Whose your comic book characters?
About Me
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Cyclops
Part of my halloween costume this year. My son's being the Hulk and yes we're in costume as we speak lol Mine's the First Class outfit, the hood is optional which is good because I was never a fan of it. This is just me with the visor (just taken yesterday)
Part of my halloween costume this year. My son's being the Hulk and yes we're in costume as we speak lol Mine's the First Class outfit, the hood is optional which is good because I was never a fan of it. This is just me with the visor (just taken yesterday)
My favorite comic book character? Oh boy.
AZRAEL
Jean-Paul Valley version.
Azrael was easily one of the most interesting characters to emerge from comics in the past 20 years. He replaced Batman when Bane snapped Bruce Wayne's back, but Bruce wasn't aware that he suffered from severe trauma and psychotic episodes due to his brainwashing from the secretive Order of St. Dumas cult.
Azrael was able to do what Batman could not and defeated Bane in one of the most amazing city-wide fist-fights I've seen in any comic book ever. He was a great Batman too (with a great original suit), but he let a man die, forcing Batman back into action and reclaiming his mantle.
Azrael then had one of the best 45 issue runs I've read in a comic. A fallen hero, he emerged back into action to stop the cult that created him, bringing along one of my favorite comic book casts too (a renegade cult leader/romantic interest, and an alcoholic psychiatrist that saw Jean-Paul as a means of salvation).
And through this, Azrael struggled to find his own identity, as well as break from the shadow of both being Batman and being apart of Batman's world.
And for the first 45 issues or so, it was incredible. Dark, gothic, chilling, badass. He was on the road towards becoming his own man, towards confronting his demons head on, towards becoming not just an honest-to-god hero, but a man that other heroes could admire and respect. He slowly was building up his own rogues gallery as well (Bane viewed him at the time as his arch-nemesis, Nicholas Scratch, Grey Abbot, many others.)
Then... around issue 46-50, things nose-dived off a cliff, hit the ground, and dug their way all the way to China.
They retitled the series "Agent of the Bat", forcing Azrael to stick to Batman stories instead of forging his own path.
(Notice how "Bat" is as big as the title character's name)
And then they decided his really cool costume had to go so they had ditch it and get a brand new costume that was.... well, nowhere near as good.
(yeah... that blonde mullet is MUCH better than a blood-red cloak)
And then they just used Azrael's comic as nothing more than a way to crossover more Batman characters and show off new Batman warriors... at the expense of his own comic.
(Hey, kiddies! Try to find Azrael in his own comic!)
They got rid of Azrael's supporting cast - they turned his love interest evil and wrote her out, along with the awesome psychiatrist Brian - decided he needed even MORE costume changes, none of them good, put him in even more Batman-related stories, and when all of those decisions failed to give him his own identity - imagine that - they decided he'd just flat-out lose his mind, get a terminal illness, see visions, change his costume every issue, and then in issue 100, usually a highlight issue, they ended the series and "killed him off".
Of course, they never found his body, and for years they hinted he was still alive and was going to return one day.
Well, they were going to do that until Blackest Night's silly mega-event hit and all the dead characters came back to life.
(Oh... I guess he was dead the whole time... then who the hell was writing those "Azrael LIVES!" messages on the walls in prior books?)
So a fantastic character with loads of potential, a great look, great supporting cast, great villains, and devoted fans is slowly ruined and destroyed by idiot editors to the point that his death isn't even confirmed until nearly ten years later in one throwaway panel in a spin-off book.
They then replaced Jean-Paul with a new Azrael, a police officer named Michael Lane. I'm... not a fan.
(Yes, he IS wearing sneakers, sweat pants, and bloody medieval chainmail on under a white muscle shirt.....)
Well, screw that. Azrael was something cool, something fresh, and something interesting in this comic book world full of rehashes, reboots, and retcons. He was a hero with the potential to forge a universe all his own, yet was saddled with bearing the burden of Batman to his grave.
Well, I reject that. No matter what happens, Jean-Paul Valley was a great character, one I'd continue to petition to see return, and he was both a great Batman and a great Azrael.
Whenever he gets a new series, if ever, I'll be right there to pick up where I left off.
AZRAEL
Jean-Paul Valley version.
Azrael was easily one of the most interesting characters to emerge from comics in the past 20 years. He replaced Batman when Bane snapped Bruce Wayne's back, but Bruce wasn't aware that he suffered from severe trauma and psychotic episodes due to his brainwashing from the secretive Order of St. Dumas cult.
Azrael was able to do what Batman could not and defeated Bane in one of the most amazing city-wide fist-fights I've seen in any comic book ever. He was a great Batman too (with a great original suit), but he let a man die, forcing Batman back into action and reclaiming his mantle.
Azrael then had one of the best 45 issue runs I've read in a comic. A fallen hero, he emerged back into action to stop the cult that created him, bringing along one of my favorite comic book casts too (a renegade cult leader/romantic interest, and an alcoholic psychiatrist that saw Jean-Paul as a means of salvation).
And through this, Azrael struggled to find his own identity, as well as break from the shadow of both being Batman and being apart of Batman's world.
And for the first 45 issues or so, it was incredible. Dark, gothic, chilling, badass. He was on the road towards becoming his own man, towards confronting his demons head on, towards becoming not just an honest-to-god hero, but a man that other heroes could admire and respect. He slowly was building up his own rogues gallery as well (Bane viewed him at the time as his arch-nemesis, Nicholas Scratch, Grey Abbot, many others.)
Then... around issue 46-50, things nose-dived off a cliff, hit the ground, and dug their way all the way to China.
They retitled the series "Agent of the Bat", forcing Azrael to stick to Batman stories instead of forging his own path.
(Notice how "Bat" is as big as the title character's name)
And then they decided his really cool costume had to go so they had ditch it and get a brand new costume that was.... well, nowhere near as good.
(yeah... that blonde mullet is MUCH better than a blood-red cloak)
And then they just used Azrael's comic as nothing more than a way to crossover more Batman characters and show off new Batman warriors... at the expense of his own comic.
(Hey, kiddies! Try to find Azrael in his own comic!)
They got rid of Azrael's supporting cast - they turned his love interest evil and wrote her out, along with the awesome psychiatrist Brian - decided he needed even MORE costume changes, none of them good, put him in even more Batman-related stories, and when all of those decisions failed to give him his own identity - imagine that - they decided he'd just flat-out lose his mind, get a terminal illness, see visions, change his costume every issue, and then in issue 100, usually a highlight issue, they ended the series and "killed him off".
Of course, they never found his body, and for years they hinted he was still alive and was going to return one day.
Well, they were going to do that until Blackest Night's silly mega-event hit and all the dead characters came back to life.
(Oh... I guess he was dead the whole time... then who the hell was writing those "Azrael LIVES!" messages on the walls in prior books?)
So a fantastic character with loads of potential, a great look, great supporting cast, great villains, and devoted fans is slowly ruined and destroyed by idiot editors to the point that his death isn't even confirmed until nearly ten years later in one throwaway panel in a spin-off book.
They then replaced Jean-Paul with a new Azrael, a police officer named Michael Lane. I'm... not a fan.
(Yes, he IS wearing sneakers, sweat pants, and bloody medieval chainmail on under a white muscle shirt.....)
Well, screw that. Azrael was something cool, something fresh, and something interesting in this comic book world full of rehashes, reboots, and retcons. He was a hero with the potential to forge a universe all his own, yet was saddled with bearing the burden of Batman to his grave.
Well, I reject that. No matter what happens, Jean-Paul Valley was a great character, one I'd continue to petition to see return, and he was both a great Batman and a great Azrael.
Whenever he gets a new series, if ever, I'll be right there to pick up where I left off.
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MK Khronology: 58.49% complete...I shouldn't have to explain who Batman and Joker are. I heart pretty much all of The Bat's supporting cast. But my favorite of them all?
Yep.
My first exposure to Batman came at the hands of West and Ward. But when I began reading the comics, Jason was the active Robin. I realized that this was a completely different person who, in my young mind, made a lot more sense than the version I saw on TV. Reason being, I read the two-parter "The Diplomat's Son", in which a a diplomat's drug-dealing abusive pimp of a son drives a fragile woman to suicide. He has immunity due to his father's status, so Batman and Robin can't touch him for any of the crimes he's committed. The young girl's death sends Jason into a rage, and he visits the man on his balcony. When Batman catches up to them, the guy is falling to his death and it's left ambiguous as to whether Jason killed him or not. At that age, amazingly, I didn't blame Jason if he had.
What can I say? I was a kid. I wanted good guys to win, and bad guys to die and never ever come back. Simple. Jason was my hero, because I saw that he felt the same.
So of course Jason dies a few months later, and I'm crushed over it. I begged my mom to call in and vote for him to live, but she couldn't justify the cost of the phone call (we were pretty poor, and the odd Batman comic was a luxury). A bit of time passed, and Tim seemed like a good character when he was introduced, but I was resentful and stopped reading comics soon after (Videogames, MK primarily among them, were becoming my favorite hobby by this point).
Flash forward to 2005, and a cynical casual Bat-Fan wonders idly what's happening in the comics world these days. He hears rumors about a story called "Under The Hood" that started two months or so back...and is able to hop on just in time to see the character he loved as a kid come back with a vengeance.
I will freely admit that many of the stories since his return have sucked out loud, and the explanation for his return is cringe-worthy (damn reality punches). But the version we got in the Under The Red Hood movie - which I adore - is way better. And there have been gems, like his first confrontation with Tim in Teen Titans, the Lost Days miniseries, and Morrison's masterful "Revenge of the Red Hood".
(Amazingly enough, that last one, borrowing from Milton's Paradise lost with the "Red Right Hand" line, makes me think of Nick Cave's seminal hit of the same name, a favorite song of mine which I now have no choice but to associate loosely with the character.)
Yep.
My first exposure to Batman came at the hands of West and Ward. But when I began reading the comics, Jason was the active Robin. I realized that this was a completely different person who, in my young mind, made a lot more sense than the version I saw on TV. Reason being, I read the two-parter "The Diplomat's Son", in which a a diplomat's drug-dealing abusive pimp of a son drives a fragile woman to suicide. He has immunity due to his father's status, so Batman and Robin can't touch him for any of the crimes he's committed. The young girl's death sends Jason into a rage, and he visits the man on his balcony. When Batman catches up to them, the guy is falling to his death and it's left ambiguous as to whether Jason killed him or not. At that age, amazingly, I didn't blame Jason if he had.
What can I say? I was a kid. I wanted good guys to win, and bad guys to die and never ever come back. Simple. Jason was my hero, because I saw that he felt the same.
So of course Jason dies a few months later, and I'm crushed over it. I begged my mom to call in and vote for him to live, but she couldn't justify the cost of the phone call (we were pretty poor, and the odd Batman comic was a luxury). A bit of time passed, and Tim seemed like a good character when he was introduced, but I was resentful and stopped reading comics soon after (Videogames, MK primarily among them, were becoming my favorite hobby by this point).
Flash forward to 2005, and a cynical casual Bat-Fan wonders idly what's happening in the comics world these days. He hears rumors about a story called "Under The Hood" that started two months or so back...and is able to hop on just in time to see the character he loved as a kid come back with a vengeance.
I will freely admit that many of the stories since his return have sucked out loud, and the explanation for his return is cringe-worthy (damn reality punches). But the version we got in the Under The Red Hood movie - which I adore - is way better. And there have been gems, like his first confrontation with Tim in Teen Titans, the Lost Days miniseries, and Morrison's masterful "Revenge of the Red Hood".
(Amazingly enough, that last one, borrowing from Milton's Paradise lost with the "Red Right Hand" line, makes me think of Nick Cave's seminal hit of the same name, a favorite song of mine which I now have no choice but to associate loosely with the character.)
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About Me
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About Me
Get that ass BANNED
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About Me
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