Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Retro-Review: Batman/Captain America #1

Review: First things first, this comic is a DC Elseworlds tale, which means this is a one-off story, and that it isn't in continuity for any of the characters. We start off in Gotham City in Jan. 1945 with Batman and Robin chasing after the Joker. The Joker manages to give the Dynamic Duo the slip, but upon searching the Joker's car, Bats finds some traces of plutonium. Meanwhile in Europe, Captain America and Bucky are called back to the States for some sort of top secret mission. As they are flying into Gotham, Cap and Bucky spot a plane being hijacked and Cap hops out of his plane to try to stop the hijacking. Things look bleak for Cap as he is nearly thrown from the plane thanks to the high winds, as well as a gunman shooting at him from aboard the plane. Luckily, Batman arrives in the Batplane and pulls Cap to safety, and the two heroes board the plane and trounce the hijackers. It seems that the hijackers took that plane on the orders of the Joker, because Robert Oppenheimer of the “Gotham Project” was on-board... If you can't see where this story is going by this point, you should turn in your comic book fan card right now! Cap and Bats say goodbye to each other and Cap heads to the Army Intelligence building where he is told by his higher ups that the Joker had been targeting items from the Gotham Project, and that they suspected Bruce Wayne was in cahoots with Joker since he had access to some sensitive information due to the fact that he was funding many Army projects. With that, Cap(in his civilian identity of Private Steve Rogers)is sent to “protect” Bruce Wayne, while secretly trying to discover whether or not Bruce was a traitor. After two uneventful days, Steve happens to catch the tale end of a conversation between Bruce and his ward Dick Grayson(Robin)in which they mention meeting the Joker, which leads to Steve believing that Bruce was indeed working with Joker. Later that night, Bruce slips out of Wayne Manor and heads to one of his office buildings, where he is confronted by Steve. The two fight and after stalemating each other, realize who the other man actually was. Now understanding why Bruce Wayne was interested in meeting the Joker, the two heroes head to the Batcave to share notes. While this is going on, the Joker hits an army convoy and steals an atomic bomb for his mystery benefactor, the Red Skull. Cap and Robin head to Commissioner Gordon to answer the Bat-signal, where they get news of the Joker's latest crime, while Batman and Bucky stay behind awaiting the Bat-computer as it figures out where the Joker was most likely hiding. After getting a hit from the computer, Bats and Bucky head to an abandoned warehouse where they are jumped and defeated by the Red Skull and his minions. The Skull puts them in a deathtrap and leaves to go meet up with the Joker in order to get the atomic bomb. Bats and Bucky manage to break free of the deathtrap, and rendezvous with Cap and Robin. The four heroes get on-board the Batplane and after Cap deduces that the Skull was probably planning on dropping the bomb on Washington DC, the heroes fly towards the nearest airfield. At the airfield, the Joker meets the Skull and hands over the bomb, but upon realizing the Skull was a Nazi, tries to renege on the deal. Huh, who knew the Joker was secretly a patriot... The Skull's men knock out the Joker, and the Skull loads the Joker and the bomb onto the plane before taking off. The Batplane manages to catch up to the Skull's aircraft and Bats and Cap get on-board while Bucky and Robin are forced to pull away. The heroes fight through a horde of Nazis, however they realize that the Skull had managed to lock himself in the bomb bay with the bomb, and has managed to jam the bomb door open. Bats and Cap try to get the plane over the Atlantic Ocean and away from the US, while the Skull decides to just drop the bomb wherever they were, figuring that even if it wasn't a direct hit on Washington, the fallout from the bomb would still wreak great havoc. Before the Skull can drop the bomb though, he is attacked by the Joker, buying the heroes enough time to get the plane's deadly payload well out into the Atlantic. The Joker and Skull fight each other and eventually fall out of the plane, along with the bomb, which detonates harmlessly in the ocean. With that, the heroes return to the mainland and wish each other well. This issue ends with an epilogue from 20 years later where Batman(now Dick Grayson)and Robin(Bruce Wayne Jr.)find the frozen body of Captain America and bring him back to life, much like what happened in the Marvel Universe.

Thoughts: All in all, I enjoyed reading this comic. There were a few things that bugged me, such as the way Cap, and especially Bucky, seemed to be kind of inferior to Bats and Robin, and the Joker's strange patriotism, but this story wasn't that bad. Once the “Gotham Project” and Oppenheimer were brought into the story, it became pretty clear what the Joker was trying to do, and who he was working for, but the story was engaging enough for me to have been able to enjoy the comic regardless. There were a bunch of nice little touches, like Cap meeting Commissioner Gordon and Batman and Bucky facing the Red Skull that made this a fun little read for a fan of both Cap(and Bucky)and Batman(and Robin)such as myself. The end kind of gave me a bit of a chuckle, with Dick Grayson serving as Batman, with Bruce Wayne's son serving as Robin... Hmm, where have I seen that before? Anyway, while not as good as the Green Lantern/Silver Surfer x-over, this was an enjoyable trip back to the Golden Age of Batman and Captain America.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.I'd really like to see a team-up between these two characters now.

59 comments:

  1. I gotta say, the idea that Joker is insane as hell but still decides he loves the US of A is so great. "Oh Batsy, I'm just CRAZY about Old Glory!" See... I could write for Joker...Lol

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  2. "See... I could write for Joker" I never doubted it for a second...

    "I'm just CRAZY about Old Glory!" UGH! It's so bad it's awesome! :P

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  3. Lol exactly, that's how ya gotta write Joker. Well like that, or a mystery solving grave digger...or a guy with a bullet hole in his head and a serpent's tongue...

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  4. " Well like that, or a mystery solving grave digger...or a guy with a bullet hole in his head and a serpent's tongue..." *Looks back and forth* No comment...

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  5. Haha, that's ya boy Grant Morrison! He can write the X-Men, but he writes Batman like some stuff you'd read at Dark Horse....

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  6. Well, I STILL say Grant is better than that tool GEOFFY Johns! So there! :P

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  7. And I say GEOFF is insane! So there! :P

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  8. Wait, that both me and Chairman Johns are insane? I'd also agree with that! :D

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  9. Lol @ Chairman Johns. I don't know whose crazier, you two, Vince McMahon or Crazy Grant!

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  10. Hmm......... Even though Crazy Grant actually HAS Crazy in his name, I might give the nod to Vince... There's just TOO much crazy he's been involved with!

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  11. Haha, yeah, and he is the only one that was blown up, via limo. Damn you Paul London! I still love how goofy and guilty he looked.

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  12. But faked the limo explosion for some reason... Yeah, London's smile, and Vince's double-take at it was the BEST thing about that entire angle... I still laugh at the look Vince gives him...

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  13. Haha, I think they only ended that due to the Benoit stuff, but then the Titan Tron fell on Vince... which was also hilarious. Man, Vince has horrible luck,eh? Lol

    Haha, that look was great. A bearded London with the biggest damn smile, looking like a Cheshire Cat.

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  14. Yep, that's exactly why that angle was scrapped. I think I read at the time that he had faked his death to sniff out a gold digger in his family(and I think the gold digger was gonna be Mr. Kennedy as Vince's illegitimate son). Of course we got Hornswoggle as the illegitimate son instead, so yeah...

    I've got to watch that on Youtube again... That smile and the reaction to it was just gold!

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  15. Wow... I guess that's good considering he's in TNA now. As for that Hornswoggle thing... that was SO annoying. At least make it someone worthwhile. Goddamn you WWE writers.... and Hornswooggle, for making the Cruiserweight title a joke.

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  16. The Hornswoggle thing was one of those things that led to me losing interest... I mean just about ANYBODY would have been better than that! Once the initial laugh is over, the story was dead... ANYBODY else would have at least given the story some legs. But Hornswoggle?! Ugh.

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  17. Exactly, I could easily see why anyone would stop watching after that crap. And it helped no one, not him, not Vince, not Finlay, not JBL, everything about that storyline sucked. Imagine if Jericho was Vince's son. Imagine how much heat Jericho would've been able to get from that! I could see him calling Vince "Daddy" just to gather MORE heat. And he could make that just as good if he was a face and like a foil to Vince's plans.

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  18. Oh man... You KNOW Jericho would be like the most obnoxious "son" ever too! I could SO see him standing in the ring with Vince, saying "Daddy"! Like I said though, Anybody would have been better than Hornswoggle! Hell, Mark Henry would have been better! :P That's one of those things that it would have been better had they just scrapped the whole plan... I mean who the HELL on the writing crew thought that was a good idea?!

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  19. Exactly. The worst part was it went on so long and then the payoff was THAT crap. I mean... really?! If you're gonna make us sit through all that bull, at least make the payoff worth it, ya know?

    Random but I played Red Dead earlier and caught one of the Apocalypse Horses, I had good ol Pestilence. That sumbitch is faster than Saint Barry Allen on a bender.

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  20. Exactly! If you're going to stretch that storyline out for so long then at least have a decent payoff! I wonder how many different people they came up with before they finally went with Hornswoggle... Probably half the roster!

    See, I'd want Death... Now THAT should be an awesome horse!

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  21. I want War, when you run over people with him they catch on fire. I hear you get Death near the end and when zombies come too close to him their heads explode... now thats AWESOME.

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  22. Yeah, Pestilence and Famine are fine and all, but come on, who doesn't wnat to ride horses called War or Death?! Hell, if I owned a horse I'D name them War or Death! :D

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  23. Lol I'd name my horse Warren... Warren Peace. Ho yeah!!!!

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  24. :/ That's close to Jason Man, JT. Congratulations... I guess... :D

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  25. Lmao, screw you, I stole that from a movie, so blame them. :P

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  26. HA!!!! Well, the lesson here is to steal better material next time! :D

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  27. Lmmfao... I hate you so much X. Oh and I beat that Undead Nightmare, and I had death and was exploding zombie heads. It was the shiznit.

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  28. "I hate you so much X." No you don't. You love me. ;-)

    Sweet. Did you get War, and if you did, what did War do? I'm still playing Borderlands, which is about 500% better than I suspected it was. I mean I've sunk like 8-10 hours a day into that game for like a week now! And I STILL haven't beat it! AND I can't wait to start over again as a different class!

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  29. Lol nah, I hate you like Hank hated himself when he found out he was a New Yawker. :P

    When ya run over people with War they catch on fire which is pretty cool. Glad you're enjoying Borderlands, I couldn't get into it but you liking it is cool. I think I may stick to the games I currently have and just wait until Marc for Dragon Age II, then I'll be set for a while.

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  30. Gee, thanks JT...

    Huh, I'd have a tough time picking between War and Death... The pyromaniac inside me would probably want to ride War though.

    Dude, I very well might be playing Borderlands straight until March! So I beat the game earlier today, and I had leveled myself up so high that it wasn't a shock when I won... But after the game, you can replay the game a second time, with the character you had used, AND the enemies match your level! So I was at lv 36. The game restarted with enemies at around 36-38, making it a challenge again! That was probably my ONLY problem with DA:O... After you won, there really wasn't anything more to do with your character. I love that I can keep on playing and the opponents get tougher and tougher!

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  31. Lol, you know I love you in the least gay way possible :P

    Yeah, but they don't always die from the fire which sucks, and with Death heads just EXPLODE, so I really liked Death.

    That's a pretty awesome idea, hopefully DA:2 will add that feature cause that would be pretty awesome. I'm assuming Borderlands doesn't have a level cap?

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  32. HA! I don't think anything else needs to be said! :D

    Mmm, I see... I guess it would rule to watch the zombies burn, but yeah, instant kills would be WAAAAAY better. I guess I'd be on Death too.

    Yeah, let DA:2 keep EVERYTHING the same, except add a second playthrough and I'd be set. Nah, I think the level cap for Borderlands is 50 or 51... You can buy two expansions that raise it up to 65ish though, which is what I'll probably be doing soon, since I'm already up to lv 41.

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  33. Lol we shall leave it at that.

    Yeah, just being able to make Zombies explode is pretty awesome, plus with the exception of flames, Death can do everything the other three can.

    Couldn't agree more about DA2. I hope it lives up to the hype, and we see Morrigan. Everyone else is meh, I just want Morrigan.

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  34. Yeah dude, you've converted me. I'd switch off to Death once I could.

    A Morrigan appearance WOULD be sweet(I wuldn't mind bumping into her offspring with the Warden though), but I'd be cool with no Morrigan so long as the gameplay is near or better than the last game.

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  35. Captain Awesome and his silver tongue of persuasion strikes again!

    I'm wondering how that'll work since it's roughly the same time frame since we have a different guy. I have heard mostly everyone that's played it on gaming reviewsites say how much better the Gameplay is, and since this is Bioware, I know the RPG aspect will be amazing, so I'm not worried at all.

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  36. "silver tongue of persuasion"!? Dude, you have GOT to become a writer with stuff like that! :D THat was all sorts of awesome!

    Yeah, but doesn't the new game take place over the course of like 10 years or something? I thought I read(and trust me, I could be WAY wrong!)that the hero of this game made a name for himself fighting off the Blight and then the game carries on from there. If the game does go on for a decade or longer, maybe there could be an appearance of Morrigan and the Warden's kid... Here's hoping anyway!

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  37. Lmao well thanks X, glad you enjoy my random bursts of literary genius.

    Hm.... You may be correct, because it does follow his exploits as kind of a story from the past, but it did take place during the Blight. So theoretically Morrigan and the kid COULD show up. Damn, nice catch X.

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  38. Well those bursts of literary genius come so infrequently, I have to enjoy them while I can! :P

    Yes, I am... The Man. :D Damn, I REALLY can't wait for that game to come out...

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  39. Lol more like they happen SO frequently that they go over your head. :P

    "Yes, I am... The Man." Lmao, that made my day. So, with DA2 less than two months away now, is there anything you think you dont/wont like?

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  40. Suuuure, JT... If that makes you feel better, go with that. :D

    Hmm... The only thing that I'm worried about is that they change up the action too much. I was fine with the fighting as it was, I don't think it needed to be revamped or changed or anything. But that's always how I feel when it comes to any game I really enjoyed. I always worry that the developers will feel the need to radically change it up to make it feel fresher. Me, I just want like the same game, the same gameplay, and the same graphics, just with a new story! What about you? You afraid that it's gonna be way different or something?

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  41. It does... So I will :D Oh Yeah!

    Well I loved Mass Effect so I don't mind them using the dialogue system from that, should be interesting. The fighting style, the button was repetitive and that annoyed me first but I didn't mind as I got more immersed, so I'll welcome the change in that.

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  42. Nice come back!

    So it sounds like you're expecting the game to be 100% perfect! Let's hope!

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  43. Thanks, it only took me a few hours to come up with. :P

    Yeah, I mean it was already damn near perfect, the ability our dude is no longer mute is nothing but good news, and the combat change will hopefully be good, so yeah, It has the potential to be awesome.

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  44. HA! No surprise there! :P

    Well, we shall see in just a few short months... Hey, soon we can start the official countdown up!

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  45. You're a jerk X, ya know that? :P

    Yeah, less than two months to go. So are you getting MvC3, yay or nay?

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  46. HA!! Yes, I do know that, and yes, I'm proud of that fact. :D

    It comes out in Feb, right? Um, right now I'm gonna say possibly... I mean I doubt Borderlands is gonna last me another two months. By early Feb I'll have been playing that for over a month, and I can't imagine there'll be that much more to do with it. I'm just not sure if I want to spend $60 on a game that I'm only buying to tide me over to DA2... I guess it depends on who'd rounding out the roster on the Marvel side. As of right now, I'd say there's a 40% chance.

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  47. You should be, of all the jerks, you are the biggest jerk. :D

    Keep me updated on if ya pick it up buddy. Speaking of games, here's a article I got over at IGN with them talking about DA:II and if ya can import ya save file, about to give it a read now.

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  48. If I get it I shall fill you in, although like I said, I'm not sure I want to... IDK, as I get closer to the release date, my mind may very well change.

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  49. Oh, that article was pretty informative, and some DA:O guys will make a return which I like, I'm just hoping it's not Ogren's tiny ass or someone else I hated. I am looking forward to seeing King Alistair.

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  50. If Ogren returns, I don't know what I'll do... But it won't be good. It was bad enough he was in that damn expansion, if he's in the next game I'll be frigging PISSED! I'd actually prefer not to see any of the characters from the old game(except for Morrigan and her offspring), instead I'd just rather people mention them or tell stories about them or something like that. You know, "Hey, I heard Wynne is the leader of the mages now!" or little things like that.

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  51. I wouldn't mind if they did little mentions like that. I kinda just wanna see Alistair and Morrigan with her kid. I wouldn't mind seeing Leiliana but that's about it, everyone else was pretty sucky.

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  52. You know, I'll agree with everything you said. A quick Alistair cameo would be cool, and you KNOW I'm itching to see not just Morrigan, but her kid as well. I just wonder how/if the Warden will be mentioned... Would he still just be The Warden? Because if Morrigan is in the game with a kid, you've gotta think he's got to get some sort of mention.

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  53. He's probably the hero of Ferelden, or hell he could be the damn king depending on how you played the game. I can't wait! Man... this may be my most anxious game in a while.

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  54. I figure he(or she I guess...)wound up as the Warden Commander. I'd think that makes the most sense. Yeah, I don't preorder many games(I don't remember the last one I DID preorder!), so that should tell you how much I'm looking forward to it!

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  55. Between this, Uncharted 3 and Batman Arkham City, this is gonna be a hell of a year for video games. As well as the obligatory WWE SVR game.

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  56. Wow, Uncharted is already up to a third game? And I still want to play the first one! See, now if THAT game went on the PSN, I'd dl it in a heartbeat.

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  57. Yessir, it's scheduled for Fall 2011 just like Arkham City. I think you'd enjoy the Uncharted games, their really fun, the main character is funny and witty. It's pretty much one of the best games I've ever played.

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