(I’m also doing lots of not writing, having finally learned to allow myself to enjoy my life and not spend so much time typing.)

One of my favorite gigs is reviewing three of DC Comics’ monthly Batman titles for Batman on Film — created, operated, and edited by Bill “Jett” Ramey, who’s the hardest working Batman fan on the planet.

(I know I say that all the time, but it’s true.)

With big changes coming to the Batman titles in November (which you can read about here), I’ll only be reviewing Detective Comics for a while. Until that happens, here’s a list of all the reviews I’ve written for Bill this summer.

DETECTIVE COMICS

Review: Detective Comics #866

Review: Detective Comics #867

Review: Detective Comics #868

The best of these three is easily #866, which was written by the legendary Dennis O’Neil, who reinvigorated Batman comics in the 1970s by returning the character to his serious roots after the silly science fiction of the 1950s and the camp of the 1960s. Christopher Nolan’s Batman films draw heavily from this era, which saw the creation of such villains as Ra’s Al Ghul (in “Daughter of the Demon” in June 1971′s Batman #232), who played a massive role in Nolan’s Batman Begins.

Without O’Neil’s visionary take on the Dark Knight, we’d never have gotten a scene of Bruce Wayne and Ra’s Al Ghul sword-fighting on a glacier. And that’s not a world I’d want to live in.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS

Review: Gotham City Sirens #13

Review: Gotham City Sirens #14

Review: Gotham City Sirens #15

Under the tutelage of Paul Dini, who remains for my money the greatest narrative architect ever to set foot in Gotham City, this book began as a lot of fun with a firecracker premise:

Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn move into a secret lair together and form a Charlie’s Angels-esque alliance, trying to be good in a city where they’ve had plenty of practice being bad.

Dini’s apparently no longer with the title, and it’s suffering greatly in his absence. For a great collection of Dini’s early issues, check out this gorgeous hardcover.

STREETS OF GOTHAM

Review: Streets of Gotham #13

Review: Streets of Gotham #14

Review: Streets of Gotham #15

After their dynamite run on Detective Comics, Dini and my new favorite Batman artist, Dustin Nguyen, were relegated to satellite titles when Grant Morrison’s admittedly inspired insanity became the driving force behind Batman at DC.

I cannot possibly recommend their hardcover collections Private Casebook and Heart of Hush enough, and it breaks my heart that such magnificently awesome storytelling was pushed aside for Morrison’s continuing craziness.

But it is what it is.

Issue #14 began a sequel to “Heart of Hush” that mysteriously didn’t get continued at all in #15. Read the reviews for more details.

And while I’ve got your Bat-ears bent, don’t forget to grab a copy of Batwoman: Elegy, one of the spookiest, sexiest, most supremely bad-ass comics stories I’ve read in my entire life.

More soon, and big thanks as always to Bill for the opportunity! News should start arriving soon about the next Nolan/Bale Batman movie, and BOF will be the place for all the information you’ll ever need.

(Though in the meantime I’ve found a solution in their Double Rally Burger, which is delicious and basically what the Buford used to be. )

Right now Rally’s is doing their new Unbelieva-Burgers promotion, and I just finished the A-1 Crispy Onion.

HELLO!

Outstanding. There’s no fast food patty that matches the flavor of the Little Place with the Big Taste, and this burger marries that meat under a sesame seed bun with crispy fried onion straws, melted cheese sauce, and a healthy slathering of A-1 steak sauce.

Sometimes burgers like this can be too sloppy, which has been a valid criticism of some of the messier chicken sandwiches Rally’s has offered in the past.

Not so with this tasty marvel. The two sauces complement each other perfectly with just the right amount of zing, and I couldn’t get enough of the pleasing crunch of the onion straws.

For backup, I got a Rallyburger with no pickles and no mustard. I still find it to be the most explosively tasty fast food burger on the planet.

My total was $2.14 for both burgers, and I washed them down with a crisp, clean Mountain Dew Throwback from home.

I’ll probably skip the Bacon Cheddar Crisp because I don’t like the idea of ground-up bacon, but I’ll definitely try the Mushroom Swiss next week, and I’ll certainly get another A-1 Crispy Onion. It’s just a ridiculous amount of flavor and punch for your burger buck.

I ate a lot.

As many of you know, I packed on about 40 pounds over the course of 2008 and 2009. How could I have let that happen? I don’t know. How does anything happen?

Anyway, I’ve burned it all off this year thanks to the outrageously painful insanity of … Insanity. On October 15, I will hit 35 years of age in the absolute best shape of my life. I feel better — and I feel better about myself — than I ever have.

But that still doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally like to eat like a slob.

So last night I had:

1 corn dog

1 pork BBQ sandwich

1 roasted lamb sandwich with BBQ sauce

1 grilled pork chop sandwich with BBQ sauce

1/3 of my dad’s catfish sandwich

1/2 of my dad’s funnel cake

The amount of BBQ sauce I dripped on my pants? Acceptable.

I love the fair. It’s so much fun to watch the people and eat the food. No humidity last night, either, and the breeze was entirely welcome. I actually had what’s still the best date of my life at the fair once — we had corn dogs as appetizers, ribeye sandwiches for the main course, and ice cream cones for dessert. I love a woman who loves to eat, and someday hope to marry one.

And since I didn’t have room for an Italian sausage with all the fixings last night, I think I have to go to the fair again.

Back in June, I was the guest on SOLDOUTcast, the awesome weekly podcast created by my friends Aaron and Mike.

Check these guys out — they put a lot of humor and heart into what they do, and the sky’s the limit when it comes to discussion topics.

On my first guest appearance, we performed a script I wrote that basically turned their podcast into a post-apocalyptic action movie. You can listen to the original installment here.

And now we’ve done the sequel, which is available here.

And you should listen to it, because it’s kind of amazing.

Mike’s fiancée Tiffany was able to play herself this time (though Mike’s impersonation of her in Part 1 was pretty hilarious), and the guys’ guest host for #22, our friend Greg Wilson, steps up to rescue us all from the clutches of evil before everything goes all Empire Strikes Back at the end.

The stakes have never been so high.

The massive amount of time and care that Mike put into editing this thing is flabbergasting, and the vocal performances from everyone are off the charts. Greg makes for a mighty Iron King, and when Aaron is called upon to express the greatest sorrow any man has ever felt about anything, all I can say is that you’ll feel it, too.

Here are just some of the things that happen in the sequel:

Flaming pig monsters!

Christina Hendricks in furry space lingerie!

Battles!

Sex!

Mythology!

Shortcuts!

Escapes!

It’s out of control, and ready for consumption.

Please let Aaron and Mike know what you think.

And yes, I wrote myself into a romantic relationship with Erica Durance of television’s Smallville.

So sue me!

She turns 42 today. This photo, from her official website, was taken in April.

Read all about it here.

I loved the first two Spider-Man movies. Especially the second one.

Then the third one came along and … I can’t even talk about it anymore.

But here’s the review I did back in 2007. I don’t own the first two on Blu-Ray because they’re only available in a three-pack with the third one, and that piece of garbage isn’t allowed in my home.

Anyway, when director Sam Raimi and Sony couldn’t agree on the direction for a fourth film, Raimi and his cast (including Peter Parker himself, Tobey Maguire) were let go in favor of a total franchise reboot with new helmer Marc Webb (of (500) Days of Summer fame) in charge. The new film will reportedly take Peter back to high school and do everything all over again, with more emphasis on the teen angst stuff.

Eh.

After Spider-Man 3, there really wasn’t much of anything they could have done to restore my interest in this character. Maybe this new movie will be awesome, and I hope it is, but I’ll have to see and read a lot more about it before I can decide if I’m even excited.

In the meantime, best wishes and good luck to Mr. Garfield and his giant fucking hair.

Not since the golden era of The X-Files have I been so outrageously furious about a season finale … in a good way. And I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since X-Files veteran Vince Gilligan created Breaking Bad and pulled both writing and directing duties on this episode.

“No half measures.” That’s what Mike told Walt last week, and Walt took those words way, way, way more than seriously. Here we see the ramifications of Walt’s actions … and a domino effect of game-changing choices that will define a fourth season that needs to be airing now, now, now, now, now.

This is truly, confidently, and completely the stuff great television is made of.

I’ve turned several of you on to this show, so I’ll give you plenty of room to stop reading if you’re not caught up. Full discussion and spoilers to follow.

In 10 …

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And …

Wow.

From Hank’s last-second, hail-mary take-down of the Mexican Terminator Brothers in “One Minute” to Walt’s hit-run-and-gun dispatching of Gus’s thugs who were about to kill Jesse at the end of last week’s episode, I’ve spent a lot of time inching back and forth across my couch in nervous excitement and pure shock this season. The first season was great, and the second season was even better, but season three has seen this show hitting an entirely new level. It’s easily my favorite show on television right now, which isn’t an easy thing to say, because I’m watching more good shows right now than I have in years.

When Bryan Cranston won his second Emmy, I hadn’t yet watched all of seasons one and two on Blu-Ray yet. And I remember thinking, “Bryan Cranston again?”

Now that I’ve seen all the episodes, I know there was simply no other choice.

I loved the cinematography of Walt’s desert meeting with Gus. I loved the reveal that Jesse was still in town. I loved that when Walt told Jesse that he knew what they had to do, I didn’t immediately piece it together that Walt meant to kill Gale.

Just last week, when Jesse wanted to poison the thugs who’d ordered the kid to kill Combo, Walt told Jesse that he wasn’t a murderer, even though Walt killed Krazy 8 all the way back in the third episode. But we all know how Walt can lie to himself just as well as he can lie to everyone else, and I’m sure Walt justified that to himself as self defense.

But what he did for Jesse at the end of “Half Measures,” even though it was done in Jesse’s defense, shows that Walt has fully embraced the dark side. And I love it.

Earlier this season, as Walt struggled to whitewash his own guilt, Jesse was telling us he was okay with being the bad guy. And I was furious when he decided to sell meth to his support group, though, in typical Breaking Bad fashion, that storyline didn’t go where I expected it to. Watching the two of them switch roles has been fascinating.

I was initially a little disappointed in the coincidences. After having Walt share a second season beer with Jane’s father while discussing fathers and daughters immediately before he allowed Jane to die, it was a bit much to swallow that the girl Jesse chose as an easy target from his support group just happened to be the big sister of the kid who killed Combo.

Whatever. I’ll allow it. Because the results of that storyline just keep paying off in outrageously awesome ways. And I love how Jesse’s plan to hook her on meth immediately ended when he found out she had a kid. A nice callback to the protective streak we’ve seen Jesse have for children in the past.

This was easily the show’s finest hour so far. Walt’s steely reserve when outlining Gus’s options directly to Gus’s face in the desert, when Gus could easily have had him shot at any second, was awesome. And Gus continues to be the devil, so softspoken and reserved, but possessing great and terrible evil inside him. We saw more hints of it tonight than we’ve ever seen before, and what we’re bound to see next season terrifies me.

Mike’s big action sequence was bad-ass beyond belief, with Jonathan Banks continuing to do spectacular work here.

God bless whoever hired Bob Odenkirk to play Saul.

And what about that ending? I was heartbroken and angry and shocked that Walt would give up Jesse to Mike and Victor so easily … until the epic moment when Walt shouted the score to Jesse on his cell phone and turned the situation around against Victor and Mike. Walt’s intelligence is a marvel to behold, and that entire sequence is pure perfection in its execution. When Walt spouted off Gale’s address and raised up to his full height while straightening his collar and using his voice to blow a bigger whole in Mike’s night than any bullet ever could, I was cheering.

We’re left with so many things to wonder and worry about until season four begins. Did Jesse really kill Gale? Aaron Paul was devastatingly amazing in those final moments, and after a season of thinking that Jesse deserves what’s coming to him, I’m right back to rooting for his redemption.

I don’t think he really did it. But it would be so much more powerful and shocking if he did. What do you think?

And let’s say that Jesse really did kill Gale. How is he going to escape from Victor, who’s on his way to stop Jesse from doing what the final shot — literally — tells us he’s possibly already done?

And if Jesse does escape, and if Gale is really dead, will Gus really let Walter go back to cooking his meth? Walt is hedging his bets that Gus’s operation can’t sustain itself without constant production, and Gus’s actions certainly support Walt’s assumption.

My theory about the finale was that Walt would kill Gus and set up his own enterprise in the car wash next season, but that’s entirely out the window. Or is it?

And what about Hank? Now that he’s out of the hospital, it’s only a matter of time before he finds out his medical care is being paid for by Walt’s “gambling money.” How is Walt going to feel about that, and how long will it be before his investigation brings him to Walter’s doorstep?

(Anna Gunn’s performance as Skyler spun that lie to Marie several episodes ago was one of the season’s finest.)

So many things can go wrong from here. So many things can get worse, and have to, and will, in ways we won’t be able to predict.

Hands down, there’s just nothing better on television right now. Thanks to everyone involved for an exciting, challenging season that upped the stakes infinitely in its awesome, awesome finale.

The first season of FX’s excellent new series Justified gunned its way to one hell of an ending last week, posing new questions and teasing new directions between every shot fired.

And though I’ll never get tired of watching U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) zing bullets into bad guys who’ve got it coming, the show’s greatest strengths continue to be its characters and the things they say, which always make the writer in me extremely jealous.

If you’re new to the show or haven’t seen the finale yet, you should stop reading right now, because I’m going to talk about everything up to and including the ending.

Extreme spoilers in 10 …

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And …

Okay.

Bo Crowder (M.C. Gainey) is probably dead, and that’s definitely good. But what did you think about the season-long arc of his son, Boyd (Walton Goggins), who claims to have found Jesus even though he still loves to bazooka things?

For most of the season, I thought Boyd was faking it, just as I’m pretty sure he was faking white supremacy in the pilot. After all, Boyd’s a sneaky soul, and Raylan has already suggested that Boyd would do, say, and pretend to be anything if he thought it would get him a leg up on the criminal competition. And Boyd certainly seemed to be living up to the accusation, though the sheer awesomeness that Goggins injected into each of Boyd’s biblical monologues was enough to make you believe he was a believer.

In the finale, it seems that not even Boyd himself knows how full of shit he really is, and I love that. And just as Boyd has repeatedly expressed his hopes that his newfound salvation would rub off on Raylan, I think we have to assume that a surprising amount of Raylan has rubbed off on Boyd. In other words, I think it’s possible that the “right” in his righteousness might actually be sincere.

Other topics of discussion, observation, and curiosity:

1. What kind of story is Raylan going to come up with to explain how Boyd got away — because Raylan allowed him to — at the end? And what kind of new dynamic will that create between Raylan and Boyd next season? Boyd has been set up to be Raylan’s archenemy, but after the finale, they’re seeming more and more like brothers every day. The cartel in Miami probably just bumped Boyd up to number two on their Most Wanted list behind Raylan. And Raylan’s got enough heat on himself from the Marshal service already after shooting Tommy Bucks in Miami and half the human-sized varmints in Harlan County (and a couple of gun thugs in Los Angeles, too), so I’ll be curious to see what his status is when the show returns next season.

2. After Winona (Natalie Zea) gave Raylan that sweet, sincere explanation of why she chose her new husband, Gary, over him in the episode “Hatless” (which featured outstanding supporting work from Jere Burns, who’s also been amazing on Breaking Bad this season), I found it a little surprising that she showed up at Raylan’s motel room for a good, old-fashioned Kentucky hammering in “Fathers and Sons” a couple of weeks ago. Their awkward courthouse scene in “Bulletville” was played with plenty of unspoken heat by Zea and Olyphant, and I’m almost surprised we didn’t see more of them together in the episode. That’s why I think the season premiere, by default, can only begin with Raylan and Winona in bed together. As if he needs any more complications right now.

3. Timothy Olyphant’s facial expressions and body language are the stuff great actors are made of. With Raylan being a man of relatively few words, especially when he’s surrounded by so many characters like his daddy Arlo (Raymond Barry Jr.) and Boyd who get to give such great speeches, some viewers might be tempted to think that Olyphant isn’t doing a lot. But watch him. He’s terrific.

4. If I had to choose between Winona and Ava (Joelle Carter), I have no idea what I’d do. But Raylan had better figure it out, because that’s bound to be an issue in season two.

5. Raylan shooting Arlo in the arm was awesome.

6. Raylan shooting not one but both of the thugs who came to collect him from the motel room was awesome.

7. Raylan’s ninja-like disarmament/shooting of Bo’s henchman while simultaneously kicking Bo’s gun out of his hand was awesome.

8. Raylan’s under-the-window brain-spattering of the bad guy trying to sneak into the house was awesome.

9. I loved the toy gun sound Raylan made as he let Boyd get away.

10. Even though Ava seemed disgusted by Boyd at the end, I can’t help but wonder if the writers aren’t considering pushing those two together next season.

All in all, an absolutely excellent first season bristling with memorable characters, kills, and dialogue. This can’t come back soon enough.

For all the movies and television series that have been made about Robin Hood, and as much as I love anything involving bows and arrows and swords and heroics, I’ve really not seen that many of them. But I absolutely love Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which was directed by Kevin Reynolds, who made another of my favorites, The Count of Monte Cristo.

What wasn’t to love? You had Alan Rickman and Michael Wincott in the rogues gallery and, as my friend Rhiannon eloquently (and correctly) stated, “Any movie that has Morgan Freeman flinging a scimitar at a witch is a winner.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

While Costner’s take was more of a fun adventure, the new version by director Ridley Scott — starring Russell Crowe as the legendary hero — goes for more of an historical angle. And though there are points in its hefty running time where it can’t quite decide whether to be a sweeping historical epic or a smaller, nobler harbinger of the events that defined a nation and created an outlaw, I really can’t name a single scene or performance that didn’t work for me, and I can’t wait to revisit it on Blu.

King Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) has fallen in battle, and Sir Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge) is charged with returning the crown to England with the news. But Loxley and his men are brutally murdered in an ambush set by Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong), whose French lineage means his allegiances aren’t entirely to his own countrymen.

Interrupting the slaughter — and also interrupting the fleeing Godfrey’s face with an arrow that needed to go just a little to the right — is Robin Longstride (Crowe), an archer who, along with comrades Alan A’Dale (Alan Doyle), Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes), and Little John (Kevin Durand), had to sit out the battle at the mercy of the King’s probation.

Robin promises the dying Loxley that he’ll finish his mission for him. But Loxley gives him yet another task — returning the sword of his father, Sir Walter Loxley (Max Von Sydow), to his family home, where the woman who’s now his widow, the Lady Marian (Cate Blanchett), still waits for her husband’s return.

Robin and his merry men decide the easiest way to do this and then quickly disappear from history would be to don the armor of the fallen men, and so they do, with Robin impersonating Loxley. The news is delivered. Next, the sword. But nothing else that happens is remotely that easy.

The elder Sir Loxley — with an infectious glimmer in Von Sydow’s eye despite the character’s blindness — is far from offended by Robin’s impersonation of his son. In fact, he’s thrilled by it, and wishes Robin to continue the charade. Lady Marian obliges her father-in-law despite being initially disgusted by the idea, but of course she warms to Robin as the story goes on.

And I love the chemistry between Crowe and Blanchett. Robin has never known how to be anything but a warrior, and Marian never got the chance to learn how to be a wife. So even though neither of them is a spring chicken, romance is still something relatively new to them — and more than a little terrifying. It’s one of my favorite aspects of the film, and I almost wish it had been given a little more time.

But we’ve also got to make room for the new King John (Oscar Isaac), crowned in the wake of his brother’s death despite the legitimate misgivings of his mother, the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine (Eileen Atkins). And his choice of queen, Isabella of Angoulême (Léa Seydoux, whose succulent lines reminded me of a dirty French Scarlett Johansson), doesn’t do Eleanor’s peace of mind any favors, either. (Also look out for a French lieutenant played by Denis Menochet, who played Seydoux’s father, Perrier La Padite, in one of last year’s most amazing performances in Inglorious Basterds.)

When the new king sends his lapdog Godfrey to collect taxes from the beleaguered citizens as the French plot a siege against England’s southern coast, the barons look for a leader and a hero.

Guess who?

Throw in some Magna Carta intrigue and a wild, appropriately outrageous beachfront battle at the end, and you’ve got a big, exceedingly well-made film that looks fantastic and entertains with plenty of style.

Russell Crowe is really fantastic here, inspiring during big speeches and suitably reserved when quiet moments demand it. Between this and the excellent Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the Australian actor is doing England proud.

The movie also did nothing to abate the deep and mighty love I hold in my heart for Cate Blanchett, whose otherworldly beauty shines through Marian, no matter how plain they try to make her look.

William Hurt is also amazing as William Marshal, the 1st Earl of Pembroke, who served four kings and earned a reputation as the greatest knight who ever lived. Hurt’s performance will make you believe it, and he shares one of the film’s best and tensest scenes in a hallway with Strong.

If you’re looking for a Robin Hood movie where Robin and his Merry Men run around the woods and interfere with the best laid plains of the Sheriff of Nottingham, you won’t find it here. And I like that, because we’ve all seen that story. Robin Hood aims the arrows of its narrative at a more historical context while capably holding true to the heart of the legend we all recognize and love.