Mr. Freeze: The Frozen Tragedy

 

During the last 2 weeks, I have expressed my thoughts and personal opinions about some of my favorite comic book villains. Now, what I will be talking about, not only in this post, but in the next 2 as well, about a specific villain that is too powerful to deal with in a physical fight, and requires the hero to think about a possible way of neutralizing the threat that the villain poses. They were originally created as one-dimensional bad guys, but later on, they are given sympathetic origins, that make them counterpoints to the respective hero they face. Now that the introduction is about to end, let’s start talking about the Batman villain known as Mr. Freeze.

Quote from "Batman: Arkham City" (2011):

Mr. Freeze: "Have you ever seen a flower die? Watched something that was once so beautiful, so full of life, collapse and rot from within?"

As I indicated at the beginning of my post, Mr. Freeze was originally created as a simplistic villain that committed crimes related to ice and cold, while making a lot of ridiculous ice puns.
 

Quote from “Batman & Robin” (1997):

Mr. Freeze: “What killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age!!”

 

 

It wasn’t until the Batman animated series from the 90’s was created, that the character was finally done correctly, and managed to be the most sympathetic Batman villain ever. In his origin story, which was adapted into the comics, with a little more background info added in the process, Victor Fries, as a child, had a hobby of freezing animals in order to prevent them from dying, in response, his parents sent him to a boarding school where he became an outcast. It was there that he met Nora, the love of his life, who he married years later. However, his happiness was not meant to last, as Nora became terminally ill, and Fries was forced to put her in suspended animation by using cryogenic technology. His corrupt boss, Ferris Boyle, finds out about the experiment and confronts Fries, with the confrontation culminating with the latter being exposed to unstable chemicals, which would cause his body to be only able to survive at sub-zero temperatures.

Quote from “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992):
Mr. Freeze: "I have failed you. I wish there was another way I could say it. I cannot... I can only beg your forgiveness, and hope that you can hear me somehow... someplace... where a warm hand waits for mine...

Mr. Freeze: "Rest well, my love. The monster who took you from me will soon learn that revenge is a dish... best served cold."

Victor Fries, now calling himself Mr. Freeze, built a suit that would be able to protect him in his new condition, and began robbing banks in order to get money and the equipment required to make a cure for his wife, as well as getting revenge on his former boss,    unaware that these actions would inevitably make him cross paths with Batman. So, how is Mr. Freeze similar to Batman, you may ask? Well, both of them have suffered the loss of a loved one, except that in Freeze’s case, he still has the option of bringing his loved one back, and will do whatever it takes in order to accomplish that, even if it means putting innocent people in danger.

Quote from “Batman: Arkham City” (2011):

Mr. Freeze: “Death is cold, Batman.”

I watched in the TV the failure that is the “Batman & Robin” film, not to mention that also, as I mentioned in previous entries or posts or whatever, have the “Night of the Owls” comic book storyline, which is part of the New 52 continuity, and I am very much aware of the significant changes that Mr. Freeze suffered in both of these incarnations. However, I believe Freeze’s New 52 origin story is tragic in its own way, due to Mr. Freeze being obsessed with Nora, instead of being married to her, as she was frozen a long time ago before he was even born, and also because of Freeze trying desperately hard to feel love, but with his, literally, cold-blooded nature not allowing him to have a change of heart. I must admit that my favorite incarnations of the character are: the Post-Crisis one, the Animated series one, the New 52 one, and the Batman: Arkham series incarnation.

 

I think that’s enough info for today. See ya!!

 

Two-Face: The Twisted Judge

 

                Hello, everybody!! My name is Adrián Ramírez, I’m a 15 year old Mexican, and today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite Batman villains, which is none other than: Two-Face.

 

 

So, if Venom is more or less Spider-Man only that with "With great power, no responsibility" or "With great power, comes great fun", and Brainiac is like a mirror image of Superman, due to both of them having very different origins and the completely different ways they carry their goals, you may be asking how does Two-Face fit into the "dark reflection" type of archenemies? Well, the answer is simple, although its extended meaning is very complex and it requires you to pay close attention to what you’re about to read.

 

Besides the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne’s life also changed significantly when he had a traumatic childhood experience with bats. Harvey Dent’s fate, on the other hand, was sealed by the flip of a coin, which his alcoholic father would use to decide whether or not to abuse him. Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed by a mugger, while it is implied that Harvey Dent is responsible for the death of his own parents. They both forged an alliance, along with Commissioner Gordon, in order to take down the Mafia, which at the time had complete control over Gotham. Bruce Wayne, in order to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, eventually overcame his fear of bats, promised to himself to prevent as many deaths as he could, as well to get rid of the evil in Gotham City that had taken his parents' lives, and became Batman, in order to stop criminals and help the people of Gotham. However, Harvey Dent, after half of his face was scarred by acid, eventually lost his self-control, became Two-Face, and decided to use his late father’s coin in order to carry out his twisted sense of justice. In other words, Two-Face is technically what Batman could have become if he, one day, snapped, and decided to take the law into his own hands, seeking revenge instead of justice.

 

Quote from "The Dark Knight" (2008):

Two-Face: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

 

By the way, speaking of Gordon...

 

Dialogue from the image above:

Commissioner Gordon: "You can."

"I want Harvey Dent to defend me."

Two-Face: "...Dent...?"

 

Two-Face may be an archetypical enemy of Batman, but he shares some similarities with Commissioner Gordon as well. At one point, both of them were among the first supporters of the Batman and even joined forces with him in order to bring justice to Gotham City. While Gordon and his family were threatened, and sometimes tortured, by villains such as the Joker and the Court of Owls, they eventually remained as great allies of the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Harvey Dent, who after his scarring, blamed Batman over what happened to him and dedicated his life of crime to take control of all of the gangs in Gotham City, and kill the Caped Crusader, and while he maintains a grudging respect towards Batman, going so far as to join forces with him occassionally, he actually hates Gordon, the Robins, and probably the rest of the Bat-sidekicks, in general, as well. One clear example of that hatred towards Batman's allies is when he kidnapped Gordon's family in "The Dark Knight" film.

Quote from "The Dark Knight" (2008):

Two-Face: "Tell them it's gonna be all right, Jim. Lie... like I lied."

Two-Face is also considered an archenemy of all of the Robins in general, especially of both Nightwing (Dick Grayson) and the Red Hood (Jason Todd) during their days as the 1st Robin and the 2nd Robin, respectively. In the case of Nightwing, Dent nearly beat him to death during the events of the comic book "Robin: Year One", and years later, when Grayson became Batman II, Two-Face was the FIRST person to realize there was a new person under the cowl patrolling the streets of Gotham, so he somehow managed to discover the Batcave, after all these years, and tortured Bat-Grayson until the latter managed to gain the upper hand thanks to Alfred's intervention. On the other hand, Two-Face earned Jason Todd's enmity by being responsable for his father's disappearance (Todd's father was a former henchman of his's who, after refusing to follow Dent's orders in a crucial operation, he abandoned his son in the middle of a futile effort to get away from him, and... two guesses as to what happens later).

Quote from "The Dark Knight" (2008):

Two-Face: "You thought we could be decent men, in an INDECENT time!! But you were wrong... The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair."

Actually, the more you really think about it, the more you can notice the contrasts that exist between these two characters (You probably must have already seen a page from the Modern Mythologies website that talks about this exact rivalry, didn't you?). Gordon is a policeman whose job is to enforce the law at all costs, but he recognizes that in order to better intercept the corruption in Gotham, there have to be vigilantes like Batman to help him accomplish that goal. Harvey Dent, on the other hand, used to be a lawyer who was exceptional when it came to putting in jail the worst criminals around, only to succumb to his own dark side, and since then he has become a personification of the flawed justice system that sentences criminals like the Joker to Arkham Asylum or just allows them to continue wreaking havoc with no real consequences whatsoever, and worst of all, there exist people like him in real life.

Dent is not even the only Two-Face that has encountered the Caped Crusader. There have been several other characters who have assumed the mantle of the Twisted Judge, but due to their storylines being overshadowed by some of the most well-known Batman arcs, it's fair to say that they have become criminally underrated (see what I'm doing there?) and they tend to be mostly forgotten by the writers of DC Comics. I'm only going to mention two examples.

One of them is Paul Sloane a.k.a the 2nd Two-Face (in the Silver Age), or better known as "The Charlatan" (in Post-Crisis, which I will be talking about). Paul Sloane used to be a method actor who was known for getting a little too deep in the roles he portrayed, until he came across some members of the Batman rogues gallery, who were looking for a replacement for Two-Face, since the latter declined to participate in a plan to destroy Batman. He eventually began to enjoy his role as "Two-Face", but unfortunately for him, Dent himself kidnapped him, scarred his ENTIRE FACE instead of just one half, and proceeded to torture him into submission. Sloane was later declared dead by, none other tan, the Scarecrow who, unbeknownst to everyone else, kept him alive in order to use him as a test subject for his experiments, until one day (or should I say, one night), he escaped and proceeded to get revenge on Dent, Scarecrow and the rest of the rogues who had originally hired him in the first place, all the while trying to kill Batman, even going so far as to using the Joker as a distraction for his schemes.
The other example is Millicent Mayne (a.k.a "The Face of Gotham"), who was disfigured by yet another Two-Face impersonator right around the time Batman was believed to be dead due to the events of Final Crisis. Mayne, for some reason, gained a connection to the city via visions that would more or less predict when would a citizen of Gotham be in inminent danger.

 

Two-Face torturing his imposter Paul Sloane in "Batman: Dead Reckoning" (2003)

 

 

Charlatan being experimented on by Scarecrow

 

The Charlatan: The Fearless Knight

 

 

Millicent Mayne confronting the fake Two-Face

 

 

The Face of Gotham

Two-Face, in my opinion, is a very interesting villain, not only because of his personal connection to Bruce Wayne/Batman, but also because he has such a complex backstory, whether it is the Post-Crisis one, or the New 52 one, not to mention that he's also one of the most sympathetic villains of the Batman franchise. My favorite incarnations of the character so far are "The Dark Knight", the Batman: Arkham series, and "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" both the comicbook and the movie. He's also my 3rd favorite Batman villain, with the 2nd one being Scarecrow, and in the 1st place, The Riddler. By the way, speaking of sympathetic villains, in my next entry I'm going to talk about a tragic Batman villain with a cold heart.

And with everything being said and done, that's all for today. From now on, I recommend you to take your time to read again not only this post, but all my previous ones as well. Why? Because every character, every comic book storyline, game, or movie that is either found in an image or referenced in any one of my posts serves as potential foreshadowing for what you can expect to see next on my blog, also you may as well find some modifications from the last time you saw them. Here are 3 images from my previous entries that can help you with that:

 

 

 

I also have the Batman storyline called "Night of the Owls", which is not shown because I did not have it yet by the time I took this picture, but I'll soon include a picture of it when I have time.

 See you soon, and have a wonderful day!!

Brainiac: The Collector of Worlds

Hi, everybody. I’m so sorry for the delay, I had a busy weekend, and I know that in my 7^th post (Venom) I told you this one would be done either during Friday or the weekend, but nobody’s perfect. Okay, back to the point, if you know the answer to the riddle found at the end of my last post, good for you, but for those of you who don’t know the answer, let me tell you this: the correct answer is Brainiac.

Quote from "Superman: Unbound" (2013):

Brainiac: "You shall not exist outside my control"

Okay, have any of you watched the animated movie “Superman: Unbound”? Well, to be honest, I was one of the lucky people who managed to watch it during last year’s WonderCon, in Annaheim LA (by the way I would really like to go this year, but I’m afraid that will have to wait for next year). The aforementioned film introduces Brainiac. Brainiac is an extraterrestrial life form, that comes from the planet Colu (other versions of the character like the Superman: the Animated Series and Smallville depict him as a kryptonian AI gone rogue), and he is one of the most powerful enemies that Superman has ever faced.

 

Quote from "Superman: The Animated Series" Season 1 (1996-1997):

Brainiac: "You are your father's son, Kal-El. Headstrong, foolish, easily defeated, and ultimately, forgotten."

 

Quote from "Smallville" Season 7 (2007-2008):

Brainiac: "I warned you. If you would have done things my way, no one would have gotten hurt. No one but you."

Brainiac, as you can read in the title of this post, collects the most important cities from whatever planet he is invading, and destroys what remains of that planet. His (or its, or whatever's) most infamous act is stealing the Kryptonian city of Kandor, shrinking it, and placing it in a bottle, deciding to leave afterwards after realizing that Krypton would eventually be destroyed anyways due to its unstable core.

Brainiac is one of the Man of Steel's greatest enemies, with the other two being Lex Luthor and General Zod. The Brainiac toy is located to the right in this image (Just to make it clear, these toys aren't mine. I just happened to find this image on Google).

What I really like about the dynamic between Superman and Brainiac is that they’re dark reflections of each other, in other words, Superman was born naturally, and his mission in life is to protect Earth and its citizens, as well as other planets during his space travels, at all cost, while Brainiac was created artificially and is programmed to collect information from various planets, and destroying them shortly afterwards, doing it for his own benefit and survival.
       Not to mention that the whole "Brainiac was created by Jor-El and was also responsible for the near-extinction of the Kryptonian race" dilemma from both "Smallville" and "Superman: The Animated Series" is starting to remind me of a similar dilemma from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books (that will probably be carried on to the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe as well), in which Richard Parker (Spider-Man's father), was responsible for the creation of the Venom symbiote, inadvertently starting a chain of events which would ultimately lead to his's and Mary Parker's deaths.

                                                 

         I like the way Brainiac was portrayed in DC Universe Online, and in Smallville, but especially in “Superman: Unbound”, and I really hope Brainiac appears in the Batman and Superman 2016 film, especially with his logo appearing as a blink-and-you’ll miss it easter egg in the “Man of Steel” film.

Speaking of seeing Brainiac on the big screen, which actor do you consider suitable for the role? In my opinion, either Benedict Cumberbatch or Johnny Depp would be perfect. Why? Because Cumberbatch has that cold, menacing voice, from Star Trek: Into Darkness as Khan, and in The Hobbit trilogy as the dragon Smaug, that fits with the character of Brainiac. About Johnny Depp, I just think he would be a good candidate, with just seeing how he looks like in the trailers of the movie “Transcendence”.

This may sound silly, but, honestly, when I saw that picture for the first time, I actually thought that was Brainiac. XD

Well, I think that will be enough for today. Next post will be about another supervillain from DC Comics. You may have two options about who I’m going to talk about in my next post, and if you can’t decide which of them will be, I suggest you flip a coin in order to find out who. See ya!!

Venom: The Lethal Protector

Surprise!! I’m taking a break from talking about my favorite superheroes, and now it’s time I start talking about my favorite supervillains.

I’ll start with Venom, who is my 2nd favorite Spider-Man villain, because not only he has all of the powers that Spider-Man has, but also because he is immune to his spider sense (due to his symbiote having previously been attached to Spider-Man), which enables him to attack Spider-Man by surprise.

Quote from "The Spectacular Spider-Man" (2008):

Venom: "We're poison to Peter Parker and Spider-Man; We're VENOM!!

You know what’s ironic? When I was a kid, Venom used to scare the crap out of me, especially in Spider-Man 3, when in his first full appearance he scared the s*** out of me (here's a pic of that scary Venom scene for those of you who are confused):

Quote from "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" (1995):

Venom: "You'll see us everywhere, even in your nightmares!!"

 

So, over time, I managed to overcome my fear of the character. Out of all the different versions of Venom that have appeared in the comics, my favorites are the original Venom, the 3^rd Venom (or as I like to call him, Scorpinom or Venorpion, because that Venom was another Spider-Man villain called Scorpion), and Agent Venom (Flash Thompson), who can be found at the center of this image:

 

 

Now when I look back to Spider-Man 3, I still can’t believe that this character, appeared in only the last 15 minutes of the movie, but he technically appeared in 10 min, do you hear me? ONLY 10 MINUTES, and the Venom from THAT movie still scared me anyways when I was little, can you believe it? (Breaks into hysterical laughter) He…heheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

 

(Calms down 14 minutes later) Ok, I think that’s…enough for today. I’ll make sure not to overexaggerate over past traumas next time. Hopefully, next post will be about a character that sounds very interesting to me, I absolutely liked this character from the very beginning, and I would be very impressed if that character was one of the main villains in the “Batman vs. Superman” 2016 film. Don’t you know who that character is? Well, riddle me this, who is a green-skinned alien, has three circular dots in his head, and is one of the most dangerous enemies Superman has ever faced? You still don’t know who that character is? Here’s a little hint: the character I will be talking about in my next post is the main villain in the animated film “Superman: Unbound” (or “Superman: Desatado” in Spanish). Bye-bye for now!!

The Amazing Spider-Man

Hello, everybody. I'm actually very surprised that I had time to do a new post during this week after all. I initially thought I had to wait until Friday of this week to start posting again, but now that I'm here, let's just get this over with.

Now, I'm going to talk about a very popular superhero from Marvel Comics, none other than the Amazing Spider-Man.

Well, when I was a kid, I used to be a huge fan of Spider-Man. I enjoyed the Sam Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy, but I like the Amazing Spider-Man film franchise more. The Spider-Man games I have played and still have stored nowadays are Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the latter which is one of my favorite superhero games of all time.

 

The Spider-Man comics I have are The Amazing Spider Man #2 (in which recurring Spider-Man villains the Vulture and the Tinkerer made their first appearance), #14 (which featured the first confrontation between the Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, as well as a crossover with the Hulk), and the universally-hated “One More Day” storyline that, I must admit, it did not make any sense to me either. I also have few of the recent storylines and an Ultimate Spider-Man comic book.
 

Spider-Man used to be my favorite superhero, and now he's 2^nd only to the Batman. But, that doesn’t stop me from having faith with Spidey’s new film franchise. I’m so excited for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie that is coming in exactly 1 month and 1 day in the US, while it will be internationally released in April 16^th.
 

Well, that was all. I hope you enjoyed it, because the next posts I’m going to do during the next few days are going to be so extraordinary you will probably want to discover more afterwards. Next post, which I’m going to do either today or tomorrow, the character which I’m going to talk about is a surprise. See you soon.

Superman: The Man of Steel

  Hi, everybody. I'm so sorry for the delay, I was so busy with school that I nearly forgot to create another entry. Well, thanks for those of you who have been patient. Now I'm going to talk about none other, than the Man of Steel himself, in other words, Superman.

   I'm pretty sure that most of you already know that Superman has appeared in the comic books since his debut in 1938, not to mention his origin story, which has been told many times in the comics, as well as in the TV series and movies. Well, let's get to the point. What I like about Superman is how he is considered one of the strongest superheroes in the whole DC Universe, and the fact that when he's Clark Kent, he somehow manages to rule out suspicions that he's Superman in disguise. Out of his entire rogues gallery, my favorite Superman villain is Brainiac, and I would love to tell you the reasons why he's one of my favorite villains, but unfortunately that will have to wait for another post.

   My favorite interpretation of the character is from the film "Man of Steel". Why? Because I think it
has all of the necessary elements that a Superman film should have, action, most of the characters are well-developed, the way the origin story is handled, and the potential it has to start a DC Cinematic Universe, not to mention that even the easter eggs were awesome. I haven't watched the Christopher Reeve films yet, but I heard that the first two films are amazing.

Well, that will be it for today, sorry to disappoint, but I'm not sure if I will have time to do another post anytime soon, because I'm going to have a very busy week. So, what character do you want to know about next. Feel free to comment on my blog about which one do you want me to talk about, and I'll do it as soon as I have time. Bye-bye for now.

Batman: The Dark Knight

 

 

            Hello, everybody. I know what some of you are going to say, that I should stop informing you about the comic book companies, and to start informing and giving my opinion about the characters themselves. Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to do, and who better to start with than one of the most popular superheroes ever: Batman.

Batman, as you may already know, saw his parents die in front of him when he was a child, and seeking justice, he became the iconic hero we all know and love, with his main objective consisting of stopping criminals, whether ordinary thugs, or one of his rogues gallery, at night, while making sure that the tragedy he had gone through, would never happen to anyone else ever again. What I like the most about Batman is that he doesn’t have superpowers, instead only relying on his gadgets, in order to be a hero. I am also impressed by the fact that he deals with a large amount of villains, as well as how these villains are, in one way or another, dark reflections of the Caped Crusader.

 

I have to admit that I have only read about most of the Batman storylines on the Internet, with the only comic book story I have bought from a store and read at home so far being The Dark Knight Returns. I also have the animated films of “Batman: Year One” and “Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker” on Blu-ray, not to mention the live-action Christopher Nolan Batman films.

 I have recently acquired the "Night of the Owls" storyline, which is, in my opinion, one of the best Batman stories ever. When I took this picture, I didn't have that comic book yet, and I was planning to take a picture of it, and insert it either in this post, or my 9th post (Two-Face: The Twisted Judge), but I later decided it would be better if I just showed you the picture, when I get ready to talk about that comic book storyline one of these days.

            I can’t wait to talk about one of these films or the comic book storylines mentioned above, ¿what about you? I have a feeling my next entry will be either about the Man of Steel, The Amazing Spider-Man, or one of the Batman’s greatest enemies. Feel free to comment about what you expect to see next on this blog.

 

 

 

Marvel Comics

I’m pretty sure all of you know by now that Marvel Comics is one of the biggest comic book companies in the world. It’s very clear that out of the two big publishing companies, Marvel is more recognized by the general public due to Marvel Studios releasing two films a year since the culmination of Phase One of their Cinematic Universe, while Fox releases one film (whether it’s X-Men or Fantastic Four) a year, and Sony does the same a new Spider-Man film every two years, although the latter may probably change due to the future spinoffs of “The Sinister Six” and “Venom”.

 

 

 

 

Marvel Comics was founded in 1939, known at the time as Timely Comics. Marvel’s first superheroes were the original Human Torch (which was an android, please don’t confuse him with the Fantastic Four member of the same name), Namor (if you don’t have any idea of who he is, let’s just say he is Marvel’s response to Aquaman), and Captain America. During the 1950’s, Marvel changed its name from Timely Comics to Atlas Comics. It was until 1961 that the company used its current name.

The first superhero team they chose to introduce was the Fantastic Four, later they began publishing titles of superheroes such as Spider-Man, Daredevil, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and so on. Most of these superhero comics were written by none other than Stan Lee. During the 1990’s, Marvel won big amounts of money due to the popularity and recognition their comics had, so it launched the “Marvel 2099” imprint, which featured futuristic versions of the superheroes. However, in 1992, some of its most recognized writers left Marvel in order to found another comic book company, which would be known as Image Comics. Over the last decade, Marvel created new imprints such as Ultimate Marvel, Marvel Noir, etc.

In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired, for approximately between $4 billion and $4.2 billion dollars, Marvel Entertainment, which is a parent corporation of Marvel Comics.

While I prefer DC Comics more, I also think that Marvel is just as good as DC, in its own way, due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the other Marvel-related films and TV series, which manage to entertain people, while at the same time, revealing specific details about what to expect from their next films (and seasons in the case of TV series, like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

Feel free to comment about what movie, game, series, or a specific character or superhero team from Marvel you would like me to talk about, and then I’ll see what I can do. Have a nice day.