With the magic Tupperware telling me to draw the lovely Barbara Gordon AKA Oracle has finally allowed me to get to one of the major points I have for one of the major points I had for my vision of this Batman sketch challenge… the Batcrew.
Based on what I have in mind, I have no idea if Babs was ever Batgirl (based on some of the things I’m thinking about I’m not sure if there even was a Batgirl… this thought may change) Though I’m mostly certain that Oracle had the same gruesome origin that she had in the comics.
So anyway… Batcrew. Does anyone believe that Alfred can keep all the Batcave running by himself? In this version, I’m seeing a staff of at least ten people.
Oracle is the head of the Information Department, which includes records and IT. That’s Joe the archivist working behind her (you know all those scenes where Batman is looking up something obscure in records? Who do you think keeps those records updated?)
For day four of my Batman sketch challenge, the magic Tupperware told me to draw Firefly (actually it told me to draw Man-Bat but since I’m not completely sure about the existence of superpowers in my current evolving version of the setting so I’ll come back to him later.
Firefly was a character from the mid-fifties whose gimmick was using special effects, he was kind of DC’s version of Mysterio. He was recreated in the nineties as a professional arsonist and pyromaniac. I like that version better.
While I’m certainly happy with this picture, my only problem with it is that without any other context, showing a madman’s hallucinations is indistinguishable from having him being surrounded by actual fire sprites.
After the heavy depressing and heavy heist films that went of their way to show as well as tell us how crime doesn’t pay, I thought I’d clear my palette a little bit with some complete fluff. My choice of topic for my mindless entertainment this time was Parkour. I’ve been interested in parkour, or free running, the art of running around in the city, for a while for various reasons (I don’t think I’d want to do it myself, I’ve got weak shins.)
It’s about five years in the future and Paris has been overwhelmed by poor neighborhoods. To deal with them the government has walled them off turning them into violent uncontrollable ghettos overwhelmed by vicious gangs. The worst of these is the titular District 13. Belle plays Leito a man trying to make a difference in his hometown. However, after earning the enmity of ganglord, Taha, (Bibi Naceri) his sister is kidnapped and he’s put in prison.
Months later he is freed by an undercover police officer (Damien Tomaso by Cyril Raffaelli) who needs a native guide to find a small nuclear missile hijacked by Taha. Can they find the missile and stop the countdown in time and do the people behind all of this really want them to?
This film really has nothing to it besides badass stuntwork and martial arts. For all practical purposes, it’s a french hong kong action film. There is just enough plot to hold the action scenes together and the less you think about the plot the better. Still watching David Belle do his thing is worth the price of admission. Never has running away been more badass.
poster art
The blue ray I rented came with the sequel film District 13: Ultimatum, directed by Patrick Alessandrin. It’s three years later and District 13 is still the pit it’s always been despite the promises made at the end of the last film. Leito and Damien are brought back together after Damien is framed to keep him from investigating a conspiracy that plans to incite gang violence giving the government the excuse to destroy District 13. Can our heroes and their allies stop this in time?
At first District 13: Ultimatum looks like it’s going to be a better film, with a bigger cast and higher production values. This misunderstanding lasts for about ten minutes. The plot’s even worse with the ending making you want to go hunting for the film’s writers. Despite this, there are enough good fight scenes to keep you from feeling like you’ve wasted an hour and a half of your life.
The best part, near the end, of course, is a fight scene featuring Élodie Yung of Marvel Daredevil fame as Tao the knowledge broker who really needed her own film.
Finally last and definitely least was Daniel BenmayorTracers. Tracers tells the story of Cam (Taylor Lautner) a bike messenger who owes money to the Chinese mafia. After getting his bike trashed nearly running over a beautiful woman freerunning in the middle of the street named Niki (Marie Avgeropoulos) he becomes obsessed with parkour. (Or more accurately he gets obsessed with Nikki and learns parkour to get closer to her.) Soon he gets good enough to join Nikki’s group, who turn out to be a gang of thieves who use their parkour skills to execute well-planned heists. Can Cam survive long enough to pay off his debts and get the girl? Watch and see.
Again despite some good stonework, this film was pretty much mediocre at it’s best with barely enough plot to hold the free running scenes together.
Honestly, the only good performance in the whole film Came from Johnny M Wu who plays Jerry the gangster Cam owes money, at first glance a charming yuppie, until he hits you while saying it’s just business and it’s your fault for making him do it.
The magic Tupperware gave me a fun one today, Mr. Edward Nygma, the Riddler!
The Riddler is one of the best examples of how to do the grey characters right. One of the best things DC Comics did in the last ten years was make The Riddler a private investigator so he could challenge the Bat at his own game. It annoyed me when they rebooted it in the new 52 and worse, made him just another murderous psycho with a gimmick in rebirth.
One of the things I like about the Riddler is while he’s certainly insane, after a fashion, he isn’t criminally insane. Whatever flavor of OCD his obsessions are they’re probably perfectly treatable and don’t warrant him a cell in Arkham.
So in this mini sketch-verse, we have The Riddler as a consulting detective. Still an insufferable jerk and quite amoral, but not a criminal. He’s probably never even been convicted! On top of this, he’s the first person the GCPD call in on the tough cases. After all, you need to wait for it to get dark to light up the Bat Signal, while you have The Riddler’s Agency on speed dial.
He even gives press conferences and loves imagining how annoyed he’s making his caped rival.
Best of all, since this is comics, this version is still played by the late, great, Frank Gorshin!
For day two of my April Batman sketch challenge, the magic Tupperware told me I had to draw Mr. Floyd Lawton AKA Deadshot!
It’s been a while Deadshot’s been part of Batman’s rogue’s gallery proper. He’s currently better known as part of the Suicide Squad. (though he did show up for the “War of Jokes and Riddles” storyline last year. As a freelance sniper, I think he fits into the modern setting much better than the villain with a gimmick he started out as in the 1950s.
As for what Deadshot would look like in this setting, he’s gone through multiple redesigns over the years. I’ve never liked his trademark wrist guns since it was never clear where the magazines were. As for the scope in his mask, I was never quite sure how that was supposed to work. For now, I’m assuming it’s hooked up somehow to a camera scope in this high tech sniper rifle.
For the rest of his “costume,” all I’m keeping is the mask/helmet, the rest is just commando gear. If it helps though, you can pretend his sweater’s red.
Common sense has abandoned me yet again, and I know I am going to regret this in a couple of days…. But I’m starting yet another sketch challenge. Fortunately this time I plan to do a fun one: the cast of Batman.
This is one I have been meaning to do for a while, I have been putting it off for a long time. The main reason (that is the excuse I’ve been using) was that I was trying to find an angle. What I mean by that is that I have been wanting to make sure there was more to this sketch challenge than simple fanart. When I do projects like this I enjoy the organic process where an idea leads to a new approach to the concept, which then leads to more ideas, ideas which quickly snowball to the point that by the time you have ‘finished’ your art is considerably different from what you originally envisioned and has become very much your own thing.
I find the best way to make this work is to go in with a planned approach. Two examples would be my nursery rhymes set in the Regency/Georgian time frame (or as close as I could come to it without doing any research) and my fairy tale challenge from last year which was based around the same period, but with a Film Noir aesthetic.
I was tempted to do ‘original Batman’ and since Batman starts in 1939 he is almost film noir by default. If 1939 is ‘Year One’ I assumed that ‘present-day Batman’ would be around 1948. However, I caught myself overthinking the timeline. Since the point of this exercise is to be spontaneous with a turnaround occurring under an hour, that was a big no-no.
Currently, my idea is to do a sort of modern version of the pulp world that the original Batman takes place in. That means using things a lot of writers desperately try to keep and rationalize no matter how obsolete modern culture and technology have made them. (stuff like spandex and such). To me, this suggests more of a masked subculture that is not exclusive to either vigilantes or criminals. The other thing that occurs to me is that Batman needs more of a support crew than just Alfred.
For the first day, I am going to start with the man himself, and then take my usual random, pull names out of the magic Tupperware, approach. Ironically Batman himself interests me the least of this project. Like most of these comic settings, conflict is the glue that holds everything else together. One thing that appeals to me in the notes I have made for this project is that while this setting will have a lot more shades of grey than usual, that is not how this Batman will see it… This should lead to conflict.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the ride for the next thirty days or more, this should be fun.
Some quick notes on this sketch itself, I’ve managed to get around the spandex thing and need to redesign Batman by having him in shadows. I’m keeping the yellow on black icon partially as a “house signal” but mostly from Frank Miller’s “I wear a target on my chest because I can’t armor my head” thing.
Right now I think I’m beginning to show some drift in my own direction with the ace of spade logo suggesting the Joker’s presence.
