Adam and I are back with something of a “crossover event”! You see, it was announced this week that I will be the new cohost on Adam’s other podcast, Wizards The Podcast Guide To Comics. If you’re not familiar with it, Wizard was THE magazine in the 90s/00s when it came to comics news and interviews. A few years back, Adam and his friend Michael started the podcast to cover the magazine issue by issue, giving the audience a look at the comic industry of yesteryear. At this point, there are over 350 episodes, as they have also interviewed former Wizard staffers and comic industry professionals of the day. Well, given our chemistry on this podcast, as well as the departure of his latest cohost, Adam “called me up to the majors” and invited me to fill that second seat. With that in mind, we figured our next episode of Remember That Show? would cover a series that appeals to both podcast audiences, and that led us to Batman Beyond.
Premiering in 1999, Batman Beyond reunited a lot of the folks from the award-winning Batman: The Animated Series, showcasing a futuristic take on the hero of Gotham City. Set decades after that series, Batman Beyond introduces us to teenager Terry McGinnis who discovers that Bruce Wayne was Batman, and asks for his help to avenge the murder of his father. When Bruce refuses, Terry steals his high-tech Batsuit and decides to do it himself. After a rocky period, Bruce begrudgingly agrees to train Terry and they become something of a team. Now, Terry flies high above Gotham City, protecting his friends and family, while Bruce is his “guy in the chair”, calling the shots from the Batcave. Not only did the show introduce new rogues and allies, but it also revisited some classic villains to show us what became of them. Despite a memorable premiere and a strong spate of episodes, the Kids WB series would only produce 52 episodes (compared to the 85 episodes of BTAS) over a span of 3 seasons.
As a sucker for stories that place familiar concepts against a futuristic backdrop, I was the perfect audience for this show. Plus, I love Batman! My issue here, however, is the issue I have with all of these projects: They can’t really tell you what happened in the span of time that we missed, as it would paint them into a corner. Spider-Man 2099 did this, where you want to know what happened to the heroes from the mainstream Marvel adventures, and all they could do was allude to some vague “fall of heroes” event that had done away with them all.
Anyway, Adam and I had a great conversation about the series, as well as its spinoff direct-to-DVD movie Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. So, if you want to join us, you can find the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. And while you’re at it, subscribe to Wizards The Podcast Guide To Comics, too!
