Artwork for “Tales of The Dark Knight” DVD release.
Concept art from Batman: The Animated Series
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Batman: The Animated Series – Gotham Under Siege Board Game Coming August 2018
Here are the other concept sketches I did for the Wootbox exclusive Batman The Animated Series t-shirt before we reached a final choice!
These are so good!
Infinity War sure was something! Very intense. Superhero genre at its finest!
Batman by Michael Cho
Mr. Freeze’s cave in the artic, and his wife, Nora Fries, from the movie “Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero” (1997)
Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero will be released on blu-ray on March 27th! It will have the same extras the DVD has, plus all the DCAU Mr. Freeze related episodes: Heart Of Ice, Deep Freeze (BTAS), Cold Confort (TNBA) and Meltdown (BB), in standard definition.
Confirmed today by Warner Archive, “Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero” is coming to blu-ray later this year!!
Art by Jerrod Maruyama
The Batman (2004) Retrospective
Over the last couple of months, I felt like rewatching The Batman, a series that ran from 2004 until 2008, as I hadn’t watched this show in a long time.
A series usually criticized as being very kid-friendly with not adult themes like Batman: The Animated Series and a focus on selling toys. Do I agree with this or not? Well, it’s complicated…
Being the first new incarnation of Batman outside the DCAU, it was going to suffer the comparisons no matter what. While the show does take some cues and inspiration from BTAS, what I give them huge points for is making a completely fresh take on Batman, the villains and Gotham instead of a rehash of what came before. However it also mantained the classic style of Batman story telling.
Mainly what was new and fresh were the character designs and personalities. The Joker was a shocking change, and honestly his character became a bit annoying, specially since he was so heavily featured in all 5 seasons. Same thing happened with the Penguin but to a lesser extent.
Season 1 has the job to introduce us to this world and it does it perfectly. Some episodes work better than others, and the arc of GCPD vs The Batman reaches a superb climax in the Clayface two parter season finale. That’s where the show proved it was serious stuff.
Season 2 basically continued the S1 trend, but with now Yin as Batman’s secret partner. “Meltdown” and “Strange Minds” both were the strongest points of the season. The season ends with Batman being accepted by the police because of James Gordon stepping into the picture, and while that was a welcolmed classic character introduction, it feels a bit of a waste that Chief Rojas and specially Ellen Yin were never seen again.
With those changes, Season 3 feels like a soft reboot of the show of some sorts. I loved as a change that Batgirl was introduced first this time around (forced by Robin not being able to be used since he was in TT). I liked her very much, her dynamic with Batman and her arc of going from amateur crime fighter to an official sidekick. My favorite episodes were probably guilty pleasure “RPM” and the season finale “Gotham’s Ultimate Criminal Mastermind” which cemented Hugo Strange as a force to reckon with in this show.
Season 4 was, not surprisingly for anyone, the highlight of the series. Every episode was very strong and showed more attention to story telling and plot devices. Even if “A Matter Of Family” basically feels like a retelling of “Robin’s Reckoning” it still packs a huge emotional punch and sets the tone for the season. Every episode in the season is excellent (this was the season I went through the fastest) and I could mention a lot about every episode, so instead I’ll go with my least favorite which was “Two of a Kind”. Not bad at all, just my least favorite. But if I have to name a few, “Artifacts”, “Seconds” and “Riddler’s Revenge” sure take the Top 3 with really great stories, twists and emotions.
Season 5 I can compare a bit with the last season of JLU, where the show already gave all it had and the just had fun with itself, specially using the JL members to play with. Still, it has great moments. And a great one off with “White Heat”, giving Firefly a step up in the characterization department.
Overall, I feel like this series is a fast food Batman. Very fun and stunning to watch, great action more than anything, great focus on the tech side of Batman (the Bat Wave is awesome!) and a series long arc for Batman going from loner to having sidekicks, to JL member. It had a clear high point in season 4 but its still a pretty entertaining show to watch.