How Telltale Games Plays with Expectations in Their Superhero Series

*80s pop music playing in the distance* (via Den of Geek)

I don’t have to tell anyone reading this site that we’re living in a world saturated by superhero media. Between the hundreds of movies, TV shows, Netflix originals, video games, and of course comics, how does one stand out from the crowd? Especially when you’re one of many adapting/rebooting something as ridiculously overdone as Batman? Well, you do what Telltale Games does: you acknowledge that media saturation and the fact that your title character is a pop culture icon, and you decide to use that to do something different. You accept that your players will be bringing some knowledge of the superhero franchise—be it Batman or, more recently, Guardians of the Galaxy—you’re adapting to the table. And you use that knowledge as a foundation to play on audience expectations and take the opportunity to toy, fanfiction-style, with some “what if?” scenarios to create innovative and intriguing new takes on the familiar stories. And you do it all while exploring and giving agency to sidelined women characters, too!

Spoilers (mostly minor, but major ones are tagged) for both Batman: The Telltale Series and Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series beyond the jump!

Fanfiction Fridays: Not A Brother Not A Friend by kleine_aster

I really wanted to rec something lighthearted for you guys, but after a long week with a shitty boss, I had no mental energy whatsoever to relate to anything outside my own personal experiences. So instead, I ended up going through my pages and pages of bookmarks trying to find something that featured a completely platonic relationship and that was also safe for my current mental state.

(via Comic Vine)

In the process, I came across an older story about Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, and their brotherly hatred for one another. Well, Jason Todd comes with his own psychological problems, and most stories with him deserve multiple trigger warnings, but since my depression and anxiety sucked ass this week, reading a fic about a character going through a massive panic attack ended up being exactly what I needed. Not A Brother Not A Friend isn’t a safe read in that regard, but it was definitely platonic and relatable, and for this week, that was good enough.

Trigger warning for mental trauma up ahead.

Trailer Tuesdays: The Lego Batman Movie

Well, it’s safe to say that this is the first Batman movie I’ve looked forward to seeing in years.

Movie Review: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

(via Comic Vine)

The election is finally over, but as this post was written before it ended, I still don’t know what happened. Depending on the results and our own personal stances, the ability to launch ourselves into an alternate reality might be really appealing right about now. Then there are movies like Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which exist to remind all of us that the dystopias in other worlds are somehow even worse than the one we already live in.

Trailer Tuesdays: Batman: The Killing Joke Animated Movie

I usually enjoy DC Comics animated movies, because unlike their live-action movies, they’re actually, you know, good. But despite how successful and how influential The Killing Joke is in the Batman universe, I am not excited about this movie, and that all has to do with how this comic affects Barbara Gordon.

Throwback Thursdays: Batman & Robin

The 1997 movie Batman & Robin is quite possibly one of the strangest movies I have ever watched. The last time I watched it, I noticed that the story liked to switch back and forth between two different things—being completely awful and being completely awful. It does literally nothing else. At any given time Batman & Robin is so awful it’s boring, and during all the other times, it’s so awful it’s baffling. Nevertheless, it’s a movie that has stuck with me over time—not because I particularly want to remember it, but because my traitorous mind won’t let me forget it in the slightest.

Fanfiction Fridays: Human Decency by crowsnest

Recently, for whatever reason, I decided to go ahead and give Gotham Season 2 a watch. Regardless of my feelings on the show as a whole, the experience nevertheless left me in yet another mood to seek out more Riddler. As such, I set out to revisit some of my favorite fanfics, and so I bring to you Human Decency by crowsnest.

Trailer Tuesdays: Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice Revisited

Oh my God! So guess what, guys? I’m not as nervous about the Batman vs Superman movie anymore! Though as always, I still have some concerns.

Throwback Thursdays: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

In 1993 a Batman movie came out called Batman: Mask of the Phantasm that was based on the 1990s Batman Animated Series. The show was wildly successful, so it is no surprise that a movie came out of the series. Since the release of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, it has been hailed as one of the best Batman movies and is often put at the same level as many of the great live-action Batman films. It is certainly one of my favorite Batman movies: it introduces one of my favorite female characters, delves more deeply into Batman’s psyche, and gives us some of the most hilarious and terrifying Joker moments.

Spoilers for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

Throwback Thursdays: World’s Finest

Not long ago, a teaser trailer came out for DC’s new Batman vs. Superman movie. Ever since the title was announced, I have been nervous about the upcoming movie. I have a lot of feelings about Superman and Batman (both together and separately) and I have been waiting a long time for a team up movie to hit the big screen. But when I heard the title of the movie, I was extremely sad. I’m not going to see a Batman and Superman movie based purely on them fighting each other (we all know Superman wins that fight anyway).

Prepare yourself for the shit storm of Batman vs. Superman nerd fighting that will soon arrive.

No, what I really want to see in this new movie is the complex, somewhat antagonistic relationship between Batman and Superman, which eventually morphs into an epic friendship. So today for our Throwback, I want to take a look at the Batman and Superman movie that greatly shaped my perception of the two characters. The World’s Finest originally aired as as a three part episode on the Superman Animated Series in 1997, and was later re-released as a movie. Until this point there had been little to no cross-over between the Superman Animated Series and the Batman Animated Series, other than a one off comment about Batman at the start of the Superman Animated Series. So this movie was the first meeting between Batman and Superman in the animated universe. And the movie just really hit it out of the park.