Today, comic shops and bookstores around the country are celebrating the 75th anniversary of Batman. Though Detective Comics #27 was originally published in May of 1939, the folks at Warner Brothers and DC Comics have deemed July 23 as Batman Day. I guess since Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies always opened around this time, mid-July makes sense to officially honor the Dark Knight.
As you know, we here at The Nerds of Color are pretty involved Batfans. Hell, we just dedicated a whole week to the character at the end of June! If you want to browse through our coverage of the Caped Crusader, check out the Batman tag here.
Since Batman Day is also coinciding with San Diego Comic-Con this week, you can probably expect a bunch of news concerning our favorite superhero. In the meantime, check out some of the cool Bat stuff that’s already on the internet right now!
First up, our friend Cliff Chiang kicks off the Bat celebrations with these cool peeks into an unfortunately aborted Batman project he had been collaborating on with his Wonder Woman partner Brian Azzarello. Also, peep the Asian Robin!
Initially conceived as a First Wave title, I wanted Robin to be the son of Wu Cheng from the Blackhawks — fuck you, Chop Chop — sent to be raised in the US by Bruce Wayne. Get some pulp in that juice.
Meanwhile, the folks at LEGO are pulling out all the stops to make you empty your wallets this summer. First, they announced a Comic-Con exclusive of the classic 1966 Batmobile — that I’m sure folks are already lining up for. Complex has the early deets on the set.
I love this so much. My only gripe: the mini-figs are just repainted versions of already available Batman and Robin figures. Kinda wish they were more screen-accurate to Adam West and Burt Ward. Still, if any of you who are attending the Con want to get one for me, I won’t be mad.
Since this is an SDCC exclusive, chances are you won’t be able to find it at retail anytime soon. Also, the car looks to be a stylized version of the Batmobile anyway, so maybe they’re gauging fan reaction for a more detailed set in the near future? Because LEGO is not afraid to go all out when it comes to making deluxe versions of their vehicles. Case in point: just check out their recently announced deluxe Tumbler from The Dark Knight!
Sure, this isn’t the first time LEGO has made a Tumbler, but OH MY GOD, WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT THAT THING! The best part? It also comes with exclusive minifigs of Christian Bale in the Dark Knight armor and — for the first time — a mini Heath Ledger Joker! So perhaps the SDCC-exclusive 1966 Batmobile is just a harbinger of even awesomer things to come.
Not to be outdone, Mezco has also announced their first foray into the six-inch superhero action figure market, and boy, is it a doozy! As you may or may not know, six-inch is my preferred action figure scale of choice — so being the DC fanboy that I am, Mattel’s decision to discontinue the scale in favor of four-inch figures fills me with sadness and regret. Fortunately, Mezco looks to be picking up the slack with their announcement of the One:12 Collective. Despite the name of the line, these are not action figures of late-90s R&B groups but instead a revolutionary new approach to the action figure scale.
Basically, One:12 Collective figures promise to bring to six-inch figures the poseability, accessories, and fabric outfits of more high-end 12-inch figures — made popular by companies like Hot Toys. And they’re kicking off the line with none other than Batman from Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns.
Seriously, that’s a six-inch figure.
If you’re in San Diego, you can see the actual thing on display at Mezco booth #3445. It will be available at retail some time this fall and will likely cost you all of your earthly possessions. And your soul.
Lastly, the whole reason we’re celebrating the Batman is because 75 years ago Bob Kane and (mostly) Bill Finger sat down at the typewriter and drawing table to give the world the best comic book superehero in the history of ever (objective fact, by the way). So what better way than to sell hundreds of (digital) Batman comic books at ridiculously low prices?
For a limited time, DC Entertainment is offering 750 classic Batman titles for $.99 each. So if you’ve never cracked open an issue of Detective #27 or wanted to read Dark Knight Returns in single issue form or missed out on the popular “Hush” storyline, now’s your chance to own them on your iPad. Personally, I’d recommend checking out Scott Snyder’s “Black Mirror” run which is probably my favorite non-Bruce Batman story.
The Los Angeles Times has a handy checklist of all the issues available during the sale.
