Opinion on "Batman and ?" Story

Hey guys it's the Black Chivalrous Nerd Denzel Lamar once again with another post for you guys, but this time it's about the current run of my favorite duo Batman and Robin.  Okay so as we all know Damian Wayne, the current Robin, died earlier this year in Batman Incorporated Vol.2 Issue 8 and everyone in the Bat-family felt the affects of it.  But no one felt it more than Batman and some Bat-fans might say that the death of Damian affected Bruce far more than when Jason Todd died back in Death in the Family, and in my opinion Batman had every right to be affected more from Damian's death than Jason's death.  I'm not saying that Bruce doesn't love Jason as much as he loves Damian, but Damian was Bruce's seed so there's that biological father-son bond/connection between Damian and Bruce so of course his death would hurt more than Jason's but I digress.  The past few months have been a wild and crazy ride for the New 52's run on Batman and Robin after the death of Robin and the first stop is Batman and Robin issue 18.

Batman And Robin #18 features something that I haven't seen in the history of me reading comic books and that is that the entire book has no words being said from anyone.  Instead you just see Bruce walking around Wayne Manor going from room Damian's room and looking at his drawings, to the family room and sees Alfred crying while looking at an unfinished family portrait of Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Tim, and an incomplete Damian where you only see that the painter got to do Damian's face and shoulders and that was it.  Then Bruce comes into the room, sees the painting, covers it up and puts it away so no one can see it ever again. Then Bruce enters the Batcave by sliding down the poles and he envisions Damian sliding down with him and as he gets to the bottom, he notices that there's blood running down his pole but he pays it no mind and continues to suit up for night patrol.

As he's swinging through Gotham he envisions Damian swinging with him but he turns to his right and he only sees his reflection in the glass of the buildings.  Fast forward a little bit and Batman has rounded up almost most of all the criminals and leaves them on top of the police station for Gordon, Bullock and the other officers to clean up.  Then he goes back to the Batcave, washes up and as he's putting the Batsuit away he sees a note hanging on Damian's Locker, and this is where I teared up while reading it.  It was the note that Damian left Bruce as Damian rushed into battle to face Leviathan which led to Damian's death and in the note, Damian tells Bruce that "Mother may have given me life, but you taught me how to live.  Love and Respect, Your Son Damian".  Upon reading this Batman goes berserk and he starts smashing lockers, punching lockers, throwing shit around, Titus the dog is hiding in a corner cause he's scared as shit, costumes are flying everywhere.  Then the last panel/picture you see is Bruce on the floor of the Batcave, crying and clutching Damian's Robin outfit while the shoes, gloves, Robin Shurikens and even the Robin R symbol is on the floor around him.  Thus ending the issue and you would think that this would be it and that the next issue would be him swinging through Gotham with one of the former Robins by his side fighting crime, but you would be sorely wrong because the next issue was CRAZY.

Now in issue 19, it started the Batman And ? arc that featured Batman and a member of the Bat-family and the first one was the third Robin, Tim Drake AKA Red Robin.  This issue also features the introduction of Carrie Kelley, the girl who donned the Robin title during Frank Miller's 1986 Batman Classic The Dark Knight Returns.  In the New 52 universe, Carrie Kelley is a college freshman who is hired by Bruce to be a theatre tutor for Damian and in this issue we see that it's been a few weeks since his death and no one has told Carrie.  Next you see Bruce knocking on someone's door and the door opens up and it's Carrie Kelley in the Robin costume that she wore during The Dark Knight Returns.  Bruce hands her something and goes to leave and as he gets into the car, Carrie screams out to him about where Damian is and Alfred drives off per order of Bruce.  Fast forward to Batman capturing Frakenstein from S.H.A.D.E. organization, taking him to Castle Frankenstein up North and there Batman tells Frakenstein that Batman will use certain parts of Frankenstein to resurrect Damian.

Now let's pause for a minute because I know I miss certain people that are in my life and I would love to see them walk this Earth again, but I would NEVER do some Operation, create a Frankenstein like creature of that person to bring them back.  Plus, didn't it cross Batman's mind that he can sneak into Ra's Al Ghul's temple and go to the Lazarus Pit and revive Damian there?  Apparently that didn't cross his mind but I digress, as Batman proceeds to dissect and disassemble Frankenstein, Tim Drake comes through a window and then him and Bruce go at it as Tim tries to stop Bruce from doing this and tries to talk sense into him while Bruce is ignoring Tim and pushes Tim back and tries to keep going.  Then finally Tim causes an explosion and destroys the machines that Bruce had planned to use to resurrect Damian, Bruce gives Tim a mean look and then disappears.  Then the ending scene of the issue is Carrie and her roommate talking about Damian and how he stopped coming by and how she might need a new student and then the last panel you see is a check written to Carrie from Bruce Wayne for 10 G's and that ends issue 19.

In issue 20, Bruce is in the Batcave and running surveillance via the computer to see what is going in Ethiopia when Alfred radios in and says that Bruce has a visitor in Miss Carrie Kelley that wants to see him.  Bruce tells her that Damian hasn't been around because he's going to be learning and studying abroad for several years and that the 10,000 dollars was for the lessons and for the future lessons that he will miss but Carrie tells him that he sent Damian away because Damian was cramping Bruce's Bachelor lifestyle and says that she only took 1,000 from the 10,000 because she can't be paid for future lessons that hasn't happened.  After this altercation, Jason Todd is getting ready to leave when Batman tells him that he needs Jason help on a mission in Ethiopia and when Jason asks "why me?', Bruce says that it's because he's seeing red.

So in Ethiopia it turns out that the guys that Batman were spying on were actually guys who tried to get paid half a billion dollars from Talia if they killed off Damian, so now Batman wants them to pay for their crimes.  After blinding and dazing them with a few Flash Bang Missiles, Batman and Red Hood jump out of a car that was launched out of the Batwing and they exit out guns blazing and ready to disarm guys.  Batman grabs a snipers wrists and uses new tech to damage the shooters nerves beyond repair and then after all of the shooters have been taken care of, Batman take Red Hood on a little detour.  After about an hour or two of driving in the desert, they arrive to their destination and where they're at is the Magdala Valley, the place where Jason Todd originally died.

Bruce's plan was to bring Jason here to the place where he died and how he was brought back to life so that Batman could apply it to bringing Damian back to life.  The fact that Jason is back here to where he died just made Jason mad and him and Bruce proceed to fight and argue and the two of them are scrapping in the middle of the desert and then Jason starts wailing on Bruce's face then takes the car and leaves Batman alone.  After that scene, the next scene we see is of a person in a room and then they flip a coin, it bounces across the floor and then it lands on heads and he says "No" thus bringing an end to issue 20.  So now we know that Two-Face is going to be in the New 52 but we don't know how and when but he's here.

In issue 21, Batgirl is trying to find the strength to talk to Batman about everything including Damian, The Joker and the broken trust between Bruce and the rest of the gang.  Also, Batgirl is in uniform but the yellow bat symbol on her chest has been ripped off and we don't know whether it was her doing or it was ripped off while in battle.  During a fight in the docks, Batman notices the symbol is missing on Batgirl's outfit and tells her "I guess it's official then, Good Bye" and then leaves the docks.  Later that night, Barbara is on the ledge on the outside of her father's office and is having this father/daughter moment with Jim where you don't know if he hears her or not but Babs is going on and pouring out her heart to her father and then pulls out the grappling gun and leaves.  A day or two later, a hostage situation goes down and Batman says that the thugs should let the hostages go and they should have Batman as their hostage.  

After the thugs agree, Batman proceeds to beat the living bat guano out of them and while all of this is going on, Batgirl is recording this via her optical recording mechanism from her cowl.  Then when Bullock tries to calm Batman down, Batman turns around, cold clocks Bullock and then throws a smoke pellet down and tell Bullock to never touch him again and then Batman leaves.  The next scene we see is Batgirl and Batman in the Batcave and Batgirl tries to talk some sense into Bruce and then shows him the footage of the beat down that happened and he destroyed the screen and then she continued to try to talk to Bruce but he ultimately kicked her out of the Batcave that left him standing there by himself thus ending issue 21.

In issue 22, we see the continuation of Carrie Kelley dealing with Bruce and company but this time she has been hired by Alfred to keep and eye on Titus three times a week.  She is still asking to hear from Damian and is persistent about it so much to the point that she has made a deal with Bruce that she will give him Damian's student interview and a movie that she made about Titus in exchange to hear from Damian because Damian was like the little brother that she never had.  After Carrie leaves, Bruce takes the flash drive that contains Damian's interview, splices it and creates a voice mail message and sends it to Carrie's voicemail.

Meanwhile in another part of Gotham, Catwoman is out doing what she does best when she's not participating in JLA missions and that's being a cat burglar(duh!) when she gets a call from Colonel Trevor about a mission that requires her particular.... talents.  Later that night, she shines the Cat symbol to get Batman's attention and then when he gets to her, she tells him about a mission to rescue a spy that's being tortured and when she told Batman that she was in the JLA, he didn't believe her and when she asked him about his Justice League partners?  He tells her that they're not partners but associates and then they go towards the Chinese Embassy, beat down guards and then they reach the target but only to see that it's actually a rescue mission for a little girl.  After beating down the armored guards, there's a man cowardly behind the little girl and threatens to shoot her but Batman tells her to think again and then he lets her go.

After that Batman and Catwoman proceed to take the little girl back to her parents and for the first since the events that led to Damian's death, Batman is smiling along with Catwoman and the little girl.  Soon after that, Catwoman goes back to her penthouse where Batman has left her a gift of a brand new helmet and she looks verrrrrrrrrrry amused by this.  After that we go to Carrie's house where she listens to the voicemail that she believes is from Damian but in reality it's the created voicemail that Bruce made for Carrie and in the message, Damian tells Carrie that due to the time differences that they should stay in touch via e-mail. The next scene that we see is Two-Face, in a restaurant, flipping the coin as everyone in the restaurant and then when the coin shows the clean side, he says "No" again and then he leaves the restaurant without hurting anyone, thus ending this issue.  

OKAY!!!!!!! I know this post is long and I apologize but I believe that this is better than multiple posts plus, it helps to just knock this post out in one shot anyway.

Okay guys here it is.  The final issue of the Batman and ? arc and of course Peter Tomasi and company saved the best for last(No disrespect to the others, but Nightwing's the shit) this issue was the original Dynamic Duo, Bruce and Dick side by side once again in this issue that was entitled Second Chance and one would think that with that title that Bruce finally found a way to save Damian and all is right with the world right? Well sit back relax and let me tell you about it because this issue is definitely one that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and biting your fingernails like in the cartoons.  The issue opens up with Batman in a box with his hands and ankles cuffed while having Talia talk to him from outside of the box.

As Batman is in this box, water is filling up and he is trying to escape from it just like Houdini.  Now when I first saw this i was WHAT THE HAM AND EGGS IS GOING ON?  And then you see that it's a simulation that Bruce Wayne has made in a way to see what would happen if he had made it to save Damian on that dreadful day.  Time and time again he has failed the simulation and while this is going on, Dick Grayson and Alfred are sitting at the monitors and watching him do this.  After a while, Dick Grayson grabs a pair of simulation goggles and then the action begins because as soon as Damian is facing his clone and calls for Bruce, Bruce and Dick come crashing into the window ready to join in on the fight against this fake that was wrecking havoc on the Batman Incorporated building.  

Throughout the fight, all three heroes are giving everything they got to defeat this Damian clone but he is too powerful for them.  Then just as the clone is about to deliver the finishing blow to Damian, the picture is to a beaten down Batman and you see the sound effect of "SHUNK!!!" and then you look and Nightwing has stabbed and killed the Damian clone.  Then next thing you see is Damian saying that now that the clone was taken care of, now they can go get Talia and then as Damian continues to talk he starts to fade away as the simulation starts to come to a close.  Then the next thing you see is Bruce and Dick in the Batcave talking and Dick tells Bruce to not let Damian's death swallow him into despair but use it as a strength just like how he used the death of his parents to become Batman.

Bruce and Dick walk away from the Simulation and go to another room and Alfred is left alone with the simulation and he goes to it, puts on the goggles and says begin simulation.  The next scene you see is Alfred and Damian in the Batcave looking at the carnage that was going down in that issue of Batman Incorporated and we see Damian suit and get ready to go out.  Alfred walks up to Damian and taps Damian on his neck and then next thing you know, you see Damian begins to get dizzy, he says,"fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." and falls out because Alfred used a tranquilizing pin that looked like it could've been one of Jokers' pin.  I thought it was a nice little one up on Damian because earlier in the Batman and Robin New 52 run, Alfred tried to stealthily put a tracker on Damian's bike as he was heading out one night but Damian found it.  Then after Damian passed out, Alfred carries him into his bed and places him there all while telling Damian that along with Bruce, Alfred is mighty proud of him and they only want what's best for him.

While this is going on, Bruce is back in the Batcave, sees Alfred in the simulation and then Alfred wakes up and he starts to cry and Bruce apologizes because he was too selfish to see that Alfred was hurting just as well.  Bruce was also selfish to realize that they both lost a son and then after Alfred asks for the machine to be turned off, Bruce obliges and turns off the simulator altogether.  

Alright guys that's the Batman and ? in a nutshell and in my honest opinion I like how they did it.  I like how when it came to people trying to talk some sense into Bruce, they went from the most recent Robin alive being Tim Drake to the very first Robin in Dick Grayson with Dick being the one that really talks some sense into Batman and he actually listens.  I love how they used this arc to introduce us to Carrie Kelley in the New 52 and I wonder if they will make her the new Robin now that she's involved in a way with Wayne Manor.  I also love how within this little arc, they are preparing us for another story arc that deals with Two-Face and I can't wait to see what comes out from this.

Alright guys that's all the time for now.  Don't forget to comment, like, share, +1, Retweet and donate just as well.  Every little bit helps and every little bit counts so please chip in.  This is the Black Chivalrous Nerd saying until next time.. LOVE, PEACE AND BACON GREASE *SMOKE BOMBS OUT*

Dedicated to Damian Wayne... R.I.P. TO THE GREATEST AND DEADLIEST ROBIN EVER

Saints Row 4 Review

Hey what's going on you guys it's your friendly neighborhood Black Chivalrous Nerd Denzel Lamar and I'm here with a brand new review and this time it's for Volition's Multimillion cash cow video game about everyone's favorite Street Gang that rocks more Purple than Barney.  The game I'm talking about is entitled Saint's Row 4.  Not only is this the fourth installment of the series but it's the first one done by Deep Silver which was the company that picked up the Saint's Row series after THQ went under and in my opinion, I believe that Deep Silver did not disappoint the fans of the 3rd Street Saint's by keeping everything that makes the Saint's just as over the top and awesome that they are.

The story behind Saints Row 4 is quite simple, your character has gone from being the mute gangster that rolled through Stillwater shooting up Vice Kings, Ballers, LC's, etc. and having an old run down Chapel as HQ to becoming the President of the United States.  The ultimate story of Starting from nothing and making something out of nothing and going further than what anyone expected you to go.  Another thing about the story of this game is that Planet Earth is invaded by aliens and everyone is abducted and entered into pods, but we'll get to that soon because I will be talking about other things about the game so if you're on the fence of buying this, you might buy it after reading this.  

The game starts with your character, Shaundi and Pierce in a chopper flying over a desert on a mission and the music playing as you are flying to your destination is none other than Long Tall Sally by Little Richard just like in the 1st Helicopter mission of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon and just like in the Predator movie.  Then you meet a friend of Saints member/ muscleman Oleg and former KGB agent Asha and the four of you go on an mission to stop a missile that is aiming to destroy the world that reminded me of a Metal Gear Solid mission.  Then at the end of the mission your character is climbing the missile that you were trying to stop as it is ascending into the sky, and as you're climbing the missile to disarm it, the music playing in the background is Don't want to miss a thing by Aerosmith.  After you disarm and jump off the missile as it explodes in the sky, you crash land into the president's chair in the oval office, prop your feet up onto the desk, put your arms behind your head and relax, THUS beginning the game as the president of the United States.

After that you can choose between a few premade protagonists OR you can use one of the creations that you created using the Inauguration Station(Demo of Saints Row 4) and then the next cut scene you see is your character, Pierce and Ben King (Yes the former leader of SR1's Vice Kings) walking down a long hallway with people chilling in the hallways drinking 40's and smoking weed while there are Strippers galore on so many stripper poles that you would think that it was a Stripper convention going on in DC at that moment.  While talking to those two, your character grabs an apple, turns a corner and gives it to an uncaged Tiger, yes you heard me right when i said a TIGER,  then your character enters another hallway as you proceed towards the Conference room where all of the press is at asking Kinzie questions about you The President.  Then as you walk down the hallway you hear a voice and a figure appear and it's Keith David as the Vice President and he has two bills that needs your viewing but but only one can go through.  

One of the bills is the Cure of Cancer and the other is the bill to finally put an end to world hunger and you have to choose which one.  After that you continue to walk down the hallway and you get encountered by a person who starts to berate you and say that you are a horrible president, which cues up another multi choice of either choosing the High road which is you punching him in the face OR you can choose the Low road which means you punch him in the nuts and honestly, who doesn't like seeing a funny ass nut shot lol.  After that you run into Josh Birk who wants to hang out with the Prez and you have to decide whether to hang out with him and turn him down quietly.  After that, you enter the conference room where Shaundi tells you about how a bunch of people including Asha, Matt Miller(Former Leader of the Deckers and now an agent for MI6) and Kinzie believe we are about to be invaded by aliens and as your character starts to deny and blow off these claims, a huge alien invasion begins Thus we get introduced to the Antagonist named Zinyak who is the leader of the Alien race called the Zin.  

Zinyak and his army begins to abduct members of your cabinet as well as normal citizens just as well and you start shooting up Zin as you fight your way through the White House.  After you get outside, you activate a defense system that is ultimately a combination of every kind of fire arm in the world that it looked like Tony Stark created it for the President.  After that you fire down multiple Zin ships and then you crash land into Zinyak's ship and proceed to "try" to stop him but fail and become a prisoner to him and his fleet.  I'm going to stop the the walkthrough because I don't want to spoil anymore of the story for you but all I'm going to say is there is so much more crazy shit that happens in the game that you have got to get it.  This game has so much fun, over the top things in this game that you will always have a fun time playing this game.

The gameplay in this game is fluid and very easy to comprehend and understand, the graphics on this game looks just like the graphics from SR3, only it's a little more cleaned up.  My one gripe that I have with the game is the music that the radio plays when you go around Steelport.  It seems like they only have two or three songs per radio station but they are all good songs.  I wish that they added more songs to each radio station because there are some missions in the game where you would need a car and have more than two songs on the radio would be a great idea, but then again that's just me.  

Now I'm going to talk about one aspects of the game that I was excited for since the last game and that's the introduction of your character having Super Powers.  Back when SR3 was out, there was suppose to be a DLC coming out that allows your character to have Super Powers and they can use them throughout Steelport to help you in the game.  Then THQ got financial problems, went under and the Super Power DLC was never released for Saints Row 3 until Deep Silver picked up SR and made that DLC the key part of Saints Row 4.  The Super powers that you get are Super Jump, Super Speed, Force Field, Death From Above, Blast, Telekenesis, Stomp and Buff and each power has it's own branch of powers within itself so you can customize your powers however you want.  But some powers have their limits and you need to give them time to recharge.  To upgrade your powers you have to collect clusters which are scattered all over Steelport and these can be used to lengthen certain powers and strengthen them up just as well.

Of course super powers aren't the only things in the game that is able to be upgraded, you can customize your weapons, vehicles, and even your character can be upgraded and customized from health to damage resistance to whether they can wield dual guns or not.  Another aspect that I love in this game is that Deep Silver knows that the Saints Row series is meant to be over the top, and is basically a parody of gang like video games.  Another thing that i love about it is that in this game they also parody off of other games.  For Example, your character and crew are on a space ship and you can talk or romance them just like in the Mass Effect games.  Also, just like in Mass Effect, you can perform missions with Crew members that after the mission you gain their loyalty and you earn their trust even more.  Another example of SR 4 parodying other video games is in one level you get to play through the level just like it was levels from Streets of Rage and it is packed with the Streets of Rage like music and it even has the muffled voice over talking throughout the level.  The last example I will talk about is the mission that you do when you are trying to rescue Asha and in this mission it plays just like a Metal Gear Solid video game, to the point where if you die or mess up, it's game over and you hear Kinzie going, "Boss? Boss? BOSS?" just like in the MGS video games.  Also in that mission they have the MGS like noise that happens when stuff happens that catches the attention of the enemy but instead of question marks and exclamation points, you will see "OMG" and "wtf?" over their head and it is very enjoyable.

Now I will talk about a few things that I really enjoyed about the game that I'm really glad that they did what they did.  The first thing that I enjoyed was bringing Keith David back for this game because apparently this game was suppose to be the last game and I believe that if this game is the last game that it's only fair that they include Keith David in the game and I love the little tongue in cheek jabs that every character makes at about Keith in that he sounds and looks just like Julius(The character that Keith David voiced during SR1 and SR2).  The second thing that I like about the game is how they explained in detail in the game about Johnny Gat coming back and how he didn't die in the Third game but was abducted by Zinyak because Zinyak thought that Johnny Gat was the one human being that could defeat him.  The third and final thing that I thought was awesome, cool and sweet at the same time was the Ben King character and the voices behind him.  Now everyone that played the first Saints Row game knows that the original voice of Ben was the Late Michael Clark Duncan, but since he died the people of Volition and Deep Silver reached out to Terry Crews(The Old Spice Muscle guy) and had him portray the voice but what I love about that is that during the credits, they have Michael's name credited as one of the voices and next to his name is the "RIP" in parenthesis.  Then the other thing that I thought was sweet was during the credits you hear the voice actors singing Biz Markie's Just a friend and as everyone fades out, the last voice you hear is Michael's voice and I thought that was a nice little surprise that they put in there.

Overall I am thoroughly and extremely satisfied with Saints Row 4, I give the game a 9.5 and I highly recommend people to go buy it.  The game is $60 or you can wait until the price drops to get it and it is for the 360 and PS3. Okay guys that's all the time I have for today so don't forget to comment, Like, plus 1, share and Donate to the website.  Some big things are being planned for Black Chivalrous Nerd but I can't do it without your help.  Until next time, LOVE PEACE AND BACON GREASE and Saints 4 Life *Smoke Bombs Out*