Episode 39


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What happens when Bruce Wayne is too old to continue on as Batman? He reluctantly finds a protege, giving us the fourth cartoon in the DCAU: Batman Beyond! James and Mike kick things off by discussing "Rebirth," "Black Out," "Golem," "The Winning Edge" and "Dead Man's Hand." [ 2:11:23 || 60.1 MB ]

The above is from: http://www.worldsfinestpodcast.com/episodes/wfp_039.mp3

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Guest DCAUFan1051

mike:

Bruce Timm has said that they meaning Timm and Co. didn't want to put an age on Bruce but at the time the WB wanted to make him 80.

But he also says Batman Beyond the entire series takes place 50 years in in the future from right now. So in that timeline if you look at today: 10/15/08 BBeyond takes place 50 years from today.

I believe Timm says this in the Return Of The Joker Commentary :D

BBeyond Note: Bruce Timm played the voice of the lead joker in the purple suit

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Guest DCAUFan1051

the only problem I have with the welcome to my world line is that it's in Bruce/Kevin's calm Wayne voice. I'd have liked it better if it was in the Batman voice lol.

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Guest DCAUFan1051
Listen to it again. He gives the speech in his Bruce Wayne voice, then switches to his Batman voice for the last line.

no he doesn't I watched it just now while listening to the podcast the Batman voice wasn't there all the way at all. It was Kevin's calm Bruce voice the entire time.

and Mike Willie does come back not sure what episode it is but terry goes into the juvie center undercover in 1 episode, and Willie has grown up and buffed up and eveything but I forget which episode it is.

if audacity would fucking work with these new speakers I'd make you the audio file mike lol

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I voted for Mayor Hill. Even though he's probably less incompetent that The Mayor of Townsville, which is what the poll asks, he's everything that makes a politcian look like a douche. I bet the school was named during Hill's tenure as mayor as a lasting tribute to himself, because as you say, he has no other reason for a legacy in that he presided over some of Gotham's darkest days. The other mayor wins by default, if only because it reminds me of every opening narration to a Powerpuff Girls episode. For whatever reason "The City of Townsville" cracks me up every time.

Good ep, gents, and yes, I did purposefully co-ordinate the timelines so that OHMSS was reviewed directly before George Lazenby's DCAU debut. :happy:

DCAUFan: He does deepen the last line, although it's not 100% in old Batman tones as Bruce has to keep up appearances in front of Terry's mum.

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Guest DCAUFan1051
DCAUFan: He does deepen the last line, although it's not 100% in old Batman tones as Bruce has to keep up appearances in front of Terry's mum.

Thanks for the support Ian...... I understand he needed to keep up appearances but I still would have like it to be the full on Batman Voice just aged.

Excellent episode Mike & James. There was a time when you were doing Superman when after starting the episode with B: TAS theme you played the Superman theme to begin the episodes. I'd like to see you guys do that. Keep the WFP Theme as B: TAS but play the current series your reviewing theme before starting the reviews. So like in this episode instead of starting with a voice audio clip start with the theme then at the end play a voice over. I dunno if that makes any fuckin sense but it's an idea. I know Mike'll probably say no but it would be cool to see the WFP episodes change a little.

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Guest DCAUFan1051

but isn't it still a somewhat good idea???

What would happen if all of the E-2 Forum members started a petition against you :devil: and you got soooo much hate mail until u finally caved and changed it a little lol :D :devil: :devil: :yes:

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Guest DCAUFan1051
In the words of Vince McMahon, don't cross the boss. :)

yes that's true Ian but I'm just a listener/forum member lmao

But in all seriousness I love Earth-2.net the podcasts and everything..... haven't really gotten into Animazing Podcast (no offense kellen) but if you were to ever review transformers I'll listen to that episode. I have made these forums my second home outside of my apartment lol. Where's the cot I'll be bunking in :laugh: along with a ton of other addictions I have (transformers, knight rider, the shield, cartoons in general) earth-2.net has been great being a part of thanks for everything everyone does :D

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Alright, I'm back - it's been a nuts couple of weeks, but now that we're starting BEYOND, had to put my two cents in.

When I first heard about the concept of the show in 97 or 98, I was thinking "Good God. Really? There's no better way to tell Batman stories than to have a teenage Batman?" Because frequently, this sort of thing is handled one of 2 ways. First, the Spider-Man Unlimited approach. Send Spidey to "Counter-Earth", but, oh yeah, there just happen to be analogs of everyone he knows there. Or second, the multiple-Elseworlds-and-fan-fiction-type-stories, set them 20-40 years in the future, where EVERYONE had kids, and EVERY kid ended up like their parents, except maybe a different gender, so again, you're still using the same cast. Boy, was I wrong....

REBIRTH: Damn. Just, damn. James and Mike said most of it already, but a few additions.

My timeline has always gone with Bruce's age. I figure he was about 25 in "Mask Of the Phantasm, 35-40 through the bulk of the DCAU (safe to say that the DCAU covers at least 5 years), late 50's in the prologue to "Rebirth" and late 70's in "Batman Beyond" (then early 90s in "Epilogue"). Barbara would have been early to mid 20s in "Gotham Knights, making her early to mid-60s in "Beyond.

Derek Powers - James commented that he was similar to Luthor, which I thought was nice continuity with the WFP episode about "World's Finest" and the comments that they made then. Took 40 years, but Batman finally faced off against a Luthor type villain. Powers' voice actor, Sherman Howard (who also voiced the Collector in "The Main Man") actually is a former Lex Luthor. Granted, it's from the Superboy live-action TV show, but still - Lex Luthor! Also, there's a bit of a parallel here - for the first season, he was Batman's main adversary. How did he become who he is? He was fighting with Batman, and was doused in a chemical. Hmmm. Oh, and you guys were discussing his nom de crime (or de guerre, or de plume - I can never keep those straight). "Meltdown" was the episode where Mr. Freeze and Derek Powers face off; I think that's the episode where he actually labels himself as "Blight".

Maybe Ian can chime in here - did Mr. Fixx seem like a futuristic nod to Oddjob to anyone but me?

The club (Club 54 Level) is an allusion to the Manhattan nightspot Club 54, featured in the movie "54".

In the discussion of Dead Man's Hand, James talked about Terry not kissing Dana. He actually kissed her briefly before she dropped him off at Wayne Manor at the end of Episode 1.

I'm not sure, but I think that the scene at the end of part 2 with Terry's mom may have been the only time in the series that Bruce put on the "pleasant Bruce Wayne facade" again - Mike's absolutely right. He lets the Bat show all the time now. I also love that scene because you know Bruce is telling Terry "I'm going to put you through hell to prove you have what it takes, kid" and Terry knows exactly what he's saying.

MELTDOWN

About the Batmobile, I would offer 3 reasons why it's still useful. First, it's faster. The Batmobile can go about Mach 3 (established in "The Call, Part 2" - "Is that faster than a speeding bullet?"). If he needs to get somewhere in a hurry, the rocket boots and wings aren't going to do it in time. Second, the Batmobile probably has better range - how much fuel can you fit in those boots? Third, it carries more stuff - grapples to catch heavy objects, weapons, communications gear - stuff that the suit can't provide. I look at the wings and rocket boots as an upgrade of the grapples, but even with how much Bruce used his grapple, it still never replaced the Batmobile.

Inque as the equivalent of Clayface nailed what they did right about this series. She's about as close as you get to "Clayface Beyond" or any other "Villain Beyond" - but she's a completely different character. Despite the great rogues Batman has, I'm really glad they didn't just recycle and update rogues from TAS and Gotham Knights and try to keep doing the same thing - this feels a lot more realistic, because while there is a TON of continuity, the Jokerz as a (sort of pathetic) street gang trying to cash in on Joker's rep makes a lot more sense than a Joker's Son or Daughter. When they do bring back a villain, it's in a way that makes sense, storywise.

Also, this was the first time we actually see the mature Barbara Gordon.

GOLEM

The episode that Willie Watts comes back in is "Revenant" - they do something very different with the character, however.

While I agree that a lot of this was formuleic, I did like the scene where Terry is facing down Nelson to keep him from beating up Willie for 2 reasons. First, Terry plays it very cool and low-key - this is the same guy who lost his temper and punched Nelson during the wrestling match in "Rebirth". I liked that sign that spending time with Bruce is already making Terry be more controlled, more reserved. I also liked the whole dark, quiet, you-don't-want-to-bestir-me-to-action vibe Terry was giving off - he's already getting that "stare down the punks" act down. You'd think he was born to do this...oh, wait, he was, wasn't he?

About the detective work, I have to defend them a bit - at least up to the "line goes around the block...twice" moment. Granted that we know that Willie's dad works at the company with the GLM, but I get the impression that a GLM is a pretty standard piece of heavy construction equiptment. It's not like there's only one, and everyone knows that Willie's dad is a foreman at the company that owns it. They'd have to come up with a list of people who don't like Nelson (which could be a long list), find which company the GLM belonged to, and cross-reference the list of Nelson's enemies with everyone who has access to the company lots - that could actually take while to check out that many leads. Who knows how many people Terry sees Nelson terrorize on a daily basis - the episode with Willie may not stand out that much.

Couple comments about swinging on the rope. I can't come up with a great reason for Terry to do it at that moment, but...it makes a lot of sense to have the grapple in the Batsuit. First, it's a backup for the rockets and wings, and Bruce is all about backup plans. Second, Bruce is the one who built the Batsuit, and he spent 20 years with a grapple - it makes sense that he would include it. Third, there's situations where you can use that to spear something or rope something and pull it out of the way without moving yourself, so it gives more flexibility. From a writer's perspective, I think I see why they put that scene in. Willie Watts (Peter Parker), Bobbi "Blade" Summer (Liz Allen), and come on, Nelson Nash is clearly Flash Thompson throughout this series. From a writing point of view, I think Terry used the grapple and line to complete the homage to Spider-Man (because that shot did look kind of like Amazing Fantasy #15). After all, look at "Rebirth". There's a lot of parallels to what happened to Uncle Ben. And, it makes sense for that tool to be in the Batsuit. It's just, like Mike said, hard to see why, from an in-universe POV, Terry would choose to use that tool rather than the wings and rockets. You could argue that he was worried about losing control in close quarters, but Terry's much more used to the wings and rockets than to the grapple, so I can't really accept that. I think they just wanted to run with the homage as far as they could, even if it meant that they stretched things a bit.

Incidentally, Nelson Nash is voiced by Seth Green, from Buffy and the Austin Powers movies. He's not a big guy ("hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit, but come a full moon he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with") and anyone who's watched Robot Chicken knows how distinctive his voice is, but damn if he doesn't sound exactly like that type of Flash Thompson character that we've all known and loathed.

THE WINNING EDGE

Ehhh. It did make me wonder what happened to that Teen Titans anti-drug cartoon from the 80's - I read the comic, but does anyone know if they actually made the cartoon?

I did like Terry's line, "C'mon, he's a zillion years old! How much trouble could an old geezer ... never mind. " Apparently, Bat-Glares can travel over comlinks.

DEAD MAN'S HAND

Ten sure looked like a young Black Canary. That's about the 3rd character they've used that look for now. Not a complaint, mind you, just an observation.

Guess I sort of ran out of steam with comments on the last two - then again, I wasn't the only one. Great fun, guys - see you in 2 weeks.

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