Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez Damian arranged a contest with Dick, Jason and Tim to prove he is the best Robin of them all. He has so far bested Tim and Jason, but before he can get to Dick, he will have to help Batman take down the latest villain, Terminus. "Terminus Last Gasp" opens with Terminus introducing himself to Batman and Robin as he attacks them in a giant robot suit. He swings a traffic light pole that he ripped from the ground, and the Dynamic Duo backflip to get out of the way. Terminus says this is the price Gotham pays for having a bat watch over them. He has shown the city that the bat symbol is a curse and that Batman's true legacy isn't the people he saved, but the people he scarred.  Batman tells Robin that they should divide and conquer. One of the henchmen wants to attack Batman and Terminus punches him away, telling him that Batman is his. Batman tosses some batarangs at a nearby fire hydrant and it explodes all over the bad guys.  Terminus says he wanted ...

 By Mark Rodriguez Several bad guys that have been severely injured by Batman in the past have gathered to work for the mysterious man named Terminus. Meanwhile Damian gathered Dick, Jason and Tim together so he can prove he is the best Robin of them all. The first one he went after was Tim, who he showed video footage in the Batcave of the time Tim nearly lost control and wanted to kill a villain named Fist Point after he killed Artemis. He made Tim admit that even he can think of killing someone. In the meantime Terminus prepares a rocket to further his plans. ‘Terminus Branded’ starts off in wherever Jason Todd goes to rest when he’s visiting Gotham City. He finds a crowbar on his pillow, and is taken by surprised by Damian. Damian says the crowbar is a good way to remind Jason which Robin was usually getting hit, and which one does the hitting. Jason brings up the beating Nobody gave Damian, if you fish him out of the river. Damian tells Jason that the next time he sees the Jok...

 By Mark Rodriguez A new group of thugs that Batman has beat up over the years get together to try to take down. Meanwhile, the 4 Robins, Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian try to arrange a contest to see who is the best one, if they can get along that is. 'Terminus: Scar of the Bat’ opens with several villains have gathering together with beef on Batman. Rather than 'big name' Gotham villains, these are a group of regular thugs that have suffered permanent injuries in their run-ins with Batman. One of them has a boot-shaped mark on his face, another has a Batarang stuck in his head (that he inadvertently caused himself trying to throw it at Batman) and a woman has blades stuck in her neck.  Another person, or rather, group of people were the same guys that were robbing chemicals in Batman and Robin # 1.  They tried to get away in the Bat-Gyro, but Damian messed with it and now they got burnt and mutated into a gross pile of human limbs and stuff. Now we know that...

 By Mark Rodriguez I had this one lying around for a while, but then I bought Prey, Family and Blades and decided to review them in numerical order. There was also the fact that I thought that this was a 3 part story, but it turned out to be a 4-parter, so I had to track it down. Now that I got all 4 parts, let's see what happens in this story.  The story opens with Gotham enduring a heat wave as the news reports that it's up to 93 degrees. Meanwhile, a man starts putting on his costume, complete with sharp blades attached to his gloves. He tells himself that he won't fear the darkness for he is the darkness, he will not fear evil, for he is the evil. The news says to expect it to be 103 or even 105 degrees the next day. As the masked man slips out his window and climbs down the fire escape, he hears his neighbors complaining about the heat and not being able to afford an air conditioner. The man feels they deserve being his victims but they are too close to his lair. He ne...

 By Mark Rodriguez Batman is obsessed with finding the mysterious serial killer Mr. Lime, while a new hero named The Cavalier wins the heart of Gotham. A new thief appears in the city and Batman discovers that it's the Cavalier himself, though he has his reasons. With Batman out of action after crashing in his Bat Gyro, what will happen now? The Cavalier and Ellen watch the news as the reporter talks about him being revealed to be the jewel thief. Ellen tells him that he shouldn't have ruined his life over her, but he says what's done is done.  Ellen reveals she had killed her husband sometime before they met. He was always abusive and during one of his beatings, she ran to grab a knife. Her husband, not thinking she'd ever fight back, charged towards her, accidentally impaling himself onto the knife. This is where Salt came in and witnessed the event. He helped Ellen dispose of the body and corroborated her story with the police. However she wasn't counting on him ...

 By Mark Rodriguez Lara Croft has rocked the world in 1996 as a thrill-seeking world-traveling adventurer when Tomb Raider hit the SEGA Saturn and Sony Playstation. Garnering a huge fanbase due to the action-packed gameplay as well as Lara's looks and overall bad-assness, it's no surprise she'd eventually branch out into other forms of media or merchandising. In 1999 she got herself a comic book series from Top Cow and Image comics. Thanks to Hipcomics I was able to grab a copy, so let's check it out.  'The Medusa Mask' opens in Iran as the narrator explains how dangerous the place can be, especially towards thieves. Several Iranian soldiers are looking for 'the westerner' and start taking off the hijabs of any woman they see. One of them takes the hijab off a particular woman who turns out to be Lara Croft. One of the men sets her gun to her head and she tells him if he shoots, he'll mess up the 2200-year old necklace he's been told to recover. ...