Sunday, June 27, 2010

Batman Beyond did NOT happen...

thanks to the machinations of Chronos, there's no way that the entire Batman Beyond series could exist.  when Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Batman travel into the future in the JLU episode "The Once and Future Thing," to get ol' Chronos, we meet the new JLA (of a sort).  however, since Batman has saved the day (imagine that) by causing Chronos to never travel to the future, he has effectively changed the events of Batman Beyond from happening.

which is good.  I've only seen about three episodes of the show (not counting the ones in the JLU) and as Bruce himself stated, Terry was really just a Robin in a batsuit.  bleah.  and who wants to really think that nearly the entire JLU was obliterated in some untold disaster.

it's just one of any possible timelines stemming from various events happening in the animated DCU.

though it's still better than "The Batman"...

5 comments:

C. Elam said...

I'm amused you still are annoyed enough by the series to use this much brainpower on explaining it away. :)

But it doesn't hold up. The deaths of the JLU characters are undone by restoring the timeline, but their existence isn't. That's spelled out pretty plainly in what was the originally intended series finale of JLU (before they got another year out of nowhere).

Interestingly, you could argue that said non-finale finale undercuts some of the Batman Beyond series themes. But I wasn't too big on caring.

The rub is that if you want to ignore Batman Beyond, that's doable -- but not if you acknowledge the Justice League series. They are inextricably linked together later.

Oh, and DC just got around to incorporating Batman Beyond into their regular universe, too. :p

X7 said...

not too annoyed (though I don't care for the show much at all still) just doing some creative thinking. I still maintain Batman altered the timeline by making Chronos unable to go to the future, but it's no biggie either way to me.

and it's way easy to ignore, since multiple timelines are easy for me to grok.

AND they proved they could alter the future with the Vandal Savage episode where Superman gets blasted to the future. when he returns to the present he alters that future!

hah! (and I'm having fun, thanks!)

C. Elam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
C. Elam said...

Well suh, having fun is the most important thing. I can't fault anyone for that.

See, I've not really watched a lot of the show itself, and honestly, I didn't care for the concept either at first. But it's really got some good moments in what I did see. I would think that JLU finale episode would be more to your liking, as the character has matured somewhat by then.

But heck, this is one of the better realizations of the "heroes aging in real time" trope that Alan Moore got you hooked on, so I might be mistaken! My biggest issue with the series existing at all is still the same argument I made against applying that rule to the big properties in general - nobody really wants Superman and Batman or their supporting cast to grow old. It's ultimately a dead-end, in every sense of the word.

(previous comment deleted because I screwed up in several spot, doh.)

X7 said...

I think you are right, especially about seeing this Batman turn into a decrepit old man.

I am also completely weary of the distopian society in the future sort of stuff that has been so in vogue (thanks Frank Miller) for oh so long now.

and according the BB, Bruce never did mature. I prefer to think that he and Diana did get together eventually. makes for a much better ending!