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GRANT Morrison shouldn't have promised bat fans the most shocking revelation in the character's 70 year history at the end RIP.

That's my biggest qualm with 681, the Scots writer promised an ending on which he did not deliver.

There's hints to what the revelation maybe but at the end of the day we're left with as many questions as we had answers.

Many readers could be forgiven for expecting a dark grizzly end for the caped crusaders in 681, but it was the entire opposite, infact it's a plot device we've seen again and again throughout the hero's history.

Batman as we know him appeared to be finally subdued. The Batcave over ran, the betrayal of Jezebel, the possibility of Batman's origin being based entirely on a lie, and Batman himself, out his mind on heroine and crystal meth. This was a BRILLIANT set up for a tragic demise or spiritual death for the Dark Knight.

This was our chance to see Bruce Wayne pushed beyond his limits, this was our chance to his famous resolve break, to see his iron will shatter. But no, Morrison opted for the almost standard Batman ending, which we've seen time and time again.

Just when you think he's down the count, the Dark Knight explodes out of a coffin, takes back Arkham, mauls the Black Glove lackies and reveals that everything that had happened to him, was planned for, by him because as Morrison put "that's the thing about Batman, he thinks about everything."

To me this was a ridiculous ending and nothing like what we were promised from DC or Grant.

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. We've still got Batman: Last Rites and also Final Crisis where we'll learn the final fate of Bruce Wayne, post RIP.

But what do you think of Batman's RIP in 681?

Hey guys,

Sorry about the lack of updates. We've been really busy. Anyway, below is reviews of the Hulk, Hancock, Wanted and Kung Fu Panda.

The Incredible Hulk

Ed Norton is, as predicted, flamin' fantastic as the big green machine. He's just what the franchise needed. This is a 'requel' to 2003's disastrous Hulk.

We find Bruce Banner on the run from the US Army, deep in South America. He seems to be in control of his rage, that is until one tough guy pushes him too far and it's all lean, green and mean from there. Terrible, terrible pun I know.

This is a well-done Superhero movie. The all-star cast does help and while it isn't by any means a master piece, it is fun for all the family.

Oh and the cameo from Robert Downey Jr. is ace.

Wanted

Coatbridge born Mark Millar will be delighted with this adaptation of his graphic novel.

Starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman, Wanted tells the story of Gibson, an average-joe who, as fate would have it, turns out to be the son of the world's greatest assassin.

Don't go into this trying to analyse or take some hidden meaning from it like you could the Matrix. There is none.

Enjoy it and marvel at the madly, overblown action scenes.

Hancock

I was really excited about this movie. Hancock is basically Superman without all the jazz- no cape, no slicked back hair and none of that boyscout attitude.

This is a very interesting concept- a Superman who doesn't give a crap.

Will Smith is great in the first of half of the film...but that is until the woeful second half unfolds and everything goes to shreds. The plot contradicts itself and there is no real climax to it all.

I was really disappointed with this movie, but if you're up for some seriously high budget laughs then you should definitely check this out.

Kung Fu Panda

This is the best of the four. Jack Black plays Po, a Kung Fu fan, who, through a series of mishaps, finds himself flung into the world of martial arts as the chosen Dragon Warrior.

Featruing an all star line-up with the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Angelina Jolie, this film will definitely not disappoint. What is surprising is that with cast like that, the marketing team for the movie didn't shout about them.

I had actually planned on seeing The Forbidden Kingdom but I decided to go for this instead and I have to say, this was one very good movie.

This has something for all the family and even Kung Fu fans will admire the well-put together fight scenes.

It is definitely the best family movie so far this summer.

Remember those childhood days, years ago, when you picked up the latest issue of your favourite comic book and wondered what it would be like if it was real?

How would the sparks fly as Wolverine would clawed himself through the endless herds of Magneto's sentinels?

Would you notice Kitty Pryde as she disappeared into the molecules of the nearest wall or solid object?

Could you smell the fear as Batman descended like a ninja from the rafters on a gang of unsuspecting hoodlums?

And was Frank Castle (The Punisher) the merciless, criminal slaughtering vigilante that we imagined him to be?

Well nowadays it isn't so hard to imagine thanks to the plethora of comic book movies now on offer. The thing is, as great as a lot of these movies are, they don't have the same wow factor that they would have had on us when were kids.

To be a kid watching these movies must be an awesome experience, or is it? I overheard a few kids on the bus home the other night debating about Spider-Man 3, the Incredible Hulk, Batman and Iron Man.

What they said here was quite shocking. So I thought I would share it with you all.

"Tony Stark would beat the Hulk if they got down and dirty in Gotham" the lanky one says, brushing his overgrown, aardvark like beard out of his face.

"Yeah but Goku would totally p'own both their punk behinds," responds the seedy, short one, his smile wide.

"Aye man, but Batman would give them the Joker fear!" hollers the plump one.

The seedy one slants his baseball cap to the side, as his black fringe falls like a musty, old curtain and drapes over his left eye.

He opens his mouth and as if in slow-motion, he says something that will forever change the way I look at the younger of our generation.

"Have you ever wondered why Batman was always the stronger of the X-Men and the best leader of the New Avengers.... but comic books suck, I mean the only difference between Superman and Dennis the Menace is a red cape, baldy bad-guy and some super powers...."

The rest I didn't hear. I wanted to jump in to their debate, but my stop was coming up and I didn't want to be labelled the weird 22-year-old who corrects young, would-be comic book fans.

To the more hardcore, veteran fans the above would be sacrilege.

However there has been a shift in generations and how we look at comics. The older fan looks now, more than ever, to his comic collection as a sanctuary from fear of Hollywood demand dumbing down overly complicated plots and origins.

Whereas the younger fans look for the traditional good versus evil, with the occasional team-up with two of their favourite heroes.

You could argue that a lot of this younger generation are animation fans who became interested in comics after watching the cartoon-adaptation. This is by no means a bad thing, in fact, Batman: TAS was the reason that I got into comics, but these cartoon adaptations have to be simple and nowhere near as complicated as their comic book counterparts.

Perhaps, what we're beginning to see is a shift in generations and the new emergence of a comic book fan.

Something a little new age.

A fan who can appreciate all aspects of a modern, successful comic: the core comic, the animation, the video game, the merchandise and the Hollywood movie.

Maybe, just maybe, these kids will lead us forth into a new age of multi-medium appreciation where no comic book fan complains about adaptations or the watering down of a franchise.

And who knows, maybe even pigs will fly.

2008 is one big year for DC.

Final Crisis is going to beset fans with whatever its has in store. Evil will apparently triumph over good and several storylines, origins, characters will be revamped or scrapped from continuity.

Not even Superman can save the day this time.

However with this approaching there is one major plot point that has many people wondering, it's a little thing called the death of Batman.

Not a physical death, but a literal one.

Scottish writer Grant Morrison has taken the main role for writing Final Crisis, but is also working on a story by the name of Batman R.I.P.

This summer the Batman the world has known for the last 69 years will cease to exist, with Bruce Wayne no longer dawning the cape and cowl.

Apparently something so tragic is planned for everyone's favourite non-super-powered-super-hero that he will give up his life's work.

Nightwing, the Red Hood (Jason Todd), Tim Drake and even Hush are pipped to replace Wayne and take up the mantle of Batman.

A new villain, Black Glove, is behind one of the most elaborate schemes to destroy Batman. He/she knows who Batman is, what drove Bruce Wayne to be Batman and everyone of his dark secrets.

The rumour mill has been in overdrive and message boards have been set alight with speculation about the identity of Black Glove.

Many have suggested that it is Alfred, others have even said it could possibly be Thomas Wayne (Bruce's supposedly dead father) and some have even said it to be Bruce Wayne himself. These are the very hard-to-imagine scenarios.

However after recent revelations, which may or may not be true, Batman's entire origin maybe a sham and one of the above situations could be highly plausible.

In a recent issue Commissioner Gordon is trying to convince a local newspaper not to publish a story about a dossier that came into a journalist's possession. The dossier was supposedly compiled by a private detective, hired by Martha Wayne's parents to investigate her and her husband's murder.

What it reveals is that Alfred Pennyworth is Bruce's biological father, Thomas Wayne was an alcoholic who got his wife addicted to heroin and it contains several photographs of an orgy involving Martha, Thomas and Alfred a long with the cast of a noir film by the name the Black Glove.

As if this wasn't shocking enough the editor also explains to Gordon that Thomas Wayne may still be alive and that the murder of his wife was part of a convoluted plan to get rid of her and fake his own death.

So, with that, the idea of Thomas or Alfred being the Black Glove may not be so hard to imagine after all. Given that off course the dossier is true and not a ruse.

The other suggestion is Bruce Wayne and that he has developed an evil split persona, named the Black Glove and is trying to sabotage himself.

There is no other character out there more pshycologically tortured than Bruce Wayne. Maybe, as Aaron Eckhart puts in the recent Dark Knight Trailer, he's lived long enough to see himself become the villain.

Or perhaps Alfred is acting under orders from Bruce's new evil persona ? Who knows.

At the climax of the latest issue however, Batman was drugged and fighting for his life in the Batcave. Just as the villains were about to storm his lair and before he passed out, the dark knight asked the Batcomputer to analyse everything it knew about The Black Glove. Its result concluded that the Black Glove was Zur-En-Arrh.

Zur-En-Arrh has only been mentioned in Batman # 113 way back in 1958. In that issue Batman is brought to Zur-En-Arrh by the planet's resident Batman to help him fight evil robots. The interesting thing is that Batman found he had "Superman-like" powers whilst he was on Zur-En-Arrh.

Zur-En-Arrh has appeared throughout Morrison's run as graffiti and hallucinations.

Well considering that Final Crisis and the Batman RIP arcs are supposed to interlink, it could mean anything and I'm not going to speculate to much on it....but there will be a definite link between Batman#113, Bruce Wayne's fate and whatever Final Crisis has in store for the DC Universe.

Feasibly the Batman from, Zur-En-Arrh is acting as Simon Hurt?

So your Monday questions of the day are: What are you looking forward to Final Crisis? What do you think will happen to Bruce Wayne? And what's your theory about the idenity of Black Glove?

Anyone who grew up the late 80s or the early 90s will surely remember this that theme song.

Coming home after school and watching this was a treat I used to enjoy on a weekly basis. I used to wonder how Racer X could always show up in the nick of time and I always wondered if my dad's old Ford Fiesta could flip itself if it were racing.

The show, the characters, the style of animation and the story were some of the first anime I had experienced. It really cracked open my imagination. As I grew older I began to appreciate the original 60s series more as nothing could quite match what it essentially was: one of the primary reasons that anime and manga is so popular in western pop culture today.

So fast forward from the early 90s to 2008. What good driving movies have we had?

Or rather, since well put together driving scenes are such a rarity, which movies have we had that truly put pedal to the metal?

Fast and the Furious, Matrix Reloaded, The Italian Job, Deathproof, Ronin, Batman Begins, The Bourne trilogy, Casiona Royale and maybe a few more. Comment below if you disagree with my choices.

Speed Racer takes what these movies have done, rips them to shreds and blasts by them in a pace of colourful wonderness.

Produced by Wachowski Bros, this is one movie that strives to stay true too the original anime and it does it brilliantly. From the moody, post conversation style glares, to the delightfully mixed array of characters and all that lovely hi-def colour.

Emile Hirsch fits the bill perfectly as Speed. He looks just like Speed, seriously, from his hair too his mannerisms, Hirsch pulls of the act very well.

But it's not just Hirsch- the entire cast is fantastic. Notable perfomances by John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Pops and Mom are a treat to watch. Matthew Fox is also a joy as Racer X.

While the story is simple, good versus evil and cheaters never win being the two main themes, it is carried well enough by the actors for the audience to really get behind Speed.

This is not the Matrix and this is definitely not V for Vendetta, it is a family movie for everyone to watch.

Extremely colourful, a feast to watch and great fun for all the family Speed Racer is out in cinemas nationwide.

Just don't try and flip your car after seeing it....

Having seen the new trailer for the Dark Knight animated prequel, Batman: Gotham Knight, my jaw literally hut the floor.

Batman: Gotham Knight bridges the story between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight through six animated short films.

The animation is done in an anime style, with several Japanese animation directors coming on board to direct the shorts.

Batman Gotham Knight is due out on DVD and Blu Ray, one week before the release of The Dark Knight.

A full preview will follow next week, but for now sit back and watch this.

And did I mention Batman legend Kevin Conroy returns to voice the caped crusader?

These are very good times for Batman fans.

Your friday question of the day is, who is your favourtie Alfred and why? Animated or film.

The latest Hulk movie looks set to destroy box offices nationwide.

Getting Fight Club star Ed Norton to play Bruce Banner was a stroke of genius on Marvel's part, as he has both the right amount of wit and trudging, self-redemption to pull of the man with Marvel's worst temper.

Some highlights of the new trailer include scenes of Bruce transforming into the Hulk and then taking on the military, some new shots of Abomination's origin and very radical footage of Hulk trashing the place....using car bonnets as boxing gloves.

With this we also see more of Bruce Banner's back story- there are several clips showing him moving to and from different environments in the world.

From the outset, little can be said about the plot however we do know that it's going to lead to a climactic, all-out, brawl between The Hulk and Abomination.

You can check out the full trailer below

So your Thursday Question of the day is...who would win in a fight, Hulk or Iron Man?

Remember the days when you could get away with making a wishy washy, sub-par super hero movie?

No neither do, I.

Long gone are the rubber nipple, camp days of Batman and Robin with the new millennium bringing along a plethora of, mostly, well done comic book adaptations.

Iron Man continues this trend and looks set to rival Spider-Man as Marvel's most successful comic-book-to-movie super hero. That's a huge statement I know, but before Spidey fan boys pull out their pitch forks and come for my head, let me explain.

Iron Man isn't the most popular super hero, the masses never really heard of him until the massive hype for the movie began. So how exactly do Marvel promote one of their generally unknown super hero franchises?

They do it themselves.

Marvel Studios reacquired the rights to the Iron Man movie franchise from 20th Century Fox in 2006. From here they poured $135 million into it and brought in an all-star cast to really bring the comic book alive.

Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark and is brilliant in the role. Tom Cruise was originally rumoured too play the billionaire industrialist but after Downey Jr. as Stark, you wouldn't be able to imagine anyone else.

He's cocky, enigmatic and determined in his performance. I cannot emphasise this enough, Downey Jr. makes this movie what it is, without him it would have probably flopped.

Terrence Howard plays Lieutenant James Rupert Rhodes, who comic book fans will know as Iron Man's ally War Machine. While he doesn't become War Machine in Iron Man, there is a very subtle hint that he will dawn the War Machine armour in the inevitable sequel.

What Iron Man begins is a universe of comic book movies that will all interlink. The Hulk follows next, with Robert Downey Jr. rumoured to make a cameo appearance as Tony Stark. Already linking between these is the existence of the agency SHIELD and with that we'll soon see a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

Following this there will be a Captain America movie and then an Avengers movie, all set within the same universe and allowing huge potential for crossovers.

So why is the Iron Man more important than the Spider-Man franchise?

It has set the ball in motion for what could be the coolest super hero movies ever made.

And without giving too much away about Iron Man. The ending is superb, a definite thumbs up and I would tell anyone, comic book fan or otherwise to go see this movie.

Contrary to popular belief that Dragonball Z and everything that goes with it isn't important, too anime is quite frankly rubbish.

Without it there would be no Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Full Metal Alchemist or Naruto. And it could be said that without it there may have been no Matrix or various other anime-influenced Hollywood blockbusters.

The Dragonball franchise was an enormous factor in popularising anime in the west and is now set to get its own movie, aptly named Dragonball.

Due out in Spring 2009, the movie looks set to follow the King Piccolo saga. According to IMDB, the plot goes something like this:

"

The story begins with a young humanoid boy named Goku, who discovers that he was sent to Earth to blend in and destroy our population but instead elects to protect it from an oncoming alien onslaught bent on dominating the universe and controlling the mystical objects.

"He seeks out upon his adoptive grandfather Grandpa Gohan's dying request to find the great Master Roshi and gather all seven Dragon Balls.

"Of which he has one, in order to prevent the evil Lord Piccolo from succeeding in his desire to use the Dragon Balls to take over the world. And Goku's quest is to obtain the mystical Dragonballs before Piccolo does"

Goku's actual origin is almost identical to Superman's. Both are sent to Earth in a space pod as babies, both of their home planets are about to explode at this time and both have incredible, god-like powers. But other than that, both couldn't be further apart.

Justin Chatwin stars as Goku and if anything is to be right about this movie, he'll have to play him as Sean Schemmel played him in the animated series- funny, hungry, absent minded and underdog hero.

James Wong (Final Destination, The One, The X-Files) heads up the project as Director James Marsters, formerly of Buffy fame as Spike, is playing Piccolo and Chow Yun-Fat is playing Master Roshi, Goku's teacher.

While the initial reception from fans has been one of dismay and disgust, if done right, Dragonball could well be the long awaited breath of fresh air the franchise is waiting for.

Dragonball is set for a Spring 2009 release.