The Life Mistaken

[trelas.insanejournal.com]

I was a big fan of the Green/Johnson run on Superman/Batman, as while they weren't perfect, they had a certain charm and fun to them, while staying true to the main characters and their relationship, actually saying something about it. So, as they are now officially, well for a while now actually, moving on to bigger and better things from the title, I thought I'd post certain scenes from their first issue, which had me laughing at several points.

Before the explanation for the story arc, let's just begin with the first pages of that issue, which were just too awesome to put in to words.





The movie Batman is a blond himbo, who is easy to read emotionally, can not keep a secret and took the name Batman after his mother beat his sister to a coma with a baseball bat. How is that not awesome. Oh yeah, and he also has a base on the moon.

So, what does the real deal think of this?







Things get complicated when Livewire hits a prop with a lightining and turns out they were using real kryptonite at the movie shoot. Thus, she accidently takes out Superman. Batman calls JLA for backup while taking out Livewire with ease. Who shows up to handle the situation but a certain scarlet speedster.



That 'Standing right here'? Priceless.

So Superman takes a few days to heal, with the aid of Alfred, pondering things before returning to Batman to discuss things.



There is a great discussion of things, which leads to the two deciding to clean Earth from kryptonite. I really enjoyed the overall storyarc, as it did explore in great depth Superman hubris, how none of them truly understand what it means to be Batman, the trust for the symbol of Superman and why people might not want that weakness removed. But that was more heavy stuff and I wanted to limit this post to the funny. Hope you liked it as much as I did and that it was worth of at least a few chuckles.

Comments

[frolics.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

haha I love the second panel. and batman joking with a straight face.

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, I really liked the beginning of that story arch, and the the funny moments later on with Superman being high on "magic-K" and all.

Didn't like the Amanda Waller part, or Lana Lang irradiating the planet with kryptonite.

[trelas.insanejournal.com]

You know, I'm so posting parts of the magic-K issue tomorrow, as it is just that awesome while having a knockout ending.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

Don't forget Aquaman being a dick.

[kingrockwell]

Yeah, motto. I can't remember if I was just expecting it during the Waller part, or if they actually dropped the phrase "the Real America", but goddamn did I hate that shit.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Every time someone posts something from this book, I regret dropping it...

The movie bit is hilarious. Chatterbox Batman is brilliant.

And what the heck did Livewire do to Supes? Taking him out, sure, but...she did one hell of a number on him.

[trelas.insanejournal.com]

One of Livewire's electric bursts hit a kryptonite ring, causing it to explode. Those fragments hit Supes, taking him out.

[jaybee3.insanejournal.com]

The opening of this arc was very funny (notice the raised S-Shield on the actor ala Superman Returns which the real one doesn't have or the Tim Burton all black rubber Batsuit on the Bats actor) but it fizzled out at the end as it turns out .... spoilers .... the Big Bad is Lana Lang(!) who in her role as LexCorp chairman has been stockpiling industrial strength kryptonite to sell to the military.

When Supes calls to eliminate it, she refuses and says it's necessary for the company and the employees and the LexCorp bottom line ("nothing personal") and then says if he tries anything she'll release the K-Dust in the atmosphere ("don't make me do this") making the Earth too toxic for Clark, Kara, PG, Krypto and Chris Kent to ever live on. He calls her bluff and she stone-faced does it (no explanation on why she destroys her own product that she just said she's only using/needs to make money just to prove a point/poison the man she still loves).

Hiro/KidToyman clears the atmosphere with nano-bots foiling her plans and then Supes harangues Lana that the difference between her and Lois is that Lois would never have pushed the button which is why he married her and not Lana (harsh) and when Supes flies off it's insinuated that Lana has been controlled/maninpulated into doing this. End of story arc. Never really brought up again and obviously not in any kind of continuity because there is no way Supergirl would be rooming with Lana (and taking her last name as her secret identity) in her own book if Lana had really tried to kill her and her entire family. Nor would Lois be seemingly on friendly terms with Lana if she had indeed poisoned the atmosphere and caused Clark to leave Earth for 1000 years (presumably without Lois). Clark would eventually forgive something like that but Lois? Never. But like I said never brought up again after this arc.

So this storyline goes from promising (the scene above) to wall-banging (its ending) very quickly. A big let down for me.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I dunno, I think it went to walbanger when Batman and Superman decided that the United States government had no right to kryptonite and Amanda Waller ordered some regular soldier turned into a kryptonite Doomsday.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I bet you anything Superman saved a copy of the movie reels as a Christmas present for Tim and Dick.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

I bet he saved a LOT of copies...

Copies for Tim, Dick and Alfred, one for himself, one for the JL Satellite (which he replaces frequently after its constant mysterious disappearances), one for Flash, one for Ollie, one for Hal...

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

These bits are superfunny! I don't really like the art thought, it looks really dirty.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

OMG, that was fantastic. I was going to agree with icon about the present for Tim and Dick, but really, the whole League might get it in their stockings.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

He's dressed like a bat! It's obvious!

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

I generally agree with SUperman that Kryptonite should go. With red sun projectors and magic you only really need gold kryptonite to deal with a rogue Kryptonian. With Gold K around to strip powers green K is reduced to a torture device and red and magic K potentially make them more dangerous

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

Until recently, however, gold K was as permanent as a bullet. Not a good solution when you have one Kryptonian who does a ton of good but occasionally and temporarily goes out of control (as mandated by the plot).

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

"There is a song the people sing"
"(song the people sing)"
"About a hero on the wing!"
"(hero on the wing!")

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

"I am Gotham's darkest knight,
the villains' darkest fright,
turn on the signal light,
for Batman." (Batman.)

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

Heh. Speak of the devil- I was just chatting with a few friends about this issue a couple days ago.

The movie was hilarious.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

I do like it how Bruce lets Wally monologue for a solid few minutes before he points out, "Oh, and Clark's dying of kryptonite poisoning. We might want to do something about that."

Oh Bruce.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

Hey, we know Wally talks fast.

michael green

[geekanerd.insanejournal.com]

This is some great banter. They really nail Batman's mean sense of humor. When Bruce isn't beating criminals faces in, he's being passive aggressive to his friends.

While on the subject of Michael Green, I feel I should mention that anyone who enjoys his work in comics should check out his (canceled) TV series, Kings. The whole season is on Hulu. I love it.

http://www.hulu.com/search?query=kings

[darkknightjrk.insanejournal.com]

"No, Clark, you can't borrow my pirate ship."

...Batman has a pirate ship? I mean, it shouldn't surprise me (he has a rocket, after all), but I've never heard of it.

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

I want to borrow Batman's Pirate Ship.

[jupiterrhode.insanejournal.com]

The last panel of movie!bats and supes looks a little gay. I mean, there's some gayness to that panel, that's all I'm saying.

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

So it looks like the movie got one thing right, at least. *rimshot*

[jelly_ace.insanejournal.com]

Superman's 'To the moon. Heh.' made it for me.

I liked this arc. The story's easy to follow, as compared to Loeb's headache inducing too-many-complications-and-distractions-and-counting run. And fun moments inbetween. Remember, this is where they introduced the Lil' Leaguers. :)

And to be fair, I wasn't expecting the twist. I should've, but I didn't.

[retro_nouveau.insanejournal.com]

I guess Livewire is second tier. As long as there's a super-soaker near by. I wouldn't write her off, even with that she can be crazy dangerous. Maybe she should have said "sitting" instead of "standing".

So Bruce and Clark were answering a Batsignal -- and it was fake for the movie shoot? I hope it's not the real one, and Gordon is still waiting. XD

Speaking of Gordon -- that's a really nice building, with that big clock and all those spooky gargoyles. Once shooting is wrapped, I wonder if -- aw, never mind.

[filthysize.insanejournal.com]

As I am reading these scans, Mail suddenly pinged. I just received an Amazon Gold Box alert. It's the Christopher Reeves Superman box set, now 61% off.

COINCIDENCE?!

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

I keep reading "they paid you 12 million to do this fuck". It's like an optical illusion.

"Why? Are your parents loaded too?" LOL!

Batman's real name = Lance Hardwood. *giggles self silly* He's also a porn-star in his spare time.

"No, Clark, you can't borrow my pirate ship." I need an icon of that, stat! Man, I love whoever's wrote this!

I agree with Flash. Supes getting knocked out by Livewire's kinda equivalent to somebody knocking themselves out on a lamp-post in the dark. XD They can tease HIM, of course. On the other hand, nobody would dare rib Batman about being called Lance.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

On the other hand, nobody would dare rib Batman about being called Lance.

Except Supes.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

I enjoyed this story arc, too. And Batman's sense of humor and characterization.