A look at Arkham Origins so far

So with the new game in the Arkham series set to be released in just under 2 months (October 25th) and from all of the trailers and reports/ previews I've read it seems to be shaping up rather nicely compared to it's predecessors.

With the Joker's death at the end of Arkham City I was gutted at the thought that the newest game wouldn't involve everyone's favourite villain, however after finding out that this game will be set before Arkham Asylum tied into the fact that the Joker actually makes an appearance in the new instalment put my worries aside. Although Mark Hamill is no longer voicing The Joker and has actually been replaced with Troy Baker who voiced  Booker in Bioshock Infinite.

Joker isn't the only one to lose his original voice actors since Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman over a number of different projects is also not reprising his role and is instead being replaced by Rodger Craig Smith. Personally I don't think that this is a bad thing since  it gives the younger batman a more unrefined nature led by emotions. So a good start to the game!

Next thing to look at is the villains. The fact that Black Mask seems to be the leading villain in this game is, in my personal opinion, a great thing since it allows for fans of just the game series learn a little bit more about a character who may not be known as well as he should be. This is also shown throughout the side missions in Arkham city as the player gets to meet such characters like Deadshot or Mad Hatter who they may not have initially recognised. Speaking of Deadshot, he is one of the many villains who are trying to collect the $50,000,000 bounty on Batman's head. Villains such as Bane and the Joker make a return to the game as well as the introduction of Copperhead and Deathstroke (Who I'm particularly excited about since it was announced that he will be a playable character) The strong set of villains, both old and new, will make this game awesome, hopefully game of the year.

Another pretty cool looking thing is the revamped detective mode. Shown in a number of first look videos is how Batman can recreate events such as the helicopter crash and then being able to piece it all together. As someone who is training to be a Forensic scientist that will be a very useful feature to have! However cool this maybe it does kind of take away the realism that the Arkham series has had the majority of the time. Saying this however, it will still be fun as fuck tracking down the bad guys whilst piecing all of the clues together.

Overall I think this is going to be a pretty freaking awesome game with new villains and effectiviely a new take on Batman/Bruce Wayne as a younger less experienced crime fighter. Hopefully it will make game of the year and I will definitely be queuing up for this as soon as it comes out.

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A little bit of Nerd Rage on YOUTUBE!

Please click the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN29GG-Q_ns and check out the introductory video for A little bit of Nerd Rage channel! Would be great if you guys could check it out.

THANK YOU!!!

So yeah a bunch of pictures from comic con :D

Sorry guys I know this is really late but thought you may want to take a look all the same

Injustice: Gods Among Us Review

So I think that this is the first game review that I've done so please bare with me :P As the title of this post suggests today I will be looking at is Injustice: Gods Among Us. I recently completed the main storyline and played a lot of other aspects offline (due to not being able to afford Xbox Live :/ ) Anywho, we shall begin.

Today I will be looking at a number of different aspects of the game including: Story lines/plot, characters, locations ,Graphics ,move-sets and length of game-play

Storyline/plot
So when playing through the story mode you get a real sense of what you are getting into. Watching the opening scene when Joker threatens to release a nuclear bomb in Metropolis really gives you, the player, the sense that some ass really does need kicking. From the play-through you see the melt down of Superman in alternative universe where he accidently  causes the destruction of the whole of  Metropolis. From then on the current team from our universe help the Insurgency.
The plot is great as to see what would happen if someone regarded as the ultimate hero loses everything he loves, blinded by rage, and vows to dedicate his life to rebuilding it. It's really interesting to see the change of roles throughout the game. Heroes become your enemies and your enemies become someone you would trust your life with (still wary of The Joker of course..)
7/10


Characters

There are a total of 24 playable characters within the game including both heroes and villains such as Batman, Joker, Superman, Doomsday, Flash, Black Adam etc. During the main story mode, you get to play as the majority of heroes but you also get to play as some of the villains as well including Joker, Harley Quinn  and Deathstroke. However, cool it is being a superhero and kicking butt, it's always more bad ass when you're playing as a villain.
Also currently there are 2 DLC characters which can be purchased, Lobo, who is classed as a power character, and Batgirl,who is a gadget user. Unfortunately I haven't played these characters due to the fact that I do not have Xbox Live.
 Each character has at least two costumes which you need to unlock (usually done by completing the classic battle mode) which is good as it helps tweak the hero/villain to how the player wants.
The variety of characters from the DC universe allow for the player to choose their favourite, perfect their skills, and destroy their enemy be it online or offline

https://www.injustice.com/en/characters

9/10

Locations

The locations used throughout the game are great. They range literally from the streets or Gotham all the way to the space station of Lex Luthor and everywhere in between . Throughout Gotham you can fight in a number of different places such as The Wayne Mansion (Day and Night), the Batcave, and the streets of Gotham (I think it's Crime Alley). Even in these locations, there are a number of different areas which you can battle in. It's truly awesome. The variety of locations is pretty good although I think that a couple more could have been added in the main game so that it gives a lot more variety. Maybe not near the level of Super Smash Bros, but the quality and details of each of the stages are great. To be honest I think that the fact that there are many different locations of each stage really adds to the game.

8/10

Graphics

As touched previously in the locations, the graphics are pretty spectacular throughout the game, both with the stages you play in as well as the actual heroes and villains that you can play. The attention to detail for some of the more famous locations such as Arkham Asylum are great and with the added possibility of a destructible environment really shows how the developers nailed it on the head. This said however, the transition between locations on some of the stages do lose a little bit of that quality. It's hard to spot because everything moves so fast during this time but you can definitely see it if you pay attention. This is not a problem for each of the characters though. Each hero/villain looks perfect, the art team really nailed each individual not just with their biological features but there outfits as well. For example, the picture of Deathstroke above, if enlarged, you can really see all of the effort that went into his costume. Even when playing the game, features such as capes and gadgets that the character may possess move realistically with each movement really giving us, the player, the sense that it could actually all be real.

9/10

Move-sets 

Obviously as this is a fighting game the move-set is really quite important. Each character has his/her own supermove which is visually epic as well as knocking off a third of your opponents health which really helps. You also get special moves which are tailored to each individual such as Superman's laser eyes or using Green Lantern mini-gun. But after these sets of moves you do get the familiar punches and kicks with very little variety between the characters. Because of this I found myself resorting to a bit of button-mashing which appears really quite effective in close quarters. To be honest I don't think that this was what the developers had in mind when making the game.

Also there are sequences that appear out a battle which you, the player, can select how much of your special meter you want to use. By either being the fighter who is attacking or defending, you can either dish out a 30% damage to your opponent or gain 30% health. At this current stage of playing I don't really know how this sequence is initiated or how it is determined who is attacking or defending. I think that they just appear every 35-40 in order to get the fight moving on a bit however this is also makes the player think tactically. Do you use a full metre to perform your supermove or do you the same amount of metre to regain up to 30% of your health.

7/10

Length

When playing the game and skipping all of the cut-scenes (which I do not recommend. They are pretty awesome time to time) you can complete the main story mode in about 6 hours of solid continuous game play with a couple of retries along the way. Watching the trailers though adds up to nearly two extra hours which is actually worth it as it emerges you into the whole experience. If you don't have the game yet and want to watch some of these cut-scenes there are a lot of channels where they show them all as a kind of movie like this one---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCyhEbqmDEo

Although this isn't the longest story mode ever to grace video games there is a ton of extra stuff to do such as Battle mode where you can face your enemy in a number of different scenarios (fighting whilst slowly losing health because you are poisoned is a good one). Also after completing Classic Battle with a character you get to see a little insight into that character post-story mode which is pretty good. There is also S.T.A.R labs which is like a little sideline story mode, only focusing on one character for approximately 10 battles, each with certain requirements you need to do before advancing onto the next stage.

Finally, there are a lot of things to unlock such as different outfits for your characters, the concept art for the game, the soundtrack used in game-play and different battle modes. These are acquired by using tokens that you collect through levelling up (I'm currently on Level 40 and still have a long-way to go) but this adds re-playability to the game which is always good.

8/10
Overall I feel like this is a great game for any comic fans as well as any fans of games like Tekken or Mortal Combat. Whilst it may not have the move-set like those games it is still really fun to punch or kick your opponent through a cave wall or using the Supermoves to punch your enemy up to space and then slam him/her back down. It is quite easy to see why E3 awarded it with Best Fighting game of 2012

Overall : 8/10

Comic Trivia Of The Day- The Scarecrow

The last of this week's Comic Trivia Of The Day but never fear, it will be back Monday.

So today we will be looking at Jonathan Crane aka The Scarecrow. The Scarecrow was introduced to us in World's Finest Comics #3, way back in 1941.
Crane uses a mixture of psychology and fear tactics to cause his victims to hallucinate, turn insane and he can also literally scare people to death using a special concoction of chemicals that floods the victim with their deepest fears. The Scarecrow has used these custom weapons to tear havoc through the streets of Gotham over the years, be it on his own or with other super-criminals as part of The Injustice Gang or The Sinestro Corps.

This can even be seen in the two of the three most recent Batman films with Raz al Guhl and Bane, this is where the trivia comes in.

Did you know that Jonathan Crane is the only villain to appear in each of the Christopher Nolan films and this is more than any other villain, including The Joker who is portrayed as Batman's greatest enemy. Although he appears in all three film, he only portrays the Scarecrow in two of them (snippets throughout Batman Begins and The very beginning of The Dark Knight) because he is shown in 'normal' clothes when acting as the judge in The Dark Knight Rises.

Thank you for reading!! come back on Monday for more Comic Trivia Of The Day!
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Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt going to be Batman in 2015?

So way back in September (I think) I posted about how it could be likely that Gordon-Levitt would take up the role of Nightwing if there were any films going to be made. Thinking about this though, it appears very unlikely that a Nightwing film would be made due to it being a pretty niche audience that would fully appreciate it. So it struck me, a new Batman is needed anyway.

Christian Bale made it quite clear that he did not want to participate in any form of a Justice League film, even before it was announced that it would be released in 2015. This poses the question, who is going to portray Batman in what will hopefully be one of the biggest films of the year as well as bringing DC superhero films up to their Marvel counterparts. 

Batman plays a huge role in the Justice League and if he wasn't joint-leader, along with Superman, he would be a very close second in command. So who do I here you ask will feel the role of Batman. Well anybody who has seen The Dark Knight Rises knows that it is hinted that JGL will take over the role of the caped crusader but this is also backed up by something Bruce Wayne says during the film. "The idea was to be a symbol. Batman could be anybody, that was the point." shows that the role of Batman definitely has the option and opportunity to be taken over. 

John Blake would have chance to train in the Bat-Cave where Bruce once trained in order to master his detective skills to be ready for when the world needs the heroes of the DC universe to come together to fight whatever evil it may bring!

Thank you for giving this a read. If you have you own views on this matter please comment and share your thoughts. 
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Comic Trivia Of The Day- Mr Freeze

o Mr Freeze is one of the big time players in Gotham City. Terrorizing the world with sub-zero weapons whilst encased in his giant robotic-like armour which keeps is body below zero degrees.

Victor Fries aka Mr Freeze first appeared in Batman #121 (1959) and has used his ice-cold weaponry to inflict serious damage to the civilians of Gotham and securing millions of dollars that he and is cold-hearted gang have accumulated over the years.

But did you know that Mr Freeze does actually show off his human side. He mainly uses all of the money that he has collected over the years, from a series of crimes, to actually fund his research into curing his beloved wife, Nora Fries, who he has put in a cryogenic sleep in order to preserve he body for the disease that she is dying from

This genuine act of love, be it outside of the law, is the reason why Batman and other members of Batman Incorporated have left him alone over the years (unless he's actually done something really bad of course)

Thank you for reading! :) If you liked this post then check out some more!

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Comic Trivia Of The Day-Stan Lee & Bob Kane

Stan Lee is one of the most recognisable writers/ person to work for comics in possibly the entire world. Introducing some of the most famous marvel characters that have graced the pages of comics including; Spiderman, Hulk, Thor, Ironman plus many other characters and major events throughout his years at Marvel!

But did you know that Stan Martin Lieber ‘Lee’ attended the same high school, Dewitt Clinton High, as the man known for effectively creating graphic novels, Will Eisner as well as the creator of Batman and the majority of his famous enemies, Bob Kane. Who, along with Stan ‘the man’ Lee, is one of my favourite people within the comic book industry. 

Thank you for reading, if you like it please comeback every weekday for more Comic Trivia Of The Day!!

Comic Trivia Of The Day - Hush

Today we will be looking at one of my personal favorite villains hush. 

Thomas Elliot aka hush is one of smartest villains that has ever been in Gotham city.  
Hush and Batman have a strange relationship due to the fact hush wants to ruin Bruce Wayne but runs to him for help. 

One incident that happens between hush and batman which shows this is when a bomb is planted within hush's body by the joker. 
This in turn leads to Hush seeking Batman's help to remove the bomb. What happens after this point is that batman lies to hush and actually leaves the bomb within his body meaning that hush could be sentenced to death and batman would have been the reason why Tommy Elliot had died. Not the usual mind-frame for the bat.....


Thank you for reading, +1 and subscribe if you like the post and want to keep reading more. 
Come back tomorrow for another addition of Comic Trivia Of The Day!

Comic Trivia Of The Day -Clayface

So today we will be looking at another aspect of Batman with this time looking at the villain Clayface. The original Clayface (aka Basil Karlo was introduced to the DC universe in 1940 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane.

But did you know that, so far, there have been a total of 8 people who have used the Clayface persona although the 6th Clayface, Peter Malley, actually went under the persona of Claything.

Clayface's malleable  skin allows him to morph into any object or person he wants with pin-point accuracy, well externally anyway. Due to his ever changing appearance,  Clayface does not actually have any bones as such and this can be discovered whilst playing Arkham City when Clayface portrays the Joker.

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Comic Trivia of the Day-Bat-Girl

So today on the Comic trivia expedition we are looking at the original Bat-Girl Bette Kane who is also known in more recent years as Hawkfire.

So, did you know that the original Bat-girl was introduced in to the Batman in 1961 just to silence any critics that said there was a homosexual relationship/indications between Batman and Robin. This seems stupid now as many people probably won't care due to tolerant times but it was thought, that back in the late 50's/ early 60's that it was deemed necessary.

However when the new editor, Julius Schwartz came onto the Batman scene he deemed this notion silly and scrapped the character Bat-girl as well as her aunty Kathy Kane aka the original Batwoman however the original Bat-girl did crop again throught the pages of DC comics as a number of different heroes called Flamebird and Hawkfire




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Sources
http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Bette_Kane (15/3/13)

Comic Trivia of the Day- The Joker

So this is a new thing that I want to do. I want to provide everyone with a bit of comic knowledge that they may not be floating around in normal nerdy conversations.  Hopefully you'll all enjoy it :)

It will be posted every weekday :)

So the first piece of trivia is about my personal favourite character in the whole of the comic-book land,  The Joker.

Introduced in the very first issue of the Batman Comics (Spring 1940), The Joker has been around constantly through all of the different periods and is still the most dangerous and unpredictable person that has ever been shown on the comic-book pages as well as in other media as well (notably his role in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City)

But did you know that according to one of the origin stories of the Joker (and regarded to be the most accurate one) Joker was the original Red Hood which was forced into committing the crime at the Ace Chemical Processing Plant where he worked. This is where he and Batman first encountered each other and this is also the site of the Jokers change from a bumbling frightened man into one of the most sadistic and dangerous villains of all time.

The Red Hood identity is now more famous by being portrayed by Jason Todd, the second Robin, who the Joker killed.

"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day" - Joker

If you like the start of this there is a lot more to come! Please subscribe and +1 this post, it is very much appreciated.
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Comic-com, wooooo!!!!

As you may or may not know, the MCM expo is coming to London, UK once again and I've finally got my ticket (not to brag but yay me :P). By purchasing an early entrance weekend ticket for less than £30(!) I want to provide a little diary of what will be going on there and maybe I'll get to talk to a few famous people as well. Comic-legend Mr. Stan Lee was at the convention last year so hopefully the line-up is as good.

As most of you may know this is also an excuse to do my first bit of cosplaying, which I'm really excited about! The plan is to go as Thomas 'Tommy' Elliot, better known throughout the DC world as Hush from Batman. Hopefully I'll be able to upload a picture of the finished product soon enough. Hopefully it doesn't suck too much.
Any ideas of what I should look at or do there would be great and if you comment below that would be awesome.

If you want to go to the MCM expo in London I've put a link at the bottom from where you cab buy the tickets (from the official MCM London site)
Also, another link below is the music video that MCM made with all the cos-players from last year.

Hope you guys and girls enjoy it and hopefully you'll give the diary a read in May.

Remember to +1 and follow the blog (only got atm :/) also tell you're friends and will hopefully see you guys in London some time soon :)

http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/london/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpW7gNkohFA&feature=youtu.be

Greatest Comic Book Villain Ever Series- Batman part 2

So here is the second part of the Batman series. The winner of this post will join Carnage, Magneto  and the Joker as well as more villains in the upcoming days and weeks.  

The link for the Greatest Comic Book Villain Ever Series- Batman Part 1 is below.
http://azraelnightwingblogs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/greatest-comic-book-villains-ever.html

 To check out the other posts in the series you can find the links at the bottom.

Okay so the list of villains for this post is: The Riddler, Raz al Guhl, Bane and the Penguin. These guys were left out of the first part to create a more dynamic and diverse selection at the end. Okay so here we go

The Riddler

Edward Nigma is a genius whose obsession with riddles makes him one of the most theatrical Batman villains of all time. Giving a riddle to his victims, in which getting it wrong means instant death (the fate which happens to most of the unfortunate people the Riddle comes into contact with).Riddler isn’t really the type of person to use guns or go in a fist fight but he does have his custom made ‘?’ cane which he can use to beat his victims if he so chooses. The cane can also be used for setting off his traps if Batman gets to close.

Raz al Guhl

Leader of the league of shadows and master of several martial art techniques means that Raz al Guhl is probably the most deadly fighter that Batman has ever come across. Raz al Guhl was also Batman’s mentor, training him, improving his fighting technique and increasing Bruce Wayne’s potential to fight crime. This proves a real problem for the dark knight because R.A.G knows Batman’s moveset and will possibly be able to predict his offensive attack. Raz al Guhl also has a serious hatred for crime which is shown in both the comics and the first and last films in the Dark Knight series. This hatred will prove very useful in the fights against the other competitors in this series.

                                                          Penguin

Penguin is a mob boss through and through, just with added psychosis to help him achieve his extreme goals with an ‘any means necessary’ attitude. He is extremely ruthless and an unforgiving person as if you fail him you are likely to get killed. Wielding nothing more than a gun and his ‘special’ umbrella, Penguin is the type of person who doesn’t and will just kill you now just to get you out of the way rather than interrogating his victims first.

Bane

A venom fuelled behemoth with amazing strength that even Killer Croc was overpowered by. The venom turns Bane into a monster with destruction on his mind, be it people or places. All though juiced up with venom, Bane is also intelligent which helps him in fight situations. Bane wields nothing more than his fists as he needs no other weapon, showing you how strong he is. Finally Bane will always be known as the man(/monster) who ‘broke the bat

’

FIGHT 1 The Riddler VS Raz al Guhl

In a random encounter with no previous preparation the Raz al Guhl would be able to slice The Riddler into two almost instantly. However if it were a planned scenario with The Riddler setting traps then he would have a much needed advantage of the leader of the League of Shadows. All though these riddles and traps would prove to be a much harder task for Raz al Guhl, he would still be able to pass them all, running his blade through the chest of The Riddler. WINNER: Raz al Guhl.

FIGHT 2: Bane VS The Penguin

This fight would just be the pure strength of Bane against the sheer aggressiveness of The Penguin. Although Penguin would fire shot after shot into the rampaging Bane, Penguin wouldn’t be able to stop the leviathan from charging at him. Bane would easily lift and throw The Penguin through a wall, severely crippling him. WINNER: BANE

FINAL FIGHT: Raz al Guhl VS Bane

It would be a student vs teacher fight to the death between these two, Raz al Guhl would have speed on his side where as Bane would obviously have the strength advantage over his enemy. Hitting Bane with multiple kicks, punches and sword strikes, Raz al Guhl would be able to slow the venom induced beast down but not be able to stop him. Bane would be able to grab his former master and break him into two just like he did with Batman. Raz al Guhl wouldn’t die but a little trip to a Lazarus pit may be in order.

WINNER: BANE

Thanks so much for reading this post, was a bit of a long one! If you liked it please comment or +1 and remember to subscribe to this blog to ensure you don’t miss a thing! If you have a different opinion on who you thought should have one comment below to make your point.

If you want to read more in this series click these links below

Spiderman Villains-http://azraelnightwingblogs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/greatest-comic-book-villain-ever-series.html

X-Men Villains-http://azraelnightwingblogs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/greatest-comic-book-villain-ever-series_12.html

Greatest Comic Book Villains Ever Series- Batman Pt. 1

Ok so in this post we will be looking at the first bunch of DC villains and I thought what better comic to look at? Also helps that these are my favourite comics. Because there are so many potential winners from these comics that is going to be done in two parts with part 2 being uploaded a couple of days after this one. Okay so the list of villains for part one is: The Joker, Two-Face, Hush and Mr Freeze.

The Joker

The Joker is without question Batman’s greatest enemy of all time, attacking and killing people close to him. For example, Joker beat the crap out of the original Robin killing him as well as shooting and paralysing Barbara Gordon (Batgirl/Oracle). The Jokers insanity, along with a variety of weapons, mean you can never predict The Joker  as well as never knowing when or how he is going to kill someone. His obsession with Batman and destruction makes The Joker extremely dangerous to anyone who comes into contact with. Also The Joker is known to manipulate people, including other super villains, to get what he wants as well as giving him the edge in a fight.

Two-Face

A bipolar schizophrenic who is obsessed with his two faced coin, of which he cannot function or live without. Using his coin to determine the fate of his enemies Two-Face can use it to determine methods of killing as opposed to just whether or not he could kill someone. Two-Face’s previous experience as district attorney means that her is very influential, amassing a massive gang to take down his rivals.

Hush

Hush is obsessed with Bruce Wayne rather than Batman which is unlike most of the other villains in the book. So obsessed in fact that he removed his own face and grafted on a new one, just to look exactly like Bruce. His excellent surgical skills along with his dual-pistols means that Hush could kill you in a number of ways including torture in the form of removing the victims face whilst still conscious. His bandaged head is also used to install fear into his victims.

Mr Freeze

Mr Freeze is a man who turned to crime in order to save the love of his life Nora. If her safety is threatened in anyway at all, Freeze will go on a rampage looking for the accused. Wielding an ice cannon, which can freeze anything on the spot, as well as his special cooling suit with additional weaponry, make Mr Freeze a dangerous foe indeed.  To get him into the fight Nora would have to be taken and her resurrection would be his prize.

FIGHT 1:Joker VS Mr Freeze

Okay so the Joker has the speed advantage where as Freeze has the power along with the dangerous ice cannon. Joker has an arsenal of different weaponry though which could cause serious damage to Mr Freeze. All though his Joker venom would have no effect on Freeze, due to him being inside a suit, his other weapons could cause serious damage to Freeze, shutting down his suit and causing him to die.

WINNER: Joker

FIGHT 2:Hush VS Two-Face

Both wield pistols and would have an excellent stand-off. Maybe Hush would have the psychological edge over Two-Face if he made references about healing his scarred face, but that might not really bother Two-Face. A close quarter combat would lead to Two-Face being defeated in the fight and subsequently be executed. 

WINNER: Hush

FINAL FIGHT: Joker VS Hush 

Both of these villains can actually carry themselves in a fist fight with both having different styles. Hush more aggressive as opposed to The Joker who has a more flamboyant style. Joker would probably try to psych Hush out with his erratic behaviour, causing Hush to be distracted and that is when the Joker will get the killer blow.

WINNER: JOKER

Batman Villain Part 2

Eventually Franco became the chief of medicine at the Arkham Asylum due to a close relationship with Hugo Strange. From his new position, Franco was able to gain access to all of the criminals files allowing him to learn the true identity of the Scarecrow (Jonathan Crane).

Re-reading the files over and over again, his levels of obsession rose once again pushing him further into insanity. During the Arkham Asylum takeover by the inmates, due to Harley Quinn releasing the Joker, Franco fled until he transformed into the Messiah, returning to the island through a secret passage that was constructed for Victor Zsasz allowing him to escape multiple times. The Messiah hunted down the Scarecrow, who by this point had joined forces with the Joker and Mr Zsasz.  Franco tracked down the sewers as he witnessed Batman try to apprehend Crane. Franco watched from the shadows as Crane was pulled under the water by Killer Croc. Enraged that he wasn’t the one to kill Crane, Franco fled the island on a spare titan container, avoiding the police and any inmates that had escaped.

After realising that his aim in life had been stolen from him, Franco checked himself into the metropolis city asylum  ensuring that none of the inmates would recognise him. Abandoning the messiah persona , Franco decided to spend his riches on running his own private medical school. He had an excellent pupils such as Thomas Elliot, later to be known as Hush, Franco’s arch enemy. After discovering that Elliot was Hush , Franco plunged two needles full of hydrogen peroxide causing the red blood cells in Hush’s body to burst causing his internal organs to start shutting down. Although Hush survived, Franco kept his bandages, coat and gloves as a little memento, storing them in a glass cabinet proudly on display. With his psyche broken, Franco created a new identity, the Collector, donning his old leather coat and newly designed metallic gloves (now soaked in concentrate sulphuric acid to cause burns to the victims as well as soaking into their bloodstream). He now wore a newly designed black mask which he wore a top hat in top of it. Wearing  blood red trousers and spiked, knee high boots, the Collector was born.

Once Franco had revived his role as an extreme vigilante, he started hunting down the only remaining member of the group that ruined his life, the crime lord of the underworld, Black Mask. Franco tracked down Roman Sionis and beat him within an inch of his life, refusing to kill Sionis because the Franco side of the Collector was still strong enough to oppose against his bodies actions. Like with Hush, the Collector stripped Black Mask of his suit, his gun and of course his mask to add to his own collection.

With his medical school now failing since the departure of Thomas Elliot, who was still on life support, and his other students simply not making the cut, Franco dived into drink and depression. This boosted the darker sides of Franco’s brilliant, yet fractured mind. The Collector soon fully took over Franco’s mind, shutting down his medical school and turning it into a sort of museum in which the Collector could show off his trophies collected from his fallen adversaries. The Collectors next conquest was by breaking into Oracles house and stealing the original Batgirl suit. This led to Franco conducting a 100 page dissertation on who he believed was the man who was Batman. Heading back to Arkham Asylum and gathering evidence and medical files that were stored in ‘Arkham City’  and knowing that Barbara Gordon would/is close to batman led Franco to become completely obsessed once again.

Talking to the only man still alive that Franco believed he knew the true identity of Batman, Franco teamed up with the Riddler in committing couple of crimes here and there. For each successful crime committed, the Riddler presented Franco with a new riddle. Eventually the riddles spelt out the name Ashley Cohen, the name of one of the young interns that Franco accidently shot. In blind rage the Collector punched the Riddler square in the jaw, completely shattering it.  Whilst still screaming in pain, the Collector stripped Nigma of his suit, mask, hat and custom made cane. Claiming that this trophy wouldn’t be close to the main attraction of his display, the Riddler shot Franco in the leg causing a distinct limp that remained with Franco throughout his life. Removing the bullet himself, Franco vowed that he would kill The Riddler with the exact same bullet that pierced his leg.

The war of the crime underworld raged on between The Riddler and The Penguin, Franco created an artificial aid to help him walk and run properly. Now with The Messiah and The Collector fighting each other within Franco’s head, he adopted a whole new persona known as the Grim Reaper.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

So I know that this film has been out for ages and that most of the world has probably seen it by the time you read this but hey ho, I’m going to tell you my views anyway.

Obviously there was an extreme amount of buzz about this film when it was first announced that it was hitting the silver screen. Honestly I was a bit sceptical about how good the Dark Knight Rises could actually be seeing how successful the Dark Knight was. The Dark Knight also had, in my opinion, the greatest comic book villain ever, The Joker who was played to perfection by the late Heath Ledger. The character as well as the whole film was done so well that I struggled to see how the Dark Knight Rises could even come close to it. I was also a bit worried about how Bane was going to be portrayed since he was not the Venom fuelled thug that has been portrayed in the comics over the years. Well luckily all of my scepticisms went away as soon as the lights in the cinema dimmed.

As we find Bruce Wayne locked inside his house since the death of his love Rachel in the Dark Knight, Selina Kyle enters the fray, in my opinion played perfectly by Anne Hathaway (who also looked great in the outfit).  Selina acts as a nervous waitress taking up food for Wayne and then it also goes within a blink of an eye as she is caught with Bruce’s mother’s stolen pearls. Within an instant the sexy,
self-confident Catwoman that we all know and love appears. Just like with the comics and Arkham City (game) she dabbles on the fence between foe and enemy. As a fan and a viewer you feel betrayed when she sets Batman up to face Bane but you can’t help but feel sorry for her as she is just trying to create a new life for herself and her little sister. As you are watching you are a lot more interested in Catwoman as a normal person rather than a Batman enemy as  I found myself actually routing for her when she carries out the various jobs in order to get a clean slate away from Bane.

Talking of Bane, Tom hardy played an incredible part as the intellectual yet extremely muscular villain that ends up breaking Batman’s back, just like in the comics. I don’t know about other people but it actually pleased the nerd inside me. Christopher Nolan made sure that Bane was not just muscle but had a history of how he came to be. The only thing that I was a little disappointed in Bane was the fact that his use of Venom had been replaced for a fix of painkillers which help him survive. The whole reason Bane is such a dangerous enemy of Batman is that he uses the Venom to become a nearly unstoppable monster. I guess the reason that they didn’t use Venom is probably to do with the fact that Nolan wanted to create a more realistic character which people would actually believe in and be scared of him.

Throughout the whole film there are tense moments, twists and turns and just plain epic scenes. I was actually scared for the life of Batman when he carried off that nuclear bomb off out of Gotham city. Knowing that there wasn’t going to be another Dark Knight film I truly thought that Bruce Wayne had finally given everything to the people of Gotham in order to save them.  The film also raises a lot of emotions within you whilst watching as in parts you feel sad like Alfred leaving Bruce and the ‘death’ of Batman, Anger ,When Selina Kyle betrays Batman which eventually leads to his back being broken and just pure shock with the revealing that Talia Al Guhl has been helping calling all of the shots.

Like mentioned earlier, Christopher Nolan has done an amazing job at mixing tension and emotion with epic fight scenes like when Batman and the police face-off against Bane and his army.  The scale of all the amazing effects as well as the not over acted fight scenes adds a massive sense of realism to the film making you think that the two sides have actually band together in an attempt to fight the other.

Overall I think that this film is only second to Dark Knight but that has nothing to do with the directing, acting and writing of The Dark Knight Rises but simply to do with the fact that Heath Ledger played an amazing role as the Joker which I personally think that it can never be topped.

Keep Calm....

What happened to the Riddler?

Before the final Christopher Nolan film of the trilogy was announced there were many speculations that The Riddler was going to play the main protagonist in the Dark Knight Rises. Mock up posters were made and posted all over the internet and rumours that Johnny Depp was going to be cast as the genius villain.  Don’t get me wrong Bane was an awesome villain to choose and his story interweaved brilliantly with the Batman begins but I can’t help but wonder that The Riddler would have been a more popular choice and someone that more people would know of. Think about it, in Batman and Robin Bane was just used as muscle for Poison Ivy and was introduced to the audience as an idiot. Don’t get me wrong, Tom Hardy and Christopher Nolan did an amazing job in bringing the Bane character to the big screen and portraying him as a smart, dangerous serial killer who also has a soft side with his love for Talia al Guhl.

Like I mentioned earlier Bane’s story, as well as the whole of the Dark Knight Rises film, is extremely well linked to Batman Begins with Bane being trained in the League of Shadows (the same place Bruce Wayne got his training) as well as Raz Al Guhl’s daughter Talia being bought in as well as a small bit from Liam Neeson himself reviving his role from the first film.  I just believe that the Riddler would provide more of an intellectual problem to Batman rather than a physical one. It would not have to be linked to any of the films beforehand such as The Dark Knight didn’t really have much of a link to Batman Begins (other than the joker card handed to Batman at the very end of the first film).

Obviously this will never happen now since Nolan as ended on an incredible high with the Dark Knight trilogy but perhaps it could happen in another potential film that all of us fans want. Maybe The Riddler could be bought into a potential Robin/Nightwing film  (As mentioned in an earlier post)

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Possible Robin/Nightwing Film?

So as the dark knight trilogy has finally come to a very sad end there was a hint of a possible robin or night wing film with Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing as the costumed hero? The first hint is when John Blake goes to the orphanage and gives the receptionist his real first name which is Robin. As the receptionist says that it is a really nice name it gives us fans a little twinge hoping for a new film to be in the works.

The second big hint is that at the end of the Dark Knight Rises, when Blake is given coordinates to the batcave as Bruce Wayne/Batman leaves Gotham city with Selina Kyle (Catwoman). There is no explanation within the film why he has gone there so potentially it is building up to a new film.

Blake's attitude towards crime and helping people, especially the boys in the orphanage (seen in the Dark Knight Rises), is very similar to Batman’s attitude, as well as the circumstances in which the two grew up (both with dead parents) which could show that he would want to carry on the legacy off the Dark Knight if Gotham needs it (which personally I hope they really do)

There are some sceptical people though who think that having a Nightwing film would be too much of a niche target audience as possibly only the hardcore comic fans would know about the story of Nightwing. I believe however that would all be explained if the film went into production.

If it does go into the works then the obvious person to be directing it would be Christopher Nolan. The man did an amazing job with the latest trilogy; far beyond the fun kind of film of Batman and Robin and Batman Forever whilst still maintain the dark edge of the Tim Burton films. We all know Nolan will deliver in making an incredible film if we hopeful fans are right.

So if this movie does happen who would you like to see as the main villain for Robin or Nightwing to thwart? Please comment below with your suggestion.

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