Hurm. The season kinda limped out on this one. I can only assume that someone mislabeld this episode of Batman Beyond (of which I have never seen an episode) under the heading Justice League Unlimited?
Don’t get me wrong. That was a good cartoon. I was entertained for 22 minutes.
Beyond the fact that this story seemed shoehorned into the Cadmus storyline, I did it was pretty good.
I am always impressed at how Dini cartoons have good directors. I’ve said before that this is the first cartoon where I have actually NOTICED cartoons as having directors.
The black and white, letterbox flashbacks made me smile. The story was pretty entertaining.
And once again (I keep repeating myself), the scene with Ace shows exactly how Batman should be written.
Overall, I wish they’d have focused more on the actual Justice League (Batman has his own shows!), but it was not a waste of my time.
I look forward to a new season. I hope they retell some more classic DC stories.
It was an epilogue to the Dini/Timm Batman, who may never be seen again, not so much to this season of JLU. As such, it succeeded wonderfully. It pulled off the impossible and actually gave Batman a happy ending without compromising the character.
None of the Black and White sequences actually happened. You can tell because the clock is still intact at the end and he has a date with Dana later. It was subtle, but I liked it.
I also enjoyed the injokes of the Royal Flush gang:
A “Ten” who is a Bo Derek lookalike.
A Samurai Jack (who reverts to a black guy, possibly a reference to Phil LaMarr?)
A drag Queen
And… um, MODOK.
Yeah. I figured there was just one more story Dini wanted to tell so he loosely connected it to the JLU. He’s earned that right!
I missed that. I was confused as to who she was and what role she played. I realized that he had a date with her at the end, but I guessed that she was just letting his hissy fit slide…
I’m not sure, but she was dressed like the Phantam. I wonder if it was the same woman(I don’t remember her name, but it was one of Batman’s old girlfiriends). She looked like she was old enough to be.
A decent episode, but I was hoping for more JL stuff. I did get a kick out of young Terry coming out of a “Grey Ghost” movie at the Theater.
I assumed she was the Phantasm grown old, Andrea Beaumont. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (by Timm and Dini) is the best Batman ever, alongside Batman Begins. It perfectly portrays Batman AND Bruce Wayne.
Arthur Reeves: [on TV] What kind of city are we running when we depend on the support of a potential madman!
[click]
Alfred: What rot, sir! Why you’re the very model of sanity. Oh by the way, I pressed your tights and put away your exploding gas balls.
Bruce Wayne: Thank you, Alfred.
I didn’t see it that way - I saw the black and white bits as flashbacks - it’s just that the consequences had been subsequently mended. I guess you could read it either way, but I found it telling that when he arrived at Waller’s house, he was there as Terry McGinnis, not Batman.
I thought it was Selena (cat woman) in the Phantom costume. The short-cropped hair, reminded me of Selena in the Dark Knight Year one series and the “insight” towards what Batman would want, seemed something the only a person close to him would understand.
I don’t think Andrea Beaumont, was that close to Batman, she was closer to Bruce Wayne.
The only thing that took me out of the moment on this one was Waller calling what she’d done “Project Batman Beyond.” Totally unnecessary, IMO. It didn’t need a self-serving code name like that.
Otherwise, a nice calm ending to a tumultuos season. And it definitively tied Batman Beyond into the ADCU, just like last week’s episode tied in the old Superman series into it.
I don’t think Selena’s alive in Beyond. I may be wrong, of course, but assuming that people who died on Earth-1 are dead tends not to steer too wrongly. Also, her being alive introduces all sorts of complications that would, ah, not leave Bruce as bitter.
It’s Andrea, I say.
Yeah, he was thinking of breaking up with Dana, confronting Bruce, and quitting being Batman, so that’s why he confronted Waller as Terry. But he never did any of those things, there was no time or reason for him to mend fences until he got the skinny from Waller. The final scene occurs the very night of the Waller conversation.
And over on the Toonzone forums (no direct link handy, sorry) Bruce Timm agrees with me:
Gotta give the guy credit, through Batman beyond they’ve told a story where Batman steps down to a successor (twice now!). Something I never thought I’d buy.
Thanks for the Info, Mennochio - It wasn’t (and isn’t) clear to me that the Waller stuff was the same night as Terry returning to Bruce at the mansion - but however muddled the structure was, it’s nice to hear what the intent was.
The very last scene, where Batman Beyond is flying over Gotham and his shadow zips past the two guys in their flying machine (“Did you see that?”)…was that not a direct lift from the first scene in BTAS where Man-Bat flies past one of the ubiquitous Gotham derigibles? Or am I misremembering? I meant to check that out last night. Seems like a nice way to bookend the entire Timm/Dini saga.
