kgbeast

I've already checked out of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 18 months in advance, so every announcement about the upcoming Zack Snyder film and its attendant roster of spinoffs and franchises has been idle curiosity. Until, that is, it was announced that the KGBeast would be making an appearance. As longtime CA readers may recall, the Beast is one of my all-time favorite villains. Originally created by the team of Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo in a four-part story called "Ten Nights of the Beast" that ran in Batman #417 - 420, the KGBeast was an assassin for hire who battled Batman in one of the most over-the-top stories of all time. And while I can hardly believe I'm saying this, he's kind of the perfect villain for David S. Goyer and Zack Snyder's version of the cinematic DC Universe.

For me, one of the single greatest moments of the holiday season is the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Not only does it signal the official start of the Christmas season, but it's the perfect combination of crass commercialism, holiday festivity and high school marching bands. And yet, as much as I love it, it just doesn't have enough comics for my tastes. Sure, they've had balloons of Snoopy, Pikachu and Spider-Man before, and Marvel even had a couple of incredibly complex floats back in the '80s, but really, that just scratches the surface. Which is why today we teamed up with Anthony Clark, the artist and creator of the beloved webcomic Nedroid and the recent Beartato and the Secret of the Mystery collection, to launch the ComicsAlliance Thanksgiving Day Parade with the balloons we want to see!

If there's one thing we've learned from our years on the Internet, it's that there's no aspect of comics that can't be broken down an quantified into a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of ten. And since there's no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we're taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Ten Lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. This week, we're kicking it off with The Top Ten Underrated Batman Villains! The Dark Knight has an awful lot of notable foes, but there are plenty of also-rans, C-listers and one-shot villains who deserve better than being punched out and thrown into Blackgate, never to be seen again. So from the obscure to the unappreciated, here they are!

I'll be honest, folks: I have very little interest in Future's End as a line-wide crossover. DC Comics' tactic of derailing their books into weird tangents every September, a tradition that goes back to the relaunch of the "New 52" universe, never quite works as well as I want it to, and when you throw in the fact that we're peering into the dim and distant future of a world that we've only actually had for three years, and, well, no thanks, I'm good. What really had me worried, though, was Grayson. I've really been enjoying what Tom King, Tim Seeley and Stephen Mooney have been doing with this book over the first few issues, but as I think we all know, there's no faster way to derail a brand new comic's momentum than to drop it into a crossover after two months. I almost didn't bother to read it, but I'm glad I did. It turns out that King, Seeley and Mooney have taken their Future's End tie-in as an opportunity to produce one of the most enjoyable single issues I've read in a long while.

I was an unabashed fan of the 1989 Batman movie around the time of its release (particularly after it hit VHS), but the years have worn down my appreciation of it, and quite a few aspects of it don't entirely stand up to the scrutiny of a critical lens anymore. There are a few pieces of media related to the film, however, that I feel just as positively about as I ever have. The Prince soundtrack, for one. And for another, the Sunsoft-developed game for the Nintendo Entertainment System that included a few cutscenes with lines from the movie, and largely ditched its plot otherwise. I took a stroll down memory lane with it, and it still holds up.

The CW’s superhero series Arrow re-imagines Green Arrow for a TV audience as a tough, often ruthless vigilante bent on setting things right in his home of Starling City by punishing the wicked. ComicsAlliance’s Matt Wilson will be following along to see how he fares. This week's flashback-heavy episode features a ship raid, a chokeslam, an art tour, and a lot of loaded dialogue.

The CW’s superhero series Arrow re-imagines Green Arrow for a TV audience as a tough, often ruthless vigilante bent on setting things right in his home of Starling City by punishing the wicked. ComicsAlliance’s Matt Wilson will be following along to see how he fares. This week, Thea worries about her associations, business tension reaches new highs, and Team Arrow is going to Russia!

The CW's new superhero series Arrow re-imagines Green Arrow for a TV audience as a tough, often ruthless vigilante bent on setting things right in his home of Starling City by punishing the wicked. ComicsAlliance's Matt Wilson will be following along all season to see how he fares...

While readers are preparing for this summer's Flashpoint, DC has announced yet another world-shattering crossover today: DCU: DISARMED, a major turning point for the DC universe that sees the severed limbs of Lex Luthor, Arsenal, Aquaman, The KGBeast and others rising up with a sinister plan to destroy the DC Universe...

As ComicsAlliance has reported, Batman Live, a big-budget live-action stage show, is coming soon to arenas all over the world, kicking off in Europe next year and making its way to America sometime in 2012. And as you might expect, I'm planning on being first in line to see this thing. After all, when I missed out on Pokemon Live ten years ago, I swore I'd never let an opportunity like this pass m