Batman Beyond Volume 7: First Flight

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

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy, and you're listening

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ado, it's time to talk about the comics we're

reading right now here inside the pull bag. Hello

and welcome to the pull bag. This is episode

482. I am of course TF2 on Mike and it has been

just over a year since we did. Batman Beyond

volume six divide, conquer and kill with my buddy

JT from Saskatoon. Hello, sir. How are you? Not

bad. I'm back. Yeah, you're back. And since that

time, folks, I'm going to keep this rant extremely

short. Amazon came in and fucked up comixology.

So we're not the pullback is no longer going

panel by panel anymore, because if I can't. I've

asked Comixology, I've asked Amazon, hey, can

there at least be a comic, can the Comixology

app, which I still have on my phone, which I

can still read comics the way I've always read

them in the last 13, no, nine years of this podcast,

you know, can we at least have it on the Microsoft

store so I can have it on my damn computer? Oh

no, they have to do Kindle, I just threw up in

my mouth. I can't say Kindle comics without proying

up. Anyway. Batman Beyond volume 7 first flight.

Hey, wait a minute. That's a Green Lantern thing.

What's going on around here? So we are back it

has been just over a year as I mentioned and

Yeah First flight Terry continues to be on the

run from the police with his new acquaintance

Constance Gus. Oh god, I'm gonna screw her name

up. That's to know There you go. Thank you. Just

constants. It'll save time. Yeah. Yeah. It'll

be constantly constants at this point. Yeah.

As Neo Gotham is left wondering, what happened

to Batman? Yeah. And I forgot they had introduced

Jack Ryder into the Beyondverse. Oh, really?

Well, yeah, because that's the reporter. Yep.

It's me, Jack Ryder. I was like, no. I know it's

not going to happen because, spoiler warning,

folks, the two volumes we're looking at today,

seven and eight, are essentially the last of

Batman and beyond comics. Yeah, his run and until

the Batman Neo year one that's the first issue

is already out. And it's not bad. It's certainly

set up some interesting storylines. But yeah,

I forgot they had introduced Jack Ryder. And

now my hopes are somewhat dashed with the conclusion

of the series that we will not get a creeper

beyond, which is still one of my all time favorite

episodes of the Red Sky years of the animated

series. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, I remember when

we did was it target Batman was volume four or

volume was either target Batman or the final

joke, which was volume five of this series. I

remember as soon as you saw Jack right we're

like ooh it's the creeper yay I can never have

anything that I like but yeah it's Batman Beyond

in comics since the show and since comics and

whatever else It's had a fairly good run, I would

say, since about 10 ,000 clowns. I mean, everything

we've covered. Do we have problems with certain

things with it? Sure, absolutely. You're not

going to love everything you read or watch or

whatever. But overall, it's been a damn good

run. And Dan's run, Dan Jurgens' run. When did

he start? Wasn't it 2015? Yeah, it was Brave

New Worlds, wasn't it? Yeah. Think I have that

right. Anyway, I've been writing since to be

I know from the beginning of the rebirth series,

which is volume 6 yeah, not and I It's been a

while since we talked about it, but there was

the the Tim Drake series that yeah Yeah, yeah

futures and yeah. So yeah, so we got first flight

Batman's missing after the you know, the the

psychic backlash from false face taking Terry's

identity is Wiped his mind and he's palling around

with Constance who? In my head. I looked at her.

It's like wow. It's evil Moira. I'm a tagger

Then we've got a multiverse crossover going on

But yeah, they're telling you man as soon as

that Disney and Warner Brothers discovery merger

happens We're gonna have one big giant conglomerate

Marvel and DC will be crossing over all of the

time. Mr Mouse When did you said you were taking

over the world? I'm not taking over the world,

sir. I own it Yes, but anyway, the story is Terry's

on the run with Constance cops are looking for

him and We find out by the end of the first issue

that Blight is back now two things when I was

rereading this in preparation for the show one

I can't believe it. It took me until this rereading

that Wow Blight is like a future version of the

classic 70s villain. Dr. Phosphorus With the

whole glowy skin and skeleton and all that I

was like, wow He really deserved better I think

he should have I honestly and this is just me

and I know it's when you do an animated series

and everything it's it's a whole bunch of priorities

and What not but blight should have been around

longer and I think he should have been If not

the main villain all the way through he definitely

should have been like the last guy in the last

episode. Like, nevermind. Then you have Return

of the Joker and Epilogue in JLU. But yeah, Blight

was always my favorite original villain for the

Beyondverse. See, the difference is, is that

Blight is more, okay, yes, Blight essentially

hired Mr. Fix to kill Warren McGuinness. And

we're talking about the animated series, folks,

and this comic series as well. But Blight and

Derek Powers, Blight slash Derek Powers, whatever,

they're the same damn thing. They were always

more of a Bruce villain to me. They were like

remnants of the old Batman kind of villains,

whereas Terry, his ultimate, his Joker is essentially

ink. Don't think anyone can disagree with me

on that one because that's essentially his number

one Most Well, I mean light is Terry's number

one villain It's he was a villain to Bruce, but

you know, that's lowercase V, you know, it's

like guardians to you're a god small G son So

that that's what he's a capital V villain when

he become like, you know, he starts with, you

know, killing Warren, like Terry's dad, and then

getting a face full of virus. And, you know,

we're gonna use radiation to curry you, Mr. Powers

is like, okay. You know, but I love the look

of Blight and his armored suit which is also

I don't know how well, you know your comics like

your Batman history, but his suit is Reminiscent

of the third clay face Preston Payne who is a

guy who? Got like the dried up mud remains of

Matthew Hagan the original shape -shifting clay

face created a serum to inject into himself because

he's got this This fugly face. It's an actual

disease. I can't remember it for the life of

me right now and then is he has shape -shifting

powers for like a day and then he starts like

becomes the incredible melting man and He has

to wear this exoskeleton with the dome top piece

on the top. That's what this suit looks like

and so this suit it I'm looking at the panel

where he says You know, we'll be Bruce Wayne

for all he's done to me blah blah blah You know,

he won't you know, he'll face the the wrath of

blight or whatever it is that he says here I

see this full suit and I'm like, um Okay Somebody

call Lex Luthor and cuz he likes Luther gonna

sue so I swear the way this this suit looks with

his irradiated body inside of it. It looks like

one of Lex's suits from Justice League when he

had the whole kryptonite cancer thing. Well,

I think honestly, there are elements of that

here. I think it looks more like his Braniac

Luther form from the end of the Cadmus storyline

there. But yeah, I agree. Like I said, he looks

like Dr. Phosphorus 2 .0. But yeah, he's like,

I will get revenge, he man, I mean, Batman. Which

is another reason why I always like Blight as

a villain, because he reminds me of our Lord

and Master Skeletor. And I have to say, overall,

in this run, we've got a couple of filling issues

by the great Paul Pelletier, who I first discovered

on Kyle Rayner Green Lantern in the 90s. It's

Sean Chen and I've been a huge fan of this guy

since he I first discovered him on Heroes After

Heroes Reborn in them from Marvel in the 90s

where he was the For the first two or three years.

He was the artist on the Iron Man thing and he's

always had a great Like background and technical

Detailing with his art. Yep, which is why I love

his Batman run so much here I know as we get

into the second issue with Batwoman Beyond. Yeah.

This is the second time I think that they've

done the whole, now this is just, you can correct

me obviously, but this is my second experience

with Old Dick and him having a daughter named

Elena. The first time I experienced this was

Kyle Higgins doing Nightwing New Order. Was that

one shot series that Kyle did a couple of years

ago? I remember that. Yeah, but he basically

screws over the entire DC universe and then mea

culpa when he finds out his kid has superpowers.

Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I think it's Eliana, isn't

it? We mispronounce names around here all the

time and we would you're probably right. I'm

not saying if not Mike Exactly, right? I mean

we pull names out of hats around here But yeah

spoiler folks batwoman beyond is the daughter

of Dick Grayson and really? Did we really have

to go that far down the suspect list to figure

that out? I Kind I okay. So with this with this

volume specifically you had mentioned we're doing

two or actually we are recording the final two,

but volume eight will be next week when people

will actually hear it. But with volume seven,

with first flight, I really dig Bruce and Matt

and Barbara. doing their whole suspect thing

because all of them are so content in their choice.

Like it's kind of like me when I make a choice

on something, my stubbornness will not get out

of my way. And I understand that. I know that.

And I, I embrace it because. Well, I was born

stubborn. Yeah. Cause well, I love the fact that

first of all, I love the whole grandfather, grandson

interplay between Bruce and Matt. It's honestly

adorable. And I love it. Yep. And I love how

they both have, it's like, no, it's Barbara.

No, it's Melanie. So they both go to like do

the thing from detective fiction where you bust

in the room and it's like, you're a Batwoman,

admit it. And they both laugh in the same wah

ha ha way. And then they're both, both Matt and

Bruce are like so crestfallen because they were

wrong. And it's honestly just because they're

missing Terry so much. Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely.

And I like this because it's one of those things

where I don't want to say he was pushed aside,

but because we've gotten several comic series

that we've talked about with varying things to

do with Dick Grayson slash Nightwing, but essentially

Batman Beyond was old Bruce and young Peter Parker

Whatever, you know what? I mean, like essentially

it was we need a young Batman We need a teenage

Batman yada yada yada. There really was no room

for and I wish there was I wish there was a Killing

joke not killing joke, you know what helped return

of the Joker like alternate scene where Bruce

dick and Barbara Are doing a scene together but

it is what it is. I love the way that they've

incorporated Dick Grayson. Into the future by

right of essentially by right of birth I mean

he gives birth to a doesn't give birth his wife

whatever that is you know what. You know mike

we know how biology works. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what I mean. But it's just one of those

things where it's really cool. Again, it goes

to the legacy of Batman. It goes to the legacy

of Batman Beyond. It goes to the legacy of Nightwing.

It's always been Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, quote

unquote, father and son. Now I know they haven't

technically said that Bruce is, I don't know

if they're following the cartoon continuity of

Bruce secretly replaced his Warren's DNA. And

that's fine. They don't have to do that. I, I

kind of prefer Bruce Wayne not being Terry McGinnis's

father in the, in these comics specifically.

Being a quirk of faith that he suffered the same

origin story as Bruce. Yeah. I don't believe

they are that that is wholly something. The cartoons

on the cartoons. Yeah. And I mean, it worked

for the cartoons for the shock value for the,

you know, for what We got an epilogue. It worked

there. And yeah, I just absolutely love the way

I've loved the way that they've done all of the

Beyond comics since we started covering them

back in 2015. Yeah. And I love this story. Like

the idea because in case you forgot folks, when

we did the Tim Drake, Batman Beyond post futures

and that timeline, it was very much. in the idea

that Gotham or Neo Gotham is one of, if not the

only bastions of human civilization still left

after the AI apocalypse of that alternate future,

which is why, you know, we have that flash of

light where Tim Drake disappears at the end.

And then we get into the volume before it, which

was, I think it was the volume bus before this.

divide conquer and kill yeah and in but in the

greater cosmology of the DC Comics universe this

is May potentially be the future of Batman or

it may not but its own inherent timeline has

been rewritten because the if The effects of

dr. Manhattan fiddling with time in doomsday

clock. So I think this is more back more in line

with the overall timeline of the Batman Beyond

cartoon in Terry's dad is going to narc on Wayne

Powers for creating, you know, biological weapons.

He dies. Terry becomes Batman and everything

else. And this is also how they've massaged in

so many elements of pre Flashpoint DC comics

into the current continuity. Because the idea

with the new 52 was the result of dr. Manhattan

futzing with the timeline and that's why those

first four or five years of the new 52 Essentially

read like what if image comics ran DC Comics

in the 90s? Because that's what it felt like

There's a lot of great stuff to come out of the

new 52. Don't get me wrong. I'm just establishing

that the timeline is messed up Right. Yeah, I

mean DC's timeline has always been messed up

just like Marvel's timeline has been messed up

at times I mean for the most part not as bad

though. No, no, not as bad. Well, I mean at least

Marvel when they go from being Marvel to Marvel

now or Marvel next or Marvel Unlimited or Marvel

insert after at you know, adjective here, whatever

at least they have some sort of, at least they

have a Kevin Fahey or somebody. DC doesn't have

a Kevin Fahey, but again, Warner Brothers and

Disney get in bed together. Boom, there you go.

Anyway, what I love in this, I think it's issue

38 here, is as Constance and Terry are out on

the street. My favorite panel from this is the

one where it's Damn it, come on. Constance says

to him, give me a cred card and I can match any

written this scan it has embedded in it, mystery

man. That is so schway. Terry, I love, and this

is so stupid. What? The panel where, yeah, he's,

yeah, he's got like, you know, his burger or

burrito or whatever the fuck it is in his mouth.

Somebody from behind, huh? You know. And it's

Barbara. And it's Barbara. And he still hasn't

let go of his burrito because the man is hungry.

Yep. And I was like, wow, he's still got those

skills because he absolutely nails Barbara in

the face. And they jump off one of those Blade

Runner -esque walkways. And did they commit suicide?

No, they've got jet boots because future. Yeah,

I mean, you know And this is honestly my favorite

bit of a character development the writing in

this story is they sit down to You know eat their

meal. Finally. They're on this like, you know

Neo Gotham water tower and you start seeing how

Constance is actually bad where she starts You

know, I was this researcher at Wayne Powers.

I was developing this nerve agent and then this

backstabbing whistleblower. I was, you know,

Derek Powers' mistress. I was like, well, I hope

you enjoyed that for what it was, Liddy. At least

she had him before he went nuclear, I guess.

I don't know. Literally. Hi -oh. Hi -oh. So I

have to say that The scene, okay, so we get this,

you know, just to back up a couple of beats where

they activate the boots and they're flying through

the air. Right after that, the panel where she

says they're easy to, or he says they're easy

to use constants. That reminds me so much of

the rooftop in 89. What the heck was that man?

I don't know some giant bet, you know, where

were the two criminals are getting away? So yeah,

that's what that old scene reminds me of there

I can see that but yeah, she used you as soon

as she said that thanks to a backstabbing whistleblower

is like oh Crap, she's gonna turn up Terry. Yeah,

then we go to Wayne Powers and I love how You

got these guys who are working for Wayne enterprises

But they obviously they worked for powers back

in the day. And they're like, hey, if he wants

to if he wants to glass this place, I'll take

his money. You know, because corruption runs

deep in Gotham City. And one thing I never liked

about the design and the animation is illustrated

here where Blight sneaks up behind this nameless

office worker. and snaps his neck, but you see

how he's wearing those dumb, like, Batman Beyond,

Geordi LaForge glasses. Yep. There's no ways

any of that should stay on his face, and it promptly

goes flying, and I was like, finally, somebody

fixes something that I've been complaining about

inside my head for 20 years. Yeah. And... I think

it's just the outline of his nose, though. I

don't know. Yeah, no, he's not wearing glasses,

dude. Well, no, he's got like that weird visor

dealie that is like the future glasses in the

Batman Beyond universe. Oh, you're talking about

the guy's neck that he snaps. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

I thought, no, I thought you were talking about

Blight. Okay. I was going to say, because yeah,

no. Blight would never wear anything to cover

up that gloriously gruesome visage. And then

Batwoman shows up, and I love how they keep her

going back to, you know, the suit adapts to the

wearer, which we got back with the symbiote suit,

you know, a couple volumes back. And clearly

this Batwoman is, she's got something to prove

because a lot of this stuff, I would say on first

blush, it seems a tad more vicious than Terry

is. Oh yeah. But it might just be Sean Chan's

art too. It's just how she comes in and mocks

these guys over and swipes around and hits them

with a shock blast and then she crashes through

and we go back to the Batcave and she comes up

on Blight and then the look on Bruce's face when

that voice, he's alive. Who's alive? It's Blight!

And that now this shot here of his suit. Yeah,

that is straight up a Lex Luthor special. Oh,

absolutely. It is. I love that how he's I love

one thing in love of lights design aside from

like the whole skeleton in a suit was the you

know how he always had that kind of ripple of

energy around him. You know, he's giving her

at this point, maybe a really bad sunburn because

the suit does offer some protection. Yeah. So

this is the final page of issue 38 in the story

here where he's holding her up. Is it just me

or has every, at least one issue of every Beyond

series that we've covered since the Drake run,

even before then? I swear, like when we did Wired

for Death, I swear there was a point where...

Rewire was holding up the Batman suit, literally

in this exact same pose. Somebody is holding

somebody else up in a Batman Beyond suit. I swear

I've seen this pose before. I'm not complaining

about it. I'm just wondering. I think it's a

huge coincidence, but that pose has shown up

several times throughout Batman's history. Yes,

it has. I mean, thankfully, thankfully Blight

didn't try to break her back because that would

just be, don't. Yeah. I know, I mean, they know

they had the slappers, but I kind of always wanted

to see like a Neo Gotham version of Bane, like

a proper version of Bane, but that's just me.

But we get into this new one and they got new

art by, let's see if I can pronounce this name

correctly, Imaki Miranda, who does the pencils

on this issue. Very stark contrast, still really

good, got a nice feel for the technical. and

layout design and all that and they do some uh

cool stuff with uh not solid panels all over

and yeah some things uh flow into others like

where light punches batwoman you see her foot

and her arm all of a sudden she's it's like she's

been transported to the bat cave yep pretty much

yeah and bruce and terry are still trying to

figure out who batwoman is And it's like, it

must be Melanie. No, it's Barbara. And I remember

reading this and thinking, okay, at this point,

it's not them because this is what that's way

too easy. Yeah. Well, first of all, yeah, I mean,

Barbara in this series to this point, she's.

Older, but she's not Angie Harmon old return

of the Joker. She's not that like would you kid

like a butterscotch? Because she's old like don't

get me wrong. We all love Angie Herman Barbara,

but yeah, she's again because of the timelines

wibbly wobbly, you know, it's Slightly more mature

Barbara Gordon. She doesn't have a streak of

gray in that hair not yet Yeah, so Do like the

Avenger at least I think it's an Avengers reference

to the Hulk Loki thing where Because he definitely

looks like the Hulk there were Blake grabs her

by your ankles and like, you know, wham wham

Yeah, and wham wham. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It

is. Yeah, and then we go back to Terry and Constance

and Oh constant knows who she is. And this is

going to do something nasty. Yep. Yeah. I, okay.

So I was, I don't know, folks, you got, you know,

people that are listening to this, y 'all can

go back to episode three 96 of the pull bag and

hear what JT and I said about volume six, divide,

conquer and kill, which was the false face thing

and everything else. Looking back, I don't remember

much of that other than the fact that false face

died while wearing Terry or whatever the hell

it was. Hence why Terry has no memory. I like

this with like this that we're talking about

now where Terry is trying to figure it was like.

You have this juxtaposition of. daughter Grayson

being the new Batwoman, whereas Terry needs to

find himself again and figure out like it's,

it's this whole, it's like if, if Marty got hit

on the head and it was somebody else other than

his own mother that woke him up, you know what

I mean? It's this alternate whatever kind of

thing and it's really cool that they can tell.

This is what I like about multiple story to multiple

vignettes, multiple arcs in one story where you

have one side of the characters over here and

you have the other side of the characters over

here. You're essentially telling two different

stories that will collide into the whole story

eventually. It's just fun. Even though I know

Constance is an evil bitch. Yeah. And again,

just getting back to Sean Chan's art, like the

opening. It's so good. yeah because when you

get into issue 40 and that first shot of blight

sitting on the throne okay i know it's blight

but especially in this shot with those colors

yes uh shawn chen should do like i i know it's

almost blasphemy amongst men of our generation

when you talk about this animated series but

I low -key kind of dig what they were going for

with New Adventures of He -Man. Oh, no. And this

would be a great take on the whole mutant. No,

no. No, no, no to you. It's my idea. It's my

head count. I understand it's your idea and I

respect that it's your idea, but I have plenty

of bad ideas and this is one of your bad ideas.

No. Well, doesn't sound like you're respecting

my ideas at all then, Mike. Anyway, we're in

like some lab complex, you know, inside some

area, probably something that Derek Powers hid

away from Bruce. Or the other way around it's

something he found yeah, because we do find out

and I think it's the next issue or the issue

after that in this continuity, which is like

90 % the animated series in terms of the storyline

that after He took over Wayne like after he took

over Wayne enterprises and became Wayne powers

Derek Powers found out all the secret construction

projects that Bruce did so I mean it could it

could or could not be but you can see Constance

not not not to be too gross, but she's uh Her

body is ready because she clearly wants to jump

this pile of bones I'm getting really really

bad Mark Hamill voices in my head Oh, what a

revelation I did not need. Yeah, I'm sorry sexy

Skeletor with evil in No, thank you. Don't do

that Kevin Smith you bastard. I have no idea

what you're talking about. We're moving on. Yes.

Yes. Yes It's like, you know, most people shit

themselves when they look at me, but you're not

why and Terry's like She told me what she looked

like before we walked into the room if that's

all it is to handle talking to blight I was like

your look is not as strong as you think it is

sir Yeah, no also the fact that Terry's seen

like way worse stuff in his history Yeah, just

there in the background and and I if he had eyebrows

They would be popped right now like that look

on his face in the panel after uh Evil Moira

tells him that this is Warren McGinnis's son

and he's got what could only be aside from the

fact that skeletons always have a grin he is

grinning from ear to ear because he's like the

irony is delicious and that and then we I I just

love the fact that I love story beats like this

and then you know the hero has amnesia working

for his bad guy because they've been done it's

a trope you know it's not a bad trope i don't

think i love it and you just hear them it's implied

mocking laughter as we go back to batwoman which

i totally thought this was going to be like a

villain origin or something where she's rescuing

the security guard from this uh device that's

like devouring this building yeah And again,

to go back to the animated series, the scene

where Const is like, and see why you needed the

containment suit, you know, not just to protect

those around you, but to protect me. And I flashed

back to that, the ink episode, what the hell's

wrong with you? It's not healthy to be around

me when I'm shedding. Yeah. It never occurred

to me. I love how they actually showed that because

they tell them that the the pseudo flesh suit

only lasts so long. But it's and it's not like

he got like the the glowy eye veins or anything.

It's like you actually see it disintegrating

over a few seconds in that scene. So I really

kind of thought that not here. And then Terry

comes back wearing this. I'm sorry, I absolutely

hate to design on this security guard thing.

It just, it looks so dumb. Of everything that

looks like the fashion choices of the future

are not always good. And as, as wound up as my

brain is when we go back to the Batcave, but

Matt's like, but it But it has to be one of you,

doesn't it? And Barbara's led the world's greatest

detective stumped and the look on Bruce's face,

he's like, hell, my life is a living hell. Yeah,

because they're like, you know, they're like,

it's not us. And at the end, he's like, I'm still

not convinced. And Matt's like, yeah, how about

some proof? Well, Barbara just points at the

screen. She's like, will that do? Yeah, I still

think it's in that two panels. It's where Matt

says it has to be one of them. And Bruce has

this like, hmm, I don't believe her. But then

you look at the popped eyebrows and his face

and he's like, I'm in hell. This is my punishment.

Yep. And of course, Powers has sent Goon Squad

with one of these Devourer bombs to eat, you

know, Wayne Manor. It doesn't look exactly like

the animated series design, but there I think

the general motif of this looks Yeah, it's close

enough for a far far away shot. I mean, it's

not yeah I mean, yeah, because it's it's at that

panel where she's flying into to hopefully save

everybody But but yeah points at the screen This

guy, he fires a missile at her, and I was wondering

when did a Cobra villain from G .I. Joe get here,

because that's what he looks like. You know,

like some neo -gotham version of Metalhead from

the Dumbass Deek series. And Batwoman's doing

her best to deal with it, and she's got a heat

seeker on her tail. They activate the bomb, and

that's when... Well, it's Nightwing. Black and

the blue and the overall design aesthetic. If

you thought it was anyone else, you clearly have

not been reading Batman comics that long. No,

I love. He hits the button. He turns it off.

Really? It's that easy. Yeah, I. I gotta say,

I'm digging. Like, it's not often. Outside of

the original animated series Nightwing suit,

I have never, and I blame Kyle Higgins, I have

never been an overall fan of Nightwing Blue.

I have always been Nightwing Red because of Higgins'

new 52 run. And I will die on that hill and that's

fine. But this? Yeah, well, it is what it is.

gonna die alone anyway so what the hell's the

point but this suit and this like seriously you

want to talk about homages like when he rides

up on that bike i'm like hey look it's akira

yeah because you know yeah one i i love the overall

like i said i love shanshan's art and for some

reason just kind of the look of some of the tech

that he uses here. I'm I'm getting like Jack

Kirby vibes. So, um, you know, it's like, okay,

he just punched it off instead of, you know,

plugging in a mother box and turning it off.

But I mean, it's not even a nightwing suit. This

is his biker leathers like this. Yeah, you know

that that's all it is. This is a writing outfit

for the the Akira special that he's got there.

And I love the, you know, your timing's perfect.

Well, that's because I learned from the best

and mutual admiration society moment between

Batman and Robin slash Naomi. Overall, the one

thing I didn't like about the digital first Batman

Beyond comics that we've talked about is like

the Nick Fury Dick Grayson that we got there.

I was just not a fan. You know, first of all,

of Dick losing an eye and then him wearing an

eye patch. It just, I didn't like that. So I

like this, you know. Yeah, I'm okay with this.

I like this, but I liked that because at one

point in those, or is it in this? I forget. It's

one of those ones where in one of the comics

that we've covered over the last couple of years

since then. Terry says well at least the eye

thing worked out in this universe or whatever

it is or you know what I mean, so I'm okay with

Dick Grayson agent of Batman Yeah, and it's like

I'd say purely as a design thing. Yeah, I mean

it was established early on With Nick Fury when

he first showed up in the Marvel comics that

you know, he already had the eye patch and then

they came out with you know, Sergeant Fury and

the Howling Commandos to, you know, illustrate

his history in World War Two with the unit. And

then they have the story where, you know, he

took a grenade to the face and he didn't let

it heal properly. And that's how he lost the

eye versus the somewhat laughable reason he lost

the eye in the movies. And I don't hate Captain

Marvel, but I was like, really? Spacecat? Bastards.

So yeah, we get into the next issue 41 where,

uh, thank God they gave him a better suit. I'm

sorry. I it's, it's still kind of the same design,

but it's that it's the colors. I don't know why

I'm obsessed. Yeah. I mean, the last suit, he

kind of looked like a garbage man. Yeah. It's

gray and blue and it's just. I had no idea that

colors upset me like that. I found another trigger

today. There you go. But yeah, we go in the loud.

Clearly she hits like a girl. That is not me

trying to be a misogynist. It's no, it's just

the way it looks. You know, it looks like, yeah,

oh, you put them to sleep. I mean, but she swung

a future monkey wrench at him. She should have

caved his head in. Yeah, I. Oh, but she's a scientist

and she knows the right angle and exactly how

much force to use there. See, it's better. I'm

just saying I'm just saying that doesn't look

like no damn monkey wrench. That looks like a

crowbar to me. I know it's not a crowbar, but

hello, it's a Batman. It's probably a combination

monkey wrench and crowbar because the future.

Yes. But yeah, and they're doing the old mind

swap thing, which yeah, they're going to use

Terry's body as powers his new body because,

you know, I just I would love to see the alternate

universe where you know Terry goes to the alternate

universe where this happened and You've got evil

Terry As the new blight because in my head cannon

some of the radioactivity Crossed over and eventually

this all happened again. Yeah, but The the first

your daughter is missing is bump bump bump. Yeah

Your daughter is Batwoman? What are you talking

about? But Matt's reaction? Aw, man! We should

have known the whole... Matt, you are 12 years

old and you've barely discovered girls. You don't

know shit. Well, you know what? I gotta defend

Tim, though, because... Tim? Other than it being

Melanie, or potentially Barbara, who else is

there? Well, that's the thing that kind of bugs

me, too, about whether or not all the Batman

Beyond, and then clearly with this series, as

I kind of established earlier, they've established

that this is post -rebirth and the timeline getting

rejiggered because of Dr. Manhattan. So the digital

first comics of Batman Beyond aren't in canon,

and they did have that Batgirl Beyond. So I thought

it might even have been that character whose

name I cannot remember. I was hoping cause I

went back and I'm like, wait a minute. Didn't

they already do a bet girl being? Yeah, they

did. And this is something or other. I was kind

of hoping Juergens would have brought her into

this, but I completely am okay with it staying

in the family. Yeah. I also love like Bruce's

real was she's aware of our secrets, knows about

the cave and everything in it. And I was like,

Okay, at what point did Elena become Vicky Vail?

That thing just sent me back to, you know, Batman

Returns is like, who let Vicky Vail into the

Batcave, Alfred? I'm just sitting there doing

work. Oh, hey, Vicky, how's it going? You know,

it's just why would, unless Dick wanted her to

become like the new Robin or Huntress or something.

But yeah, so like they, okay, yeah, it's her.

And then we go back to the You know Batwoman

cabin that she's got out in the Gotham forest

which just further solidifies that this is a

different earth and it because with the futures

and Batman Beyond most of the world had been

kind of laid to waste because of the You know

Zoids I I like this. I think this is cool this

whole scene of her wherever she's hiding out

and Think that's really really fun. Yeah, although

it's really weird seeing Melanie in blue and

white I mean she kind of looks like Sue Storm,

which she should not look like Sue Storm I don't

know if that looks like a decent fantastic for

cosplay But yeah, I do like the the setup of

why you know you know she she was like listens

all the stories of his glory days is you know

night wing and You know, we don't know who the

mother is No, and I don't like that. Yeah, in

my headcanon, it's if you've ever read the 90s

Darkwing series or Darkwing Nightwing series

one of the many romances that dick had in that

series was the Clancy his landlady in his apartment

building and that's who I think the mother was

here, but you know Well, at least you didn't

say starfire Well, she has orange hair And Elena

has black hair. Well, doesn't fly. True. But

still, but like, I know, but the setup of Elena's

desire to become bad woman is in a few panels

in a few senses is very clearly explained. And

we don't have a three issue arc of flashbacks

of her, you know, deciding to become that one.

I mean, you can tell a story like they're telling

with this, this overall volume. You can tell

a character story within several issues. And

that's how that they've like the first few we

had, oh, Mr. Like we knew obviously, because

once we're we, once we, the readers are told

we know, but yeah, they've done her origin. in

multiple issues and it's been fascinating and

easy. And like you're saying, being able to do

the background in like four or five, six panels

versus four or five, six issues. Yeah. So I mean,

but the idea that she, she's always whether or

not she came about it recently or has always

intended this, but you know, Dick and his and

her mom, you know, she went into the service,

which is implied, you know, police work or possibly

a federal agent or something. And then Bruce

believes, I believe so. She was in the military,

but yeah, same service. Yeah. Which, which could

be anything really, but anything. And then Bruce

drops that line. It's like, you know, the perfect

training to become a superhero. And I'm always

like, yeah, military or some sort of government

agent, you know, and then the whole idea is like,

she never showed any interest. And then Barbara

is like, yeah. young women keeping secrets from

her parents never happened in this house before.

Nope. And then he's like, well, if anyone wouldn't

know, it's you. So exactly. And she's got, uh,

I love the fact that the Alfred AI is in this

suit. Cause this is the suit Terry was wearing

that false face was wearing, you know, cause

the whole story starts like a little while after

they've defeated false face and they've reclaimed

the suit, but Terry was still out there. So yeah,

Elena, I don't know if the suit generates the

hair or Elena just, you know, glued a wig on

to the back of the mask. Let's just say the suit

generates the hair. And I mean, it's also because

of the whole style of Batwoman. You know what

I mean? Yeah, like, uh, Ruby Rose or, uh, Ryan,

whatever her name is now, like that's a wig.

That ain't, that red hair ain't their own. In

the comics with Kate, she has red hair, but she

never threw it out that long. Yeah, but, and

that's fine because that's the original character

of Kate and that's how she debuted in comics.

But in order to get the Batwoman suit look, I

seriously doubt they're going to have the actresses

in the television show. Yeah. And so Elena that

woman is going up Terry wakes out. He's inside

a pod. He's freaking out like Neo in the Matrix

and When you see I love the image of blight with

all the hoses and everything hooked up You know

the transfer at five percent like that's what

they're about to do this, but he's grown four

fucking feet Never mind the foot tall platform.

He's standing on he's still yeah towering over

Moira We know her name's constant folks. It's

yeah, I'm sorry. No, that's okay Moira. Yeah,

it's okay Yeah, and this suit now looks even

more Lexish because it's even more purple than

it was before My god, he's the illegitimate son

of Lex Luthor. We should have seen it all along

Yeah, so she she in this process Body transfer

thing. Yeah, the the body transfer and they're

like, oh, there's something going on. It's not

working Oh, yes the amnesia. I love how she just

like boop boop boop boop. Okay. Now he remembers

everything cuz he gotta love future science Yeah,

and Terry just like me. I remember I Remember

everything and then for some reason you oh god

when you said that the first thing everything

sir And he's like, Batgirl? Woman. Batwoman.

Yeah, yuts. That's not the actual dialogue, folks,

but that would have been great if she actually

said that. And then he goes and he's, again,

it's forced perspective and all that, but Blight

still looks like he's the size of the goddamn

Hulk when he tries to punch Batwoman and she

trips him and then. Constance tries to initiate

the process and or kill Carrie. Yeah. And it

just does not work out for Blight. Nope. Like

she and he's like, no. And you know, he he's

like, I love how his you see his the bones are

breaking down even more. He's little more than

a ghost in the suit. right now and Constance

just like withers and dies because he's literally

having such a rage fit that he's just pumping

out like copious amounts of radioactivity. Yeah,

when when Batwoman grabs Terry and it's okay.

Yeah, it's the scene where she She's lifting.

Okay. I know this isn't a chair and it isn't

a windshield, but she's lifting something up

We got to make oh she's pulling off the window.

She's yeah She's pulling off that you're gonna

make sure things aren't leaving wars. So the

next panel where Constance is in the background

and they are flying away from blight as he's

trying to grab them. It looks like Terry has

half flying Superman powers because of the way

that the art is of her. Yeah. Like holding it.

Like I'm not saying that she was ever going to,

you know, cradle him. Like, you know, he man

would cradle damsel in distress thing, but it

just, it looks really weird. It's not a bad thing.

I don't, it's awkward looking, but yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So they GTFO and you know, Blight has his

hissy fit and kills his Former lover which sounds

weird to say cuz let's face it Derek powers probably

just used her as a form of stress relief you

know letting her think he cared for cuz I Look,

you know your base plant Who knows maybe if the

series continued she would have come back as

a female blight. Oh That would have been cool.

I I I can also I did not mind this being a Blight

story. I know you like Blight as the overall

Batman Beyond main villain, and that's fine.

And I'm all well and good with this story and

how this was told and everything else, but one

story with Blight is enough. Yeah, I mean, everyone

has what they like. I do have to say I love the,

I don't know who did the cover. for issue forty

-two. Yep. But I love the the painted look. You

know, kind of. It's so good. Yeah. The Miss Shredderfield.

You got, you know, Wayne Manor in the background.

Blight getting his ass kicked into a tombstone.

The a more cloth like wing bit going on for the

Batwoman soon. She's got the long flowing red

hair who whether the suit generated the hair,

she just glued a wig on there. I'd imagine she,

you know, knowing If she didn't know Barbara

was Batgirl, she knew Batgirl from history tapes

and, oh, I'm a female Batperson, this is only

appropriate. But we get in and we have that thing

that I mentioned before that Light knew that

Bruce was Batman and he's got this, to go back

to Skeletor, he's got one of the flying disks

from the Masters of the Universe movie as he

floats up to the, uh, uh, cliffside. entrance

of the Batmobile where the road used to go but

clearly over time stuff has crumbled away and

they just kept the door there and he goes in

at the same time as the family as the Bat family

has come back home they're they're going through

I love the fact that yeah they still got the

clock it still works like the animated series

it's weird the little things you notice but I've

always loved the whole grandfather clock entrance

idea in Batman. And they've used it different

ways, like the Adam West series had the bookcase

with the Shakespeare bus switch. The Batman had,

it wasn't a grandfather clock, but I think they

had a grandfather clock and they also had like

the arcade machine that slid aside and was another

entrance to the Batcave. It's little touches

like that that I love in this series. Yeah, absolutely.

The cover for issue 42, the one that we love

the one with her basically it's green, red and

purple where it's a black, green, red and purple

because it's Batman up at the top. And then it's

her kicking into blight that cover, the main

cover. It's by our good old friend, Dustin Yen.

Dustin Nijan, you know who I'm talking about.

Nguyen, I think. There you go. We apologize for

butchering your family. Yes. Yes. Yes. We are

so sorry. But yeah, so they walk into the Batcave

and Blight is standing like King Kong ain't got

nothing on him on top of the Batmobile. Which

finally, after seeing all the various Batmobiles

in the background of various shots of the story

so far, we finally get the OG Beyond Mobile.

Yep, which was nice for me and He's set up. It's

he's got a remote to shoot missiles from the

car He's blowing everything looks like he blows

up what may or may not be the 89 Batmobile in

which case you heartless bastard Yeah, if this

was a Sean Gordon Murphy comic that would never

happen. Yeah Like a dozen them parked around

the corner, but yeah true we get Elena and Batman.

I mean Terry Terry uh well he's batman now technically

he is still batman yeah i can commiserating as

they're flying back to uh the bat cave and they

get in and blights you know wreck and shop and

i i do love this is killing the original batman

makes me far more than a cheap punk and bruce

whoever that man is it won't be you as elena

just gold brook spears him Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, she comes flying in like a Batwoman out

of hell. Yeah. And you know, and then Terry runs

to I thought he was going for the symbiote suit

for a second. And it didn't occur to me until

he comes rocking out and he just went back to

the mark one. Yeah, which is great. Because,

you know, there's the little touches of like

the eyes and the belt on you know, technically

that's mark three. Yeah, whatever. And yeah,

but yeah, so again, Bruce always having things

prepared. Yeah, so like, he's straight uppercuts

powers and I'm just like, sweet. Because there's

something about a superhero uppercut in the comics

is just like my chef's kiss. And he's like you

think you can steal my body kill my family and

he and he's like I love Bruce's like damn son

look on his face cuz he's like that Matt's like,

uh, that's that's and Batman's just like sway

Yeah, yeah the look on Bruce is so what's happening

here is that Terry as Batman has gotten into

the Batmobile and he is taking it Down that's

and it's you know, it's gonna self -destruct

and the you're right the look on Bruce's face

three two Terry like you said Destruct oh man.

This art is so good Yeah, and and like I said

before as we've said several times throughout

this episode is Sean chins like besides overall

having an overall very solid sense of design

and proportion You know between the characters

in the background is his the finer detail Yeah

work in the background like that seat where blight

standing over the shattered monitors Uh are sure

the shattered uh cases of like the the suit gallery

and you see like each individual shard of glass

and you see the He's little more than a series

of kirby dots inside this suit because the bones

like the radio activity is literally breaking

every part of him down Yeah, you know, he's and

then Terry I love the He backs into him at full

speed with the Jets and then Elena comes in and

we clocks him and You know, it's just yeah Yeah,

it's so so good. It's so I love this arc. I think

this arc is really great. I love Like you have

this giant mystery throughout this entire volume

and you have various things going on you have

the the. Realization of who constance is and

what she was blight and whatever else and you

have all these fighting so you have these simple

moments at the end where you know dick and elena

or leon or whatever. Now do you see why I kept

you as far away from this insanity as possible?

Of course. Yeah. But what I see most of all is

that Blight was taken care of. If I hadn't been

here, who knows how many people he'd have killed,

you know? And then you see just the traditional

standard. You see this in almost anything. The

final shot, Barbara, Dick, Melanie, who... basically

says nothing through most of this arc. I mean,

she says one or two things to deny that she's

the Batwoman. Yeah. Well, she did have a vocal

perch. I mean, she's still there. Yeah. Yeah,

no, she's still there. And then, you know, you

have the thing with Bruce, you know, true enough.

Thank you for that. But what leaves us with the

question, which one of you wears the suit tomorrow?

Like, yeah, it's one of those. Oh. We can actually

end the comic on a good note, and we don't have

to figure out what story we didn't get if they

left it on a cliffhanger. And I mean, just like

to go back just a little story, there is a great

nod to the ink. What I think is a nod to the

ink episode where she enters the Batcave where

Dick has run off and he's grabbed a tank of fire

retardant foam that belonged to a firefly and

Elena's like Wayne just happened to have an inventory

of anti -radiation goop on hand. Yeah. The goddamn

Batman. Absolutely. And then, you know, the Batmobile

has this grabber claw, which just seemed like

something out of how many different toy vehicles

we both saw growing up. Like that just seemed

like the standard thing. Terry grabs Blight,

mounts up, dives in the ocean, drills a hole

down into the earth. And again, this is something

else to bring Blake again, like he says himself,

radiation doesn't die. So for all we know, Blake

has now become living radiation. He can possess

a body. And they could potentially, if the series

had continued, could have brought Blake back

again. And that is, I think, some A grade A comic

book storytelling. It's like how they would explain

how the Riddler or the Joker died in the golden

age. stories back in the day. It was like, oh,

the Riddler, he was just in a coma after getting

struck by that lightning. Sure. Why not? Anybody

else feel like a fried egg? Yeah. Thank you.

I was hoping you would get that. But yeah, the

the whole idea is like, yeah, sure. Why not?

That isn't a negative in in comics and that whether

there's no comics or whatever, it's if you can

have an explanation of potentially why a bad

guy returns in the future that at least works

somewhat consistently within the internal logic.

You know, that's like people who try to judge

what's going on in a movie trailer in a movie

from the trailer. Now, I mean, whether or not

you You agree with the idea that trailers give

away the story, and nowadays half the time they

do. The idea that you have at least something

of an explanation, and it's not... You don't

know exactly how much radiation it took for power

to survive. Anyway, we can't... So, for context

for what you're talking about, folks, when he's

talking about trailers, I agree with you? And

I will always say that a trailer is meant to

get you into the film if you're, if you're interested

in that film. However, you know, you're right.

Yeah, they do sometimes give everything away.

As we are recording this, you find folks will

be hearing this in the first week of May, but

as we are recording this April 18th of 2022,

the Thor Love and Thunder trailer just came out.

Which I haven't seen yet. Okay, well then. Now,

just as we kind of close it out here, for at

least this part of the story, we still kind of

have one more issue here. The idea was like,

which one of you wears the suit tomorrow? This

is another trope of comic books. Like when the

Avengers came back after Heroes Reborn in the

90s, and at the end of the arc, every Avenger

past present reserve not reserve shows up and

be says what are we gonna do with thirty four

avengers like this is the sort of ending that

i love in comics like this cuz you know they

move on and then we move on to the next issue

which is basically just them you know not glossing

over but they're they're kinda cleaning stuff

up as we move into the next story yes but we're

gonna hold off on that because the next time

yeah so We're gonna take a quick break. You're

gonna hear some ads and some other stuff. We'll

come back to close the show after this. All right,

we are back here inside the pullback JT work

the people interact with you online sir Well,

you can follow me on most of the social medias

at JT from Saskatoon all one word You can also

catch me on the comic connoisseurs podcast that

I do with Ben Carver and red ink as well as I

am one of the primary creators on twigs Sunday

funnies along with Mike the bird man And right

here at the pull bag. That's right. We've got

another Batman Beyond thing to do next week because

we've got to get into the eradication agenda.

Oh boy, I can only imagine what that story is

going to be. I am at TF2 and Mike on Twitter.

You can also follow at Geekcast Radio and at

the pull bag as well. As I said, next week, episode

483 will be Batman Beyond Volume 8, the eradication

agenda. For now, I am TFG1Mike with JT from Saskatoon.

As always, make your great escape into comics

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