Batman The Adventures Continue #1-2: Hardware

Welcome to The Polebag. Join us as we dig out

our latest comics and discuss them with the rotating

panel of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy

this week's Polebag. Welcome to the pull bag.

This is episode 378. I am of course TFG when

Mike joining me is Steve Megatron Who? Steve

joker Tron whoops wrong wrong And we are here

In frequently, this is the first new episode

of the pull bag since December of last year Since

I haven't done this show since December The world

has come to an end I don't have my computer so

I can't do the show properly like I'd like to

but we're giving it a shot because DC Comics

Did something novel? Did something novel -y nostalgic

you could say They are going back in there. They've

always had their digital first series Batman

Beyond Justice League that kind of thing other

titles as well have been digital firsts But they

are doing now Batman the adventure Continues

or the adventures continue. I always screw up

the title because it is the adventures continue

Never know where to put the right s or the wrong

s That's what she said. That's what that's right.

I have no idea what that means, but We'll go

ahead with it the right s the wrong s the red

s the blue s the Brown s who knows? The Baroness

I don't know This is a new digital first series

written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini. The artist,

at least on these first two chapters, is Ty Templeton.

Colorist is Monica Kubena. The letterer is Joshua

Reed. Cover artist is Dave Johnson. And yeah,

so I... Assume they're gonna be doing I'm hoping

it's gonna be the same art team throughout because

I really dig this art But basically they're doing

two -part stories Tonight we're talking about

hardware part one and two and This because this

is a digital first series if you use comics ology's

guided comics ology comm if you use their guided

view It's built for that and it's the guided

view is basically showing you panel by panel

and it zooms in on certain things and and whatever

and all of this and all of that and I really

I've ever since I've switched to digital comics

way back in 2014 I praise comics ology and their

guided view technology. This was a lot better

reading it on my phone than most comics are reading

on my phone because I'm not used to reading comics

on my phone Yeah, I have to say that I did enjoy

how well It it was readable on on the device

because normally I I'm not a huge fan of digital

comics like I would much prefer to own said comic

Granted I also am the same one that doesn't want

to own them because they take up too much space.

They take up too much space. And so when you

have the nice amalgamation of of good art and

good implementation. Yeah, then all things are

good. Yes. I read an interview when this was

announced with, I believe it was Paul Dini and

Alan Burnett. And basically this takes place.

In the new adventures era of Batman the animated

series It's gonna have all kinds of adventures

in here, but the main underlying story is they've

finally Because they never actually did it in

the animated series originally they finally introduced

Jason Todd into this Tim Drake was amalgamate

an amalgamation of what he was plus a little

bit of Jason Todd in the cartoon and And I just,

you know, like we said at the beginning of this,

this is very much a nostalgic thing. So this

is, like I said, the new Batman Adventures kind

of era, red sky, black and gray Batman suit.

We open the first chapter and he's. Kicking Bane's

butt. Yep. And I love how he's about to get his

back broken and and then all of a sudden Bane's

going down. And then you're like, well, how did

that happen? And then if you look closer on a

previous panel, he'd thrown tranquilizer darts

and he's like, I'll have to I'll have to put,

you know, more darts in next time. And he's like,

at least that'll be, you know, the easiest thing

I'll have won't be the worst thing tonight. And

then he's like, oh, so again, it's only ten o

'clock and there's like a Luther robot running

around. Mm -hmm. Well, we don't know it's a Luther

robot, but we can always assume it's a Luther

robot because Luther loves robots That's the

other podcast yes, I know there was there was

a reason for that so I know anyways Anyways,

so this new robot is kind of you know destroying

Gotham and Batman has to go after it and we see

this shadowy figure And I forgot how much fun

Gotham can be. A little bit of a tease there.

It's kind of obvious. You can't see his red hair

or anything, but that face, man. And again, I

love the art. The jacket that he's wearing reminds

me of Commissioner Gordon's jacket in the series

with the lapels and all that. Love that. The

robot continues to attack Wayne Tech or Wayne

Enterprises or Wayne Industries or whatever Wayne

thing they're calling the Wayne building now.

And he's trying to steal a vault. He does. Batman

goes after him. And I gotta say, I love the colors,

I love how bright they are, even though it's

the red sky Gotham. I've always dug the red sky

Gotham because there's so much other colors you

can put into it. Oh yeah, totally. And the funny

thing is, is the sky isn't really red sky in

this. Well... Eh. Kind of is. In this comic.

No, it's blue. It's dark blue. But. Well, OK.

Well, where he is, it's red. And I love how throughout

these first two chapters, and we'll get to chapter

two here in a little bit. I love how it like

kind of ends with round one, you know, like it's

a. He's like, OK, you win this round. Mm hmm.

So we go back to the Batcave and Bruce is like

I'm gonna be here working all night Alfred's

like no sir, you're not you have this gala and

You'll never guess who the guest of honor is

and lo and behold introduced Lex Luther I Love

the attention to detail and yes, it does change

back to red sky just in the beginning. It was

blue but I do love the fact that They insinuate

they're like, oh we couldn't find Superman. Oh,

you know and Everybody has the exact look that

they did in the animated series Absolutely, which

is awesome. Yep and because this is Young Bruce

we have Veronica Rylan unlike later in in his

adventures we would have bunny realing at the

beginning of Batman Beyond so this is Veronica

realing and Lex Luthor shows up and oh my god

can I hear I can hear all of these voices in

my head oh no that's and that's the beautiful

part about it is that you know exactly what they

sound like when they're saying this mmm now did

you watch Kevin Conroy reading this yes I did

watch part of that I didn't get to listen to

it yet but I fully intend to Yeah, I watched

part of it. Yeah, that's so cool that he's doing

that But yeah, it's it's it's so funny I can

you know like you said I can so hear Kevin and

and Clancy doing this Where Lex is like Scrubby

little madman thinks he's so tough though. He

wasn't very effective last night was he? It could

have gone better I Love that it makes you wonder

if Lex actually knows it's him or if the fact

that you know just goading him with it or or

if it's a little bit different than what you

imagine I Don't think Lex ever found out If we're

talking about the whole DCAU and not just this

section here, I don't think at this point Lex

knows, and I don't think Lex ever found out personally.

I kind of like it that way because it gives their

Bruce Wayne, Lex Luther, like the whole thing

at the end here. By the way, what did they get?

They, it, the robot. I presume it didn't program

itself. Wish I could tell you. be that way like

it's this whole and then his constant Lex's constant

disdain for Batman is just it just takes it even

further which is beautiful yes it is very much

so and we get a Batmobile shot in the Batcave

very cool very cool Batman ends up going to this

hangar which we assume Lex owns, I guess, and

knocks out the guard, and gets in, sees the robot,

gets the scanner on there, and... And then he

gets blasted. And then he gets blasted. By a

green ray! Oh, who could that be? Next, in the

clutches of Luthor. This first chapter, I really

dug. Like I said, I love how... The story opens

up and it's if you if you know this universe

if you know these create if you know Alan Burnett

and Paul Dini in the way that they they approach

the universe I Don't want to say it's formulaic

because I don't necessarily think that's a bad

thing. But you know It's kind of a little bit

formulaic You know, we start with Bruce or we

start with the robot, you know in Batman and

everything else and and all that and then you

get to Lex and his introduction and them going

back and forth and then you kind of end it with

oh hey Lex Luthor has your number and like you

said the art is really really like well the beautiful

thing is is it's spot -on like if this was still

animated yeah I I would be going oh wow this

is great yep be like I this is the best thing

since sliced bread that's right you leave Christian

Bale out of this yeah I don't wear hockey pads

the only Batman voice I can do authentically

yes the cool thing about this is though while

I would love this to be animated I really would

I love that it's a comic and the way that it

is the the comic that it is because You get the

title card hardwire part two same creative team

So I don't have to say all that again, but you

know you basically get What would be the animated

series in comic book form and they can have however

long DC wants them to be doing this series they

can tell Whatever story they want to Within the

confines obviously of the universe and what's

already happened, but they can still create new

things like This is somewhere between new adventures

and something else. So Batman and Superman have

already met. So this is obviously Lex even mentions

it about you know You know, he hates being in

Gotham because of that incident with the Joker.

So this is most definitely post world's finest

Because he's already he already hates Batman.

He already met Batman. So it's somewhere between

world's finest and Wherever else we pick up with

Lex in the actual animated series So chapter

two starts off and Lex and Batman are still going

at it. He still has Batman by the throat and

What's in the vault Brainiac's head? Yeah, that

was quite a surprise actually I Did not see it

coming Mmm, that's good though. But yeah, I mean

that that was not something I expected and it

was good Yep Absolutely Once again, the art is

amazing and I love his I love Batman's exchange

with Luther and how he gets out of being held

up by his neck and his shirt and whatever. I

also said Wayne's people had gone through it.

By people, I meant me. We get an explanation

how he was able to hotwire Brainiac's head and

he fires a beam out of Brainiac's eyes at Luther.

It's just it's so refreshing to see and I know

a lot of people that have our look that are like

us that have seen the DCA you That will go back

and rewatch it and be like, oh, hmm. I wish there

was just a little bit more Well, this new series

is that little bit more we've been waiting for

Because I honestly don't think Warner Brothers

or DC Are gonna actually go back to this in animation.

I wish they would but I don't think they will

So continuing on in the story here we see the

emergence of a new robotic bat suit that he's

gonna be using against Luthor we see Alfred with

the Schematic of the robot that they scanned

and Realizes that that's there's a battery in

it. That's no cockpit. That's a battery done

done done You got Batman holding somebody up

by their by their foot and We get in a jet and

he did this and he did that and Batman goes after

the jet Lex goes after Batman And you know this

giant fight and I love that they have the fight

scene and Batman and you know it attaches some

sort of wire to the robot and he gives it a kryptonite

injection next thing you know Two giant red beams

come out of the chest of the robot. That was

just brilliant. Yes, it was. I loved Bats being

in the suit and then I loved the fact that he's

just like Womp and then took out Luthor just

by, you know, proxy of knowing what's inside.

Yep. So it was quite humorous. Yes, very much

so. You suck, Lex. You know like that has your

number he hasn't figured out you're screwed And

as I already mentioned I figured if I could hit

you with a kryptonite charge I might be able

to break whatever mind controlled state you were

in Once again, I owe you just get rid of this

thing. It's maybe toss it into the Sun. It's

bad man candy I Did like that. Yeah, that was

awesome The Batman part of this story ends with

he really is a boy scout Then we meet back up

with the the shadow a figure and Gets into a

argument with some guy on the street because

he apparently this guy has just been standing

there forever But yeah, so Jason Todd Mm -hmm.

I love how they made him like a little bit older,

but yep There's not enough there to really know

what's going on with him. Right. There's just

enough to know, oh, like at the very something

screwy with this guy. Don't. Yeah, don't mess

with him. But it's it's kind of nice, too, because

you never even at Batman Beyond, you never even

hear of Jason Todd. But Bruce also is the same

type of person in the in the program that he

he doesn't. He doesn't necessarily Talk About

things so Yes, yeah, I mean it's it's kind of

you know you kind of see where it's going there

Yep, and that's a good thing cuz you kind of

but you don't really cuz you don't know what

they're gonna come up with after this no We just

got introduced to Jason Todd here with who knows

what's gonna be told after this and that's the

good thing That's the interesting thing is they

can have this whole Bruce Luther Batman Luther

Superman Luther Batman story and these little

hints of Jason running throughout and That's

what makes it interesting. That's what makes

this a great read. Oh Yes, totally we can have

everything that we Are expecting out of these

things and then you can have things that you

never would have expected So, where do you think

it's gonna go from here I don't know cuz next

the next I assume the next two chapters deathstroke

comes to Gotham I'm not sure where it's gonna

go and I'm really excited about that Cuz again,

you know We often have talked about on this podcast

since 2012 when you and I started it Suitably

over on geek cast radio is that there's so many

stories in comics that they're all the the stories

have all kind of been told kind of thing Well,

no, that's not technically true. Yes, there's

like 80 90 years of comics continuity but you

don't have to read all of that to read this or

to read whatever other story you may want to

read you can jump in anywhere at any time oh

yeah totally and that's that's the beautiful

thing about it yep um so yeah chapters one and

two of the of uh batman the adventures continue

i really dug it i thought it was cool I didn't

even, like normally I would try to find something

after the fact of reading it that I didn't like,

but there wasn't anything in this that I didn't

like. The art is spot on, the writing is cool.

If I can hear the voice actors in my head as

I'm reading the lines, it's damn good. Oh yeah,

and that's the thing is like the writing, you

have the original writing team and so it's going

to sound like something you would hear. from

within it because it's not out of the realm of

believability with the characters yep and that's

that's what i really enjoy about it it's not

so much that they're reprising it and bringing

it back although that is part of it um it's a

lot of it has to do with the fact that um we're

getting that that continuation that we've kind

of always wanted but never had the option of

getting Yeah, absolutely Absolutely, so for me

scale of zero to five I'd probably give it a

four and a half or just a straight five for both

chapters because I Didn't see anything To it

was more pure enjoyment for me coming back into

this universe and looking at it Not through.

I mean if I really want to nitpick something

not thrilled that they kind of give him an old

Grayson kind of cut with the black hair and the

The white wisp in the front on Jason, but whatever

it is what it is. I don't I Mean, I'm just happy

that there's new stories. Oh, yeah, and that

that to me is probably the best part And ultimately

like we'll we'll see where it goes in in the

storyline Yep But for me, this is probably one

of the strongest Comics I've read in some time

Franchise so mm -hmm. It's it's definitely a

plus for me Absolutely zero to five for you I

Think this is one of the few I would give a five

and it's not just the nostalgia talking. It's

just that it's genuinely good writing Yeah Exactly.

We're dipping back into this universe, but with

a fresh... Like, they're not trying to tie up

loose ends. Okay, the one loose end that they're

trying to tie up is that they never introduced

Jason Todd into the actual animated series. I

think that they were always planning on it. Right.

It just never happened because of whatever happened.

Well, there just really wasn't a good enough

story reason, I think. Right. Absolutely. So...

Yeah. So that's gonna do it for this episode.

I think a short one to say the least folks, but

these little digital chapters That's why we're

doing them two at a time as long as there's multi

-part stories part one part two Two comics for

the price of one, I guess Kind of thing. I mean

and honestly digital comics digital first series

like this. These issues were 99 cents so That's

not too bad to jump on to something new, folks.

No, not really. And that's that honestly is like

well within my price range. Yeah, it when when

it's like those three to, you know, five dollar

comic books, it just that's that's when I usually

wait for the trade. I don't mind spending the

trade costs like ten ninety nine, eleven ninety

nine, nineteen ninety that. I will wait for trade

on the on the 399 4889 599 books Yeah, and and

that's and honestly that's just when things get

Within the realm of cheapness and yeah I'm not

saying that creators shouldn't be paid for what

they do because I honestly think that they should

Yes, but at the same time it has to be affordable

absolutely and that's something that we just

don't have a lot of these days and so if you

can get a strong story and then it's worth it

then by all means um then yeah you should but

absolutely support your comic creators support

your comic creators support your local comic

shops especially in this post I can't say post

because we're still living in it in this new

world of ours with COVID -19 and whatever else

and I'm trying not to make Trying not to make

this episode about the virus because you and

I have already talked about it on other podcasts

that we've done in the past month or so, but

comics is Should should have Like the Milo Murphy's

world It's You could easily like bash that and

turn it into the kovat world. Oh, no, don't Oh

Lord All right on that note Make your oh, okay.

Wait before I I lost myself here Find well, I

don't know. We're gonna people find you online

to bitch at your bad jokes. They can find me

on the Twittersphere at SCP -21. I am at TF2

and Mike. You can also follow at The Pull Bag

and at GeekCast Radio as well. Make your great

escape into comics. Join us next time when we're

either going to be going to a Transformers galaxy

far, far away or back to Gotham with the next

two chapters of this series as well. We'll catch

you next time folks here inside the pull bag.

Call the voicemail line 502 -526 -5821. Please

remember to tell us the show you're leaving the

message for, and your name. Become a fan of us

on Facebook by searching Geekcast Radio Network.

You can send us an email feedback at geekcastradio

.com. Follow us on Twitter at Geekcast Radio.

So until next time, unleash the geek in you.