Fans of the latest member to wear the sacred bat of the Batman family have reason to celebrate today.  DC Comics has just announced that Batwoman #0 will land in comic book stores this November as a “teaser” intro to the new ongoing series for the heroine.  The series is set to begin in February 2011 with J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman taking the writing duties.  Batwoman #0 will be a one-shot, designed to, as Williams put it, “straddle between what came before and what is to come, but manages to be it’s own unique thing. It’s unusual construction allows two threads of content to run simultaneously, building to a greater whole, hopefully creating an interesting reading experience.” read more….

There’s something wonderful about symmetry, be it in art, life, Geometry, design, and, in the case of the latest direct-to-DVD DC animated feature Batman: Under the Red Hood, a necessary and appropriate frame for a story of loss and revenge.  Bringing together two of the more memorable and influential Batman stories of the past twenty-five years, “A Death in the Family” and “Under the Hood,” the film crafts a kind of symmetry of its own that bridges the decades that separate the stories.  Seventy-five minutes isn’t a lot of time to merge the stories involving the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin, at the hands of the Joker with his improbable return to life; however,  the result is a mostly effective film that works well when it comes to the action sequences and the balancing of flashback with current story.  In matters of character, and the complex relationship between Jason Todd and Batman at the heart of the film, more depth to make the viewer feel the emotions could be used. read more….