Daily Batman: Pulled by unseen forces

via.

Schnitzt einer eine Marionette, wo man den Strick hereinhängen sieht, an dem sie gezerrt wird.

We are only puppets, our dangling strings pulled by unseen forces.

(Karl Georg Büchner, Dantons Tod. Act II, Scene 3. 1835).

Daily Batman: Introduce a little anarchy, but make sure you’ve got an end in sight

via.

But the extraordinary thing is that they did not do. As much as the Joker hoped people would eat each other, that his introduction of anarchy would bear fruit in an ugly cannibalistic scene, people proved him wrong. He was so disappointed! Shocked, chagrined! But people, despite being handed a catalyst for their own manifestation of destructive doubt and discontent with the world around them, acknowledged that world’s foibles, and forgave one another. For me, this is a beautiful and redeeming script. The angry, sore, raw ones — the Joker, Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne, and the newly-commissioned Gordon — assumed the worst of the citizens of Gotham and their fears were proven wrong. What a good and special, redemptive moment for humanity that the misters Nolan rightly wrote.

Daily Batman: Talk nerdy to me — Nostalgia for that which never was

Caroline Munro, the fantasy Catwoman cast in this poster, cross-reference for the young’uns:

Catch Ms. Munro in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Starcrash, and the Hammer horror films. You can also see her go head-to-head on the small screen with Joanna Lumley — Pats from AbFab and a Bond girl herself — in “The Angels of Death,” which is Season 2, Episode 2 of The New Avengers (original airdate September 29, 1978). Catfiiiiight!

Ms. Munro was also attached through most of the 1980’s to a developing big-screen Dr. Who project which sadly never materialized.

But for me, Caroline Munro is now and ever shall be smokin’ hot helicopter pilot Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me, the tenth James Bond flick. Having worked her way up to righthand-man status in an industry traditionally dominated by males, and with her whole life ahead of her, the lovely but deadly young henchwoman is grievously murdered by 007 when he shoots a missile at her from under the ocean. Dick move.

Oh, my lord, why have I not done a Bond Girls series?! I’m a horrible, selfish, remiss person! I’ll get on that, stat. Promise. Let’s make it a February theme! If you have a favorite, shoot me pictures and I will try to include them.

Daily Batman: the Joker is on Batman and Robin’s naughty list

via.

Daily Batman: Jig is up

via davereed.

Way to give it away, Best Western. Sheesh.

Daily Batman: Beware the instrument of intelligence

By Chris Cote, via incrediblebatman on the tumblr.

Where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.

(Dante Alighieri.)

Daily Batman: Enter Harvey Dent, or, Apocrypha Now

Never trust thine enemy: for like as iron rusteth, so is his wickedness. An enemy speaketh sweetly with his lips, but in his heart he imagineth how to throw thee into a pit: he will weep with his eyes, but if he find opportunity, he will not be satisfied with blood.

(Sirach 12:10, 16.)

I’ve been doing a lot of resting and a little wool-gathering. I got to go see a man about a sandwich right now, but I’ll be back shortly with more shenanigans than you can shake a stick at. (Try and shake a stick at them all. You won’t be able to.)

Take-two Tuesday — Daily Batman: Advice, The Dark Knight edition

This post originally appeared on November 28, 2009 at 3:07PM.

This picture from The Dark Knight brings up two pieces of advice.

First, it is very important that you look at the Joker when he talks to you. Do not forget.

Second, you must accept that sometimes a thing is a foregone conclusion. Friend, he is wearing an apron fashioned of a garbage bag. There is no scenario in which this ends well for you.

Questions for discussion:

This scene is one of two in which the Joker gives a very detailed origin story about his scars. He is not asked about his scars by the people to whom he tells the stories, and the stories do not match. Why do you think this is?

Why do you think is it so important to the Joker that people look at him when he speaks to them?

Would you feel nervous if you had to talk to the Joker? (Suppose in this case he were not wearing a garbage bag and rather was just in his de rigeur violet and puce duds.) Why or why not?

Take-two Tuesday — Daily Batman: A wild beast loosed

This post originally appeared on May 26, 2010 at 9:58 pm.

“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.”

— Albert Camus

Flashback Friday — Daily Batman: the Joker’s going to take you down to Bonertown

Hella boners. Hella. He is super-good at it, even.

Daily Batman: Joker sez “Eat spaghetti” and the nature of funny business

EAT SPAGHETTI.

via

A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth.

(Joseph Conrad.)

Daily Batman: the Color of the Soul

via

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

(Marcus Aurelius)

Daily Batman: Milo is the winner of a million gold ducats

Gold coins! Click to Enlarge.

You will call me RobinChrist!

Super-pumped, guys. Remember Daily Batman: WWJD edition and my promise to mail out a million ducats to whoever brought that idea to life? Awesome friendoh Milo Weasel is first to send in the Batman and Jesus comic! Thanks a mil, bro … I super-duper needed this and Ty’s amazing “19 Man” piece. You guys are too great! Expect those gold coins in a jiffy, except I’m going out of town this week and next.

This is true.

Daily Batman: Heart of darkness edition

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

(Joseph Conrad.)

In many ways it is like the Slaughter of Innocents or Rape of the Shire. It is no kind of lesson to those experiencing it, not in the heat of the moment. Rather, it is a warning to those who read, and, as Scott McCloud justly points out, tacitly and with secret relish add their knives to the resultant “blood in the gutter.” Murdering the Object: it is still a Thing.

Daily Batman: Catmobile edition

You’re gonna fly away,
Glad you’re going my way
I love it when we’re cruising together.

Cesar Romero and Eartha Kitt get their motors runnin’.

In a kitteh-beetle.

Perfectly normal, perfectly healthy.

Daily Batman: A wild beast loosed

“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.”

— Albert Camus

Daily Batman: The Long Halloween — “St. Patrick’s Day”

Batman, The Long Halloween No. 6, “St. Patrick’s Day.”

Please note Dr. Isley’s hair is represented here by shamrocks instead of the customary ivy leaves. Erin-go-bragh, y’all!

If you are a mainly Nolanverse kind of guy, you might really enjoy the late 90’s Batman comic arc The Long Halloween, as the events of the arc unfold in the direct wake of series-re-energizing thriller Batman: Year One, which is where Nolan draws a lot of his grittier, more emotionally cordant material. The story is told via episodes centering around the holidays in every month of the year and it runs basically that a fledgling Batman, with the help of Catwoman, pursues a serial vandal and criminal known as the Holiday killer. Carmine Falcone (and daughter Sofia), Salvatore Maroni, the Joker, Dr. Jonathan Crane, the Riddler, Solomon Grundy, Poison Ivy, and many more also appear — even the Mad Hatter.

Jim Dandy to the rescue. That’s my Loo G.

Meanwhile, on the side of right, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent (who is married to his wife Gilda, as there was NEVER ANY “RACHEL DAWES” in any of the comics, and also becomes Two-Face over the course of the arc in this version of his origin) are looking to prosecute Bruce Wayne as the Holiday killer, even bringing in Alfred Pennyworth to testify against him, while Selina Kyle labors to help Bruce’s enterprises stay afloat during the trial and keep the Wayne family name and reputation clean. Bruce convinces them of his innocence and suggests they strike a pact with the goddamned Batman to bring down the mob’s control of the city’s corrupt public enterprises.

Actually, I’m cheating; this is one of the final panels of the issue just before, No. 5, “Valentine’s Day,” revealing that Ivy has been following Bruce and Selina and plans to control Bruce to get at his monies for the mafia. This just proves you CANNOT trust vegans.

Sounding like all kinds of appealing and tantalizing plot strings? Heck, yes. Check the arc out. The Long Halloween: ask for it by name!

Daily Batman: Outtakes

Yvonne Craig (Batgirl) and Adam West (Batman) goofing around on a publicity shoot.

Batgirl appeared only in the final season of the Batman series, 1967-68, but Yvonne Craig stayed attached to the character. The Joker shot Barbara Gordon, paralyzing her from the waist down, then kidnapped and stripped her father, forcing him to view blown-up shots of his suffering daughter (also mainly undressed) in Alan Moore’s 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke — over which people are often divided; I think it’s a masterwork — in order to prove to Jim Gordon and Batman that all it takes is “one bad day” for a man to be driven mad. After reading The Killing Joke for herself, Yvonne Craig complained to DC about what she viewed as the character’s egregiously cruel fate (the wiki).

Bonus Trek connection:

Yvonne played Marta, the Orion asylum inmate with green skin and sexy dance moves, in “Whom Gods Destroy,” Star Trek TOS, Season 3, Episode 15 (1968).

Daily Batman: Movie Moment, The Dark Knight/Il cavaliere oscuro — Joker edition

«Introduci un po’ di anarchia; stravolgi l’ordine prestabilito.»
(Introduce a little anarchy; distort the established order)

Il cavaliere oscuro (Christopher Nolan, 2008), edizione speciale featuring the Joker.

To them, you’re just a freak. Like me!

Why so serious?

You’ve got some fight in you. I like that

Kill the Batman. … Here’s my card.

This city deserves a better class of criminal. And I’m going to give it to them.

Ready, and, … go!

You’ll see.

«Sono un agente del caos. Lo sai qual è il bello del caos? È equo.»
(Be an agent of chaos. You know what’s beautiful about chaos? It’s fair.)

I totally dropped the ball on Dark Knight December, and I had so much cool shit planned. I’ll get back to that, I promise. Sorry.

Daily Batman: Kapow!

Still from Batman: The Movie (Leslie H. Martinson, 1966).

Robin: The Joker!
Chief O’Hara: Devilish clown prince of crime — oh, if I only had a nickle for every time he’s baffled us!

Shiver me shamrocks, Chief Darby O’Stereotype, but faith and begorrah, the little Robin is getting his pert ass beat. A little help?