Tales of the Caped Crusader – My New Fanfic (WARNING – SELF-PROMOTION AHEAD, LOL)

So, after talking a lot about How Would I Rebuild The DC Universe From Scratch, as well as rewatching some DC movies and Batman: The Animated Series, I got the idea for a fanfic that I’m actually writing right now on FanFiction.net: Tales of the Caped Crusader.

So here’s the basic premise: Bruce Wayne is in the 4th year of his tenure as Batman, and he’s begun to feel the effects on his mind and his body. He’s out later every night, he’s getting into nastier fights, and he’s doing it all alone. Dick Grayson has been in his care for about a year and is nearing the end of his training, but now Bruce is beginning to have second thoughts about letting a child (Dick is 13 in this fic) get involved in what he sees as a war of sorts against crime in Gotham City. At this point, Bruce has met Superman and Wonder Woman and knows who they are, but there is no Justice League, primarily because there has been no need for a large team of superheroes, since the three of them have been doing alright on their own.

 

Anyway, the story picks up as Bruce is beginning to have doubts as to whether or not his father would approve of some of his decisions, namely his training of Dick to become Robin. However, during a night’s brawl against some goons, Batman meets a detective claiming to know who he is. More-so, he suggests that Bruce was not the first person to become Batman. In reality, Thomas Wayne had taken up the cape and cowl for a single night. Of course, the obvious questions come to mind immediately: Why was Thomas Wayne Batman? How does this detective know this? Why is Bruce only just now learning about it? All those questions have answers, some of which will shock Bruce, and others will give resolution to his doubts, as he is forced to learn the hidden truth about The Batman.

As you can tell, the plot takes elements from a lot of different stories and continuities. For example, Thomas Wayne has been Batman before, and he’ll be wearing the costume from Flashpoint, minus the guns or anything else lethal since he’s not a killer here. Also, a lot of characters from various Batman and Bat-related stories are involved. For example, the new version of Copperhead fights Batman at one point, Rupert Thorne is mentioned here and there, there’ll probably be more that appear as time goes by, and even the detective relaying all of this to Bruce is someone you should all know, but I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now, will I do anything beyond this? I dunno yet. I have something in mind, but I don’t know if I’ll do it or not. In fact, I’m not gonna make that decision yet. I’m just gonna write this fic, and then whatever happens after that will be then, not now. Until then, click on the pic below and go check out Tales of the Caped Crusader, and lemme know what you think of it so far. Ja né!

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What I Bought Today – Action Comics #23.1, Batman and Robin #23.1 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Yep, ’tis Wednesday, and it’s time to talk about…

Unfortunately, they kinda under-sent issues of Batman: The Dark Knight #23.1, so I couldn’t see the book detailing the origins of the new Ventriloquist. I’ve heard it’s apparently not all THAT great, but that fans of the character and Gail Simone‘s creepy ass writing will still like it, so I’m picking it up next week. In the meantime, let’s talk Cyborg Superman with Action Comics #23.1!

So I kinda left something important out about Supergirl last month, mainly because I thought it was a red herring. At the very end, Cyborg Superman has the genetic material he got from Supergirl imprinted onto himself, and we see that he’s Zor-El, Kara’s father. Now, I naturally assumed that between her genetic material, the fact that they were messing with her memories, and the tech that could create anything in her mind simply meant that Cyborg Superman had been turned into a duplicate of Zor-El. NOT SO. In fact, as it turns out, Brainiac transformed Zor-El into Cyborg Superman, replacing much of his organic components with cybernetics, then making him look like Jor-El, the superior sibling in the eyes of Brainiac…So, Zor-El has been made a villain who has murdered his own daughter (albeit it’s not entirely his fault, and I expect him to find a way to bring her back), and in this issue, we see that he’s a jerk that refused to listen to his brother, and an idiot who decided to experiment with Brainiac tech, the result of which got a bunch of survivors of Krypton killed…Michael Alan Nelson, I like you. I like you a lot. You made Power Girl AWESOME again. But between this and Supergirl getting brutally vaporised last issue, I REALLY hope you’ve got something amazing planned. Then again, next up is supposed to be Cyborg Superman and Brainiac beating the crap outta each other, and I guess that’s kinda awesome. The only other thing I can really point out is that, like Ventriloquist’s story being in Batman: The Dark Knight #23.1, I’m a little confused why Cyborg Superman’s story is in Action Comics #23.1.

Batman and Robin #23.1 was pretty good. Anyone that didn’t like it…well, it was Two-Face being Two-Face. If you didn’t want that, you shouldn’t have bought it. And it made sense that it was in this book, since Two-Face is gonna be the villain for the next arc. Now, it’s Two-Face taking a bunch of criminals, cops, and civilians whatnot into a court and administering his own brand of ‘justice’, which I KNOW I’ve seen him do at least a couple of times before, but it works alright. We also see that the Secret Society wanted him to join, which he did, but on the condition that the results of his coin flips are final. They decide to screw with that, so the deal’s off in a rather violent manner. Again, for Two-Face, this worked just fine, and I actually really liked Guillem March’s work in this issue. Kudos.

So that’s it for this week. Next week’s gonna be an expensive one, although the good news is that I won’t have much to buy this month after that. It’s like they know or something. lol Ja né!

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Good News/Bad News For Nightwing Fans (WARNING: SPOILERS FOR FOREVER EVIL)

So yer probably wondering where What I Bought Today is, and I’ll get it typed up as soon as I’m done with this. However, I wanted to get this outta the way first, because it’s an issue brought up online a lot as of late. Good news: Nightwing is alive, and they’re not going to kill him off. YAY! Bad news: The Crime Syndicate captured him, beat the snot out of him, then unmasked him on television, and followed that up by broadcasting information on his identity to the whole world, all the while promising to hunt down every last person he cared for and doing the same to anyone else who opposed them… … … …Okay, I have a few questions. lol

1. I’m obviously happy that Dick Grayson is alive and is still gonna be around, ‘cuz I like Nightwing a lot. However, from the standpoint of the villains…these ARE the same people that orchestrated the apparent fall of the Justice League, right? So why are they being so frigging stupid here? Look, I get it, it’s the be cruel, because letting Dick live while the world knows he’s Nightwing pretty much jeopardises any attempts he could ever make to be a hero again, and I’ll get to the problems with that in a sec, but isn’t it kinda dangerous to let arguably Batman’s greatest protégé live? And based on a cover for an upcoming issue of Justice League…Yeah, he gets away from them. Look kinda stupid now, don’cha Syndicate? That said, this one doesn’t bother me too much, since at least it would show the heroes outsmarting the villains, and so far with this story arc, they could use a victory here and there.
2. Is it really a good idea to mess with the new status quo in the Nightwing book…when it was JUST RECENTLY ESTABLISHED??? He’s only been in Chicago for a little while. Experiment with that more before you throw THIS monkey-wrench in too.
3. As I mentioned before, having his identity be public knowledge kinda messes with him being a superhero. The way I figure it, they’re gonna do one of a few things here: 1) Reverse it somehow (if they involve the devil, I quit), 2) They’re gonna have him pass the mantle to someone else and mentor that individual (I vote Tim Drake, Harper Row, or Stephanie Brown), 3) He’ll turn heel (please don’t), or 4) He’ll just have to deal with it and the people of Chi-town will either deal with it or they won’t.
4. Why do this to Nightwing? I mean, if they felt the need to do a moment where the Crime Syndicate unmasked a beaten-up superhero to show how dominant and dangerous they are, wouldn’t it make more sense if they took one of a members of the Justice League, who they apparently got the better of, and unmask them? Now, for obvious reasons, doing that to Superman or Batman would be a HUGE no-no, and Wonder Woman doesn’t really HAVE a secret identity (I think), but what about The Flash? Green Lantern? Hawkman? Katana? ANY of them? Heck, Simon Baz is actually going to be mentoring a new Green Lantern in Forever Evil anyway, why not have him be forcibly unmasked, then the new girl rescues him, then he trains her to become a Green Lantern to help him stop the Syndicate?

And I’m sorry if this seems like I’m lecturing on 2 and 4, but these are things that came pretty easy to me, and I get the feeling like DC either didn’t consider that or didn’t care. That said, do I think this is a completely stupid move that cannot be redeemed in any way? NO. A completely stupid move that couldn’t be redeemed in any way would be killing him. THIS actually has potential to work, as long as they remember to THINK. If they stay smart about what they’re doing and craft this carefully, it CAN work. However, I think I can be justified in being slightly concerned, as this IS a major change.

Oh, and real quick, before I wrap this up, people online have suggested that Nightwing getting captured and having the snot kicked outta him by Superwoman and Owlman seemed too easy…Really? These are two villains that would probably beat the snot outta Batman, and HAVE in previous continuities, but doing that to Nightwing is too easy? And as FHIZ pointed out on Twitter, if Batman can get surprise attacked by a giant swinging wooden hammer, I think it’s possible for the Crime Syndicate to get the jump on Nightwing. Just sayin’.

Anyway, lemme know what you guys think about all of this, and hopefully, everything turns out alright. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go write about…

Ja né!

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Three Classic Pokémon Get New Mega Evolutions – It’s Evaluating Time!

Yep, you heard me, three new Mega Evolutions! Let’s check ’em out in this trailer!

…Why was it shooting water from its mouth when it has three cannons?…Anyway! First of all, called it. Knew they would be giving at least Charizard a Mega Evolution, and now it seems they’ve given them to all three of the Kanto Starter Pokémon, which will be made available at some point during game-play, not sure when. So let’s take a look at these new Mega Evolutions, which means…

It’s Possibly Ambiguously Gay Evaluating Time! XD

Well, I might as well go by index number, so let’s start with Mega Venusaur.

Mega Venusaur

Mega Venusaur grows from 6’07” to 7’10”, and goes from 220.5 pounds to 342.8 pounds. It remains a Grass/Poison-type, but its type changes to Thick Fat. This reduces damage from Fire and Ice-type attacks, which are two of its major weaknesses. It still needs to watch out for Psychic and Flying-types, but hey, that’s still two weaknesses down. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.

Mega Charizard

Mega Charizard’s weight goes from 199.5 pounds to 221.6 pounds. It doesn’t change type, meaning it’s still Fire/Flying…which is weird, since it looks more like a Dragon now than it ever did. However, its ability DOES change to Drought. Drought started off as being Groudon‘s signature ability, but since then, Vulpix and Ninetails received it as their Hidden Abilities. It summons permanent sunlight to the field until such point as another weather condition replaces it. This makes Charizard’s Fire-type attacks all the more potent, and even gives it some cover from Water-type attacks, so I guess I can forgive it not changing type…for now.

Mega Blastoise

Mega Blastoise goes from weighing 188.5 pounds to 222.9 pounds. Like its fellow Starters, it doesn’t change type, despite having that new gigantic steel cannon on its back. It gains a brand new ability called Mega Launcher, which I hear is supposed to increase the power of Pulse moves, like Water Pulse and Dark Pulse…Kinda weird, seeing as how it doesn’t learn Dark Pulse (yet), but I would imagine this means more Pulse moves are gonna be included in Pokémon X & Y.

“Charge! D.N.A., Burst Mode!”

The last thing I wanna talk about is the Mega Ring. Basically, it’s a device that holds something called a Key Stone. When a Trainer‘s bond to their Pokémon is strong enough, they can activate the Mega Ring’s Key Stone to react to the Pokémon’s Mega Stone, causing them to Mega Evolve…So, apparently, we’re not even gonna try to pretend like this isn’t Digimon anymore. lol In all seriousness, though, this raises some questions. Is this a man-made device? And if so, how is this any different from the experiments done by Team Plasma? Does that make Genesect a Mega Pokémon by definition? Or perhaps this isn’t technology, but rather some form of magic. If that’s the case, where does it come from? How does it work? And how do Calem and Serena obtain them?

What do you think about Mega Evolution? Lemme know in the comments, and hopefully, we’ll be getting some answers soon. Ja né!

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