A summer’s worth of work for Batman on Film

I know I never write anything for my own website anymore, and I find that both sad and financially outrageous (because I’m paying for it), but I’m still doing lots of writing.

(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.

Review: Rally’s A-1 Crispy Onion burger

When last I spoke of Rally’s, it was with a heavy heart — their decision to fancify their Big Buford ended up taking away all the simple things that made it so great.

(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.)

(And maybe the heart heaviness is actually just cholesterol.)

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.

What I ate last night at the Kentucky State Fair

Last night, my dad and I went to the Kentucky State Fair.

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.