When does Mask of the Phantasm occur?

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

Timelines were never important for the animated series on an episode by episode basis. But is there any evidence to suggest just when in the series the events of Mask of the Phantasm take place?

When I'm watching the entire series in sequence I often screen the movie after completing the volume one dvd.

I have one problem with the movie itself and it's the ending. It suffers from the same trouble as A Death in the Family in that you can't really kill off the Joker. So what happened there? How did the Joker escape Phantasm and what would his very next chronological appearance be in the series?

[Catwoman]

it was meant to be the series finale and end it all in dec 93 when it came out that christmas but it was so popular they brought it back the next year. i think it was still possibly meant to be watched as the conclusion of btas though once everything was finished up but i have no clue honestly lol.

perhaps andrea's sorrow on the boat was partly that the joker escaped. maybe that is why she was still alive after planning to end it all and die along with the joker. once he got away she had nothing. no bruce. no vengeance. no home. no family. nothing. again i have no idea i am just speaking hypothetically lol.

[Catwoman]

this isn't really evidence but "i never even told you" sounds like a sad farewell song kind of too, not just the end of the movie.

[Furstmobile]

This is interesting because I was wondering about this myself when I rewatched On Leather Wings for the first time in years. I noticed Bullock was extremely gung ho about busting Batman with a SWAT team, much like the present day story in Phantasm. Had me wondering if there hasn't been too many Animated Series adventures taken place yet. Or that he possibly doesn't become the Batman we know until that badass final shot. Having lost Andrea for the second time, he looks up at the signal and swings away with his grapple gun. Police possibly still thinking Batman was the Phantasm or at least involved with the murders. Would there be some contradiction if it took place before the series?

Batman also connects Joker to that mob via photograph, and in the show he's read files with the name Jack Napier on yet he never says the name ever? He's obviously well aware of his identity. Then of course in the revamp they ignore almost all of that history. And that "Napier was just an alias" theory is such horsesh*t. Even if that wasn't his real name, he could easily identify that hitman with his resources. The police believe that is his identity, Arkham doctors call him by name. How is that an "alias" exactly?

[Catwoman]

good point about it maybe being BEFORE the series! i had never considered that. i can't think of any contradictions, we never see or hear about arthur reeves or sal valestra or any of the other mob people that andrea kills or andrea herself. just batman and the joker, of the major players. the only possible thing i can think of that would suggest it being after the series has begun is that gordon is so certain that "the batman does not kill." but it is obvious from the dialogue that he has been around a while and battling people like the joker by the time phantasm rolls around so there would have been time for the commish to warm up to him. bullock on the other hand...lol.

you may have solved the mystery!

[The Laughing Fish]

The only flaw that did bother me about Mask of the Phantasm was it never cleared up how Batman was proven to have never killed those mobsters in the end.

Off-topic, but does anybody else wonder whether or not Mystery of the Batwoman is supposed to be canonical too? The reason I ask this is because the Penguin looks completely different compared to how he looked in the show; going from a Burton-inspired physical appearance with flippers as hands, to the more human and traditional look like in the comics. And, it was implied that Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon had a "fling".

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

This is interesting because I was wondering about this myself when I rewatched On Leather Wings for the first time in years. I noticed Bullock was extremely gung ho about busting Batman with a SWAT team, much like the present day story in Phantasm. Had me wondering if there hasn't been too many Animated Series adventures taken place yet. Or that he possibly doesn't become the Batman we know until that badass final shot. Having lost Andrea for the second time, he looks up at the signal and swings away with his grapple gun. Police possibly still thinking Batman was the Phantasm or at least involved with the murders. Would there be some contradiction if it took place before the series?

Batman also connects Joker to that mob via photograph, and in the show he's read files with the name Jack Napier on yet he never says the name ever? He's obviously well aware of his identity. Then of course in the revamp they ignore almost all of that history. And that "Napier was just an alias" theory is such horsesh*t. Even if that wasn't his real name, he could easily identify that hitman with his resources. The police believe that is his identity, Arkham doctors call him by name. How is that an "alias" exactly?

I'm afraid there is. Sorry to be such a killjoy. The Bat Signal was first introuced I believe in The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy. So a Volume 2 dvd story after a lot of adventures for Batman. I might be wrong there but I know it's before the Heart of Steel two parter as the robotic Bullock famously falls into it. I've also just contradicted myself as I watch Phantasm before Volume 2 and the Batsignal has yet to be introduced!

I assume the revamp your speaking of would be New Batman Adventures? Even as a seven year old I hated, HATED the redesign of that series. I'm aware now it was due to budgetery reasons (as always). It took me a while to grasp that Nightwing was actually the grown up Robin. Seriously. He looked so different and I remember thinking why have they shrunk Robin (Tim Drake incarnation) down to the size of a "midget" lol Bruce Timm appears to love that version more. Perhaps as a perfectionist he sees it as technically better but he's wrong. I'd have accepted it if they had explained the reasons more for the characters redesign in story terms. Having said that I'm now trying to track it down and see it again but you can't buy it here in the UK. It's still a whole lot better than the Batman cartoons of today.

[Catwoman]

I remember thinking why have they shrunk Robin (Tim Drake incarnation) down to the size of a "midget"

i thought he was the victim of the joker or somebody's super shrink ray or something lol.

[Slash Man]

Catwoman, I never heard that this movie was made to end the series, however, that does make a lot of sense considering the dates. The last episode we got was The Worry Men on September 16, 1993, and the series didn't restart until May of 1994. So yeah, for marathons, that's the best place to put it.

Chronologically, the show's pilot, The Dark Knight's First Night starts immediately after Bruce puts on the bat suit for the first time.

[Catwoman]

The thing about it being the finale was on the IMDb page for the movie. In the trivia.

I've never heard of The Dark Knight's First Night? I thought On Leather Wings was its debut?