Batman Beyond

[The Dark Knight]

I was browsing through YouTube recently and this popped up:

Bruce suiting up one last time is one of the best moments in the DCAU. They could've easily shown Bruce dominating the fight, but they resisted it. As colors said in this thread on December 13, 2020, "I applaud Batman Beyond for its honesty" in depicting Bruce's age - the heroism is the fact he even wears the suit and manages to survive the ordeal. Mentally he's still Batman, it's just that Terry is his muscle.

[Slash Man]

I was reading Detective Comics Annual 1991, and I think there's a strong argument for this issue being an inspiration for Batman Beyond. While only a decade in the future, Batman is prematurely immobilized by a spinal injury. To remedy this, he constructs a thin exoskeleton suit to wear beneath his batsuit to continue crime-fighting as normal. The only drawback is that it puts an enormous amount of strain on Bruce's body. This, coupled with the future setting, immediately reminded me of the Batman Beyond exo-suit.

Furthermore, the featured villains were Ra's al Ghul and Talia (also prominently featured in an episode of Batman Beyond). Though beyond that, the circumstances of their fights were much different.

[thecolorsblend]

Those same elements are why I connected it to TDKRises.

https://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=2014.msg60839#msg60839

[The Joker]

Vintage Wizard Magazine article from 1997, when "Batman Beyond" was briefly going by the title, "Batman Tomorrow".

[thecolorsblend]

"There's going to be hard-line traditional purists who are going to just totally rebel against the idea."

Did that actually happen?

I wasn't super connected to fandom at the time. But my reaction to Batman Beyond was mostly anticipation. I loved the idea of showing Gotham City thirty or forty years in the future, what's changed, what hasn't, new villains, the sci-fi angle, etc.

And esp after The Matrix, Batman Beyond's kinda sorta cyberpunk style felt even more relevant to that era.

It would be very surprising to discover that Batman Beyond had detractors.

[The Joker]

I didn't notice many vocal detractors either, but it's a fair expectation by Timm given how dramatic change isn't usually embraced up front by fans. I recall Timm also stating that he genuinely thought there would have been more push back on Brainiac being so closely associated with Krypton in the DCAU, but that never really happened either.

[The Joker]

Another Wizard Magazine article. This time from 1998.

Note that at this stage, Terry was "Terry McGavin" rather than "Terry McGinnis".

[thecolorsblend]

There's a sort of Return Of The Joker-related thread already. So, this could've gone there. But here seemed better. So, here you go.

The YouTuber raises a good point too. Specifically, that I'm not aware of anyone from the show/movie ever saying that the Columbine tragedy had anything to do with the price of tea in China. At some point, that theory (which may or may not be accurate) became conventional wisdom and no one ever questioned it. But the YouTuber points a finger at someone higher up the ladder referred to only as "Derek" (a pseudonym) behind all the meddling. And Columbine had very little to do with it, seemingly.

Whatever the case might be, this is still worth a watch.

And it is surprising that the edited/censored version of ROTJ is pretty difficult to track down these days. The uncut edition seems to be the ONLY edition for the most part.

[The Joker]

1998 Wizard Magazine interview with Paul Dini. Discussing the upcoming "Batman Beyond", as well as what was coming up, and planned for "The New Adventures".

[The Laughing Fish]

A few weeks ago, a pitch for a brand new theatrical Batman Beyond animated movie was revealed to the public, but it appears to be currently in limbo. The producers are trying to drum up interest on social media. Here is the concept art:







https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/batman-beyond-concept-art-cancelled-165500477.html

The concept art reminds me of Spider-Verse. This isn't instantly greenlit, but Jurassic League produced by Gunn gets approval. If that doesn't tell you the f***er is hijacking DC then I don't know what will.