THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS:
News has come out that one of the best graphic novels is going to be made into an animation. If you couldn’t tell by the headline I’ve given this segment as well as the picture, that graphic novel would be Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. This is one of those stories that I’ve read multiple times, it’s never been boring, and it’s like reading it for the first time every time. This is the Batman that Batman should be, tough, mean, gritty, and will take on Superman. 
Over the years, especially since the first Batman movie was made with Michael Keaton, there’s been talk about Dark Knight Returns being made into a movie. In all the talk, over all the years, I’ve found that 2 points are always made. One is that it would be totally awesome for Dark Knight Returns to be made into a movie. Two is that the movie would suck because there’s no way that it would ever be made as good as the graphic novel.
Which was very true when the talks began because for a live action movie the cgi wasn’t near good enough to create a believable environment that matches that of the one in Dark Knight Returns or an actor that would fit the role of old, mean, and much bigger Bruce Wayne/Batman. Now the animation was breaking boundaries in what it could do, especially with the look of Batman the Animated Series but there has always been one major flaw with animated movie, they’re hardly ever made right. Even today with all the technology and the knowledge of what fans want to see the makers of animations still muck up movies. Example, Superman Doomsday, one that would seem like it would be easy to convert but yet it wasn’t. The artwork was good, the story basically followed the comic, but what fell short was the content. I was expecting this huge fight between these two characters that would make all other fights look like they were play time. What was given was the typical fight scene that didn’t last long and had no blood. Now I wasn’t expecting there to be so much blood it looked like a slasher flick but I did expect there to be some that resembled that of the comic fight.
VS 
Animation has always been iffy because something is always done to them that makes the fanboys upset. Characters get changed, characters get taken out, plot points are changed or taken out, the story might not even be the same, or the artwork looks horrible. It’s this fear of the past animations that I have with Dark Knight Returns. What I first (and still kind of don’t now) like is that the Dark Knight Returns is being made into 2 parts, the first part coming out Fall 2012 and part 2 in Spring 2013. Though I don’t like the wait between the two parts I understand why it’s being done and it actually gives me some hope that the animation is going to be better than most. Reason being is that the graphic novel has a whole lot going on in it, with Batman taking on the gangs, the city taking on Batman, the news reports, and then there’s that little thing of Superman being used by the government. So much is going on in it that if they did the animation like the typical ones being made, which the length range from just about an hour long to hour and half, most being just a little over a hour. If the Dark Knight Returns was given the treatment like most, along with only being one part, then it would have been too short and worse yet a lot of content would be left out.
I really hope that this animation will work out, I’m a little iffy on Peter Weller (he’s the guy that played Robo Cop), as the voice of Batman. Now I haven’t heard him talk in a while but what I can remember of his voice he doesn’t seem like the voice of an older version of Batman who is tired of the crime, which considering how young Batman is tough and gritty I can’t imagine how the older version would be. There’s also Ariel Winter who will be the voice of Carrie Kelly a.k.a. the female Robin, with other voice actors of Wade Williams, David Selby, and Michael McKean. When more info comes out I’ll post more.
CHARACTER OF THE WEEK 22:
Howard the Duck
Ok, so the movie that was made wasn’t the greatest of comic book adaptations but I enjoyed it and I’ve always liked the character. Though he’s been even cooler now that he’s been put in the Marvel Zombies comics. Which is one of the reasons why I made him this weeks character of the week. Here’s another reason, the Howard the Duck is funny, he’s basically the duck version of Spider-Man but with sarcastic remarks instead of stupid jokes, though he does the stupid jokes as well. He’s also smart, he’s just not some normal duck running around, and now he can kick the rotting butts of zombies, making him tough. Which he’s always been a tough duck that surprises everyone when he fights people much larger than him and wins, but to be able to fight a zombie is a whole different level of tough. Maybe he’s not the coolest of characters in the comic book world but he’s still a cool one.
