Batman: Arkham Titty

[stubbleupdate]

Or, more accurately, Arkham Unhinged, the prologue comic for videogame Arkham City. I haven't played the game yet, but I have been following the Catwoman Bitch story, the DLC nonsense and the Harley Quinn based queer panic of the game, so when the prologue appeared on Comixology for 99c an issue, I was interested enough to hand over my money.

All together, it's 60 pages of story for $2.97, which is a decent return. The comic itself isn't that great. Two Face does lots of things in twos. Batman sneaks up on people, and punches other people. Hugo Strange menaces in the background. And Catwoman...

is the main character of this series.
3 scans from #1 and 2 from #2
Handily, there's a news report on Arkham City to set the scene for the story. Like many people, writer Derek Fridolfs possibly thinks that news reports make for boring and artificial exposition. how to jazz that up?






Strange's goons steal Catwoman's stuff and Batman rescues her. After a drive in the Batmobile, she hits the ejector seat. Then they fight.



The editor is listed as Jim Chadwick, but I'm not convinced that there wasn't editorial interference from Titfish.

The art is passable, and the story is decent. To be honest, it's what you'd expect from a book that's $2.97 for 60 pages.

Did we ditch the cheesecake and boobs tags?


I've not played the game, but I'll probably pick it up once I've finished Assassin's Creed Revelations, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider and it's come down to a platinum price

Comments

[nightauditguy]

Other than going Mmm...Catwoman cleavage, another thought was going through my head.

For those heroes and villians that don't have the resources to have a secret hideout, where do they keep their costumes? In the attic, basement, under the bed?

[shadowpsykie]

Rorschach kept them under the floor boards of his apartment. :D (just finished reading the Watchmen)

[eyz]

Sounds like a possible and realistic hide-out.
I'm sure the likes of Spoiler, Wildcat and other street-based vigilantes would do the same :P

(didn't Catwoman do that in one of her origins stories/90s series issue/Year One annual?)

[arilou_skiff]

Spidey actually keeps copies of his costume webbed up around the city, in case he needs 'em.

[salinea]

Did we ditch the cheesecake and boobs tags?
we had one?

[stubbleupdate]

I'm almost certain that we had a boobs tag. We used to have a Boobs don't work that way tag (then again, we used to have a Girls I'd like to fist tag.

[salinea]

We still have http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/tag/in-joke:+anatomy+does+not+work+that+way

then again, we used to have a Girls I'd like to fist tag
Hah! No wonder that got lost.

[kamino_neko]

I've not been following this (since I don't have a system that can run the game)... I have seen the Harley Quinn thing, but what's the 'Catwoman Bitch' story?

[stubbleupdate]

Everybody calls Catwoman a bitch

[shadowpsykie]

you know, i hadn't noticed it until the final catwoman mission, by that point i was like... okay, i get it you are bad guys but SERIOUSLY you can't think of a better word than that?

[thehefner]

This was a rare case where I felt like the product was worth every penny of the asking price and not a penny more. It wasn't a terrible story. Very light, almost like a children's storybook, but it was a decent enough story with pretty good art, especially in the facial expressions.

What I find most impressive, just speaking personally, is that it featured two of my all-time favorite characters (Harvey and Hugo) in a way that didn't annoy or bore me. That's remarkable in this day and age of the regular DCU, when Hugo is seen taking orders from Black Mask and Harvey is a hulked-out "One-Face" monstrosity. The interplay between Harvey and Selina was also fun, a lot more so than what I've seen of the Arkham City game itself, with all the snarling, facial scarring, and "two guns, bitch"-ness of it all.

[mullon]

God the Catwoman sections were so horrible in Arkham City.

And where was this story? It wasn't in the Arkham City hardcover.

[stubbleupdate]

Bought it on the internet

[shadowpsykie]

really? i enjoyed playing as catwoman, i had to be far more sneaky than batman, since she didn't have all the toys he does (never realized how much i relied on some of those other things like gas, gliding, and the hanging people upside down.

[thehefner]

It's called "Batman: Arkham Unhinged" and it's available in three parts on the Comixology site.

[mullon]

Oh good, another thing I'd have to pay extra for.

[mrstatham]

Is the AC hardcover any good? I like D'Anda's art style, but I haven't really seen anything of the book save for a few pages on his DA account. Does it include the internet-exclusive stuff by Dustin Nguyen too?

[oroburos69]

I actually really enjoyed playing as Catwoman, especially in the cut scenes with Ivy. It was mostly the goons calling her a bitch that bugged me, and that was avoidable by doing silent takedowns, which I like best anyway. Mostly I just thought the Catwoman missions were too short.

[theredhood]

If anything in Arkham City can really be considered "horrible" then I'd honestly love to hear which games you find to be "good."

[lultam]

I loved them. The only bad part was the fact that Catwoman was so much slower getting around the city than Batman was.

[mrstatham]

Okay, I know about most of the stuff some are considering controversial about the game (to me, the complaining about DLC is nonsense), but what the hell is the 'Harley Quinn queer panic' surrounding the game?

[stubbleupdate]

Harley Quinn is played by a dude.

[stolisomancer]

I think my favorite part of the scanned pages is that she actually took off the bra to get into her tight leather ass-beating costume.

[valtyr]

Well, on the one hand, it might have a built-in supportive sports bra thing.

On the other, if so, you'd think it would work better zipped up.

[beoweasel]

I really found the story in Arkham City to be pretty...eh.

The ending was nonsensical and completely unsatisfying. The big reveal of Hugo Strange's plan left me going, "Really? That's it?" I mean, really, he went through all the trouble of organizing, funding and scheming to get Arkham City created, and THIS was the supposed pay off?

And then you have the female characters, yeesh. Yeah, you have Catwoman and the baddies calling her a bitch every five seconds, but let's not forget Talia al Ghul, a woman of exceptional intelligence and leader of a world-spanning league of master assassins, and her importance in the plot is to be both a moron and a damsel in distress.