Remake; Reboot; Re: Perfection

Although I rarely indulge these days, in the not-too-distant past I was something of an avid gamer. I suppose for most of my generation that’s more to be expected than not, but I should be honest and upfront about the fact that, while enthusiastic, I was never very good. ‘Good’ is probably a subjective term anyway, but certainly from the point of view that I rarely, if ever, actually played a game through to completion. Notable exceptions include Mass Effect (1 & 2), Uncharted 2: Drake’s Fortune and Diablo. Just the original mind you, even though Diablo 2 probably stands as my favourite game of all time, and certainly holds the record for most number of hours clocked. Continue reading

Cash Cows – “…I’m Batman” Part 5

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It would seem that in the intervening period between this and the previous installment, the folks at Warner Bros. have illustrated better than I ever could the dependability of their Cash-Bat. On this the suits at WB and the MegaZord behemoth that is Disney/Marvel/Lucasfilm/YourChildhood seem to be in total concert, as they definitively prioritise what I hereby establish as Superheroes First Principle:

More on that in a bit. Right now? Continue reading

Cash Cows – “…I’m Batman” Part 3

Now let’s see. Where was I? Oh yeah:

National/DC always knew they were onto a good thing with this whole “Tee Vee” thing. While what has become irrevocably known as the “Adam West Show” may have been a mixed bag of quality and camp, it certainly proved there was a huge market to present the four-color heroes to the Saturday morning crowd.

First out of the stables was The Batman/Superman Hour, which, as you can probably tell, didn’t really impact the medium as a benchmark of quality. Most of note about this brief run show (’68-’69) was the fact that the highest billing went to the actor voicing Robin – the legendary Casey Kasem.

Batman/Superman paved the way, however, for the far more enduring Superfriends run from 1977 onward. This series featured not just DC’s biggest guns, but many of the second-tier heroes who would never get a look in of their own, like Hawkman, or Aquaman. Continue reading

Cash Cows – “…I’m Batman.” Part I

Do you have any idea how many men have spoken those words?

Not counting the guy who was peeing next to me in the men’s room yesterday…there’s been a lot.

While Warner Bros. may not have the most stellar track record when it comes to their rather abundant supply of comic book properties, there is a pretty solid understanding among the brass that one stands above the rest as the franchise. Since one very canny funny-book creator first put his spin on the pulp hero trope in 1939, the character of Batman has been the subject of constant film, television and comic book versions of the property. Continue reading