CBR: Beechan's "Batman Beyond" of Two Worlds

[CBR News]

Writer Adam Beechen opens up to CBR about how he made the future of Batman's animated world jibe with DC continuity, his thoughts on an ongoing and where the mystery of Hush Beyond will lead in this week's issue #4.


Full article here.

[The Cool Thatguy]

"Batman Beyond's great because anything I do character wise can be handwaved away!"

More things change...

[Nate Grey]

Dang. If anyone else was writing this I'd give it a shot.

[JohnnyHorror92182]

A "Batman Beyond" ongoing. Very Good. Glad To Hear It.

Personally, this isn't the future I prefer for the mainstream DCU, so I'm glad that Beechen is saying that this future is a MAYBE future.

I liked the "Batman Beyond" future that Morrison laid down in Batman #700, where an old Damian trains Terry as the new Batman.

[glennsim]

Question - what is the relationship between future-adult-Damian Batman and Batman Beyond? In Superman/Batman 75 they made it sound like Damian is Terry's mentor instead of Bruce. Or are there two versions? Wikipedia wasn't clear.

[jgiannantoni05]

Question - what is the relationship between future-adult-Damian Batman and Batman Beyond? In Superman/Batman 75 they made it sound like Damian is Terry's mentor instead of Bruce.

Batman 700 and S/B 75 have it so that Damian is Terry's mentor, not Bruce.

Different from Beechen's continuation of the DCAU Bruce-mentor situation.


I like DC and Beechen's approach: a maybe future, free to use current comic events.


Besides DKR as my take on Bruce's future, I don't have a future beyond that that I've accepted. Though I prefer Batman 700's take with Damian mentoring Terry.

[JohnnyHorror92182]

Question - what is the relationship between future-adult-Damian Batman and Batman Beyond? In Superman/Batman 75 they made it sound like Damian is Terry's mentor instead of Bruce. Or are there two versions? Wikipedia wasn't clear.

Well, technically there are Two versions: the first, being the story coming from the animated series. Old Bruce is mentor to Terry who falls into becoming Batman.

The second, is where Damian becomes mentor to Terry. This is only seen briefly in Batman #700. Morrison didn't get into details, aside from showing us that Damian (as Batman) saves an infant Terry from Two-Face-2.

[Thad]

I liked the "Batman Beyond" future that Morrison laid down in Batman #700, where an old Damian trains Terry as the new Batman.

Agreed.

This series -- I like elements of it, but it's too kitchen sink. First of all, I don't like Hush very much and think he's been overused; second, I don't think he's a good fit for the BB universe.

I feel like Beechen loves Batman Beyond but doesn't understand why it worked. There were a couple of major ground rules in BB: it wasn't violent, and it didn't reuse old villains. And yes, it broke those rules on occasion, most notably in Return of the Joker -- but the fact that it broke them SO RARELY made it really impactful on the rare occasions when it did.

Beechen's giving us violence and returning characters out the wazoo. That severely diminishes the power of both.

[Darkstream]

There seems to be two conflicting versions of Batman Beyond in comics right now, so the question is…

Will this new ongoing series continue from the DCAU as Superman/Batman Annual #4 and this current mini-series did (with Bruce Wayne as Terry's mentor)?

- OR -

Will it be placed within the DCU proper like Batman #700 and Superman/Batman#75 were (with Damian Wayne as Terry's mentor)?


I actually feel that they've done all the justice they can with Terry in the DCAU, and this current mini-series stinks in my opinion, so I'd much rather see Terry integrated into the real DCU, plus the future Damian mentorship makes it very intriguing.

[JohnnyHorror92182]

Agreed.

This series -- I like elements of it, but it's too kitchen sink. First of all, I don't like Hush very much and think he's been overused; second, I don't think he's a good fit for the BB universe.

I feel like Beechen loves Batman Beyond but doesn't understand why it worked. There were a couple of major ground rules in BB: it wasn't violent, and it didn't reuse old villains. And yes, it broke those rules on occasion, most notably in Return of the Joker -- but the fact that it broke them SO RARELY made it really impactful on the rare occasions when it did.

Beechen's giving us violence and returning characters out the wazoo. That severely diminishes the power of both.

Thanks for agreeing with me. But I think that what Beechen is doing, needs to be addressed. There are many questions about what happened in the past, especially about what happened between Bruce & Dick near the end of Bruce's career as Batman. That was something that was never touched on during the cartoons run on tv.

As for the violence you mentioned...it was a cartoon! It couldn't be violent because it was (technically) for kids. But let's be honest, some of what happened on that show was pretty violent to an extent. I remember Mr. Freeze going on a Kill-Crazy-Rampage!

[The Cool Thatguy]

Thanks for agreeing with me. But I think that what Beechen is doing, needs to be addressed. There are many questions about what happened in the past, especially about what happened between Bruce & Dick near the end of Bruce's career as Batman. That was something that was never touched on during the cartoons run on tv.

As for the violence you mentioned...it was a cartoon! It couldn't be violent because it was (technically) for kids. But let's be honest, some of what happened on that show was pretty violent to an extent. I remember Mr. Freeze going on a Kill-Crazy-Rampage!

Actually, Freeze only killed one person and that was dealt with by cutting away. Though he did try to kill more...

Though yeah it was pretty violent for the average cartoon.

[Godlike13]

"I've written it with the idea in mind that it is part of DC continuity,"

Oh joy! Tim is going to become a electrician, and Dick is going to either go crazy or retire too .

[Toni Goodman]

Oh joy! Tim is going to become a electrician, and Dick is going to either go crazy or retire too .

Yeah. This future will never be the future of the DCU. If they left out the reference to Tim becoming the Joker, then it could be believable. This Tim is FAR different from the Tim of the DCAU. Since Tim Drake is on his own, if he was tortured by the Joker in the same vain as the film, you think he'd stop? No one could possibly force him to retire from being Red Robin. If anything, that would make him work harder to make up for a failing in his life. He's far too dedicated for that.

So no, the only way the ongoing could in any way relate to the DCU is if they get rid of the crap about Tim turning into the Joker. I'm a huge Tim Drake fan, I was sad they did that to him in Batman Beyond, but it worked for the story. How does it work for the DCU? Also, how many fans would they pretty much piss off if DCU said, "yeah, in the future Tim's going to go batshit crazy after being tortured by the Joker and be forced into retiring from his own personal career as a superhero"?

[Eivion]

Can't really say that I will pick up the ongoing if they plan to keep Beechen the writer or continue off from his mini. I'm not really interested at all in seeing the mainstream universed blended with the DCAU.

[Free-Man]

Also in the DCAU, I don't think we ever saw Babs Gordon become Oracle.

And of course, one of the huge ones would be that Hal Jordan is currently a major character in the DCU and was one of the founders of the JLA.

In the Batman Beyond continuity, John Stewart was Earth's only active GL (Kyle Rayner was stationed on Oa and apparently wasn't allowed to go to Earth), and the one who helped found the League.