Batman: The Animated Series Timeline

[Slash Man]

I've been thinking about doing this a while, so I'll try to compile a chronological timeline of the events of Batman: The Animated Series. Years will be centered around the main series.

• Showdown flashback (1883)
• Avatar flashback (1898)
• Beware the Gray Ghost flashback
• Bruce falls into the cavern on Wayne Manor (not shown; ~ 29 years before Batman: The Animated Series)
• The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne flashback, Bruce's parents are killed (~27 years before Batman the Animated Series)
• Bruce travels the world and trains to fight crime, returns to Gotham years later (not shown, ~17 years before Batman: The Animated Series)
     Night of the Ninja flashback
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm flashback (10 years before Batman: The Animated Series)
• The Dark Knight's First Night (10 years before Batman: The Animated Series, immediately after the Mask of the Phantasm flashback)
• Robin's Reckoning flashback (10 years before Batman: The Animated Series)
• Jack Napier becomes the Joker (5 years before Batman: The Animated Series, Mad Love flashback)
• The Joker's Favor flashback (2 years before Batman: The Animated Series)
• Batman: The Animated Series, Season 1
     The flashback of Mad Love takes place between Be A Clown and Joker's Favor
     Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm
     Batman: The Animated Series, Season 2
     Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
     Old Wounds
• The New Batman Adventures (2 years after Batman: The Animated Series)
     Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman
     Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker flashback (5 years after beginning of the series)
• Rebirth, Part 1 flashback (20 years after The New Batman Adventures)
• Batman Beyond (40 years after The New Batman Adventures)
     Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

I'm probably forgetting a few; I know I didn't factor the rest of the DCAU in there.

Ages:
Some of this is guessing, but some is given. Others are taken from the comics, which match up pretty well.

Batman:
On supplemental materials, Bruce is 6 when he falls into the bat-filled cavern on the Wayne Manor property, and 8 when he watches his parents murdered. He's also 18 when he travels the world to received his training. While not officially mentioned, Batman is 25 in the comics when he first becomes Batman, matching up with his early flashbacks. With Batman: The Animated Series taking place 10 years after, Bruce is around 35 during the series. With The New Batman Adventures taking place 2 years later, he's about 37 then. In Batman Beyond, we're shown he quits 20 years later at 57 (coincidentally, Batman is 55 when he comes out of retirement in The Dark Knight Returns). During the main series, 20 years after that, he's around 77.

Nightwing:
In the Golden Age, Dick becomes Robin at 8 years old, but later interpretations put him at 12. Which is what works in the context of this series. Dick is around 12 in Robin's Reckoning when he first becomes Robin, which puts him at 22 during the events of the main series (finishing college, as we see). Later that year, he graduates and also quits being Robin. After traveling the world like Bruce, we see him return during The New Batman Adventures at age 24 as Nightwing.

Batgirl:
The official word is that she's "about twenty-one" during the New Batman Adventures. Two years before, she'd be finishing up high school at around 18-19. Batman Beyond would put the second Commissioner Gordon at 61.

Robin:
Tim is 13 during The New Batman Adventures and around 53 during the events of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

Joker:
It's said that he would have been 80 at the time of Batman Beyond. Which makes him 40 and 38 during TNBA and BTAS, respectively. He's 28 when he's working as a mob hit man in Mask of the Phantasm and 33 when he actually becomes the Joker. True to comic appearances, he's around the same age as Batman.

[Catwoman]

This was awesome stuff!

[The Laughing Fish]

Great timeline write-up Slash Man.

But how would you factor in fitting Batman's first meeting with Superman and his involvement with the Justice League into the timeline? I'd guess it's safe to say that Batman meeting Supes and Lois Lane for the first time in The World's Finest episodes would take place within the same time as TNBA aired. What I'd find more curious is where to fit JL and JL: Unlimited? I can only assume that Batman helped establish the Justice League at least one year after TNBA/Superman TAS. Of course, he'd call himself a part-time member of the League...despite spending his own money to build the Watchtower. 

I'll take a guess and say the two JL series take place within in two years, but future incidents, such as Batman consoling a dying Ace during a flashback in the 'Epilogue' JL Unlimited episode, take place several place years later. Makes you wonder how long did Batman's membership with the Justice League last for.   

[Slash Man]

Never factored in the Justice League(s). Though TNBA was definitely concurrent with the Superman series, just look to the multiple crossovers to put it in perspective. I've never found actual dates for Justice League in relation to the previous series'. Though it's at least a few years; the artists deliberately aged Superman since the series.

[Edd Grayson]

I wish Nightwing and Batgirl had appeared in the Justice League Unlimited series. Barbara Gordon appeared in Batman Beyond, but she was much older, like Bruce.

[Slash Man]

I think it was a shame that we only got to see the epilogues of a few characters. It's a bit baffling to me; with the increased popularity of BTAS/DCAU in recent years, WB has cashed in on the series in every way possible... EXCEPT bringing back the actual series. It's been cancelled twice already, but I'd at least like to see it go for one more round with the intention of bridging the gap between series' and, maybe adapting some plotlines from the Batman Adventures. Seriously, who doesn't think it would be a hit?

[The Dark Knight]

I recall a thread asking if three films is enough to tell Batman's story - and my answer is still no.

The DCAU Batman is still top dog, and the fact he's so fleshed out in terms of story really helps.

I'm just here to look back and appreciate just how good it all was.

We have the MOTP origin, which remains the high water mark in the franchise. Then the team-ups with Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl and then the whole Justice League. He started out a loner but he wasn't always that way. But he ultimately ended as he started.

Batman simply gets too old to fight crime, throws in the towel and feels disgusted with himself in having picked up a gun. Because he didn't cultivate relationships, and simply focused on crime fighting, he lives alone for many years. He saved Gotham and the world countless times, but that's it. Alfred, Gordon and Fox are all dead. The romance with Catwoman, Wonder Woman, or any other female, never eventuated.

Very bleak stuff, but that's how I see Bruce's journey ending in reality. And by fast forwarding to the 'end', you then get a true idea just how tragic and isolated Bruce's personality really is.

The new Batman under his wing gives his purpose and drive - again showing the Batman persona never truly leaves him. Even though his body is not able, his mind always is.

[The Laughing Fish]

I recall a thread asking if three films is enough to tell Batman's story - and my answer is still no.

The DCAU Batman is still top dog, and the fact he's so fleshed out in terms of story really helps.

You can tell how much Bruce Wayne changes over the course of BTAS and TNBA too.

When we see him in BTAS, Bruce puts on a show as the public playboy and pretends to be a klutz, which included putting on a ditsy voice, so nobody would make suspect he could Batman. I could be wrong about this, but I think Bruce slowly began to tone down his playboy reputation when that Gotham University professor had condemned him for his behavior and claimed his father would've been ashamed of him during the episode 'Nothing to Fear'. Bruce's interest in philanthropy and welfare in Gotham City grew in the end of 'The Forgotten' episode, where he offered to help those two homeless men find work, shortly after freeing them from slavery. And you can really tell how touched and hurt he felt in that dream sequence where he's surrounded by tons of homeless people looking for help. Since then, he built a reputation in caring for the community e.g. demanding Mockridge to hurry up with a business deal to ensure jobs could be available for people in the episode 'If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?'.

In TNBA, you really notice that Bruce doesn't even put on a face anymore - not even a fake rich accent. Yet he still maintains his reputation as a responsible businessman, if hardly ever seen. In fact, I'd say his personality grows even colder, more serious and cynical as time goes by, as Dick Grayson decided that he had enough of it in the episode 'Old Wounds'. The only light moment that I can remember of Bruce during the TNBA era was when he was trying to get out of a phone call with Barbara in that 'Mystery of the Batwoman' episode, which implied the two had a fling together.

[Edd Grayson]

That goes without saying. The Burton films and the TAS, TNBA and DCAU Batman made me a strong fan.

[The Dark Knight]

That goes without saying. The Burton films and the TAS, TNBA and DCAU Batman made me a strong fan.

The impact of BTAS can't be overstated. It's for my money the most complete version of Batman. When you add up all the episodes for DCAU's Batman across the various seasons, it's 252. That's a lot a character growth over a long period of time. The most of any Batman incarnation including Adam West, and they managed to maintain consistent quality.

I love the films (B89, BR, BvS). Seeing something like B89 as a young child really burns the character into your memory in an unforgettable way. Good Batman films should inspire you to dig deeper into the character. B89 did that for me, and I was just very lucky BTAS began airing at this time. Everything else is just gravy when we consider BTAS/JL/JLU/BB.