So recently Batman Beyond the complete series dropped on Blu-Ray, I couldn't resist and scored a cheap copy of the boxset on eBay from someone who literally only wanted the collectible figurine.
I largely missed out on Batman: The Animated Series when I was younger (caught up now, LTTP thread - https://www.resetera.com/threads/lttp-batman-the-animated-series.111976/) but I do remember Batman Beyond which was shown here in the UK on Toonami by Cartoon Network. I watched infrequently, as at the the time I was more taken by Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing, which had both exploded in popularity in the UK with their debuts here.
The first thing that comes to mind upon rewatching is how dark the series is, Batman TAS is considered dark for a mid-90s cartoon show but Beyond goes further right off the Bat (pun absolutely and totally intended), starting with Terry's father getting brutally murdered in the opening episode and another character dying horrible and painful death after being exposed to an experimental nerve gas chemical weapon. Batman TAS managed to keep an almost zero body count save for the movies, but Beyond regularly has characters killed off for various reasons, with the deaths being heavily implied rather than shown onscreen to avoid drawing the ire of the censors.
Also speaking of death, this time we are greeted with a Batman who does definitely kill either directly or indirectly, he memorably tosses one of Ra's Al Ghul's henchmen into a pit filled with ravenous crocodiles and personally kills the Terrible Trio. Though that said plenty of villains bring about their own demise by having their various schemes backfire on them fatally.
The series also deals with things like addiction for instance the episode "The Winning Edge" as it showcases the effects of withdrawal on kids Terry's own age as they turn to using Venom in a narcotic like form to give them the edge on the school sports team. Also Bane himself is a husk on life support after years of Venom use has destroyed his body, he is no longer the fire threat he once was.
I'm going to update this thread periodically as I binge watch, over to you now, ERA.
I largely missed out on Batman: The Animated Series when I was younger (caught up now, LTTP thread - https://www.resetera.com/threads/lttp-batman-the-animated-series.111976/) but I do remember Batman Beyond which was shown here in the UK on Toonami by Cartoon Network. I watched infrequently, as at the the time I was more taken by Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing, which had both exploded in popularity in the UK with their debuts here.
The first thing that comes to mind upon rewatching is how dark the series is, Batman TAS is considered dark for a mid-90s cartoon show but Beyond goes further right off the Bat (pun absolutely and totally intended), starting with Terry's father getting brutally murdered in the opening episode and another character dying horrible and painful death after being exposed to an experimental nerve gas chemical weapon. Batman TAS managed to keep an almost zero body count save for the movies, but Beyond regularly has characters killed off for various reasons, with the deaths being heavily implied rather than shown onscreen to avoid drawing the ire of the censors.
Also speaking of death, this time we are greeted with a Batman who does definitely kill either directly or indirectly, he memorably tosses one of Ra's Al Ghul's henchmen into a pit filled with ravenous crocodiles and personally kills the Terrible Trio. Though that said plenty of villains bring about their own demise by having their various schemes backfire on them fatally.
The series also deals with things like addiction for instance the episode "The Winning Edge" as it showcases the effects of withdrawal on kids Terry's own age as they turn to using Venom in a narcotic like form to give them the edge on the school sports team. Also Bane himself is a husk on life support after years of Venom use has destroyed his body, he is no longer the fire threat he once was.
I'm going to update this thread periodically as I binge watch, over to you now, ERA.
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