Top 10 Favorite Batman Characters

This is Kevin Conway, and I am the goddamn Batman.

You have just jumped inside the poll bag! Only

on the Keycast Radio Network. I'm the Joker,

baby! And I'll be your narrator for the evening.

A rank amateur! What we have here is a list!

or countdown episode of the podcast where TFG

won Mike and Ryan the uneven Flo Merkley what

where do these people get these names crazy talk

and they think I'm the one with a goofy name

anyhow they'll be giving us their personal top

10 favorite Batman characters I better be on

this list and not at number 10 either. I'll be

hell to pay! Make your great escape into comics

and jump inside the pull bag right now to hear

where some Batman characters rank in the host

person favorites list. technical difficulties

let's move on shall we hello and welcome to the

pull bag this is episode 354 this is a first

folks we are doing a top Ten list of characters

in comics mainly in comics. This is all about

Batman This is the conclusion to Batman month

this year inside the pull bag for 2019 I am of

course TF2 and Mike joining me is Ryan the uneven

flow Merkley. Hello, sir You should have just

pretended it's live just like make random noises.

Also don't edit the podcast That's the easiest

way to pretend it was live very true just do

no editing People don't really notice I don't

think anymore because half the time I cut the

beginning off of whatever two -hour discussion

We've had beforehand and I cut whatever little

ending off is and half the time I don't even

go through the podcasts anymore any of them as

long as there's no fuck -ups or flubs or You

know Skype, you know cutting out or anything

like usual ethnic slurs When did I Wait a minute.

When did you not? What are you talking about?

I had brain surgery. I don't remember this stuff.

That's very selective editing. So I've been wanting

to do this for a while on the show I've been

wanting to do like a list episode kind of thing

and I figure Batman characters we can all come

up with a Batman characters list this may actually

end up being something bigger later down the

line for the pull bag I might actually reach

out to you know the listeners and get everyone's

personal top ten favorite Batman characters list

the only really uh... caveat i put on this is

that the characters have to come from the comics

uh... many so you sort of cheated well i i i

i sort of i sort of cheated his and the host

and i can do it with the whole i want new personal

and but like generally like batman is from comics

so if i choose to put in kevin conroy from that

many animated series in the dcm universe i can

do that uh... And Conroy's not a character in

the comics. You know what I mean Basically the

only ones that really kind of are outside of

having to have come from comics is all Like Harley

Quinn and obviously the Batman Beyond characters

that are in comics now because obviously they

came from an animated series and then transitioned

into comics Yeah, and I think you could make

an argument for others to like miss Mr. Freeze

was a joke character right before Batman the

animated series like he bared no resemblance

to the versions you see now Or the version from

Batman the animated series And there have been

others I mean the clock King was completely different

in a I made it series as well. Although I can't

see not sure too many people are clamoring for

him, but hey I'm just saying that he's different

and clock king and calendar man and condiment

king and like well calendar man's from the comics

right and Used to surprising effect. I debated

throwing him off on Late, so this is tough because

it's for me. It was pretty easy to do the top

sort of favorite characters I already know yours

is Number one is gonna be Dick Grayson. You can

just get that out of the way now Actually, no,

you don't know that that's surprising so In any

case though it's harder to do the bottom just

because you got to leave somebody off Or in this

case you're leaving hundreds of characters off

exactly Yeah, I mean, you know 80 years of Batman

millions of different characters even if they're

just like dr. Leslie Tompkins or you know vicki

veil or You know that that kind of thing not

saying vicki veil obviously yada yada yada But

I hope I hope Tompkins isn't your number ten

because that's gonna clash bit No, I don't I

I mean the only way they murdered my number ten

pick. Oh boy Alrighty then so kicking off the

countdown. What is your number 10 character for

time character? Dr. Dr. Tompkins murdered Stephanie

Brown So like I said before this was tough for

me well Tompkins supposedly let her die to teach

Bruce a lesson That was not a good arc anyway

I included Brown here partially because I forgot

how much fun she could be She didn't get a fair

shake, especially her original major sort of

arc in the war series, war games, war drums,

et cetera, et cetera. But she was interesting

and she was something different that it had been

a long time since we had seen a ramen with the

same sort of sense of fun. Keeping in mind, this

is sort of post or in the same era as identity

crisis. which quote, done Robin dirty, quote,

as one might say, no, it was not a good. That's

one that wasn't a great arc for Tim Drake, who

may show up later, but Stephanie really didn't

get a fair shake. And she was a fun character

in the arc we read and it kind of sets her apart

from as I go. So I did the list at the start

because I think it's easy to come up with your

absolute favorites. I think it's harder as you

go down. She has a sense of fun that none of

the other characters on my list had. And I thought

more and more about it. Yeah, her sense of fun

comes from the fact that okay, she was spoiler

before being, you know, taking over Cassandra

Cain's Batgirl kind of thing. And she's not a

Dick Grayson, she's not a Tim Drake, she's not

even a Damian Wayne type, like she has no real

connection to Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, whatever,

considering at least at the point of the arc

that we read, at least the first part of the

arc that we read, you know, Dick Grayson was

Batman at that time, you know, Bruce is, you

know, got broken back by Bane, kind of a thing,

so... I mean, Stephanie is one of those characters

who I would have actually put at my number nine,

but I didn't. Um, it's just one of those types

of characters that it's a refreshing look into

that universe. Yeah. And she doesn't, and she

doesn't have the, so, yeah, I'm not really spoiling

anything. Most of the characters I have for the

remainder, surprise, surprise, are all characters

that have decades of backstory. And to be blunt

have just had a lot of stuff happen to them Mm

-hmm, and so she's not as weighed down by that.

So it's understandable that she's got kind of

a wide -eyed enthusiasm that yeah can be naive

and have naivety to it, but It's just kind of

miss thing and You know, we we talked about this

a little bit in the reviews of the Batman series

and now we got news that Tom King's Okay, so

we should have brought that away is a little

bullshit, but yeah I'll say is I just Even if

you don't like an arc I think the writer should

be allowed to finish it the way they wanted to

especially since you can't always see where it's

going and You know, I think I've mentioned this

that and I don't want to get into it. Let's not

make this a long segue, but I didn't Really enjoy

I haven't been enjoying heroes in crisis, but

I want to see where he goes with it. I think

the Sometimes the ending can save it or vice

versa as we saw with other things in the last

few weeks the ending can say, you know a Bad

last season and a half can do some real damage

But no, I just I want to see him finish it and

it sucks that he won't Get the chance to because

he deserved that he's more than a good enough

writer to Put it mildly Yeah, I don't understand

so for those that aren't in the know Tom King

has been quote -unquote removed from the Batman

ongoing At 85 yeah at 85 issues was the last

arc City of Bane or War of Bane or whatever the

hell it's called I forget it's something to do

with Bane like his like his plans were to have

a hundred issues and apparently DC's like Yoink.

Nope, not gonna happen or whatever. Nobody said

exactly why by the way that should be Yeah, it

is not and they've people have hinted at sales

people Tinted at they've seen it on a bunch of

things Yeah, and the sales thing by the way is

ridiculous because the comics industry keeps

making more and more money, but exactly So he's

gonna be moving to a 12 -issue Batman Catwoman

series or something like that? And I've seen

the art for it and when I saw the news story

I'm like, okay, I'm okay with this. At least

he's still writing the character. He's not getting

to finish the story that he wanted to do, but

at least he's not completely fired from the company

or whatever. I don't know. My number 10 is...

Everybody's favorite character. Everybody's favorite

character from the outside in. K -Man. No. It's

none other than Batmite. Oh, Jesus. So I read

the, I think it was, was it JT and I, I forget

who did it with me. I read the six issue miniseries

that Dan Jergens and Corn Howell did, Batmite,

way back when, a couple years ago. I love that

might he's just one of those characters in Batman's

universe that Just wants that he's basically

a die -hard fan that wants the true version of

Batman that he knows that he loves and and you

know He's basically a true internet fanboy anything

that doesn't incorporate what he loves he hates

it I think Just based on that six issue miniseries

by Dan Jergens, what I loved about that is he

basically took Damien to task, which anyone that

can take Damien to task is more than okay with

me. I just love how funny he is, and he was the

single best part, and I have to go back and watch

more of the show. For me, his episodes in Batman

the Brave and the Bold were the single funniest

things I have seen in that entire series, outside

of Aquaman and his outrageousness. And this is

funny. So there's a couple on this list and we

talk about it all the time I love Batman the

animated series. You love it This is one of the

few that I definitely Prefer the comic version

of and my number nine is Selena Kyle aka Catwoman

and I could go on for you go on for hours about

her history and everything else. I have joined

her in the more recent times especially Me and

I'm sort of frustrated that they immediately

tried to undo it but for example in hush where

Bruce finally confided in her His secret identity

ie. I'm Batman I liked that and I like the idea

of her knowing and being in somebody who's not

necessarily a friend not necessarily a villain

Knowing who he is. I always enjoyed that and

I've always enjoyed The interplay between the

two It didn't happen of course, but I wasn't

a huge fan of her marrying Bruce Yeah, I mean

but I have not read that arc yet and about obviously

because of the way the internet is and how the

news is and you know, Obviously, it's spoiled

and I I don't I don't care about spoilers like

that you know, I Just my number 10. Oh, sorry

number 9 actually. No, I was saying school No,

I mean and there's obvious other reasons but

I always liked the interplay between her and

Batman. Yeah, that's always so fun. It has us

No, it's got the hint of sexual tension. It's

got a hint of Subtlety and all these other things.

I just always liked the character. I was never

that Impressed with her depiction in the anime

It series. I don't know what it is. It didn't

necessarily work for me. Although part of it

was Some of the episodes with her were not some

of the better episodes of the show. Yeah The

two parts tiger tiger for example. Oh boy No,

Tiger Tiger was not two -part. That was Cat in

the Claw. Tiger Tiger was one episode. Cat in

the Claw was... That was it, yeah. Wasn't big

on that. Wasn't big on Tiger. Anyway. Tiger Tiger

and Mount Olympus are two of the single worst

Batman the Anime series episodes. Anyway. Yeah,

had no offense to Batman the Anime series, which

overall is still awesome. Go buy it on Blu -ray.

Anyway. Exactly. uh... number nine for me is

uh... that joke character which thankfully paul

deenie turned into you know a seriously tragic

character victor freeze i love mister freeze

now after batman the animated series i do too

but i uh... but i decided when i was doing this

list that he because uh... Of it really was the

animated series that made him so I ended up leaving

him off just because to me He was too synonymous

with the animated series But yeah, anyway, they've

done a couple of cool things with him like when

they were doing the DC villains month a couple

of years ago They had this, you know, mr. Freeze

issue kind of thing and I thought that was a

cool story. You're right I mean it is mainly

the animated series It's a sad thing what they

ended up doing to him throughout the DC animated

universe You know they they turned him into just

a head they turned him into a head with a spider

on it as a body and obviously they Ultimately

paid true homage to him in Batman Beyond by basically

where they know they buried him Never to appear

again true, but at least we got a better ending

than having a just a head Mean no, and I liked

that. Yeah in the end. He was semi heroic. I

mean he was still trying to Fight Terry while

fighting with blights, but in the end. Yeah,

he kind of Kind of went good. He tried to anyway.

Yeah Exactly, that was kind of his story that

he was always trying to be a better person You

know you're talking about the comics so in the

new when the new 50 2 was established and they

brought him back He still had sort of the tragic

backstory but this Story had become that Nora

rejected him. Yeah, which I'm not as big a fan

of that I like him more as the track to character

when he becomes kind of the You know toxic guy

who can't take no for an answer Not sure Liked

it as much. I don't know obviously that's it's

gonna be different for different people I know

somebody who read that version of freeze and

loved that they kind of turned the animated series

origin on its head Yeah, it was never for me.

I'm also weird though, so I Like my psychopaths

with skulls on their chests damn it Mm -hmm.

Oh, I'm sure we could do a whole list on Punisher

characters I mean, most of them are dead if it's

a villain, so he doesn't have recurring villains

much. That's true. So there goes that idea. Speaking

of recurring villains, unless you had anything

else you wanted to say about Freeze. No, I just,

like I said, I hope that someone gets a chance

to use him in the future. Not necessarily using

the exact same type of origin from animated series,

but obviously use that as the backbone and then

create a crafty story from there. So number eight

for you is... I said the ultimate character who

doesn't seem to pass on. Ra's al Ghul himself.

The demon. Mm -hmm. I liked race and His he was

a little more environmental in a lot of the comic

books and I just I've always liked the character

His use in the Tower of Babel storyline, which

you would know roughly from Justice League doom

the animated picture Yeah, but in the comics

it was race who stole Batman's plans on neutralizing

the Justice League and then enacted them to great

efficiency. But all of his things were done with,

you know, race at least had some. He wanted to

preserve the planet, preserve nature. He thought

humans were kind of trashing the place, which

hard to argue with them nowadays. Anyway, but

I just liked him and the Lazarus pits. Have become

yes, they're a bit of a trope, but they've been

one of the most important Because of that and

and because of the character I mean he did best

the Justice League for a while, but a lot of

it's because of the Lazarus pits and the resurrection

power etc etc. He's become one of the most important

elements of the DC universe period because man

his stuff gets used a lot Yeah, it does Everybody

and their brother seem to get those damn latham

There's fits at some point. Yep, even Stephen

Amell and arrow and you know all that you're

creeping me out You she kissed me. Yeah, I like

race I Don't other than like I mentioned earlier

about the villains month thing that the new 52

did a couple years ago don't really know like

again my knowledge comes from animated series

my knowledge comes from you know David Warner

as the voice of race and what was done in that

series oh man I like them a lot in that series

I know I do but and obviously as a also as a

Star Trek fan I adore David Warner absolutely

What they did in that series with Batman Beyond

and out of the... That's like the creepiest thing

Ra's ever did. Was basically put his own brain

in his daughter's butt. Creepy. Alright. My number

eight is... Selena Kyle Catwoman. Never heard

of her. They just... It's always about the bat

the cat and sadly not the penguin You know obviously

Julie Newmar earth a kit and Lee Merriweather

were the three original actresses that played

her in Batman 66 Adrian Barbeau was the voice

of her in Batman the animated series and the

rest of the DC you I'm actually stoked to eventually

read the wedding thing that King came up with,

even though I obviously know it never actually

happened, but like you were saying earlier, there's

just a hint of sexuality between them, there's

just overtones of various things, and it's also

various subtle things as well, like will they,

won't they, will they, won't they, and sadly,

at least in King's run, they won't. And she's

just a cool character to kind of not necessarily

try to tame but try to see if Batman Can you

know calm her criminal ways every now and then?

She's another enjoyable one too from the series

we were talking about before Show started I enjoy

she's another one. I enjoy in the two Lobe efforts.

Yeah. Long Halloween and then Dark Victory. Uh

you love Dark Victory since you know, origin

of Dick Grayson. Mm hmm. Anyway. Absolutely.

Alright, number seven for you is a Robin. Which

one? Not the one not the one you're thinking

of though. Uh I have the current red Robin at

seven. I always liked Tim Drake and the concept

of somebody who can it's one thing to have a

lot of characters that go toe -to -toe with Bruce

Wayne and Batman in Physicality, but the way

that Tim Drake did things so when he was introduced

One of the first things he did was figure out

that Bruce Wayne is obviously Batman, right?

Yes, and that's a solid way to quickly introduce

your character as someone who's roughly as equal.

And in the intervening years, I've always liked

him when he got to step out into his own and

be Red Robin and solve mysteries on his own.

You know, Bruce always trained him to be his

replacement, at least from the brain side of

things when he passed on or when he disappeared

or whatever. But I like that he's been allowed

to When he's become his own character now, and

he's somebody different who doesn't necessarily

need to be He's not the protege of the same way

that Dick Grayson was and so it makes more sense

for him to be his own character To solve mysteries

on his own that sort of thing. So I was really

like the character and enjoyed him Yeah, and

I'm right there with you He's one of those characters

that You know he couldn't have been to a Dick

Grayson because you know, I Mean Dick Grayson

didn't find out who Batman was immediately like

Tim Drake comes on the scene Pretty much, you

know finds out, you know, Bruce Wayne is Batman

and then you know, Bob's your uncle. There you

go We're the okay. So I'm gonna ask you this

now because I'll end up forgetting about it later

outside of like the Teen Titans new 52 stuff

Were there any separate Red Robin books were

there anything where it was just him on his own

like I remember Certain parts of the Scott Snyder

run kind of had him like in some of those big

crossover things Kind of had him doing stuff,

but I haven't really seen like Robin get his

own series he Had some but it hasn't had the

same so he's another guy that his Influence on

the DC universe Changed pretty drastically when

new 52 started and he was another guy that I

kind of lamented wasn't he didn't have the same

stature Especially again, you know going back

to what we're talking about with Stephanie Brown

and Dick Grayson as Batman He really kind of

got to step up at that point for a while mostly

because Bruce is gone and it's up to his protegees

who he's trained for this to actually do it.

And I liked the idea of in a lot of cases when

they were trying to establish Batman Inc. and

when they were trying to have more heroes involved,

Dick would actually defer to Tim and have Tim

train them in some cases. The mental aspect of

it and it was fun to see those differences and

then ever since then so a new 52 started he was

pretty much read Robin right away and Just yeah,

I don't know. I know so he's had story arcs and

had books, but I don't know of any major ones

so yeah Yeah, I would like to see someone. I

don't care who it is I would like to see someone

take the Tim Drake Red Robin character and do,

not necessarily this, but do something along

the lines of what Kyle Higgins did with Nightwing

the New Order, where it's like this futuristic,

like I want to see a sole Tim Drake Red Robin

story kind of thing. Like, I was completely shocked

and surprised that he showed up in Stephanie

Brown Batgirl. I thought it was absolutely cool.

I didn't dislike it at all. I loved it. But...

you know because i hadn't read that read the

stephanie brown character before i didn't know

that they had dated at one point or another so

all right my number seven is um is i'll give

a penny for your worth because it's none other

than batman's butler his surrogate father alfred

pennyworth how can you do a batman character

list and not have alfred on here somewhere I

mean... I almost accidentally tried to, but anyway,

he... I probably should have him higher, but...

Quintessential character in every way. I did,

but we'll get to that later. Yeah, we'll get

to that later. I probably should have had him

higher, but... I don't know. Like, yes, obviously,

very quintessential character in all mediums.

Every time I see Alfred in the comics now, whether

it's New 52, whether it's Rebirth, whatever.

I think of multiple things, but the first voice

that pops into my head when I'm reading lines

from Alfred is easily Ephraim Zimblus Jr. from

the animated series. Every now and then... Oh,

God, what was his name? Alan something... 66

Alfred. Oh, God. What's... God, people are screaming

at their listening devices. Anyway, but every

time I see Alfred with Bruce, or with any of

the Bad Family, I just love how he's a father

to them all. Obviously to Bruce first, but he

takes care of all of them. And without Alfred,

there would be none of this. Or if he wasn't

there, or if he died, or whatever, things would

drastically be different. I just yeah and I like

there been Different versions of him, which I

think is fun, too. So for example the earth to

There's earth to Wow earth one Alfred where he's

more he was a former soldier and he's a bit more

kind of ass -kicky quote -unquote then I've come

up with a new word. Anyway, then the other for

versions, because they made them a little younger.

So there's that there's the really the same version

as the animated series. I don't think he's changed

all that much where in the comics, where yes,

he's Bruce's father figure, but he's not enough.

He's not above the occasional. I don't know how

to describe it. It almost seems like it's a quip.

It's a half insult, half hilarious comments.

But in the end he means Well about Bruce and

he makes them a lot on the animated series and

he makes them in You know, we mentioned it before

in both King and Snyder's runs and just I Know

that's the version of him. He's a caring Father,

but he's not above. He's one of the few that's

not afraid to tell Bruce Wayne or Batman, you

know, you're wrong Yeah Yeah, exactly. And it

puts him in a different place than a lot of the

others we have in the list, sorry. Yeah, it really

does. I mean, technically Alfred should be on

the list all his own at number one because if

you think about it, you know, he's made suits

for all these people, he's helped Bruce with

everything, you know, obviously raising him as

a child from when his parents got murdered by

Joe Chill, all of that, you know. He's the one

that Bruce Wayne always turns to when he needs

certain Fatherly advice because that's the only

father he's ever really known past when obviously

his own father died The sad thing about my list

I'm fairly sure I'm I Think we know each other

fairly well enough now that I don't think either

one of us have the Waynes on our list Thomas

and Martha not the family now Yeah, I'm fairly

I was fairly certain that neither one of us would

because honestly Like outside of them dying And

outside of like Thomas Wayne Batman that alternate

whatever it was thing, you know, whatever that

is Like have there really ever been stories with

Thomas and Martha? I don't think so because again,

like we said a couple episodes ago or whenever

it was that, you know, there are usually three

characters in comics histories, you know, but

Uncle Ben, Thomas and Martha Wayne, they stay

dead. Yeah, and I don't know it. Yeah, they really

didn't do much. They turned them on their head

a bit in hush. Being an important part of that

story, but not for. Not for reason not for the

usual reasons are the reasons you think so yeah,

but yeah, not really Alfred's the closest to

family he gets Yep, I Mean there was that whole

it wasn't in Snyder's run or something or where

was that? There was the whole thing about his

brother Thomas Wayne or something or other but

Bruce's bro having a brother or something Don't

remember where it was from you maybe Thinking

of Thomas Elliot who was yes, but okay Who was

basically his brother? Although yeah, he was

depicted to be his brother and some It was some

other stories and recently within the last six

or seven years anyway. Oh my god Monster bruise

I Miss Gordon, I heard you discovered our little

secret. Yes, I admit it. I am Batman All right

number six for you, sir is oh boy, so this is

gonna Be a lot lower than most people probably

have this character, but it's my list of my favorite

characters and we're talking comics I have never

been half as big a fan of the comics version

of the Joker as other versions. Mark Hamill.

Houston, we have a problem. Or Jack Nicholson.

Heath Ledger. Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

We are tonight's entertainment. Basically and

Cesar Romero. Actually everybody except for Jared

Leto. So anyway. I shall never be foiled by that

insidious, unconstitutional device again! Where's

Bruce Wayne? Mr. Wayne is not at home, sir. Too

bad. I'll get my revenge later. Right now I'll

settle for cash. Where's the safe? My duties

do not include aiding and abetting thievery.

This way, sir. Here's the car, madam. One peep

out of you, and I'll blow your head off. Where's

the safe? Over there. My, you poor little thing.

Behind the picture, sir. There's no safe there.

Albert, be careful. The doctor's an arch -criminal.

I know, madam, but a very poor thing, sir. You

hang the little thing, I'll smash you to smidgens.

May I go now? The smidgens, it's a child... should

have no place even in so poor of a cavalry as

yours! Stand back! Stand back, I say, or I'll...

Huh? What's this? Don't touch that! Joker accidentally

tripped the Bat -Pole switch and mistook this

for a secret passage, sir. Then he's down in

the Bat -Cave. He didn't quite make the Bat -Cave

master obvious. Then where is he? I believe he

should be arriving presently. Emergency Bat -Pole

elevator. Fast thinking, Alfred. Thank you, sir.

Someone get me off this crazy fan -waiter! I

can't breathe! Joker says he can't breathe, Alfred.

Why don't you give him some breathing space?

With pleasure, sir. to washing our other costumes,

Alfred, or else Joker might have found himself

wearing a bat costume. I think we better see

about baby Jane Tauzer. Alfred, it looks like

you can handle things here. I believe everything's

well in hand, sir, and the young lady's in the

living room. Alfred, old pal! Have pity! We Anglo

-Finks have a long memory. shouldn't take pleasure

in another creature's misfortunes but occasionally

one may be forgiven for a slight twinge of satisfaction

God I hate that version of him I don't even care

that it's not like the other ones aren't all

that much I'm getting off topic but I don't care

the other ones aren't all that much like the

comics like especially Heath Ledger that was

not anywhere close to most comic versions of

the Joker, but it was fantastic. Jared Lettos

is just a shitty character. Anyway, so yeah,

I have the Joker at six. I don't think I need

to say much about his resume about why he should

be on the list. I'll point out is why I've got

him where he is, I guess. And he's overused.

And that's part of the problem. With another

of these characters when I go on but jokers kind

of overused he Some of his appearances have pointed

out some of the problems with Bruce Wayne's don't

kill anybody rule I really think there is a Good

discussion to be had and I talk about it with

people in real life all the time at one point

are the murders the joker commits batman's false

yeah they're not realistically he should just

kill him yeah exactly the other issue i have

with the joker in the comics is there's not a

lot of great reasons why somebody hasn't just

off to the guy he doesn't work in other books

all that well uh he's not imposing he's extremely

intelligent but he's not He's not necessarily

Machiavellian intelligence and if he had other

you know He works in the DC universe because

everybody has this weird we can't kill anybody

rule But then you look at the Avengers whose

rule is kill well we try yeah, we try sometimes

not to kill people It at it so whatever every

once in a while you got to kill somebody For

example and like I you know, I think he'd last

half an issue against Hawkeye much less for something

and the DC universe is filled with characters

who are in just Gods in terms of power. So stuff

like that always kind of bugged me in the comic

books He works as a Batman villain though. Like

I again, I'm not Listing all the amazing qualities.

He has I was just trying to say why I've got

him kind of lower I just don't find him as interesting

in the comics, I guess, as he's been depicted

on screen. Yeah, that's very true. And I'll speak

about that in a minute. Number six for me is

the judge. I'm sorry, Harvey Dent. I'm sorry,

Two -Face. And I mention the judge only because

of, obviously, Batman the animated series and

the third personality that came out in Harvey

Dent to face in the comics that I've read Hasn't

been as good as again, like you mentioned the

animated series or the animated stuff Do I have

some comics for you to read? I'm sure and that's

great. And I absolutely will read them. I I'm

not sure like I like to face as a character.

I think he has a cool gimmick The sad thing with

Two -Face is he's very, very predictable. Even

so far back as Batman 66, on the second day of

the second month, the second street bank is gonna

be robbed for two million dollars by Two -Face.

Like, that's so predictable. I don't know. The

reason why I like the character is because it

is a focus on... multiple personalities and he

always has to be left up to a choice and he has

to make a choice which is not necessarily saying

I'm two -faced but I'm one of those people one

of those rare people that I make choices and

I stick with it like when I was a kid I had a

choice between watching Transformers generation

one or GI Joe I didn't want to watch both I wanted

to watch one or the other so I picked Transformers

do I still enjoy the GI Joe animated series absolutely

I did I just didn't watch it on the regular as

a kid. You know, that's just one of those things.

So yeah, Two -Face is number six for me. What

were you going to say? Boo. I was just going

to say whatever. Let's just say we might be talking

about him later again. Alright, my number five

though has not appeared anywhere. I'm so tempted

to list him higher, but he's another character

who was has never really so he's one of the few

that hasn't to me been depicted nearly as well

as He has been in the comics. Although part of

that is he got one hell Of an intro in the comics

because when you show up and you break the back

of the main protagonist That's a pretty good.

Hello so So your number five is Bain. And I adored

his introduction. He's shown to be every much

the strategist as Batman and a match for him

physically. I really liked that. And it's almost

sad that until recently he hasn't necessarily

ever lived up to that introduction. But his intro

is still something I don't think anybody will

ever forget. And he had a lot of great cameo

stuff. As well and no man's land and some other

stories, but Yeah, always loved him to me. You

know if we're talking about his screen Stuff

I Do love Tom Hardy's Bane, but for me my favorite

Bane moment on this Screen comes from over the

edge where he kills Batman and Commissioner Gordon.

Yes, it was in a dream, but it's still awesome

Yeah, that he came off it. He finally came off

as a badass in one of the animated shows and

that made me happy But anyway, yeah, I just I

always liked the calm Character his intro was

phenomenal. It's you know, like I said before

it's kind of sad that his good appearance After

that are spotty, but he's an interesting character

and I like when they depict him or when he's

written as more than just more than just a set

of muscle. Mm -hmm. Yeah, like, um, what was

the one, um... I don't know, one's really gonna

like this, because, I don't know, the movie was

a little strange, but Mystery of the Batwoman,

he had a fairly decent role in that. Um... Yeah.

He was, you know, fairly inte... I'm not saying

he isn't intelligent, but in that specific film,

animated film, he was very, very intelligent

in that. Like you said, over the edge, I mean,

you know. Great episode of the show too, which

helps. Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. My number five

is none other than Barbara Gordon, Batgirl. Commissioner's

daughter turned superhero. You know, everything.

I mean, she's had so much to do. Well, right.

Well, I mean, Barbara Gordon, that girl who,

yeah, no, absolutely. And that, that was going

to be part of my pitch. Like she's been so much,

she's been so much in Bruce's life. She's been

so much into Grayson's life, obviously getting

shot by the joker and being paralyzed and being

in a wheelchair and turning herself into Oracle

and all of that. You know, like, like we said,

um, you know, last week with, or a couple weeks

ago with Stephanie Brown, you know, becoming

a mentor to Stephanie Brown Batgirl. I wish that,

and I have not read any of the Rebirth Batgirl

stuff yet, I want to eventually, but right now

for me in comics outside of Stephanie Brown,

the Barbara Gordon Batgirl that I love is Gail

Simone's Batgirl. Yes, excellent. She did that.

Oh, I wish that would have never ended I I absolutely

love that more adult tone and hey, I've actually

interviewed Batgirl psychologist Hmm so for those

that don't know Gail Simone wrote dr. Andrea

let Amendi into The Batgirl new 52 series And

I've interviewed her along with her husband,

Brian Ward, from Shout Factory before on the

podcast network here. So, you know, I just, I

love what Gale did with the character. I love

the twists and turns that she took with Barbara

putting her in through so many different things.

And, you know. you know, Barbara as herself and

as Batgirl is just a super interesting character

to me. Barbara was one of the ones I, I just

didn't, I didn't, I tried real hard not to include

multiple people who played the same character.

Yeah. She, both her and Cassandra Cain. absolutely

adore though and were difficult for me to not

put on the list especially Barbara who's worn

you know different hats as Oracle as being Commissioner

Gordon's daughter and as Batgirl she's multiple

characters at the same time and they're all great

yep absolutely I don't have a great reason reason

for leaving her off I don't know Who is your

number four favorite Batman character, sir? So

as mentioned earlier at four I had Alfred I Love

him. He's a great character. He is every bit

Bruce Wayne Batman's equal and he's one of the

few characters that gets to treat him that way

And he's just fun He's fun. He can be a mentor.

He can offer sage advice He can kind of do it

all and yeah, he can he can quip like spider

-man Yeah, you really can I mean, yeah, yeah,

let's do whatever so I Mean, you know You know,

you know say what you want about the film partners

partners partners Alfred we're going to need

a bigger cave I don't care what anyone says about

Batman and Robin from 1997, but Michael Goff

as Alfred in those original Batman movies was

amazing. Yeah, he was fantastic. And when you

mentioned to the... When you mentioned that you

hear Ephraim Zambalis Jr. I'd include him as

well. Efrans of All is still my favorite. I guess

you could say voice for Alfred. But Michael Goff

was damn good. Michael Goff was fantastic. Easily,

for me, the best part of the later films, I know

that's not saying a lot, but he was perfectly

done. I enjoyed him in, we're getting off topic

because this is in the comics, but I enjoyed

him, for example, in Batman Where he flat -out

lets you know Vicky into the Batcave at one point

and and just No, like I say, he's very much an

equal and he knows sometimes he knows what Bruce

slash bats needs Before they do Yep Absolutely,

I mean and My Outside of Michael Goff's performance

in the films my favorite thing he Alan Napier

was the 66 Alfred My favorite thing he ever did

was the Diet Coke commercial From 89. Oh It'll

be in here somewhere folks. It might even be

right here a gentleman is on his way to pick

some up just look for a black car no this black

car will be rather difficult to miss and by the

way the gentleman is usually in quite a rush

but why did the actor who played Batman in those

never get to be Batman he had the look i tell

you anyway yep he had the look alright alrighty

then so my number four is a reversal of your

earlier pick it's the joker and obviously i can't

do the joker's voice as well as steve megatron

can or obviously mark hamill when he said alrighty

then i thought you were going to name the riddler

that would have been ironic yep alrighty then

yeah no um The Joker to me, in the comics...

He's... He's good, but he's better in live action

and animation. He's still iconic, and he's got

iconic moments. Oh, he's very iconic, yeah, and

he has iconic moments. But there's something...

There's something... missing. from the cut maybe

it's not fair to compare them to completely different

mediums but i was just feel like there's something

missing from the car expert and i'm never sure

exactly what that is i'll say this uh... we just

did this month we did endgame from scott cider

before steve megatron and i at the very beginning

of the podcast back you know six years ago The

whole reason why the pull bag is even here is

because he had me read Batman 13, which was the

beginning of Death of the Family in the New 52.

Death of the Family and Endgame are perfect flip

coins of each other. Where in Death of the Family,

he wants to be Batman's best friend and confidant

and comrade and, hey, we're almost alike, Batsy,

kind of thing. Whereas Endgame, he's like, eh,

you're my enemy again, you know. It's more of

a... More profound disappointment. That's what

I said on the podcast and that's yeah Yeah, I

know that's what it felt like to me. But yeah,

yeah and and honestly, I can't think I mean You

mentioned the all the actors earlier Mark Hamill

Jack Nicholson Heath Ledger Caesar Romero Even

some of the other players that have played him

like Kevin Michael Richardson in the Batman did

a job with Joker Good But after the show that

it feels like in terms of voice acting, especially

he just always gets really good Yeah voice actors

and performances like even I remember when he

was cast how annoyed I was or how I thought John

DiMaggio can't do a good Batman I thought Work

and then it was really good. He wasn't my favorite

but yeah Still really well done what Mark Hamill

did and what Bruce Tim and his his crew did with

the Joker throughout the entire DC animated universe

is by far my favorite version of the character

in animation because I Mean the lines the Joker

has in anything of that like even in the stuff

with Justice League like, you know Oh, yeah,

you know perfect getting popcorn to watch the

watchtower explode with you know Batman with

a restrained Batman. Yep and It's just so like

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the room

of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill just being those

characters and just going back and forth You

know the lines that the Joker has had throughout

the animated series throughout the rest of the

DCA, you know Like there's a line in in wild

cards in Justice League Where he's like ooh all

that lovey -dovey stuff We don't want that on

this show kind of a thing like and the music

that Shirley Walker and the people at Warner

specifically Shirley Walker because she was you

know Queen of the of the cup the the musical

composition The themes that they made for the

Joker. Oh, I love them. I just absolutely love

them All right, that's it Yeah, we need to just

do an animated series podcast or something because

that's what it keeps turning into anyway I know

number three for you, sir Hey now, we're definitely

gonna get back to comics cuz knowing number three

was somebody you had earlier mind three is Harvey

Dent And a lot of it becomes from the earlier

stuff with him. And when I say earlier, I mean,

not necessarily in terms of release, but chronological.

So I mentioned I'm a big fan of the depictions

of everybody from Long Halloween and Dark Victory,

et cetera, et cetera. Harvey Dent's backstory,

I love it in those comics. You haven't read them,

shoot. All right, I won't give it away. But we

all know he becomes Two -Face. And the story

of how it happens is pretty similar to stuff

you've seen. The story of him becoming the villain

is very different, though. And there is a lot

more duality to him. And there's a lot. more

Harvey left, especially at the start than other

versions of him. So yeah, he's one of my favorites.

He is another one. I mentioned this with the

Joker that I'd have somebody else on here that

has become overused. So they've done a lot of

things with him, including plastic surgery. And

now he's okay. And he's Harvey Dent again. But

oh, wait, there's still something underneath

to there's a lot of different stuff. They've

done pretty much everything. He's become a soap

opera, which is sort of the negative part of

it. But I love those versions of him. His storyline

in No Man's Land, where he becomes creepy. Actually,

No Man's Land into Gotham Central, where he's

sort of the creepy stalker of Renee Montoya,

who is gay and therefore definitely not interested

in him, not that I think she would be particularly

interested in him anyway because he's Nuxo and

she's a police officer. That makes things difficult.

And yeah, I just I've always liked the character

and he's one of the few that I love the animated

series version Richard Ball. But I've always

kind of preferred the comic series. Yeah, I mean...

Read Long Halloween and we'll see, we'll talk.

Absolutely, and it's one of those things where,

and it's funny because I'm just now looking,

I wanted to look up Dark Victory. I actually

do already have Long Halloween, so that's coming

this October too, the full bag. But, yeah, I

didn't hear it at first in the animated series

depiction. But once I saw the name I'm like,

hey, wait a minute that's bull from night court.

Yep. What the hell? but it works so well and

yeah i mean i'm not opposed to reading any of

you know the stuff no i know you just haven't

so i just haven't like it's the whole point a

whole reason why this podcast even exists is

because i wanted to get into reading comics and

i hadn't throughout my entire life as a child

kind of thing so you know not to mention we've

talked about it before that comics don't make

it easy You know, you've talked about wanting

to go back to the start and it's also why I recommend

stuff like long Halloween to you Because it's

not the start of Batman obviously, but it is

the start for an awful lot of his supporting

cast Including Harvey. It's a very early Batman.

It's essentially it was depicted as a sequel

to Batman year one from Frank Miller in the 80s

and Mark Wade kind of pitched it to Jeff Lowe

who would end up writing it But Wade sort of

gave him the idea of hey, why don't we fill in?

You know some of this some of this stuff that

nobody's ever explored like how we dense backstory

was touched on significantly earlier, but He

was never really a character, and suddenly in

year one, he's pals with Commissioner Gordon

and Bruce Wayne. So how did, you know, how did

that happen? What happened to their friendship

when Harvey Dent became Two -Face? Was he always

Two -Face? Et cetera, et cetera. So, I was enjoying

the character. Yeah, I enjoy the character too,

and I am not gonna move on from this until I

mention Not only Aaron Eckhart's performance

of him in the Nolan film in Dark Knight, but

Landell Calrissian as Harvey Dent in Batman.

I remember watching Batman 89 as a kid and I'm

like, hey. I was sad he never got to do it. It

sucks that he never got to go through the change.

He never got to go through the change, yeah.

Trying to bash Tommy Lee Jones. I don't necessarily

agree with some of his Ideas and some of the

things he did to explore or to face But I did

also always want to see what Billy Dee Williams

would have done with the character Instead I

was always curious About that. I was happy that

Eckhart's got to play him Yeah Yeah, Eckhart's

version in the live -action film and in the Dark

Knight was a really I would say that's the true

comics version whereas Richard malls animated

series version is its own like it's not really

It they're all different and it's interesting

to see that merged in So Eckhart obviously took

some inspiration actually quite a bit from long

Halloween and long halloween takes some slash

gives some to animated stuff so it's sort of

that's one of the reasons i like it it's sort

of a merger of all the versions of a lot of these

characters because other ones took from it and

it took from them if they existed so anyway yep

all righty then god i keep saying that son of

a bitch uh... three is that your uh... yes number

three isn't her when nature call we know that

movie doesn't exist uh... number three for you

who is your or the cartoon show yes three for

me was harvey dents your three areas okay my

three and there we go uh... it's batman happy

call me when it's important And not before. Specifically,

and I know it's a comic podcast, I know people

are gonna be screaming at their listening devices

when I say this, but honestly, specifically,

the most exposure I've had to Batman is the films

and the DCAU. So I'm gonna more specifically

talk about DCAU than anything else. I'll say

this now, outside of... Outside of George Clooney,

I liked Michael Keaton and I liked Val Kilmer.

Now, I'm gonna defend my Val Kilmer enjoyment

simply because I feel that he was a better Bruce

Wayne than he was Batman. And the reason why

I say that is because of... You okay over there?

Yes, I'm alive. There's lots of noise and background

things. Yeah, so somebody okay, they're gone

somebody fluffy and adorable might have grabbed

the USB cable to the microphone Of course it

had to be basil So I will defend my Enjoyment

of Val Kilmer only because he I feel he's a better

Bruce Wayne than Batman and this is all Kevin

Conroy's fault Because Kevin Conroy established

in his voice that Bruce Wayne and Batman are

two very different sounding characters and While

Val Kilmer is an amazing actor. I feel that his

Batman was just a little bit stale where his

Bruce Wayne was more Brucie than most of the

other ones Um, but Kevin Conroy in the animated

series as the voice of Batman if anyone says

that That's not their favorite animated voice

or doesn't immediately recognize that that is

the voice of Batman You're crazier than the Joker

What he did with that younger though Well, then

they're just you know, their parents didn't teach

them well enough So everything he did even still

today when he voices Batman like he's the voice

of Batman on Justice League action there's a

clip and I absolutely love it of him and Superman

interrogating Deadshot and Superman's trying

to be the bad cop and Batman's trying to be the

good cop and Batman just kind of freaks Deadshot

out because it's like here do you want a donut

It's chocolate. It's delicious. Yum. And he kind

of does this weird eyebrow thing with his mask,

and Deadshot's voiced by Christian Bale. Yeah,

yeah, Christian Bale. Not Christian... Christian

Slater, dammit. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's definitely

not Christian Bale, anyway. Yeah, yeah, no, no,

no. Deadshot in that is voiced by Christian Slater,

and he's like, argh! What are you doing with

your eye? Don't do that. Like, get him away from

me. Kevin Conroy is always going to be the one

true animated Batman. I did like what Bruce Greenwood

did with him. Batman in the comics to kind of

pull it back around. I like what Scott Snyder

did with him. I like the mystery of the Court

of Owls and I like how he has to figure that

all out. Death of the family kind of brought

him to the brink Endgame was a It kind of felt

like Batman was just playing his own role it

didn't really feel like He's not necessarily

the main character of endgame I Wouldn't are

I wouldn't necessarily say the Joker was either

I feel like they're all kind of Mixed in it's

very much an ensemble more than some others writers

books. Yeah All right number two for you, sir

So my runner -up is another One I feel like it's

pretty obvious another guy who in my favorite

versions of him is an equal and it's Commissioner

Gordon slash Jim Gordon James Gordon everyone

to call him My favorite thing about the comics

just to sum up why I love the character is the

idea that was kind of established in year one

and a lot of writers have Gone with it. And that

is that Gordon is a good enough cop that he is

well aware of who is under the mask, but he chooses

to Chooses to be in the dark it's offered to

him more than once by Batman to show, hey, you

know, I'll show you who I am. And Gordon always

refuses, essentially because it's easier this

way for him, and he's able to keep working together

with him. But he almost always makes it really

clear he knows who is under it. I like that he's

generally depicted as competent, unlike most

of the for Gotham police force. But again, that

kind of goes back to I love Gotham Central. My

favorite series. And I know Jim Gordon's not

Commissioner in it. However, he casts a long

shadow in it. But like Alfred, he's one of the

few characters that gets to stand up and talk

to Batman like an equal. There's not a lot of

awe or reverence there. There's respect and friendship.

Yeah, but that's about it. And yeah, and there's

nothing more poignant that shows that. Other

than in. I want to say holiday nights. At the

end of the episode where they meet up in the

coffee shop, I knew we were going to mention

the series again. Anyway, of course, I'm not

going to take away from it. I'm just saying like

you just made a point about their friendship

well. You know Other than normally them being

on the roof of where the GCPD is and the signal

is How often do you see Batman and the Commissioner

having coffee? Not very often like it's not something

that happens every day. You're right though.

They are real friends and again Over the edge.

Oh Yeah, when oh my god And it's why I like the

comics To is they're willing to play with the

relationship more. So over the edge was great

because we finally saw Jim Gordon realizes that

in a lot of Ways Bruce Wayne has betrayed His

days kind of betrayed him and he he loses it

when he sees his daughter die Yeah Which is understandable,

but it's one of the things I like in the comics

that they've also done some things some similar

stuff where In a lot of ways Bruce Wayne slash

Batman has betrayed his trust or He hasn't brought

Jim in on things that he really should have Yeah,

and stuff like no man's land is an example It's

happened actually quite a bit. But yeah, it's

just I've always loved the character and not

only that but he's Really the archetype for about

a billion other characters in comics There's

so many characters that you can say. Well, he's

got That is Jim Gordon or you know, that's that

character's Jim Gordon From so many in the Marvel

universe Yeah, you mentioned reading Iron Man,

I mean Iron Man one of his first Jim Gordon's

was roadie who he eventually kind of Completely

took under the wing and would become war machine.

But for a while he was the guy who? Was more

on the straight and narrow. Yeah, he wasn't Being

the law that sort of thing and it seems like

almost every major characters had somebody Who

is sort of a confident on the inside? You know

Thor has had the Warriors three who were still

still revered and loved in Asgard When Thor wasn't

you know, he would get the boot from Odin because

Odin was ticked at him for whatever hanging out

with the humans Generally being a jerk whatever

it was But he always had the Warriors three who

were still there for him to talk to bounce ideas

off of and kind of update them on The ground

level sort of stuff that's going on that he doesn't

get to see and Jim is that for Batman he is like

Alfred he's a confidant Who is capable of standing

up to him? He's a confidant who's able to stand

up to him, but it's also, like, two very different

styles of crime fighting. Like, Jim Gordon is,

in most cases, he's the commissioner of the GCPD.

He has to kind of follow the rules, or else he

won't be the commissioner anymore, whereas he

can just... and he's done this several times

in the animated series where Batman has just

been hiding in the shadows and you know Bullock

or Montoya or whoever will just walk away and

he'll say so what do you think like he automatically

knows when Batman is there at times and I think

my favorite thing about Commissioner Gordon and

Bruce Wayne Batman is the whole thing of when

Batman disappears like just the conversation

is over Even though the commissioner might still

be talking, Batman's end of the conversation

is over and he's gone. Turns around and he's

like, where'd he go? Like, that's just one of

my fun, one of my more enjoyable, kind of, I

guess, quote unquote, bat gags is whenever Batman

does disappear. And you're too? It's none other

than the boy wonder himself. Mr. Dick Grayson.

Hey, shut the hell up. Dick Grayson, the only

reason why he's not my number one is because

my number one is... Because I would mock you

endlessly? No. My number one is actually two

characters, so I've cheated a lot on this list,

but it's one character that two people have played.

Dick Grayson... You know. Basically raised by

Batman basically raised by Bruce Wayne his parents

were murdered Or his whole family. I should say

not just his parents his his His parents and

his sister, I believe the fire isn't the flying

Grayson's right You know the whole circus thing

and everything else I love that origin of Dick

Grayson uh, you know, coming from the circus.

So he has natural ability to automatically become

Robin and then later Nightwing, whether it's

a blue mask or a red mask. I, once again, Kyle

Higgins, the man just writes amazing things.

New 52 Nightwing, I read that entire arc and

absolutely, like there, there were several moments

in it where I was like, Okay, whatever that's

mainly some of the art not all of it, but the

writing in general the way that Kyle Higgins

wrote it because again He is like us. He loved

the animated series kind of thing And the DCIU

at large so that's where my love of Nightwing

comes in I want to explore other Nightwing stories

whether it's blue or whatever which most likely

it will be because the only time he's been in

a red You know suit black and red suit is new

52, but His kind of final words at the end of

that series just basically hit me like a ton

of bricks. I just absolutely love it. And again,

Lauren Lester as the voice of Dick Grayson Robin,

Dick Grayson Nightwing in the DCAU. I mean, I

actually have a clip of Lauren Lester saying

one of Kyle Higgins' lines. Now, I love s'mores

as much as the next guy, but I'm fresh out of

marshmallows. What do you say we call it a night?

I mean, the man is an amazing actor, giving voice

to a really cool character that I absolutely

love. If folks have not read Kyle Higgins' Nightwing

the New Order, read it. It's a really cool futuristic

Dick Grayson story, and it's really fun. When

he gets introduced into certain parts of the

Batman Beyond comic universe absolutely love

that The things I do for Gotham I was just gonna

add that you're definitely gonna love Dark Victory,

which is the sort of telling of Dick Grayson's

origin That's the sequel to long Halloween long

Halloween. Yeah, but it also shows sort of his

training and his first little bit as Robin and

is It's It's certainly not the introduction to

the character or anything like that, but I don't

know. It's just a good story that shows a lot

of why someone like Bruce Wayne would choose

to bring someone like Grayson, someone especially

who at the time is angry and grieving, would

bring him into that world. Absolutely, and you

know, like I say, you know, no good. No good.

I'm just gonna say it came up. We are way after

so many other Robin stories, but it still manages

to make it feel fresh and new and then intertwine

it with a lot of what we saw in the previous

story as well. Two of my favorites. Batman stories

and I've quite a few of them, so. absolutely

and I love not not just new 52 Nightwing not

Dick Grayson himself I absolutely loved when

he became Batman like gates of Gotham is amazing

that is one of the quintessential Batman stories

for anyone to be able to read because that gives

super in -depth history of the city it tells

a very cool story Again, I'm sure you have. If

you haven't, you need to. Read Nightwing, The

New Order. That is another one of those stories

that is just really, really cool. I can't move

on from number one without talking about or at

least mentioning the animated series episode,

Old Wounds, because, wow. Love that show. Alright,

drumroll please. What is your number one favorite

Batman character, sir? I don't think there's

a lot of discussion needed on this one since

we wouldn't be here, but my number one is Bruce

Wayne. I mean... Now you wanna get nuts? Come

on! Let's get nuts. There's no series or anything

else without him. I chose... To I have a feeling

you didn't I chose not to differentiate Bruce

Wayne and Batman. I certainly think there's definitely

an argument To be made there for sure. But yeah,

I chose to kind of combine them I also chose

to combine them because I was already ticked

off. I left other people Off the list. So it's

funny when we first started thinking about it.

I've debated I thought it was gonna be funny

and have a bunch of characters who were More

than one just so I could be lazy and only listing

like Three characters and then you know take

the rest of the day off and feel great about

myself But no, yeah as I went on I just got more

ticked off. I was leaving off so Anyway, yeah

verse Wayne's number one. I mean There's not

a lot to He is one of the most quintessential

comic book characters of all time there are So

many fewer comic book characters period if this

character hadn't been invented exactly the entire

Landscape of the whole industry would be completely

different. In fact, yeah film television and

everything else would probably be different.

So Yeah, the important I Can't say much negative

in terms of what I like about the comics. I mean

I talked about it before That I feel like the

comp comics version. The comics version can be

overused. And I talked about it before in other

podcasts that there's this tendency to make him

a god. You know, he can he can see all he knows

all if Batman has time to prepare. He could defeat

Megatron. You know, just silly stuff like that.

But there's so many other relationships I love.

about this character. I mentioned so many of

them in this. I love his relationships with Selena

Kyle. I love how he gets to treat and spar with

verbally Alfred and Jim Gordon, et cetera, et

cetera. And just he is one of the greatest characters

of all time. So I don't know how much more to

add to that. Yeah, I mean, I know Superman was

technically first in 1938 as far as the DC superhero

things, but one year later in 1939, and we're

in 2019 now, 80 years of Batman, and Superman

has a huge history and characters and maybe we'll

do a top 10 Superman list at some point. If you're

making your Mount Rushmore of comics, you know,

Superman and Batman have to be on it. Yeah, I

mean, absolutely. No sane human being is going

to leave either of them off. No. And I mean,

you know, there's a whole point to why they say

the Holy Trinity, which is Batman, Superman,

and Wonder Woman. Like, that is, like, you know,

Marvel has Spider -Man, has Iron Man, X -Men,

whatever. When you think of DC, who are the first

three characters you think of? Batman, Superman,

and Wonder Woman. Most most likely For me on

number one. I Can't an idea for a podcast by

the way we get the Mount Rushmore of comics.

Yeah That can be worked into an episode of the

comic yeah Anyway, yeah movie revolt Dan has

done several Mount Rushmore blog posts on the

website So sure we can do a podcast and on Twitter.

He's had a bunch of them. Yeah. Yeah, he does

it all the time so we'll get him in on that as

well. My number one actually ties since you mentioned

it and since he is technically the father of

all of these characters. This character has been

played by three different people in almost four

but three main people. My number one is Batman

Beyond. Bruce Wayne, Terry McGinnis, and Tim

Drake. Now the only reason why I say Tim Drake

is because of the Dan Juergens Tim Drake run

in 2015 when Tim was hurled into the future and

he had to become Batman because Terry either

died or was somewhere or whatever. But let's

face it, Bruce Wayne was the original Batman

slash Batman Beyond. Once again, Kevin Conroy,

there is no other person that could stand in

the Batcave and say... Because Bruce is finally

driven to Almost using a gun something. He said

he would never do what he gives it up. I'll stop

it All right, all right, mr. Punisher there,

you know, so he gives it up and then you know

years later Terry McGinnis, you know basically

stumbles into the Batcave steals the bat suit

and goes on a joyride and I love everything recently

that DC and the creative have been doing over

the last five, six years with Batman Beyond and

Terminus. Again, Kyle Higgins, he had a run on

it and did an amazing job with it. My very first

Batman Beyond comic I read was written by Adam

Beechin and art was done by the late, great Norm

Brayfogle in Batman Beyond 10 ,000 Clowns. Absolutely

love that. That was the very first Batman Beyond

episode we did here inside the pull bag. What

Dan Jergens is doing currently, what he has been

doing since the last four years, other than what

the animated series did, I love the stories that

Jergens has been telling with Batman Beyond.

And I mean Terry McGinnis, you know, they kind

of mirrored him against Bruce Wayne as far as,

you know, his father getting murdered and all

of that and everything else. And of course, it

kind of all goes back to Amanda Waller, you know,

the world can't exist without a Batman. They

famously botched Terry slash Batman Beyond's

first appearance in the comics when they accidentally

called him Tim. True. Which oops, which was a

mistake that They. It was rumored they were going

to correct it for the. For the trades, I remember

correctly they failed to do so. And so people

just kind of started running with it leading

to I think there was a yes, there was a figure

produced. That was called Tim on the back instead

of Terry and yeah, I think that's one of the

reasons they kind of did the. retcon thing that

Terry was Missing slash out of time. Anyway,

I'm getting off topic. I'm still trying to figure

out man We're gonna have to set some ground rules

for the Mount Rush. Oh Of course we are. Yeah,

I'll leave that up to you My best idea so far

has been Batman Superman Stan Lee and then I

gotta figure out more anyway So that's our Batman

characters. Did you have anything you wanted

to say about Terry McGinnis or Tim Drake or any

of that for Batman Beyond? No, I've talked enough

about the animated shows people already know

though that I absolutely adore Batman Beyond.

I loved Terry McGinnis. I already had Tim Drake

on my list and Again, if Bruce Wayne as a character

doesn't exist. We're not talking about any others

also, I mean he is when again when they don't

Give him the kind of godlike powers, which to

me makes him boring. The Bruce Wayne as a character

is still really intriguing and it's fun to see

writers still able to do new things. We talked

about it a bit on the Tom King run where it starts

off with. Because he's suddenly thrust back into

a world and reminded of all. these people superpowers

Batman feels antiquated antiquated and not he

doesn't feel useful or he doesn't feel like he's

not himself and it's fun that writers can still

kind of that's been tried before admittedly but

not in the same way that King does it and it's

nice that you mentioned 80 years thousands of

comic books at this point Yeah movies animated

shows TV shows Novels you name it it exists and

Writers are still scrambling and coming up with

new wrinkles on the character. I feel like that's

a it's a sign that the character is a Good character

if you know 80 years later, you can still do

things with them Absolutely and not get Simpsons

did it syndrome or you know Yeah, true All right,

so I think that's gonna do it for us I mentioned

next week because next week's episode is already

recorded In June, we've got Superior Iron Man

Vol. 2. JT and I finally return to that series

after four years. I believe JT, Ryan, and I will

be all joining forces to talk about the self

-made man in Dan Slott's Tony Stark Iron Man

Vol. 1. Movie revolt Dan will be back for I Hate

Fairyland's finale in Vol. 4. We'll get back

to TMNT and then somebody Ryan or JT or somebody

will be with me for Transformers Bumblebee the

movie prequel. No, I have not watched the film

yet. Watch the movie. Yes, watch the movie. So

that's what's coming up in June. In July, we've

got a whole bunch of other stuff as well. We've

got episode 360 will be episode will be the IDW

2020 episode. So that's going to be cool. Ryan's

idea of Mount Rushmore that'll be incorporated

somewhere once. Oh, man, whatever come on, you

know Well, it's your fault. You know you say

something on a recording. I'm not editing this

out So we hope everyone enjoyed Batman month

this year slightly different and I try to keep

it slightly different each year um... obviously

because j t and i are still reading through the

batman beyond rebirth series you know we still

have to cover that but i mean you and i did a

dark night dark night a true batman story the

paul deenie book uh... that we you know did the

the new fifty two and then the the rebirth stuff

and first part of stephanie brown's back girl

as well so you know always see anything we talked

about that too uh... with regards to batman and

it being eighty years that again something like

yeah Batman story comes out and it's completely

different yeah absolutely very much so where

can the people find you online sir at nightbeat

on Twitter Absolutely, I am at TFU and Mike you

can follow at the pullback and at geek cast radio

for all the other network updates on Twitter

Check us out on Facebook as well Make your greatest

game to comics and join us as we become superior

next time around in episode 355 with JT from

Saskatoon and myself Make your greatest game

to comics and we will catch you next time. Welcome

to my world Shut up! Shut up! I'm not hearing

this! Well, there you have it, folks. The first

top ten list, here inside the pull bag. Harley!

Harley! Get my agent on the phone! We have some

splenid to do with these guys! After all, it

just takes one bad day. You can rate and leave

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