Right, we’re a culture based site here so therefore no strand of the cultural spectrum should be off-limits to our wide palette of coverage. This means I can justify having a ‘DC fan-boy’ moment as being in the best interest of our readers and I’m entitled to do so.
Nobody can stop me! I’m drunk with blogging power!
Next Wednesday (that’s the 28th of August to all you Marty McFly’s visiting this in the future) sees the release of Absolute Superman/Batman Vol. 1 which is a nice collected re-release of the best selling series of comics from 2003 to 2011 which saw the caped crusader in the same universe as the big blue boy scout. Apart from the comics themselves, this new release features some initial sketches, extra artwork and a new cover. Fancy!
But wait, what’s that I hear you say? ‘why are you telling us about a series of comics that have already been published with the only difference being now they’ll have a hard cover and a hefty price tag?’ Well I hear your point and that’s why I’ll explain the importance of this comic book fan-boydom.
It was pretty hard to ignore the announcement last month at Comic-Con that the next Superman film will feature Batman and that Zack Snyder will indeed be at the helm, attempting to combine his second Supes outing with a tricky reboot of the Batman franchise which will no doubt be a kick start for the long-awaited Justice League film.
It’s fair to say that viewing Man Of Steel was equivalent to having a big lump of kryptonite put around your neck and then being thrown into a swimming pool. The whole outing felt overblown, overly macho and horribly soulless, so the news that Snyder was now being given the Batman reboot as well was enough to have me weeping into my Christopher Reeve bedsheets.
However, maybe all is not lost. The Watchmen proved that Snyder can put together a good superhero movie when staying close to the source text, so maybe the Superman/Batman re-release is just DC’s way of saying ‘Hey Zack, we’ve done this before and we’re pretty good at it, so how about you pay attention?’ The dual narrative style of the series and the way it explores the opposing viewpoints of both characters and their estimations of each other is something that they should consider with the new film, not to mention the really nice visual style.
Absolute Superman/Batman vol. 1 will be out in all good comic book stores (online and real) on the 28th of August and is worth picking up for anyone interested where the movies could be heading. However, don’t blame if it turns out to be god-awful.
