I just can’t get enough of alternate Batman concepts–probably because I really REALLY dislike underwear-on-top-of-pants superhero designs. I think they are dated and goofy and work against modern day aesthetics. Alas, each has their own thoughts on the matter. But that’s mine. So these crazy concepts are a breathe of fresh air…

Well, not so sure this guy is breathing any fresh air. He kinda looks like he died, went to hell and came back as a Hellspawn. This piece is by artist Halil Ural, his DeviantArt gallery has other great stuff.

What?! Seriously? Akira was one of the first animes I watched in my early teens when we had to rent VHS cassettes. Good times.

Not really actually…

But look what we get out of a big Akira fan’s imagination 2 decades later! DeviantArt user, Ulises Farina gives us Batman done in an Akira style. How cool is this? God it’s so grungy and “street” that it may just make Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass look like it’s owned by Disney (oh, wait… no no it’s not technically…) or Frank Millar’s Dark Knight look like “your father’s Batman” (oh, wait, technically, it is nowadays…)

Update: Wow, I just came across a 2nd piece of Farinas featuring Batman–this time it feels like a Batman Mixes it up with I Am Legend. Instead of making a new post I’m updating this one and keeping it all together! Wicked stuff!

Just when I start thinking too much is going on in the Batverse over at DC Comics, and I start fearing the day it’ll all just go back to the same old same old… an artist comes up with a concept like this–Robin and Bat.

So simple. So perfect. So fresh.

The artists’ intent was for this to be Tim Drake with a new troubled teen… but I can’t help wanting this more than the current Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin setup. It’s obvious Batman will return after he figures out how to get back from the past–yadda yadda–but lets face it: The day of Bruce Wayne as Batman is coming. Deal with it.

Wouldn’t this be the perfect answer?! The conceptual stuff aside… this Robin design just looks badass and maintains a level of fearful respect that would have been learned during his time as Batman. This artist, “kizer180” needs to get hired asap.

Batman isn’t really dead, see? Aliens took him. Or he’s lied to us this whole time and he IS an alien. Or, or, or, the ALIENS need his help and superior detective skills to solve an inter-galactic mystery, and this is their form or “Bat Signal”. Ah, yes, it can mean so many things…

Or it could just be an awesome Photoshop idea DeviantArt user TWManny did up. There was also a Worth1000.com “alien message ins crop circle” competition you can check out as well. The below Batman inspired circle was posted there.

Swamp Thing

Joel Silver hopes to make a new Swamp Think movie in 3D. From Joel Silver: “I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do. I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D. There are a couple of projects I’m thinking about (for the format) but not everything. Maybe I’m going to do it. I like it.”

Green Lantern

After some budgeting issue came up with the film being shot in Australia due to the value of the Australian dollar having risen 16% higher since the spring. It was no longer attractive to shoot there and take advantage of tax benefits. The studio is now scouting Louisiana for some of the possible production.

Powers

Brian Michael Bendis’s Powers series is confirmed to be coming to television. From Bendis: “What made ‘Powers’ special in a culture filled with superhero stories was that we never left the cop’s point of view. We don’t go flying around with the superheroes. We always stay on the ground. ’Powers’ is not a superhero story. We mention all these cool fantastic ideas but it’s a cop story. It’s ‘CSI’ and not ‘Heroes.’”

X-Men Origins: Magneto

David Goyer to MTV News: “They’re still thinking about doing it. They’re definitely looking into doing other X-Men spin offs. I’ve been in touch with them. I’m sure that project will move forward in the next year or so.” So 2010 folks!

Queen & Country

Ryan Condal is writing Queen & Country for Fox. The script will be based on Greg Rucka’s Oni Press comic which follows a female Special Ops agent who finds herself on the run when she carries out a high-level assassination in Eastern Europe.

Spawn

From Todd McFarlane’s Twitter: I’ve officially begun writing the Spawn movie screenplay. The story has been in my head for 7 or 8 years. Will continue to update. The movie idea is neither a recap or continuation. It is a stand alone story that will be R-rated. Creepy and scary. The tone of this Spawn movie will be for a more older audience. Like the film Departed.

Batman 3

Magan Fox is Catwoman! Holy crap! Please say it ain’t so! Alright: “It ain’t so.” Thankfully this was nothing more than a prototypical example of Internet-provoked rumor. Warner Bros. has confirmed that no casting has been done for Batman 3 because there IS no Batman 3 yet. No script. No Casting Calls. We can all breathe normally again.

[Original Comic at xkcd.com]

It’s strange how a simply drawn webcomic like xkcd can sometimes perfectly capture the complexity of thoughts going on in one’s mind. This strip above pretty much explains my experience with hearing all the jargon details surrounding house shopping and loans, interest rates, bridged financing, etc.

When things get shadowy in the brain–I think of the master of shadows himself: Batman. Batman fixes everything and makes it nice, no matter how scary it is.

comiXtrips Mini-Review: Batman & Robin #1 on 12seconds.tv

[See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.]

This is why I hate Superman as a character. He ruins things by… um… saving things…

One day I just know I’ll figure out the magical reason comic fans drool over Sups–and don’t throw mental turmoil about “this” or “that” at me as a viable angle for extra character dimension. Sheesh.

[View this video on YouTube]

I am not sure why today is turning into US politics day over here on NunoXEI.com, but just so happens if that’s all I see in my web subscriptions, then that’s what is going to stand out.

I first discovered “Goldentusk” after watching an episode of Diggnation where he was brought up in reference to his Batman: The Musical parody on YouTube done to the original Batman theme song. If you haven’t seen this video, I added it below at the end of this post… because it’s about Batman. And I love Batman.

My name is NunoXEI and I’m a Batmaniac.

Back to the video above though… I actually laughed out loud. If the reference of the parody is not evident to anyone reading this blog or watching the video above, then I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be the one to link to it or even point out the reference. You’ll have to do your own digging. I’ll just say that my connection to the original reference video was from reactions of other YouTubers who watched it.

I am a very curious person… but I’m not THAT curious. My stomach is a sensitive thing and watching people react to 2 girls and… Oh, almost got me… reacting to the REACTIONS of that video were sometimes enough to make me lose my bowels through my mouth. Just saying.

The above video parody was the kind of comedic awesomeness that makes me wish I thought of it first. So simple.

Bonus awesomeness from Goldentusk: Batman musical song done over the original Batman theme song. Enjoy!

[View this video on YouTube]

I just got re-inspired to start up a new Hollywood Stock Exchange account. I had one I started about six years ago now when the Iron Man movie was nothing but a dream and a penny stock over on this fun little time killer. Years later (and much wishes that the game was real) I was turned into an instant multi-millionaire!

Anyways, onward then to the second instalment of this new series on comic movie news!

Worthy Time Killers or Worth a Chuckle

DC Comics Meets The Simpsons – Ever wonder what DC characters would look like if Simpsonized? Well Dean over at Springfield Punx has gone ahead and skipped the step or curiosity!

Fresh Prince of Gotham – I used to love Fresh Prince of Belair when I was younger so this parody video was worth a good couple chuckles. The actor sings out quotes that are actually pretty damn close to the original. The fact that he can mix them up into the lyrics is golden.

The Inevitable Alliance – First we get G.I. Joe/The Thing in stop motion; now we get this masterpiece that took a year to make with over 3000 photos. This one is a longish one but it’s worth the watch as some of the fight sequences are pretty entertaining considering they’re coming out of toys.

… More entertaining than The Spirit fight sequence from Comic Con in any case linked down below…

The Spirit of What Exactly…?

Some footage got leaked from Comic Con showing a fight between The Spirit and his arch-nemesis The Octopus. I’m going to go right ahead and quote the rant over at BamKapow.com on this one. No point in wasting my time repeating my fearful thoughts after seeing this clip. I hope the trailer doesn’t end up being better than the movie with this one.

Frank Millar’s debut as a director could hurt any chances of a potential Daredevil actually “rebooting” the franchise. Lets hope this all comes together this Christmas.

Watch More About The Watchmen

There are a bunch of clips from Behind the Scenes stuff for the Watchmen movie. If you want to get yourself caught up on why this movie WILL succeed in pleasing the fans, then clicky click and start watching!

Hearing a director talk about their project is often times a good sign as too how much personal knowledge and affinity for the material they actually have. Zack Snyder doesn’t disappoint.

Yahoo Behind the Scene Clips

Superman Begins Again (Hopefully)

I never cared much for Superman, and the strange thing is that something about Smallville actually made me find interesting things about the character actually existed in some creative team’s mind! If you ever wondered about Superman Returns having done nothing for all your anticipations; or perhaps wishing that studios could look at that movie as another Ang Lee’s “Hulk” scenario… then you’re not the only one! Mark Waid, Grant Morrison and Brad Meltzer also have opinions about rebooting the franchise.

Saving Superman – Comic Book Creatives Try to Fix the Franchise
Superman Needs To Start Over! STAT!!

Batmania Continues

Who Should Be Next Villain for Nolan’s Batman? Comic Writers Weigh In – A bunch of comic book pros give you their picks for who should be in the upcoming Batman movie.

If this post is any indication as to who the next adversary will be, then it seems to be weighing heavily in on the Catwoman choice for multiple reasons. This combined with gossip about Angelina Jolie talking to her porn star friend Tera Patrick about the Catwoman role, I can’t help thinking the new advertising model involves turning the rumour mill to let the internet hounds gobble it all up and spit it all back out to others (like I just did). <burp> Excuse me.

Captain American’t

Captain America movie in CGI – If this internet buzz is more truth than rumour, it’ll be a sad, sad day in Marvel-movieland for fans. This could single handedly destroy the crossover awesomeness that is in the Marvel movie making framework thus far.

What could be so off-putting for Marvel Studios to make a call like this? It’s like they never made enough money on Iron Man or something?! Maybe Increadible Hulk didn’t perform as well, sure, but to take a step back like this has mega-disaster written all over it.

To Magneto or Not to Magneto

“Magneto” Defeated By “Invisible Man”? – David Goyer, screenwriter for the Batman franchise is set to direct the Magneto movie. Word has it though that he’s interested in another project that may come first: The Invisible Man.

He’s got a take on it that could actually be quite interesting on screen. It involves the nephew of the first Invisible Man and Scotland Yard setting him up as a secret agent.

Paris Hiltoon

Paris Hilton Set to Be Super Heroine — Please… why? That is all.