Monday, February 26, 2018

Thursday, February 22, 2018

T’cha- La LAAAAAA!

It’s pretty telling about the quality of Marvel superhero films that an opening night viewing of a character I don’t follow in the comics at all was a “must see” event for my daughter and I.

Take Batman, James Bond, Mortal Kombat, and The Lion King, stir in a generous helping of excellent writing, great acting, stellar visuals and general awesome- then put the whole thing in a blender, set it on Kirby, and you’ve got Black Panther.

Monday, February 19, 2018

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Batman Through a Kid’s Eyes 2


It took a while to get Anabelle to watch these, because, as I predicted, one of the key legacies of this saga is Bale’s goofy voice. Whenever I brought them up, she and her Mother would growl, “Get in duh carrr,” and laugh.  Referencing Scarecrow, the Joker and Catwoman peaked her interest and the quality of the movies pushed us through the viewing very quickly.

Batman Begins
2005

Monday, February 12, 2018

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Batman Through a Kid’s Eyes 1

I realize that I’m starting to stretch the definition of “kid’s” as time passes.

Yet, the intent is the same- seeing how someone unconnected to the time and culture of something’s original release reacts to it independently of its historical context.

Unsurprisingly, my daughter knows Batman in many forms. A great deal of this knowledge came from growing up with me, living in a house with Bat-information books and playing with Action Figures her whole life.

The key source of her knowledge about “real Batman” probably came when we watched the animated Justice League and JLU series twice together. (not counting the later episodes that originally aired when she was teeny)  Plus she’s seen a bunch of Adam West and Batman the Animated Series episodes.  She’s seen all of Batman: Brave and Bold and Young Justice as well, and the near perfect (in some aspects) Lego Batman Movie.

As far as actual comic book stories, she’s read a bit of regular Batman, all of Tiny Titans, Young Justice and Johns's run on Teen Titans.  Batman wasn’t the star of those books, but you can learn a lot about someone by how others see them.

She also read through all of Gaiman’s Sandman and related books at lightning speed last summer.
That’s got nothing to do with Batman (minus a cameo) but was too cool not to mention.

The point is, she knows the character in several of the universes he inhabits.

It was interesting to see her reaction to the different live action versions, many of which were believed to be definitive at the time.

Batman
1989


Thursday, February 1, 2018

Moving Up a Level

It’s been seven years since I started this exercise in writing ridiculousness, and for the past four, I’ve used this time of year to heap piles of compliments on Danceworks at the end of Moving Company season.

Why stop a good thing?