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Game Corner [Brightest Day]: Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

Although February 2014 was dubbed “Green Lantern Day” (because, by the American calendar, the date read as “2814”, the space sector assigned to Earth in DC Comics), the significance of this date has passed over time. Instead, I’m choosing to celebrate the debut of perhaps the most popular iteration of the character, Hal Jordan, who first appeared in October 1959.

Released: 7 June 2011
Developer: Double Helix Games
Also Available For: Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3

The Background:
When Green Lantern first appeared in All-American Comics #16 in July 1940, it was as the superhero persona of of Alan Scott. However, in 1959, Julius Schwartz had writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane reinvent the character as space cop Hal Jordan, thereby creating what we now know as DC Comics’ resident intergalactic police force. After years of aborted attempts, Hal Jordan finally made his big-screen debut (alongside the Green Lantern Corps) in Green Lantern (Campbell, 2011), a critical and commercial failure that set back the formation of a DC cinematic universe a couple of years. However, one thing that came out of the movie was Green Lantern’s first (and, so far, only) solo videogame outing with this tie-in title, which was made by an amalgamated developer whose previous titles were also mostly videogame adaptations. Although featuring the likenesses and voices of many of the film’s stars and allowing players to utilise stereoscopic 3D during gameplay, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters received mixed reviews; while some praised the various gameplay mechanics and the game’s presentation, others criticised the repetitive combat and lack of replayability. Since Green Lantern failed to produce a sequel, we’ve yet to see another solo videogame for the ring-slinger, which is a bit of a shame considering how much potential the character has in the near-limitless scope of the genre.

The Plot:
Before harnessing the green energy of willpower and creating the intergalactic peacekeepers known as Green Lanterns, the Guardians of the Universe employed androids called Manhunters. After being shut down for becoming too violent, the Manhunters suddenly return for revenge against their former masters, and Green Lantern’s Hal Jordan and Thaal Sinestro are just two of the emerald corpsmen dispatched to combat this threat.

Gameplay:
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is a third-person action/adventure game very much in the style of hack-and-slash brawlers like the God of War franchise (Various, 2005 to present). Players take on the role of Hal Jordan and fight their way through some pretty long and bland environments slashing about Manhunters with a variety of attacks generating by his Power Ring. If you have a friend, they can join the action at any time as Thaal Sinestro, though he’s basically just a skin and doesn’t have any unique dialogue or attacks and the camera becomes a bit restricted with two players on screen. Still, you have quite a few options available in terms of combat: X unleashes a fast attack with some sword swipes, Y delivers a strong attack that includes a fist and a hammer, B sees you grasping smaller enemies or objects with a claw, and the Right Bumper lets you blast ahead with a drill and chaining all of these together will allow you to pull off some basic combos to take out larger and multiple enemies pretty quickly.

Hal’s Power Ring affords him numerous options in combat and puzzle solving.

A allows you to jump but, unfortunately, you can’t fly unless you’re activating a Green Lantern logo to leap to a new area in a cutscene or dropped into one of the games shooting sections. You can evade, however, with the right stick and shield yourself from attacks with the Left Bumper. As you play through the story, you’ll unlock constructs to assign to the Left and Right Trigger; holding these down and pressing a button lets you pull off up to eight different Power Ring abilities that will drain your meter (though this refills over time and by collecting green orbs). Hal can blast enemies from afar with the Ring Blaster and Gatling Gun, smash them and activate pressure pads with the War Hammer, deploy and throw a Hover Mine to blow them up or destroy power cores, send them flying (and knock back projectiles) with the Baseball Bat, and swing around a couple of maces to devastate groups of enemies. Hal can also rapidly whip Manhunters, auto target and pummel them with the Rocket Punch, smash through enemy shields with the Piston Blitz, deliver targeted attacks to enemy weak points with the Missile Pack, and eventually dish out big damage with a Jet Fighter and a huge Mech Suit. The bigger and more powerful constructs will drain more of your Power Ring’s energy, but you can upgrade your Power Ring and your basic attacks by defeating enemies and smashing parts of the environment for Will Points (strangely still abbreviated to XP). The more XP you earn, the higher your level raises (up to a maximum of ten) and the more upgrades and additional constructs you’ll unlock, eventually allowing you to purchase Lantern’s Light to recharge your Power Ring with the directional pad at the risk of being left vulnerable. Finally, as you defeat enemies, you’ll build up your Ring Surge meter; once it’s full, press the Left and Right Bumper to activate a Ring Surge, which restores your health and Power Ring to full and powers up your attacks for a short time; the effectiveness of your Ring Surge can also be upgraded with XP.

QTEs, simple puzzles, and rail shooting sections add some variety.

The bulk of your gameplay revolves around combat; near endless, mindless combat against Manhunters of all shapes and sizes. The game is incredibly linear, with no need for a map or directions since it’s pretty clear where you need to go, though there are inevitably times when it’s easy to get a little turned around since environments became very samey very quickly. When you’re not smashing apart endless Manhunter drones, you’re given a handful of additional missions, such as destroying mines, leaping to Siege Towers and destroying them by smashing open their armoured cores, and destroying teleport gates to stop enemies spawning in. One mission has you taking out a bunch of lasers before they destroy the Central Power Battery, sometimes you’ll need to press A and rotate the left stick to open doors or spawn in a battery, and other times you’ll be dodging electrified walls and floors to progress. These latter elements get mixed up you play through the story, requiring you to grab a battery and get it to a power node before it explodes or smashing Hover Mines into spinning holes as the floor tries to fry you. Later in the game, yellow Fear Energy nodes and enemies drain your Ring Energy meter and limit your constructs, and Queen Aga’po helps you out on Zamaron by lowering crystal barriers, where you’ll also need to destroy Boost Crystals to stop the Zamarons being powered up. Generally, puzzles are pretty simple, requiring little more than clearing out enemies, grabbing something to plug in somewhere else, either to match symbols or to destroy an energy core, and you’ll only really get a taste of some variety in the handful of rail shooter sections. In these, you use X or Y to fire (with no limits and a rapid-fire option) and can lock onto enemies with LT to fire off energy-draining missiles or become a Jet Fighter with your Ring Surge, making for some fun shooting sections. Additionally, you’ll occasionally have to perform some quick-time events (QTEs) to finish off some of the bigger enemies and bosses, and you can lower the difficulty level after you die if the game becomes too tough.

Graphics and Sound:  
Technically speaking, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters looks, sounds, and plays pretty decently; I experienced a bit of a delay when activating my Ring Surge (though this could’ve been my controller) but there wasn’t really any slowdown, which is good as things can get a bit hectic at times. Ryan Reynolds returns to voice and lend his likeness to Hal, playing him a little more straight-laced now that he’s a fully-fledged Green Lantern, and he (and the other Green Lanterns) matches his much-maligned movie appearance very well. His constructs all look big and fun and imaginative, though they are a bit restrictive; his basic attacks change appearance as you upgrade them, which is a nice touch, and the developers even made the bizarre decision to include a function where Hall becomes dizzy if you rapidly spin the control stick.

The game evokes the aesthetic of its movie counterpart, for better or worse.

Sadly, the game’s environments and music aren’t much to shout about; you visit Oa twice, at the start and end of the game, and both times it recreates the look of the movie but is little more than a bizarre alien landscape under attack from various Manhunters. Zamaron is a rocky, mushroom-strewn alien world that is more bland than interesting, though it does include canyons and crystal mines and temples and such. The only other area in the game is Biot, a massive mechanical factory and processing plant for the Manhunters that’s full of gears and pistons and consoles and such, but there’s very little to interact with in any of the game’s locations and few rewards or incentive to explore as there aren’t really any collectibles. The game’s cutscenes work well enough, with the suit and the movie’s aesthetic actually translating pretty well to the action figure presentation of this era of gaming, and I liked how the story was a sequel to the movie, though it’s weird how there was no expansion on Sinestro’s decision to switch to a Yellow Ring.

Enemies and Bosses:
The vast majority of the enemies you’ll face are Manhunters, disposable tin cans that fly or teleport in and attack in some large numbers. You’ve got regular drones, ones with shields or blasters, and annoying bastards on these hoverboards that allow them to zip around and bombard you with laser fire. Sometimes you’ll be attacked by mines and laser cannons or Manhunter ships, which can be destroyed by smashing back their projectiles, and larger Manhunter variants will rush at you and grab you in a bearhug, draining your Ring Energy and forcing you to mash A to escape. On Zamaron, you’ll battle some different enemies, mainly mind controlled Zamarons who attack with staffs and such, but you’ll also encounter Willhunters, which drain your Ring Energy, and Manhunters also exhibit this ability on Biot and later in the game.

Only Zamaron offers a reprieve from the endless Manhunter variants.

Bosses are primarily larger Manhunters, which then return as mini bosses or are strewn throughout shooting stages. The Ultra Manhunter is the best example of this; you’ll first battle it on Oa, where it stomps about firing lasers and shooting its fists at you but you can evade it, take advantage of the nearby Lantern power-up, and land some combos when it gets stuck on the ground. Ultra Manhunters reappear numerous times, often in twos and accompanied by a slew of other Manhunters; they later add a gravity bomb to their arsenal which sucks you in before exploding, but you can destroy these with your Hover Mines and you can put them down with a QTE after dealing enough damage and blast them to smithereens in the shooting sections. The Siphoner Manhunter, which bearhugs you, and the Willhunters are presented like mini bosses when you first encounter them but they quickly just become regular enemies. On Zamaron, you’ll battle Queen Aga’po after she’s corrupted by the Yellow Energy; she causes crystals to burst from the ground (which freeze you and enemies if you touch them) and sends her minions after you between attacks before attacking with her lance. After pursuing her in a shooter section and taking out another Ultra Manhunter, she sets the Zamaron Defender on you. This battle takes place on a 2.5D pane and sees you attacking its hands and the Willhunters it sends out, avoiding its swipes and the falling boulders, smashing back its projectiles and dodging its electrical barriers and shockwaves in easily the most annoying boss battle of the game so far (and you don’t even get the catharsis of finishing it yourself as Hal delivers the final blow in a cutscene).

After besting the Manhunters, you’ll face off against renegade Amon Sur.

Biot is full of Siphoners and Ultra Manhunters, Manhunters who exude Yellow Energy, and annoying reactor cores that you need to destroy with your Hover Mines. The mechanical hellhole culminates in a battle against the titanic Grandmaster, which is essentially an even bigger Ultra Manhunter and your Mech Suit comes in handy here, allowing you to go toe-to-toe with the armoured foe, who loves to blasts its fists at you and swing them around the arena to send you flying. Take it down and you get to battle the even bigger Highmaster afterwards, which is an even larger Ultra Manhunter that blasts out bigger versions of those gravity bombs and sends a massive laser beam from its hand to cut you down. The only way to damage this guy is to attack the glowing points on its knees, then run around behind it and awkwardly toss your Hover Mines into its knees so it drops to the floor, allowing you to attack the cockpit where Kilowog is being held captive. Repeat this three times, fending off the Manhunters and dodging its faster and more aggressive attacks, and you’ll progress to the final stage of the game. This sees you returning to Oa, where Amon Sur has become consumed by Yellow Energy and is leading a renewed Manhunter assault against the Guardians. You’ll need to dispatch his minions before engaging with him one-on-one, which sees Amon dashing at you with his scythe-like lance, conjuring skeletal hands, bombarding you with laser blasts, and protecting himself with an impenetrable shield. Deal enough damage and he also constructs a massive mech suit for himself, meaning the finale becomes a game of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots as you throw slow punches at him, guard against his attacks, and stomp the ground to break his guard, completely negating all of the combat and gameplay you’ve endured and mastered and having the final boss come down to a QTE with obnoxious timing.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As you defeat enemies and smash pots and other parts of the environment, green, white, and blue orbs will refill your health and Ring Energy and grant you XP. Occasionally, you’ll find Lantern charge points in the environment which fully replenish your health and energy and allow you to pull off a Ring Surge, but that’s about it for in-game power-ups. New constructs are made available as the story progresses and as you level-up, which also unlocks upgrades for your attacks and Ring Meter so they become flashier, more powerful, and charge/last longer. You can assign Hal eight different constructs to use and can swap them out from the pause menu, but it’s best to keep a couple (like the War Hammer, Baseball Bat, and Hover Mine) in your arsenal since they’re useful for solving puzzles and defeating certain enemies. Other constructs, like the Jet Fighter and Mech Suit, may deal a lot of damage but they have a long charge time and drain more of your Ring Energy, though you can find and destroy coloured meteorites in each mission that will extend both of these meters.

Additional Features:
There are forty Achievements to earn in Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, with eleven being awarded simply for clearing the game’s missions and story mode. You’ll also get Achievements for racking up high combos, acquiring and upgrading every construct and ability, defeating certain enemies with each construct, and fully expanding Hal’s health and energy. There are three difficulty levels for the game, with an additional Achievement awarded for beating it on the hardest setting, and two more for playing in co-op, making for some pretty simple to earn Achievements. Co-op mode is pretty good, though there’s a distinct lack of individuality to Sinestro, and you can replay any cleared mission from the main menu and even take advantage of a 3D functionality if you have one of those 3D TVs. Sadly, there really isn’t much to keep you playing; you can go back and look for things you’ve missed, but there are no collectibles, no concept art or gallery, and no skins to unlock, making for a pretty cheap and barebones experience.

The Summary:
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is a pretty decent hack-and-slash videogame; fans of the God of War franchise will be immediately familiar with the vast majority of the gameplay, but those who crave a little more depth to their games will be left wanting more from this tie-in title. The controls and combat are pretty good, but the stages are extremely restrictive and tediously drawn out, artificially extending the length of the game without really providing much visual variety. Combat quickly becomes tedious and you can easily mow through most enemies with the same button inputs or constructs without needing to mix things up and, while the rail shooting sections are fun, they’re few and far between and don’t really have a great deal of challenge to them. The enemies you battle get old very quickly, making things even more monotonous, and the few puzzles offered are ridiculously easy to solve and recycled over and over. Graphically, the game does a good job of emulating the style of the movie it’s based on and the story functions as a lacklustre follow-up to a mediocre film, but there’s very little replay value to be offered here. As a quick, cheap cash-in that rips off the gameplay of a more successful franchise, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters does alright but there’s obviously better hack-and-slash titles out there and the only reason to really get this is if you see it cheap and you fancy adding some quick and easy Achievements to your gamer score. Overall, the game just lacks in imagination; Green Lantern is a character who can potentially do and conjure almost anything he desires but he feels needlessly handicapped here and the lack of skins, unlockables, or visual variety really drag this game down.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever played Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters? If so, what did you think to it? How do you feel the combat and constructs worked in the context of the game? What did you think to the plot and its status as a follow-up to the movie? Were you disappointed by the lack of variety in the enemies and locations? Which of the constructs was your favourite and were you a fan of Ryan Reynolds reprising the role? What did you think to the movie the game’s based on and would you like to see a new Green Lantern game in the future? Which Green Lantern character, villain, or story is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating this pseudo-Green Lantern day today? Whatever you think about Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, and the Green Lantern comics books, feel free to leave a comment below.

Game Corner [Bat-Month]: Batman Begins (PlayStation 2)

Dr. K1 Comment

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 release had to be accompanied by a videogame adaptation; big-budget movies were generally always accompanied by a hastily created videogame 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 Burnout games (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!

Movie Night [Bat-Month]: Batman Begins

Dr. K8 Comments

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, scathing critical reception, 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.

Back Issues [Bat-Month]: Secret Origins (Vol. 2)

Dr. K1 Comment

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.

Back Issues [Bat-Month]: Batman #232

Dr. K4 Comments

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” falls on September 16 this year and I figured this was a perfect excuse to spend every Saturday celebrating comic’s grim and broody vigilante.

Story Title: “Daughter of the Demon”
Published: June 1971
Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Artist: Neal Adams

The Background:
Following the huge success of Clark Kent/Superman, National Comics Publications set Bob Kane to work creating another masked crimefighter to add to their repertoire. Thanks to the long-suppressed influence of artist Bill Finger, the “Bat-Man” soon became not only one of DC Comics’ most popular characters but also a mainstream cultural icon. In the years that followed, the Batman defended Gotham City from numerous costumed supervillains, but perhaps none have been more captivating and intriguing than “The Demon’s Head” himself, Rā’s al Ghūl. Created by editor Julius Schwartz, writer Dennis O’Neil, and artist Neal Adams during a time when DC Comics were reinventing the Batman to shake off the camp trappings of the sixties, Rā’s al Ghūl was an enigmatic criminal mastermind akin to a James Bond villain. His vast criminal empire, lofty goal of ending all worldwide conflict by any means necessary, and international flavour made him both a dark mirror of the Dark Knight and an evolution of the Fu Manchu stereotype. A new villain for a new era in comics, Rā’s al Ghūl would continually plague Batman over the years thanks to the rejuvenating properties of his “Lazarus Pits”, which allowed him to stave off injuries and death and the cost of his keen intellect, and he was a pivotal figure in DC Comics thanks to the influence of his daughter, Talia, with whom Batman would have a volatile son. Rā’s al Ghūl has made numerous appearances outside of the comics, usually as a master manipulator; he was excellently voiced by the eloquent David Warner in the DC Animated Universe, often cropped up as a puppet master in various Batman videogames, and made appearances in DC’s live-action television shows (however ill-fitting these might have been) courtesy of Matthew Nable and Alexander Siddig. Liam Neeson expertly brought the character to life in Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005) and Rā’s al Ghūl has consistently been regarded as one of Batman’s most dangerous and formidable villains due to his complex nature and the influence of his League of Assassins.

The Review:
“Daughter of the Demon” takes place during a transitional time in the Caped Crusader’s life and portrayal; in an effort to curb ludicrous claims about the Dark Knight’s sexuality and to simplify his entire persona, Bruce Wayne moved into a luxury penthouse in the middle of Gotham City alongside his faithful butler and father-figure, Alfred Pennyworth, and Dick Grayson/Robin grew into the “Teen Wonder” and moved away to Hudson University. This provides some context for the opening panels of the story, which see the colourful youth sneaking back into his dormitory and being dramatically gunned down by two unseen assailants! As horrified as Bruce is to learn that Dick hasn’t been seen for a few days, he’s even more startled when a photograph of the captured (but seemingly alive) teen arrives at his penthouse with a threatening note addressed to the Batman! Bruce wastes no time in suited up as Gotham’s grim avenger and swinging his way over the Wayne Manor in order to run tests on the note and the photograph at the Batcave. It seems that, when they moved, they didn’t initially kit the penthouse up with all their crime-fighting equipment as Batman is forced to make the trip using his trusty Batrope rather than the Batmobile, but such concerns are immediately forgotten when Batman is greeted by the enigmatic figure of Rā’s al Ghūl and his hulking bodyguard, Ubu.

When Robin and Talia are kidnapped, Batman teams up with Rā’s to find them.

Having deduced that Bruce Wayne and the Batman are one and the same through deduction, research, and observation (being the Batman requires wealth and resources, after all, a “hole” that Batman vows to “plug” in the future), Rā’s comes to Batman seeking his aid since he received a similar note showing that his daughter, the beautiful Talia al Ghūl, has also been kidnapped. Having encountered the Batman in a previous story, Talia spoke highly of his deductive skills, making him the natural choice to seek for assistance and Bruce lives up to his reputation by analysing both pictures under a “microscopic spectograph” [sic] and discovering small traces of a certain herb used in ceremonies by an Eastern cult known as the Brotherhood of the Demon, who operate out of Calcutta. The three board Rā’s’ plane (with Batman noting the strength and loyalty of the overzealous Ubu) and, on the long flight to India, Rā’s comments on Batman’s stoic demeanour and Bruce grimly responds that he is compartmentalising on the task at hand and will grieve later, if necessary which, of course, detours the story into a flashback of how young Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered before his eyes. Of course, we all know the story: Dedicating his mind and body to the eradication of crime, he was inspired by the appearance of a bat to become the Batman and then found a kinship in young Dick Grayson, whom he trained to become his crimefighting partner. Once they land in Calcutta, Batman begins his investigation in earnest, benefitting from the terror his unfamiliar guise evokes in the local street scum and even threatening them with death for information on the Brotherhood of the Demon. This bluff pays off and leads the three to a building at the end of a nearby alleyway, wherein Batman is set upon by a ravenous leopard! Acting swiftly, he locks the cat’s jaws open with his elbow, overpowers it, and nonchalantly breaks its neck with only minor wounds.

Batman outs Rā’s and is stunned to find he’s being groomed as the villain’s successor!

Remarking that the leopard had been well trained to act as a guard, the Batman discovers a convenient map pointing them in the direction of the Himalayan Mountains, and the three make haste to the frigid heights of Mount Nanda Devi. Easily picking up the trail, the Batman makes use of some handholds that have recently been hacked into the ice and leads the expedition up the mountain, only for them to be shot at by a sniper; while Ubu tends to his master, the Batman spectacularly swings into action to punch out the shooter. Afterwards, Batman notes the presence of a helicopter and several other armed guards, but his inner monologue suggests that he’s figured out what’s really going on; he calls the gunmen’s bluff and easily makes his way into an elaborate chamber, where he frees Robin and launches into an angered tirade against the so-called Brotherhood of the Demon that reveals Rā’s was behind everything. He was immediately tipped off when Rā’s showed up at the Batcave right after Robin was kidnapped, and when Ubu insisted that his master go ahead…unless there was immediate danger nearby, and finally because the two brought them to the exact mountain they needed to investigate despite the map not specifying the Brotherhood’s precise location. Furious and insulted by the deception and the run-around, Batman relishes in taking his anger out on the Brotherhood’s minions alongside Robin, unmasking their “Supreme Leader” as none other than Ubu and engaging with the musclebound brute in a short, but decisive, clash that sees the Batman effortlessly avoid the big man’s swings and lay him out with an uppercut to the jaw! Rā’s commends the Batman’s physical and mental prowess and reveals his intentions behind the whole charade: Talia is in love with the Dark Knight and Rā’s wishes to retire from his vast organisation and have Batman take his place as his successor…and son-in-law!

The Summary:
When I was a kid, comic books weren’t that easy to come by in the United Kingdom so I mainly got my Batman fix from yearly annuals, with many of them being from the seventies and eighties. Consequently, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ version of Batman was the one I knew best, so “Daughter of the Demon” ticks a lot of boxes for me. The artwork is spectacular, with large, well-defined, and realistic depictions being at the forefront; while I’m not a fan of the Batman’s yellow oval symbol or blue-and-grey ensemble, Adams always drew him in dynamic and powerful poses, even when he’s just standing their with his caped wrapped around him or sitting and brooding. Having said that, it’s a bit weird that the Batman doesn’t have his car or at least a makeshift Batcave a little close to his penthouse; having to swing all the way across Gotham and out to Wayne Manor seems unnecessarily laborious, but it’s barely a factor in the story, though it might’ve saved some panels and been just as easy to simply have Rā’s and Ubu show up at Bruce’s penthouse. Rā’s himself is a well-spoken and mysterious figure; appearing to be a wealthy and influential man of culture and of high intelligence, it seems almost too convenient for him and the Batman to join forces but, in the context of the story, it makes sense as Bruce is clearly impressed and stunned that someone was finally able to figure out his true identity.

A startling debut for one of Batman’s greatest foes let down only be a weak finale.

We later find out that he knew all along that Rā’s was behind the whole plot and had simply been playing along to rescue Robin; along the way, Batman dishes out some sass to the brutish Ubu and demonstrates his keen mind and attention to detail alongside his unmatched physical prowess. This is enough to impress Rā’s in the end, but we wouldn’t actually see a resolution to this dangling plot thread for some time; the following issue doesn’t continue this story and next time Rā’s showed up, it was a similar test of Batman’s fortitude and skills. They wouldn’t have their iconic shirtless sword fight until over a year later either, meaning that all the intrigue and excitement this story builds around Rā’s is kind of squandered as it doesn’t really go anywhere. This is a bit of a disappointment as it was an interesting debut for one of Batman’s most cunning and ruthless foes; the idea of someone, especially a well connected individual like Rā’s, being privy to Batman’s dual identity is shocking and something that helped set him apart from the Dark Knight’s other rogues, but we wouldn’t learn more about the Demon’s Head, his organisation, or his motivations and physical skills for some time, retroactively making this story a bit random and unfulfilling in a lot of ways.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Have you ever read “Daughter of the Demon”? What did you think of Rā’s al Ghūl’s first appearance and his surprising knowledge of Batman’s true identity? Did you cotton on that Rā’s was behind everything? What are some of your favourite Rā’s al Ghūl stories? Which interpretation of the Rā’s al Ghūl, whether animated, pixelated, or live-action, is your favourite? Whatever you think about the Rā’s al Ghūl, share your thoughts below or leave comment on my social media, and be sure to check out my other Batman content!

Back Issues [Bat-Month]: World’s Finest Comics #3

Dr. K13 Comments

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” falls on September 16 this year and I figured this was a perfect excuse to spend every Saturday celebrating comic’s grim and broody vigilante.

Story Title: “The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow”
Published: September 1941
Writer: Bill Finger
Artist: Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson

The Background:
Once Clark Kent/Superman proved to be a massive success, National Comics Publications (as DC Comics was then known) were eager to add more superheroes to their line-up and charged Bob Kane to create a new masked crimefighter. Thanks to the long-suppressed influence of artist Bill Finger, Bob Kane’s “Bat-Man” concept quickly became one of comicdom’s most popular characters and a mainstream cultural icon thanks to a slew of successful and profitable multimedia ventures. Over the years, the Batman has matched brain and brawn against many colourful supervillains, but perhaps none have challenged his reputation as a fearsome symbol of terror more than Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow! Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, the Scarecrow was heavily inspired by Ichabod Crane, the slender protagonist of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving, 1820); though he only made two appearances during the “Golden Age” of comic books, the Scarecrow has become a recurring member of Batman’s rogues’ gallery, often as a manipulative and unhinged master of fear who gasses or doses up his victims to drive them to near hysteria. The character was a prominent villain in the DC Animated Universe, where his design was radically altered to make him scarier and he was responsible for one of the most disturbing episodes of The New Batman Adventures (1997 to 1999). He also played a memorable role in the Batman: Arkham videogames (Various, 2009 to 2023), where he sported a Freddy Kreuger-inspired design, and made his big-screen debut in Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005), all of which has helped add to the villain’s mystique as one of Batman’s more twisted and cerebral foes.

The Review:
The Scarecrow’s ties to Sleepy Hollow are immediately apparent from the first splash page of his debut story, which depicts him as a huge, gaunt scarecrow lumbering across a moonlit field surrounded by bats and gnarled trees, certainly evoking a gothic, supernatural horror more than anything. But, as we soon learn, behind this terrifying visual is a man; a very disturbed man, at that. Flashback panels tell how young Jonathan Crane delighted in frightening birds as a small boy and this obsession with fear (both causing and studying it) carried through to his adulthood, where he became a Psychology teacher “in a university” notorious for his extreme methods as much as his haggard appearance. Crane brings a gun to his class to demonstrate the psychology of fear; the mere sight of a gun, of having it pointed your way, inspires dread but hearing it go off, seeing it destroy a vase, only increases the emotional response, something Crane is absolutely fascinated by. Crane is shunned by his peers since, rather than spending his salary on some decent clothes, he resembles a scarecrow in his old, drab attire and buys books instead. Enraged by their dismissive comments and prejudice, Crane formulates a plot to acquire the wealth deemed so important by others using a dramatic and powerful symbol: the scarecrow, a “symbol of poverty and fear combined”. The Scarecrow immediately sets about establishing a protection racket by preying on Frank Kendrick, a local businessman whose partner is suing him for embezzlement. The Scarecrow offers to “scare” Kendrick’s partner, Paul Herold, in return for a fee, and Kendrick is…I dunno…intrigued? Curious? Certainly not terrified and the Scarecrow doesn’t really demonstrate anything that makes him a valid investment beyond his straw outfit…

Fear-obsessed Dr. Crane begins a campaign of terror under the guise of a scarecrow.

Regardless, Kendrick agrees and the Scarecrow makes good on his promise not by his trademark fear gas or any kind of elaborate gimmick, but by simply wounding Herold with a gun shot and promising to kill him if he doesn’t drop the suit. Conveniently, Batman and his colourful sidekick, Dick Grayson/Robin, are on a rooftop nearby and hear the gunshot; they swing into action when they spot the curious human scarecrow making his escape. The Scarecrow surprises them with his swiftness and effectively holds them off with a few shots from his pistol, a good wallop to the Batman’s head, and by tossing a trash can at Robin and slipping away “with queer grasshopper leaps”. Naturally, Kendrick is fingered as the prime suspect in hiring Herold’s attack, but he denies everything, and Herold’s refusal to drop his lawsuit results in another visit from the Scarecrow that leaves him dead as “The Scarecrow warns only once!”, leaving Kendrick horrified. He still pays, however, which is lucky as Crane’s unorthodox teaching methods cost him his job; Crane barely even cares, however, since he now has a big wad of cash and a reputation in the criminal underworld. The Scarecrow sets about bolstering this reputation by offering his services to Richard Dodge, whose department store is going under thanks to a rival store, so he offers to scare customers away and back to his shop, which he does through his mere appearance and the use of smoke bombs, which drive the crowd into a frenzy. Coincidentally, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson happen to hear about this riot on the radio and, suspecting a link between Crane and the Scarecrow after the university president (who is conveniently a friend of Bruce’s) nonchalantly mentioned Crane’s wad of cash, Batman and Robin rush to the scene. They find the Scarecrow in the act of smashing up the store with a baseball bat and Batman flings some really weird and cringey one-liners and quips at the Master of Fear during their far more even rematch.

Despite proving a surprisingly slippery foe, the Scarecrow is finally apprehended.

Still, the Scarecrow proves to be a slippery and surprisingly physically capable opponent, as well as highly adaptable; he has Batman on the ropes and at gun point at one point and is only stopped from shooting him, and finishing him off with a “bomb” (potentially meant to be a grenade? Who even knows?), by the timely intervention of the Boy Wonder. Discovering that the only thing the Scarecrow stole were a couple of rare books is all the proof Batman needs to deduce that Crane and Scarecrow are one and the same and he proves his theory by infiltrating Crane’s home under an elaborate disguise and spotting all his rare books. Crane is not so easily fooled, however; by use of the lost art of…looking out his window…he sees that his visitor was really the Batman and heads out to kill Dodge to cover his tracks, only to find Batman and Robin waiting for him. Armed with his trusty pistol and giving them the slip with his “queer grasshopper leaps”, the Scarecrow flees to a nearby playground, where he almost shoots Robin but for an errant swing bashing him in the head. The Scarecrow is even able to hold off the Batman with his punches, boasting that he’s “as good as fighting as [he] is”, but is ultimately undone when he tries to retrieve his gun and gets unbalanced by Robin and a see-saw and then punched out by the Dark Knight. Impressed by his newest foe, who “gave [him] the fight of [his] career”, Batman literally drags the Scarecrow’s unconscious body off to jail, where Crane vows escape and continue his reign of terror.

The Summary:
“The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow” is certainly a bizarre early-Batman tale. There isn’t really a “riddle” to the straw-faced villain, so to speak, as we learn everything about him within the first few pages, including hints towards him being psychologically damaged as a boy and his obsession with wealth, knowledge, and fear. Batman and Robin barely even stop to wonder who is under the burlap sack and only happen upon clues to his true identity through sheer luck and massive coincidence, so it’s not as if they spend hours toiling away studying evidence or being bamboozled by the their new foe’s identity. Indeed, they only happen across the Scarecrow out of dumb luck and are only alerted to his crimes because of newspapers and radio broadcasts. If the Scarecrow had employed his fear toxin here to kill through a more unconventional means it might have helped to make the title more relevant and give the character more menace and intrigue, but he just runs around dressed as a scarecrow and shoots people, clearly as a hired gun, so I think a title more akin to “The Menace of the Human Scarecrow” would’ve been more appropriate.

While his methods are quite different from what we’ve come to expect, the Scarecrow is a tricky foe for Batman.

Interestingly, since this is a longer Batman tale than some other debuts I’ve read, quite a bit more time is spent on developing Crane and establishing his character; he’s resentful that his peers place so much importance on wealth and combines his obsession with fear with his desire for affluence into a horrifying visage. He sells himself as an intimidating thug who can terrify a person’s business rivals for cash, but goes about this in a manner so mundane that it really isn’t befitting of his theatrical getup. He simply shoots people and tosses smoke bombs, something any hoodlum can do, but makes the front page because he happens to be dressed as a scarecrow. Despite being a gaunt, wiry, and somewhat middle-aged man, Crane is surprisingly nimble, athletic, and physically gifted; much time is spent emphasising his speed and agility and he’s more than capable of fending off Batman and Robin either using his wiles or fisticuffs. This is probably the most unrealistic aspect of the character and I much prefer the Scarecrow as a psychological challenge rather than a physical one, but this “Crane Style” of fighting has come up before and is known to catch Batman off-guard so I can just about forgive it. What I can’t forgive is how clueless and ineffectual Batman and Robin are; they stumble across the Scarecrow and are easily bested, are hounded by the police (and even have to fight them off at one point), are almost killed by the villain on more than one occasion, and make absolutely no effort to investigate the Scarecrow, relying purely on the convenient clues dropped by other characters. Batman’s one piece of innovation has him dressing up as a civilian…over his Batsuit…and then revealing his subterfuge right outside Crane’s window and it’s only through their teamwork (and the will of the writer) that they’re able to finally topple the Scarecrow. Overall, I enjoyed the parts of this story that focused on Crane and his strawy alter ego; the Scarecrow has a lot of visual and motivational potential, but without his fear gas and his more psychological aspects he comes across as just weird guy in a suit shooting people for cash.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever read “The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow”? What did you think of the Scarecrow’s debut and his surprisingly direct methods of inspiring fear? Were you surprised at how lazy and ineffectual Batman and Robin were and how physically capable Crane turned out to be? What are some of your favourite Scarecrow stories? Which interpretation of the Scarecrow, whether animated, pixelated, or live-action, is your favourite? Whatever you think about the Scarecrow, share your thoughts below or leave comment on my social media, and be sure to check out my other Batman content!

Movie Night: Blue Beetle

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 18 August 2023
Director: Angel Manuel Soto
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $104 million
Stars: Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, George Lopez, Raoul Max Trujillo, and Susan Sarandon

The Plot:
College graduate Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) finds himself unwittingly bonded to an alien, beetle-like suit of armour (Becky G) and drawn into a destructive conflict with the vindictive Victoria Kord (Sarandon) and her ruthless enforcer, Ignacio Carapax (Trujillo)

The Background:
Initially presented as a beat cop created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, the Blue Beetle is easily one of DC Comics’ more obscure characters, despite Steve Ditko’s reimagining attaining cult status due to his time with Justice League International. It’s the third iteration, Jaime Reyes, who is easily the most recognisable incarnation of the Blue Beetle thanks to being a Latino superhero and appearances in videogames and television. Development of a live-action film focused on the character began in 2018, initially scheduled as content for HBO Max before Warner Bros. were impressed by director Angel Manuel Soto’s vision and bumped it to a cinematic release. The filmmakers were keen to emphasise Jaime’s family roots and values alongside him coming to terms with his powers as a metaphor for maturing into a young adult, with star Xolo Maridueña excited at the prospect of being DC’s first Latino superhero. The Blue Beetle armour was designed by Mayes C. Rubeo, who took inspiration from anime as much as the character’s many iterations in and out of the comic books, while various special effects groups collaborated to bring the character’s unique alien weaponry to life. Although Blue Beetle was met with mainly positive reviews that praised the performances and heart of the movie, it was met with a disappointing initial box office; as of this writing, the film has grossed over $50 million at the box office, though DC Universe head honcho James Gunn and all involved were keen to return to the character in future projects.

The Review:
I’ll be honest and say that I was very surprised when I first caught wind of a live-action Blue Beetle solo movie. Considering the state of the DCEU, it seemed odd to me that they would prioritise such a film, though it’s pretty clear that it’s yet another attempt by the studio to change direction, as well as appeal to fans of troubled superheroes like Peter Parker/Spider-Man and target a new demographic in the genre, in this case the Hispanic audience. While I’m quite familiar with all iterations of the Blue Beetle, I’ve always felt a bit of a disconnect with Jaime, mainly because his iteration changed the concept so much. Still, he’s a popular figure and I can understand trying something new, and luckily Blue Beetle proved to be an enjoyable enough adventure simply by focusing on relatable themes such as family, a sense of identity and duty, and exploring xenophobic themes through Jaime and his destitute, hard-working family against the technologically advanced corporate greed of Victoria Kord and her malevolent Kord Industries. When we first meet Jaime, he’s just graduated from Gotham High (the first in his family to achieve this) and has aspirations of making his family prouder by landing a job worthy of his degree, only to find himself forced to scrub gum off Victoria’s decking alongside his snarky little sister, Milagro (Escobedo). I can immediately relate to the frustration he feels about this; there’s nothing worse than spending years at university (getting yourself into debt, in Jaime’s case) only to find having a degree doesn’t open the doors you’d expect, and Jaime suffers even more as Victoria basically treats all her staff, especially the lower classes like the Reyes’, as glorified servants.

The heart-warming and relatable relationship between Jaime and his family is the heart of the film.

Jaime is devastated to learn that his family will be forced to leave their home since Kord Industries tripled the rent; after his beloved father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), suffered a mild heart attack and was forced to sell the family garage, they’ve barely been able to scrape by, though the Reyes’ remain resolute because they are such a tight-knit and loving family unit. Jaime’s mother, Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo), remains steadfast that they can whether any storm, his surprisingly capable and bad-ass Nana (Adriana Barraza) demonstrates a fighting spirit and chequered background that contrasts with her frail form, while his rebellious, anti-authoritarian uncle, Rudy (Lopez), riles his family up with his crackpot theories and wacky inventions. Still, they are a supportive and loving group; Jaime might be embarrassed by their outspoken love for him, but he’s absolutely devoted to them and desperate to help out with their financial situation. This sense of loyalty and responsibility sees him intervene when he spots Victoria and Carapax giving Jenny Kord (Marquezine) a hard time, which results in him and Milagro getting fired but also opens an opportunity for Jaime to secure a better job at Kord Industries courtesy of a grateful Jenny. Although his family wind him up over his obvious attraction to the young Kord, Jaime is primarily motivated to take a chance on this offer out of a deep-rooted desire to put himself to work for the good of his family, and ends up biting off more than he can chew when a desperate Jenny hands him a mysterious scarab, an alien device once studied by her father and long coveted by Victoria, who moves Heaven and Earth to acquire it to upgrade her company’s destructive One Man Army Corps (O.M.A.C.) technology.

The scarab bestows Jaime with potentially unlimited power and opens up an unexplored corner of the DCEU.

Upon inspecting this artifact, Jaime and his family are shocked and horrified when it suddenly springs to life and grafts itself to his spine, painfully growing a techno-organic armour right through his skin and encasing him in an honestly really well-realised rendition of the Blue Beetle suit in scene reminiscent of The Guyver (George and Wang, 1991). Unlike in his initial comic run, the armour (which identifies itself as Khaji-Da) communicates directly to him, though he remains mostly incapable of controlling the symbiotic suit and much of his character arc is learning not to fear or rid himself of the armour, but to embrace his newfound destiny. Described as a world-destroying weapon, the armour renders Jaime effectively bulletproof and resistant to serious injury, healing any wounds he receives and conjuring fantastical weapons based purely on his imagination and willpower. Initially, Jaime is terrified at the prospect of the symbiote imbuing itself into his nerves and brain and is entirely dependent on Khaji-Da to take over when in a combat situation, with his only influence being his desperate pleas not to use lethal force (a sentiment his family, curiously and hilariously, do not share). With his family fearing for his safety and Jaime out of his mind with panic, they’re forced to turn to Jenny for answers; she reveals that her father, Ted Kord, once studied the scarab alongside its former host, Dan Garrett, with both of them fighting crime in the past as the Blue Beetle. Although she’s unable to offer a reasonable solution to Jaime’s predicament, her assistance allows Jaime, Milagro, and Rudy to explore Ted’s long-abandoned lab and retro technology and put Jaime on the path to discovering his true calling as a superhero.

While Carapax showcases some surprising depth, both he and Victoria ham it up a bit too much.

Malicious and ruthless after being spurred by her father in favour of her brother, Victoria has reshaped Kord Industries into a weapons manufacturer and become obsessed with acquiring the scarab to take her O.M.A.C.’s to the next level. Although I applaud the filmmakers in securing Susan Sarandon for this role, it can’t be denied that she’s absolutely hamming it up to the point of being a pantomime villain, overdelivering many of her lines and exuding a one-dimensional, xenophobic hatred towards anyone she sees as lesser than her. The only person she shows a modicum of respect and admiration for is her right-hand man, Carapax, the most capable and ruthless of her soldiers; a half-human cyborg empowered by the existing O.M.A.C technology, Carapax is absolutely loyal to Victoria’s bidding and takes a sadistic pleasure in hunting down Jaime to apprehend him for her experiments. Although a largely stoic and grim juggernaut of a henchman, Carapax is secretly hiding a pain of his own, one that he has largely forgotten due to the emotional and physical trauma of being transformed into a cyborg; his family were murdered before his eyes by Victoria’s weapons, and she herself oversaw his transformation simply out of a cruel desire to test her technology on a live (and suitable) subject. Bolstered by uncannily futuristic technology and her own private army, Victoria stops at nothing, even targeting her own niece, to get what she wants; her desire to get her hands on Jaime is so great that she leads an attack on the Reyes household and indirectly causes Alberto to suffer a fatal heart attack. This, however, has the knock-on effect of galvanising the Reyes’ into using Ted’s weaponry to storm Kord Industries and rescue Jaime, proving that Carapax was incorrect when he dismissed Jaime’s love for his family as a weakness. As interesting as Carapax is, these developments don’t come until the film’s finale and he loses much of his appeal whenever his bulky armour obscures his face and form, ultimately making him as over the top as Sarandon’s performance.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Although themes of family are prevalent in many superhero films, they’re at the forefront in Blue Beetle and represented in different ways by each character. Obviously, the most prominent representation of traditional family values are the Reyes’, a hard-working immigrant family who weathered terrible adversity to establish a home in the United States and value each other more than material possessions. These aspects are explored through Jaime’s interactions with Alberto, in which he expresses no regrets at having to work every job he could get and all the hours of the day to get his family to America, and later guides Jaime towards embracing Khaji-Da and ending the conflict within him as his final gift to his son. Jenny is absolutely aghast at how her aunt has perverted her father’s company into a greedy, ruthless powerhouse that lords itself over everyone and treats its employees as expendable pawns. Heartbroken at the disappearance and presumed death of her father, Jenny has actively been trying to do good in his name against her aunt’s wishes and sees liberating the scarab from Victora’s clutches as the ultimate insult. Victoria’s entire motivation for being such a cartoonishly cold-hearted villain is based on the bitterness she felt towards her father, who bequeathed Kord Industries to Ted over her despite her being instrumental in establishing the company. Finally, though Carapax sneers at Jaime’s emotional ties to his family, the scarred brute is fuelled by the trauma he endured at seeing his family violently killed; he carries their locket on his person and is later inspired to end himself and Victoria after remembering that his poisonous employer was responsible for his pain and suffering.

While the suit and effects are a lot of fun, it’s the familial aspects that hold this film together.

I praised the Blue Beetle suit earlier and it really does look great here; a mixture of practical and CGI effects, the armour is extremely versatile, conjuring bug-like wings, concussive blasts, and even a fully-functional Buster Sword to easily best swarms of heavily-armed goons. Indeed, the Blue Beetle is almost too powerful here, proving resistant to all harm and unstoppable once Jaime and Khaji-Da are united; the only one capable of consistently offering a challenge to the Blue Beetle is Carapax, whose weapons-grade O.M.A.C. armour is more than up to the task of matching the panic-stricken teen blow for blow. While the Blue Beetle armour is strikingly faithful to its comic book counterpart (almost to a fault with its strangely cartoonish face), the O.MA.C. armour is heavily altered to more resemble Carapax’s comic book counterpart, and appears more akin to something seen in the Iron Man movies (Various, 2008 to 2013). Still, the action and fight scenes involving both were exhilarating and fun, especially when Khaji-Da took control and turned Jaime into a cartwheeling, sword-wielding engine of destruction. The Blue Beetle’s flight scenes were also a lot of fun, as was exploring Ted’s underground lair, his retro-tech (including comic-accurate renditions of the Dan Garrett and Ted Kord Blue Beetle suits), and the Reyes’ commandeering Ted’s old school weapons and ridiculous bug ship to go rescue Jaime. While the bug ship looks a little cartoony at times, it was fun seeing Rudy stomp about, impaling Victoria’s guards and unleashing Ted’s unique weaponry on her forces, as was seeing Milagro and even Nana take up arms to help Jaime out in the name of love and family. Yet, easily the film’s most poignant scene is a metaphysical interaction between Jaime and his father’s spirit in a limbo between life and death; here, Alberto encourages his son to embrace his destiny, finally allowing true symbiosis between him and Khaji-Da, a revelation sadly somewhat muted when Jaime has to wait for the suit to reboot after escaping Victoria’s energy-sucking device (though this is a great excuse for the gun-toting Nana to shine).

Jaime’s family ultimately proves his greatest strength in overcoming Carapax.

Desperate to retrieve the scarab after learning Jenny swiped it, Victoria leads her troops and Carapax to the Reyes’, mercilessly threatening them and even causing Alberto’s death in a bid to draw out and capture Jaime. This proves a success and Jaime is hooked up to an elaborate machine that forcibly downloads the scarab’s code to empower the O.M.A.C. armour, but luckily Alberto’s spirit and Jaime’s family help to rescue him and scupper Victoria’s entire operation. Jenny even earns a modicum of catharsis when she tackles Victoria out of her helicopter and smashes the scarab data which, in conjunction with blowing up the O.M.A.C. lab, leaves Victoria desperate to avenge herself, only to find that Carapax has suffered a change of heart when Jaime inexplicably shows him mercy and they come to an understanding. This comes after a lengthy and brutal battle between the two armoured warriors in which the continually bust out bigger and better weapons to try and beat the other; Carapax uses every trick in the book, including taunting Jaime over his perceived weaknesses and seemingly killing Rudy, to gain the upper hand on his young foe, who is pushed to the brink by the onslaught. Despite having spent the whole film admonishing Khaji-Da for favouring lethal force, Jaime is fully preparing to execute the defenceless Carapax but spares his life after being shown his traumatic memories, finally reaching an understanding with Khaji-Da and leaving the grief-stricken brute to avenge his losses against Victoria. In the aftermath, Jenny assumes control over Kord Industries and immediately sets about discontinuing their weapons production; she vows to rebuild the Reyes’ house and give back to the community, rather than steamrolling over it, and shares a passionate kiss with Jaime (though, to be honest, I wasn’t convinced that she was as into him as he was her, so maybe they should’ve stayed plutonic friends, at least until the sequel). Speaking of which, the seeds of further intrigue are planted not just from the opening credits, where an errant Green Lantern beam causes the scarab to fall to Earth, but when Ted Kord (Unknown) desperately tries to contact someone for aid…

The Summary:
I was honestly sceptical going into Blue Beetle; it’s such an obscure character and an odd decision to go in, especially now with the DCEU in such a confusing flux, but the film actually held up really well, despite a few hiccups. The effects and suit action were really impressive, with a strong anime influence and drawing from some familiar superhero cliches but presenting them in a visually engaging new way, such as Jaime panicking and pleading with the suit and apologising to those around him since he’s not in control of himself when Khaji-Da takes over. Jaime himself and his family were very enjoyable characters; I liked their banter, their relatability and humanity, and the heart that held them together even in the toughest of times. While I wasn’t entirely convinced of the romance between Jaime and Jenny (mainly because I would’ve liked to see more of her showing an equal interest in him, rather than it being largely one-sided), the relationship between him and his sister, father, and uncle kept the family drama elements interesting for me. Unfortunately, Susan Sarandon is hamming it up a bit too much for me; she seems to be channelling the pantomime-like villainy that once dogged the genre and which I thought we’d moved on from. Carapax is far more compelling, but is largely just a surly brute of a man until some last-second revelations and is again simply a dark mirror of the hero, clichés that I can’t help but point out as flaws even if the film mostly kept its head above water. Overall, this was a fun introduction to a fresh, young superhero and I’d like to see more from these characters going forward, with perhaps some more visually and thematically interesting villains being introduced to place more emphasis on the positives at work here.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Did you enjoy Blue Beetle? Were you surprised to see the character brought to life on the big screen or did you enjoy seeing a fresh new ethnically diverse superhero take the spotlight? What did you think to the relationship between Jaime and his family? Did you enjoy the look and powers of the suit? What did you think to the more cartoonish presentation of the villains? Would you like to see more from these characters, and which obscure DC hero would you like to see get their own film? Whatever you thought about Blue Bettle, drop a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Blue Beetle content on the site.

Back Issues: Blue Beetle (2006) #1-3

Dr. K1 Comment

Story Title: “Blue Monday”
Published: May 2006
Writers: Keith Giffen and John Rogers
Artist: Cully Hamner

Story Title: “Can’t Go Home Again”
Published: June 2006
Writers: Keith Giffen and John Rogers
Artist: Cully Hamner

Story Title: “The Past Is Another Country”
Published: July 2006
Writers: Keith Giffen and John Rogers
Artist: Cynthia Martin

The Background:
I wouldn’t begrudge modern readers of DC Comics if they didn’t know who Dan Garret was. The creation of Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, the very first Blue Beetle featured prominently in Charlton Comics and is pretty much all but forgotten in the legacy of the character. Hell, I wouldn’t be too surprised it Garret’s successor, genius inventor Theodore “Ted” Kord, didn’t ring a bell; in 1966, Steve Ditko reimagined the Blue Beetle but, despite his tenure on Justice League International and making waves through his friendship with Michael Carter/Booster Gold, Ted never really rose beyond the ranks of a D-list hero and is generally remembered for being shockingly and graphically executed on-panel in the build-up to the universe-shaking Infinite Crisis (Johns, et al, 2005 to 2006). Indeed, even a big Ted Kord fan like myself has to acknowledge the mainstream impact of his successor, Jaime Reyes, easily the most recognisable incarnation of the Blue Beetle to date; Jamie has appeared in videogames, cartoons, and in live-action, both on television and even his own feature film. A noted Latino superhero, Jaime was created by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner and debuted in the pages of Infinite Crisis before appearing in his own self-titled comic book two months later. Jaime separated himself from his predecessors not just in his more diverse background and his youth, but also by actually deriving superhuman powers and abilities from a techno-symbiotic alien scarab infused to his spine, making him theoretically the more competent of the three Blue Beetles, though this was counterbalanced by his lack of experience and control with the scarab. Jaime has been a part of DC’s premier superhero team, the Justice League, as well as the Teen Titans, fought extraterresital threats and struggled to figure out his powers, and is generally regarded as one of DC’s best legacy characters in recent years.

The Review:
As mentioned above, Jaime made his first appearances in the epic, universe-shattering Infinite Crisis. Specifically, Jaime made a very brief cameo in Infinite Crisis #3 (Johns, et al, 2006) where, in the midst of the mainstream DC universe being rocked by incursions from disgruntled heroes from previous, destroyed worlds, young Jaime just happened to stumble across the glowing, mysterious scarab just sitting out in the open. Jaime returned in Infinite Crisis #4 (ibid), where he was stunned to find Booster Gold and Skeets searching his bedroom for the scarab, which would allow him to reveal the forces of Bruce Wayne/Batman’s renegade artificial intelligence, Brother Eye; although initially amazed to find such a prominent, corporate sponsored hero in his bedroom, Jaime was soon aghast to find that the scarab had fused itself to his spine. When Booster Gold brought him to the Batcave in Infinite Crisis #5 (ibid), Jaime’s life changed forever as the scarab, sensing danger, encompassed his body in a sleek, form-fitting armoured suit unlike any sported by his predecessors. Although very much out of his depth, Jaime found himself in space alongside some of Earth’s greatest heroes in Infinite Crisis #6; his suit unsettled Green Lantern John Stewart’s semi-sentient power ring and he was so overwhelmed by the confusion and stakes of their mission that he had to receive a pep talk from Batman, of all people. Although he couldn’t begin to understand the nature of the scarab, Jaime found the suit had a mind of its own; as soon as the heroes got close enough to Brother Eye’s cloaked satellite, the suit sparked to life and exposed it, leading to a massive battle to decide the fate of all universe, a fight that Jaime was spared since the suit promptly teleported him out of there, against his will, to get away from the Green Lanterns present.

Jaime’s teenage troubles are compounded by the scarab and the mysterious Posse.

Jaime’s solo comic bounces between the present, where he returns to Earth, and the past, which focuses on providing Jaime with more backstory than “confused young kid suddenly gifted superpowers”. He’s a talented high schooler from El Paso, Texas whose free time is spent mediating the constant bickering between his friends, workshy Paco Testas and fastidious aikido student Brenda Del Vecchio. This provides a little more context behind Jaime’s random discovery of the scarab, which he stumbled upon while his friends were squabbling and took home without thinking much about it. At home, Jaime’s mother, nurse Bianca, despairs of his constant quarrelling with his annoying little sister, Milagro and has him take lunch to his father, Alberto, who owns a garage in town. Although Jaime wishes to help his hard-working father, Alberto encourages him to both study and enjoy being a kid while he has the time. That evening, after accidentally stepping on the scarab, Jaime awakens to find himself talking a strange alien language and a similar text glowing on his palm, which he chalks up to being a dream, an explanation Brenda and Paco encourage, but he’s spooked when he crosses path with a strange girl without any eyes who speaks to him in riddles. Jaime’s friends were less than helpful with his predicament; Paco is convinced that Jaime’s seeing ghosts and Bianca’s suggestion that he take the scarab to someone to analyse is no help since it’s vanished. They’re left dumbfounded when he spots the goth chick, Probe, and her tattooed associate, Damper, hanging around the school and he promptly vanishes from sight when he gets close to them thanks to Damper’s ability to cloak their presence with his “mojo”. Jaime’s confused by them; it doesn’t help that they talk in riddles and he has no idea what’s going on, but their curiosity turns to anger when Probe’s attempt to mentally.. well, probe…Jaime sees her being first blocked and then suffer a painful seizure.

The scarab’s armour brings Jaime undue attention and lashes out uncontrollably.

After trying, and failing, one more time to convince Alberto to let him help out, Jaime found himself set upon by Damper and three of his cohorts – the bloated Scour, diminutive Thump, and alluring Bonita – a group of street-level metahumans calling themselves the “Posse”. While the others want to take a more direct approach at making Jaime pay for hurting Probe, and Damper even subtly threatens Jaime’s family, Bonita attempts to subdue him using a combination of pheromones and feminine wiles. Luckily for the captivated Jaime, the scarab’s instincts kick in and he finds himself shielded by his alien armour, which gives him the means to fight back against them, though entirely beyond Jaime’s control, and the scarab can even detect that Bonita is pregnant. As mentioned, these three issues also chart what happened after Jaime dramatically crashes back to Earth. He was immediately attacked by hot-headed Green Lantern Guy Gardner and, since Jaime had no idea how his suit works or what it’s capable of, he was entirely at the scarab’s mercy as it instinctively formed shields, energy-based weapons, and even wings to fend off Guy’s relentless assault, all while Jaime expressed terror and confusion at the entire situation. Jaime’s inexperience allowed Guy to pound him into the dirt and drove him to beg for mercy, and Guy was horrified to find that his ring drove him to attack and almost kill a kid. This showed that scarab is perceived as such a threat by the ring that it drove Guy into a temporary bloodlust, almost driving him to the point of murder, which he claims is something he’s not known for (which is odd as I could’ve sworn Guy’s more volatile nature had seen him kill before…). After Guy left, Jaime was wracked with pain as the suit retracted into the scarab, which has painfully bound itself to his spine, and was left naked in the desert trying to figure out how to tell his mother what happened.

Jaime is stunned to find he lost an entire year of his life during Infinite Crisis.

Although he was helped by a kindly gas station attendant with some clothes, food, and a ride, Jaime was constantly bothered by the scarab’s alien voice in his head (which, amusingly, sounds like his mother); however, his troubles were only compounded when he got home to find out that he’d been gone for an entire year! This means that Jaime has no choice but to come clean to his family about where he was and his new abilities; however, his suit terrifies Milagro and Bianca was so convinced that he was dead that she refuses to believe that Jaime and the Blue Beetle are one and the same. Alberto, who now requires a cane to walk, is somewhat more understanding and sympathetic, explaining the grief they all went through thinking he was dead, but promises to talk to her on his behalf. Overwhelmed by it all, Jaime flies off and tries to get a grip on his powers but is amazed by the sensory overload and destructive abilities of his alien armour. While he doesn’t understand it and is still acting on instinct, the scarab is able to bring up a holographic compass that leads him to Paco at the Mexican border and allied with Damper. The Blue Beetle arrives in time to shield them from agents of “La Dama” and, during the fight, Jaime constantly berates his armour for being too violent but manages to fly Paco out of there. While Jaime doesn’t approve of Paco’s association with the Posse, he’s even more shocked to learn that Brenda almost died after her abusive father beat her and that she’s moved in with her wealthy aunt after he died in a car accident. Although Jaime earns a good punch to the gut for causing her to worry about his safety, the three friends are happy to be reunited, though they’re left blissfully unaware that Brenda’s aunt is the mysterious La Dama who’s been targeting the Posse…

The Summary:
Make no mistake about it, Jaime Reyes is a very different Blue Beetle compared to his predecessors. I admittedly haven’t read too much of any of the Blue Beetles but my understanding has always been that Dan Garret and Ted Kord were completely normal human beings who took the iconography of the scarab and themed their crimefighting careers after it. Until Jaime’s introduction, I had no idea that the scarab was alien in origin, alive (in at least a techno-organic sense of the word), or capable of being such a versatile and visually interesting piece of symbiotic armour. Indeed, Jaime’s tenure represented a massive paradigm shift for the concept of the Blue Beetle; not only was he now a teenage kid with teenage dramas, he was in possession of a volatile alien weapon whose origins and capabilities were a complete mystery since they’d never been seen or associated with the character before, essentially meaning the Blue Beetle concept was reconfiguring into something entirely new, not unlike how the Green Lantern concept was significantly altered between Alan Scott and Hal Jordan.

Jaime’s personality and supporting cast are as intriguing as the mystery behind the alien armour.

What works for me in these three issues is the dynamic between Jaime and his supporting cast; he’s a smart kid, capable of speaking multiple languages and applying himself at school, and also a good kid, volunteering time and again to help his father out and pulling his weight at home. However, he also has some snark, particularly with his bratty little sister, and he describes himself as Brenda and Paco’s “babysitter” since he’s often forced to be the voice of reason when they get into it. I really enjoyed the banter between the three of them; it’s a friendship dynamic that really grounds the character to contrast his relatively normal and mundane lifestyle with the chaos of his newfound superhero life. I also enjoyed the relationship between Jaime and Alberto; a physically tough but empathetic father, Alberto works hard to provide for his family but still encourages Jaime to live his life, so it’s all the more jarring when Jaime returns home to find his father a shell of his former self and his family still grieving from his presumed death. While there are a few fights in these issues and they’re exhilarating enough thanks to the colourful and kinetic art style, the main conflict here is between Jaime and the scarab, which latches itself to him and almost immediately turns his life upside down, sweeping him away on an outer space adventure and unwittingly stealing a year of his life, as well as constantly bombarding him with alien language symbols, and bizarre weaponry.

Jaime represented a fun and visually interesting new direction for the Blue Beetle concept.

Obviously, these are just the first three issues of an ongoing story; the exact nature of the Posse, their issues with La Dama, and the changes faced by Jaime’s supporting cast are no doubt developed over the course of subsequent issues, but there was enough here to have me invested in Jaime and his world. I really like the mystery of the volatile relationship between the scarab and the Green Lantern Corps; we saw glimpses of this in Infinite Crisis and it would become a whole cosmic drama later on, but it really helps to flesh out that there’s always been more to the Blue Beetle than we could ever has suspected. Jaime is admittedly no fighter; he panics in battle and generally tries to talk his way out of situations rather than engage since he’s not acquitted for the superhero life, but the scarab is more than capable of compensating for that. Not only does it cover him in a sick looking beetle-themed armour, but it sprouts wings, enhances his senses, shoots lightning-like energy, augments his strength, and forms shields and all sorts to protect him…and fight back. Jaime is constantly overwhelmed by the armour and its insistence on violence, elements that again I’ve never associated with the Blue Beetle before. Jaime is a reluctant superhero, overwhelmed by what’s happening to him, and a potentially dangerous individual as he cannot control his abilities. In many ways, the scarab’s attachment to him is framed as a metaphor for puberty as his body undergoes strange and often violent changes. I guess hardcore fans of the Blue Beetle might have been turned off by how wildly different the character and concept are with Jaime at the helm, but I think they’re changes for the better. They result in a visually interesting character, one with an appealing personality and strong supporting cast, and increase the Blue Beetle’s appeal by adding all this mystery, lore, and potential to the concept. I really enjoyed this three-issue arc and would absolutely like to read on a bit more and find out more about what happened during his one year absence, what the story of the Posse is, and how it all ties in with La Dama, and to witness Jaime’s growth into his newfound role and abilities.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of Jaime Reyes? What did you think to his introduction and springboard to prominence in Infinite Crisis? Did you enjoy these first three issues and the changes to the Blue Beetle concept? What did you think to the scarab’s new abilities and its relationship with the Green Lantern Corps? Were you intrigued by the Posse and the one year gap introduced here? What did you think to Jaime’s supporting cast? Which incarnation of the Blue Beetle is your favourite and what are some of your favourite Jamie Reyes stories and moments? Whatever you think, drop a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Blue Beetle content.

Back Issues: Captain Atom #83

Dr. K3 Comments

Story Title: “The New Blue Beetle”
Published: November 1966
Writers: Steve Ditko and Gary Friedrich
Artist: Steve Ditko

The Background:
In 1939, comics readers were introduced to Dan Garret, a policeman who fought crime in a suit, fedora, and domino mask as the Blue Beetle, a shameless knock-off of Britt Reid/The Green Hornet created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski and who eventually found his way into the pages of Charlton Comics. Given the time period, where pulp crimefighters were beginning to be overtaken by more theatrical costumed superheroes, Garrett is often forgotten in the legacy of the Blue Beetle, especially when comparing his impact to that of his immediate successor. In 1966, the legendary Steve Ditko reimagined the Blue Beetle as genius inventor Theodore “Ted” Kord during the “Silver Age” of comics books, where many superheroes with given new origins and powers to fit the then-modern age. Despite debuting in a back-up feature and never rising above the status of a lower tier crimefighter, Ted gained far greater mainstream exposure thanks to his tenure on Justice League International and friendship with Michael Carter/Booster Gold; Ted even went toe-to-toe with Doomsday, unlike many of his more powerful comrades, and was even shockingly and graphically executed on-panel during the build-up to the universe-shaking Infinite Crisis (Johns, et al, 2005 to 2006). While still a relatively obscure character in the DC hierarchy, Ted is often regarded as one of the best incarnations of the Blue Beetle and he’s featured far more prominently in ancillary media compared to his predecessor, including multiple animated appearances and even appearing in live-action in the tenth series of Smallville (2001 to 2011).

The Review:
Similar to this predecessor, Ted Kord’s debut outing as the Blue Beetle begins not only with him already in the bug-themed guise of a masked crimefighter but also in the midst of a crime wave sweeping his city as the “Killer Koke Gang” make headlines for their many violent robberies. Unlike Dan Garret, however, Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle is tripped out on technology; he already has a massive, beetle-shaped hovercraft from which he can tune into sound waves throughout the city in search of trouble. When he picks up the sounds of gunshots from a nearby bank, the Blue Beetle flies into action, literally, guiding his craft through the night sky, though he strangely chooses to drop out of the craft and pilot it while hanging beneath it from a handle and wire. Although his monologue shares that he’s put in many hours of training, this is also still the Blue Beetle’s first field test and taste of real-world action; he’s so nervous about it that he almost clips a nearby building, but his presence certainly serves to put the wind up Killer Koke and his thugs.

Despite a minor setback, Ted Kord has a successful first night as the new Blue Beetle.

The Blue Beetle comes swinging in, fists flying, easily dispatching Killer Koke’s men with a deftness and skill despite their superior numbers and weaponry. Just as he’s feeling the thrill of the action, though, one of the goons tosses…some kind of spherical explosive…at the Blue Beetle’s knee, which manages to knock him unconsciously. Luckily for Ted, the thugs can’t get his mask off to learn his true identity and they’re scared off by a single cop before they can finish him off. When he comes to, the Blue Beetle assumes they fled because he was too much for them…even though he clearly saw one of them tossing that thing, whatever it was, at him. He summons his flying craft and makes a swift exit, praising his technology and prowess the entire time. Thanks to his amazing craft, the Blue Beetle is easily able to catch up to Killer Koke and his goons, literally snatching their car off the ground and depositing them, rattled and humiliated, at police headquarters. Although Killer Koke claims that the Blue Beetle was really behind it all, the cops are unconvinced and take them away, and the story comes to an end with the Blue Beetle name-dropping Dan Garret, suggesting a relationship between the two, and again praising the genius of his technology, such as the lock underneath his chin that kept him from being unmasked, and expressing excitement for his next crimefighting adventure.

The Summary:
I really didn’t think much of Dan Garret’s first outing as the Blue Beetle and, sadly, the trend continues here. Thanks to the immortal Steve Ditko, the art is at least much more palatable this time around; I’ve always liked Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle costume and, despite how corny it is with its overt bug theme, it’s at least more on brand with his masked persona that the suit-and-fedora combo of his predecessor. Ted Kord goes one step further than Dan Garret by having a massive beetle-shaped craft that doubles as a base of operations and his transport around town; it also leans into his branding and gives him an edge not shared by many other superheroes, who are more likely to utilise cars or motorcycles before jumping in a flying contraption. Having said that, though, it is all incredibly goofy; there’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and it makes for some fun visuals and concepts, but it’s just a bit weird seeing this massive metallic beetle rocketing through the city and scooping up cars. Similar to his predecessor, we learn almost nothing about this new Blue Beetle; we don’t even learn his true name in this story, much less delve into the relationship he may or may not have with Dan Garret or his motivations behind taking up the Blue Beetle mantle.

Despite his fancy new gimmick, Ted’s debut is barely any better than his predecessor’s.

Again, I’m okay with that, not every first appearance needs to be an origin story after all, but it does mean that Ted’s first appearance is more about expositing his technology than anything else. There’s still a sense of relatability to him; he appears to have no superhuman powers, starts the story itching to put his training to the test and nearly costing himself dearly because of it, and, for all his obvious fighting skill, he’s still flawed enough to be rendered unconscious by…whatever that thing was that was thrown at him. Killer Koke and his gang are just regular street-level mooks; they’re violent bank robbers and that’s about it, warm bodies for the Blue Beetle to beat up and prove himself against, and he’s very happy with how his first night went, despite nearly being unmasked, because he was smart enough to put a clasp on his cowl. I think it actually might’ve been better to showcase him using more gadgets in his fight rather than his fists to truly separate him from Dan Garret and lean into him being a more technologically-inclined crimefighter. As is, we’re presented with a guy who clearly has the time, means, and money to go out busting bank robbers with a fancy suit and craft but little that makes him stand out from other, similar costumed heroes. I’ve always been a fan of Ted Kord’s and he’s always been quite a goofy character, so I don’t want to begrudge his first appearance too much, but it’s surprising he was able to excel as far as he did after such a mediocre first outing.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to Ted Kord’s debut as the Blue Beetle? Were you stunned by how different he was, visually and in concept, to Dan Garret? What did you think to his costume and mechanical bug craft? Were you disappointed by ineffectual Killer Koke and his gang were and do you know what that thing was they threw at Ted? Which incarnation of the Blue Beetle is your favourite and what are some of your favourite Ted Kord moments? Whatever you think to the Blue Beetle, share your thoughts below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Blue Beetle content across the site.

Back Issues: Mystery Men Comics #1

Dr. K2 Comments

Story Title: “The Coming of the Blue Beetle”
Published: August 1939
Writer: Will Eisner
Artist: Charles Nicholas

The Background:
Something I’ve always found fascinating about the history of DC Comics is just how many of their characters and concepts originated elsewhere; Billy Batson/Shazam might be a DC mainstay now but he started life in Fawcett Comics, for example, and even heavy hitters like the Justice Society of America were published under the All-American Publications banner before being bought by, or rebranded, to DC Comics. This is also true of the very first Blue Beetle, Dan Garret; created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, the Blue Beetle was one of many costumed adventurers who would come to be featured in the pages of various comic books published by Charlton Comics and, in his earliest incarnation, was a domino-masked pulp crimefighter rather than a superhero. In fact, the character’s look and origin was almost a composite of the likes of Kit Walker/The Phantom and Denny Colt/The Spirit, which isn’t too surprising given that comic icon Will Eisner allegedly assisted with Garret’s first adventures. Initially appearing under Fox Comics publications, the otherwise powerless Blue Beetle would be taken on by Charlton Comics and play a significant, if often forgotten, role in the legacy of his successors. Indeed, Dan Garret is sometimes all but forgotten about whenever the subject of the Blue Beetle comes up since, like other Golden Age heroes, his influence was surpassed by his Silver and Modern Age equivalents. As a result, he’s rarely featured, referenced, or even acknowledged within DC Comics, let alone in ancillary media but, since his modern day successor has since made his live-action debut, I figured I would revisit Garret’s first appearance and examine the origins of this often overlooked character.

The Review:
Dan Garret is just your normal, everyday beat cop in a normal, everyday city where bankers like Mr. Vander are kidnapped in broad daylight. Indeed, poor old Dan was just minding his own business, patrolling his beat, when he was suddenly fired upon from a car. Although he takes a slug to the shoulder, Dan still has the presence of mind to fire back, but he’s unable to stop the speeding car, out of which is thrown an elderly man. Despite the pain from his injury, Dan tends to the man, who turns out to be the aforementioned Mr. Vander, a banker who was kidnapped by the “White Face Gang” alongside his daughter and his secretary, John Brandes. While Dan miraculously recovers from his wound between panels, Mr. Vanders isn’t so lucky; the sergeant informs Dan that the banker died later that evening, though the cops were able to recover the gang’s car. Rather than rest up as his sergeant suggests, Dan inspects the vehicle. Although the car’s serial number has been filed off, a “drop of specially prepared chemical” reveals the number and that the car belongs to a certain garage owner named Mike Ravani.

When a banker’s daughter is kidnapped, flatfoot Dan Garret investigates as the Blue Beetle!

Later that same evening, the Vanders girl is being tortured across town in Ravani’s garage by a group of thugs, who threaten to set her ablaze if she doesn’t tell them the combination to her father’s bank’s vault. One of the thugs spies an ominous sight, however: a blue beetle, the calling card of the titular suit-and-fedora-clad vigilante. Rather than rushing in and beating the gang to a pulp, the Blue Beetle is able to spare the girl from further torture by offering to tell them the combination to the vault in exchange for a 40% cut. Despite the fact that he’s a mysterious masked manhunter, the gang agrees to the offer; though they’re smart enough to take the Blue Beetle with them, they inexplicably leave him alone long enough to place a call to police headquarters using his special wireless phone. Consequently, when the White Face Gang break into the bank, the cops are there to get the jump on them; the Blue Beetle then punches one out, blinds another with a gas capsule, and then flees in his car as the gang is arrested. Their leader is unmasked to reveal it was John Brandes all along in a twist that really doesn’t make all the much sense as it can’t have been difficult for Mr. Vanders’ secretary to learn the safe combination. Things get even more confusing as Dan owes his plan’s success to his friend, drug store owner Abe, who apparently houses his Blue Beetle gear and called the White Face Gang to confirm the Blue Beetle’s combination…? I don’t really understand it, personally. Anyway, the gang is arrested, and Dan returns to work, where one of his colleagues tells him all about how he came so close to nailing the elusive Blue Beetle…even though they never actually had a hope in hell as he was long gone by the time they arrived.

The Summary:
Well…this was pretty awful. It’s strikingly similar to the first appearance of Bruce Wayne/Batman, something that shouldn’t be too surprising considering Batman’s pulp roots and Bob Kane’s talent for plagiarism. While the quality of these scans isn’t great, the artwork is fitting for the era; by which I mean it’s grainy, messy, low on detail, and a bit confusing with all the high contrasting colours and such. To be fair, the story does a decent job of introducing us to Dan Garret; he’s just a normal, everyday bloke but he tends to others even while wounded and takes it upon himself to tackle criminals…even though there’s no suggestion that the police are baffled by the kidnapping and no reason given as to why he’s adopted a masked persona. Like many pulp heroes, the Blue Beetle has a fancy car and a base of operations (though we never see it in detail) and a confidante who shelters and supplies him (though we learn nothing about him except that he’s an old friend and runs a drug store).

A confusing story featuring a Green Hornet rip-off that fails to impress on almost every level.

The Blue Beetle’s attire here is a simple blue suit, black fedora, and white domino mask that looks like he’s wrapped a handkerchief around his eyes! In fact, there’s little to separate the Blue Beetle from Britt Reid/The Green Hornet when it comes to his overall appearance and the down-to-earth nature of his crimefighting methods. His iconography, the Blue Beetle, is visible on his chest and apparently is left as a calling card to announce his arrival, though it’s not clear how he got this into the gang’s garage nor is it explained why Dan has chosen this motif for his masked persona, which only lends more weight to the argument that he’s a Green Hornet rip-off. The Blue Beetle also employs smoke pellets to blind his foes, packs a mean right hook, and carries a miniature wireless phone that’s quite ahead of its time, indicating that he’s surprisingly well funded and intelligent for a simple beat cop. However, the story falls apart very easily for me; I don’t get why Brandes would have to resort to kidnapping and murder for his crime, or how Abe’s call to the gang aided the plan. It’s also weird that the Blue Beetle is seen to be a known vigilante, yet the White Face Gang take him at his word when he offers to help, almost as if he’s some underworld figure. I don’t have any answers to that; all I know was that this was a very confusing and an extremely disappointing first outing for the Blue Beetle that paints him as a forgettable knock-off rather than a memorable pulp hero.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Have you ever read the first appearance of Dan Garret’s Blue Beetle? If so, what did you think to it? Was there anything about this strip that impressed you or do you agree that the Blue Beetle was a rather underwhelming presence? Are you able to explain the plot and what the hell happened with Abe and Brandes’ plan, because it didn’t make much sense to me…? Who is your favourite pulp hero? Would you like to see more from Dan Garret or do you prefer a different Blue Beetle and, if so, who is it? I’d love to know your thoughts on the Blue Beetle down in the comments or on my social media, so feel free to share them and be sure to check out my other Blue Beetle content.