'Batman: Under The Hood' Cast Announced

On February 23 DC is set to release their next animated film, "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths." If they continue their recent trend in animated films, expect to see a look at their next animated film, "Batman: Under The Hood."

Bat-fans will be happy to know we are learning more details about the film all the time. The latest news comes in the form of a cast announcement.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Bruce Greenwood will star as Batman, with John DiMaggio ("Futurama") as the Joker, "Supernatural" star Jensen Ackles as the Red Hood and Jason Isaacs as Ra's Al Ghul. "Doctor Horrible" and "How I Met Your Mother" star Neil Patrick Harris will portray Nightwing.

"Batman: Under The Hood" will be adapted by Judd Winick and based on the storyline of the same name that Winick wrote in the "Batman" comic series with artists Doug Mahnke and Paul Lee.

The story finds Batman contending with a figure from his past who has donned the identity of the Red Hood — a former alias of the Joker — in order to pursue his revenge against the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime.

It is unconfirmed at this point whether or not several of the DC heroes that appeared in the original story — including Green Arrow and Zatanna — will appear in the film.

It should also be noted that the story in the LA Times identifies the film as "Batman: Under The Red Hood" even though the original story was simply called "Under The Hood."

Source: LA Times

Batman: Under the Hood, Vol. 1

Gotham Central-Pull List #11

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Welcome Gothamites, to this, the 11th episode in our series of podcast entitled "Pull List" where we discuss all the new comics for Wednesday, February 10, 2010!

This weeks books are:

Batgirl #7

Batman and Robin #8

Brave and the Bold: Milstone (TPB)

Superfriends #24

Interesting Way To Bring The Joker Back For Batman 3

Batman On Film guest contributor Mark Hughes wrote up an interesting article recently, entitled “Why and How The Joker CAN return in Batman 3.″ In the article Hughes explains exactly how The Joker can be re-used in the next Christopher Nolan directed Batman movie. He has a specific subplot in mind for the film which I thought was perfect. Here's a small dose of the article:

“A subplot about this aspect of the Joker as he relates to Batman and Gotham could be an important addition to the storyline… We need not see an entire new storyline about the Joker menacing all of Gotham. The Joker as a supporting character, much like Lecter’s role in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was not the main plot but instead the most important narrative element making up subplots and character arcs”

For those not familiar, Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award for Best Actor in Silence of the lambs, where he only has 16 minutes of screen time helping the protagonist accomplish her goals.

I think this is a brilliant idea and I'd love to see it. What do YOU think?

Source: Batman On Film

Golden Age Batman: Out of Context

If you have been paying attention to the site at all, you know that we are introducing some new series of posts and trying to provide you with some good, entertaining content.

One of these new series of post is what I like to call "Golden Age Batman: Out of Context" where every other day, I will post a panel from a Golden Age Batman Story, but only one.

So, without any further ado, "The Return of Dr. Death" from Detective Comics #30

David Goyer Back On Batman!

David Goyer was one of the key players in the recent live action Batman revival. Last year he took on showrunning duties over at ABC on their "Lost Lite" sci fi show "FlashForward." Recently we learned he has stepped aside from "Flashforward," in order to focus on some film projects, including the next Batman film!

Goyer had this to say about the show,

"As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions. I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands."

Deadline Hollywood recently got the Goyer scoop on his involvement in the third Batman film in the "Nolan-verse,"

"Goyer's feature career is really heating up, since he co-wrote Batman Begins, and penned the story for The Dark Knight, and is now writing the third Batman installment with Chris Nolan's brother Jonah."

Goyer has been hit-or-miss with me as far as comic properties are concerned. He's dabbled in writing, producing and directing (Blade: Trinity) and some have been hits (Batman films) and some have been misses (Blade TV show).

He's definitely got his hands full with "Batman," "Ghost Rider," "Super Max," and "X-Men Origins: Magneto." Here's hoping he can focus his attentions and put out a quality product with the next Batman film.


Source: Deadline Hollywood

Return of Bruce Wayne: The Covers

After a little bit of time in Photoshop, I've been able to give you the "bigger picture" of The Return of Bruce Wayne. Hope you enjoy!

Personally, I am going to do my own coloring for this, just for kicks and giggles, leave comments if you want to see them ;)

But seriously, look at that beautiful artwork from Andy Kubert!

Source: The Source

Suggested Reading

We here at the Gotham Central Podcast were discussing the topic of trying to do a little bit of expansion of the content here, and one of the things we wanted to do was to give you guys a look at some other comics that we read.

So, in addition to some other posts like writer profiles, I've taken it upon myself to provide you with my weekly pull list on every Sunday evening. I pretty much enjoy everything that I read, so if you trust my opinion on these things, you may want to check out some of these comics if you aren't already reading them. :)

Lego Batman Video: Riddler Returns

This is pretty funny, some coarse language, but pretty humorous overall.

Trade Review: Battle For The Cowl

After the events of Batman: RIP and Final Crisis, both penned to an excruciatingly complex point by superstar, albeit polarizing, writer, Grant Morrison, DC Comics was left with the task of discussing and explain who would take on the mantle of The Caped Crusader, and that man was none other than Dick Grayson.



Tasked with telling this story was none other than Tony Daniel on both art and writing duties. In Battle for The Cowl (the main story) Daniel shows us who was vying for the title of Batman. The three real contenders that he came to were Dick Grayson, a reluctant replacement for Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake-the at-the-time Robin, and former dead/Robin/Vigilante/very confused individual , Jason Todd.Battle for the Cowl pretty much just shows the process of the three former robins being very angry with each other and all feeling like they deserve the role of The Dark Knight.

Ultimately, the down fall of Battle for the Cowl is that it is over done, the main story did not particularly set up or clarify any of the current events of Gotham City, although the side stories, such as Azrael and Gotham Underground did push along a story for the characters involved. Which, in all honesty, is pretty strange considering that Tony Daniel is on the current run of Batman. The other downfall is that the story could have been told in one issue, and definitely did not need to go to three. These facts really tend to take you out of the story and you actually realize that what you are reading is pretty much pointless, so it begins to make you less focused on the work, and thus making it less enjoyable. Tony Daniel just does his job and leaves it at that. There are no interesting takes on any of the characters involved, and no new developments on pre-existing character traits. It's your run of the mill Batman story sans Batman.

Overall, the book itself it is not absolutely terrible, it's just that the book feels pointless. If you were to read this book on it's own, it could be fine if it didn't rely heavily on pre-existing knowledge of the events of Final Crisis and Batman: RIP. It's really unfortunate because it takes a 3-4 star book, and turns it into a 2-3 star book based solely on the current events. And compared to other trades like Hush, Long Halloween, The Black Glove, and many others, it definitely pales in comparison.

All in all, if you just ABSOLUTELY need to know every excruciating detail of how, but not why, Dick Grayson put on the cowl, pick this up, but if not, stay away and read the first trade of Batman & Robin, which is coming very soon


Buy it from Amazon

Gotham Central-Reviews #10

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Hunter flies solo in the night skiy in this episode of Gotham Central, but don't let that discourage you! NO! Because we have some fantastic stories to discuss!

This Week's Books Are:

Legends of The Dark Knight Special

Gotham: Confidential #41

The Question #37

Red Robin #9

Plus, a special review of The Question backup stories from Detective Comics!