Comic Con 2011: Penguin in ARKHAM CITY, and dear sweet god, Capullo's Rogues Gallery in BATMAN #1

[about_faces]

Disclaimer: this post was written over several exhausted days, in increments averaging two sentences at a time, between feeding and changing and burping a baby. Rambling, tangents, and incomprehensible gibberish may occur.With this weekend comes the biggest comics event of the year, Comic Con! And with Comic Con, comes news and hints of upcoming

Comments

[martin_l_gore]

Even with your fears, you should read Snyder's Tec. I'm not a huge fan of the stories themselves, but the mood Snyder sets together with Jock and Francavilla is the best I've read in Batman for a long, long time. Slow, moody, thoughtful. Oh, and also Joker is incredibly scary.

About the redesigns... Sheesh! Freeze, one of the characters who had most to gain from a reboot, looks like he was drawn by a hungover Jim Lee and he's possibly not even the worst. It should however be noted that it's a good idea to give Scarecrow the mask from Batman Begins, minus the button eyes of course, and that giving Jeremiah Arkham as Black Mask a skull shaped head rather than an actual black mask is somewhat inspired. Apart from that and the by the numbers-Croc, I'm in full agreement with you.

[lego_joker]

Scary Joker?

Now I'm even more reluctant to get started on Snyder's 'tec. Is it the same "scary" Joker that Morrison's been giving us over the past five years or so?

And as for the rest of the news... Jesus, the classic Bat-Rogues are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's like no one in the industry wants to give them the slightest shred of dignity.

[martin_l_gore]

Well, he's only had one "scene" yet, but that gave me more chills than Morrison ever managed... I wouldn't say it's the same characterization, but I guess you have to read it to find out! ;)

[about_faces]

Did the chills come from the character himself, or what he did? If it's the latter, I totally get that. If it's the former, well, I didn't see much of that there. I find Joker scariest when he does things like he did here, but he's also being genuinely charismatic and funny. Case in point, the whole original Laughing Fish story.

[1mercystreet]

The art's all a bit derivative, isn't it? Harvey looks like the final drawing of the Trashcan Man in Stephen King's The Stand, and Scarecrow seems to be lifted straight from the pages of Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

And Professor Pyg, take your hand off Harvey's shoulder right now. You're creepy, and not in the good way.

Hmm... I actually rather like the Joker picture. The eyes are very good - full of hate and hilarity. And I like the almost dancer-like lines in the way he holds his hands.

[dagonst]

I thought "Other Mother" too. I'd also argue that if Scarecrow could actually see properly, he wouldn't be at the front of the line for hand-to-hand combat with the Bat.

[about_faces]

Oh god, you're right. I was already thinking about Wrightson's zombies, but Trashcan Man specifically is really who Harvey looks like! Yikes.

[bitemetechie]

Disclaimer: this post was written over several exhausted days, in increments averaging two sentences at a time, between feeding and changing and burping a baby. Rambling, tangents, and incomprehensible gibberish may occur.

Purple monkey beanpaste underwear. Rugga diddle di da, one three three, rugga diddle di da, one three three. But an elephant never forgets!

so lonely

[yaseen101]

I actually don't mind Cockney!Penguin but goddman, a proper British accent would have gotten PERFECTLY with that character design.

While I do not hate the re-designs, I also don't love it either, I would much rather see the classy, elegantly dressed rogues than whatever it is they have going on here.

I really wish they had just gotten a team of artists to do the re-designs instead of just Jim Lee. That would added at least a little more colour to the DC canvas instead of sweeping it over with the same brush.

[about_faces]

I'm not sure which I like better: a proper British Penguin, or an American Penguin who adopts one of those pompous fake kinda-British accents to give himself an air of class.

Yeah, several artists would have been way better! Everything looks so same-y and generic, like all the heroes went to the same tailor.

[yaseen101]

I prefer the former since I like the idea of the Penguin being Bruce's intellectual equal and a magnificent bastard in his own right. It could be because one of the first Penguin related things I ever read was an issue by Ed Brubaker (I believe you posted that one on S_D at one point; the one where a couple of film students are trying to make a documentary about Batman).

btw, have you see the other non-bat related (mostly) re-designs ? It looks like they altered the Harley Quin design to bring her much closer to the traditional costume. But be careful though, even as someone who don't usually complain about costumes, I nearly threw up on the page.

[ext_545621]

Actually, I'd say Penguin's accent there is more South London than true Cockney, and it slips a bit into Mancunian near the end of the trailer for some inexplicable reason.

/petulance

British supervillains, yes! I love your idea that Brits are a) very intelligent and b) magnificent bastards. That's pretty fantastic.

Oh, and those costume redesigns made me die a little inside.

[kamikazescot]

As I said on Dreamwidth, it's amazing how I can find things that are wrong with every Batman villain in this pic. Is Harv missing an eye? On the scarred side, there's no eyes. You can see a liiiittle bit of eye behind Scarecrow's impractical buttons, but there's just a black hole on Harv's side.

And I honestly don't know why Professor Pyg is there. I literally had no idea who he was until today, when I was scanning through a Batman & Robin trade at Borders.

[about_faces]

Yeah, he's a character who's caught on for reasons I truly do not understand.