DCAU REVIEW: Batman Beyond

Again yeah, late to the party I know.. I'm sorry but when I started this blog I stated from the get-go that this was going to be my place to voice my thoughts and write about what I wanted when I wanted and how I wanted because I'd come from Facebook and god damn it.. If I'm going to put thought into typing something the very least I can hope for is to have viewers that genuinely come here and read the articles because they enjoy them, I still don't get comments but on Facebook let's face it.. No one talked, commented or anything, I'm fairly certain no one even read what I posted..

So originally Batman Beyond came out in 1999 and was a series that I originally did in fact not watch, honestly from the moment I'd heard about it I developed an unfair stigma towards this series and felt that I was going to probably refuse to watch it period because it did not feature Bruce Wayne as Batman and I was a purist who believed that no Batman series could exist without Bruce Wayne as The Bat.

It wasn't until a year after the series ended in 2002 that I finally watched it by accident, sick one day and laying out I had no real choice but to watch it because I was hurting too badly to actually move.. Honestly that turned out not to be an entirely bad thing because the first episodes I ever saw funnily enough were actually the first episodes of the series and I soon discovered my unfair stigma had been.. Well.. Quite foolish..

Batman Beyond features an elderly Bruce Wayne who after growing even older and older eventually had a run-in with crooks one night that lead him to breaking one of his cardinal rules as The Batman. I'm not going to spoil it, that's all I'm going to say about it.. If you want to know the rest and you haven't watched the series you'll have to spoil it for yourself or watch the series because trust me, it's worth it.

After Bruce gives up being Batman due to this incident he gradually fades away from the Gotham scene only to be met years later by a young Mr. Terry McGinnis who is caught up in a scandal involving Wayne Powers, the company that Bruce Waynes company has become.

Of course there's corporate corruption, badness abounds and eventually some outcome that seems to vaguely mirror Mr. Waynes past quite a lot.. Terry naturally steals the Batsuit and heads out thus experiencing his first night as the new Batman and honestly.. It's pretty cool.

It's pretty cool because they treat Terry as they should, he's not Bruce Wayne The Batman in that he doesn't constantly seem to have things under control and frequently gets his ass hammered and curb-stomped by the villains showing his inexperience and lack of.. That certain Batman.. Eh.. Finesse.. Honestly though that's all good because it actually shows us that Terry is learning and he does learn.

There are some truly cool episodes in this series some in particular being one episode that features the New Justice League which sports some of my favourite character designs to date in the DCAU including an older and aged Superman whose Kryptonian DNA seems to have afforded him a bit more time and a body which doesn't age like a humans.

'Ole Supes who now sports a bit of the Salt 'n Peppa look..

And the New Justice League, by the way out of them all my favourite character design was the Green Lantern who was actually a Buddhist Monk, basically a Shaolin Monk made a Green Lantern which is awesome.

Aww, see what I mean? That's just so damn cool and as a devoted practitioner of Shaolin Kung Fu myself I'm really into this design.

And truthfully the series all in all is pretty damn dark, it definitely carries the feeling it should and the ambiance it should. The series itself ends without much closure but then they came back during the final episode of Season 1 in Justice League Unlimited they had an episode called "Epilogue" which closed things up nicely and explained/dropped some real bombs on the viewers, it was extremely good.

So honestly? All in all?

Batman Beyond receives 8.9/10 Big Cat Paws, almost a perfect 9. There are some things about the series I'd like to change and I'd like it to have been longer or to come back again but other than that? It was an exceptional series that didn't deserve my unfair disdain, it's truly good. If you're a fan of the DCAU or Batman, see it.. Bruce may be old but he's still a bad ass in true form.

Dinner:

Another nice and simple dinner for James tonight, Neko Bagasupesharu (Cat Burger Special) and no, it's not made with Cat Meat! It's made with a Grilled Beef Patty, a slice of Cheese underneath, White Bread and topped by a special Sweet, Sour and Spicy home-made Sauce and it came all with a Double Sweetened Anpan (Sweet Roll)

Can say I was happy with this one, it's fairly pretty.