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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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)

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

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.

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My Batman Villain.

So for a while now I have had this idea for a new Batman villain which I wanted to share with people. I know that there is no way in which it will be commissioned as an actual villain in the comics, it's just a bit of fun.

Bio /Backstory

·         Name: Dr Jack Franco aka  The messiah

·         Height: 6foot 6inches

·         Appearance: normally-short black hair, hazel eyes, clean shaven, no tattoos, no visible scars.  Messiah- Long black hair (wig), black eyes, Tattered white mask covered in blood.

·         Clothes: White tattered mask covered in blood, black trousers, tight black top, a long, black leather jacket.

·         Weapons: metal gloves with retractable spikes which would be optional. Also  contains a hidden section on the palm of the glove which shoots out poisonous darts, shutting down the victims immune system almost instantly. The messiah also carries a staff which the tip of it is also dipped in the same poison as the poison in the darts.

Dr Jack Franco was a well-known doctor and surgeon in Gotham general, dealing with the most important cases and had a 500:0 life to death ratio which earned him a high end position on the board of directors and eventually led him to become chief of medicine. The problem arose when Franco was present on the medical team which was present on the rehabilitation of Harvey Dent/ Two-Face. As Franco was prescribing Dent with his medication, the hospital was ransacked by Hush, Black Mask and the Scarecrow. Unwilling to let Dents death ruin his perfect medical record, Franco grabbed one of the security guards gun and fired in the direction of the three villains. Inexperienced in using firearms, Franco accidently shot of his interns. Consumed by guilt for causing the death of two innocent people, Franco began to plan his revenge on the villains, becoming obsessed and on the brink of insanity in order to get his revenge.

Franco constructed a white mask and then covered some of it in his own blood (to signify the blood that was on his hands). Franco also attached a black wig to the mask and added black contact lenses so that his new alter ego bore no resemblance to the once great doctor. Now the Messiah was born to save Gotham City forever.

The messiah went on a killing spree in order to get the whereabouts of the Scarecrow. In his opinion, Franco saw the Messiah as a completely different person from himself creating a fractured mind of schizophrenia. The Messiah finally tracked down the Scarecrow to an old wood mill in which the Scarecrow was using as a base. Just as Franco was about to defeat the Scarecrow, Batman burst through the window causing an opportunity for the Scarecrow to escape. This allowed the Scarecrow to flood the mill with his fear gas. Franco saw his victims as he inhaled the gas, haunting his mind and finally pushing him over the edge of insanity. Blaming Batman for his failure to kill the Scarecrow, the Messiah went on the hunt for him as well, torturing young medical interns to lure the bat out.it worked and during the middle of a fight, The Messiah poisoned Batman with a hidden dart fired from his hand. Unfortunately for Franco, Nightwing got hold of an antidote in time preventing the poison from taking effect.

Hope you like it so far, if it gets enough views I'll post up the rest of what I have so far. please comment if you have any opinions on the stuff I wrote.

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Possible Nightwing/Robin villians

So continuing on from my previous post about a potential Nightwing or Robin movie in the works, I was thinking who would be the main villain in this film or film series? In this post i have come up with a list of potential suspects who could fill the role and pull of another great movie.

The Scarecrow
A villain that had appeared in all of the Dark Knight trilogy. He has cemented himself as being a pain in the ass for Gotham city over the years. In theory he could have another massive attack on Gotham City or Bludhaven turning everyone insane from fear and ,lets just say Nightwing, swoops in, beats the crap out of him and saves the day by coming up with an antidote from using the old Batcave. Jonathan Crane is also a master of psychology as well as fear so that could play a major part in his fight against Nightwing, psychologically bullying him, forcing Night wing to make a mistake.

Black Mask
Roman Sinosis is a big time player in the comics as his alter ego Black Mask. This would be a more suitable choice if the writers and directors wanted to bring in a new villain for the new superhero to face. Black Mask doesn't have any special powers other than the fact that he is smart so by choosing him to be the main protagonist in the film would keep the realistic feel that the Dark Knight film had. The way that this could play out is that Black Mask could be running a major gang throughout Gotham or Bludhaven, controlling the crime underworld. As Nightwing steps in as he attempts to rid the city of crime, Black Mask could go on a personal vendetta against him in an attempt to regain his control of the underworld. Black Mask could kill a number of cops to try and draw out Nightwing ( Blake would feel personally involved since he was a police officer as well)

The Riddler
Edward Nigma would be a perfect villain for any Batman related film so he would provide a great role in any Nightwing film. His genius as well as his obsession of riddles would play the perfect mind game against Nightwing. Figuring out who Nightwing truely wasand he could target people close to him, taking the hostage. Whilst trying to fight the crime underworld Nightwing would have to be faced with attempting to save the people of who he cared about. There is a chance that The Riddler wouldn't be the villain simply because he is a well known enemy of Batman, not Nightwing. Introducing someone like The Riddler to a kind of new franchise may confuse people who are not much of a follower of the comic series or those who do not know much about Batman outside of the films. It is a lot more likely that the other two mentioned before hand would be the main villain in the film but a cameo from Edward wouldn't go a miss right?

Deathstroke
A brand new villain could enter the mix who hasn't got much to do with Batman as he does with Nightwing. A master assassin, Deathstroke is the most deadly man in the DC universe, even though he is blind in one eye. His costume could be rendered to have a more realistic feel to it as opposed to the morph-suit type thing that he wears in the comics. Deathstroke is also a known villain to Nightwing as well as the rest of the Teen Titans To enter his story into the film there could be a number of assassinations which Nightwing is investigating. Beating up people as he goes it is revealed to be Deathstroke (who you get glimpses of throughout the film)

Honourable Mentions

The Ventriloquist- Schizophrenic enemy controlled by his puppet Scarface. Probably not well known enough to play the main villain in the film. Maybe a cameo like Victor Zsasz had in Batman Begins might do though

Two Face- Obviously Harvey Dent died in Dark Knight but how cool would it be if Two face controlled the remains of Gotham after the events of The Dark Knight Rises. Maybe he would get a mention as well in the film like what Bane does in the latest Batman Movie.

Firefly-Not the most well known of villains compared to some of the ones that I have mentioned but still could be a very dangerous person for Nightwing to face. http://www.rapsheet.co.uk also report that Firefly is actually an employee of Black Mask so he may be involved as like a secondary support villain.


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Bibliography
http://www.rapsheet.co.uk/rapsheetmain/Nightwing.asp

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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Batman Game Number 3

Yeah so this is my first blog, doubt anyone will read it but hey-ho.

So basically what I want to write about is whether or not there will be another Batman game to continue the Arkham series. With the death of the Joker at the end of Arkham city it seems as if the series wont carry on due to the fact that they lost the main  protagonist. Also there is no way that they will bring him back since Mark Hamill won't be voicing the Joker any more. 

So why is there any suspicion of a new game? 

Well like with Arkham Asylum hinted at Arkham City with an Easter egg in the form of blueprints, found in the secret room in the Wardens office. This hinted at the plans for the next game. 

So now with Arkham City. 

The big hint  is that there maybe a new game being planned is when you complete the 'identity theft' side mission. As Hush leaves Arkham city, he has the face of Bruce Wayne. This raises the question about what's going to happen between Bruce Wayne and Hush.

So the next piece of potential evidence. Hidden messages discovered using the cryptographic sequencer come up with number sequences. each number represents a letter and the messages spell out ' I will return Batman', 'You will pay for what you have done to me' & 'Fear will turn Gotham city to shreds'. Using other ciphers you can also come up with the word 'Scarecrow'. This shows that it is likely that the Scarecrow will return in the next game if it happens. 

My Final point for a new game is after you complete the watcher in the wings side mission. Azrael says 'Dark days are coming Batman. The prophecy is coming true.' and 'From the ashes of Arkham, the fires will rage and Gotham will burn and you will burn too', 'We will meet again'. All these things suggest that we'll see Azrael again in the next game. 

So yeah with all of this evidence you can see that it is likely that there will be a new game out, and hopefully this is true.