Batman

30 amazing Batman costumes only seen on action figures

Batman is easily one of the most popular characters in action figure history, with several hundred different figures of him having been produced over the years. Unfortunately, he also - with the odd exception - has tended not to change his costume in especially dramatic ways, save for the occasional switch from grey to black, or the addition and subtraction of the famous yellow oval.

Despite this obvious handicap, his popularity in plastic form is such that toy manufacturers have never been shy in coming up with wild, inventive and frequently batshit mental alternative costumes to flog to unsuspecting parents the world over. Here, then, are thirty particular favourites of ours...

Cinematic Universe Episode 2: Batman (1989)

Our new fortnightly podcast, in which PanelBeats editors James and Seb discuss comic book movies with Film4's Joe Cunningham, reaches its landmark second episode!

One Line Reviews Of Every Comic I Have Bought Since We Last Posted An Update

Hello. It may not have escaped your notice (or it might have completely escaped your notice) that things have been a bit quiet around here lately. We've had a few work and personal related commitments that have meant that we've fallen a bit behind in keeping up with posts. Sorry for the inconvenience, if it is indeed an inconvenience at all.

Regular service should be resuming shortly, and we also have some exciting plans on the podcast side of things to hopefully tell you about soon, but in the meantime, I thought I'd catch up with what's been going on in comics in the time that we haven't been posting. So here's a list of every comic I've bought (either on Comixology or in print) since our last new post, and a quick comment on what I thought of each them. I make no apology for the lack of intense scrutiny or in-depth analysis contained within, but at least in terms of sheer volume of comics it's decent value for money... right?

Comixology Sale Picks: Batman 750

Update 26.11.14: The Batman 750 sale is back! So we're re-bumping our guide to it - it seems to be basically the same 750 comics as before, though we haven't had a chance to go through and check in detail to make absolutely certain. But if you missed it the first time, now's your chance...

Seven hundred and fifty Batman comics? Seven hundred and fifty? No way are we going to be able to give you a yes or no on every single item featured in Comixology's mammoth Batman anniversary sale, but if we go through and pick out a few choice things we think are worth looking at, it might help you actually navigate the sale without it taking the entire week that it lasts for...

10 Superhero Comics of the '90s that were Actually Good

It is a truth universally acknowledged, as Jane Austen once said, that comics in the 1990s were shit. Just Google "90s comics" and you'll find a plethora of articles with titles like 10 Reasons Why Comics Sucked During The 90s, Why I Fear The 90s Revival Happening, The 10 Most Asinine 1990s Characters and Reasons the 90s Almost Killed Comics. Some of them even get the apostrophe in the right place.

While many of the criticisms offered by this kind of article are more than valid, it's long seemed to us to be somewhat unfair that the entire decade gets written off as filled with excessive, gimmick-driven, pouch-laden dross. It could just be that we started reading superhero comics ourselves (mostly) in the '90s, or it could be that there were genuinely some absolutely terrific comics produced in that decade amid whatever fiasco Rob Liefeld was involved with that week. Even putting aside the obvious likes of Sandman and Preacher, if you look specifically within superhero comics you can find things that are capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the preceding late '80s age that draws so much acclaim.

So to prove this, we've come up with a list of ten superhero comics that all began publication in the '90s (and ended it, if not within the decade, then close enough to the end of it) that we think are genuine, un-ironic, bona fide classics.

Comixology Sale Picks: DC Multiversity

With Grant Morrison's long awaited The Multiversity starting this week, DC and Comixology have seen fit to put up a sale that should really be called "The Crisis Sale", but which is basically themed heavily around the concept of alternate worlds. Fortunately, it does this without touching Countdown with a ten-foot barge pole, for which we can only be thankful.

Anyway, here's our look at what's worth buying, although be warned that the sale includes both 52 and Crisis on Infinite Earths, so if you're going to take our word on absolutely everything, you're in for an expensive one.

Film Strips: Batman (1989)

So far in the Film Strips series, it's fair to say that the comics we've looked at have supported the widely-held notion that comic strip adaptations of superhero movies are largely pointless and low-quality endeavours that work neither as good versions of the movie story nor as good comics in their own right. Every so often, however, it's possible for a comics adaptation to be a legitimately good piece of work - and such is the case with DC's Batman adaptation of 1989.

Well, that is certainly a photograph of Ben Affleck pretending to be in a Frank Miller comic alright

Big version here. It looks... pretty good, I guess? Maybe? It's a definitely an interesting route to go down. But it's reaching a point where I don't have a fucking clue how to react to any of this stuff any more, frankly. So long as Batman vs Superman doesn't make me throw up in the Odeon Leicester Square, it'll be an improvement.

"Gotham" trailer misunderstands what the word "before" means

Well, unless Fox/DC are redefining "before" to mean "a younger version of", of course. I for one can't wait to see this new TV show about what a fictional city is like when the one thing that has made it interesting for 75 years is removed.

Why oh why can't we have Mike Allred drawing DC characters more often?

Well, this is basically just magnificent. Mike Allred has done several variant covers for DC's May books in the style of Batman '66 to celebrate the Caped Crusader's 75th anniversary. After the jump, check out his takes on Batgirl, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Harley Quinn and several more besides...