Batman, yo!

For the most part, I'm pretty bored with the superhero genre. There's little left in it that hasn't been exhausted completely everywhere else. Plus, superhero comic books are so scatter shot in quality and absorbed in making self-references to previous issues, obscure fact's about the character's history, and other heroes in the universe that I couldn't give a shit about and who (inevitably) appear often-that comic books are not very friendly to people who aren't completely obsessed with them.


Regardless, Batman is still a superhero that excites me. I absolutely love the current generation of Batman movies and the new Batman game, Arkham Asylum, manages to achieve what it is to be Batman rather than just using some simple conception. I love the gothic, noir style of Batman's world and how he's (at heart) just as crazy as the people he's capturing. Not to mention there's no better antithetical super villain to a superhero than the Joker is to Batman. Any other lesser superhero has some lame ass evil twin type villain with the signifying evil mustache and a slightly different color palate that's little more than a shallow mirror copy.

Plus, the old nineties Batman cartoon is fucking great. It's one of the few things that has more long lasting quality than anything my childhood nostalgia usually needs to vouch for to appreciate.

You can download and read the 25 best Batman graphic novels: here
The site is in Spanish, so just bear with that. I recommend starting with "Arkham Asylum" or (if you're unfamiliar with the character/universe) "Year One"...though I find the art on that one a bit of a drag.

At some point after I read through all of those, I'll post some sort of cohesive analysis of the Batman character. Oh yes, be excited.