Punchinello

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Things have been quiet lately

By Punchinello 0 Comments

Not that I'm complaining; just been purchasing more comics, some new Ultra Pro sleeves for the comics that aren't worth the Mill Cases.

Contemplating on if it's worth signing up on a comic site where you can have a comic masters list. I'm getting sick of forgetting any recent additions to my collection; then weeks later having to add fifty or so titles, missing some on occasion, and.. you know. Still thinking about it, though.

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Orders, orders

By Punchinello 0 Comments

Many things have arrived during the course of the past week or so. I really need to clean out my collection again to make room for the better titles.

Batman #186
Batman #267
Batman #294
Detective Comics presents Batman & Batgirl #388
Batman Family Giant #6

Batman Elseworlds: The Knight Gallery - The design journal of Bruce Wayne
Harley Quinn #15
Prestige Format: Batgirl/The Joker
The Batman Adventures: Holiday Special #1
The Batman Adventures #28
The Batman Gotham Adventures #14

The Dark Knight Novelization paperback
Birds of Prey #120
Batman & Robin #5
Batman: Room Full of Strangers
Batman: No Man's Land #1
Gotham City Secret Files and Origins: No Man's Land
The Joker's Last Laugh Secret Files & Origins

And that's just the top of the list =D

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The Dark Knight; #2!

By Punchinello 0 Comments

Watched The Dark Knight again last Friday, going for a third time sometime next week.

Did anyone else catch Heath's Cameo; or as I presume, a Joker 'cameo' in Bruce Wayne's restaurant? I believe it's more likely a reference to an early Batman/Joker comic.

Which version of the film did anyone see? As it is now, there's... two, I think. I've seen two different endings, so far. And an American friend confirmed she's only seen ONE version, so there's apparently two endings!

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The Dark Knight - my review. SPOILERS.

By Punchinello 0 Comments


The film's length: shorter than I expected. =( I didn't eat anything but one handful of popcorn because it'll distract me from the film, so I don't advise you pig out on coke or anything that might make you need to take a bathroom break. Or make noise during the film.

The film's plot: Pretty much what Nolan said, directly based on and borrowed snippets from the graphic novel THE LONG HALLOWEEN. If you read it, it'll somewhat distort the film, since in the graphic novel the mob tries to assassinate Harvey Dent and his wife. You're led to believe that they did the job, until near the end when Harvey Dent pops out of the woodwork, hay guyz I'm still alive it was all a ruse so we could hatch a scheme to arrest you!

Instead, in the film they switched it to Detective Gordon. Nice twist since it would have been predictable and cliche for Harvey Dent to be 'bumped off' by the mafia but turns out Batman and the GCPD saw that coming so they staged Dent's death. But reading the novel beforehand 'distorts' that plot point, if you get my meaning.

Acting. Fucking superb acting. Heatho deserves his Oscar. Ackhart was fucking awesome as Dent and Two-Face. Batman could have been a tad bit better, he seemed somewhat... 'tired' during some of the scenes. Like how people described Ford in the new Indiana as 'tired' and 'not too enthusiastic'. It did not impair the film in anyway, for Bale, but he's just not as 'in your face/Whoosh!I'mBatman!' like in Batman Begins.

However, whoever did the film editing (presuming it's Nolan, considering what he said about Heatho during his interview on Heatho's passing, 'everytime I see him on the screen in the editing room') should be shot.

80% of the footage in the leaked clips, TV spots, trailers, and interviews, plus photos on The Joker's website (A taste for the theatrical.com) do not occur at all in the film. This is very disappointing and depressing.

The remaining percentage of the footage, such as 'You've got a bit of fight in ya, I like that' and 'It's simple. Kill the Batman.' have been replaced with completely new take of those scenes. Thankfully, footage such as 'Hellooouu, bee-you-ti-ful!' and 'Aw, what a poor choice of words!' remain as is!

Heatho's portrayal of The Joker is fucking brilliant. Top notch. Epic. Gone beyond what the hype was.. er, hyping on about. I noted all of the references he made to the early comics on The Joker, plus pivotal later ones such as The Killing Joke, The Laughing Fish, and The Joker's Five Way Revenge; plus presumably Secrets and Arkham Asylum: A serious House on a serious Earth.

From his first dialogue of 'Ho, ha! ho ho ha ha ho HA!', which I think is one of his best lines in the entire movie; a homage to The Joker's infamous trademarked laugh of 'ho ha ha ho!' that eventually got forgotten about in the later comics from the 50's and onwards.

To his last monologue about anarchy, chaos, how Batman and himself mirror the perfect chemistry of a relationship that's best suited in Arkham Asylum because Batman is 'just a freak' and he'll have to accept his new transformation. Heatho played The Joker perfectly.

Some of my favourite moments and lines of dialogue is when Heatho's Joker was explaining to his new thugs about how the game is played, complete with mocking pantomime gestures, 'aggressive... EX-PANSION!'; to when he emptied a glass of champagne before drinking it, and to finally the interrogation scene with Batman. Plus! The two video-tape monologues with the Fake Batman wannabe and the cop hostage. 'Why are you wearing this for?', and all that. Much love <3 Every time he's on the screen, is just pure bliss. He pwns the whole film.

I think my favourite line, though, is when he's trying to push the interrogation!guard's buttons, stating that he had only killed six of his closest friends, and when the cop was trying his best to ignore him, he was finally pushed over the edge when Joker simply mouthed the words 'Only six???'

That, and Joker dressing up as a female nurse is a very close second.

Heatho played Joker as who he is in the comics: blasé, reckless, jubilant, intimidating, threatening, behaving like everything's okay and dandy but it's not really funny and he wants you to know it, he'd love to hang around and just chat/play with the mafia and others but a job needs to be done, everybody has to 'get the joke', and trying to break Batman's one rule: killing someone.

His mannerisms for The Joker is spot on. Hunched shoulders, rolling his eyes back all the time, fidgeting, climbing his stack of money and sliding down it like a kid in the playground, the infamous Magic Pen Trick, om nom noming on the hors d'œuvres, preening, emptying the champagne glass, constantly licking his scars, and sulking in the interrogation room. All perfect.

It's disappointing and somewhat depressing, however, that his Joker did not make any passes towards Batman (one of the 'compulsory' aspects of the original -and- new Joker characteristics). The same goes with affectionate gestures and nicknames such as the always classic 'Batsy' and 'Cupcake'. Even the simple 'Bats' and 'Dork Knight' are missing. He refers to Batman in the Jokerized trailer as party pooper, mama's boy, his hero, etc; but they're all absent from the film itself. At least Joker humoured Batman, saying 'you complete me!'. It would have been more of a ...typical 'Hollywood' villain versus the hero relationship if that climax monologue didn't happen, or the other scenes where he's obsessed with Batman, "I can't kill you! Where would I have any fun?', and 'I'm like a dog chasing a car- but if I catch it, I don't know what to do with it!!!'

For the random record, Joker does say 'fuck'. He mouths it when Batman intentionally swerves to miss him on the bat-pod. Joker skipping afterwards to Batman's body is made of pure win. His 'doo-dee-doo-doo-dee-doo!' tune was brilliant, as if he couldn't remember what the tune was, so he was making it up as he went along.

Regarding the film editing and Joker's screentime; Nolan shouldn't have cut out those pivotal scenes where Joker is playing with his switchblade and walking down the street. With everything he cut out, I'm surprised he kept in the 'Come on, hit me!!' scene after all of the 'we'll cut this and that and this..'

Every time Joker is on the screen is constructive, pivotal, awesome, hilarious, threatening, awesome again, classic, a fucking legend, awesome some more, blah blah. But thinking about it now, I've noticed that every scene is The Joker 'ordering everyone around'. You never see the character in a relaxed mood or a 'off duty' mode. The closest thing you get to is when he's video-taping himself and the two hostages, because no one else is around. I'm very disappointed that the photo/scene of Joker clapping in the backseat of his clown car with his thugs is not in it =( You don't get to see how he is when he's not stabbing someone, or pretty much telling everyone he's got a death wish.

I don't know if Nolan and his crew cut those scenes out (if there were any) because it made the film 'drag on', but there is definitely the atmosphere of 'something is missing' from the film; some scenes jump from one to another, and you feel like a big chunk got cut out because of time issues, thus drawing out the unforeseen complication of losing something in the translation/message of the storyline.

Now, let's talk about the ending.

Two-Face dies. Apparently. It's somewhat vague. He gets tackled off a building floor by Batman and goes splat on the ground level. But he does not break his neck or go SPLAT. Nobody goes 'OH MY GOD HE'S DEAD'. It just switches to Commissioner Gordon, at a podium, talking about how Harvey Dent will be remembered as a hero, a white knight, blah blah. However! He does NOT mention his passing, his death, or anything. He's very vague, and it can be taken as  they are trying to cover up the fact that he went nuts and became Two-Face; so his followers and Gotham City wouldn't crumble at the realization that their 'white knight' turned out corrupted like their dark knight, Batman. So you could say he's in hospital somewhere as Two-Face. In The Dark Knight's book sequel/prequel-tothe-third film, Inferno, it states ALSO just as vaguely that Two-Face is alive in the streets.

That said, it's also true to Nolan's batverse canon because The Joker, thank god, like in the comics, promises to Batman various things; in this film's case, he's 'going to break his one rule'. Which is to kill someone. He wanted Batman to kill him personally, but failed. So instead Batman ends up killing Two-Face to save a kid/parent from the fate he went through in Crime Alley after the theatre. This reflects a shitload of comics in which Joker promises Batman a SIMPLE promise, or an extravagant anniversary in which Batman has to 'keep his end of the bargain' and kill Joker or someone else that will hopefully shatter Batman/Bruce Wayne's mind because holy shit he killed someone close to him. *cough* Like Harvey Dent or Rachel.

The Joker's ending is.. I don't know. Is it worse? Or just as bad?

The Joker ends by just being strung up upside down at the building in which he and Batman had a final showdown, laughing, and Batman.. disappears. You never see or hear of him again. You don't see any of the SWAT team rushing up the stairs. It doesn't mention that he's in prison, he's in Arkham Asylum, if he's in hospital, or if he somehow escaped. I think it's worse than Two-Face's ending because although Two-Face's presumed death was unnecessary and too quick for an excellent villain, because at least he had an ending. The Joker just had one long dialogue with Batman, and was just left there.

In Inferno, it states that Joker was in Arkham for a year. It described the ending as the same, etc, but it had the addition of poisoning the water supply, like in the comic that The Dark Knight was also vaguely referencing, The Man Who Laughs. The only references to The Man Who Laughs is the (although used in the FIRST TWO BATMAN AND JOKER COMICS.) use of the Joker playing cards, using asylum patients as his temporary thugs (just noticed in the film that all of his thugs are paranoid schizophrenics, so omg yay reference!), I guess the party intervention, Batman's infrared/sensor goggles/lens, and the bat-cycle.

Changing topic because I can't think of anything else I needed to write about Heatho's Joker, besides a million more words of praise and BOO's to Nolan's Joker!Editing. Heath Ledger got The Joker fucking perfect. The mannerisms, the personality, the changes in moods, the gestures, the suicidal missions, the black humour, his use of sarcasm/cynicsm, his infatuation with the Batman, the homages to his disguise skills and his trademarked laugh. I applaud Nolan for not turning him into a cliche villain of using the hero's girlfriend as a leverage to have a final showdown with him. Thank. Fucking. Christ. He did not see Rachel for more than maybe thirty seconds in the entire film. Pushing her off the building was the icing on the cake.

Wait, I'm meant to change topic.

Maggie's Rachel fucking pwns. She's brilliant! She is not a air head. She is not a doormat. She is not a damsel in distress. She does not badger Bruce with any more of her bullshit 'your father would be ashamed of you.' reasons for him to drop the cowl. She is in a love triangle with Bruce and Harvey, but it's not a typical 'fine, I'll kill you when you're a villain later to get back on you for sleeping with my ex!' Hollywood relationship game. She does not have a condescending tone in her voice whenever she talks to anybody.

But she died anyway, so it's all good :D Should be the end of Bruce Wayne mary sue girlfriend in Nolan's franchise.

Pretty much everything in the viral marketing: The Iceberg Lounge, the death of animals at the Gotham City Zoo, Joker's pocket watch, the Deli, that pizzaria, the Rent-A-Clown Agency, and other things such as Garcetti: didn't happen. It would've also been nice to see fleshed out Joker thugs. They change every two seconds in the film. =(

I'm also very disappointed that the Joker's HQ, 'Rent-A-Clown' was also cut out. You only see it in a leaked photo. It's an abandoned warehouse, with the not-so-subtle 'RENT A CLOWN' sign; Joker's battered joyride!police car is out the front.

Absolutely dying to see the bloopers and deleted scenes.

10/10 for the film; but a 9.5 secretly because of the editing which made the film choppy and open. Not 'all over the place'. It DOES flow. It just feels choppy.

That, and it fucking sucks that Scarecrow had maybe five minutes worth of screen time/mention in the opening. Fuck! Now we can't see Joker bashing Crane with a chair like in the comics.
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More comics. [ I need another room! ]

By Punchinello 0 Comments

Got some more Detective Comics, Shadow of the Bats, Villains United, Batmans, Outsiders, a couple of TPBs because the issues I wanted wasn't available as.. er, regular issues. Bought some Ultra-Pro magazine sleeves, and I need another big premium box to put my new comics in.

Batman: The Dailies was terrific!

Batman #66 was hilarious, at the very least.

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'Nother batch!

By Punchinello 0 Comments

Some more orders have arrived; all equally fantastic, to say the least! Waiting for the others to arrive.

Now I've got the complete run of The Joker (#1 through to #9), Legends of the Dark Knight issues, Action Comics #714, Batman, Journey into Knight, Harley Quinn, DC Presents, Batman #66 The Joker's Comedy of Errors, Gotham Knight #73, Nosferatu Elseworlds, Batman vs The Spirit, Batman: The Dailies HC, Batman R.I.P #677, Robin Wanted TPB, Detective Comics #365, The Batman Gallery.. Some others. Plus Ultra-Pro Magazine boards. I need more magazine sleeves. Chiropteran got his Batman in the 70's TPB.

I watched the three new TV spots for Nolan's The Dark Knight yesterday. Epic.

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Another batch

By Punchinello 0 Comments

Purchased another batch of comics.

The Batman Adventures #14, DC Comics Presents #38, DC Challenge #7 & #8, Detective Comics #606, Detective Comics #618, Super Powers #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, Showcase 94 #1, Showcase 94 #2, Robin #0, Robin Annual #1, World's Finest Comics #321, Sandman Mystery Theatre #68, Who's Who: Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #11. Chiropteran got his 1975 Man-Bat #2, as well.

In a separate order I got the complete story arc from Detective Comics #777-through-to-#781.

Yesterday was very busy. Australia Post is getting slower by the day. =/

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