Frank Miller’s ‘All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder’ comic has been regarded as a creative disaster since the inaugural issue. The backlash against the title has been strong enough to prevent me from spending any foldin’ money on an issue, but I’ve seen enough review material to confirm these suspicions of disaster. I’m all for changing up Batman and placing him in alternate situations and persona, but I just can’t seem to get behind this title.

(On the flipside, Grant Morrison’s ‘All Star Superman’ is a masterstroke of epic proportions and a wonderful read for anyone with a soul.)

While there have been plenty of re-envisionings of the classic Batman character, Miller’s most recent take is so laced with profanity, extreme violence, anger and ridiculous hyperbole that many comic readers can’t comfortably accept it as an artistic expression. Wonder Woman is a man-hating caricature of a woman who can’t control her emotions or her libido, and Batman is a criminally insane vigilante who prefers to giggle as he punches evil-doers in the face, rather than embody the stoic silence that defines Batman. This might all sound potentially awesome in theory, but even with Jim Lee’s exceptional artwork to back it all up, ‘All Star Batman’ is usually seen as a failure of a comic. It’s the equivalent of re-imagining Superman as a leopard man with a magical staff and a sailboat made of radishes.

Regardless of the negative reception to ‘All Star Batman’, we’ve made it to issue #10. It’s with this issue that the creative disaster that is ‘All Star Batman’ has made headlines - for a tremendously egregious printing error.

See, Frank Miller’s idea of profanity isn’t for lightweights. Take all of the worst words you know, make up at least five worse words, and imagine a world where they drip liberally from the lips of everyone around you, and then you’ll have Frank Miller’s idea of profanity. He writes it all out (sweat dripping from his meaty forehead, glistening in the blue glow of his computer monitor), the weak dialogue is printed into the comic, and then the astute editors at DC Comics place big ol’ black censor boxes over the offending epithets. Unfortunately, issue #10’s black boxes were printed just a shade too lightly, and as a result, Frank Miller’s disgusting profanity is visible on many of the comic’s pages. I’m no profanity prude, but this is some bad stuff.

DC immediately recalled the misprinted comics, but this was only after a good handful had been sold this past Tuesday. By Thursday, copies of the misprinted comic had already reached up to $250 on eBay, marking the most recent flash-in-the-pan comic collectible. With over 200 completed auctions and 150 active auctions on eBay (at the time of this writing), and an average price of roughly $60, the value of the comic will likely decline in the near future. As more and more copies surface, and scarcity is diminished, and the novelty of seeing vulgarity within the pages of a DC comic wears off, it’s not a comic that I’d recommend investing too much in. Sure, invest something - but within reason.

I remain a bit boggled that DC Comics would even print the offending words and then actually take the time to block them out instead of simply printing black boxes to begin with, but what do I know? I’ve never created a national scandal. Give me a little more time.

At least with Superman, the most you have to worry about is an occasional ‘gosh’.

There are a lot of DC Comics superhero DVDs out there, and even as a professional nerd, I find myself confused a whole heck of a lot. I mean, you have 1973’s Super Friends, 1977’s The All-New Superfriends Hour, 1978’s Challenge of the Superfriends, 1985’s Super Powers Team, 1988’s Superman, and everything in-between. Well, it’s time to throw one more DVD onto the pile of awesome. Do it gently though, as pure, unexhausted Awesome is known to explode.

What? It’s on the periodic table. Right between Gnarlium and Radiclon.

While I was growing up, Filmation was known as two things : those guys who did He-Man, and those guys who did that ‘not-as-good’ Ghostbusters cartoon without Slimer. Everyone knows two fundamental things about monkeys : they can’t swim, and they can’t catch ghosts. It’s simple biology. Get with the program.

In the halcyon days of 1967, long before irreparably altering the direction of my childhood and compelling me to tear around my back yard bellowing ‘I HAVE THE POWER!’, Filmation took a whack at a variety of DC Superheroes. This DVD collection of eighteen 7-minute episodes originally appeared before and after Filmation’s ‘Superman / Aquaman Hour’ (released by Warner Home Video previously). These Super Heroes cartoons are divided by hero on the DVD, with three dedicated episodes for each one : The Atom, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Teen Titans, and of course, the whole Justice League of America.

Being an excitable Green Lantern fan, I skipped right to the GL episodes, only to find him with a Venusian sidekick named Kairo, who would be a ridiculously offensive stereotype of SOMETHING were he not clearly from Venus. This was the Silver Age of comics, mind you - everyone was picking up extraneous youthful wards, and crazy pseudo-science was taking over comic book plots where basic crime tales once ruled. It was really a great time to be reading - visits to other planets, alien life forms and ridiculous machines were beginning to redefine comics, as well as the cartoons based on them.

It’s also worth mentioning that the creative climate of cartoons at the time tended to focus on quantity over quality, so studios would re-use animation, backgrounds and even plots as much as possible. While Filmation is usually regarded as the very worst offender and prolific re-user, it’s amazingly charming in retrospect. Long, slow pans over large, lush background paintings became a trademark of theirs, as these shots took up expanses of time without the expensive process of actually animating anything, or moving still characters across backgrounds. Still, these money-saving approaches to animation are brimming with nostalgia (are occasionally, hilarity), and current cartoons like The Venture Bros. have made segments purposely mimicking this limited animation style for the nostalgia effect. And you HAVE to love the quickly designed one-off monsters and bad guys who flounder around without real background or purpose and bad helmets. Well, at least I have to.

About 2 minutes into the classic Green Lantern episode ‘Sirena, Empress of Evil’, the best thing ever happens. Ever.

See, Sirena is SO evil that she’s designed a complex device that uses a magneto-beam to locate Green Lantern anywhere on her evil planet. By pulling a lever, the magneto-beam’s wavy lines search out the brainwaves of ol’ Hal Jordan. This, in itself, isn’t evil, but Sirena pulls another lever and a dopey-looking red bird is revealed. It’s purpose? Well… just watch.

Someone call PETA. Or help me train a bird to do that, because it is amazing. The sheer, open-ended bizarreness of the DVD drops unexpected, circuitous bombs like this every few minutes, along with a bevy of classic Burt Ward-ian exhortations, like ‘holy galaxies!’ or ‘great merciful sappho!’ or ‘jumping armadillos!’ Unfortunately, there’s not a Batman in sight, as this Justice League is comprised of the DVD’s aforementioned main stars, plus Superman.

The absolute best part of the DVD is the 40-minute documentary on Lou Scheimer and how he and two friends built Filmation from scratch, subterfuge and pure ingenuity, watched it create wonderful things and form a family, and eventually collapse. It’s surprisingly moving and emotional, and it conveys a newfound appreciation of Filmation’s approach to animation. They’d bring you in, give you a job for life if you wanted it, and teach you how to do whatever you wanted to know… and it was exciting! It was the Pixar of its day - interested employees creating things that they believed in, full of expression and wonder.

Within the documentary, Paul Dini articulates the appeal of Filmation’s cartoons best : they’re organic. You can see the process, you can see the hand of the artist and the brushstrokes. As more and more animation was sent overseas for production, Filmation kept almost all of their work within the US, and at one point, within the same building - from sketching to voiceovers to final product. It’s that insular, close environment that genuinely created a family, and if you watch carefully, you can see it in their cartoons. (Parents, use mild caution - the documentary involves one instance of medium-level profanity.)

I was prepared to laugh my way through the DVD’s continuity errors, mis-painted heroes and strange plot twists, but while I still can’t help but notice the amusing weirdness, it’s now easier to see the hands behind it, and that adds a whole new dimension to the experience.

The DVD holds an important part in any animation collection as it features some of the very first ‘Saturday morning’ cartoons. And, of course, birds flying into peoples’ heads. What’s cooler than that?

For just about everyone in the 22 to 28 age range, The Batman Animated Series was our definition of ‘the who’ and ‘the what’ of the ephemeral Batman. We were too young for the campy POW! ZAP! Adam West Batman, and the comic book Neal Adams and George Perez Batmen were going out of style, so we had the cartoons.

(Please come to DVD soon, Adam West!)

The DC Animated Universe has consistently released cartoons and DVD movies since 1994, and almost all of them have been well received and enjoyed by fans who otherwise would be comic book purists - so I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of reaction the newest Batman DVD, Batman : Gotham Knight, would find with these same fans. I complain that vapid, product-placement anime destroyed Saturday morning cartoons, and then went on to devour afterschool cartoons also, but when anime-styled animation is good, it’s amazing. FLCL, Evangelion, Paranoia Agent - all good things.

The new Batman DVD isn’t one story, but six related stories, each one written and directed by different noteworthy directors and authors. Because of the six approaches to Batman, he takes on six different appearances during the film, but since Batman is invariably, distinctly Batman, it’s not distracting at all - except for maybe the out-of-costume Bruce Wayne moments, when he vacillates between dreamy, androgynous yaoi character to older, grizzly uber-masculine warrior.

My personal favorite tale of the six is the very first one, in which four skate kids recount their encounters with Batman, remembering him as the otherworldly, mythological forms that he implies. The Batman that I enjoy most in any media is the one that the general citizens of Gotham know of in this mythological sense; he may or may not exist, they might have seen him once, they’ve heard tales of him, but there’s nothing concrete to prove that he exists. To these kids, Batman is everything from a shapeshifting, shadowy ghost, to a giant bat creature, to an invincible robot. The truth is actually very moving, and the animation is simple, fluid and visceral.

The other five Batman tales are action-packed, from fast-paced battles with Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Deadshot, to the occasional contemplative exploration of how Batman became what he is, how he’s helping Gotham, and why he’s loved and hated. The whole series of short films brings us back to the dark, half-frozen-in-time Gotham that we love from the original Animated Series, and the original voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, even voices Batman in all six shorts. Some of the stories seem open ended and unsatisfying until you see how they all tie together, and all of them are tremendously beautiful. So, when I say ‘anime’, I’m not talking Pokemon or Monster Rancher or any other show that advocates cute ‘n’ cuddly cockfighting. Every frame and hint (or absence) of color paints a breathtaking picture of Gotham as it was meant to be seen - an extension of Batman’s being, which he fights tirelessly to cleanse.

After watching it, it’s really clear how much energy, creativity, and faithfulness to Batman was involved in the production - and anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m kinda picky about my Batman. Parents should note that this is a PG-13 DVD - mostly because of an animated decapitation, a little bit of blood, and gun violence. If there was any significant profanity, it didn’t stand out, because it was completely appropriate to the situation.

DVD bonuses for this basic edition are limited to a commentary track, and non-animated ’sneak peek’ at WB’s upcoming Wonder Woman animated movie. There’s a 2-disc edition to look for also, which includes a second disc replete with neat extras - documentaries, Batman episodes and more.

It’s a stellar production, and my favorite of all of the post-Justice League Unlimited Animated Universe. Go out, get it. It’s good to see that cartoons can still be taken seriously.

And collectors! DC Direct releasing a Batman : Black and White statue based on this animation on July 9th, so go out and get that also!

If you know anything about toy collecting, you’ll know that the second series of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics is THE THING at the moment. As they slowly crawl Eastward from California’s ports and through a series of retail stores, collectors have been paying upwards of $50 for a single $10 figure on eBay - just for the sake of having it a few weeks earlier than everyone else. The anticipation is palpable, and expensive.

When I reviewed the first series of these, it was pretty clear that they were some of the best possible 6” action figures that one could hope for, and while I couldn’t wait to get more of them, I also wasn’t willing to pawn my grandma for them, even if she DOES hum while she eats. Patience is a virtue, and so is online shopping. I’ll never really understand the figure collectors who endlessly cry “bad distribution!” when someone else purchases the toys that they want at their local store before they happen to get there. It’s the luck of the draw, but I often tilt the odds in my favor (and save money on gas) by ordering cases of these things online - which is why, as a resident of NY, I have a whole bunch of these in my hands.

In short, they’re great. This second series needs a bit of clarification about which figures are included in it, so here we go :

- Black Manta, Aquaman’s arch-nemesis
- Classic (Caucasian) Firestorm, who is shipping in all early cases. He’ll be replaced by…
- Modern (African American) Firestorm, who will show up in later cases.
- Superman Red and Superman Blue are variants shipping at the same time. Neither is more rare than the other.
- Classic Aquaman has short hair, and seems to be more rare than…
- Modern Aquaman, also shipping, who has long hair. And finally….
- Harley Quinn, Joker’s girlfriend.

By collecting all 5 characters (or variants of the characters), you can assemble a nice Gorilla Grodd figure.

With the average figure clocking in at 21 points of articulation (or joints which you can use for fancy fightin’ poses), there’s really not a lot more that you can ask for by way of poseability. The plastics are as such that they’re slightly yielding, which allows for interference-fit, tight joints that still move smoothly, and I encountered no breakage or joint issues.

While some collectors have complained of paint blemishes, I didn’t encounter anything severe enough to warrant frothing about. They’re toys, they’re painted en masse by fatigued (but well-cared for) factory workers, and you might have gotten the last figure of the day before the dinner bell. That’s how it goes. And extra paint dot isn’t so serious, and even if these are fine works of art to us, there are finer things to worry about. If there’s a paint error at all, it’s that Harley Quinn’s face is, as it was recently described, a Ti-D-Bowl blue hue, instead of the usual plain ol’ white. For a figure that fans have been waiting for for a long time, it’s an odd choice to make. The only alternative exists in DC Direct’s ‘Hush’ line.

The more esoteric choices for figures include Superman Red and Superman Blue, who were co-existing versions of superman that existed in ‘imaginary’ for in 1963 - as in, ‘this isn’t a canonical story, but what if…?’, a thing that DC did every so often to go totally sci-fi on the audience. In 1998, amid a myriad of publishing stunts including the death and rebirth of Superman, Red / Blue appeared again as a manifestation of Superman’s ‘evolving’ electromagnetic powers. Eventually, the two aspects were reunited and never much cared for, but remained a notable part of Superman’s history. Having these unusual selections of figures makes me wish that I’d kept my Superman Black and Kal-El figures from earlier DC waves, and they also serve as a testament to the variety with which Mattel wisely keeps both casual fans and hardcore devotees in search of obscure characters at bay.

Ever-mocked is Aquaman, whose powers over fish are only the surface of his abilities, though most often treated with incredulity. Of the wave of figures, Aquaman is certainly the most powerful looking, and expertly sculpted in full orange mail regalia. The wave also includes Black Manta, a ridiculously simple flat-black, non-costumed figure with a crazy helmet - an enemy of Aquaman, as Mattel is also including arch-nemeses for each of the anchor characters.

The large Gorilla Grodd is great in appearance, but doesn’t have much articulation for his size and seems to topple over easily. The helmet on his head, as best as I can tell, is not removable. DC Direct has also recently released a Grodd in their ‘Justice’ set of figures. Either one of these would be a quick beret away from customization into a handsome Monsieur Mallah, another DC character and enemy of the oft-neglected Doom Patrol.

So, we have recognizable characters, bad guys for playability, amazing sculpting, a few obscure characters, and solid construction. It makes you fall in love with action figures all over again. Like I needed any help.

[Please read back here, here and here for previous articles about this year’s Toy Fair, for all of its weirdnesses and delights!]

By now, I’d seen the fancy DC Comics dolls over at the immaculate (but welcoming) Tonner booth, but I had other DC figures in mind - and I knew that they could be found at the showrooms of DC Direct and Mattel.

DC Direct is Time-Warner’s in-house DC Comics merchandising group and toy company. DCD makes action figures, prop replicas, statues, Minimates and other great comic items, all aided by the benefit of having original reference materials and current comic artists at their immediate disposal. They are, after all, the source. They’re responsible for a large number of artist-specific and story-specific action figures, which number over 60 each year, created in (unnumbered) limited editions. While you won’t usually find a DC Direct action figure at your Toys ‘R’ Us, you can find them in comic shops and mall entertainment shops, usually at a price of around $15 per figure. They’re a great company if you want the newest bad guy from a recent and major story arc, but they don’t normally address figures like ‘the most iconic Batman’ in a 6” scale. They will, however, give you a Batman drawn by every notable Batman artist in the past 30 years.

Walking the line between ‘action figures’ and ‘dolls’ is the 13” figure line. These feature large, articulated bodies in cloth costumes, and unlike the small figures, these DO successfully capture characters at their most iconic and recognizable, often also accessorizing them with a bevy of weapons, removable parts and packaging them in a beautiful window box. Past offerings in this size have included over a dozen characters, including Batman, Superman, Robin, Catwoman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Lex Luthor, Two Face and more. Future offerings include The Joker, Harley Quinn, Green Arrow and Bizarro - but the only new announcement for this line during Toy Fair was a re-release of the original, rare Green Lantern figure, which has reached over $300 on eBay since it was released. This new edition will have a slightly different costume, as well as four interchangeable heads, including the basic Hal Jordan mug - with notable GLs Abin Sur and Tomar Re, as well as new fish-headed GL NautKeLoi, rounding out the variety. Sure, these figures are a little too big to fit in next to your 1/6th Sideshow toys, but they’re still fine enough to pass muster as their own thing.

A Wonder Woman figure has been on the drawing board for this line for over two years, with one undecided factor being whether or not she’ll have rooted hair, like a Barbie, or have sculpted hair. I put in my vote for sculpted hair as I spoke to a designer, and everyone else in the showroom chimed in and agreed. I’ve seen my niece’s Barbie-fros, and it would be an unbecoming look for a warrior princess. Plus, the appearance and manufacture of the series’ women should be consistent, and all have had sculpted hair thus far.

We will be getting a large Wonder Woman, though, as a Museum Scale statue. The most eye-catching thing in the showroom was this epic piece, with Wonder Woman standing at roughly 18” tall, wielding weapons and clothed in real fabrics. It’s a beautiful work of art, and it will accompany the previously released Superman and Batman Museum Scale statues. It’s not articulated, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a statue.

Next to her was a 1/2 scale (or, 50% smaller than actual size) Joker bust, which was another impressive and alluring (and slightly creepy) item, designed to accompany the previous Batman bust, also done in the same scale. Both feature details that are luminous and eerily human in person, but photography flattens them. Until you can see the statue’s pores shift in the light, it’s hard to communicate the level of detail in these. Batman’s stubble looks real enough to shave. Or caress, depending on just how you feel about stubble and / or Batman.

And then, we come to the regular action figure lines. 2008 will see the last wave of Alex Ross’ Justice line, rounded out with Supergirl, Captain Cold, Toyman and Batgirl. I’m still geeked out about the Jack Kirby New Gods figures, as well as the line of four ‘Showcase’ figures, which pull from the whole history of DC Comics for favorite artists’ works to turn into figures - including the Superman with three alternate, wacky heads that show the effects of red Kryptonite.

Newly-announced in the All-Star line, which pulls images from both ‘All-Star Batman’ and ‘All-Star Superman’ comics. This line will have the first two Frank Quitely designed figures ever created, those being of Superman and a super-powered Lois Lane. Also in the line will be another Batman and Batgirl, drawn by Jim Lee.

Also newly announced is another wave of ‘Secret Files’ figures, comprised of four Bat-villains : Hugo Strange (in a Batman costume, with an optional Batman head), Poison Ivy, Two Face and a tropical Joker from ‘The Killing Joke’. Slight variations of this Joker and Batman will also be released together in a ‘Killing Joke’ box set, along with a copy of the comic of the same name. Summer convention exclusives promise to be further variants of the same.

It’s also worth noting that DCD has announced a Huntress bust for their second series of ‘Women of the DC Universe’ bust series, all designed by Terry Dodson. The first series, all designed by Adam Hughes, ended at the end of 2007 after a dozen great busts - some of which are worth three times the initial sale price. There are also new Ame-Comi figures happening, based on Donna Troy, Poison Ivy, Hawkgirl, and Zatanna - if you’re into that anime thing.

Here’s some news for World of Warcraft fans : we saw the third wave of figures but weren’t permitted to photograph them. They were great, and the line of four has TWO female figures in it - so run out and buy your Blood Elf chick from the first series now! I’m not a WoW kinda guy, but I like warrior women. My complete collection of Xena DVDs agrees with me.

And Minimates fans, nothing new was on display. Rumor has it that these amazing little guys won’t make it past an 8th wave, which breaks my little plastic heart. If you like them as much as I do, make some noise. It’s a great line, it plays well with others, and the character depth is stellar. I mean, AMBUSH BUG.

[Click here for the full DC Direct Gallery in our Community!]

[Click here for the full Mattel Gallery in our Community!]

After we saw DC’s showrooms, we made our way over to Mattel, who hold the other major component of the DC Comics characters licensing. Mattel takes a different approach to making figures than DCD, so there seems to be enough room for both companies to coexist - inasmuch as Mattel DOES go for the most iconic character appearance possible, and uses a broader selection of recognizable characters that fans have asked for, regardless of current appearances within the comics. Mattel also super-articulates their figures so that they’re very posable (wherein DC Direct uses minimal articulation), and use a build-a-figure system where one can build a 6th, bonus figure if you collect all 5 of the basic figures in a set.

These DC Universe Classics didn’t come with many new announcements, but the display of the next dozen 6” characters was exciting. Wave 1 has been on store shelves for a few months now, and Wave 2 will include Aquaman (modern and classic), Red and Blue Superman (from a brief period a few years ago when he changed his costume), Firestorm (modern and classic), Black Manta, and Harley Quinn, and with parts from 5 of these, you can build a huge Gorilla Grodd. Wave 3 will include Nightwing, Robin, Sinestro (modern and classic), Deathstroke (masked and unmasked), and Hal Jordan Green Lantern. Get five of these together and you can make a huge Solomon Grundy. The makeup of future waves was not yet revealed, but Cyborg and Wonder Woman are definitely in the mix, as 2-up sculptures were displayed of them.

I was surprised by the sudden announcement of the ‘DC Universe Infinite Heroes’ line - a collection of small 3.75” figures spanning an unusual and diverse range of characters. While these little guys don’t yet come close to matching the quality of the large figures, they do seem to have appropriately simple sculpts with basic details, about ten points of pivoting articulation, and hearken back to the classic days of collecting from my youth. Their small size will allow for a larger range of characters to be made in a shorter time, and they’ll also be in scale with your Star Wars and GI Joe guys. That Han Solo / Flash smackdown that you’ve been praying for is about to happen. The reaction to the line has been very mixed, but I’m waiting to see the final product before I pass any kind of summary judgment, as most of the items on display were prototypes. No matter what, I’m getting a Bizarro out of it. Some of the other surprising figures in the lineup were Commissioner Gordon, Mirror Master, Thanagarian Warriors, Black Adam, Batwoman, The Question, and Hush - all of whom are usually second-tier characters at best, and don’t often (if ever) appear as figures.

Barbie collectors, note that a new Black Canary and Supergirl Barbies will be coming out, also! These should sit comfortably with the previously released DC Heroine Barbies of Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Harley Quinn. All of which are in my closet. Don’t laugh.

Mattel has also made action figures for the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. While the ‘Movie Masters’ line is meant to appeal to the adult collector with a fixation on accuracy and display, a secondary line will feature the requisite Batman in a handful of impractical, brightly-colored armors with action features. Hello, Ice Lobster Helicopter Rescue Batman! Despite the recent death of Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker in this movie, it’s reported that the action figure in his likeness will still be released at this time. I can’t help but wonder what the initial eBay hysteria will be like.

Finally, the kid-friendly Super Friends line doesn’t seem to have anything new to add to it either, as the most recent figures of Cyborg and Hawkman are just now trickling out onto shelves, with nothing more planned. A vehicle or two is on the way, and a series of plush dolls - but nothing too noteworthy for the collector. Cuddleworthy, yes.

These two companies are surely holding off on a few big reveals until April’s New York Comic Con, since most of the ‘new’ information was already a few weeks old. Here’s my vote for ‘Doom Patrol’ anything.

Stay tuned on Saturday for toys from your favorite non-comic book forms of entertainment - if you’re entertained by Hellboy and Heroes. Which I am.