever.
Superman: I'm fine to go with Diana.
Green Lantern: So Bruce and I are good to go?
Wonder Woman: I changed my mind. I'll go with Bruce and John can go with Clark. :3
Batman: [Getting annoyed] Whatever.
[Wonder Woman drags Batman off.]
Superman: What's with them?
Green Lantern: Man, for someone with like, fifty different kinds of vision, you are so blind.
Superman: ... what? :O
- Once and A Future Thing. Batman, Wonderwoman and Green Lantern end up chasing some doofus into the past, and then the future, which makes for some freaking awesome cameos all around. And for a priceless moment between Batman, old Bruce Wayne, and their successor, Terry.Terry: Wait! You can't just go out there by yourself, you don't know the city!
Batman: [glances back] Are criminals still cowardly and superstitious?
Old Bruce Wayne: Yup.
Batman: Then that's good enough for me.
- The Great Brain Robbery. Flash and Lex Luthor accidentally switch bodies. This is not a Nobel-prize winning episode here, it's just genuinely, awesomely funny.
- Grudge Match. For a bunch of animated chicks, the fights in this episode are pretty hardcore. Black Canary's always a favorite, but Huntress is especially cute, and there's an amusing cameo from the Question. Roulette is still wearing the same dress, and even she gets a few seconds of surprisingly capable fighting.
The other cartoon I adore is Teen Titans. It takes a lot of flack for incorporating anime conventions, but to me it's just an amusing sort of wackiness (not that they needed more, as the series is basically on crack). I also enjoy their character designs and the voice acting. Their Robin is a blend of Dick and Tim -- Tim's outward personality, costume design, and collapsible bo staff, Dick's backstory, secret woobieness, and identity. For a long time there was much debate over "which" Robin they were portraying, but the writers have since stated their Robin is a unique portrayal. The other takes/interpretations I especially like are Raven, Terra, and Slade. Like JLU, they never miss a beat when it comes to comic references or cameos. Favorite episodes:
- Apprentice (part 1, part 2). The best parts are where the writers clearly aren't allowed to say "Batman", so they are obligated to hit you over the head with his symbols. Robin and the others also have a fight on top of a Wayne corporation building. It makes you wonder what this Robin's relationship is like with Batman, as Robin says angrily to Slade, "I already have a father," and bats burst up into the night.
- Mother Mae Eye. Crack. On so much hilarious crack. Plus, more than you wanted to know about Starfire's physiology. Features running gag of Robin's hair being resiliently spiky.
- Fractured. More incredible crack. This is one of the episodes that makes it clearer who Robin is, in a short sequence with screamingly funny "versions" of Robin popping up.
- Car Trouble. Sadly, I thought the villain of this episode has the best dialogue ever. I'm sure it annoys someone else. This is an extremely amusing episode, but also has some really nice characterization in regards to Robin's habitual secrecy and issues of trust between the team. It also features an interesting Red X cameo.
- Masks. The other Red X episode (there's a much earlier third, but it isn't the same person) which has Beast Boy's amusing blackboard of theories as to his identity. The leading one in the fandom is Jason Todd, which would be an interesting interpretation/parallel of the Red Hood plot (also far less likely to end in tentacles).
- Quest clip. While Robin's away, the Teen Titans try on his uniform. Very cute and very funny.
Two quotes that I can't resist adding:Amanda Waller: Bruce's DNA was easy enough to obtain. He left it all over town.
[Terry raises eyebrow]
Amanda Waller: Not remotely what I meant.
Dr. Moon: Tell me what you know.
The Question: [babbling] The tips at the end of shoelaces are called "aglets". Their true purpose is sinister.
Started out interested in Marvel. Over time, began to like DC better. I've always had a soft spot for Batman, no matter how silly I found the premise to be, because of many mornings spent watching Batman: the Animated Series. As a kid, I could never figure out what it was I liked about it. I knew what I disliked about it -- the pacing was too slow, the dialogue was too simplistic, and the characterization was too shallow. ... I didn't think about it in those terms when I was a kid, but it's what I noticed. Of course, it's a friggin cartoon, and it was meant for kids, so of course it was like that. And at least it was less stupid than the Spiderman cartoon, haw haw.
I never liked Robin either until Tim came along. Which isn't to say I dislike Dick, but he inevitably suffers from golden age characterization and my inability to get over the short shorts. Actually, I liked his depiction in Scarecrow: Year One. Less bouncy, more investigative, tragically entrenched in hero worship. In many ways, that sounds a lot like early Tim, too. I was not at all impressed by the way he became Robin, although I liked what that said about his intelligence, but he's very easy for me to empathize with. He started out pretty normal, in terms of emotional health. Of course, DC's campaign to fuck up his life has fixed that right the fuck up, but Tim has not become a miniature Batman, which I also find interesting. He's lost, in a short space of time, his parents, his girlfriend, two ex-girlfriends, and his best friend. Nightwing retired and Batgirl (apparently) went rogue. But returning to his earlier stories, Tragedy & Triumph, there are so many interesting (but inadvertant, I'm sure) signs of the future. On a more narcissistic note, I find it interesting that I correctly incorporated several characteristics into my own AU Tim despite my relative inexperience with the series. This, coupled with the fact that I too am systematically ruining AU Tim's life >_> (but in a less retarded way, I hope) hopefully evokes a sort of parallel with the canon Tim.
DC: the New Frontier is both fascinating and boring to me. I really enjoy the modern perspective on the original comics, and learning more about heroes I haven't yet begun to look into. What's most interesting to me is its own version of, basically, Civil War. The government seems to have passed some sort of law against vigilantes, and Superman is helping them hunt down those who don't cooperate. Batman apparently had to boot him in the face with kryptonite to get him to back off, and is still operating in Gotham. He's also still talking to and working with Superman but not without being his usual bastard self, heh. Flash zipped onto a live news broadcast to announce his resignation in his typical touchingly straightforward way.
No offense to Green Lantern, but most of Hal Jordan's storyline put me to sleep. I did like what it showed of him during the war, and I found his initial attempts at using the ring amusing. I also enjoyed other characters, like King Faraday; also, J'onn was hilarious and his friendship with King was great. The opening JLU episodes remind me of the plotline with the Center (or maybe it's the other way around, whatever).
Speaking of which, I adore JLU. They remind me of the best of Batman: the animated series with better dialogue and pacing. It consistently makes me laugh out loud and go "aww" at character developments. Its excellent attention to detail lets no cameo or sly reference go unused, and I love its connections with other series -- Batman Beyond, primarily, although Static Shock is cute too. Favorite episodes:
- Kid Stuff. Similar to the issues with Klarion and World Without Grown-ups, the voice acting is hysterically point on as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are forced to revert to their child bodies to fight Mordred. Bonus appearance from Etrigan. I could quote from this episode forever.Wonder Woman: I guess I'll go with Clark. Unless I should go with you. [Meaning Batman]
Batman: Whatever.
Superman: I'm fine to go with Diana.
Green Lantern: So Bruce and I are good to go?
Wonder Woman: I changed my mind. I'll go with Bruce and John can go with Clark. :3
Batman: [Getting annoyed] Whatever.
[Wonder Woman drags Batman off.]
Superman: What's with them?
Green Lantern: Man, for someone with like, fifty different kinds of vision, you are so blind.
Superman: ... what? :O
- Once and A Future Thing. Batman, Wonderwoman and Green Lantern end up chasing some doofus into the past, and then the future, which makes for some freaking awesome cameos all around. And for a priceless moment between Batman, old Bruce Wayne, and their successor, Terry.Terry: Wait! You can't just go out there by yourself, you don't know the city!
Batman: [glances back] Are criminals still cowardly and superstitious?
Old Bruce Wayne: Yup.
Batman: Then that's good enough for me.
- The Great Brain Robbery. Flash and Lex Luthor accidentally switch bodies. This is not a Nobel-prize winning episode here, it's just genuinely, awesomely funny.
- Grudge Match. For a bunch of animated chicks, the fights in this episode are pretty hardcore. Black Canary's always a favorite, but Huntress is especially cute, and there's an amusing cameo from the Question. Roulette is still wearing the same dress, and even she gets a few seconds of surprisingly capable fighting.
The other cartoon I adore is Teen Titans. It takes a lot of flack for incorporating anime conventions, but to me it's just an amusing sort of wackiness (not that they needed more, as the series is basically on crack). I also enjoy their character designs and the voice acting. Their Robin is a blend of Dick and Tim -- Tim's outward personality, costume design, and collapsible bo staff, Dick's backstory, secret woobieness, and identity. For a long time there was much debate over "which" Robin they were portraying, but the writers have since stated their Robin is a unique portrayal. The other takes/interpretations I especially like are Raven, Terra, and Slade. Like JLU, they never miss a beat when it comes to comic references or cameos. Favorite episodes:
- Apprentice (part 1, part 2). The best parts are where the writers clearly aren't allowed to say "Batman", so they are obligated to hit you over the head with his symbols. Robin and the others also have a fight on top of a Wayne corporation building. It makes you wonder what this Robin's relationship is like with Batman, as Robin says angrily to Slade, "I already have a father," and bats burst up into the night.
- Mother Mae Eye. Crack. On so much hilarious crack. Plus, more than you wanted to know about Starfire's physiology. Features running gag of Robin's hair being resiliently spiky.
- Fractured. More incredible crack. This is one of the episodes that makes it clearer who Robin is, in a short sequence with screamingly funny "versions" of Robin popping up.
- Car Trouble. Sadly, I thought the villain of this episode has the best dialogue ever. I'm sure it annoys someone else. This is an extremely amusing episode, but also has some really nice characterization in regards to Robin's habitual secrecy and issues of trust between the team. It also features an interesting Red X cameo.
- Masks. The other Red X episode (there's a much earlier third, but it isn't the same person) which has Beast Boy's amusing blackboard of theories as to his identity. The leading one in the fandom is Jason Todd, which would be an interesting interpretation/parallel of the Red Hood plot (also far less likely to end in tentacles).
- Quest clip. While Robin's away, the Teen Titans try on his uniform. Very cute and very funny.
Two quotes that I can't resist adding:Amanda Waller: Bruce's DNA was easy enough to obtain. He left it all over town.
[Terry raises eyebrow]
Amanda Waller: Not remotely what I meant.
Dr. Moon: Tell me what you know.
The Question: [babbling] The tips at the end of shoelaces are called "aglets". Their true purpose is sinister.