The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #12 - "Scooby Beyond" (2023)

Concept art from a pitched Batman Beyond animated feature film — From Writer/Director Patrick Harpin (My Dad the Bounty Hunter) & Production Designer/Producer Yuhki Demers (Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse)

Found the article!

A Spiderverse style Batman Beyond film would be epic!

The Fearless Ferret, Kim Possible's nod to Will Friedle and Batman Beyond.

DC - The Reigning King of TV Superhero Animation

Let’s get this out of the way - on September 7, 1992, DC won the battle for TV superhero animation for all time with the premiere of the Batman: The Animated Series season 1, episode 14, “Heart of Ice”. The heartbreaking tale of Mr. Freeze’s origin, it won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program. Honestly, if nothing DC every put on broadcast TV ever again was any good, this episode would still be talked about as one of the greatest pieces of animated TV ever. 

But instead of resting on their laurels, DC decided to keep kicking ass. “Beware The Grey Ghost,” “Almost Got ‘Im”, “Trial”, “Mad Love”, “Growing Pains”, “Over the Edge”, “Old Wounds” - all amazing episodes of animated television from Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. 

Then, in 1999, DC decided to go for (and pull off) a Batman hat trick with the debut of Batman Beyond, a series originally designed to sell toys that the writers decided to make kick ass. But still, it eventually had to come to an end, and Marvel breathed a sigh of relief. 

Until November 7, 2001, when DC dropkicked them with the premiere of The Justice League, which transitioned into Justice League Unlimited with grace and style and was similarly amazing, but appeared to end that run of successes. 

At the same time, DC released the series that sealed their eternal victory and proved them the king of superhero animations - Teen Titans. An anime-infused take on the superhero team of the same name, it featured DC’s trademark complicated storytelling and ran for five years, followed by a pretty good movie. And the theme song fucking slapped, both in English and Japanese.

Also running concurrently was The Batman, another interesting take on the caped crusader which reimagined the origins and appearances of his rogues gallery and had some absolutely heartbreaking twists and turns.

After that came Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I’ll die on this fucking hill - the show is better than people online give it credit for. It focused on the campy elements of comic books of yore, but also gave us the amazing episode “Chill of the Night!”, an examination of what it means to be the Batman.

Then came Young Justice, a wholly original take on a number of DC heroes and villains and marked the TV premier of fucking Superboy. The first season is, in my mind, damn near perfect.

Of course, you have stuff like Teen Titans Go! but that isn’t conducive to my point, so I’m ignoring it.

Finally, we get to the present day with programming like The Harley Quinn Show and My Adventures With Superman, the former of which has gained a strong fan base and the latter of which shows amazing potential.

So, why does DC’s animation devision have so many absolute fucking bangers under its belt while Marvel doesn’t have nearly the same track record? Well, I have a theory.

Marvel hit it big with the MCU and thus have a sort of cannon and, as such, the characterization of their characters has to be pretty consistent across mediums, even animation. DC, however, doesn’t have anything like that and can reimagine their characters any way they want. That and their animation department has been kicking ass so long they’ve proven that, left to their own devices, they’ll pump out quality material.

So, yeah.

Today’s Big Bro is Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond! He loves his little brother!

Cartoon Prom/Dance Episodes

RIP Kevin Conroy

Rest in peace to Kevin Conroy. (1955-2022) You will go down as one of the most legendary voice actors in history. Thank you for being Batman to us all.

R.I.P. KEVIN CONROY - THE VOICE OF BATMAN

I was extremely saddened this morning to learn that Kevin Conroy, the man who  has been THE voice of Batman for thirty years, has passed away from cancer.

Conroy first won over audiences and comic book fans with his spot-on portrayal of Bruce Wayne and Batman in Batman: The Animated Series (1992).  This also the start of the DC Animated Universe.

He continued as Batman in the spin-off animated film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.  The film was loosely based on the comic book story Batman: Year Two, and is considered by many to be the best Batman film - live-action or animated - ever!

Conroy returned to voice Batman again when The New Batman Adventures (1997) premiered, which - even though it featured different character and production design, was a continuation of B:TAS.

In 1997 there was a three-part World’s Finest crossover between Superman: The Animated Series (1996) and The New Batman Adventures.  Conroy’s Batman met - and briefly fought - Tim Daly’s Superman, before both heroes teamed-up to take down the Joker and Luthor.  This crossover was later complied into the straight-to-video The Batman/Superman Movie: World’s Finest.

This was followed up by Batman Beyond (1999), where Conroy portrayed a much older Bruce Wayne who, very reluctantly, passes on the mantle of Batman to a young successor.

Following that, Conroy and Batman returned to the present day for Justice League (2001) and Justice League Unlimited (2004).

Along the way, Conroy voice Batman for additional, straight-to-video films, video and computer games, and would even record messages on answering machines (remember those?) for friends.

Conroy again returned to the role in the 2009 animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.  Here he was reunited with actor Tim Daly, who returned for the first time as Superman (actor George Newbern voiced Superman in the two Justice League series).

The two men would reprise their roles a year later in the follow-up film Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010).

Skip ahead to 2016 and Conroy’s Batman appeared in Justice League Action, a fun-filled, action-packed series that took refused to take itself too seriously while telling great stories.  Conroy was the only original Justice League voice cast member who returned for this series.

The final time I encountered Conroy as Bruce Wayne was in the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths mega-crossover in 2019.   It was a surprising departure from his previous portrayals, as this Bruce Wayne was bitter, deranged, and more than a little homicidal.

It’s a shame to lose a man who has defined Batman, and entertained millions of people, for so long.  However, we are extremely lucky that he left such a large body of work for us to enjoy.

Rest in peace, Kevin Conroy.

American actor Kevin Conroy has passed away on November 10, 2022 at age 66 after a short battle with cancer. He’s best known as the voice of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series as well as other TV series and feature films in the DC Animated Universe. He would later voice the character for multiple films under the DC Universe Animated Original Movies banner and video games such as Batman: Arkham and Injustice series.

Couples First Meeting (1)

Happy Batman Day!

The Bruce drawing is new; the others are 10 years old (yikes!)

Happy Valentine’s Day - The Best Kisses

My Favourite Cartoon Theme Songs (1)

First Kiss vs Official Kiss