Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 012

The Story

While the cops investigate the murder scene of the Republic members, Nightwing is attacked by Paragon. The two fight in the sewers, and end up being washed out into the bay, where Nie and his cops are waiting.

After getting home, Dick decides to fund the construction of Amusement Mile mostly from from his own pocket. He later apologizes to Sonia for the way he behaved, who tells him that she'd turned down the loan with the bank because she didn't want to be reminded about her father, and being around Dick reminds her of him.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Batman 012

The Story

The story focuses on Harper, and her brother Cullen, as the two are persecuted by thugs for Cullen's orientation. Harper tries to fight back when the thugs corner her and Cullen, but the two are beat until Batman arrives and saves them. After that Harper uses her job as an electrical engineer to help Batman maintain his city wide network, despite him telling her to not get involved. The story ends with Harper promising herself that she would not stop doing what she could for Batman.

The Review
For a book called Batman there was surprisingly little Batman in it. The entire focus, minus a few pages, is given to Harper and her brother. And it's absolutely glorious.

This is the first book of the New 52 that truly captures the appeal of Batman. As fun as it is to see the caped crusader fight super villains, too many of those stories lack the focus this one had. The story wasn't about Batman, it was about the people of Gotham, and the effect he has on them. THIS is what the last two to three issues of Batman and Robin should have been like. THIS is the most effective use of Batman I've seen in a while. Not as a person, or as a character, but as a symbol.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Batgirl 012

The Story

Batwoman attacks, and she and Batgirl fight until Batgirl surrenders. She then explains what is going on, and the three of them attack Knightfall's hideout. Batgirl fights the three goons until Batwoman and McKenna come in to back her up. When Batgirl goes to Knightfall's office, she finds Ricky, imprisoned and mutilated. While she is distracted, Knightfall stabs her from behind.

The Review
Overall I liked this issue. While I do think that the fight between Batgirl and Batwoman went on for a bit too long, and too much of it was Batgirl being humiliated in her own book, overall I still liked the story.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Batman and Robin 012

The Story

Batman and Robin, aided by Nightwing, Red Robin, and Red Hood, fight Terminus and his goons. Batman gears up in an exoskeleton and fights Terminus. Batman easily beats Terminus, but the latter sends out a code to launch a warhead. Batman then proceeds to rip off the ending for The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, AND Monster Hunter Vendetta.

The Review
Remember how last month I said this story needed more setup, and that the basic ideas and concepts of the story could have made for an iconic Batman story? Well this month I get to say that ideas and concepts don't make for a good story if the execution is flawed.

I'm not sure who to blame for this story, I want to blame the editorial department for the overall rushed tone of the New 52 books, but I have no evidence backing that stance up. Does the fault lie with Peter Tomasi for the breakneck pacing of this story? I really can't tell.

News: New Trailers

Okay, so these are a little old news. But I still felt like posting them. First off we have a promo for One Piece Episode of Nami the remake of the most influential arc in the history of One Piece.

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty excited for this. Though I expect it will be a while before we get this special outside of Japan. What with the rights probably being different from the TV and Movie rights. I'm also excited to see Nojiko, my cartoon crush from when I first got into One Piece, animated again. And while I'm not the biggest fan of the modern art style, the animation looks crisp and fluid. Much better than the average TV animation.

Up next we have the first teaser trailer for the Blue Exorcist movie.



It's not much to go off of, but I'm curious to see where they go with this. I've found that generally anime movies aren't the greatest, but I do think the industry has come far enough that we've been getting more good than bad. And as long as the writers for this movie aren't the ones responsible for the beach filler episode and the end of the anime, then we're in business.

And finally, a teaser for the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure adaptation.



I only just recently started reading Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I'm up to the first issue of part three, and after loving the first two parts I can't wait to see what happens. Part three seems to have been getting all the love, with being released in the States, and getting and OVA series. Great to see the first part getting some love too. Maybe if we get lucky this new series will attract some more attention and we'll get to see the first two parts, and following parts of Jojo published in the US. The trailer itself works very well to play up the hype for this project, with a countdown of the eight parts of Jojo, perhaps suggesting that the new project will cover the entire series. An ambitious project to say the least. The little bit of animation we do get looks pretty decent, if not as smooth as I'd hope. We'll have to wait for more footage before passing any real judgement. Either way, I'm excited.

News: Podcast Update

So, episode two of Manga^3 is now live. I've also included a new page on this site where I'll be putting direct download links to the episodes for anyone that doesn't or can't use iTunes. This will also serve as an archive for the episodes once we start taking old ones down. Since I am a cheap bum who doesn't want to pay for hosting fees just yet.

I've got the next two episodes edited, episode three will go live tomorrow followed by new episodes every day. This time I actually mean it. Hopefully the quality isn't too poor for you, starting with episode eleven we start using an actual program to record our skype calls, so the audio quality should be drastically improved. And I've placed an order for a proper mike which should hopefully arrive in time for episode thirteen, if not episode twelve. Please bear with us, we're learning how to do this as we go along.

I've also started a tumblr, because that's where all the cool kids seem to be hanging, and being the pageview whore that I am, I've decided to make myself seen over there. It seems like a much more social kind of environment so I wanted to try it out to get more involved. I'm still going to be posting all my reviews here, but I'll be posting links over there, as well as reposting anything I think that looks interesting. If anyone has read this blog, and wanted to talk to me, but couldn't because this is not tumblr, and you have some kind of weird pro-tumblr phobia (might want to get that checked out), then this will be the place for you. Check it out here, Burning Lizard Studios Tumblr.

Here's links to the episodes.

Episode 001
Episode 002 - Scanlations and Vagabond

Manga Reviews: Fairy Tail Volume 5

The Story

When Lyon's wizards try to destroy the village, Natsu manages to blast the acidic jelly away from at least the center of the village. Natsu fights and beats Yuka and Toby, while Lucy fights and defeats Sherry. Erza catches up to Lucy, Gray, and Happy, with the intention of bringing them all back to the village. Gray's determination convinces her to stick around to help.

Gray tells Lucy and Erza about when he and Lyon were students under the wizard Ur, and how she sacrificed herself to save both of them. Lyon plans to thaw Deliora, the one foe Ur couldn't defeat, in order to prove that he is stronger than his old master.

When Gray confronts Lyon, he goes in with the intention of sacrificing his life, but Natsu convinces him not to do so. The volume ends with Lyon stabbing Gray with an ice sword.

News: Injustice - Gods Among Us - Catwoman Trailer

I post this trailer for two reasons. Two reasons that have me more interested in this game than I'd been.

First: Grey DeLisle reprises the role of Catwoman. In recent years Grey has become one of my favorite voice actresses around, and she's a strong contender on my Sexiest Voices list (yes I have a list like that, no you don't get to see it). So as far as I'm concerned it's a good match.

Second: They actually seem to be treating her with dignity. By which I mean her top is zipped up. I'm a big fan of the character, but it's really hard to explain that considering how she's been portrayed in almost everything she shows up in. A cleavage'd catsuit is hardly practical, and no matter how often her outfit becomes more and more practical, artists always seem to negate that by opening her top to her belly button and then taking away the zipper. So I'm glad to see a version of her, along with Anne Hathaway's portrayal, that isn't overly sexualized.

If I have one bad thing to say about this trailer, it's that they're still giving her those awful cat puns. Please. Just stop.

Manga^3 Is Now Live!

I'm sure a lot of you must think I'm horribly lazy. After all, I keep saying that I'm going to post a review every day, and then I never do it. But, I am, in fact, not lazy. Because I've been using this time to get something new started. Something special. And now it's finally live.

I present you, Manga^3 a podcast for manga news, manga recommendations, and, most importantly, commentary for the most recent chapters published in Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, as well as a few more here and there. I, along with my co-hosts Moe and Ten, discuss various topics relating to manga every week. We've been working on it for the past ten weeks, so we have ten episodes ready to go. I'm going to try to get a new episode up every day starting today, until I catch up and then we'll go to a weekly schedule. Ideally each new episode will go up Wednesday or Thursday. It depends on when we get the episode recorded.

You can find the podcast on iTunes, just search for manga^3. Or you can follow this link:

Manga^3!!!

At the moment I'm using a free hosting service, they provide 500 MB of free storage, so eventually I'll have to upgrade to a paying service. But whether I do that depends entirely on how popular this gets. Until I can justify paying the hosting fees what I'll be doing is cycling old episodes out to be replaced with new ones. It all depends on YOU, the listeners, if we make the commitment to this podcast. For now it's something fun to do with friends, but if enough people like it we'll be glad to start taking it a little more seriously.

Hope to see you there!

Graphic Novel Reviews: Batman - The Dark Knight Issue 011

The Story

Bruce finds out about Gordon's kidnapping and leaves his girlfriend to save his friend. While he triest to track Scarecrow down, Scarecrow experiments on another girl that he kidnapped. Batman talks to the girl from the last issue and manages to get Scarecrow's license plate number from her. He goes to where Scarecrow is hiding, but is ambushed and infected with fear toxin.

The Review
This issue covers all the necessary plot points, Bruce's failing relationship with his girlfriend, his hunt for Gordon, and the Scarecrow's past. At the same time it felt like not much happened. I got through this issue in just a few minutes and didn't feel like much had been accomplished.

Which is strange, because we learned a fair few things. Most importantly, we got a flashback for Scarecrow, to his father using him as a test subject in his fear experiments. It certainly explains Scarecrow's obsession with fear, though after Freeze got a flashback I can't help but feel this is more the second step in trend rather than an interesting new development.