‘Batman vs. Two-Face’ (review) at FORCES OF GEEK

Adam West’s final film puts him back in the cowl facing off against ’60s television hero William Shatner in Batman vs. Two-Face.

With co-star Burt Ward by his side, West and company reunite with other cast members of the ’66 series, most notably Julie Newmar as Catwoman and an appearance by Lee Meriwether as Lucilee Diamond.

Shatner plays a Batman ’66 version of Harvey Dent / Two-Face, a character that unusually never appeared in the show. The Dynamic Duo faces the entirety of Gotham’s rogue gallery that includes Hugo Strange, The Joker, The Riddler, Penguin and even King Tut and this reviewer’s personal favorite, Bookworm.

The story kicks off with Strange and assistant Harley Quinn extracting evil from all of Gotham’s bad guys.

When the machine goes Ka-Blam!, the essence wipes out star district attorney Harvey Dent and transforms him into Two-Face.

Batman and Bruce Wayne are naturally disturbed by this turn of events. Wayne uses his resources to restore Dent’s face to its natural look, but the evil Two-Face could very well be lurking below the visage.

The pace and tempo of West’s dialogue, long ingrained into our collective consciousness, is slapped right up against Shatner’s staccato delivery, making you wonder if we haven’t been missing Shatner in the Batman Universe for our entire lives!

In 2014, “The Two-Way Crimes of Two-Face,” an episode written by sci-fi and Star Trek writer Harlan Ellison was released in comic book form from Len Wein (RIP) and artist José Luis Garcia-Lopez as Batman ’66: The Lost Episode #1. After seeing these pages, we’d love to build a time machine and persuade the network to make this happen with William Shatner in the role.

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Triple Shot With a Digital Chaser: SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #19, S.H.O.O.T. FIRST #1, BATMAN AND TWO-FACE #24 plus CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD

Parker gets fired in Superior Spider-Man (surprise, surprise), a team of atheists are charged with facing the occult in S.H.O.O.T. First #1 from Dark Horse, and the New 52 Origin of Two-Face has just begun in the Batman and… series.

Hang out with your boss Skullcrusher on Chiron Beta Prime with Greg Pak and JoCo with Code Monkey Save World, only available on ComiXology.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #19
WRITER: Dan Slott
ART: Ryan Stegman
Publication Date: October 16, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
UPC: 75960607912401911
Buy it HERE

Slott really jacks up the action and resolves more than one hanging plotline, referencing his Amazing Spider-Man run and looking forward to2099 in the latest issue of Superior Spider-Man.  Things are looking like they are coming to a head as Octavius finds himself unemployed and Horizon Labs takes to the sea. Spoiler warning for those that want to catch up in trade, as this issue resolved some major beats!

Michael O’Mara, Spider-Man of 2099 is in the present day as a result of Tiberius Stone mucking about in the Marvel timeline — a common theme this year that we’re hoping will continue as past and future versions of heroes mix with the current day.

Horizon Labs is rigged to explode and all future time will diminish if our Superior Spidey fails to solve an equation—an equation only Peter Parker knows how to formulate! Otto fudges it, saves the day but not Horizon, which is imploded and destroyed.

In the end here are the major points: Parker’s fired from Horizon, O’Mara is now stuck in 2013, Horizon is not allowed to re-open and someone very close to Spider-Man is now on the case of a connection between Superior Spidey and Doc Ock. Can the end be near? Where’s Peter? Gone forever?

The amazing and spectacular team of Ryan Stegman and the masterful Doctor Who time bending make this issue a BIG TIME deal. How long are we with Superior? I have a feeling the payoff and the buildup will continue to impress as Slott keeps us guessing and wanting more.

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Costumes

80sTees.com, Inc.

NYCC - BATMAN PANEL Report at FORCES OF GEE

For those not in attendance or watching the live stream, yesterday’s Batpanel was chock full of Spoilers (see what we did there?), updates, praise for fan enthusiasm and announcements.

John Cunningham (VP Marketing, DC Comics) introduced an all star family of writers including Batman: Eternal showrunner Scott Snyder and the artist Greg Capullo to a room full of eager fans and classic Jokers at the Javitz Center.  Introduced were James Tynion IV, Marc Andreyko, Ann Nocenti, John Layman and Peter Tomasi.

Cunningham started off by thanking all for supporting the books but also for supporting the We Can Be Heroes fundraising campaign, raising more that $2 million last year. He also announced a new video podcast from DC, DC All Access, which will show an insider’s view into the DC offices and announce upcoming projects.

First up, Bat-wise was the introduction of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo to talk about current Zero Year issues and what we can expect in the days to come. The 64 page introduction of the New 52 origin hit shelves earlier this week, and Capullo’s redesigned Batman costume debut is an outstanding reference to Detective Comics #27.

Snyder admits that initially he wanted to keep all aspects of Batman: Year One as the origin story for Batman, but later fretted that with the changes of the New 52, Year One doesn’t exactly fit. Both Scott and Greg have had high anxiety about delivering and changing the right Batman origin and are expressed gratitude for the fan’s enthusiasm for what they have done with the book.

Batman: Zero Year deliberately references all things Batman, including the aforementioned Detective Comics cover, Batman: The Animated Series and beats from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One.

Issue #25 pages were revealed exclusively at the Con as well as the three part over arching chapters of Year Zero, to be spread in total over 11 issues. The three parts of the story are Secret City, Dark City and Wild City.

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