More posters for The Dark Knight Rises

Gotta say I’m really digging this shit right now.

new posters for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises:

Batman (Christian Bale)

Catwoman (Anne Hathaway)

Bane (Tom Hardy)

“RISE” indeed.

Great day to be a Batman fan.

I know DC Animation has been working on bringing Frank Miller’s  The Dark Knight Returns to life as a 2 part animated movie, but I keep pinching myself to see if I’m dreaming. Anyway, now it’s a total reality, the Hollywood Reporter recently dropped some images and revealed some of the cast, and I’m pretty excited…

though my dream of Powers Boothe voicing Batman isn’t happening, we will be getting an equally badass actor:

PETER WELLER.

Yes. THAT Peter Weller. ROBOCOP!

Must reiterate; ROBOCOP is BATMAN!!!

Pretty fucking sweet.

Also, Carrie Kelly/Robin will be voiced by Ariel Winter (Modern Family)

Which is also pretty fucking sweet.

Harvey Dent/Two Face will be voiced by Wade Williams (Prison Break). And Dr Wolper will be voiced by Michael McKean. They’ve also cast David Selby to voice someone, but they haven’t said who. My guess is Gordon or Alfred.

Still no word on The Joker, but I’m hoping they’ll get Tim Curry.

Check out the Hollywood Reporter for the actual article and photos.

The Dark Knight Rises trailer #3…

Avengers? What fucking Avengers.

If they cast

Powers Boothe to voice Batman

and

Tim Curry to voice Joker

I will be so happy.

So. Fucking. Happy.

I’ll dance and shit.

Of course I haven’t really thought about the other characters like Carrie, Gordon, Dent, Superman and so on. And they’ll probably just end up getting Kevin Conroy and (try their hardest to get) Mark Hamill again for Batman and Joker.

But yeah, Powers Boothe and Tim Curry would just blow my mind.

Get on that shit, DC.

..From DC Direct.

12” Statues

And busts

Of course these are magazine scans, so actual promo images will showcase the pieces a bit more accurate, but these are still neat.

I dig that Bane is all like “what, bitch? try something” in that statue. And the Goddamn Bateman looks badass as always.

I think I’m most surprised by Catwoman. When the first promo stills of Anne Hathaway in costume hit I was bummed out they didn’t give her the cat cowl and goggles I’ve grown accustomed to this past decade

I thought “hey, a design tailor made for live action and they fuck it up by being lazy”. But after seeing the statues, and more pictures of Anne Hathaway… yeah I really like what Nolan and company did.

Ok, I don’t like it AS much as I would otherwise, but whatever.

I’ve also found judging Nolan’s visual take on Bat characters to be an exercise in futility. Most of the time, what looks like shit on paper superficially, (Murphy with a bag on his head/Ledger in grease paint) plays amazingly on screen because he gets the essence of character.

This shit looks still looks cool.

Not saying I’d buy it. I don’t have space for statues.

But they look cool. More importantly, the actor/costume likeness is solid. Which is really all you can ask for when trying to snapshot a character.

Batman is pretty fucking ninja. Or A pretty fucking ninja…

Here’s my take on the Scarecrow, underrated Batman villain/punching bag.

Hopefully he stacks up well with the Two Face I posted last week.

Coming soon, Joker, Riddler, and  Steph Robin.

The appropriately named ActionFigurePics.com has pictures of the Batman Legacy and Arkham City action figures by Mattel.

Check ‘em out

Most recently, the Batman Legacy line has produced action figures of “Modern” Batman, a Golden Age trench coat Joker, a Superpowers redeco of the old DCSH Mr Freeze, as well a black/blue/yellow redeco of Batgirl, a Silver Age Batman (with Bat Mite), and most importantly CATMAN.

As well they have produced box sets/2 packs of The Dark Knight’s Lt. Gordon and a reissue of prototype suit Batman from Batman Begins, and will be re-releasing Batman (can’t remember if it’s BB or TDK) with “Honor Guard” (cop) Joker.

They’ve also put out an Arkham City Batman and Two Face pack, and apparently an AC Robin and Joker 2 pack is coming out.

Personally, I thought they nailed Batman pretty well in the Mattel pack (and Two Face is astounding), shockingly better than DC Direct’s Arkham Asylum Batman figure. However the prototype pics I saw for Joker looked like someone made a mold of a pile of shit then cast it in plastic and painted it.

Ok. That’s kinda mean, but Mattel’s Joker looks like absolute shite next to DC Direct’s Arkham Asylum Joker as far as game/art accuracy goes. I own both he and the Nurse Harley Quinn from DC Direct (my only AA purchases). I also knew DC direct would be producing an Arkham City Harley Quinn (swweeeet).

DC Direct typically do pretty well with sculpting females, and the DC Universe Classic’s females under Mattel leave a lot to be desired. The last Modern era Catwoman was awful. I figured as a fan, I wouldn’t buy the AC stuff from Mattel. That was until i saw these new pictures.

Admittedly Batman looks awful in Blue, but the black one was actually pretty badass. Anyway, not only are they doing a normal Catwoman, but they’ll also be doing a greyscale version with red goggles that matches the promo poster for the game

And a Batman to go with it.

They are also doing Harley Quinn.

And if you check the link, you’ll also see Arkham City Nightwing, as well pics for two more Batman Legacy figures; Golden Age Catwoman, and First Appearance Batman.

I would expect Mattel to “go nuts” with the Arkham City products and we’ll probably end up seeing the majority of the major players from the game. Given the turn around time I also wonder if DC Direct will go nuts with Arkham City, too. Though they were very late to the party with their Arkham Asylum products. The game dropped in 2009 and DC Direct didn’t put out their action figures until spring 2011! Given the solid offerings from Mattel, I think I’ll stick with them over DCD.

But I’m also puzzled as to how they can nail every character right except for Joker. JOKER.

Seriously, look at that clownshit. Compare it to DC Direct’s Joker

Trying to figure out how Mattel shit the bed on that one is enough to drive someone insane.

Granted this is a long weird post by a grown man about toys… but it’s the Goddamn Batman!