My Top 5 Batman Stories

Yes. I am a Batman fanboy. He's always been one of my favorite comic characters. I can't really explain why he sticks out so much to me other than he's the world's greatest detective. He's a billionaire, expert martial artist, and a chick magnet. There's the great popcorn TV show from the past, there was the great movies from the 80's that starred Michael Keaton (followed by several crappy movies), and now we have the fantastic reboot of Batman that stars Christian Bale as the Dark Knight.

As of late I've been reading a lot of the latest DC big story arc -- the Blackest Night, which evolves around the new Black Lanterns and how they are going around terrorizing the DC universe. With this, my interest has been re-sparked and I've been re-reading some of the great Batman storylines. Well, here is my current top 5 reads. While they may not be everyone's favorites, they are mine and these are what I've been recommending to others when they ask about what good Batman stories there are.

5. Batman: The Man Who Laughs --> Any respectable Batman fan knows the story and background of his most famous arch nemesis --the Joker. Ed Brubaker re-tells the story of the very first battle between Batman and the Joker. This is Batman's first sample of Joker's crazy games, and well, he's not up to it at first and has to re-think his methods in order to defeat him. Up to this point Batman has only been battling the gangsters, thugs, and murderers. But after this there is no turning back, and this is just the beginning for what is in store for Batman and Gotham City.

4. Batman: A Death in the Family --> Jason Todd (Dick Grayson's replacement for Robin) finds out that his mother is still alive when thought to be dead for many years. Jason runs away from home to find her. The Joker steals a nuclear missile to sell to the highest bidder. In this whole mess Batman runs into both of them and during so the Joker ends up killing Jason Todd. Batman goes after Joker and in a fit of rage/revenge, comes close to killing Joker only to be stopped by ---Superman. While not many people liked Jason Todd as the new Robin this is one of the most significant moments in life of Batman/ Bruce Wayne.

3. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight --> This is one of the DC Elseworlds stories that I have grown to love over the years. It takes place during the Victorian-era Gotham City and pits Bruce/Batman against none other than Jack the Ripper. In this story Jack the Ripper continues his murder spree, but decides to move to Gotham City for fresh blood. In this book, Bruce returns from England and his timing is perfect--his arrival coincides with grisly murders within the city. With Bruce Wayne as the prime subject, time is of the essence as Bruce must not only prove his innocence, but stop the Ripper from killing more people.

2. Batman: The Long Halloween --> This story takes place during Batman's early days in his crime-fighting career. This story emphasizes Batman's ability as a Detective as he struggles to find the true identity of a serial killer--who kills his victims on National Holidays. This story also has Batman battling the mob and is one of the benchmark stories that every Batman fan should own in their collection. Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb are the masterminds behind this story (I call them the dynamic duo because they have such a fantastic history of working together) and create a legendary story that the recent movies pull a lot of inspiration from.

This was so hard for me. It was so hard to decide from 1 & 2 that each day I could pick one over the other. Next week I think I'll post a list of honorable mentions just to emphasize difficult this list was for me to compile.

1. Batman: Hush --> This book was written by Jeph Loeb (see a pattern??) and drawn by the great Jim Lee. This book flipped the Batman universe upside down and spun it around. In this year-long story, Batman begins dating Catwoman, Jason Todd's (Robin) body is found missing from his grave, Two - Face gets plastic surgery to fix his face, and ---oh yeah, fights every villain in the Batman universe. No, I'm not kidding. He starts off going toe to toe with Killer Croc, then moves onto the Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, and Superman. Yes, I freaking said Superman. And on top of all of this there is a new villain introduced, perhaps the most destructive and dangerous one yet.

Well, there it is, my top 5 Batman stories/books of all time. Let me know what you think and/or if you agree or disagree. Remember, these are just my favorites, and I plan on listing the top noteworthy mentions later this week.

Some New Stuff

AWESOME!!! I'm officially 10 days left at my internship!!! Then graduate. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job real quick like. Here's a quick update on what is going on in the nerdy Star Wars collector's world:

Summer of Suckage

So far this summer has been very un-inspiring as far as movie going goes. It started out in May with Wolverine, which to me wasn't that bad, but at the same time not so great. Then it was followed by Angels & Demons that I found very un-fulfilling in comparison to the book. Terminator: Salvation followed suit in peaking my interest, but fell on its face in the end. I really wanted to love the movie, and was 100% prepared to ignore the stupid crap in it...but I couldn't do that when I walked out of the theater. Now, I have seen the crappiest of the crap--- Transformers 2. This movie was just fucking retarded. When I view a Michael Bay movie I expect nothing but a special effects-fest with not much added to it. This movie takes that and adds 100 pounds of stupid into the mix. Between explosions around every corner, to the boring robot designs...which gets even worse when almost all of the robots look the same, to the stupid dialogue between Shia Lebouf and Megan Fox (who still looks like a total whore throughout all of the film).

Another Day, Another Dollar

I know, I know. It's been another long time since the last time I posted. I've been super busy and I guess everything non-essential got pushed to the backburners. Since the last post I've moved back to Tampa and have started working my internship at the hospital. Of course, I have been catching up on my reading...I've read the first Dexter book titled "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" that the show is based off of. The book is just as exciting as the show and of course, given the media it gives a much more thorough development of the characters and stories. Also, I finally managed to track down a copy of Daredevil Yellow that is the famous Reboot of the series by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. This book is awesome!!! Great storytelling and it really puts you into the mind of the Daredevil himself. Its great because afer reading this book I finally put it together and read the books that gave most of the inspiration for the movie. Since reading that I have ordered another book by this dynamic duo titled "Spiderman: Blue." Here's to hoping it'll be as good as Daredevil.
Some other news is that I have made a couple other preorders including the Hot Toys Marcus Wright, Billy (from Preadator), T-600 1/6 figures. Tonight I ordered the Sideshow Collectibles T-600 1:1 scale bust. The bust looks awesome and very intimidating. I'm hoping that it'll compliment the other three busts that I have and the upcoming Admiral Ackbar and Iron Man bust. I guess this is about it for now so I'll just post a couple pics of the bust before heading out.

Long Time, No Post

I know I've been promising an actual update, but I've been so busy with the semester wrapping up and getting ready to move. So here's my mini-update until I get settled in back in Tampa next week. Classes went well and I feel like I did really great, but I'm still getting really nervous about the beginning of the internship. It is good to realize that I'm at least getting paid for my time, but I'm just anxious because I feel that I don't know everything and that I should've dedicated more time to reading and learning. I have decided to write off one of my best friends...He isn't the same person I knew from 9 years ago. Since he moved up here back in 2004 he has changed entirely. He is so pessimistic and opinionated I cannot stand to be around him when he starts to open his mouth. He does nothing but sit on his ass all day long and bitch about everything. I find it humorous that he is constantly berating others, but cannot claim responsibility for his own faults and failures. For a good part of five years he has been working on finishing his Bachelor's degree since getting his Associate's degree and moving up here to Tallahassee. In that same amount of time I completely started over with school and have received my Associate's, Bachelor's and soon my Master's degree while he still claims to have "One more class" to finish and graduate. He has such a shitty outlook on life and constantly starts arguments with people just to start arguments. And when he fails his classes he concocts some ridiculous excuse about how his professor is an asshole, or his professor didn't like him, or even the most recent one that I've heard--"She's a damn socialist and I can't stand to hear her talk. So I haven't shown up to class in three weeks." Wow, that's one way to show your teacher how much you dislike them. And then completely disregards that his failing the class is his own doing. I hate to wish this upon him, but I hope that he gets kicked out of school and his father cuts him off because then he might just realize that he is the only person responsible for his position in life....Angry, miserable, and soon lonely. Well, enough venting about that, but enough is enough. I can only sympathize for someone for so long before I feel its time to move on. I'll post again in a few days because the new Hot Toys Iron Man MK II figure should be arriving shortly and I'll have to take some pictures of the new living arrangements.

More Hot Toys Goodness

Wow...so it seems Hot Toys doesn't want me to have any money. Every time I get a newsletter from them or read on the forums about their latest announcement its a grand slam. Tonight is no different. I got home from class just to find out that Hot Toys was gonna hit me below the belt with the new Cop Joker....but instead of just releasing a single figure they are starting a new line of "double" figures I guess. Essentially what this is is one figure, but with two (or more) head sculpts, costumes, and multiple hands/guns/accessories to compliment it. Now, at first I said no thanks with the Cop Joker because I already own both their previous Joker and Bank Robber Joker. Oh well, I guess it depends on the money situation when it comes time to pay. Here's some pics to show how awesome Hot Toys is making this figure:

$$$Expensive 2009 Year $$$$

So I was going through my Bento invoices while backing up my computer today and I came to the crazy realization that 2009 is already shaping up to being an expensive year for collectibles.... and its only freaking March!! I will admit that most of the items I have on order aren't coming out until the 3rd and 4th quarter, but this is the first time I've ever had this much stuff on order this early on in the year. So here's the breakdown of everything I have as of yesterday:
HOT TOYS IRON MAN MKIII

HOT TOYS TWO FACE / HARVEY DENT

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES OBI WAN KENOBI EPISODE II VERSION

HOT TOYS "DUTCH" from PREDATOR

HOT TOYS PREDATOR 1

HOT TOYS JOHN CONNOR FROM T4

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES CAPTAIN AMERICA LEGENDARY SCALE "EXCLUSIVE" BUST

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES SCOUT TROOPER PREMIUM FORMAT

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES ADMIRAL ACBAR 1:1 FULL SCALE BUST

And the worst part is that this is just the stuff I have on order. Sometimes I end up buying other stuff that I didn't order after I see pics that others post when they get them.