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.

[eyz]

'wish some writers could remember that sometimes...

[mcity.livejournal.com]

The spider-webbing only lasts an hour. Unless he developed some alternative web fluid specifically to use in such a situation, and only in such a situation.

[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.

[shadowpsykie]

then again, we used to have a Girls I'd like to fist tag

WAIT... WHAT?

[stubbleupdate]

Somebody made a Girls I'd like to fist tag.

[shadowpsykie]

.... O_O

[kamino_neko]

To be fair, the one who made it was also the only one to use it.

[shadowpsykie]

oh... okay.... that's.... okay... then....

sorry still trying to get my mind around that being here.... i mean... its not necissarily a bad thing... its just... different....

[biod]

I am VERY curious what the criterea were for that distinction, even if I might have to reach for the brain bleach if I ever find out.

[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?

[filthysize]

It was distracting from the get-go for me, since Two-Face calls her a bitch like four times in a single cutscene.

Actually, while I understand other people complaining about the demeaning and misogynist use of the word, as a profane man myself, I was more bothered by the redundancy. If it was a few well-placed use of bitches in the dialogue, I can totally get behind the "bad guys use bad words so this in context is clearly indicative of the use of the word being wrong" argument, but when all I did was show up on a rooftop ledge and suddenly twenty thugs in the vicinity go "THE CAT BITCH IS HERE!" "BITCH WHAAAAT?" "OH BITCHETY BITCH BITCH!" You have to wonder if they put any thought into the recorded dialogue at all. It seems dismissive, and therefore sexist.

[shadowpsykie]

oh i only heard it once or twice before the final mission, up until then i was like, eh bad guys. but during the final mission that's all i heard. it was like OH JEEZ! think of something else! ANYTHING else... i mean really! that said... it made me beat up the bad guys soooo much harder....

[biod]

You WOULD think such a superstitious and cowerdly lot would have a more expanded vocabulary for the profane. What about "Trollop"? Do people still say that?

[mrstatham]

For me, it got tiresome since I tended to ignore the main mission sometimes and go after trophies, and that way, you heard loads more 'bitchbitchbitch' and the inmates yammering about her.

On the flipside, though, Penguin calls Batman a wanker on repeat and that got equally tiresome, frankly.

[shadowpsykie]

playing DCU online has made me annoyed of the Penguin long ago...s tupid robot pengins.... force fields and tk don't work on you.... rassfrassa....

[mrstatham]

Did DCUonline reimagine him as a farcical British-gangster wannabe who the developers have shoved into an unfortunate gritty incarnation by making him tough, spouting curses and having a glass bottle shoved into his eye socket in place of the classic monocle? If not, this incarnation is far, far more annoying.

[saralakali]

Well, they can hardly call her a "c*nt" in a rated-T-for-teen product. And you know that they wanted to.

[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.

[thehefner]

Erm, it's not really paying "extra" so much as just paying period. It's a complete, original comic story for sale, but just one that's exclusively online. It's also cheaper than a normal comic.

[mullon]

But there was this entire trade that collected all the tie-in comics, and this one should have been in there. Instead it's not, and you gotta pay extra and seperately for it.

[thehefner]

Or you wait for the SECOND trade to come out, since there will almost certainly be more Arkham City related comics in the near future. The game universe is planning to continue expanding, after all.

[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?

[mullon]

It was okay, and yes if I remember correctly.

[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.

[mrstatham]

Ah, yes. I remember that one. The freaking out on YouTube was fucking hilarious, there, bunches of morons desperately trying to cling to their masculinity in the dumbest way possible, by declaring their 'not gayness'. Like I said, hilarious.

I could care less, personally - the character model in the game still looked good. The change in voices for Harley was more jarring than the revelation about her mo-cap actor, frankly.

[biod]

And seeing a thousand insecure gamers question their sexuality was the stuff of internet legend.

[kamino_neko]

More accurately, her motion capture is performed by a guy. She's voiced by Tara Strong (who has also done Batgirl, in Mystery of the Batwoman, Rise of Sin Tsu, and Gotham Girls).

[viridian5]

Also Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony, which is now inspiring a crossover in my head that's breaking my brain. But it's Harley, so who knows....

[kamino_neko]

Man, let's not get into listing all of Strong's credits...she's...prolific. Personally, my favourites are Raven (Teen Titans) and Rikku (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts).

(I have fairly strong voice lust for her based on those two. >_> )

[viridian5]

Very prolific-- and I'm still amazed she voiced Princess Clara and Toot Braunstein in Drawn Together--but lately I hear her most often when she's voicing a magical purple unicorn, which is funnier to me. *g*

[kamino_neko]

It's funny, actually...I was fully expecting Twilight to be my favourite pony because of the TS voice lust.

But, she's...not. Probably 3rd or 4th if I had to rank them (Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight (or Rainbow), Rainbow (or Twilight), Applejack, Rarity)...

[viridian5]

Mine's Fluttershy. I love her interaction with Angel, and it's always fun when she snaps....

[magus_69]

YOU'RE... GOING... TO LOVE ME!!!!!

[viridian5]

Heh. Plus her being driven to chastise a cockatrice and a really large dragon, getting really enthusiastic over Rainbow Dash's second sonic rainboom, and getting cursed to have a voice like Barry White's.

[kagome654]

Rarity is the best pony.

[whitesycamore]

This a (partially) true thing THAT NOBODY EVER SAYS ENOUGH.

seriously though, Rainbow Dash is actually the best pony. Rarity is a close runner up though.

[kagome654]

The general lack of love Rarity receives compared to her friends is a constant source of confusion and sadness in my life. Poor, poor unappreciated pony!

Rarity will always be the best pony in my eyes, but I'm willing to concede that Dash is concentrated awesome

[alphamonkey]

> It's funny, actually...I was fully expecting Twilight to be my favourite pony because of the TS voice lust.

This. So much this.

Then AJ's accent came along.

Cutest thing ever.

[filthysize]

There's also a really dumb joke in the game where the henchmen are idly chatting and this conversation takes place:

"Do you think the rumors are true?"
"That Harley used to be a man?"
"No, that Joker's dying!"

[beoweasel]

And then you have gangers saying they want to murder Quin, or sexually assault her.

[golden_orange]

Having not actually been aware of the "Harley Quinn was motion-captured as a man" controversy, this joke finally makes sense to me.

[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.