Heh. I love Crusty Bruce. I'm so very glad I gave BB (Batman of the Future -- I have no idea why they call it that here) a second chance when the eps were going through rerun. At first, I really didn't want to watch it because to me, Bruce Wayne was Batman and no other. Anyone else would be a bad substitute. Then I caught one ep and decided to watch more to find out about what happens.

So far, The Eggbaby cracked me up. I admit, I even thought the eggbaby was cute. Payback was good with the Bruce and Terry interaction and how Terry was learning through his mistakes. Where's Terry? topped today's list of good-things-that-I-watched with lovely action!Bruce. He may be past his physical peak, but he's just as devious. Loved how he tricked Max. Love how he was so controlled and deadly with the gang. Loved him period.

Had to bring this thread back from the depths to bring you this new news on The Batman, from our friends over at Comics Continuum. Casting spoilers; story is about halfway down the page.

I see that it's a younger Batman they are going for. But first they cast Adam West and the camp history that comes with him, and then they don't use Kevin Conroy to voice this Batman? They aren't convincing me to watch the show this way.

When I first read about this on superherohype I thought that Adam West was gonna do the voice and I cringed. Batman:TAS has forever spoiled me. Kevin Conroy will always be Batman in my mind.
I'm not very enthused about the new series.

ITA. I'll watch the first few eps of the new series because to be fair, but it will have to be pretty damn good for me to keep watching. My head already hurts.

While I agree with all of you and think that Conroy has the definitive Batman voice, this new series has no choice but to go with someone else. From what I've heard, this is going to be separate from the previous incarnations, so they need to go with a clean slate. In any case, if it's a good series people will watch and maybe gripe a little about not having Conroy, Hamill, etc. If it's a bad series it won't matter. Personally I hope they don't look to Teen Titans as a guide: we've already got enough anime and anime style stuff on.

Here's more info on the new Batman animated series. Comments?

I don't mind the 'someone else'-- well, I do, but I could live with it-- but a swingin' twentysomething voiced by Adam West?

This is sounding not of the good.

Didn't he already meet the Riddler for the first time on the show?

"Personally I hope they don't look to Teen Titans as a guide: we've already got enough anime and anime style stuff on."

I have the horrible suspicion something like that is precisely the reason why they're doing a "new" animated Batman series - to make him all big-eyed and anime-y....

If Batman is going "anime", I hope they take their lead from darker, edgier stuff than the source material for Teen Titans. Not all anime is goofy cartoon-ism like Pokemon.

That said, I think it works well for the Titans; I didn't think so at first, but it's grown on me.

But if I have to see Bruce suddenly get that exclamation mark over the head, big, white empty eyed look of "shock"... well, someone may have to die.

Also... the voice of Spider-Man Unlimited? I'd rather have Adam West...

Well, if the original series inspired "Big O," perhaps anime would give something back. Hey, some forms of anime don't follow goofy rules.

Does the new series have anything to do with the new movie? Because that would make sense, I guess. This whole thing just seems shlockey, but I guess we can't really judge until we see it (who am I kidding? Of course we can judge).

I think I'm just confused by the whole thing. But I am getting the impression that it has nothing to do with TAS and therefore and stories, timelines, and mythology that was presented there would be pretty much null and void (right? Timm and Dini have nothing to do with this thing, right?). Although I'm sure that they'll include Harley Quinn just because she's become popular enough to be included in the comics. People forget that she started in TAS. Hell, she even showed up on Birds of Prey. ug.

And Kevin Smith named his daughter after her. I foresee large therapy bills in her future.

Lots of info on the new show, along with promotional images, courtesy of Comics Continuum.

"Everbody loves prequels." -- Homer Simpson

Unfortunately, I think you're right. I'll give this show a chance and probably end up regretting it.

But I have no problems with signing Adam West as a voice actor. He just has one of those voices that makes me instantaneously laugh (which is probably not what they're going for here). His best role was as himself in Family Guy.

Bat-gadgets? Just a short jump from that to bat-lube.

The Dark Knight is going retro? Very cool! And Adam West is doing the voice of Batman? This I've *gotta* see.

ya just had to go there didn't you?

I'm pretty ambivalent about AW. but let's just hope (and this is an old quote from my dad) that it doesn't end up being 'same bat time, same bat station, same bat shit'

Adam West will not be voicing Batman.



And yes, yes I did have to go there. ;)

That does not provide me with confidence.

---

I'm sorry, but this whole thing sounds dismal. No Conroy. No B:TAS continuity. New origin stories for the bad guys. Living under elevated train tracks. The "Bat-wave?"

I wonder how they'll handle the first appearance of the Joker, though.

Delurking:: I saw the headline and thought yessss more KC as the Batman and unfortunately read the rest. What a total bummer like others have said he is Batman and always will be. He's just about the only reason I even watch Justice League. I guess I'll give it a chance but I would imagine there are alot of pissed off fans out there. This is one of the few Kevin Conroy info sites I've run across just incase anyone is interested. http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/kevinconroy/

I guess it's Batman, with more zazz.

"Boy, that Batman is one outrageous dude!"
"He's totally in my face!"

I shudder to think. I've gotten used to Mark Hamill as the Joker, so this will be a rough transition. And which voice *is* Adam West doing, anyway?

According to USA Today, West is voicing the mayor (but not Mayor Hill, some other mayor; hopefully one that takes better care of his kids so that they don't have issues and run away to join the Joker)

Movie News--
Check it out:

Cillian Murphy as the Scarcrow is just about the most perfect casting news I've heard in a long time. Bravo. Hate the new name of the project. Neeson as Ras? Doubtful. Any thoughts about who he could be? And Viggo? This is shaping up to be one of the best movies yet, if only for the eye candy factor. yum.

My boyfriend told me about Cillian, and I'm actually excited about that.
Not as excited as I am about Christian Bale, my ultimate screen fav, but still, it's neat to see some not-so-famous taking on the roles so that the roles don't get overshadowed by their portrayors, like Riddler, Two Face, Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze.

But Katie Holmes? Ugh. Is this chick ever going to stop emoting? Maybe if she's not involed in some four-year love triangle in this movie, I'll be able to stomach her. But otherwise, bleh.

Here's for hoping that they follow the lead of Elle MacPherson's apperance in the last movie (*cring*) and make Katie's involvement brief. But why do I have the feeling that she's playing Talia? Is it just the dark hair and the fact that Ras is the reported villian?


Well, that's only natural. :)


yay! the show got a mention on the O.C.:

Okay, so it would have been way better if it was the ep where Batgirl and Catwoman team up, but you take what you can get. And we'll just choose to forget that this ep was from the WF era.

I loved that scene. Just hearing the intro music made me very happy. I wish the Cartoon Network would put it back on.

I got all excited watching Jeopardy last night because they had a question/answer that I was convinved was a Batman:TAS question. But in my excitement I forgot to actually listen to the bloody question/answer and the answer/question was actually Teen Titans; which I just found inherently wrong. Anyway, it was the teen tournament anyway, so wrongness was just implied in general.

Thank You for reading my digression. :)

The prospect of Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow is thrilling. The prospect of Katie Holmes coming into contact with Batman is...not.

My exasperated query would be -- why so many baddies? The great part about Batman's rogues gallery is that, more often than not, they each have backstories that are worthy of screentime. TAS proved that again and again. They made the Clock King interesting! (The Clock King!) I feel like the movies have gotten in the habit of taking a more-is-more route. Except that, to me, the more bad guys crammed into a script the less interesting it becomes. I wish they would take their cues from Spiderman -- one villain is enough because it frees you to consider trifles like character development. YMMV, naturally.

Zap2it with casting confirmation. Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul; Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

I would never in a million years have picked Neeson for that role, but whatever, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. This is how blissful I am about Christian and Cillian being involved. ahhh. . .and Morgan Freeman works for me too. Once again, the name has got to go. Batman: Intimidation? blech.

Just wanted to tell you all that this Friday they're playing "Return of the Joker" at 5:00 pm EST on Cartoon Network. I can't wait to see it! I never got a chance to, so I'm excited.

For those of you who are out of the loop, it turns out that Liam Neeson is not Ra's al Ghul. He's playing some other guy named Ducard and Ken Watanabe is Ra's al Ghul now. Oh, and the title is Batman Begins suddenly.

I hope it changes just as suddenly. The hell?

Hey I like "Batman Begins" better than "Batman: Intimidation".

I watched Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker yesterday, did anyone else get to see it? I never really watched Batman Beyond before, so I was kind of confused, but I got into it quickly enough.

Is it just me or did anyone else find little Joker Tim disturbingly cute? I did! I also found Grandma Harley cute. I was so happy she survived! When she fell off the cliff I went "NO!" She is my favorite character, after all.

All in all, a pretty good movie.

Return of the joker really makes me hope that Batman beyond is an elseworlds type future, or at least that particular movie is. It's just such a grim future. However, I do love crusty old man Bruce.

I love the entire run of the Batman animated series, but I have to say the original 1940's style cartoon is my favorite. So many good episodes it's hard to pick favorites. I don't think there is a single character, hero or villian, that I didn't find interesting. Except maybe Rupert Thorne, he was kinda dumb.

There's a really great series of articles about Batman: TAS here it started last week, so you'll have to go to the archives for part 1. Good stuff.

I don't know how it could be anything but grim; even if Tim hadn't been shunted off the team and turned into an unwitting accomplice to a raving madman, something similar was bound to happen. One of the things that defines the tragedy of Batman's crusade is that he can never win the war, no matter how many battles he wins. So it goes on and on and on until something bad happens. If it hadn't been Tim's kidnapping and torture, it could have been Batgirl getting killed as we saw in that one Scarecrow ep.

There is no way I could ever buy any of the Bat-family settling down and retiring and living happy lives. The crusade is too deep in their blood to allow them to give up when there's work to be done, and thus they'll keep at it until it kills them or worse.

Thank you Harrion Fjord! That sums up my feelings exactly. It's why Bruce is so bitter: he's fighting a war he knows he can't win and one that he also knows he can't stop fighting. Much like me trying to type this reply while my kitten walks/plays all over my keyboard. Only with, you know, more dire and signifigant consequences than my current battle with Pete.

P.S. Love your name!! Did you win an award for it?

I know that none of the Bat-family is going to truly be able to stop their crime fighting and it is likely that they won't reach a happily ever after type situation, but still RotJ rubs me the wrong way. Like I said, I like crusty old man Bruce, that's the way I picture all of the Bat-family ending up, old, scarred, bitter and never truly giving up the fight even though they can't walk down the stairs without breaking a hip. But what happened to Tim seems like it went against the rules. I don't know exactly how to put it into words.

I just saw it, too. It was the first time my brother and I saw RoTJ, but we were faithful Batman Beyond-watchers.

Together, we turned to each other at the end, and said, "Wow. Poor Tim. Look at all he went through - and Nightwing still won't let go of his hold on the sparkly crown of King of the Angst."

I love Tim. I love what kind of person he grew up to be, that at the end he saw Batman and instead of blaming him, simply said, "Hi, old man."

We always watched Batman Beyond for Bruce, never truly warming up to Terry, but I think this movie was his shining moment.

Ace is kind of creepy, though.

Why do you say that? I thought he was cute. I missed Harley's hyenas, though. They were the best.

See, I always liked Terry. And I felt like he was the perfect 'new' Batman. I also liked that he was almost as obsessive about being Batman as Bruce is. I've seen many people heap love on Wayne's "In my head I never call myself 'Bruce.'" But I have equal love for Terry's follow up. "Then what do you call -- Oh, I guess you would. But that's my name now."

I loved the show (Batman Beyond) from the start and watched every episode-I think. How did the show end? Was there an actual series finale, or was it like the original X-Men from the 90's where it was only after readin the news groups did I learn that when Xavier is taken away, leaving Magneto with the rest of the X-Men it ended. I am fairly sure it just stopped playing on KidsWB, and I am also fairly sure that I did not see all of them on Cartoon Network. My favorite scene comes from The Call Part 2(that's the right name, right?), when the new Batman pretty much tells the new Justice League what the old Batman told the old Justice League: Call me when you need me. Terry may not have the angst of Bruce, but he certainly has the coolly confident arrogance. I think I am done now.

"The Call, Part 2" was #47 of the regular run, which ended with #52 "Unmasked". This episode (like so many other movie/TV projects) was supposed to air on Sept. 14, 2001, but was not shown on the WB because of 9/11. It was later shown on Cartoon Network on Dec. 18, 2001. I guess that can be considered the series finale, unless you count "Return of the Joker".

To digress for a second, I'm trying to get an amazon.com order past the free shipping mark and would like to get a batman graphic novel. Any advice? I've never followed the comic books so I'm not sure what is good. I'm pretty sure I have Year One somewhere in my apartment.

I loved Batman Beyond for both Terry and Bruce. Their relationship was fascinating and it was a nice touch that the audience knew more about Batman's early years than Terry did.

I watched part of Return of the Joker last week on cartoon network until I realized it was the sanitized version. Since I have the dvd, I decided to wait until I had time to watch.

Well this isnt a graphic novel...but it is a great book on the animated series. I don't know if you have it already or not.

It's been on my wishlist for a while but only in hardcover, for some reason. I haven't been willing to shell out $50, however. $20 is a bit more in my price range but I only need to add $8 to my cart this time. Amazon's free shipping option is truly evil.