Story Title: “His Name Is… Blade!” Published:17 April 1973 (cover date: July 1973) Writer:Marv Wolfman Artist:Gene Colan
The Background: Eric Brooks/Blade was the creation of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan; inspired by numerous black actors and sporting a 1970s “Blaxploitation” appearance, Blade was only able to come about after comic creators were finally allowed to publish stories involving vampires and other supernatural creatures. One of the first ways Marvel took advantage of this was with the Tomb of Dracula series, in which vampire hunters like Blade would battle against the titular Count and other supernatural creatures. Although heavily inspired by classic Hammer Horror films, The Tomb of Dracula initially struggled with its creative direction as different writers and artists came and went from the book, until Wolfman and Colan joined the publication and turned things around with their close collaboration. Initially a jive talking, very human vampire hunter, Blade was little more than a bit-player in the grand Marvel tapestry, although he did have associations with groups like the Nightstalkers and the Midnight Sons. Despite this, the rights to the character were bought by New World Pictures in 1992, and the later success and popularity of Blade(Norrington, 1998) saw the character transformed into a stoic, bad-ass dhampir to match his live-action counterpart, and the character has gone on to be an integral part of many supernatural and horror stories within Marvel Comics due to this surge of interest.
The Review: “His Name Is…Blade!” opens on the dark, quiet docks in what I assume is London (or, at least, somewhere in England judging by the dialogue of the characters) where two youths are planning to stow away aboard a ship and elope to the United States when they’re suddenly attacked by three bloodthirsty vampires! These fanged, bat-like creatures exhibit many of the common tropes we associated with nosferatu: they can freely shift between a bat and a humanoid appearance, have monstrous faces, and are driven to suck the blood from their prey. In this case, however, the three aren’t there to feed; instead, they seek to turn the terrified youths into two more of Dracula’s cursed minions, implying a level of mysticism and possession from the process of being bitten. Although their victims haven’t the strength or hope of fighting off their attacks, these dark intentions are interrupted by the arrival of Blade – the Vampire Killer! Now, this isn’t the trenchcoat-clad, armour-wearing, sword-wielding half-human bad-ass you may be familiar with from the movie. Instead, Blade is garbed in a garish green coat similar to an Army jacket, an outrageous yellow visor, sports a maroon bandolier filled with stakes, and is rocking a suitably stereotypical afro hairdo. To say he cuts an intimidating figure would be a lie, frankly; instead, he just looks like a hobo with a vision problem, and yet his reputation as a vampire slayer proceeds him and the vampires state that Dracula has given them orders to kill him. Blade strikes with a speed, precision, and brutal efficiency that comes not from sporting the physical strength of his hated foe but from years of hunting and killing vampires, easily staking two of his foes with a specially carved teak-bladed knife with minimal effort. The third vampire, startled by the vampire killer’s proficiency, tries to flee in his man-bat form, only for Blade to leap onto him and end his vile undead life.
While Blade mercilessly hunts vampires, Dracula attacks a luxury cruise ship.
Upon death, the vampires slowly return to their human form, betraying this particular victim as a youth unwittingly transformed against his will; Blade cares little for this, however, and simply coldly remarks that the only good vampire is a dead vampire. His callous attitude earns him the ire of Quincy Harker, a wheelchair-bound old man and one of the world’s foremost experts on vampires. Harker admonishes Blade’s lack of vision; his crusade to simply slaughter every vampire he comes across is interfering with the bigger picture of tracking down and executing Dracula, thus making his undead minions “easy prey”. Blade, however, is unimpressed; he gives Harker the brush off and vows to continue hunting vampires without the old man’s aid, throwing some jive his way for good measure because…you know, the seventies! The story then jumps over to the ocean liner Michele where wealthy socialite Gabriel Trulaine is throwing a lavish party for his similarly decadent friends and absolutely wows his guests by having the Count Dracula himself unveiled as a special attraction for the soiree. Although Dracula (or “Vlad” as he insists Gabriel’s beautiful companion calls him) downplays the stories and rumours of his gruesome ways, assuring the awestruck guests that vampirism is a “disease” like “blood poisoning” and not the affliction popularised in the media, it’s all merely a ruse to gain power over, and favour with, the wealthy and influential and thus extend his reach into industrial, politics, and society. He’s easily able to charm Gabriel’s bimbo with a few choice words and feed upon her blood, before swatting the Michele’s captain and seizing control of the vessel. Dracula then reveals the true extent of his awesome power, which allows him to turn to smoke and control the wills of others; when one of the guests tries to fight back, Dracula simply laughs in the face of his pistol and tosses him overboard before turning on the others and preparing to work his evil magic.
Despite his superior strength, Dracula simply abandons the fight at the first inconvenience.
Fortunately, Blade intercepts the vessel; considering Harker made such a song and dance about Blade’s actions costing them another lead on Dracula, it’s a bit odd and completely unexplained how he was able to track the Michele, but he easily boards the craft and prepares to battle with Dracula. Amusingly, Gabriel’s guests do a lot of the work for him; Dracula demands that they submit to his requests willingly lest he turn them into the living dead and one devote Christian amongst them leads the charge against the Lord of Vampires, stunning him with a Holy Cross and allowing the others to pin him down. Of course, Dracula’s not so easily bested, evaporating into mist and easily escaping harm, but he flies into a rage when Blade arrives as the Count wishes to avenge the vampires lost at the slayer’s hands. Naturally, Dracula is the physically superior of the two, but Blade is tenacious and full of spunk and only enrages the Vampire King with his mocking quips. Still, as wily and nimble as Blade is, Dracula’s shape-shifting abilities and superhuman strength soon see him gain the upper hand; however, right as he’s about to bite into Blade’s neck, Gabriel’s woman, entranced by Dracula’s bite, interrupts him. This is apparently enough to wreck Dracula’s entire plan and he decides to just fly away in his bat form and leave them all to die from the explosives he had the captain place on the ship, despite the fact he could easily massacre them all with his superior strength. With only seconds left, Blade forces everyone off the Michele and into the cold waters below and is left drifting in the sea with Dracula’s mocking laughter in his ears and the promise of a further confrontation later down the line.
The Summary: Well, this was…certainly something. I’ve never read The Tomb of Dracula or anything with either him or Blade in it before (not even Stoker’s original novel), so I went into this without any real expectations and still came out of it quite disappointed. The art work is pretty good, at times; Blade and Dracula fare the best out of anyone, with the Lord of Vampires appearing just like he does in all the classic Dracula films and popular depictions, though I can’t say I care for Blade’s appearance here one bit. I don’t really get it; like, what’s with the weird goggles? Why’s his jacket so plain and dull? Later, he dons a wetsuit of sorts to board the Michele, which is a far better look, but he quickly changes into his shitty jacket and glasses and I just don’t really get how he was supposed to look cool or interesting in the slightest in this getup. The other vampires we see come off pretty well; I liked how they shifted from bats to man-bats to monstrous humans and to mist and such, though there’s an understandable lack of blood and the vampires are disappointingly easy to kill, dying from a simply stab from Blade’s special knife that isn’t even in their hearts half the time.
It’s hard to believe Blade became such a sensation after this awfully weak debut story.
The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, too. This is yet another instance where the story is dated by the misconceptions and stereotypes of the time, with Blade talking in hip jive slang and acting like he just walked off the set of Shaft (Parks, 1971) and Dracula endlessly monologuing and referring to himself in the third person, as was the style of many Marvel villains. This is an odd choice considering he has an underling present, Clifford Graves, to converse with, but Graves is merely a pawn of the Lord of Vampires, one for Dracula to chastise at every opportunity and leave for dead at the story’s end. I’m not sure I really get the premise of The Tomb of Dracula; were readers really just following a sadistic and bloodthirsty vampire on a serious of adventures as he preyed on the innocent and lusted for power? Seems an odd concept to me, one without much legs, and I can’t say that I’m interested in reading other stories from the comic after this one. Hell, I’m not even interested in Blade all that much after this; there’s some intrigue introduced here, with Harker despairing of Blade’s methods (despite how effective he is at killing vampires) and the suggestion that he’s this rogue element in the vampire slaying community, but he just looks and sounds and acts so corny and ridiculous that it’s hard to take him seriously. He’s tenacious, I’ll give him that, and dedicated to killing all vampires without hesitation or remorse, and exhibits some physical prowess, but it’s a pretty weak debut story, if you ask me. Dracula’s plot to manipulate the wealthy and the powerful was completely nonsensical (why didn’t he just turn them with his powers? Why go through all that charade? Why’d he fuckin’ leave when he could’ve killed them all?!) and hardly inspires me to see what else he got up to, and overall I have to say that I’m glad that the movies changed Blade’s character so much if this is what we had to deal with.
My Rating:
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Terrible
What did you think to Blade’s debut story? Did the character interest you at the time or, like me, were you introduced to him through the movies? Did you ever read The Tomb of Dracula books and, if so, what did you think to them? What are some of your favourite Blade moments from the comics? Have you ever read Stoker’s novel, and what are some of your favourite vampire stories? No matter what you think, good or bad, feel free to share your thoughts below and be sure to check out my review of Blade’s game-changing movie!
To celebrate the release of Dr. No (Young, 1962), the first in the long-running series of James Bond movies (Various, 1962 to present), October 5th is officially recognised as “Global James Bond Day”. Today, this franchise stands as the longest-running franchise ever and the character is one of the most recognised and popular movie icons of all time.
Released: 19 December 1974 Director: Guy Hamilton Distributor: United Artists Budget: $7 million Stars: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Hervé Villechaize, Soon-Taik Oh, Richard Loo, and Maud Adams
The Plot: Sophisticated super spy James Bond/007 (Moore) may have met his match in Francisco Scaramanga (Lee), a world-renowned assassin whose weapon of choice is a distinctive gold pistol. When Scaramanga seizes the priceless Solex Agitator energy convertor, Bond must recover the device and confront the trained killer in a heart-stopping duel to the death!
The Background: James Bond, Agent 007 of MI6, was the creation of writer Ian Fleming in 1953 and was heavily inspired by his time and experiences as a navy intelligence officer. James Bond was most famously brought to life by Sean Connery, who kick-started an unparalleled cinematic franchise. However, after five films as the super spy, Connery began to tire of the role; after being lured back for a whopping $1.25 million and other perks, Connery walked away from Bond (…for a time…) and, while still finishing up with The Saint (1962 to 1969), suave Roger Moore took over and immediately set about making it his own so as not to imitate Connery’s iconic performance, eventually becoming a softer and more gentle Bond. Moore’s Bond debut, Live and Let Die(Hamilton, 1973) was a commercial success, though garnered mixed reviews, and famed Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman finally set about making a big-screen adaptation of Fleming’s 1965 novel, a polarising tale that set Bond against a notorious assassin. It was writer Tom Mankiewicz who altered Scaramanga’s character into a dark mirror of Bond himself, and the adaptation ended up being very different from the source material after taking inspiration from the 1973 energy crisis. Christopher Lee, Fleming’s step-cousin, finally got his chance to play a Bond villain and received high praise for his performance, though he struggled a bit with the Golden Gun prop device. The film was shot in numerous locations around Hong Kong, with the nearby Ko Khao Phing Kan islands housing Scaramanga’s suitably elaborate and bizarre lair. The Man with the Golden Gun was notable for its car stunts, one of which made it into the Guinness Book of Records; the barrel roll was caught in one take and saw a stunt driver guide an AMC Hornet over a specially-constructed ramp for the shot, which was mired only by an unfortunate slide whistle sound effect. Although The Man with the Golden Gun grossed over $97 million at the box office, notably less than its predecessor and coming in as the fourth-lowest-grossing film in the series. Reviews were mixed upon release, with critics questioning the script and redundancy of the film, regarding it as an uninspiring entry, despite Lee’s performance, and the film very nearly ended the franchise right then and there. It didn’t, of course; Moore’s Bond was back three years later with The Spy Who Loved Me (Gilbert, 1977), which got the franchise back on track and has been regarded as one of the best Bond movies ever.
The Review: It was very interesting in preparing for this review to find out that The Man with the Golden Gun wasn’t very successful or well liked upon release, and that it’s since garnered a legacy as one of the worst Bond films ever made. When I first started getting into James Bond, Roger Moore was my main doorway into the classic films; Pierce Brosnan was the Bond of my generation and I’d struggled to get into the Sean Connery films for some time, but Moore’s films were far more appealing to me as they were more fun and quirky and far less dry and dull like a lot of Connery’s films. Consequently, I always had a fondness for The Man with the Golden Gun; granted, much of this was because there was a mystique surrounding the title character thanks to his trademark weapon being such a game-breaking inclusion in the classicGoldenEye 007(Rare, 1997) but this game was my primary gateway into the franchise so anything that was included in it became a fascination for me. The film opens not with a crazy action sequence or with James Bond on a mission, but on Scaramanga’s opulent island getaway near Red China. Here, surly gangster Rodney (Marc Lawrence) shows up to kill Scaramanga and claim a hefty bounty from his pint-sized butler, Nick Nack (Villechaize). Naturally, he’s unsuccessful, but this establishes many aspects of the titular assassin that come into play later in the film: he’s a skilled gunman and survivor who delights in engaging in live competition against other killers, his island is a veritable funhouse full of animatronic distractions used to disorientate both him and his foe, he’s a crack shot with his trademark weapon, easily scoring a headshot even under low lighting, and he seems to regard James Bond as the ultimate opponent since he has a life-sized dummy of the super spy in his house of tricks.
The bullish Bond appears to have met his match inrenowned assassin Scaramanga.
Scaramanga holds a unique distinction amongst other Bond villains in that he’s only the second one to have not only the film but also the title song named after him. Everything you need to know about this sadistic marksman is related in Lulu’s awkward, if catchy, opening song; he’s a world-famous assassin who’s so proficient that he can afford to charge $1 million for a hit. With few morals, he’ll take any contract as long as the client pays this fee, and he likes to engage in “love” before completing his assignment, and only requires one bullet to claim his bounty. However, there’s actually a surprising amount of depth and quirkiness to Scaramanga; as a child, he worked in the circus training animals, and was so enraged when his best friend, a performing elephant, was killed by a stage hand that he immediately took his revenge and found that he enjoyed killing even more than animals. Consequently, while he basks in the opulence of his fully-automated and luxurious island abode, Scaramanga takes a perverse pleasure in every kill and thrives on testing his skills against other, equally worthy opponents. Though he’s notorious enough that even James Bond and MI6 are aware of him, few have actually seen Scaramanga’s face and lived to tell of it; he’s readily identifiable, however, by his recognisable third nipple, a curious physical quirk that allows Bond to impersonate Scaramanga. Although he comes across as a cool, calculating, and even charismatic man, charming women and clients alike with his eloquence and wealth, Scaramanga is a ruthless and abusive man; Andrea Anders (Adams) lives in constant fear of him, to the point where she risks her life and offers her body just to get Bond to free her from his grasp, and even Nick Nack appears to covet Scaramanga’s wealth and power. Bond also gives a quick rundown of the titular assassin’s life history; of course, during his time, Bond films loved to have 007 do this, so this isn’t exactly anything new and actually helps establish the a reputation Scaramanga has. Despite his constant despair over Bond’s childish antics, M (Bernard Lee) is thus understandably perturbed when one of Scaramanga’s golden bullets arrives baring not only Bond’s number but also Scaramanga’s fingerprints, resulting in one of my favourite exchanges in the film where M gruffly rattles off the list of potential suspects who would happily pay $1 million to kill Bond. Recognising the threat, M forces Bond to take a sabbatical, but surreptitiously gives him carte blanche to investigate the threat. Luckily for Bond, his concerns about the “energy crisis” and the mysterious Solex Agitator align with his efforts to track down Scaramanga, which is made easier by Scaramanga having assassinated a fellow 00 Agent in Beirut but also because Bond is approached by Andrea, the woman behind the golden 007 bullet, who offers him anything he desires to kill her abuser.
Bond is aided, and opposed, by a variety of cartoonish supporting characters.
As much as I enjoy the quirkier side of Bond as embodied by Moore, it’s true that he’s not quite in that role here; Bond is unduly rude and dismissive of Mary Goodnight (Ekland), threatens to shoot a man in the groin, tosses a little boy into water, and smacks Andrea around before seducing her in the same brutally manipulative style of his predecessor. Still, Moore’s suave charm is more than evident (he easily seduces a belly dancer (Carmen du Sautoy) in possession of one of Scaramanga’s bullets) and to be fair, it’s implied that Bond is more than familiar with Goodnight and doesn’t regard her as much of an agent (and why would he? She’s easily one of the more scatter-brained Bond Girls so I’m not surprised that Bond is exasperated by her). Bond walks into every situation with an effortless confidence; even when attacked by larger men, or highly-trained karate students, his resolve doesn’t falter and he finds a way to fight, shoot, or run from the problem with trademark physics-defying deftness. A far cry from later, more independent and capable Bond Girls, Goodnight is little more than an inconvenience; she has some local knowledge, but mostly just gets in the way and ends up taken hostage. Although she has one flash of brilliance when she superbly knocks down Bond’s charms, she’s only too eager to hop into bed with him and is incensed when he literally stuffs her into a wardrobe to screw Andrea to get closer to Scaramanga, meaning she’s one of the few Bond Girls who’s immediately besotted by Bond and desires him, whereas most of her counterparts at least need a bit of convincing first. Goodnight is juxtaposed by the alluring Andrea, a desperate victim of Scaramanga’s lusts and control who puts her life on the line getting his finger prints on the bullet and note sent to MI6 all so Bond can slap her about and bully her into revealing Scaramanga’s location. However, this is nothing compared to Scaramanga; we never see or learn exactly what he does to Andrea, aside from a brief scene of her clearly disgusted by him, but it’s clear that she has nothing but hatred for the cold-blooded assassin, who has no compunction about putting killing her for her betrayal. While in Hong Kong, Bond works with local agent Lieutenant Hip (Oh) who, wouldn’t you know it, is not only proficient in martial arts but even has nieces who are similarly trained, allowing the movie to clumsily capitalise on the recent popularity of kung-fu movies like Enter the Dragon (Clouse, 1973). Sadly, Q’s (Desmond Llewelyn) role is disappointingly small and little more than a cameo and armaments expert Colthorpe (James Cossins) steals lines and screen time away from the recurring quartermaster, and the secondary villains aren’t much to shout about either. Scaramanga takes a contract from Thai industrialist Hai Fat (Richard Loo), whom he promptly kills (for free, despite Lulu’s assertions to the contrary…) so he can assume control of his business and claim the coveted Solex Agitator for himself, and his reportedly perverted, diminutive henchman Nick Nack is little (no pun intended…) more than a cackling nuisance who Bond easily dispatches, despite wishing to take his employer’s vast estate for himself by arranging (or, at least, co-operating) in his death.
The Nitty-Gritty: As with any James Bond film, it’s always worth discussing the title sequence and song. Sadly, The Man with the Golden Gun doesn’t impress in this department; James Bond films of this era were decidedly simple and lacklustre compared to the more elaborate title sequences that would come later, but this is a mess of glittering lights, dancing bodies, and primarily focuses on the titular weapon being held and waved in our faces just in case you forget what Scaramanga is known for. Earlier, I described Lulu’s song as “awkward”; it’s a catchy tune and definitely sticks in the head, but there’s some weird lines like “If-you-want-to-get-rid-of-some-one, the-man-with-the-golden-gun-n-n…willgetitdone!”, which would flow a lot better if “want to” was substituted with “wanna”. While Bond films tend to be quite formulaic, especially in this era, they’re often salvaged by their exotic locations, gadgets, and colourful villains and The Man with the Golden Gun excels in this latter aspect. Christopher Lee brings a charismatic menace, largely carrying the film and stealing every scene with his magnetic performance and alluring delivery, switching between affable and menacing with a natural ease. It’s a shame, then, that the film is lumbered with a far less interesting side plot regarding the Solex Agitator; Q stresses that the device is integral to solving the world’s energy crisis but it’s not clear how it works and even Scaramanga isn’t all that interested in the specifics. I guess the film wouldn’t have been as interesting without some kind of world-threatening crisis in the background, but it might’ve benefitted from making Scaramanga’s endgame a little more explicit as he’s far more focused on killing and testing his unmatched marksmanship against the world’s greatest super spy.
Scaramanga is positioned as Bond’s dark mirror and feels a kinship towards the famous super spy.
A prominent theme throughout the film is the idea of both Scaramanga and Bond being world-renowned killers; Scaramanga views Bond as the only man worthy of testing his skills against, and even gun and munitions manufacturer Lazar (Marne Maitland) is in awe of Bond’s reputation as a marksman. I have some issues with this (after all, it can hardly be conducive for a spy for all and sundry to know their name and repute), but it fits perfectly with Bond’s ego and arrogance (he always openly introduces himself as “Bond, James Bond”, gives out his number, and usually always identifies himself as working for the British government so it’s natural that the underworld is aware of him). This ties directly into Scaramanga’s belief that he and Bond are cut from the same cloth; while treating Bond to his lavish hospitality, Scaramanga goads 007 by suggesting they each get a thrill out of killing, though Bond vehemently disagrees. It’s a fascinating dichotomy, one that is probably an ill fit for Moore’s Bond, who seems nonchalant about killing half the time (always pausing to straighten his tie and deliver a pithy one-liner) and regretful the rest, with only a handful of instances where he was more brutal in his methods (none of which are here, where Bond’s body count is noticeably low). When it’s revealed that Scaramanga hasn’t been contracted to kill Bond, cracks noticeably appear in this plot thread; Scaramanga states that he “doesn’t have anything against” Bond when they finally meet, and yet has a life-size dummy of him in his funhouse and, later, delivers a menacing diatribe about how alike they are, and even M admits that things would be easier if Scaramanga were gunning for Bond as it would be less of a crisis compared to the disappearance of the Solex Agitator, which promises to end the energy crisis by making fossil fuels redundant.
While the fights aren’t great, the sets are fun and the famous car roll remains an impressive stunt.
The Man with the Golden Gun is surprisingly light on Bond gadgets; Bond doesn’t get a fancy car or even some wearable tech. In fact, the only thing Q fits him with is an artificial third nipple so he can impersonate Scaramanga, a ruse that fails since Hai Fat has a working relationship with the renowned assassin, and the only impressive gadget is the titular golden gun, a custom-built, single-shot pistol assembled from four seemingly innocuous golden objects. Still, that’s not to say that The Man with the Golden Gun doesn’t have its fair share of stunts and exciting chase sequences; Bond flees from Hai Fat’s martial arts academy (after being inexplicably left behind by Hip) on a motorised sampan for some wacky hijinks, Scaramanga escapes in an AMC Matador that bizarrely transforms into a plane, but of course the most memorable stunt is Bond’s incredible barrel roll in an AMC Hornet that’s sadly undermined not just by the aforementioned slide whistle effect but also the blustering commentary provided by the cartoonish Sherriff J. W. Pepper (Clifton James). Bond’s fight scenes are as ungainly as ever from this time in the franchise, with Moore’s Bond specialising in improvisation and underhanded tactics such as using nearby objects, attacking the groin, and disregarding kung-fu’s code of honour. Bond succeeds in every physical encounter simply because the script says he must, meaning he can hold his own against two sumo wrestlers and even punch out Hai Fats top student, Chula (Chan Yiu Lam), and unfortunately he’s not really given a physical challenge to test himself against beyond enduring Scaramanga’s funhouse. As is also a Bond tradition, The Man with the Golden Gun visits some exotic locations, primarily Hong Kong and Thailand; Bond reconvenes with his superiors on the wreckage of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, giving us a fun slanted set, fights and speeds away through rural Bangkok, and has a tense encounter with Scaramanga at a Muay Thai boxing match, but the most impressive set is, naturally, Scaramanga’s island home.
Bond outsmarts Scaramanga, ending his threat, and finally gives Goodnight some attention.
Although she ends up as little more than a piece of eye candy as Scaramanga’s hostage, Goodnight allows Bond to pinpoint Scaramanga’s location thanks to the homing device she placed in his vehicle, leading 007 to Scaramanga’s vast, elaborate estate. In addition to his elaborate funhouse, Scaramanga’s lair houses a sophisticated solar power planet facility that, luckily for the charming assassin, is all fully automated (he has one inept guard, Kra (Sonny Caldinez)). Interestingly, it’s Bond, rather than Scaramanga, who explains what the facility is capable of since Scaramanga doesn’t understand the Solex Agitator. Indeed, he’s more interested in using focused solar energy to power his destructive laser cannon, and he’s largely content to use Hai Fat’s business to give himself the monopoly in solar energy, which he can then outsource or sell to others (or take bribes from fossil fuel manufacturers). Rather than concern himself with the particulars of all this science and business, Scaramanga’s absolutely giddy at finally testing himself against the legendary James Bond. Despite putting himself at a disadvantage since his golden gun only fires one bullet, Scaramanga has the natural advantage since they’re on his home turf and both he and Nick Nack delight in watching Bond stumble around, wasting his ammo on the same distractions that were so helpfully shown in the opening sequence. Ultimately, however, Scaramanga meets his match when Bond uses his life-sized dummy to catch the wealthy murderer by surprise with a single shot from his Walther PPK, finally ending Scaramanga’s threat. Quite conveniently, Goodnight knocked Kra into a vat of liquid helium, causing the facility (and the entire island) to go into meltdown. Of course, Bond retrieves the Solex Agitator (despite Goodnight’s bumbling) and escapes, and even fends off one final attack from Nick Nack before finally getting it on with Goodnight ahead of the credits.
The Summary: It’s hard for me to be negative about The Man with the Golden Gun as it was one of the first Roger Moore James Bond film I ever saw and I’ve always had a soft spot for it, primarily because of how alluring and enigmatic the titular assassin is. Christopher Lee always brought his A-game to every role, especially villainous ones, and he plays Francisco Scaramanga with such delicious relish that it’s hard to deny that he’s the best part of the film and seems to be enjoying himself. Roger Moore, as ever, remains one of the most fun and charismatic Bonds; although he’s got a little too much of Sean Connery’s blunt edge here, and is quite the bully towards Mary Goodnight, he effortlessly charms, fights, and overcomes every situation, no matter how unlikely the odds or how physically outmatched he is, and I’ve always been a fan of his suave delivery and unflinching confidence in the role. While the film is undeniably bogged down by some cartoonish supporting characters and perplexing side plots, The Man with the Golden Gun is the first movie to present us with a dark reflection of 007 in Scaramanga, a sadistic assassin whose skills with a pistol are more than a match for Bond’s own, and I would’ve loved to see the idea of Bond’s occasionally ruthless and cold-blooded ways being explored in a dark opposite in one of Daniel Craig’s movies since his Bond had more of an edge than Moore’s. Still, it makes for one of the best and most memorable Bond villains; the climactic showdown between the two is a tense and engaging shoot out, despite Goodnight’s pratfalls, and I enjoyed seeing Bond on the back foot for a change and having to adapt to his surroundings to win rather than simply overpowering or outshooting his rival because the script says so. Honestly, I’m not sure why people rate this one so low; it’s not perfect, of course, and has its flaws, but all Bond films do. It’s maybe not the best of Roger Moore’s outings as the famous spy, but it’s still one of my favourites of his and I find the positives far outweigh the negatives thanks to Christopher Lee’s captivating presence and performance, the thematic parallels between Scaramanga and Bond, and the lavish locations on offer.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Are you a fan of The Man with the Golden Gun? Where does it rank against the other James Bond films for you? What did you think to the thematic parallel between Bond and Scaramanga? Did you enjoy Christopher Lee’s performance and where does Scaramanga rank in your list of favourite Bond villains? What did you think to Goodnight and Bond’s bullish ways? Which Bond actor, film, story, villain, or moment is your favourite? How are you celebrating Global James Bond Day today? Whatever you think about The Man with the Golden Gun, or James Bond in general, feel free to leave a comment below.
The Date: 10 December 2000 The Venue: Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center; Birmingham, Alabama The Commentary: Jim “J.R.” Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler The Referee: Theodore Long The Stakes: Last Man Standing match to conclude rivalry
The Build-Up: On October 5th, 1997 (the day after my twelfth birthday, which sadly clashes with Global James Bond Day), Glenn Jacobs made his dramatic debut as Kane, the scarred, monstrous younger half-brother of the Undertaker. Following this, Kane ran wild throughout the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a monstrous “tweener” who attacked bad guys (“heels”) and good guys (“faces”) alike, primarily brawling with his brother and being embroiled in WWF Chairman Vince McMahon’s vendetta against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Although Kane always received his fair share of cheers for the amount of ass he kicked, he cemented his status as a face after suffering a betrayal at the hands of his friend and tag team partner, X-Pac, which led to him firmly setting his sights on the WWF Championship, held by Triple H, after returning from an injury in mid-2000. However, while a team up with his brother was teased, Kane would turn on the Undertaker, don a bad-ass new vest attire, and embark on a renewed path of destruction, bolstered by his newfound ability to vocalise his hatred of the world and all things beautiful. Eventually, this led to him crossing paths with “Y2J” Chris Jericho, a high-flying former WWF Intercontinental Champion who earned the Big Red Machine’s rage after accidentally splashing him with hot coffee in a backstage segment. Despite swiftly enacting revenge on Jericho, and coming out on top in their last two pay-per-view bouts, Kane’s anger at Jericho only exacerbated when Y2J cost him the WWF Hardcore Championship and attacking him with a steel chair the month before. Having found a fury awoken inside himself, and frustrated with Kane’s constant attacks, Jericho went to then-WWF Commissioner Mick Foley and out-right demanded one last match with the Big Red Machine here, a Last Man Standing match, to finally put their differences aside once and for all.
The Match: Of course, Armageddon 2000 was also the night of the infamous six-man Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship. That match, and this one, would (in storyline) cast a great deal of controversy onto Commissioner Mick Foley, since Vince McMahon wasn’t pleased that Foley had sanctioned eight of his top stars to compete in dangerous and potentially career shortening matches. However, both the video package and J.R. and The King emphasise that Jericho not only wanted this match, he literally begged for it; pushed to the edge by Kane’s constant assault, Jericho was eager to put an end to the Big Red Machine and had become increasingly violent, attacking Kane with repeated steel chair shots in the build-up to this match, and the story heading in was that Y2J was the plucky underdog and Kane was the unstoppable monster, and that something naturally had to give in this Last Man Standing match. This match also came when both men were, arguably, at the peak of their careers; Jericho was still riding a wave of popularity and early success following his memorable debut, and Kane was absolute hench as fuck at this time, sporting probably my favourite look of his and apparently reinvigorated by his recent main event push. Fittingly, given the intensity of this feud so far (which, despite quickly escalating into Kane wanting to disfigure Jericho’s face, we’re constantly reminded all started over a hot cup of coffee), the two begin the match by brawling on the entrance ramp. With no disqualifications or count outs in effect, both men were free to do whatever they wanted in order to pummel the other until they were physically unable to answer the referee’s ten count, and Kane immediately took full advantage of that to batter Jericho out to the backstage area where (after a brief, awkward period of dead air) he tried to end Jericho’s life by hurling an equipment box at his head!
Chris Jericho was constantly on the back foot thanks to Kane’s raw power.
Luckily, Jericho dodged out of the way (and similarly avoided having his head caved in from a massive shovel shot) and (after the two take pot shots at Mideon, who randomly wandered into the fight), Jericho threw sawdust in Kane’s eyes and slipped out of a running powerslam to send the Big Red Machine into the ring post. Jericho quickly followed up by slamming Kane’s face into the steel steps and then rolling him into the ring, where (oddly, considering the stipulation) the majority of the main action took place. Constantly on the defensive thanks to Kane’s sheer size and strength, Jericho pressed his advantage by knocking his opponent down with a back elbow off the top rope, countering a back body drop, and even clotheslining Kane out of the ring. However, Kane, nimble as a cat, did that awesome spot where he landed on his feet and then caught Jericho in mid-air, clamping down on a bearhug and running Y2J spine-first into the ring post before finally dumping him on the thin outside padding with a running powerslam. Kane then gave Jericho a receipt for smashing his face into the steel steps, and then continued to work Jericho over in the ring, focusing on the spine with stomps, backbreakers, and shoulder thrusts into the corner. Despite the brutal assault, Jericho not only refused to stay down but also scrambled and clawed his way back into the fight, desperate to mount a comeback; Kane easily shut him down with a huge one-arm toss and then applied that awesome choke hold where he held his opponent by the throat and stretched him across his back. While J.R. rightly pointed out that submissions are irrelevant, Kane’s strategy was clearly to punish Jericho and to choke him out so he couldn’t make it to his feet. This led to the first ten-count of the match; Kane stalked the ring, stunned that Jericho managed to beat the count, and the crowd was suitably worked into a frenzy as they cheered for Y2J to get back into the fight. However, when he tried to do so with a back spinning heel kick, Kane snatched him out of the air (almost dropping him) and slammed him to the mat and had his Lionsault rudely interrupted when Kane got his knees up and then fell victim to Kane’s mental top-rope diving clothesline.
Chris Jericho enduring Kane’s assault and ultimately overcame him using his feisty wiles.
After milking the ten count, Kane continued overwhelming Jericho with huge haymakers and, when Jericho defiantly got to his feet and asked for more, Kane delivered an absolutely massive One-Handed Chokeslam and was driven to a frenzy when Jericho somehow staggered to his feet as the referee counted to nine. Incensed at Jericho’s tenacity, Kane snatched a steel chair from ring side, rammed it into Jericho’s ribs, smashed it over his spine, and signalled his intention to put an end to Jericho’s insolence with a Tombstone Piledriver to the chair. However, Jericho escaped and blasted Kane with a low blow before felling him with a DDT. Seizing the chair for himself, Jericho finally turned the tide with a sickening shot right to Kane’s unprotected head; he with a flying forearm, a top rope missile dropkick, a bulldog, and then finally hit the Lionsault onto Kane after laying the chair across Kane’s abdomen (which, naturally, hurt Jericho just as much as Kane). However, Kane did his trademark zombie sit-up at the count of nine and then shut Jericho down with a big boot to the face and military pressed Y2J out of the ring. The two brawled back up the ramp towards the cars and stage decorations surrounding the entrance; there, Jericho was (eventually) able to cause Kane to crash onto (but not quite through) a nearby table with a facebuster. Hurt and desperate from Kane’s brutal and relentless assault, Jericho resorted to utilising his surroundings to his advantage; as Kane staggered to his feet, Jericho caused a wall of barrels to come crashing down onto his opponent, effectively burying and pinning him down and ensuring that the Big Red Machine couldn’t answer the ten count. Although Kane’s gloved hand popped out from between the barrels (and he could have easily just crawled out the other side), Jericho kicked it away and was declared the winner, finally overcoming his monstrous opponent and putting an end to their rivalry.
The Aftermath: I was well into this feud at the time; I’d only been into wrestling for just over a year by this point but Kane had firmly become my favourite wrestler and I loved seeing him absolutely manhandle Jericho in this rivalry. The actual match wasn’t really anything that great; it was a fairly standard big man vs. little man match that was designed to put over Kane’s immense strength and Jericho’s tenacity, but it did this very well and I think the two worked pretty well together. Despite the fact that Jericho had been on the losing end of their matches and most of their segments prior to Armageddon 2000, this match marked the end of their heated rivalry. Over the next few weeks, both men went their separate ways, with Jericho restarting his epic rivalry with Chris Benoit over the Intercontinental Championship and Kane switching back to being a fan favourite soon after. This feud, and match, also marked Kane’s detour into the Hardcore division, which led to a pretty entertaining triple threat match for the belt at WrestleMania X-Seven following Kane’s mammoth performance at that year’s Royal Rumble. This wouldn’t be the last time Chris Jericho and Kane crossed paths; the two would battle one on one a couple of times in random, throwaway matches and often face off for the Tag Team Championships, but they would never again enter into a prolonged feud with each other. Instead, each man pursued their own individual World Championship goals but, despite competing in Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank ladder matches, never went head to head for the company’s top prize.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
What did you think to the bout between Kane and Chris Jericho at Armageddon 2000? How would you rate it compared to their other bouts and what did you think to their feud in general? Were you a fan of the ending to this match? What did you think to Kane’s look and presentation during this time? How are you celebrating Kane’s debut this year, what are some of your favourite matches and moments from Kane’s long and complex career, and what dream match would you have liked to see him involved in? Whatever your thoughts about the Big Red Machine, leave a comment below.
Released: 26 July 2019 Originally Released: 10 October 1994 Developer: Bethesda Softworks Original Developer: id Software Also Available For: Android/iOS, Game Boy Advance, MS-DOS, Nintendo Switch, PC/PC-98Mac, PlayStation, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, SEGA Saturn, Tapwave Zodiac, Xbox 360, Xbox One
The Background: Although the first-person shooter (FPS) genre existed before Doom (ibid, 1993), it was largely defined by this heavily ported and much celebrated title, which popularised online “Deathmatches” and improved upon mechanics established by its forefather, Wolfenstein 3D (id Software, 1992). id co-founder and lead programmer John Carmack created the game alongside designer John Romero and lead artist Adrian Carmack; after a troubleddevelopment, Doom proved immensely popular (despite its controversial violence and Satanic imagery), so much so that it was banned from workplaces and met with widespread critical acclaim. As if Doom’s many ports weren’t enough, a sequel was released just ten months later; many of Doom II’s levels were designed by Sandy Petersen, and they proved far bigger than those of the first game. Additionally, Doom II was much faster and more focused on action, with more enemies appearing onscreen at any one time, and the developers even included one of gaming’s most notorious Easter Eggs when they hid an image of Romero’s decapitated head behind the game’s final boss, the “Icon of Sin”. Like its predecessor, Doom II was an incredibly successful title upon release; critics lauded the game for refining everything that worked in the first, featuring far better map designs, even if it was essentially a glorified expansion of the original. Speaking of which, Doom II was accompanied by two expansion packs, the “Master Levels” and “No Rest for the Living”, which added additional maps and challenges to the game, and also received its fair share of ports over the years. More recently, Romero created an entirely new level for the game in a bid to raise money for Ukraine following Russia’s abhorrent invasion.
The Plot: After a secret Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) teleportation experiment opened a portal to Hell, a lone marine (popularly known as the “Doomguy”) was able to stave off the invading demons. His victory is short lived, however, as the forces of Hell begin invading Earth and he’s forced to venture into the bowels of the underworld to save what’s left of humanity.
Gameplay: Like its predecessor, and as you’re no doubt aware, Doom II is a first-person shooter. Unlike other FPS games, Doom II retains the exact same control scheme, mechanics, and limitations of the first game, meaning there’s no jumping or awkward first-person platforming required, no strafing options, no quick turn, auto healing, or cover-based mechanics, and you still can’t aim the crosshair anywhere except left and right. As before, this isn’t really an issue, however, as the crosshair will change from yellow to read when you’re in range of a viable target, no matter how high or low there are, and this version of auto-aiming is great for picking enemies off from a distance or while safely on the high ground. If you want to make things harder on yourself, or clean up the heads-up display (HUD), you can turn the crosshair off from the options menu, which also allows you to activate or deactivate the auto-run function (I recommend leaving it on, especially as Doom II is much faster and more action-packed than the last game). Otherwise, everything’s exactly the same as it was in Doom: you still don’t need to worry about reload times (with the exception of the game’s one new weapon, the Super Shotgun), and you can still carry multiple weapons at once, the Right Trigger fires your current weapon, the Right and Left Bumpers or directional pad cycle through your arsenal, Y brings up a basic wireframe map (which is still incredibly confusing but better than nothing), and A allows you to open doors or activate switches. There are five difficulty settings to choose from, all of which change the aggressiveness and number of enemies in a level, and you’re able to select any level you wish right from the start but you’ll only pop those Achievements if you play through each level in turn. Unlike the last game, Doom II isn’t divided into individual story chapters in quite the same way; there’s no longer a central hub to worry about and the game’s different arenas are separated by story text, which is actually in your benefit as you’ll now keep your current health, armour, weapons, and ammo between chapters and only lose everything if you die in a level this time around. You can once again keep track of all these in the HUD, which also indicates when you’ve collected the coloured key cards or skulls you need to open certain doors, activate certain lifts, or remove certain pillars and blockades to progress.
Hell comes to Earth, necessitating a trip into the Nether to battle the hordes of demons head on!
You still don’t have to worry about doing any swimming, but poison, lava, crushing traps, and teleporters continue to be prominent stage hazards. Thankfully, enemies can still attack and kill each other, which is extremely useful and fun, and there’s still a lot of explosive barrels around to help take out larger groups of enemies. The bulk of your time will be spent exploring Doom II’s far bigger and more complex levels; areas are much more likely to take on a maze-like quality and it’s easy to get turned around since everything looks the same and it’s often not clear what switches have activated. You’ll need to make use of rising platforms, elevators, and extremely narrow pathways (usually over poison or lava pits) to progress, and traps and areas are often activated by you walking to a certain spot, which can make things confusing when you don’t go where you’re supposed to. Another big improvement in Doom II that’ll quickly become obvious to you is just how many enemies can now swarm the screen. Picking up keys or skulls or entering certain areas often triggers the spawning of dozens of imps and demons, and many enemies are now capable of teleporting in and around the immediate area to really get under your skin. Enemies will pop out from behind hidden walls or cages, and you’ll often encounter a far greater variety in far greater numbers than was ever possible in the first game. Since a lot of Doom II takes place on an Earth overrun with the hordes of Hell, you’ll find a few maps infused with urban trappings like buildings and libraries alongside the usual gothic castles and Satanic dungeons; this adds a decent amount of visual variety to the game, but also makes navigating a bit of a chore as it’s easy to just run around in circles with no idea of where you’re supposed to go. This time around, the game asks you to take running “jumps” to cross gaps or tiny platforms and crates to reach keys, and you’ll often go out of your way to grab a coloured key only for it to open a door to a virtual dead end. You’ll need to look for switches, some of which open secret areas but only for a short time, but some doors and switches need to be shot to activate and it’s not always clear when this is the case. Teleport puzzles, areas filled with explosive barrels, traversing dark corridors, and crossing lava and poison bodies are commonplace tasks the game throws at you, and you’ll find your exits soon change from doors and switches to holes that lead deeper and deeper into Hell.
Graphics and Sound: Graphically, Doom II isn’t really doing anything new that wasn’t seen in Doom; the game runs faster, certainly, has bigger and more complicated level layouts for sure, and is capable of rendering way more enemies at once (with former sub-bosses regularly cropping up at the worst possible times). Like its predecessor, Doom II makes great use of lighting to create a tense, horrifying atmosphere; some areas are in pitch blackness, others are partially lit by flickering lights or candles (with these light sources doubling as arrows pointing the way), but many are fully lit, showcasing the advanced technology of UAC’s outposts and facilities. The Satanic imagery and demonic influence is stronger than ever since you venture deeper into Hell, resulting in eviscerated corpses hanging from hooked chains or splattered across the walls, beating hearts on alters, pentagrams and demon skulls painted everywhere, and even rivers and waterfalls of blood, poison, and lava amongst crooked trees and an ashen Hellscape. Sadly, other areas aren’t quite as impressive; the urban environments are very bland and simple, with exteriors appearing like something out of Minecraft (Mojang Studios, 2011). Doom II is at its best when rendering interior environments, especially when the walls are pulsating with flesh and viscera but, even then, you’ll come across these weird glitchy blue and red blocks and platforms that just look ugly.
Doom II‘s levels are much bigger, there’s a reload animation, and even some Wolfenstein 3D levels!
The soundtrack, while suitably foreboding and a fantastic expansion on the original game, is also more of the same; like everything in the game, it’s been supped a little but is, essentially, the same kind of thing you experienced from Doom. Similarly, enemies and objects continue to be comprised of 2D sprites to continue that diorama-like presentation of the first game, and still howl and snort from the darkness to keep the adrenaline pumping at all times. While the game gives the illusion of having far bigger areas, especially in urban environments, many of the assets are recycled from the first game and, due to the claustrophobic and similar nature of the game’s many levels, it’s easy to get lost since everything in a UAC facility, Hellscape, or urban environment looks the same. Darkened areas, hidden passageways, and twisting pathways only add to the game’s increasing maze-like layouts, though the gothic, Satanic dungeons and sheer number and variety of enemies make the game far more action-orientated as you’re often beset by huge lumbering demons while frantically searching for the next door or key. The HUD continues to be one of the game’s most entertaining features as a pixelated representation of Doomguy reacts when hurt or picking up power-ups, though the game’s story is still told entirely through text. Considering how simple Doom’s story is, it never fails to surprise me just how much text is spewed at the player between chapters and you’re not really missing much at all if you simply skip past these interludes.
Enemies and Bosses: Those who have played the original Doom will be more than familiar with the vast majority of Doom II’s demonic enemies as everything you encountered in the first game makes a return here, with some of the larger and more formidable demons appearing as regular enemies across Doom II’s levels. Pistol and shotgun-toting zombie marines are plentiful, as are fireball-tossing Imps, monstrous Pinkies (which can also be invisible), bulbous Cacodemons, and the ever-annoying Lost Souls, flaming skulls that fly right in your face with a hideous screech! The hulking Barons of Hell and mechanically-enhanced Spiderdemons frequently crop up as regular enemies, often guarding keys or exits but also randomly tossed into wide open and enclosed areas or behind doors when you least expect it, and you’ll even find a more formidable version of the Cacodemon, the “Pain Elemental”, which spits and spews Lost Souls at you!
Some grotesque new enemies appear but you’ll only have to content with one monstrous boss this time.
It’s a good job these tougher enemies are so prominent as Doom II is disappointingly short on actual boss battles; instead, you’ll usually have to fight past some of these bigger, tougher enemies to reach the chapter’s exit and progress to the next, but there’s only really one actual boss battle in the whole game. To make up for this, Doom II does feature some new enemies: rotund grunts packing chainguns are commonplace, as are Hell Knights (weaker versions of the Baron of Hell), and you’ll often jump out of your skin when the armour-clad, skeletal Revenants scream from afar and fire missiles right at your face! The Mancubus is equally grotesque; this hideous, semi-cybernetic blob plods about blasting its arm-mounted flamethrowers at you, and you’ll also have to contend with the Arachnotrons (smaller, faster versions of the Spiderdemon) and the tall, eviscerated Arch-viles, which can heal nearby enemies and engulf you in flames. If you manage to find the game’s secret exits, you’ll also get to battle enemies from Wolfenstein 3D but the only boss in the entire game is the Icon of Sin, a titanic biomechanical demonic goat head set into a wall of flesh and wires. The Icon of Sin constantly spawns every enemy in the game to protect itself, meaning the arena quickly becomes awash with projectiles, roars, and danger, and the only way to damage and kill it is to fight your way to a switch to activate a central column. Ride this up, making liberal use of the invulnerability power-ups to protect yourself, and desperately fire rockets at the Icon of Sin’s small brain port to try and cause splash damage to the hidden sprite of John Romero’s severed head while monsters scream, fire, and backwards words erupt all around you in this thrilling, if a bit frustrating, boss encounter.
Power-Ups and Bonuses: You might’ve guessed by now but everything that you had access to in the last game returns here; you start off with just a crappy pistol and your bare fists, but soon you’re nabbing my weapon of choice, the shotgun, a rapid-fire chaingun, a rocket launcher and plasma cannon, and you’ll of course find the iconic BFG-9000 to wipe out enemies on one burst of green energy. The only new weapon in the game is the Super Shotgun, a double-barrelled shotgun that uses twice the ammo, has twice the kick-back, and is the only weapon with an onscreen reloaded animation. Still, for close encounters, it’s tough to find much better than this bad boy. You’ll find stimpacks and medikits to restore your health, armours to increase your resistance to attack (and bonus jars and armour to take both beyond the 100% cap), special suits to let you safely walk over lava and poison for a limited time, the odd light amplification visors to light up dark areas, and the computer area map to uncover the entire map. As before, you can also pick up temporary power-ups like the Berserk, Invulnerability, Partial Invisibility (which never seems to work as enemies always attacked me regardless), Supercharge, and the one new power-up, the Megasphere (which maxes your health and armour to 200%) to cut through the hoards of enemies you’ll encounter at the cost of severely reducing your visibility with a glaring change of colour palette.
Additional Features: There are nineteen Achievements to earn in Doom II, with three of these popping after successfully completing each themed chapter of the game and others being awarded for killing one of every enemy, getting one hundred chainsaw kills, killing yourself and an enemy with a rocket, or discovering first one and then all the secret levels. These secret levels are accessed through some elaborate means within specific levels of the game, which have you finding a secret exit and being transported to levels from Doom’s forefather, Wolfenstein 3D, which is a fun little inclusion. You’ll also get an Achievement for finishing every level on “Nightmare” difficulty in co-operative mode, and for killing your teammate in co-op, which makes a return here and can be a fun experience even with the odd split-screen presentation. Also returning is the famed deathmatch mode, which allows you and a bunch of friends to battle for supremacy on a variety of maps and with some customisable gameplay options. This version of Doom II also includes the twenty fan-created “Master Levels” add-on, which add a number of unique and creative additional levels to the game. These are accessed from a level select menu and are played in turn, meaning your weapons, health, and armour reset to the default at the start of each one and they can be very challenging as the layouts are much more complex and required liberal use of a guide on my part.
The Summary: I found Doom II to present something of a quandary; on the one hand, it’s undeniably bigger and better than the original in every way, with more diverse levels and an impressive number of enemies swarming the screen at any one time. On the other hand, it offers very little improvements over Doom apart from being faster, bigger, and a more action-packed. One new weapon and one new power-up is kind of a disappointment, and the shift towards urban environments swarming with demons helps to mix up the sci-fi and Hell-based aesthetic but these levels are objectively some of the worst and most annoying in the game. The new enemies are a great addition, however, upping the ante considerably and making for an even more gory and twisted experience but the lack of big, engaging boss battles is a major drawback for me. Considering how many ports and revisions Doom got, it’s surprising how safe this sequel is; the game is more like another glorified expansion pack to Doom, offering a bunch of new maps to wade through and some new enemies to encounter and very little else. Adding a couple of extra new weapons and power-ups and maybe some new gameplay mechanics might’ve helped tip this one further up the pecking order in my eyes, but it looks, plays, and feels far too much like Doom to really rate much higher than the first game. On the plus side, the sheer size and action offered by Doom II make it technically more appealing than the first game and I’d absolutely recommend that you own this one if you could only own one of the classic Doom titles, but that’s simply because of how much faster it is and the impressive number and variety of enemies on show. Basically, Doom II is Doom plus one, if that makes sense; it’s everything you know and love from the first game, with some very minor new additions to spice things up, but maybe plays things a little too safe and therefore comes across as another expansion pack for the trend-setting original rather than being able to truly stand on its own merits.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Did you enjoy DoomII? How would you rate it compared to the original? What did you think to the new levels offered by the game and the larger numbers of enemies? Were you also disappointed by the lack of new weapons and power-ups? Do you have fond memories of playing deathmatches on this one or did you put more time into the original Doom? What did you think to the secret Wolfenstein 3D levels and the final battle against the Icon of Sin? Whatever your thoughts on DoomII, or FPS games in general, drop a comment below.
In the decades since his first dramatic appearance in the pages of Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a mainstream, worldwide, pop culture icon. The brainchild of writer Bob Kane, Batman was brought to life by artist Bill Finger and has been a popular staple of DC Comics and countless movies, videogames, and cartoons over the years. “Batman Day” fell on 16 September this year and I figured this was a perfect excuse to spend every Saturday celebrating comic’s grim and broody vigilante.
Released: 14 June 2005 Developer: Eurocom Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and Xbox
The Background: There was a time when it every cinema releasehad to be accompanied by a videogame adaptation; big-budget movies were generally always accompanied by a hastily createdvideogame tie-in that often failed to capture the spirit of their source material. A popular staple of DC Comics since his debut, Batman has appeared in numerous videogames, with his first pixelated adventure being an isometric adventure game released in 1986. Over the years, Batman has been in more than a few duds but achieved critical and commercial success with Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise (ibid/Various, 2009 to present). Before that, though, Batman came to numerous platforms in this tie-in to Batman Begins(Nolan, 2005), Christopher Nolan’s dark and gritty exploration of the character’s origin. This version of the game was developed by Eurocom and published by EA Games, featured many of the film’s actors reprising their roles, and had a heavy emphasis on stealth-based gameplay. In a precursor to the Arkham games, Batman could stalk and intimidate his foes to unnerve them, utilise fighting styles and finishing moves pulled directly from the movie, and had access to a wide variety of gadgets to subdue foes and solve puzzles. The game also featured a counter system to its combat, saw Batman to interrogate foes for information, and allowed Batman to blast through the Gotham streets in the tank-like Tumbler. All of these aspects would later be refined in the Arkham games and, perhaps as a result of being rushed to coincide with the release of the film, Batman Begins was met with generally average reviews; critics praised the voice work, combat, and fidelity to the source material while also criticising it for being a short, unsatisfying, and cheap cash grab designed solely to leech off the success of the source material.
The Plot: After his beloved parents were murdered before his eyes when he was a child, wealthy philanthropist Bruce Wayne travelled the world training to turn fear against the corrupt and unjust as “The Batman”. However, his skills are put to the test when Gotham City is threatened not only by organised crime, but also a biological attack orchestrated by a prominent figure from his training days.
Gameplay: Batman Begins is a third-person action/adventure game with a primary focus on combat but which also includes rudimentary puzzles and a janky stealth mechanic. You’re placed into the gravelly-voiced cape and cowl of the Batman as presented in the movie, dropped into a variety of often claustrophobic and restrictive environments within Gotham City, and given context-sensitive access to a handful of the Batman’s gadgets to take out a gaggle of nameless, faceless thugs, corrupt cops, and progress through levels. The game has three difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, and “Challenging”) but is pretty tough even on the easiest setting thanks to an unreliable camera and some clunky controls. The Batman has a few combat options available to him: Square allows you to punch and Triangle lets you kick and you can string these together into slow, awkward combos to attack enemies. Unfortunately, the Batman moves and fights like he’s underwater most of the time, making for some sluggish combat; R2 allows you to block (and roll away from, or more often into, attacks when used in conjunction with the left stick) and you will sometimes get a prompt to press Square to counter attacks. Although enemies can block your attacks, you can break their guard with Circle and, when their health has been sufficiently whittled down, you can press Circle for a “Final Attack” to knock them out for good. When surrounded by enemies, you can use Circle to kick them all flying to give yourself room to breathe and you can even hit jumping attacks using X and Square or Triangle.
Pummel foes to take them out as stealthy as a ninja using Batman’s limited repetoire.
Batman can perform a hop and a double jump and will hang from ledges or slink around narrow platforms when against a wall; he can take cover, crouching to avoid enemies, but it can be strangely difficult to avoid snapping to cover when you don’t need to. Tapping R1 tosses his patented Batarangs but these are used to interact with switches, cut cables, drop ladders and other handholds, and general open up new ways to stun enemies or progress through levels rather than being offensively as in later Batman videogames. You’ll also acquire a few limited weapons, like gas bombs and flashbangs, and gadgets to hack into terminals, which you can cycle through with the directional pad and activate with L1, and Batman can also use his grapple in certain situations to zip up out of sight. Pressing L3 drops Batman into a crouch that helps him to sneak up on enemies to take them down, and stealth can often be as important as direct combat as Batman gets absolutely annihilated by gunfire. As such, you’ll want to avoid search lights and make use of your limited, but somewhat useful, radar system to see where enemies are and which direction they’re facing. Often, you’ll need to interact with the environment in some way to scare armed foes into dropping their guns; this might mean dropping pipes, collapsing statues and walkways, and causing explosions but it’s absolutely necessary to take guns out of the equation. As you do this and take enemies out, the remainder will become increasingly terrified, making them easier to beat and take out with Circle. Some enemies need to be interrogated for more information; you can grab them with Square and are prompted to hit Square multiple times to get the information you want, usually a door code or a key, before finishing them off with Circle.
Blast through the streets in the Tumbler or tackle the same puzzles over and over.
Batman can make use of vents to sneak around, climb up chain link walls, and clamber across pipes and wires to reach new areas; eventually, you’ll also be able to make use of his cape to glide short distances and, in many cases, you can simply avoid or go around enemies rather than being forced to take them all out. There are a lot of doors in Batman Begins; you’ll forever be opening doors, activating switches to get into elevators, and finding ways of accessing new doors, sometimes by use of a lockpicking mini game (which never gets any harder or changes in any way) or by entering codes that you must get from enemies (you can’t access the keypad until you interrogate them, so a walkthrough and your memory are no good here). A couple of times, the tedious gameplay is broken up by racing sections where you control the Tumbler and barrel through the city streets smashing enemy vehicles off the road like in the Burnoutgames (Criterion Games/EA UK, 2001 to 2018). Here, you use Square to brake and reverse, hold X to accelerate, press Circle to jump (something I never actually found a use for…), change your perspective with Triangle and look behind with L1, and hold R1 to boost when the gauge is full. L2 fires the Tumbler’s weapons, but these are only used once to bring down a truck and you have to wait for them to charge up and lock on, but the worst thing about these sections are the time limits and the armour system. As you collide with oncoming traffic, walls, or obstacles, the Tumbler’s armour is depleted; there’s no way to refill it and, once it’s gone, the mission ends and you need to restart from the last checkpoint…with the armour returned to the state it was in at that time, meaning it’s very easy to struggle with the last sections of these parts if you’re in a state where one hit will cause your death!
The game can get quite tedious and aggravating through its repetitive gameplay.
Generally, there’s not a whole hell of a lot to Batman Begins but, while the idea and concept of a good game is here, the execution falls flat in a lot of places. Batman is incredibly fragile, his health being drained through combat, gunfire, and falling into the void, and it can only be replenished by using medical kits found sporadically throughout the environments. Checkpoints are plentiful, thankfully, but you must manually save each one if you want to continue from that point after quitting the game, which is just atrocious programming. Overall, Batman is very stiff and clunky; the camera tries to make combat more dynamic by sweeping into an almost 2.5D perspective and automatically targeting enemies, but it can be difficult to land hits and fighting enemies just isn’t as satisfying as it could be. The general gameplay isn’t much better, with levels dragging on and on and on (you spend so much time in Arkham Asylum!) and looking very bland and lifeless thanks to the game’s muddy visuals, and you’ll be doing the same puzzles over and over. Sure, sometimes you need to sneak around enemies entirely; other times, you need to hack into cranes or magnets to progress; one time, you have to find and use an explosive canister to collapse a water tower and hack into security cameras to highlight laser traps and boobytrapped floor tiles. Sometimes, the room is filled with smoke or toxic gas and you need to break a window to keep from suffocating; other times, you’ll interact with the environment to find hidden passageways and keys, and you can sometimes lure enemies out to separate them and sweep them from a higher vantage point but it’s all very rinse and repeat and the game suffers from a stuttering performance, frustratingly repetitive mechanics, and enemies who will riddle you with bullets if they catch so much as a glimpse at you!
Graphics and Sound: I mentioned the game’s muddy graphics earlier and it’s true; the game is washed in a coppery, muddy filter that looks especially ugly. Batman isn’t exactly known for his bright colours and such, but this game definitely needed to think a little further outside the box than stale grey and brown aesthetics. It’s hard to really knock that, though, as the game actually does a pretty good job of emulating the visual style of Christopher Nolan’s film, but it makes already drab and boring environments all the more tedious to go through. Environments are largely taken from the movie and include Arkham Asylum (whose exterior takes more inspiration from the gothic trappings of the comics books), sewers, the snow swept mountains where Bruce trained with the League of Shadows, and even a recreation of the burning Wayne Manor. This was probably my favourite level of the game as it expanded this sequence with ninjas for you to fight, robbed you of Batman’s cape and attire, and saw you avoiding the fires to rescue Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth from the blaze. When in Arkham Asylum, you’ll not only sneak past guards and chase after Doctor Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow to rescue Rachel Dawes, but also have to get past the corrupt cops who surround the place, meaning you have to make use of pipes, gantries, and fire escapes to avoid being shot at.
Though muddy and ugly, the game does a good job of recreating the look of the movie.
When Rā’s al Ghūl attacks the city, there’s a pretty good, if all-too-brief, level where you’re gliding and clambering about underneath one of the Gotham bridges and then running along the monorail tracks to intercept his train, and I was actually impressed with the second Tumbler sequence, which sees you blasting through the streets of Gotham and out to the rural areas to get Rachel to safety. Naturally, as it’s a PlayStation 2 title, the in-game graphics are a bit sketchy at times; Batman looks pretty good, though his cape often suffers from clipping issues, but the enemies are all recycled character models that fail to make an impression. Cutscenes not rendered with the in-game graphics are comprised of a series of disjointed clips from the movie (I suspect actually more from the trailers and TV spots) to deliver a truncated version of the film’s plot. This is disappointing, and incredibly lazy, but the game is bolstered by all of the film’s cast (except Gary Oldman) returning to voice their characters. Hearing Christian Bale and Michael Caine converse over the radio as Batman and Alfred is a lot of fun, and the dialogue offers Bale some opportunities to be a little more loquacious, and their presence helps to elevate the game by the tiniest sliver. Sadly, the same can’t be said about the soundtrack, which utilises an uninspired soundalike to Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s movie score, though I did enjoy the banter and enemy chatter that litters the game, especially when you’re terrifying your foes.
Enemies and Bosses: The Batman has a disappointingly limited pool of baddies to pummel in this drab tie-in game; after the first mission, you’ll basically have encountered every enemy in the game as the only thing that really changes is their appearance. You’ve got thugs, cops, and ninjas who attack using their fists, can block your attacks, and wield weapons such as knives, crowbars, and swords, none of which really factor all that much into the combat. You can sometimes face a few enemies at once but never more than about five, really, and some will simply run away or cower in fear at your presence. The most troublesome enemies are those armed with guns as they can cut you to ribbons in seconds; you need to isolate and disarm these enemies using the Fear system, which often involves simply crouching out of sight and sneaking up behind them as much as it does electrifying floors and such. You can make use of Batman’s fibreoptic cable to see through doors and get an idea of the layout of armed foes but be careful as enemies often come through doors and have very itchy trigger fingers!
The lack of bosses and enemy variety really drags the game’s minor appeal right down.
Unlike many videogame tie-ins, Batman Begins opts not to expand on the film’s story with additional comic book villains or act as a prequel, midquel, or sequel and instead adheres strictly to a truncated version of the movie’s plot. The result is a game not only padded by ridiculously long and repetitive levels, but a serious lack of boss battles and the disappointing absence of any villains not featured in the film. While Carmine Falcone and the Scarecrow are primary targets of the Batman’s crusade, you never get to fight them; instead, you have to take out Falcone’s goons and then commandeer a giant magnet to suspend his car in mid-air over the docks and you simply chase down the Scarecrow so that Rachel cane taser him in a cutscene. The first thing you’ll encounter that even resembles a boss is the truck you eventually have to bring down with the Tumbler’s missiles and this is more a timed challenge than a one-on-one fight and you won’t even encounter bigger, tougher enemies or anything like that. Victor Zsasz/Mister Zsasz crops up a few times but, rather than being a boss, he is simply another glorified thug and you never even fight him. You do have to contend with Arkham’s crazed inmates, who have been driven into a frenzy by the Scarecrow’s fear gas, but they’re really not any different from any other enemy besides wearing straightjackets. In the later stages of the game, you’ll have to face off against Rā’s al Ghūl a couple of times; first, he sets fire to Wayne Manor and sends waves of his ninjas at you before you fight him in an unwinnable battle, then you face him again on the pretty fun speeding train section. He escapes the initial fight and then returns with a sword and is accompanied by ninjas but fighting Rā’s is no different to fighting any other foe; he’s even susceptible to your gas bombs and such, so it’s a pretty anticlimactic way to end an already unimpressive game.
Power-Ups and Bonuses: There’s really not the much on offer here. Unlike other Batman games, the Batman’s arsenal is quite limited in Batman Begins; you can toss Batarangs and use his grapnel gun but only when the game says you can and never against enemies or in attack combos. The only way to use his gas bombs and flashbangs and other gadgets is to find and open military crates and these gadgets really don’t add all that much to the combat experience; I mostly relied on Circle to take foes down quickly. Batman can also use his Electro-Hack device to hack certain consoles, requiring you to align four rows of zeros in a short and annoying mini game, and a similar device to hack security cameras by mashing Circle to reveal laser traps and such. I guess it makes sense that Batman isn’t overloaded with gadgets as he wasn’t in the film or at this time in his crimefighting career, but it’s pretty poor to see how few of his toys and abilities you have access to.
Additional Features: As mentioned, there are two other difficulty settings you can attempt; the game comes with six save slots so you can easily have multiple save files if you want but, after you clear the game, there’s no level select so you have to start all over from the beginning. There’s also a disappointing lack of collectibles in the game…in fact, there aren’t any at all! There are no comic books or statues or gadgets to collect to unlock stuff here; instead, you unlock stuff simply by completing the game and its individual missions and you don’t even have to play on the harder difficulty settings to unlock everything. Once you beat the game, you’ll unlock three additional Batsuits, which is quite cool, and will have unlocked character models and bios to view in the interactable “Gallery of Fear” (of course modelled after Arkham Asylum). There are also interviews, trailers, and movie footage to watch and you can replay the Tumbler sections in full or in a time attack mode if you can stand the weird armour mechanic.
The Summary: It’s fascinating playing Batman Begins after experiencing the Arkham series; the basic, fundamental mechanics that would be so masterfully refined in the Arkham games are here but nowhere near as enjoyable and very much limited by the hardware and time crunch that no doubt dogged this game’s development. I can see how Batman Begins might have impressed at the time; with the combat and gameplay options available, this was easily the most faithful videogame rendition of Batman seen by that point, but it can’t be denied that your options are painfully limited and the game suffers from all the same pratfalls as the very worst of videogame tie-ins. A terrible camera, clunky controls, and needlessly long and bland levels are only the tip of the iceberg; there are no collectibles, no level-up system, no incentive to play through again and very little motivation to play through at all thanks to the sluggish combat and frankly appalling save system that can cost you an entire level’s worth of progress if you don’t manually save. While the game is bolstered by the voice cast and does a pretty good job of creating the aesthetic of Nolan’s film, it’s hampered by a serious lack of visual variety, too few and too frustrating Tumbler sections, and an inexcusable lack of boss encounters. The Fear system was a lot of fun, and it was interesting finding new ways to use the environment to terrify and disarm enemies, but it also led to some of the game’s more annoying sections as there’s little margin for error if you’re spotted. In the end, this game stumbled so the Arkham series could run and you’re better off skipping this in favour of Rcoksteady’s far more refined videogames which truly captured what it meant to be the Batman.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
What did you think to the videogame tie-in to Batman Begins? Were you a fan of the Fear system and the combat and stealth options available to you or did you find the gameplay mechanics needlessly frustrating? What did you think to its recreation of the movie’s plot and aesthetics? Which of Batman’s gadgets and the game’s missions was your favourite ? Were you put off by the lack of boss battles? What did you think to the Tumbler sections? How did you celebrate Batman Day this year and what is your favourite Batman videogame? Whatever your thoughts on Batman Begins, or Batman in general, please leave a comment below and stick around for more Batman and comic book content in the future!
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis – Artist: Mark Bagley
Story Title: “Origins” Published: February 2003
Story Title: “Today” Published: April 2003
Story Title: “Inheritance” Published: March 2003
Story Title: “Still” Published: May 2003
Story Title: “Legacy” Published: March 2003
Story Title: “Father’s Pride” Published: May 2003
The Background: In 1982, Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief Jim Shooter purchased Randy Schueller’s illustration of a black-suited Spider-Man for a mere $200; writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz then conceived of the costume being a living organism Spidey would acquire in the “Secret Wars” event. After he shed the parasitic symbiote, it bonded with disgraced reporter Eddie Brock and Spidey was tormented by Venom, a twisted double who proved so popular that additional symbiotes and storylines spun out of the character’s lore. First proposed by lawyer Bill Jemas, Ultimate Marvel was a secondary imprint of Marvel Comics that ran alongside the main comic line (known as “Marvel-616”) but told their most popular characters’ stories from a fresh, modern perspective to entice new readers and fans of the live-action adaptations of the time. The imprint was spearheaded by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man series, which featured a far younger Peter Parker who encountered many of his most notorious villains while still in high school. The series proved incredibly popular, and even survived the eventual destruction of its universe in the form of Miles Morales, and offered a far different, more scientific incarnation of Venom to its universe. The six-issue “Venom” story arc proved so successful that developers Treyarch revisited and expanded upon it for their moderately successfulUltimate Spider-Man videogame (ibid, 2005), which included this version of Venom as a playable character!
The Review: I think it’s only fair to start by saying that I was never really a big fan of Ultimate Spider-Man, or the other Ultimate comics; the art work was amazing, and I admired how writers like Bendis were able to capture natural, relatable dialogue and how the comics adopted a dynamic, real-world aesthetic. But, for me, the comics were a little too dark, a little bit extreme at times, and rushed through some of Marvel’s biggest storylines and burned themselves out too quickly as a result. The Ultimate Spider-Man comics were especially difficult for me to get into since Bendis packs so much dialogue onto the page, sometimes having a single splash page of a character talking and a good 80% of the background being dominated by a huge speech bubble. Either that or he’d have characters barely able to string sentences together, which, again, is very realistic and indicative of real-life conversations but can make reading the comics a bit of a chore as relatively simple storylines are dragged out across multiple issues simply for the sake of drama. However, having said all that, Mark Bagley is one of my favourite Spider-Man artists, so I absolutely had to seek out the “Venom” story arc to see him working on the character again and he definitely made this younger, far more flawed Spider-Man all the more impressive and dynamic with his explosive and visually engaging art.
Following a painful break up, Peter reconnects with a childhood friend.
Anyway, the “Venom” arc comes at a time of great upheaval in Peter Parker’s life; already struggling with high school and the guilt of indirectly causing his beloved Uncle Ben’s death, Peter is burdened by his part in the death of heroic police captain George Stacy and has recently been dumped by his long-term friend and on-and-off girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, since she can’t handle the pressure of worrying about his web-slinging activities (Peter’s duel identity wasn’t the best kept secret in the Ultimate comics). Peter is left devastated and wallowing in self-pity, doubt, and anger at having screwed up with M. J. While struggling with his tumultuous and self-deprecating emotions in his Aunt May’s attic, he stumbles across a box of photographs of his long-dead father, scientist Richard Parker, and a VHS tape depicting him as a small boy with his parents, his Aunt May and Uncle Ben (depicted as more of a free-spirited hippy in Ultimate Spider-Man), and the Brocks, family friends of the Parkers. Eddie Brock Snr was Richard’s partner on the “Venom Project”, while Eddie Brock Jnr was Peter’s best friend as a child; his memory jogged of his long-lost friend, Peter decides to reconnect with Eddie, who also lost his parents in the same plane crash that killed Richard and Mary Parker, and easily tracks him down thanks to the internet. Awestruck by the bustling Empire City University, Peter meets with Eddie, who’s in a bioengineering program at the university but struggling to live up to his father’s legacy thanks to the workload and the expense of university life.
In a bid to complete his father’s work, Peter finds himself garbed in a protoplasmic suit.
When Peter shares the news of his recent break up, Eddie is a little dismissive, but he’s absolutely right when he says that high school drama is nothing compared to the struggles of the bigger, wider world and he encourages Peter to not let it ruin the best years of his life. Touched by Peter sharing a copy of the video tape, Eddie takes him to a high-tech lab where he’s been working on their “inheritance”, a beaker full of black goo that represents their fathers’ life’s work. Thanks to help from Doctor Curtis Conners, Eddie has pieced together that Richard and Eddie Snr were working on a protoplasmic suit that could (theoretically) cure any disease while simultaneously enhancing the wearer’s natural physical strengths. To fund their research, Richard and Eddie Snr turned to Trask Industries, though this meant that anything they discovered or created would no longer be theirs, and Eddie theorises that they were killed when they tried to keep their project from being perverted into a weapon of war. Eddie’s sample is all that’s left, a small quantity that their fathers worked on in secret, one that was created using Richard’s own DNA and which Eddie fully believes could change the world for the better. Stunned by these revelations, Peter rekindles his friendship with Eddie, who picks him and his house mate and friend, Gwen Stacy, up after school, much to the chagrin of the conflicted M. J., who clearly still has feelings for and cares about Peter. Reviewing his father’s notes and video diaries, Peter snaps when he sees just how distraught his father was at having his research stolen or perverted and resolves to finish his father’s work by breaking into the lab as Spider-Man and taking a sample of the goo to run his own tests. However, a small drop of the liquid splatters onto his hand and a startling, agonising transformation occurs that sees Spidey engulfed by the writhing goo, encased in a monstrous cocoon of sorts, and finally emerging in a sleek, form-fitting black costume.
Peter’s elation soon turns to horror when the suit transforms into a hulking monster!
Spider-Man tests out his new duds by first rescuing a shallow, self-obsessed pop star after she’s held hostage by armed forces in her own limo and then making short work of Herman Schultz/The Shocker. The suit not only greatly amplifies Spidey’s already superhuman strength and speed but allows him to instantly heal from point-blank gun shots and fire black webbing from his fingertips and Peter revels in the power and euphoria offered by his father’s incredible invention. However, things quickly take a turn for the worst when he confronts an armed robber who shoots and kills an innocent man in front of his wife and child; overwhelmed by memories of Uncle Ben’s death, Spidey transforms into a hulking, salivating, monster that hungers for blood and drives him into a mindless rage! Peter’s sense returns in time to spare the man’s life and, horrified by the suit’s grotesque appearance and overwhelming appetite, he flees into the rainswept night, desperately trying to remove it. Luckily, his wild thrashing sees him collide with a set of power lines, which burn the suit off his body and leave him dramatically lying (butt-naked) on the grave of his dead uncle and parents. While all of this is going on, Gwen and Eddie were raving at a reggae concert; afterwards, he tries to put the moves on her and is slighted when she rightly refuses his advances since she’s only fifteen. Any further exploration of Eddie’s inappropriate lusts for the younger girl are quickly dashed when he turns on the news and sees Spider-Man’s fancy new black costume; racing back to the lab, he’s stunned to find Peter there but enraged to find that his young friend is planning to destroy their fathers’ legacy since it’s uncontrollable and dangerous.
Turns out Eddie’s a bit of a creep, and a selfish, jealous dick on top of it!
Eddie’s anger is only exacerbated when Peter reveals that he’s Spider-Man and goes on a lengthy tirade about power, responsibility, and his experiences with just a small sample of the suit. Devastated to learn that his father’s legacy is a volatile and potentially life-threatening substance, Eddie reluctantly allows Peter to take the remainder of the goo and destroy it, apparently convinced of his friend’s sincerity by the little white lie Peter tells that nobody else knows about his secret identity. However, as Gwen so astutely puts it, Eddie is a “bad guy” deep down and, soon after Peter leave, he mutters a bunch of insults at Peter, disgusted by the belief that he’s a Mutant, and willingly exposes himself to a separate sample of the protoplasm he secretly had locked away. Potentially because he lacks Peter’s spider-strength, the transformation is far more unstable and gruesome for Eddie; suffering from extreme cold and overwhelmed with an insatiable hunger, Eddie is bombarded with cruel and negative emotions, and the sheer panic at the realisation that the suit is feeding on him! By focusing on his anger and pain, Eddie is able to force the suit under some measure of control, but he quickly loses his focus when guards show up and transforms into a slobbering, clawed beast that devours people whole! Tormented by nightmarish memories, Peter finally snaps and visits M. J. and the two have a heart to heart in which he tells her that he loves her, but they far from reconcile despite her obviously still having feelings for him. Because of her intimate knowledge of Peter and his abilities as Spider-Man, she’s the only one who notices when he’s distracted by this spider-sense, which alerts him to the presence of the suit on the school grounds; chastising himself for not making sure the suit was completely destroyed, and theorising that it has some kind of “biological memory”, he races out to control it in his street clothes, completely unaware of Eddie’s fate.
Peter is left distraught when Eddie attacks him and appears to die.
Indeed, when Eddie is revealed to be within the thrashing, monstrous suit, Peter is both shocked and appalled that his old friend would willingly subject himself to the suit’s influence. Unlike the mainstream version of Venom, Ultimate Venom is a volatile and almost mindless beast; a pulsating, brutish monster with teeth and spikes dotted throughout its body and whip-like tentacles, it oddly lacks the spider symbol so associated with the character (despite this appearing on the issue’s covers and Spider-Man having it when he wore the suit…and it randomly appearing in one panel…) and is constantly consuming Eddie’s body, feasting upon and fostering his rage and dark emotions to sustain itself. Lashing out in a jealous and embittered rage, Eddie attacks Peter, easily swatting him aside and half-choking him with his tendrils, all while Peter desperately tries to talk sense into his half-crazed friend. Realising that Eddie is out of control and that the suit is simply mimicking his spider abilities and driving him into a murderous fury, Peter leads Ultimate Venom away from the school grounds, lamenting the friends and loved ones he’s lost to “this super hero crap” and wondering whether the suit drove Eddie crazy or if he was always like that deep down. Regardless, they clash on a rooftop, quickly plummeting through some power lines and to the streets below. With Eddie stunned, the suit tries to overtake Peter once more, with Eddie’s distorted rambling claiming that the suit has to kill Peter in order to be whole since Eddie isn’t strong enough to sustain it. The timely arrival of New York’s finest see both peppered with gun fire, which drives Ultimate Venom back towards a live power line and, in a flash of light, apparently incinerates both the suit and Eddie before Peter’s eyes in suitably anti-climatic fashion. Naturally, Peter is also fired upon and, wracked with guilt and pain, he retreats home and ends the story exactly where he started: distraught and in utter anguish at having lost another friend and ruined his life even more thanks to his duel identity.
The Summary: So, yeah, Ultimate Venom does suffer from some of those negatives that I find off-putting about the Ultimate Spider-Man comics; there’s a lot of dialogue, much of it rambling and disconnected, with at least one page being Peter babbling on and on to Eddie, which really isn’t all that interesting to see or read since we already know everything he’s saying and it just seems like padding. Any time Richard and Eddie Snr are discussing their work, you can expect a whole bunch of speech bubbles to be dotted all over the pages and panels, and there are a few instances where characters are completely static and art work is repeated between panels with the characters just saying different things. It’s a weird one for me as, like I say, I do appreciate and admire the way Bendis captures real, natural, often haphazard character dialogue but sometimes it’s a bit much. One thing that both works for and against the Ultimate comics is how cinematic they often are; panels and events are presented very much like a movie, showing rather than telling in some instances, and then snapping back to a massive exposition dump, with dynamic and exciting action sequences and visuals to help keep things interesting. On the plus side, Ultimate Spider-Man is arguably, subjectively, easier to read than some of the comics from the sixties and seventies since they’re not bogged down with outdated dialogue and such (though there is some of that here, particularly in Gwen’s dialogue) and the presentation is far more energetic, but I can understand why some people don’t really care of these comics as they’re very angsty, teen drama like a high school show.
Peter is definitely full of angst, which sadly limits his Spidey action.
Anyway, that aside, there’s a decent amount to like here; the art, especially, is incredible. Mark Bagley did some of his best work on Ultimate Spider-Man and really makes this younger, more troubled teenaged Spider-Man visually distinct from his mainstream counterpart not just in his haircut but in the physical depiction of Spidey as this gangly, inhuman superhero. Unfortunately, Bagley seems to struggle a bit with faces; a lot of the characters look the same, facially, and there’s a noticeable lack of Spider-Man in this arc. He only suits up a couple of times, and he’s only in the black suit for one issue! This is what I mean by Ultimate Spider-Man rushing through things; 616-Peter had the black suit for four years before its true nature was revealed and, at that point, he was in his early twenties. Here, Peter’s still in high school and has already had impactful encounters with some of his most memorable villains, and he’s in the suit for what seems like only a few hours before it tries to consume him, and he frantically rids himself of it. I’ve read a lot of mainstream Spider-Man stories and Peter is absolutely known for being riddled with guilt, pressure, and angst but his Ultimate counterpart is far more dramatic and melancholy; he’s driven into a self-deprecating, morose depression after M. J. dumps him (which I can totally relate to) and has been pushed to the edge by recent events, which cause him to recklessly experiment with the goo and thus almost be killed when the suit goes mental on him. Realising that he’s made a serious mistake and heartbroken to find that his father’s life’s work is volatile and dangerous, Peter immediately backpedals and tries to make everything right by destroying his dad’s research, which means exposing himself to Eddie and desperately trying to convince his childhood friend to go along with this despite how difficult the truth is to hear.
Eddie’s a bit of a weirdo, but Ultimate Venom is nothing more than a mindless beast.
Eddie himself is quite different here. A scientist rather than a discredited reporter, he’s a slender hipster who seems to have really valued his friendship with Peter and who is absolutely fixated on completing his father’s research so that his legacy can live on. There are some red flags raised when it comes to Eddie from the moment Peter meets him at his dorm room, which is a bit of a mess for one thing and shared with another student who has nothing good to say about Eddie. The exact depths of his depravity aren’t revealed until later, however, when he flirts with Gwen and tries to kiss her, then spitefully calls her a tease and dismisses her after she understandably rejects him. Although Peter defends his friend and believes that he’s a good person deep down, this incident is enough to convince Gwen otherwise, and it turns out she’s absolutely right as he’s a bit of a depraved, disturbed young man; bigoted towards Mutants (like most of the Ultimate universe) and ridiculing Peter’s naïvety, Eddie maliciously exposes himself to the goo simply to both prove Peter wrong and to assume the power he described for himself. Instantly, however, Eddie is consumed and driven to madness by this extremely removed version of Venom; little more than a voracious, cancer-like substance, Ultimate Venom is more an amplifier of emotions and abilities than it is a symbiotic life form and simply drives Eddie to confront and devour Peter in order to sustain its unstable and monstrous form out of an innate need for self-preservation rather than any kind of twisted vendetta. This results in a creature that is more of a hulking, primeval brute rather than a sadistic villain looking to make Peter’s life a living hell, though there are some similarities in that Ultimate Venom has apparently copied Spider-Man’s abilities. Ultimately, however, it’s more like a protoplasmic clone of Peter, one spewing teeth and tentacles and going on insatiable rampage, spouting nonsensical accusations and threats but being a far less interesting and layered character in its own right since it’s just a parasitic lifeform that overtakes Eddie.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you read Ultimate Spider-Man’s “Venom” arc? What did you think to this new depiction of Venom? Were you a fan of the changes made to Eddie’s character and his more disturbing nature? Were you also disappointed that Peter’s time in the black suit was cut so dramatically short and that he didn’t fight Ultimate Venom as Spider-Man? Did you enjoy the Ultimate comics, specifically Ultimate Spider-Man and, if so, what were some of your favourite moments from those comics? What is your favourite Venom story and how are you celebrating Venom Day today? Whatever your thoughts on Venom, feel free to leave them below.
In the decades since his first dramatic appearance in the pages of Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a mainstream, worldwide, pop culture icon. The brainchild of writer Bob Kane, Batman was brought to life by artist Bill Finger and has been a popular staple of DC Comics and countless movies, videogames, and cartoons over the years. “Batman Day” fell on 16 September this year and I figured this was a perfect excuse to spend every Saturday celebrating comic’s grim and broody vigilante.
Released: 15 June 2005 Director: Christopher Nolan Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Budget: $150 million Stars: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman
The Plot: As a child, young Bruce Wayne (Gus Lewis) developed a crippling fear of bats and witnessed his beloved parents murdered before his eyes in a random street mugging. Carrying his guilt and anger into adulthood, Bruce (Bale) travels the world to learn the tools to turn fear against the corrupt and unjust. Upon returning to Gotham City, Bruce poses as a wealthy playboy by day and takes to the city’s corrupt and desolate streets by night as “The Batman”, but finds his crusade marred when the ghosts of his past threaten the city he loves so dearly.
The Background: In the eighties, DC Comics subjected Batman to a long period of alteration after he had been transformed from a ruthless vigilante into a colourful, camp, family friendly figure in the the sixties. This change directly influenced Batman’s return to the big screen, wherein noted auteur Tim Burton transformed “Mr. Mom” Michael Keaton into a brooding, tortured vigilante. Batman (Burton, 1989) was a huge success but parents and McDonald’s weren’t too thrilled by the disturbing sequel, which led to Joel Schumacher dramatically reinventing the franchise into two lighter, camper movies that resulted in a dismal box office, scathingcriticalreception, and effectively killed the franchise for some time. During that time, Warner Bros. desperately attempted to get a new movie off the ground but things didn’t get moving until they brought in visionary writer/director Christopher Nolan to helm a dark, gritty reboot. Working alongside writer David S. Goyer, Nolan sought to explore the origins and psychological motivation behind the character within a grounded, realistic context, and the two were heavily influenced by notable Batman stories like “The Man Who Falls”(O’Neil, et al, 1989) and Batman: Year One (Miller, et al, 1987). To achieve his goal, Nolan emphasised Bruce’s relationship and fear of bats, altering his origin and shedding some light on a vague aspect of the Dark Knight’s years in training to turn his fear against criminals.
After Batman & Robin bombed, Nolan crafted a grim and gritty reboot.
Numerous actors were considered for the title role before Nolan cast noted method actor Christian Bale, who packed on 220lbs of muscle following a dramatic weight loss for The Machinist (Anderson, 2004), eventually trimming down to 190lbs and training in Wing Chun Kung Fu to present the most physically capable Batman yet. Cillian Murphy, who lost out on the lead role, was cast as Doctor Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow and purposely downplayed the character’s more theatrical comic book appearance to focus on his obsession with mind manipulation. The film also marked a turning point in superhero movies with serious actors like Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Liam Neeson lending a dramatic credibility to the production. This was further bolstered by Nolan’s remarkable attention to detail, practical sets and effects, and infusing Batman’s gadgets with a real-world believability. The new Batmobile, dubbed “The Tumbler”, was designed and built by production designer Nathan Crowley; the final vehicle could reach speeds of 100 miles per hour and had an actual jet engine fixed to the rear. The new Batsuit was created by costumer designer Lindy Hemming and made from molded cream latex sections and finished off with a cape inspired by parachute nylon and a cowl that gave Bale a better range of head movement. Upon release, Batman Begins was a massive success; with a worldwide gross of over $373 million, the film became the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2005 in the United States and was accompanied by an incredibly popular critical reception. Reviews praised the film’s portrayal of Bruce’s motivations, the dark tone, and focus on story and psychology rather than special effects; however, while Bale’s performance in the duel role was praised, the romantic sub-plot and fight sequences drew some criticism. Still, the critical and commercial success was more than enough to kick-start a whole new Batman franchise; the film was accompanied by a videogame tie-in, an animated spin-off, and one of the most celebrated Batman movies ever made a few years later.
The Review: Interestingly enough, considering all the hatred Batman & Robin gets, I actually remember thinking it was the best Batman movie ever when I first saw it as a kid. I don’t really remember why, but I suspect it was a combination of factors: It was the first Batman movie I saw at the cinema, it was big and loud and colourful, it had new villains and Dick Grayson/Robin (Chris O’Donnell) in it, and there was a lot of hype surrounding it so it was kind of exciting as a young lad. Obviously, however, it was an absolute dumpster fire from start to finish and made the grave mistake of harkening back to an era of Batman many fans would rather forget. So, to say that my anticipation was high for the far darker, more serious Batman Begins would be an understatement. Terrible title aside, I was captivated by the trailers, which presented a far more suitable atmosphere and take on my favourite DC Comics character, and I remember being so enamoured by the cast (these were big-time, serious, high-quality actors, after all!) that I went out of my way to familiarise myself with Christian Bale’s previous body of work, discovering some of my favourite movies in the process and instantly becoming a fan of his commitment and work ethic. Batman Begins immediately separates itself from its predecessors (and many other superhero films from the time) by forgoing a traditional title sequence and daring to tackle the source material with a grounded, realistic take that would set the standard for many superhero films to come.
Haunted by his traumatic childhood, Bruce embarks on a worldwide quest to study the criminal mind.
More than any other Batman film before or since, Batman Begins delves deeply into Bruce’s psychology, motivations, and training. When we first meet Bruce, he’s a prisoner in a squalid Bhutan hellhole where he’s forced to fight just to eat the slop they serve. Thankfully, he’s more than capable of fending off larger (and multiple) opponents with a brutal and precise (if frenetically shot) fighting style that leaves his attackers injured and humbled (but, crucially, alive). Tormented by nightmares of bats, Bruce is haunted by memories of his childhood, which are related through clever flashbacks to keep the first hour or so of the movie constantly switching between the adult, rage-filled Bruce and his younger self (played by both Gus Lewis and Bale with a slightly different haircut). As a boy, young Bruce fell down a well on the Wayne Estate and was attacked by a swarm of bats and left traumatised by a crippling fear of them, despite the best efforts of his beloved father, Doctor Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache), to help him recognise that the bats were simply acting out of fear. Sadly, Bruce’s terror is so bad that he urges his parents to leave a performance of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele (an opera filled with bats), leaving him distraught by survivor’s guilt when they are shot by desperate mugger Joe Chill (Richard Brake). Heartbroken at the loss of his wealthy, loving parents, Bruce is left in the care of doting butler Alfred Pennyworth (Caine) and, as he grows, his guilt turns to anger and a burning desire for revenge, and a resentment towards his great family name. As a young adult, Bruce finally gets the chance at revenge when Chill agrees to testify against powerful crime boss Carmine Falcone (Wilkinson) in exchange for early parole; however, as Bruce moves to shoot Chill, the mugger is gunned down by one of Falcone’s agents, robbing him of the pleasure of taking the man’s life while also allowing him to watch Chill die.
Though a catalyst for his life-changing journey, there’s little chemistry between Rachel and Bruce.
It’s only due to the intervention of his childhood friend and love interest, assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes (Holmes), that Bruce realises how selfish and misguided he’s been. In an awkward scene, she repeatedly slaps him and tells him his father would be ashamed of him wallowing in his own pain while Gotham descends into desperation and anarchy. The slum-like “Narrows”, especially, have become a breeding ground for thugs like Joe Chill, and mobsters like Falcone are able to stay virtually untouchable thanks to them corrupting the police department and judicial system. She emphasises that his parents put their wealth to good use, providing jobs and a cheap city-wide transportation system and desperately trying to counteract the rise in crime, and that his desire to kill one lowly mugger just to make himself feel better sickens her. Stunned by Rachel’s outburst, and finding no solace in Chill’s death, Bruce attempts to confront Falcone and finds that the mobster is not only unimpressed but connected enough to do anything, even shoot someone as well-know as Bruce dead, without any repercussions. This drives Bruce to throw away his gun in a fit of disgust and hop on the next boat out of Gotham to travel the world, without any of his resources or finances, on a mission to not only train his body in multiple martial arts but also to understand the criminal mind. When he returns seven years later, Gotham has only gotten worse; despite this, Rachel is still fighting an endless sea of corruption but is disappointed to see that her close friend is more concerned with buying sports cars, dating supermodels, and throwing his wealth around on selfish endeavours than trying to fix the city. Although reinvigorated by the intervention of the mysterious Batman, who finally gives her means to take down Falcone, Rachel is fascinated by the masked vigilante and stunned to find that it’s Bruce beneath the mask, finally putting his anger and skill to the greater good.
Rā’s is determined to destroy Gotham in order to eradicate its cesspool of crime and corruption.
Bruce accomplishes this thanks to the tutelage of the enigmatic Ducard (Neeson), the head trainer of the League of Shadows, a shadowy organisation of ninjas and highly trained mercenaries who have battled crime and corruption for generations. Recruited by Ducard while wallowing in prison, Bruce is subjected to a highly powerful toxic that brings his worst fears to life and, through physical and mental training, learns to confront his worst fear and master it, to turn his rage and guilt into a powerful force that can be used to fight criminals rather than consume him. A wise and driven tutor, Ducard comes to see Bruce as his greatest student and spends seven years honing him into the perfect instrument through which his master, Rā’s al Ghūl (Ken Watanabe), can stamp out the injustice that has infested Gotham by destroying the city as they have done to countless corrupt civilisations in the past. Unfortunately for the two, Bruce maintains an unfaltering moral belief in the sanctity of life and judicial system, and therefore adamantly refuses to become their executioner. His rejection of the League’s murderous ways leads to the temple going up in flames and Rā’s being killed in the chaos, though Bruce saves Ducard’s life and finally returns to Gotham to begin his mission to save the city using the lessons he learned from the League. However, it turns out that Ducard was the true mastermind behind the League (a revelation that falls a little flat since Neeson looks exactly like Rā’s al Ghūl anyway); through the use of his decoy and theatricality, he has been able to fabricate the notion that “Rā’s al Ghū” is a supernatural, immortal force and thus catches Bruce completely off-guard when he gate-crashes his birthday party with his goons, burns Wayne Manor to the ground, and prepares to destroy the city not through economics or all-out invasion but through perverting an experimental Wayne Enterprises microwave emitter. Far from a colourful, insane villain, Rā’s al Ghūl is a measured, manipulative, and eloquent man driven by tragedy and with an innate desire to stamp out crime by any means necessary. This includes executing petty criminals and murders, deposing entire governmental bodies, and destroying cities that have become mired in corruption, and his mastery of numerous martial arts, willingness to take lives, and to go to any lengths to achieve his goals places him as Batman’s dark opposite.
Bruce is provided moral, tech, and field support from his allies who all want to see Gotham cleaned up.
Upon returning to Gotham, Bruce quickly establishes himself as a carefree playboy; he feigns interest in his family’s company only to gain access to the Research and Development department, where former board member Lucius Fox (Freeman) immediately deduces that his employer’s many requests for armoured outfits, lightweight fabrics, and prototype gadgets is for more than just spelunking. Quite how Fox is able to guess that Bruce is secretly cobbling together a vigilante persona for himself is beyond me, and it’s never said out loud so Fox can have plausible deniability, but it’s a good job that he is aware of it as it gives Bruce access to everything he needs to craft a horrifying symbol to strike terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere. His inspiration for this is his own dread, the bat, and he soon makes an immediate impression upon both Falcone and jaded, but incorruptible, Sergeant Jim Gordon (Oldman) when he leaves Falcone beaten and tied to a searchlight. While police commissioner Gillian B. Loeb (Colin McFarlane) is appalled at vigilante running around on his streets, Gordon is intrigued by the Batman and their interests soon align not only because Gordon showed Bruce compassion as a child but also because he’s one of the few honest cops in the city and is therefore vital to Batman’s goal of usurping the organised crime that is choking the life from the city. Though weary from the corruption within the police department, Gordon believes that Batman is trying to help and his tip-off about his amoral partner, Detective Arnold Flass (Mark Boone Jnr.), is a vital clue to uncovering Dr. Crane’s designs for the city. Gordon’s gut instinct about the mysterious vigilante leads to him directly aiding the Batman on at least two occasions, with the first being when he helps get the fear-addled Rachel to safety during a breakout at Arkham Asylum in scenes directly inspired by Batman: Year One, before being the only cop brave enough to enter the chaotic Narrows during the finale. Although Alfred despairs over Bruce’s recklessness and for throwing all his time and effort into his monstrous persona, he nevertheless willingly assists the driven orphan in building his Batsuit and reconfiguring a vast cavern beneath Wayne Manor into a suitable headquarters. These three allies are thus instrumental not just in Bruce becoming Batman, but in guiding his quest to become an incorruptible symbol into fruition. Alfred’s loyalty, Fox’s tech, and Gordon’s field support all allow Bruce to find an outlet for his pain and to not only fight crime but also save the city from descending into total chaos from Rā’s al Ghūl’s plot.
With Falcone deposed, Dr. Crane is free to indulge himself as the horrifying Scarecrow.
This scheme is only made possible thanks to the research and assistance of Dr. Crane, the slimy and vindictive chief administrator at Arkham Asylum. Thanks to being on Falcone’s payroll, Dr. Crane is well compensated for his expert testimonies, which have helped Falcone’s thugs escape extended jail sentences on the grounds that they’re mentally unstable. However, Dr. Crane actually has a more powerful and influential employer, Rā’s al Ghūl himself, who has been funding his research into the League’s psychotropic drug. This aligned perfectly with Dr. Crane’s fascination of the mind’s power over the body, how fear and intense emotions can override logic and reason and drive people to do incredible (and insane) things, and allowed him to not only weaponise the drug, but lace Gotham’s water supply with it and turn it into a fear-inducing gas he can blast in people’s faces from a wrist-mounted device. With his subject induced into a panic, they’re left helpless as Dr. Crane dons a tattered burlap mask and terrorises even the most hardened individuals (from Falcone to Batman) as “The Scarecrow”. Cillian Murphy excels in this role, exuding a disquieting menace and slick, unsettling demeanour; his condescending public face slips as he delights in torturing others as the Scarecrow but, while his fear toxin effectively drives all of the Narrows into a violent frenzy, he remains a purely psychologic threat rather than a physical one and, rather than Batman taking him down, he’s dispatched by a taser to the face from Rachel. Unfortunately, Batman doesn’t actually target the kind of street thugs who killed his parents; instead, he immediately targets Falcone to disrupt the stranglehold organised crime has on Gotham, and his mission is to clean up the streets and bring hope to the people not by picking off random punks but by tackling the source of the problem, free from the red tape and corruption and diplomacy that has swamped the city. Since this corruption has seeped into the police department, Batman also faces opposition from Gotham’s cops; with him barrelling around the city streets (and across rooftops!) in his supped-up tank, he attracts the police’s undue attention and is labelled by Loeb as a public menace, though by the end of the film has established himself as a heroic figure rather than just a symbol of terror, especially to the downtrodden citizens.
The Nitty-Gritty: If there’s a drawback to Batman Begins, it’s the score. Don’t get me wrong, I eventually came to really enjoy Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s work on Nolan’s films, and the score definitely established a dark, brooding mood to the rebooted Batman but, much like how Clark Kent/Superman is forever associated with John Williams’ iconic theme, it’s hard to watch a Batman movie without Danny Elfman’s absolutely perfect work. Still, this is a minor issue, and the score is soon embedded in your brain and getting you pumped for Batman’s big chase through the city or pulling at your heart strings when young Bruce is breaking down in tears in Alfred’s arms. The amount of time the movie spends with Bruce’s childhood, and his training, goes a long way to actually making this feel like a Batman movie. As good as its predecessors were, the previous Batman films all felt like Batman was more of a supporting player in his own movie as his villains took centre stage, but that absolutely isn’t the case here. While the death of the Waynes has been done to death at this point, the sudden brutality of it and the impact it has on young Bruce is absolutely tragic here. You can see how this carefree, curious little boy was rendered a terrified, hollow shell of himself and his fear and guilt twist into a burning desire for revenge as he grows. Seeing Bruce willing to kill Chill to try and heal that wound is a powerful scene, one that forever cements not just his refusal to use guns but also his unwillingness to kill, and he actively goes out of his way to save lives wherever possible (though there is some collateral damage along the way, and he does bend this rule for the finale, which clouds this philosophy somewhat).
While I’m a fan of the realistic slant, and Batman looks fearsome, I didn’t care for the tank-like Tumbler.
In terms of visual presentation and atmosphere, this was the best Batman and Gotham City had looked for quite some time. Eschewing the horrific gothic claustrophobia and bright, neon excess of the previous films, Batman Begins opts for a dank, gritty urban landscape that is comprised of numerous different layers. From the more respectable courthouse and upper-class areas to the seedy, dishevelled streets of the Narrows, Gotham feels like a living, breathing, physical space that packs its inhabitants in close quarters and breeds tension and anarchy through harsh living conditions from its poorest civilians. The wealthy and the corrupt live in far greater luxury, with Wayne Enterprise’s establishments and stately home being the most impressive and opulent, and the film is bolstered by a tangible realism, with minimal CGI employed throughout. This approach is best seen in the Batsuit; while the suit can look a bit grey and puffy in promotional pictures, it’s perfectly lit in the film to give Batman a menacing, fearsome look, especially when seeped in shadows or he’s hunched over railings. There’s a particularly stunning panoramic shot of him standing atop a towering structure, watching over the city, and the range of movement offered by the suit is worlds beyond anything we’d seen from the more obviously moulded rubber suits. While I prefer the texture and appearance of a leathery cape, the fabric one works extremely well, especially when draped over the suit and when electrified to allow Batman to effortlessly glide through the Gotham skies. While this Batman relied a little too heavily on his gliding for my liking, this does make for some dynamic shots and he utilises a gas-powered grapnel gun that looks and feels very realistic. It’s great seeing Bruce and Alfred tinkering away in the Batcave, making bat-shaped shurikens, spraying his gear, and testing out his equipment, which helps to show that Bruce isn’t entirely dependent on Fox. However, as fantastic as the Tumbler is, I’m still not really a fan; the Batmobile should be sleek, elegant, and terrifying, not a literal mini tank capable of blasting through solid concrete, ploughing through cars like they were cardboard, or flying across rooftops in the exact opposite of stealth. Alfred’s right; it’s a wonder no-one was killed, and it never fails to amuse me that the Tumbler’s idea of “stealth” is to simply turn all its lights off.
Bale is the quintessential Batman for me, expertly balancing Bruce’s different personas.
A serious point of contention in Nolan’s Batman movies, but especially this one, was the depiction of combat. Nolan does narrative pacing and introspective character development extremely well, but it’s clear that he’s not much of a fight choreographer. Batman’s first appearance is frenetic and obscured, full of rushed jump cuts and incoherent action, which actually works when you view the scene from the perspective of his terrified foes but this leeway can’t be afforded to other fight scenes in the film, which are filmed a little too close quarters for my liking and don’t really show off the brutal efficiency of Batman’s power and skill. On the plus side, Bale makes for a fantastic Batman; even now, he is the best embodiment of the complex duality of the character and he perfectly balances Bruce’s three metaphorical masks (public carefree playboy, private stoic trauma victim, and the intensity that is Batman) with subtle changes to his demeanour, body language, and voice. Bale’s Bat-voice has also caused some debate, but it’s pretty spot on here; his Batman speaks with a growling whisper, which escalates into a gravelly bark when he’s intimidating foes, but it works best when he’s not taxing his vocal chords to their limits. More than any actor before him, Bale also captures the physicality of Batman; he’s tall, well-built, and incredibly believable as a toned, highly trained individual capable of downing terrified mobsters with a sharp strike to the face and absolutely lives the role in a way the his predecessors could only dream of. It’s a shame, then, that he’s lumbered with such a disappointing love interest. Katie Holmes is cute but there’s just no chemistry between her and Bale, despite their best efforts. It doesn’t help that Rachel’s an entirely original character, but she’s so dull and uninspiring that it’s hard to really care when she’s in danger. Holmes does a commendable job of selling Rachel’s utter panic after she’s gassed by Scarecrow, but Bale carries this sequence with his intense desperation to get Rachel to safety and administer a serum to counteract the fear toxin. There’s a quiet moment between Batman and Rachel in the Batcave where he reassures her and keeps up his stoic façade, only to slip his cowl off after she passes out that hints towards what could’ve been a loving relationship between the two but, as I say, Holmes just isn’t capable of pulling it off and Nolan made the right decision to recast her with the far more capable Maggie Gyllenhaal in the sequel. Still, the scene prior to this, and one earlier in the film where Scarecrow blasted fear gas in Batman’s face really showcases what the fear toxin is capable of. The victim is so manic with uncontrollable terror that the world warps and twists into a nightmarish hellscape around them, to say nothing of how Batman appears to those affected! Rendered a salivating, monstrous man-bat, it’s no surprise that Dr. Crane is driven half out of his mind when subjected to his own toxin.
With Gordon’s help, Batman condemns Rā’s to death and they forge a partnership to clean up Gotham.
This leads me to talking about the microwave emitter, probably the most comic book-y element in the film (well…beyond the psycho dressed as a bat, of course). This machine vaporises a city’s water supply, which effectively allows Rā’s al Ghūl to cover most of the city (and all of the Narrows) in Scarecrow’s fear toxin. Would this actually vaporise the water in the human body? Did nobody boil water in all the time Dr. Crane was lacing the water supply? Well, maybe, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask to suspend your disbelief regarding this plot point, though I do have to admit that the frantic statements of Gotham’s panicked public servants was a step too far during the Tumbler chase and the climatic finale. So, as mentioned, Ducard is revealed to be the true Rā’s al Ghūl; he delivers an ominous threat to Bruce at his birthday party, forcing Bruce to ingeniously (and amusingly) feign being drunk and insult his guests so they won’t be harmed, and loads the microwave emitter onto Dr. Wayne’s train to quickly reduce all the water along the path to Wayne Tower into a panic-inducing fear gas. Inoculated against the gas, and with Fox working on mass producing the serum to counter its effects, Batman goes to confront his former mentor. Thanks to Gordon, who uses the Tumbler to scupper the train in another amusing little sub-plot, the train is derailed before it can vaporise the entire city’s water supply, but the Narrows descend into all-out chaos as a result of the gas. Before the train crashes in dramatic fashion thanks to some highly detailed miniatures, Batman chooses to confront Rā’s al Ghūl face-to-face on the out of control transport. Despite Rā’s al Ghūl trying to slow him down with his pawns and taunting him with his inability to “mind [his] surroundings” or take lives, Batman is finally able to best his one-time friend thanks to the advantages offered by his Batsuit. Unable to stop the train (and never actually planning on doing so), Batman is in prime position to end Rā’s al Ghūl’s life but, rather than kill him, he simply refuses to save him and glides to safety right before it goes up in flames, taking the draconian despot with it. Considering Bruce made such a show about not wanting to kill anyone, this does seem contradictory; surely refusing to save a life and leaving a man to die is the same as killing them, after all? I do think it might’ve worked a little better if Batman had tried to save Rā’s al Ghūl and his foe had instead stabbed him, or kicked him away, only to find out too late that Batman had jammed the controls and he was doomed to die. In any case, Gotham is saved (for the most part); Bruce resolves to rebuild Wayne Manor and takes full control of his family business, placing Fox in charge of the company’s day-to-day running, in a bid to aid the city’s redevelopment and underprivileged just as his father did before him. Although Bruce indicated his true identity to Rachel, she asserts that they can’t be together since “Bruce Wayne” is now a mask assumed by his true persona, Batman, symbol of fear and hope to the city. However, although he refuses to accept any thanks for his help, Batman ends the film having established a working relationship with the newly promoted Lieutenant Gordon, who calls for his input using a specially-made signal atop police headquarters regarding a theatrical villain who may require their future attention…
The Summary: I kind of feel like a lot of people have forgotten how good Batman Begins was (and still is) since the sequel was such a massive hit and pretty much overshadowed the first film in Nolan’s trilogy, and that’s a shame as it really is a top-notch Batman movie. This was the dark, gritty, serious take on the character that long-term Batman fans so desperately needed; it treated the source material with the utmost respect and translated it into a realistic setting to offer a deep dive into Bruce Wayne’s tragedy, psychology, and motivations behind donning the iconic Batsuit. Bolstered by some superb actors and performances, Batman Begins showed that superhero films weren’t just for kids and that celebrated actors could be brought in to elevate the genre into a whole new stratosphere. Christian Bale was, and remains for me, the quintessential Batman; be absolutely embodied every aspect of the character I enjoy, from his physical commitment to the role to his expert portrayal of Bruce’s different, complex personalities and tumultuous emotions, and he’s let down only by his leading lady and some poorly shot fight sequences. Still, even Katie Holmes’ awkward performance and the mundane action scenes don’t detract from the broody, melancholic atmosphere Nolan so expertly crafted. His focus on realism and delivering a layered character study on the World’s Greatest Detective was the shot in the arm Batman really needed at this time, and I loved that the film dared to focus on less mainstream villains like the Scarecrow and Rā’s al Ghūl and to show a new side to Batman’s origin and early years. Sure, The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008) took everything that worked here (and some of the things that didn’t) and improved and expanded upon them to craft one of the finest superhero movies we’ve ever seen, but don’t let that cloud how awesome Batman Begins was as a subdued, gritty, engaging action thriller that sheds new light on Batman and introduces audiences to one of the best onscreen portrayals of the character ever seen.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Did you enjoy Batman Begins? How do you feel it holds up compared to its sequels and other Batman movies? Did you enjoy Christian Bale’s performance and the inclusion of such acting heavy weights as Liam Neeson and Michael Caine? What did you think to Nolan’s realistic take on Batman, his fight scenes, and his suit? Were you a fan of the Tumbler, and what did you think to the romance between Bruce and Rachel? What’s your opinion on Rā’s al Ghūl’s ultimate fate and what do you think to Batman’s No-Kill rule? How did you celebrate Batman Day this year and what is your favourite Batman movie? Whatever your thoughts on Batman Begins, or Batman in general, share them below or leave a comment on my social media.
With the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3(SEGA Technical Institute, 1994), gamers were introduced to Knuckles the Echidna. This mischievous, dreadlocked antagonist was created by Takashi Yuda and his debut was made all the more impressive by virtue of the fact that Sonic 3 was too big to fit on one cartridge, which meant that Knuckles was the first of Sonic’s supporting characters to co-star in a main series videogame when Sonic & Knuckles (ibid) was released on this very day in 1994.
Story Title: “Carnival Night Conspiracy” (Parts 1 to 6) Published: 12 November 1994 to 21 January 1995 Writers: Nigel Kitching Artist: Richard Elson
The Background: After Sonic the Hedgehog rocketed to mainstream success and helped SEGA to usurp Nintendo to capture the allure of the videogame industry, SEGA capitalised on Sonic’s popularity not just with videogames but also a slew of merchandise, including cartoons and comic books. About six months after Archie Comics began publishing a weird amalgamation of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993 to 1996) and Sonic the Hedgehog/SatAM (1993 to 1994) cartoons, United Kingdom publisher Fleetway Editions Limited brought us “Britain’s Official SEGA Comic”, Sonic the Comic (StC), a fortnightly comic book that I collected diligently until its unfortunate end. While StC pulled much of its lore from the now defunct Mobius and Doctor Ovi Kintobor storyline that was popular outside of Japan at the time, StC quickly veered away from the source material to recast Sonic the a mean-spirited leader of a gang of Freedom Fighters made up of both recognisable characters and anthropomorphic characters adapted from the videogames. Like the Archie comics, StC often included someloose adaptations of the videogames that adapted the source material to fit with its noticeably different lore. After his introduction in a multi-part story loosely based on Sonic 3, Knuckles almost immediately graduated to his own back-up stories in the pages of StC. While these initially tied up some loose ends from that story and cherry-picked ideas from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, they soon evolved into their own beast entirely to expand on Knuckles’s vague backstory and craft a version of the character entirely unique to any seen in other Sonic media.
The Review: Although “Carnival Night Conspiracy” is Knuckles’ first solo story arc in StC, it wasn’t actually his first solo story; the Guardian of the Floating Island first appeared in a short story in a StC summer special, which basically showed how he met Dr. Robotnik and served as a tantalising prelude to his first multi-part appearance in the main Sonic the Hedgehog strip. “Carnival Night Conspiracy” takes place directly after that; thanks to Dr. Robotnik being unable to hide his true nature for too long, Knuckles soon realised that the egg-shaped dictator he had aligned himself with was actually plotting to merge the twelve Chaos Emeralds into six and absorb their powers. Fortunately, Knuckles was able to use the power of the elusive Grey Emerald (also known as the “Control Emerald”, kind of a precursor to the Master Emerald and something commonly found in Sonic lore at the time) to stop Dr. Robotnik. He then aided Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters to repent for exposing their secret base and, after a massive battle, left on frosty terms in one of Dr. Robotnik’s Egg-O-Matics. This is where we find Knuckles at the start of the story, making his way back to the Floating Island (as it was known then; “Angel Island” wouldn’t become its name until 1999), only to have his ride suddenly explode thanks to a self-destruct mechanism triggered by Dr. Robotnik. Thankfully, Knuckles wasn’t too far from his floating island home and bails out, using his unique ability to glide to reach safety. However, from the clouds above the island he spots a bustlingly casino city, one well-guarded by Dr. Robotnik’s Troopers and just one of many outposts and bases the mad scientist secretly constructed on the island without Knuckles’ knowledge. Insulted and peeved by this, Knuckles burrows his way into the heart of the city, confused by the bright lights and the purpose of the casinos and restaurants and unaware that he’s being watched until he’s confronted by a massive construction robot.
Knuckles reluctantly allows the Marxio’s to stay after being won over by their thrilling ride.
However, it’s no match for Knuckles’ super strength and he easily trashes it in one hit, but his heckles are only raised further when he barely avoids a sniper shot! Clambering up to confront his shooter, Knuckles is met by Carnival Night City’s owners and operators, the swindling conniving trio known as the Marxio Brothers. Led by the cigar-smoking Grouchio and made up of underpaid dogsbody Chicio and the mute Harpio, the Marxio Brothers are a composite of the comedians the Marx Brothers and the Super Mario Brothers and first appeared in StCsome years prior where they were in charge of the similarly-themed Casino Night Zone. Although he initially demands that they pack up and leave, Knuckles is won over by Grouchio’s silver tongue and the smarmy salesman pitches that their casino will help Knuckles spruce up his island for when his lost people eventually return and easily explains away Dr. Robotnik’s Troopers as being security guards they purchased. Naturally, Knuckles is sceptical, but still somewhat naïve to the wider world and awestruck by the technology and allure of modern Mobius, so he allows the Marxio’s to give him a tour and take a ride on a high-speed rollercoaster, completely unaware that the trio do actually work for Dr. Robotnik. Strapped tightly into the Hell House Ride, Knuckles enjoys the thrill of the rollercoaster and admires the amount of effort the Marxio’s went to make the ride dangerous and exciting, using his super strength to smash through any hazards that come his way and being so won over by the fun and exhilaration offered that he agrees to let the slimy conmen stay on the Floating Island. Overjoyed, Grouchio makes Knuckles a partner in their endeavour, granting him a luxurious office (to the echidna’s chagrin) and the title of “Marketing Consultant” ahead of them opening the park to the public.
Knuckles smashes the Marxio’s craft and then forcibly removes them from the island!
However, when Knuckles leaves to take care of Dr. Robotnik’s Launch Base Zone, the Marxio’s pursue him in their three-seater craft and Chicio accidentally lets slip that the egg-shaped dictator is bankrolling their entre endeavour. Though frustrated by his brother’s stupidity, Grouchio has no qualms about transforming their craft into a heavily-armed combat mech and unleashing its full might against Knuckles, who is summarily beaten into unconsciousness. However, right as the first guest arrive on the Floating Island and Grouchio is regaling Dr. Robotnik with their victory and promises of fortune, Knuckles recovers and redoubles his efforts, easily dodging their missiles and massive mechanical fists and tearing the craft apart with a superpowered uppercut. To stave off Knuckles’ wrath, Chicio redeems himself by calling in and hoard of Badniks and Grouchio wows the park’s guests by spinning the resulting destruction as a performance celebrating Knuckles’ victory over Dr. Robotnik. Unable to destroy the Carnival Night City with so many innocent lives at risk, Knuckles allows the Badniks to close in on him so he can destroy them all in one fell sweep and comes up with a simple, direct, and effective solution to his problem. By striking a fault line with one massive punch, Knuckles just breaks the entire Carnival Night Zone off the Floating Island! Thankfully, this severed chunk of rock contains just enough residual power from the Chaos Emeralds to allow it to slowly drop to Mobius below rather than plummeting down and killing the three, and it crashes before the startled eyes of a young boy who was unable to make the trip. With his mission complete, Knuckles orders the startled guests to vacate his island and stoically prepares to rid the Floating Island of every trace of Dr. Robotnik.
The Summary: I was super excited about Knuckles at the time; I was so stoked for Sonic 3’s release and absolutely captivated by this grinning, mysterious, antagonistic red echidna (often referred to as a “spiked monkey” in magazines). When he first appeared in the StC summer special, I couldn’t wait to see when he would make his StC debut and it seemed to take ages for him to show up, but boy was it worth it at the time! Then, after proving a formidable foe and a reluctant ally, Knuckles got his own back-up feature in StC beginning with this story and they quickly became my second favourite strip of the comic after Sonic’s. Nowhere is it more evident that “Carnival Night Conspiracy” was meant to be seen as an important feature, one second only to Sonic’s strips, than in the presence of artist Richard Elson, easily the comic’s most talented hand, who had illustrated Sonic’s stories for years and this definitely helps to bolster the tale as being important to the ongoing Sonic 3 adaptation in the comic at the time.
The story went a long way to establishing Knuckles as a bad-ass loner.
Knuckles retains much of his characterisation from his debut appearance; he’s hot-headed, proud, and incredibly naïve, easily awestruck by the ways of the surface world and manipulated by others. He is a little more guarded here thanks to being burned by Dr. Robotnik, but not so much that he doesn’t just forcibly eject the Marxio’s or that he can’t be won over by a rollercoaster ride. His focus is on safeguarding his home, however, and eradicating Dr. Robotnik’s influence from its surface; when the Marxio’s get in the way of that, and his reluctant hospitality, Knuckles doesn’t hesitate to fight back and trash their machine, but he’s not so single-minded in his vendetta as to endanger anyone’s lives. The Marxio’s have always been joke villains in StC but they work here as Dr. Robotnik’s proxies; Knuckles was never the airheaded, gullible fool in StC but many of the comic’s villains did manipulate and betray his trust, though the situation was a little different each time and he generally seemed to learn from each encounter. The primary thrust of this story, though, is to establish that Knuckles is a hot-headed loner who wants to live in peace and solitude on his island and that he’s an extremely tough physical specimen, able to glide, scale walls, and smash an entire chunk off his island with his incredibly strength. Lacking Sonic’s grating arrogance and proclivity for quips, Knuckles comes across as a bad-ass recluse who isn’t to be trifled with and who will unleash an incomparable wrath on anyone who threatens his home or tries to take advantage of him.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever read “Carnival Night Conspiracy”? Did you pick the issues up when they were first released and, if so, what did you think about Knuckles’ first spin-off? What did you think to Fleetway’s introduction and characterisation of Knuckles and the way they handled his backstory? Were you a fan of the Marxio Brothers? What did you think to Knuckles’ early crusade against Dr. Robotnik? Which of Fleetway’s Knuckles stories and/or characters was your favourite and why? Are you celebrating Knuckles’ big day today? Whatever you think about Sonic the Comic, and especially Knuckles, leave a comment down below or let me know by commenting on my social media.
In the decades since his first dramatic appearance in the pages of Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a mainstream, worldwide, pop culture icon. The brainchild of writer Bob Kane, Batman was brought to life by artist Bill Finger and has been a popular staple of DC Comics and countless movies, videogames, and cartoons over the years. Today is “Batman Day” this year and I figured this was a perfect excuse to spend every Saturday celebrating comic’s grim and broody vigilante.
Story Title: “The Man Who Falls” Published: March 1990 Writer: Dennis O’Neil Artist: Dick Giordano
The Background: Seeking to capitalise on the success of Clark Kent/Superman in their Action Comics publication, the editors of National Comics Publications wanted more superheroes under their banner. In response to this, artist Bob Kane, inspired by pulp heroes like Kit Walker/The Phantom and Lamont Cranston/The Shadow and Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketch of an ornithopter flying device, drew up a design for a masked crimefighter dubbed the “Bat-Man”. This design, however, was wildly different from the image of the Caped Crusader we know and love today and it was only thanks to the long-suppressed influence of artist Bill Finger that the Bat-Man gained his iconic cape, cowl, and darker, more gothic uniform. In the years since his debut, Batman has become not only one of DC Comics’ most popular characters but also a mainstream cultural icon, appearing in numerous other comics, movies, cartoons, and videogames. Many writers and artists have brought their own flair to the Batman and his colourful cast of characters, but one of the most influential for me (and an entire generation) was Dennis O’Neil, who removed many of the camp aspects of the character and reimagined Batman as a grim but sociable detective and even put his own spin on Batman’s famous origin in this story, first published as part of DC’s Secret Origins line (1961; 1973 to 1974; 1986 to 1990; 2014 to 2015) that specifically focused on detailing the origins and backgrounds of their many superheroes and villains.
The Review: “The Man Who Falls” begins with anticipation; against a moonlight night sky, the Batman sits perched, ready to leap through the area and get the drop on a bunch of armed thugs. It’s something he’s done countless times before in the pursuit of justice, and never once has the Dark Knight ever entertained the notion that he would fail in his leap or to uphold his ideals. As he sits, poised for the jump, the Batman’s thoughts flash back to a time from his childhood when he did fall, tumbling through the rotten boards over a forgotten cave on his family’s estate as a child. There, bathed in darkness, young Bruce Wayne was overwhelmed by a hoard of startling, flapping bats; the boy cried out in terror, horrified by the experience, but soon found safety in the protective arms of his father, Doctor Thomas Wayne, who rescued young Bruce from the cave and admonished him for running off alone and putting himself in danger. Bruce’s mother, Martha, attempts to comfort him, assuring him that he was simply in a dark cave with scared animals rather than, as he believes, in Hell…but Bruce isn’t so easily reassured, and his thoughts remain haunted by his harrowing experience. Since then, the Batman considers whether he ever truly stopped falling deeper into the darkness; along the way, he watched others fall, including his beloved parents, who were viciously gunned down before his eyes, leaving only the broken shell of a child behind.
A traumatised Bruce travels the world looking for a purpose to put his skills and anger into.
Spurned on by this traumatic event, Bruce found himself desperate for a purpose, a direction, some way to make sense of everything. To get around the greed and pity of others, a teenaged Bruce crafted clever forgeries that enabled him to leave Gotham City and travel the world using his family’s wealth. He became something of a nomad, enrolling in various learning institutions but never staying very long, while also moonlighting on the streets amongst the poor and desperate. While others turned their nose up at him, dismissing him as a “rich snot”, Bruce consoled his feelings of isolation and loneliness with the knowledge that there would always be another train, city, or teacher waiting for him. At age twenty, his wealth and academic achievements were more than enough to secure him a place in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (despite his poor marksmanship skills), but he was only able to stomach it for six months; frustrated by the sheer amount of red tape and legislation, Bruce realised that he wouldn’t find whatever he was searching for within the governmental system. Instead, he journeyed to Korea, to a mysterious temple high up the frigid Paektu-San Mountains. After three weeks of patiently waiting, Bruce was graced with the presence of Master Kirigi; after five months of menial tasks, he was finally deemed worthy to begin his martial arts training and took to it with a finesse and skill beyond his years. This saddened his master, who believed that Bruce’s natural inclination towards violence would eventually destroy him and urged his student to let him teach him to move past the trauma that has so badly scarred him. As this would take another twenty years, and he had no intention of forgetting the lessons he’s learned, Bruce departed the next morning, travelling to France and learning the art of manhunting from a brutal mercenary known as Ducard.
After years of training and searching, Bruce adopts the terrifying persona of the Batman!
Protesting the man’s willingness to kill and shaken by his culpability in the murder, Bruce continued his travels and his studies; by his early twenties, he’d consulted with every prominent detective in the world save one: Willie Dogget. As gentle as Ducard was skilled, Dogget was also murdered before Bruce’s eyes and, in the scuffle with his murderer, Bruce indirectly took another life and was left wandering the frozen wastes of a mountain with little in the way of protection. Thankfully, he was rescued by an Indian shaman, one who wore the ceremonial mask of the bat and mused that Bruce had been “marked” by the winged creatures. Once he fully recovered, Bruce finally returned home to Gotham City, physically and mentally changed from his experiences and yet still pondering the true nature of his mission and its connection to the bats. Determined to put his skills to good use, Bruce’s first attempt at vigilante crimefighting is an abject failure that leaves him critically injured; humiliated, he retreats to his father’s library and contemplates the paradox of the criminal, a superstitious and cowardly lot who hide behind their guns. At that exact moment, the answer to all of his questions literally comes crashing through the window; a giant, terrifying bat that brings him both horror and an unexpected joy. In that moment, Bruce finally realises that he has to become something more than a man, something less than human and also more at the same time and dons his first ghastly visage as the Batman. Now, he is far beyond questioning his mission and his purpose; beyond fear, beyond doubt, the Batman leaps from his perch with nothing but confidence, committed to dedicating the rest of his life to taking such death-defying falls to bring justice to the same type of criminals that stole his childhood.
The Summary: “The Man Who Falls” is an extremely simple tale; Secret Origins was a publication known for little more than retelling, recontextualising, or reframing the origin stories of DC Comics’ characters but one thing I enjoyed about the book was that it often gave a new spin on the narrative. Rather than the stories always just being a clear-cut narrative, there was often a framing device employed so you had a little more substance to the tale, and “The Man Who Falls” utilises such a device to really emphasise the bleak, never-ending crusade of the Dark Knight. For the Batman, his life has become a nightly routine of life-or-death situations, to the point where he really doesn’t think anything of leaping hundreds of feet from the air, crashing through a skylight, and tackling armed thugs despite the fact that he could die at any moment during even such a simple and mundane task as that. The Batman has no time for doubt or fear; all that matters to him is an unwavering commitment to his mission to battle injustice no matter the cost, and “The Man Who Falls” showcases that very well purely through its artwork and the grim narrative boxes that deliver more insight into the Batman’s background than ever before.
The story delves deeper into Bruce’s background and training than ever before.
The story touches, albeit briefly, upon Bruce’s travels, that lost period of time between him losing his parents and returning to Gotham City to “become a bat”. Skipping over some of the intervening years when he was a boy, we find a teenaged Bruce Wayne travelling, searching for a purpose and a way to put his pain and anger to good use, and finding himself bored and unsatisfied by traditional academic environments. Still, while others question his focus and integrity, Bruce excels in his studies and has all the tools required to do whatever he desires, even pursue a career in the F.B.I. on his test scores alone, but remains unfulfilled and frustrated by the compromises and flaws of the traditional system. More than ever, we get a glimpse of the arduous physical and mental training Bruce endured on his travels and find that his childhood traumas not only left him ideally suited to mastering physical combat, but also on the path towards self-destruction and with a strong moral compass that’s only galvanised by witnessing (and being somewhat complicit in) further death. While the Batman’s original origin story was incredibly powerful despite its brevity, “The Man Who Falls” expands upon it beautifully, linking in with the events of Batman: Year One (Miller, et al, 1987) and emphasising that Bruce effectively was killed alongside his parents and what left that alleyway was a traumatised, driven child determined to put his anguish to good use no matter the cost.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Have you ever read “The Man Who Falls”? What did you think to the way it expanded on Batman’s origin and background? Do you like seeing Bruce’s travels and training or do you think it’s best left ambiguous? What are some of your favourite stories and moments depicting Batman’s never-ending crusade and his early days of training? Whatever your thoughts, drop them below or leave a comment on my social media, and be sure to check out Batman content.
To celebrate the simultaneous worldwide release of Mortal Kombat(Midway, 1992) on home consoles, 13 September 1993 was dubbed “Mortal Monday”. Mortal Kombat’s move to home consoles impacted not only the ongoing “Console War” between SEGA and Nintendo but also videogames forever thanks to its controversial violence and I think that it’s only fitting that we continue celebrating this influential fighting series every September 13th.
Released: 21 September 1997 Director: John R. Leonetti Distributor: New Line Cinema Budget: $30 million Stars: Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, Brian Thompson, James Remar, Sandra Hess, Lynn Red Williams, Musetta Vander, and Reiner Schöne
The Plot: Despite Liu Kang’s (Shou) victory in the Mortal Kombat tournament, Outworld emperor Shao Kahn (Thompson) bends the Elder Gods’ sacred rules and assaults Earthrealm. With Lord Rayden (Remar) weakened, Liu Kang and his friends have seven days to recruit new allies and learn the key to stopping Kahn’s invasion before all of Earthrealm is annihilated.
The Background: As I’ve touched on before, competitive fighting games were all the rage in the nineties thanks to the many iterations of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior(Capcom, 1991). To compete with this title, developers Ed Boon and John Tobias, inspired by movies like Enter the Dragon (Clouse, 1973), Bloodsport (Arnold, 1988), and Big Trouble in Little China (Carpenter, 1986), created a tournament fighter thatchanged the genre thanks to its ultra-violent content. It was producer Lawrence Kasanoff who saw Mortal Kombat’s potential as a multimedia franchise and it was thanks to him, and director Paul W. S. Anderson, that we got the cult hit Mortal Kombat (ibid, 1995), which was both surprisingly profitable, widely recognised as one of the best videogame adaptations, and a principal influence on my PhD thesis. Unfortunately, you can’t talk about Mortal Kombat without mentioning its universally derided sequel. Rather than smartly infuse the relatively simply videogame lore with filmic inspirations,Kasanoff aimed to go bigger and more spectacular, stuffing the script with as many characters and references to the source material as possible in an effort to cater exclusively to Mortal Kombat’s growing fanbase. Paul W. S. Anderson passed on the director’s chair and only two members of the original cast returned for the sequel, which was full of cringe-worthy performances and terribly rendered CGI as New Line Cinema didn’t actually release the finished version of the film. This was reflected in the film’s dismal $51.3 million box office gross and scathing critical reception; everything from the confused narrative, underwhelming fight scenes, and the laughably bad acting has been highlighted as a negative, and rightfully so. Despite the film’s universally negative reception, Kasanoff’s multimedia ventures continued with the live-action prequel, Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998 and 1999) but, while New Line Cinema initially had plans for a third film, the teases for it were cut from Annihilation and it remained in Development Hell for decades until the franchise was finally rebooted in 2021.
The Review: I was such a huge fan of the original Mortal Kombat movie as a kid, and even now I still regard it as probably the best live-action videogame adaptation ever made. That’s hard for me to say as I loathe what Anderson did to the Resident Evil franchise (Capcom/Various, 1996 to present) with his filmic endeavours (Anderson/Various, 2002 to 2016) but it’s true; I remember renting it as a kid, basing an entire birthday around watching it, and even the day I bought the VHS copy from a market stall. My anticipation for the sequel was so high and it seemed like we were waiting for so long for it to come out but, in reality, it was only a couple of years. When Mortal Kombat: Annihilation finally did come out, all I remember seeing of it was the poster and that was enough to get me excited as I was eager to see that cliff-hanger ending resolved, but I missed out on seeing it at the cinema as it wasn’t very easy to get to the cinema at the time, so I didn’t see it until it came out on VHS some time later. I don’t remember what I thought to the film as a kid; I was probably just super happy to see all my favourite Mortal Kombat characters brought to life and given more screen time, but I do have a vague memory of thinking it wasn’t as good as the original film and, as I’ve gotten older and rewatched and even academically studied the film, that opinion has only grown stronger.
Things are off to a bad start right from the opening and only get worse from there….
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation opens with a quick recap of the last film; scenes of Mortal Kombat’s best fights and memorable moments (purposely cut to excise the original actors from the footage) play over Rayden’s narration as he brings us up to speed and we’re brought back to the ending of the first movie, but with some noticeable and jarring changes. You’ll spot these immediately since James Remar sounds nothing like Christopher Lambert (still the quintessential Raiden for me and it baffles me that he hasn’t done more voice work for the character, at least) and definitely doesn’t look anything like him. Sporting an entirely new outfit and a far more obvious wig, Remar fails to convey the same enigmatic presence as his predecessor but it doesn’t end there; Liu Kang is also wearing a completely different outfit and both Johnny Cage (Chris Conrad) and Lieutenant Sonya Blade (Hess) have been completely recast. Even more egregious is that Cage has his trademark sunglasses back, despite the fact they were crushed by the monstrous Goro (Tom Woodruff, Jr./Kevin Michael Richardson) in a pretty memorable sequence in the last film. Still, none of that really compares to the absolutely atrocious visual effects slashing across the sky and the arrival of Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn. Originally portrayed as a gigantic semi-translucent, monstrous figure voiced by the immortal Frank Welker and bursting from the Temple of Light, Kahn is now a far less intimidating muscular brute garbed in a Halloween costume and surrounded by a gaggle of porn stars, Gladiators, and cos-players and immediately lacks all of the subtle menace and nuance of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s menacing Shang Tsung.
Liu Kang must go on a bizarre quest to rescue Kitana and find the power to defeat Shao Kahn.
Still, let’s continue on. Like the last film, our main character is Liu Kang (thankfully still portrayed by the endlessly likeable and charismatic Robin Shou, whose martial arts prowess is one of Annihilation’s few highlights even if his acting ability isn’t quite enough to carry this mess of a script), whose elation at having overcome his personal demons, avenged his brother, and safeguarded Earthrealm from Outworld is immediately cut short by Shao Kahn’s arrival. Although he learned to trust in Rayden in the last film, and that all the legends he grew up hearing about were true, despite his scepticism, Liu Kang is angered that their victory, which the Elder Gods decreed would keep Earthrealm safe from invasion for at least one generation, was all for nothing thanks to Shao Kahn finding a loophole in the rules. Liu Kang’s anger only increases when Cage is unceremoniously killed right before his eyes, and his first instinct is to avenge his fallen friend, only to be told that he’s “no match for Kahn” and must embark on a perilous journey of self-discovery to find the power necessary to overcome the Emperor. Rayden splits the heroes into teams for this mission, and Liu Kang’s demeanour (but not his crotch) is softened by the presence of the beautiful Kitana (Soto), with whom he had a flirtatious romance in the last film. Here, they are ready to take the next step in their relationship, but this is suddenly ripped away from Liu Kang when the Edenian princess is kidnapped by the returning Scorpion (J. J. Perry/Ed Boon). Fraught with guilt over failing to keep her safe, Liu Kang is guided towards the elusive Nightwolf (Litefoot), a Native American mystic who endeavours to teach him to harness his “Animality” by undergoing a series of tests designed to focus his mind, body, and spirit for his inevitable fight against Shao Kahn.
Sonya, angry at Cage’s death, reluctantly teams with Jax, the charismatic everyman with bionic arms!
Although she has a new face, wardrobe, and haircut, the first thing you’ll notice about Sonya here is that she’s reverted back to being an angry, embittered, distrustful, and overall unlikeable character. She’s absolutely devastated when Cage is murdered and desperate to make Shao Kahn pay, but blinded by her grief and rage so Rayden has her journey to some facility to reunite with her partner, Major Jackson “Jax” Briggs (Lynn red Williams). Initially, Sonya rejects this idea as she doesn’t want to lose anyone else she cares about, and she carries a chip on her shoulder throughout the film and basically has to learn the same lessons about trusting others as she did in the first movie. While Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is littered with chaotic and random fight scenes, at least Liu Kang and Rayden are focused on opposing Shao Kahn; Sonya has no chance against the Emperor but has no other clear antagonist to focus on since Kano (Trevor Goddard) is dead, meaning she’s forced to settle for “leftovers” like Cyrax (J. J. Perry) and Ermac (John Medlen). Thankfully, she’s partnered up with Jax; for a former American Football player and Gladiator, Williams does a really good job in this role and has a down-to-earth, relatable charisma to him. As an everyman character who has no idea what’s going on, he’s a natural conduit for exposition and it’s fun seeing him react to the bizarre events happening all around him. Jax’s “thing” in this movie is that he struggles with self-confidence; to that end, he underwent a surgical procedure to graft cybernetic prosthetics to his already muscular arms to give him a power boost. Jax’s arms are a valuable asset, saving his life and even allowing him to cause shockwaves by hitting the ground, but Rayden and the others teach him that they’re merely a tool and that his true power comes from within. Unlike Sonya, Jax ends up squaring off with a clear rival in the finale, the half-human centaur Motaro (Deron McBee) and, in the process, overcomes his insecurities and sheds his mechanical arms to deliver a pretty cathartic beatdown on Kahn’s monstrous minion.
The plot revolves around Kitana and Sindel, but the actors struggle to convey this drama.
While she was mostly relegated to an alluring figure and a secondary mentor in the first film, Kitana takes on a much larger role in the sequel. Although she only gets a couple of fight scenes and ends up locked in a cage for her man to come and rescue her, Kitana is right at the forefront of the plot since her mother, Queen Sindel (Vander), is the key to Shao Kahn’s illegal invasion. Stunned to find her mother alive (and in perfect physical health), Kitana is even more heartbroken to find that Sindel has been corrupted by Kahn’s influence and that her resurrection has allowed him to bring destruction to Earthrealm. Confused by this turn of events, Rayden consults with the Elder Gods who advise him that the love Kitana has for her mother can break Kahn’s spell, restore her, and undo the damage caused and he blindly follows their instructions, even sacrificing his status as a Thunder God (and debuting an absolutely dreadful new appearance in the process that is anything but Raiden) in order to reunite the two. Unfortunately, they’ve all been duped by the corrupt Elder God Shinnok (Schöne) and lured into a trap; Sindel laughs in her daughter’s face when she tries to profess her love for her and Rayden is left powerless, resulting in his death at Kahn’s hands and Kitana having to battle her mother in the finale. Unfortunately, neither Talisa Soto nor Musetta Vander have the acting ability to pull any of this off; both are obviously stunningly beautiful, but Kitana and Liu Kang have all the chemistry of a wet paper bag and Sindel is little more than a cackling pantomime villain. Remar also suffers in this regard; if he’s trying to channel Lambert’s stoic playfulness, he fails miserably and just seems bored and confused, even during his terribly shot fight against the Reptiles (Mark Caso, Paul Driver, and Sultan Uddin).
Though he cuts an intimidating figure, Shao Kahn is simply trying to please his overbearing father.
However, they’re all Oscar-winning actors compared to the absolutely dreadful Brian Thompson. I actually like Thompson; he always plays big, brutish thugs really well when he crops up in supporting roles but he has neither the size nor the charisma to impress as Annihilation’s lead antagonist. Essentially coming across as a poor man’s Kurgan (Clancy Brown; a fitting comparison, for sure), Shao Kahn is a loud, arrogant bully with an overdeveloped sense of grandeur and a taste of pomp and ceremony. Upon arriving on Earthrealm, he attempts to establish himself as a meaningful threat by surrounding himself with his generals and killing Cage, but is easily outmatched by Rayden. Indeed, Rayden is only stopped from killing Kahn right then and there because the Emperor takes Cage as a hostage, and Rayden is so stunned to see one of his chosen mortals killed that he doesn’t even make good on his promise to “take” Kahn’s generals from him. While the heroes go off on their confusing missions, Kahn returns to his throne room and is content to allow the seven-day merger of Outworld and Earthrealm to take place without his direct involvement. However, if his cheap plastic armour and rubbish skull helmet didn’t diminish Kahn’s threat enough, his contentious relationship with his father, Shinnok, certainly does. Chastised at every turn by the corrupt Elder God, Kahn quickly turns from a brutish tyrant to a meek child desperate to impress his father, and he absurdly takes his anger out on his generals at every opportunity. Even this doesn’t make sense; why kill your underlings when you’re in the middle of an invasion? And Kahn’s lashing out at Rain for failing to kill Kabal and Stryker is super weird considering Shinnok chewed him out for sparing Rayden. Imagine if Shinnok had just killed Kahn for that, as he does his general? Absolutely ridiculous! Completely devoted to his witch-like queen and confidant in his victory, Kahn allows his troops to wreak havoc across the globe (though we barely see any of this) and is fixated only on killing Rayden and conquering Earthrealm in order to earn his father’s respect. Where Shang Tsung was a scheming, charismatic sorcerer, Shao Kahn is little more than a thug with delusions of grandeur and it’s hard to picture anyone bending the knee to him since he exhibits little of the threat that Tsung did beyond his admittedly impressive physical stature.
The Nitty-Gritty: Contrary to my usual everyday mindset, I don’t actually like to be too negative in my reviews, or when watching movies or playing videogames or whatever, and when discussing Mortal Kombat: Annihilation for my PhD thesis I tried to come at it with a positive perspective. Primarily, this involved praising it for capturing the madcap nonsense of the franchise’s latter-day releases, like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Midway Games, 1995) and its successor, Mortal Kombat Trilogy (ibid, 1996). These were fighters crammed full of characters, bonkers finishing moves, and which tried to mash together all the established lore and many of the contradictory characters, which made for a pretty chaotic gaming experience but one full of variety (even if many characters were just palette swaps and many of the violent finishing moves were pretty lazy). Still, if all you cared about was seeing your favourite Mortal Kombat characters in one game, these two titles had you covered and, in that respect, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation delivers in terms of fan service. The plot is also a pretty close approximation of Mortal Kombat 3’s (Midway, 1995), which depicted Kahn resurrecting Sindel and leading an illegal invasion of Earthrealm, and the iconic theme song by The Immortals is back and has even been tweaked to include the new characters seen in this film. Unfortunately, that’s about where the praise ends for, while Mortal Kombat: Annihilation does feature a bunch of characters, hardly any of them have any personality or nuance to them. Instead, basically every character that isn’t a lead protagonist or antagonist is treated as badly as Scorpion (Chris Casamassa) and Sub-Zero (François Petit) were in the first film. Rain (Tyrone Wiggins) is here, and even gets a few lines, but is he a conflicted Edenian prince with control of water and lightning? No, he’s just another ninja who gets smashed into a fiery pit for angering his master.
Almost every Mortal Kombat character is shoe-horned into the film whether it makes sense or not.
An extremely poor rendition of Baraka (Dennis Keiffer) randomly shows up, looking more like a guy in a rubbery Halloween costume than a vicious mutated cannibal, and Mileena (Dana Hee) even makes a brief appearance to wrestle around in the mud with Sonya but is she depicted as Kitana’s bloodthirsty clone or stepsister? Is she bollocks. Hell, Sonya even mistakes her for Kitana at first, which makes absolutely no sense as she doesn’t look anything like Kitana; maybe if she’d also been played by Talisa Soto, and Jade (Irina Pantaeva) and Baraka had been dropped from the script, Mileena could’ve played a bigger role but, as is, she’s just some hot chick in a magenta outfit for Sonya to fumble around with. This even carries over to the finale, when Sonya takes on Ermac (who has just one line and isn’t even named), who randomly splits into two (actually this is Noob Saibot (J. J. Perry), who also isn’t named and is given no context) to double-team her but why the hell should we care when we don’t even know who these masked morons are? Still, at least these losers feature onscreen; “two of Earth’s warriors, Kabal and Stryker” aren’t even given that luxury and this absolutely ugly looking CGI monstrosity gets way more screen time than it deserves. Sadly, this continues with some of my favourite Mortal Kombat characters. Sub-Zero (Keith Cooke) makes a dramatic return, now sporting his bad-ass eye scar and actually being the younger brother of the previous one. He comes sliding in to save Liu Kang from Smoke (Ridley Tsui), who’s actually a combination of Smoke and Sektor, and deliver some clunky exposition about how the cyborg was reprogrammed by Kahn to target Liu instead of him (as in Sub-Zero). Why was Smoke going after Sub-Zero? Does he have any relation to Cyrax? Was he Sub-Zero’s former friend turned into a cyborg against his will and did Sub-Zero even care that he just killed his friend? None of these questions are answered as the film pauses for a pretty awesome battle between Sub-Zero and Scorpion which, despite being something I and many Mortal Kombat fans missed from the first film, also makes little sense as there’s no reason given in the film for the animosity between the two beyond the filmic Scorpion being evil and Sub-Zero trying to protect Kitana. Even crazier is the part where, after losing Kitana to Scorpion, Sub-Zero delivers a heartfelt plea to Liu Kang that “[he] alone [is] not ready for what’s ahead” and then disappears from the film! I just…what?! You just said that Liu Kang needs allies but you couldn’t stick around to help? What could Sub-Zero possibly have to do that’s more important?!
Many of the characters are just there for the sake of it and make very little impact as a result.
This does lead Liu Kang to Nightwolf, but he’s another throwaway character; sure, he looks the part but all he does is speak in riddles, knock Liu Kang out with a tomahawk, and prattle on some trite about his “Animality”. It’s assumed that Jade killed Nightwolf while Liu Kang underwent his little nightmare sequence but who the hell knows, and why the fuck where there suddenly Reptiles waiting to attack the heroes after Jade betrayed them?! Nothing makes any sense, and it’s frustrating as all they had to do was have Kahn’s minions be Motaro, Sindel, Scorpion, Mileena, and Sheeva (Marjean Holden) and things could’ve been much more streamlined. Oh, Jesus…I haven’t even talked about Sheeva, have I? Rather than portray her using animatronics like with Goro, Sheeva is simply another pantomime villain with some prosthetic arms who plays next to no role in the movie and is unceremoniously killed off without even having a proper fight scene! There’s one very brief scene where she and Motaro get into it over who should replace Rain as Kahn’s right-hand man, hinting at the rivalry between their races, but Sheeva may as well not even be in the fuckin’ movie as she does absolutely nothing before being squashed by a cage! Motaro comes off a little better, but not by much; Deron McBee at least looks to be enjoying himself in the role, which requires little more than for him to stand around with his flex on and look tough, and the filmmakers actually did a decent job of rendering his horse-like lower half using clever shots, some practical effects, and CGI. He certainly comes off a lot better than whatever the fuck that demonic monster-thing is, and absolutely should have taken that creature’s place, but unfortunately has absolutely none of the screen presence or importance of Goro since he’s hardly in the movie and only seen as a relevant factor in the finale.
Liu Kang is ultimately able to best Shao Kahn and save Earthrealm once again.
So…okay….Mortal Kombat: Annihilation decides that the complex and bonkers lore of the videogame just isn’t enough for the big-screen and makes some changes. I can understand that; change is inevitable in the adaptation process, but apparently the simple concept of “good versus evil” wasn’t enough for this movie and they had to shoe-horn in this bat-shit crazy familial link between Rayden, Shao Kahn, and Shinnok that has never been seen before or since. Apparently, Rayden and Shao Kahn are brothers and, eons ago, they fought for Shinnok’s approval; Rayden won, but couldn’t kill his brother and both have held a grudge ever since. Shinnok sees both his sons as being weak; Rayden for valuing life and being compassionate and Kahn for not killing Rayden or being more forceful in his endeavours, but he favours Shao Kahn since he at least values strength and power over loyalty and empathy. This weird inclusion is treated like a big deal; Jax is especially perturbed by the revelation and the mortals are left investing their hopes in Liu Kang since Rayden’s trustworthiness is called into question. The film then asks that we give two shits when Shao Kahn murders this abomination of an adaptation of Rayden, but it all just falls completely flat and is meaningless since the entire film has been about getting Liu Kang ready to fight Kahn, not Rayden. When Liu Kang and the Emperor finally square off, it’s nowhere near the intense or engaging martial arts contest like Liu vs. Tsung; indeed, the focus on delivering high quality martial arts is noticeably lacking all throughout Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and, instead, Shao Kahn throws his weight (but not his hammer, because that would be too cool, I guess) around until Liu Kang finally taps into his Animality and transforms into, hands down, the worst CGI effect I think I have ever seen…only for Kahn to top it with his own monstrous transformation. The two butt-ugly affronts to eyesight slap each other about a bit before inexplicably transforming back and being forced to battle in Mortal Kombat (now altered to remove Kahn’s powers, something we didn’t see in the last film where powers were fair game…). The loss of his powers puts Kahn at an immediate and irreconcilable disadvantage and Liu Kang easily finishes him off; although Kahn is ripped apart when his stupid little dragon tattoo bursts to life upon his defeat, his death is a far cry from seeing Tsung impaled on those spikes. With Kahn defeated and Shinnok turned into Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov, 1984) blocks, Sindel returns to normal, Rayden is resurrected and promoted to an Elder God, and all of Earthrealm is restored. In fact, everything returns to normal…except for Johnny Cage, whose body I assume is just lying on the ground somewhere…but that’s okay because all of the heroes are some bullshit family now, I guess.
The Summary: Mortal Kombat set the standard for videogame adaptations; by drawing from some of the best martial arts movies and focusing on the relationships between the characters and crafting a fun, action-packed fantasy adventure, it absolutely delivered as an entertaining adaptation even without the franchise’s trademark gore. All of that goodwill was obliterated in the sequel, which took everything that worked in the first film and threw it out the window. No, sorry, not out the window; they threw it right in the fuckin’ bin! The only saving graces are the soundtrack, a handful of decent fight scenes (anything involving Liu Kang, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero), and seeing pretty much every single Mortal Kombat character brought to life but the execution misses the mark on almost every level. The acting is bad, the script is bad, the line delivery is bad; the new actors are dreadful, the costumes (while technically better) look far more like cheap cos-play than a high-budget production, and the CGI is more than atrocious…it’s God-awful! As nonsensical as the Mortal Kombat videogames could get at the time (and even now…), nothing makes sense in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation; why were those spheres in those tunnels? Who built them? Why? Why didn’t they just die when riding them? When Baraka falls into those flames, why is it recycled footage of Rain’s death? Why is Baraka even there? Why didn’t Sub-Zero help Liu Kang? Why did Rayden and presumably all those other lives lost in the attempted merger come back to life but not Johnny Cage? Just….I mean, holy God it is hard to defend this movie! Yes, Robin Shou is great. Yes, seeing Scorpion and Sub-Zero fight is great. Yes, Jax is a standout character, Motaro looks pretty good, and the film does a decent job of translating the bat-shit insanity of Mortal Kombat Trilogy to the screen but there’s just no heart, no logic, no sense to anything. It’s just a mish-mash of generally poor fight scenes, rubbish visual effects, appalling acting and a mind fuck of ideas and visuals that more resembles a music video than a coherent movie. It’s got some charm, and is probably appealing to kids hyped up on sugar, but your life would probably benefit from never watching this one even if it was for free.
My Rating:
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Terrible
Am I being too harsh on Mortal Kombat: Annihilation? Do you have any fond memories of this film? What did you think to the new cast and how did they compare to their predecessors? Which of the film’s fights was your favourite, and with characters would you have liked to see more from? Do you think the film juggled its many characters well or would you have preferred to see the cast cut down a little bit? Would you have liked to see a direct follow-up to this film or were you happy with the reboot we got? How are you celebrating Mortal Kombat’s release today? Whatever you think about Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, write your thoughts below.
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