Right I have to say this before we get started, whoever thinks the moody modern Batman is better than the Adam West Campy Batman… Well you’re wrong, Adam West is a god and his Batman was superb and now I have set the tone for this whole feature!
First of all, I’m a child of the 80s and to be Batman is two things: Adam West (via ITV) and a great C64 game, then as I got older I saw that brilliant movie version from Tim Burton and I was hooked. I even started to read the comics and then it all went a little silly and I stopped caring, moved to Marvel comics and lived happy ever after.
In fact when the new Batman movies came out I missed the first one, Batman Begins, because of how woeful the last movies were. I was wrong, but I’m sure most people can understand. Then I saw The Dark Knight, went back and watched Batman Begins and fell in love all over again. Arkham Asylum helped along the way; I heard everyone said how good the combat was I went meh…
Then I played the game, saw how good the story was, how good the voice acting as and enjoyed the hell out of the game. It’s why I was so upset when my monster computer died and my new computer isn’t able to play that many modern games; it’s why I resorted to Onlive. Only as a rental and I will say why – I completed the first Arkham game real quick (under 6 hours) and I didn’t play it much, if at all, afterwards.
The weird thing with Batman is this; I love the campy 60s Batman and the great 80s games that the 60s show spawned. At the same time I love the modern take on Batman and I enjoy the comics which are now often more mature and well thought out. I always liked the idea of Batman over say Superman. Batman is somewhat normal, only rich and with years of Martial Arts training.
Batman is someone that you could “believe” you could be, given the right chances. Superman hails back to an era in comics where the heroes are always gods or a godlike alien and there is no real story there- the good guy will always win. In Batman’s universe often things go wrong, very wrong.
I’m ashamed to say that’s why I’m more a fan of Marvel than DC, but Batman is my favourite DC hero by a long shot. I have, myself written comics in the past and Batman is something I’ll often research for ideas- never copy and paste, just ideas.
So we here at The Big Nerd Show hope you enjoy the reviews on this, I AM BATMAN DAY, which I have personally written the reviews of both Arkham City and Arkham City Lockdown. I can’t comment on if the other staff have done and after this I’m back at work from my holiday and I really will be part time again.
Thanks for Reading,
Jake “Jay” Lee
