Batman: Battle for the Cowl

DC Comics has released another great teaser for an upcoming event. This time we've got a teaser drawn by Tony Daniel for "Batman: Battle for the Cowl". Check out the teaser and then read the notes and hints I've gathered from this.

I'm going to start with the Joker card and try to work my way along the whole teaser.

1) The Joker card features a backwards "J" and is only half covered in a shadow. The big question here is what happens to the Joker if Batman is missing. Batman makes Joker complete. Without him would Joker have to invent another? Perhaps Joker could even develop a split personality to do battle with.

2) The Batman with the staff is Tim Drake. Tim is wearing the yellow oval suit which hearkens back to a brighter time in Batman's history. Batman is a darker character now and Tim is scared to become that. We've seen a future where Tim was Batman and used a gun. This image says to me that Tim is staying Robin, hence why he still has his staff, and he will continue to bring some light to the dark Batman character.

3) Harley Quin is right behind Tim. She's holding a gun that says "Bang" and she's looking right at Tim. If Joker is depressed with the disappearance of Batman, how would you cheer him up? Kill a Robin! It looks to me that Harley is out to make Mister J. happy by killing a little birdie.

4) Alfred is dressed up in his old spy outfit. This represents him doing work back in the field again as a solider. Some would even suggest that he will have some ties to the Outsiders.

5) Next we have Dick Grayson has Batman. Even the bat on his chest is designed similar to the Nightwing outfit. He's placed dead center in the teaser representing that Dick takes center stage in the upcoming mini series.

6) Behind Dick we see the memorial for Batman. In the memorial is the most recent Batman outfit. This would represent that the Batman we knew is now a fallen solider.

7) The Batman in the blue and red is Harvey Dent. You can even see the scars on his face. During 52 Harvey was left the keys to Gotham in Batman's absence. Harvey obviously feels he should continue as Gotham's protector again.

8) In front of Harvey is one of the three Batmans from Grant Morrison's stories. This was the third Batman that Bruce ran in to. All three of them were working for Dr.Hurt. Having him stand on top a "Wayne Enterprise" crate with the limp arm hanging out represents the death of Wayne Enterprise. Something that Dr.Hurt was working towards during the "Batman R.I.P." story.

9) Next we have Damien standing with a "Bruce Wayne". In Damien's hand we see a bandage that is wrapped around the "Bruce Wayne". The "Bruce Wayne" in question would be Hush. Damien holding the bandage represent that Damien is controlling Hush. If Batman has gone missing then so has Bruce Wayne. This could be a move for Damien and Hush to move right in to Wayne Manor. Remember Damien wants to be accepted as Bruce's son more than anything. Hush was also jealous of Bruce's life.

10) Batwoman is right behind Damien and Hush and is holding up a magnify glass. This shows us that she's investigating the appearance of "Bruce Wayne" and Damien.

11) The giant Penny is originally from a Two-Face story. We now see the penny is all scratched up like Harvey's lucky coin. The giant Penny represents the chaos side of the teaser. The teaser is split in to two halves. On the chaos side we have Harvey, the third Batman, Damien, and Hush. Batwoman is also on that side as she tries to make sense of the chaos.

12) The other side of the teaser has the T-Rex. The T-Rex comes from the innocent era of Batman during the 60's. On this side of the teaser we have Alfred, Tim Drake, and Dick Grayson. We also have Harley on this side of the teaser but just like Batwoman being on chaos side.

NY Comic Con 09

Feburary brings back the New York Comic Con, which means the triad of nerd will be hitting the big apple in a big way.

As already announced we will have brand new video blogs that will countdown the five weeks before the Comic Con. We're also going to show some pics and videos never posted before from previous cons.

Last year we met a lot of cool people including, Bryan Hitch, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Joe Quesada, Billy Tan, Chris Claremont, Garth Ennis, Dan Didio, Jim Lee, and many others.

This year the guest list is looking really good. Brian Bendis will finally be at the Con! Also Matt Fraction, George Perez, Jim Lee, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Geoff Johns, J. Michael Straczynski, Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, Joe Simon, Marv Wolfman, Leinil Yu, Rags Morales, Ron Garney, Alex Maleev, C.B. Cebulski, David Mack, Jimmy Palmiotti, Mark Waid, Ron Marz, and Tom Defalco.

There's actually a lot of other people who are going to be there like asshole Greg Horn. For the full list of attendees you can click HERE.

Keep an eye open for more updates.

You Tube Theater

This is a fake trailer for a Thundercats movie but a pretty good one. They actually used a bunch of footage from other movies and some clever edits. They actually do quite a few of these so check em out at WormyT

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You Tube Theater

I have been very critical of the television show "Smallville" the last few years. There are certain triggers I think should have been pulled a few years ago. I have been wary of the direction of the show especially with this new season. As of right now there is no announcement of a new season as Tom Welling has not signed a new contract yet. The second half of the new season is coming up and the trailer looks pretty good. Check it out and expect a Martian Manhunter spin-off for next year.

Crazy Ass Rumors (Update)

* Here is an updated list of the Dark Avengers and who they might actually be:

Iron Patriot: Norman Osborne
Dark Spidey: Venom
Dark Ms. Marvel: Moonstone
Dark Wolverine: Draken
Dark Hawkeye: Bullseye
Ares: Ares
Marvel Boy: Marvel Boy

* Norman Osborne also had a secret enforcer that was seen in Dark Reign special, this would be The Sentry/Void.

Crazy Ass Rumors

* Batman R.I.P. is now over and after the Batman Final Crisis tie-ins the world will be left without a Batman. Another person missing from the Batman universe will be writer Grant Morrison. Just like Bruce Wayne though, it looks like Grant will only be away for a limited amount of time. Rumor has it that Morrison will return to Batman in April or May and he's bringing artist Frank Quietly with him. Fans of Morrison's "New X-Men" and "All-Star Superman" should be excited about this. Everyone else should expect the book to come out bi-monthly with someone like Quietly drawing the book.

* Staying with Batman, "Battle for the Cowl" kicks off in March. The solicitations tease that many different people want to pick up the mantle of the bat, but is this really the case? It's expected that people like Batwoman, Catwoman, Wildcat, and Huntress would want to help Gotham, but do you really think any of them want to be Batman? Batman has always been seen as a tragic character. Tim Drake doesn't want to be Batman and I don't think Dick Grayson wants to be Batman either. The only two people who want to be Batman are Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne's son Damien. It's still a safe to place that Dick Grayson will inherit the curse of being Batman.

* Secret Invasion is finally over and now we move in to "Dark Reign". Marvel says that this is not another inter-company crossover, yet there's a checklist for it. There's a lot to speculate about this one. First off we have Mighty Avengers. The rumored line-up of team is all classic members of the Avengers. Heroes like, Ant-Man, Jocasta, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Hercules, US Agent, and Hulk. The final line-up of the team is still open to rumor. The big rumor is that Hank Pym wants Scarlet Witch around in hopes that she can somehow resurrect his ex-wife Jan Van Dyne aka The Wasp.

* The Dark Avengers will be Norman Osborne's version of the Avengers. Some of the people are a bit of a mystery right now. It has been promised that we will know who everyone is by the end of the first book, but we can still speculate until then. Iron Patriot will be Norman Osborn, the Spider-Man looking character is Venom, Wolverine's son Draken will be their Wolverine, Moonstone takes up the costume of Ms.Marvel, Ares and Marvel Boy will also be on the team. The only one I don't have a lead on is Hawkeye.

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Site Update

Season Greetings,

With the holidays coming up my schedule has been a little crazy, but I wanted to take a minute and give an update on what to expect in the coming weeks.

Currently we are writing and filming the holiday edition of Cee Diddy Video Blog. This will be followed by an end of the year spectacular. The end of the year video blog will be a big review of what went on in the DC and Marvel Universe and will be one of the longer video blogs that is really catered to the hardcore comic book geek.

Starting in 2009 we will start counting down the weeks til the New York Comic Con. The countdown will lead us right to our coverage and on site video blogs from the 2009 New York Comic Con.

The regular editions of the Cee Diddy Video Blog will start again in March of 2009. If we're lucky there might even be some other surprises along the way.

Happy Holidays

Cee Diddy
Holla

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