Whether you’ve been along for the ride for many or all of the history of DC Comics’ Dark Knight Detective or your first exposure to the Caped Crusader is the new movie The Batman, a new guide will take readers on a ride from the first issue through the latest story arcs. Catch up with Batman’s entire career, with full details of his biggest adventures and battles, his allies, loves, and array of key enemies in Batman: The Ultimate Guide, from DK Publishing. Writer Matthew K. Manning takes readers back to Bruce Wayne’s emergence from the shadows in the pages of Detective Comics in 1939, and vowed to avenge his parents’ murder and fight for justice in crime-ridden, corrupt Gotham City. This is a massive, 655-page full color volume, and a new edition of Manning’s previous work on the subject, this time with a foreword by Batman writer Tom King.
It’s one of those head-scratching things. Previews for horror movies in October for movies not arriving until around Valentine’s Day. And it happens every year. Valentine’s Day is a big time for horror, and two movies heading your way next year look like you’ll want to see them if not in the theater at least streaming once they arrive on home video. Also, this weekend is DC Fandome, an online streaming event like Disney’s annual D23 fan event (which arrives next month). If you’ve wondered where DC Comics movies have been, they’ve evidently been waiting for next year–even before the pandemic they’ve been lagging behind the Marvel movies. DC rolled out several teasers this weekend, many highlighting concept art as they make their way to their final stages of production. Each of the new movies has promise, and you’ll want to compare them to our single Marvel preview below.
Below check out trailers for two 2022 horror movies, a Marvel series coming soon, and five movies starring characters from the pages of DC Comics, beginning next year.
This week two brief videos will leave most people scratching their heads and asking, “Why bother?” The first, for The Batman, released by writer-director Matt Reeves (who we hold out hope for because he wrote and directed the great vampire love story Let Me In), is a “camera test,” which appears more like an early lighting and costume test where you can glimpse new bat actor Robert Pattinson in his batsuit. The second is from Netflix, and it’s an overly long scene of a Russian prison work detail resulting in the appearance of David Harbour as a thinner, gaunt, exhausted Jim Hopper, spoiling any surprise that the character was really killed in the final episode of the last season of Stranger Things. (C’mon, you knew he wasn’t going to be dead for long). Some will applaud one or both. Others will sneer. Where will you land? (Psst. There’s no wrong answer).
What are these things anyway? Barely teasers, the purported “camera test” for The Batman is more “trial balloon,” an intentional vehicle for starting buzz, good or bad, so potential audiences get accustomed to yet another revamp of the batsuit and actor. Literally thousands of podcasters have already manipulated the image of Pattinson in many ways to try to glean something worth discussing (not surprisingly with little to say). We already knew it takes some effort to find an artist that has drawn Bruce Wayne that in any way resembles the co-star of The Lighthouse,Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the Twilight vampire movies. And–big surprise–David Crossman and Glyn Dillon′s new costume design looks like another batsuit of the sharp-angled, action figure toy variety (toys = sales = more $) instead of something out of the comics pages. And current movie go-to composer Michael Giacchino offers another repeated bass line with drum set in the background to back it all up. Our wish? We just want Warner Bros. to finally get the voice of Batman right and skip that goofy, dry, smoker voice and coughed-out dialogue. Let’s hear him say, “I’m Batman.”
The Stranger Things video is out there to whet appetites of fans who won’t see the series return for another year. But did the fans need to know Hopper wasn’t dead before the fourth season was ready to go? Here’s an idea: If you’re going to cast against type, as they’ve done for The Batman, why not really have some fun and give us David Harbour as Batman? Sure, Harbour is playing a Russian superhero in the summer Black Widow movie from Marvel Comics, but audiences won’t care. Let’s really have some fun. Or give Pattinson the role of a superhero he really looks like: Wolverine. They need a new younger actor for the role in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe, right?
Oh, well. Watch–or don’t–you’re not missing much! Here are the two brief, too-brief videos for The Batman and Stranger Things:
