My interview with Geekdad about Fall of the Blue Beetle next Friday on Batman: The Brave and the Bold went online sometime between when I went to sleep last night and when I woke up this morning (weird how that happens, isn’t it?)
Here’s a little bit:
As a lifelong Batman fan (which answered my “Marvel or DC” question before I got a chance to ask it), Wil told me he really likes the tone of the new show:
I’m probably the world’s biggest Batman fan. Batman’s the reason that I read comic books… [Brave and the Bold] is just another take on the Batman universe. Batman has always been, by its very definition, a little dark and very serious; and I mean, look: it’s about a vigilante whose driven by the need to avenge the murders of his parents that he saw when he was a child. Clearly, he has some issues… But I really like what they’re doing with The Brave and the Bold because it is stylized. You know, Dark Knight changed everything, and Year One changed everything. There was before [those comics] and after. And [The Brave and the Bold] is just, like, before.
You can take it from Wil, and me, that the series is a lot of fun and accessible to a younger audience, while still throwing in tons of characters and continuity points that will leave comic book fans smiling and nodding in appreciation. Use Wil’s episode (airing Friday, January 23rd at 8 p.m. on Cartoon Network – check your local listings!)
I did my interview with the lovely and talented Ken Denmead via Skype, and the entire thing is available on the Geekdad Podcast, if you’re having one of those days that just won’t be complete until you hear me talking about Geek stuff.
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Speaking of comics, you are mentioned in today’s Penny Arcade.
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/1/16/
Nice interview sir. I like how you bring up the things and the people that have changed the Batman universe along the years just to twist the knife to let em know how much of a fan of Batman you actually are.
What is your favorite comic book storyline from Batman? And who is your favorite character from the series that if you had a change to play you would hack the competition to pieces to play them…other than Beetle 🙂
I’ll have to listen to the podcast when I get home from work.
Personally, I never got into the Batman comics. (Well, not until Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, which is when I realized I’d actually been missing something all those years.) I blame the 60’s TV show. When I came of the age to start buying comics (late 70’s) I recalled that show – and just how stupid I thought it was. The last thing I wanted to do was waste my precious time reading more of that crap…
Yeah – I blame Adam West for the fact that I’m a Marvel guy. 😉
Blast! I was just about to point that out myself. 🙂
Well, you know, he IS the goddamn Batman.
Wil – what are your thoughts on the current Batman story line? (RIP, Final Crisis #6, the whole Morrison influence, you know?)
Nice work. It’s always interested to listen to you off the cuff.
You did really terrificly when that lady asked you the “I am not Spock” question, given how much you’ve written about your relationship with Westley (which she obviously hadn’t read). It IS very cool that you’ve inspired that many people to become Astronomers and whatnot–that must be a truly out-of-this-world feeling.
Keep it up, good listening to you.
Ok. Just went to the Brave and the Bold site on Cartoon Network. That looks frikken fun and cool as hell. The blue beetle looks cooler than he ever has…they even make red tornado look cool and that dude was always a waste of comic ink.
…I lol’ed
Oddly enough, I’m having EXACTLY one of those days. Batman/Blue Beetle geek-talk made it infinitely better.
Also: What the hey? You were involved in The Zeta Project? I loved that show growing up (yes, I’m a young’n, I know)! That’s awesome.
After listening to the podcast, I just have to say that as a huge fan of both Jaime Reyes and Ted Kord, I loved hearing your take on Ted and who the character is.
Above all else, I REALLY was relieved to hear someone that’s an old-school kinda fan of silver age stuff like Ted, and still respectful to (and it sounds like you even like) the new guy. I got into DC comics through my brother’s hand-me-downs, mainly Superboy and Impulse, and some Legion of Superheroes, but kinda strayed away over the years and what got me back into them was the new Blue Beetle, so Jaime Reyes has a special place in my heart.
But on the internuts, in many of the big comics forums, there’s a ton of outright hostility towards Jaime, and by extension, the people who like him as a character, from the fans of Ted that are pissed that Ted’s gone. Some are even outright racist and rail against the fact that Ted was replaced by an ethnic character.
It’s slightly ridiculous when both Jaime and Ted are fantastic characters, and even more ridiculous when they’re JUST comics characters (to be jerks to real people over them), so I just wanted to say thank you for bringing Ted to life with the apparent enthusiasm you have for the character, and for also being the one to DO that and also showing that same enthusiasm for Jaime.
Even if you totally, totally bombed it (which I sincerely doubt happened, and I expect I’ll really enjoy the episode) both of the Beetles are some of my favorite characters in comicsdom–largely because of how FUN they both are–and it’s just nice to see that the person bringing one of them to life for the first time is just as easygoing and enthusiastic about liking them both as I am.
It’s kind of a well-deserved kick in the nuts to the people that are nasty to other REAL people on the net over a fictional character getting replaced by another, and take it way too seriously, when the guy bringing that character to life in animation for the first time is enthusiastic about both and all about bringing the fun.
So, thanks. Big time. And I’m really looking forward to and excited about the episode, with the kind of nerd enthusiasm comic fans typically have for Wednesdays. I think Ted’s going to sound (and look, because the animators rock) great!