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Post by cross on Mar 17, 2015 8:12:53 GMT -5
Man that was a fun issue! Deathstroke fighting Nightwing was awesome. The choreography was dead on perfect and I never got lost in the chaos. I loved how it went from a motorcycle chase and three seconds later, boom! Shit escalated quick! Cars flipping, gas flying everywhere, explosive gel! Very fun read.
Let's be honest here, you know Batman would have caught Nightwings punch just rubbing salt in the wound even more.
I continue to hate/love Damien. The way he acted towards Babs was making me crack up. Beast boy and Cul was actually fun. I know we aren't supposed to work on Teen Titans but my dream team is quickly becoming Beast Boy, Bluebird, Mia or Thea, and someone from Catman that I don't want to spoil yet. Very fun.
Riddler is still the best Ultimized character in the Ultimate 52 universe!
QUESTION!!!!
Loved the issue. May be a perfect score
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Post by Drake on Mar 17, 2015 11:18:58 GMT -5
Man that was a fun issue! Deathstroke fighting Nightwing was awesome. The choreography was dead on perfect and I never got lost in the chaos. I loved how it went from a motorcycle chase and three seconds later, boom! Shit escalated quick! Cars flipping, gas flying everywhere, explosive gel! Very fun read. Let's be honest here, you know Batman would have caught Nightwings punch just rubbing salt in the wound even more. I continue to hate/love Damien. The way he acted towards Babs was making me crack up. Beast boy and Cul was actually fun. I know we aren't supposed to work on Teen Titans but my dream team is quickly becoming Beast Boy, Bluebird, Mia or Thea, and someone from Catman that I don't want to spoil yet. Very fun. Riddler is still the best Ultimized character in the Ultimate 52 universe! QUESTION!!!! Loved the issue. May be a perfect score Well that just makes me beyond happy. I don't know about Adrini, but I like to think of Knights as my magnum opus for these sites. The fact that it's getting such positive reviews makes me beyond happy, especially as I know that all the hard work (and by God dealing with all the continuity is tough) paid off! Batman absolutely could have, but Nightwing caught him off guard. He never, ever expected Dick to hit him. That's how I want you to feel about Damian. Hopefully I'll be able to develop him so you lean one way over the other A lot's going to happen in the future with those two. I love writing Cullen and Gar, and I can't wait for you to see their character arcs. With so few appearances I'm glad you like Riddler so much. I hope his arc and his big reveal ultimately (see what I did there) satisfy you. I totally blanked on the preview page last night and ended up outlining the rest of Act 1. I'll put up the preview now. Give me like thirty minutes.
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Post by Drake on Mar 17, 2015 11:34:59 GMT -5
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Post by cross on Mar 17, 2015 12:14:00 GMT -5
Batman expects everything forever.
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Post by ericthepilot on Mar 20, 2015 13:39:48 GMT -5
Another strong entry.
Damien is really starting to grow on me, which is something I wouldn't have thought possible, but there you have it. He pairs well with Nightwing and plays off of just about everyone else as well. It's fascinating to see the different way he interacts with everyone, since he responds so differently to each, but the interactions all feel authentic.
This issue continues to throw dynamite onto the pile, when it goes off it's bound to go big with Harvey and the Red Hoods both threatening to upend the status quo against people not particularly inclined to see it torn up. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to see what comes of that.
I really enjoyed the Cullen and Beast Boy interaction. Two kids looking for a friend and hopefully finding one, outcasts of different stripes, there's a lot to like and look forward to with them. Hopefully we'll see more - especially if it leads to more Riddler.
Keep up the great work!
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Post by DiscipleofBob on Apr 20, 2015 0:03:43 GMT -5
I could've sworn I reviewed at least one chapter in the past, but I'm not finding it. So that's a gross oversight on my part. Shame on me.
1
This may very well be the best First Issue on either site. It is absolutely perfect. You manage a perfect balance and get everything you need in that first chapter. The awkward tension in the beginning between Grayson and Barbara. The warm family dynamic between everyone. The personal drama from their past. And a good old-fashioned crime to get everyone to suit up. Not only do you have everything in this chapter, you have it all perfectly balanced. No one element seems overshadowed or out of place.
2
Not perfect like the first issue, but still good. Batman and company showing up to the full crime scene in costume and working directly in the open with police feels kind of weird for me, but it's not like there isn't comic book precedent for that sort of thing. The flashbacks seem excessive. Nightwing's hallucinations are okay, but then you kind of jump to Barbara Gordon's past for reasons I can't quite fathom. Not that they're not great character development, they just seem out of place.
And while I can appreciate the need for exposition and backstory, Bane calling in a minion to tell his life's story, then killing said minion for knowing said life story, seems like it would be... let's call it "unnecessarily hemorrhaging human resources." So far though I otherwise really like Bane.
3
This chapter seems a bit more disjointed than the rest. We jump from scene to scene to scene, some of which seem to have little if any relevance to the current plot. I understand you're trying to develop multiple subplots, but at this point you've just set up multiple subplots and character arcs and you're just adding more without context. Now I'm sure these will come to connect later, for now it's like reading between five and ten stories at once. Maybe it's that some of the plots were introduced in Haven, but since this is a different title, maybe it'd be a good idea to re-introduce some of the plot points. I'm especially trying to understand how a lot of these scenes and plot points are connected.
4
Alfred is made of awesome. Of course the same applies to most of the characters in this scene. The only characters in this story who aren't awesome so far are I think just people who've been mentioned but haven't gotten their limelight yet.
Harvey Dent, considering the character's importance, could have used a bit more description to him.
5
Deathstroke is awesome, but for a chapter called Nightwing VS Deathstroke, for me there didn't seem to be a lot of Nightwing VS Deathstroke. If I'm reading this right, Deathstroke only appears at the tail end of 4, fights a little bit with Nightwing, gets interrupted by Batman, then they just have a chase scene after Batman and Deathstroke have already seemingly come to an agreement. The chase scene is then resolved about a third through the chapter. It also doesn't help that right from the beginning Team Bat just seemed to be swarming him and a smart mercenary knows when to gracefully retreat. I like Deathstroke's characterization a lot, I just wish we got more from him.
As for the rest of the chapter, some nice points. The hidden file in the care package is a nice but of flavor. Harvey Dent and his Untouchables have me excited. And this is the first chapter where I've actually been remotely interested in what either of the Row kids are doing. Maybe it's because Gar is there too.
So far this title is excellently handling the various parts of the Bat-mythos that the site had been lacking for so long while doing its own thing. I expect my complaints about some of the scenes being seemingly unrelated will become less and less true as the series goes on and more of the connections are revealed. Keep up the good work!
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Post by Drake on Apr 20, 2015 10:37:22 GMT -5
Glad you're liking it so far. Everything will tie together, but like in A Tale of Two Cities the stories begin as separate entities that come together through a particular group of people. In this case, those people would be Dick and Babs.
Thanks for the critiques! We'll work on it in the future.
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Post by Drake on May 2, 2015 21:51:05 GMT -5
So close to being done with the 52 Day Special! It'll be up within the hour!
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Post by DiscipleofBob on May 2, 2015 21:54:25 GMT -5
Oh man, how I feel your pain Drake.
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Post by Drake on May 2, 2015 22:42:29 GMT -5
You've got it worse. You're actually trying to pump out all the issues. I'm leaving Spidey and Guardians for next weekend.
THE 52 DAY SPECIAL IS UP!
If it's a bit confusing...well, that's expected. It jumps all over the place, time-wise. It still does exactly what it needs to.
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Post by DiscipleofBob on May 2, 2015 22:46:18 GMT -5
You want to hear what really sucks?
I promised myself I wouldn't go see Age of Ultron until I got Justice League up. -_-'
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Post by Drake on May 2, 2015 23:09:10 GMT -5
Yeah, that does.
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Post by ericthepilot on May 3, 2015 0:18:55 GMT -5
This might be the single most rewarding issue of this series to date, and one of my favorites that I've read of any series on the board. This is one that pays off on things going all the way back to the beginnings of the Batman story on the board. There's so much to sink your teeth into, and yet so much more to build off of. I can't speak to someone coming in to read this as the first thing they'll discover of Batman on the board, but as someone who's read pretty much everything I thought it connected a lot of dots and filled in some much needed backstory, as well as bringing characters we're long overdue to revisit back into the forefront.
I didn't find the way you structured the story to be confusing at all - I think in fact that your writing style lends itself very easily to this kind of thing. We're already used to the "survey course of Gotham and Bludhaven" style, so taking three vignettes from different time periods isn't all that different from what we usually see from a typical issue. I also thought within each story in the issue, you did enough setting of the scenes that even a new reader should have an easy time getting at least a rough sense of when they happen.
One of the things that really made this one stand out was how well the through line for all three stories, the thematic idea that unites them all was really well executed. Loss is as central a theme to Batman as anything else, and all three stories reflect that in different ways, by providing a different context to very similar situations. And much as I tend not to get too caught up in the context of the moment, given the New 52 issue that came out this same week, this compares quite favorably which is no small feat.
Not surprising, of course, as this is a consistently excellent series, but it's another great issue, keep up the good work.
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Post by Drake on May 3, 2015 16:30:59 GMT -5
Thank you so much for saying that! I'm glad it's not confusing.
It's great that you're already picking up on a number of themes. More will be presented and developed in the future. And yes, this title certainly deals very heavily with tragedy. While it is a superhero story and--as you will find out in JL #1--some people survived, I can promise that people will change for the worse and there will be fatalities. However, each death and casualty (emotional or physical) will happen because I believe you get a better story from it and I feel as if they lend themselves to the themes we're exploring.
I'd also like to add that I'm really proud of this issue. The second and third scenes echo each other in many ways. I'll leave you to catch the similarities. The first scene is mostly there to fill in some (not all) of the dots, develop a character, and hint at things to come.
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Post by Drake on May 3, 2015 16:33:31 GMT -5
Also, WE'RE IN CONTINUITY! With that said, I'd really like to thank everyone who's reviewed and bothered to follow the series till now. It really means a lot to us. I know I--and I'd be willing to bet Adrini is too--am so proud that Knights has been this well received after the work we've put into it to develop the best story we could. There's more to come, folks, and I can't wait for you to see what we have in store!
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Post by Drake on May 24, 2015 23:19:34 GMT -5
6 is up!
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Post by ericthepilot on May 29, 2015 12:09:49 GMT -5
I thought this was another strong entry in a strong series.
It's amazing how much you're able to pack into an issue, and how many different storylines are going on, but they're all seeing advancement in this issue, even in the shorter sequences. There never seems to be a wasted scene, or one just to get someone a little face time, you're always moving things forward. I like that. The scene with Damien and Dick in particular is a good example of this.
Another nice touch is that for an issue that was teased exclusively around the appearance of Catwoman, she doesn't show up right away, building a bit of tension and anticipation. Lesser writers might have felt the need to jam her in right up front, but I like that you weren't afraid to hold it off a bit while you advanced a few other bits first. She in particular was a lot of fun in this issue – and I liked again the way you handle the contrasts between her and Batman in terms of their fighting styles. The moment between Batman and Catwoman at the end of their scene was POWERFUL. It also says far more about the relationship between the two than anything.
The scenes with Tim and Cass were also really well done, especially the one that caps off the issue. It's a really exciting cliffhanger and promises a lot of action next issue, hopefully we get to see things go off in a big way.
Contrast really continues to be a strong theme in this series, and a strong element of the writing. It's something I'm really enjoying. I really can't wait to see what comes next. Keep up the great work.
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Post by Drake on Jun 30, 2015 22:58:03 GMT -5
Holy shit, we're cutting it close, but Knights will be up on time.
Give me about an hour.
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Post by Drake on Jun 30, 2015 23:21:58 GMT -5
7 is up
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Post by ericthepilot on Jul 1, 2015 11:12:53 GMT -5
Lots of action in this one, and lots of... unpleasantness. It's interesting, but for all the talk of just how miserable Gotham, and especially Bludhaven is, this was the first issue where that was truly palpable. Unpleasantness seemed to fill every scene – the heroes getting more desperate, rage, failure and disappointments from the past bubbling up to the surface and coloring the present day interactions, it was all very psychological, and very gripping.
This issue had a real “calm before the storm” kind of feel to it, the mounting explosion that's been threatening for this entire series seems like it's finally about to go off in a big way, and our heroes seem even more fractured than ever which only ups the stakes. You know they'll all pull together in the end, but you have to wonder what the ultimate lack of a true united front will cost them before they do. More loss might well be the only catalyst that CAN united them, since most of their lives are defined by loss in the first place.
One of the more impressive things is just how many characters are crammed into this issue, and how none of them really feel cheated for screen time – it's amazing how much development you were able to manage in such little time, for so many. Nicely handled.
As always, I'm looking forward to the next issue, I have a feeling it'll be a real barn burner.
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