Batman: Knight & Squire

Knight & Squire

When I visited the library the other day to grab some more graphic novels to tide me over between books, I came across the namesake of this post. "Batman: Knight & Squire" the cover of which depicts a dynamic duo in the vein of Batman & Robin, the two things that caught my eye most about this particular cover though, were the fact that our titular heroes are stood in front of Big Ben, something I found very intriguing for what I took to be a Batman title, and the authors name, Paul Cornell.

Many of you may recognise Cornell's name and make the connection between he, and some of the best episodes of Doctor Who of recent years (Doctor Who being one of the other things I'm obsessed with) and so I figured that this, surely, must be well worth a read.

Upon reading said graphic novel, I couldn't find my hunch to be more validated. Knight & Squire is a wonderfully clever, well balanced, witty riff on our favourite billionaire and ward team while seeming as an almost entirely fresh, new piece of work in its' own right.

Initially I was apprehensive and worried that it was going to be an attempt to feed everything from the Batman universe into a British counterpart, however, this wasn't the case. Knight & Squire is set in the same universe as other DC heroes and actually makes reference to how each of our English heroes and villains seem like copies or "cover versions" of their American inspirations.

Jarvis Poker: The British Joker

Most notably of all (aside from The Knight as a wonderful take on Batman) is "Jarvis Poker: The British Joker" an absolutely ingenious play on the classic character. Poker is a so-called villain heavily inspired by The Joker, in fact, he's his "biggest fan" and admires his style yet could never bring himself to commit any crimes and, thus, is admired by the other heroes and villains for carrying himself with poise and dignity, commanding respect and admiration, even though he's dressed in a Chaplin-esque incarnation of a clown costume.

The artwork of this entire book is sublime and masterfully evokes the tone and style of many of the classic Batman stories without being a direct copy, the designs of The Knight and Squire are absolutely gorgeous. The Knight's armour is excellently referential while remaining a striking, original image, allowing the reader to buy into the stories within with much more gusto and fervour than if this were just an out and out British-Batman.

The Cidermen

The writing is wonderfully playful for British readers and equally action-packed if you're unable to spot some of the quirkier references, Cornell has laced the script for this book with so many pop-culture references it's almost mind-boggling. My favourite of all is when Cornell show's his Doctor Who fanboy side by incorporating a team of super-villains called "The Cidermen".

While reading this book I found myself questioning how absurd a lot of the action was, only to check myself and relate it back to its' American counterpart, only to see that, in actual fact, this is no more campy or sent-up than any of the earlier Batman comics; as The Joker himself says of England, "The sheer camp! For you people, it's like the sixties never ended!" and, if the world were really like Knight & Squire, that'd be okay by me!

Ultimately, Knight & Squire is a wonderful tweak of the established Batman & Robin we all know and love, and it's a welcome change, the story telling is excellent, with the right balance of humour and action, the illustration is rich and detailed and the inside-jokes for the whole of Britain are a wonderful flavour that may well have gone over the heads of many an American reader.

Jarvis Poker holds the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre hostage.

All in all, I'd recommend this as a sterling read. It's a shame it ended so soon.

Finally, I couldn't let you go without telling you about how giddy I got when I saw that my adopted home-city of Lincoln was featured, most notably the LPAC theatre. It got me ridiculously excited.

Thanks for reading chumrades!

The Dark Knight Rises

So, I saw the film earlier (the 3:30 showing at the Kettering Odeon, fact fans!) and I must say, I'm going to have to sound like all the other people who've seen it, and it truly is a masterpiece of heroic proportions...

(See what I did there? Didcha? Didcha?!)

Nolan and team are once again on tremendous form and I maintain that the Dark Knight Trilogy has vastly improved with each film's release. I remember when I first saw "Batman Begins" and I was blown away, I couldn't believe how dark and gritty and utterly believable it was. "Then The Dark Knight" came along and blew it out of the water and, dare I say it, the same is true of TDKR, it's utterly incredible and stays incredibly true to the original "Bane" saga of the Batman comics while updating, amending and improving them so as to fit more snugly into the Nolan universe.

Tom Hardy and Christian Bale

The cast has been cherry-picked for the most wonderful results, Tom Hardy as Bane is the perfect mix of intellect and intent while also embodying Bane's physical side with sheepskin-clad relish. Initially many fans (including myself) voiced concerns about whether or not Bane's dialogue would be understandable underneath his mask. The first trailer raised these concerns to a very high level, something Nolan and team seemed to take on board. Not once throughout the entire duration of the film was I truly at a loss for what he said and I understood 99% of everything first time around. There was one sentence however, where I had to work it out from context, but hey, that's a tiny, tiny niggle.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is shining as a new addition to the cast and steals the show in every scene he's in. I won't go into too much detail about his character, but I will say his performance is superb. If you're fan of JGL in films like "Brick" and "(500) Days of Summer" you'll see him stretch many other acting muscles in this film, and he does them with skill and precision.

Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway is great as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, bringing out her murkier intentions behind the cat-burglar  routine. In fact, her performance is such a revelation in the character of Catwoman that I'd say she's one of the few actresses to breathe any discernible life into it. She's only upstaged by her own posterior when wearing her (excuse the pun) cat-suit.

Naturally Christian Bale is on stellar form as our favourite caped crusader and puts up a good fight (literally and figuratively) for the role of ultimate scene stealer, only pipped to the post by the glorious, ever brilliant, Sir Michael Caine.

Sir Michael Caine

Caine's performance is unbelievably well measured yet delivers at exactly the right moments in order to make you cry, either with sadness or joy. Caine is the star of this show, even though he's not in it for anywhere near as much as Hardy or Bale or Hathaway or Levitt. He makes all the difference in Bruce Wayne's life, and in the hearts of the audience and I can't sing his praises enough.

There are several veiled references to the rich back-catalogue of Batman comics, most of which humorous. No one other than me in the cinema got it, so often I was belly-laughing in a room full of silent people. But there we are, they're there if you think you can spot them!

The only other time I found myself chortling was during a fight-scene which caused Batman to get rather drenched causing his usually matte-finish, menacing looking suit become very, very shiny indeed.

(He looked like a big black dildo.)

While I agree whole-heartedly with Nolan's sentiments of this film being the perfect conclusion to his take on The Dark Knight, I can't help but feel that maybe he has some other intentions, should he be called upon to help Christian Bale into his tights once more.

But we'll see what the future holds, for now I'm thrilled with this film and I seriously think anyone who can, should go and see it.

'Till next time, chums!