Batman Beyond: Brave New Worlds Review

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

It's all here inside the pullback with Back Issue

Classics. Welcome to Back Issue Classics. Here

inside the pullback, TFG One Mind brings in a

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and more. So, open your ears to hear... our discussions

on comics you might not have known about it's

all here inside the pullback with back issue

classics hello and welcome to the pullback back

issue classics episode 77 and sadly no we are

not in a galaxy far far away i would have loved

to have been able to do that but um no not this

time folks and uh So yeah, Back into Classics

episode 77 here. We're gonna go beyond, Batman

beyond. I'm of course TFJ and Mike and joining

me for the first time since I think the Batmite

coverage is JT from Saskatoon. I'm back! That's

scary. I've been practicing. Yeah, I think you

need to go check your sugars. Oh, sorry. I love

you too, Mike. We're here to talk about, in the

trade paperback kind of form, Batman Beyond,

the 2015 series done by Dan Juergens and Bernard

Chang. We're going to talk about the first story

arc, Brave New Worlds, which covers issues one

through six of Batman Beyond. Now, I remember

a few years ago. when they were doing the future

zen thing and whatever else in a free comic book

day we had uh future zen number zero where terry

mcginnis gets sent back to the future sadly the

batmobile did not look like a DeLorean but um

yeah they kind of backed us back to the future

to uh their storyline uh Because basically what

the setup was like you go from Justice League

number one, which was the first comic of the

new 52 Futures and is a storyline that takes

five five years into that like five years into

the future of that where Mr. Terrific Has created

the the T spheres and he's more of like this

a he's more puff daddy by way of Mr. Terrific

than Kanye have some people have called them

and I would never deign to insult Mr. Terrific

like that. But basically, there's the brother

I a artificial intelligence is 35 years past

that five year point. So basically 40 years in

the future is going to take over the world with

like these bug like basically he his Cyborg virus

that takes over the world is like the board from

Star Trek on crank so Bruce and Terry Can I have

because the world's basically obliterated? They're

gonna go back in time and prevent this from happening

Bruce has taken out so Terry goes back and this

is all during the Earth two worlds and in futures

and their weekly comic book series that DC has

had some success with over the last few years

Uh, by the end of it, uh, terry has averted his

future But dies in the process and bequeaths

his suit the the the beyond suit to Now an adult

tim drake who? For reasons that are never completely

explained decided to fake his death and retire

from a life of being a superhero And then he

goes back to the future To see, you know, make

sure everything's like copacetic and he gets

trapped there and it turns out that brother i

still kind of invaded it's not nearly as bad

as terry's future was it's worse it's it's both

better and worse in a way and as we come over

the con like because no like the first time when

terry went back the first time it as i said before

with the borg it was like mad max on crank bad

whereas this one there there's still cities it's

more akin to, like, the Stallone, Judge Dredd

future sort of thing. Like, humanity has survived,

the world is still incredibly fucked up. I just

can't see Commissioner Barbara Gordon in this

universe. I am the law. I just can't see her

doing that. We'll get into it towards the end

of it, but at one point in the con, because I

had read this entire series, because it has since

concluded, one initially she shows up with like

red hair and she's older Barbara and she's Commissioner

Gordon still and then towards the end of the

series they put her into the Batman Beyond animated

mold where she's got the white hair and like

the granny Jubilee glasses and I was like Okay,

that's just kind of a hard pivot left, you know

Yeah, but yeah And we'll get to all of that future

stuff because we are going to be covering this

entire series folks This is just kind of like

the prelude episode for this first story arc

where we talk about the brave new worlds part

one you know the six parter here and then coming

up in may we're gonna talk about the other two

parts which is city of yesterday and wired for

death uh... and yeah you're right they did kind

of take various bits from the animated series

like when um... when she first shows up in the

batmobile later on in one of these issues uh...

I was like, hey, look, it's not exactly the animated

Batmobile. It's got that sleekness, but it's

a bit more caked out just in the design. Yeah,

exactly. And like I said before, this is written

by Dan Jergens. The art is done by Bernard Chang.

This is my first time reading a comic of with

bernard ching on art obviously dan jurgens wrote

the the batmite series that we covered uh...

last year or so and um... you also uh... good

i was gonna say no uh... i wouldn't call i don't

call this at all blasphemy uh... a certain other

uh... connoisseur of comics oh god please can't

we just go one episode without mentioning that

guy We're not saying him by name. I'm just saying

there is a certain other individual on the internet

who is quite opinionated about comics. He's just

a guy from Georgia. I thought he was from Texas.

That was a bad John Cena reference, dude. Have

you not been keeping up with WWE? Not really.

Well, go over to This Week in Geek and listen

to Mayhem Mikes. They did a... because John came

back and... It was John versus AJ at Rumble this

year. Yeah. And John was on one of the, it was

on the Today Show or one of the shows, and they

were joking around and messing around on the

show. And like, he's just a guy from Atlanta.

He's just a guy from Georgia. So then they worked

that into the storyline where AJ says, oh, I'm

just, you know, so yeah, he's just a guy from

Texas. Okay. So, so what I was getting to there

is, uh, I, I'm not saying he's any better or

worse, but, uh, there's Jeff Loeb. Who you know

if he wrote the movie commander, which is one

of my all -time favorite Schwarzenegger movies

I've always very much enjoyed his style of writing

his stories in comics because he you know for

good or ill he's just has this grasp of fun in

comics like when they started the Superman Batman

comic book in the early aughts and they had Ed

McGinnis on art and it was just kind of a celebration

of everything that was fun and just kind of twisted

a new way going forward at that point in DC Comics

and Again, Dan Juergens. I knew him growing up

as an artist because you know He he is like my

number one all -time favorite Superman artists

Because you you know when Henry Cavill Lost his

shirt after saving the Reagan Man of Steel and

he comes around the corner of the church and

you see him cut and I was like damn superman

walked off the page i immediately thought of

dan jurgens art but dan jurgens in the last few

years has turned more to uh writing with dc than

anything and he is very much like jeff lobe is

like he just kind of has this innate understanding

of he he knows to make it serious he knows to

have their you know have the odds against a hero

but it's just it kind of comes out okay in the

end it's just a lot of fun yeah i mean You know,

you go back and you listen to our Batmite episode,

which I'll put in the post, folks. If you listen

to that, the Batmite series, which are six issues

with him on writing and Corin Howell on art,

it was just so fun. The writing was so fun. And

then you basically give him the reverse here

where it's dark and sinister at times. And there

are comedy moments in this series, in this first

story arc for Batman Beyond 2015. I was initially,

I was so, I wanted them to stay in the animated

universe. I did not want, when they first announced

a few years ago, oh, guess what? The Batman Beyond

Universe is gonna become part of the DC fucked

up universe proper. And I'm like, no. No, no,

no, no, no, no, no. Leave it in its animated

realm and leave it alone. But after reading it,

after reading the whole story arc from beginning

to end, from issue one to issue 16, Um, absolutely

love, love this series. And again, as I said,

this was the first time I saw Bernard Chang's

art. I, I enjoy bits of it. There are certain

parts of it that at first kind of jar me like

the pages where it goes from really super polished

and glossy to this hard exploding red, yellow,

white kind of thing. You know what I'm talking

about? Yeah kind of a monochromatic color. Yeah

and that like don't get me wrong I can adjust

to art but I mean you know and the other thing

for me is I've always wanted and they've never

really given it to me and I just I can't even

if it is Tim Drake as Red Robin leading the Teen

Titans I've never been a Titans fan never been

a Titans fan not that I don't want to read the

comics or anything I just never had That animated

show just put me off completely to the Titans.

Teen Titans is not in the DC animated universe

continuity, damn it. But it's one of those things

where I've always wanted a Red Robin one -shot

or a Red Robin mini -series or something specifically

focusing on Tim Drake. And we kind of get that

here. Even though he has stepped into the shoes

of Batman, but they basically, because I remember

when they did the Zero Year stuff. I had read

his his zero -year issue and his origin and I'm

like, oh cool and they obviously make homage

to that like he was the first Robin to figure

out who Batman was and Or he was one of them.

I think it was the only one. Yeah. Anyway, so

There's a whole explanation for why he's read

Robin Yeah, you know and they kind of reference

it in I forget if it's in this arc and we'll

certainly go over that but it's in this series

He references, you know why he was Red Robin

and you know why he kind of dropped out of the

superhero life so yeah yeah and you know as we

get started into the series you know I just like

I said absolutely love it and we get you know

we see Tim getting you know acclimated to the

Beyond universe and the suit and And talking

to Alf, who apparently does not need... Oh, I'm

sorry, Alfred. Because Alfred is his AI. What

were your initial thoughts after reading the

first two issues? I was really kind of getting

into it. I mean, I've seen... One of the things

that I first thought that I loved was what they

did with the Brother Eye, like the borgs that

Brother Eye uses. It's basically like... the

borgs in first contact where they inject people

and they get turned into a bourbon this one like

they and they get injected the next thing you

know, like an eyes are popping out and it's all

like these cyber knife fingers and they get like

the spider like legs and like it's just this

full body horror kind of thing which kind of

you know shocked me initially and the other thing

was I just didn't think they were going to go

Like at the end of you know futures end and I

didn't think they were gonna bring Batman Beyond

back I figured they're just gonna throw Tim into

the future and It's kind of like Marty waking

up in the alternate alternate 1985 and just leaving

it there You know, so when I heard they were

bringing Batman Beyond back, it was like rock

on because I love that stuff But yeah, the first

couple issues like it really kind of set the

universe very well. It set the stakes very well

You get a very clear idea of what at least for

this first arc what they have to do moving forward

And then it just kind of builds from there after

that So I like it really set the hook well these

first couple issues For me by the time I got

to issues three and four I was okay with the

crazy art style color change stuff I know I was

apprehensive about that before but it's just

one of those things where it's something that

if you haven't seen it before you just have to

get you know it's kind of like waking up in the

middle of the night and seeing a snowy television

and you're like wait I thought that was on channel

3 why isn't that you know you just have to kind

of adjust yourself and that that was what so

by the third and fourth issue I absolutely loved

all of the art And the dystopian future for neo

Gotham and Gotham is the only city left standing

because it's protected by the veil Well as far

as they know, you know, but yeah Yeah, it's that

that whole like I said that whole kind of will

not not necessarily specifically the Stallone

dread But it's got this very kind of judged red

vibe Yeah, you know what other kind of vibe it

has? What's that? Power Rangers RPM Yeah, I could

see that well not not in this in the sense of

Batman But in the sense of the situation of the

fact. Oh, yeah The fact that Neil Gotham is the

only city left in the world and people are just

flocking to it because everything else is is

in ruins And Brother Eye has always wanted to

process Batman and he eventually, he has said

that he always wanted to process Batman and that

was his ultimate goal and whatever else and I

think seeing the processing of Batman, Tim Drake,

Batman Beyond is interesting because we, again,

this is how they remind the reader, hey, this

is what, in case you haven't read, all the issues

of futures and in case you haven't read any of

the teen titans issues this is tim drake's life

in the dc new fifty two universe uh... and i

absolutely love that i thought that was great

i love how they bring in can and i love how they

bring diana and her daughter as well and they're

doing things in this series that pay homage to

the cartoon series without maintaining the DC

animated universe kind of style which to me is

fine because it makes it good and interesting

and different and it's telling a different story

like we had like I said before and like you said

we had Terry McGinnis he went to the past and

he had his adventures and as we find out throughout

this one you know Terry died and passed on the

suit to Tim and poor little emo Matt is mad at

that and he eventually gets over it as we go

along through the other story arcs that we'll

talk about in this series but um You know for

me being a huge fan of the Batman Beyond cartoon

and the other Batman Beyond comics all the comics

that Kyle Higgins did with the animated universe

stuff that Steve and I covered a couple years

ago I have no issues story -wise So far with

this, I don't think I have a lot of issues at

all throughout this entire series, but this first

arc It's interesting, it's fun, it's well written,

the art is amazing. I nearly jumped out of my

chair when I saw the friggin' Batmobile. I even,

my note, the friggin' Batmobile. You know? God

damn, that's a sexy piece of machinery. Yes,

yes it is. I know this would be a, you know...

This would probably be sacrilege to say, but

I want to see Black Cat hanging off the side

of that thing. Anyway, universe cross, oh well.

Someday Mike, someday. I have an unhealthy crush

on Black Cat Jennifer Hale for all you that don't

know. Oh god. No, really Mike, this is a shock.

Yeah. Well, we just, okay, so. My buddy Eduardo

and I, you know, we just finished recording seasons

2 through 5 for Spider -Man 94, so... God forbid

the art should be done by J. Scott Campbell,

because it might fall into a coma. J. Scott Campbell

can do Spidey Black Cat for the rest of his life

and I'd be happy. You know how we always talk

about, you know, if Peter Cullen and Frank Welker...

Heaven forbid anything happened to either one

of them, but when something you know when they

passed it's like you know Freezing their voices

or putting their heads on on ice or what it's

like J Scott Campbell Just put them in a block

of ice and just make sure you can still draw

Yeah, well this there's a certain comic book

series he created that you know He used to say

he was gonna get back to and finish it, and I've

kind of since given up hope so And that's another

episode entirely. Yeah. You mentioned the spider

-like stuff with the Borg robots, like with Superman

and Wonder Woman and all the League robots that

Brother Eye has. When you mentioned that, the

first thing I thought of is, I wonder if Dan

Jergens or Bernard Chang, I wonder if they went

back and watched the Batman animated series episode

where Mr. Freeze got turned into a spider. Spider

-freezed. Yeah, that was just a little creepy.

Yeah. Very. Like, not only a little, it was very

creepy. Of all the things I didn't like about

the Red Sky series, that is probably my biggest

sticking point. Was because, I mean, after that

beautiful build up with like Heart of Ice and

even that it was very lackluster, like the Batman

Sub -Zero, like the direct to tape movie where,

you know, he kidnaps Barbara Gordon to save his

wife and all that. It's just that was like such

a great send -off for that Mr. Freeze. Well,

they bring him back twice. Yeah. They bring him

back. OK, so when they bring him back to the

point that he's Spider Freeze, yeah. Yeah, Spider

Freeze. It's just once that happens, I was just

kind of like, oh, god damn it. I think I think

Batman Beyond redeemed him, though. You know

the Batman Beyond episode redeemed him so by

the time issue five begins and going through

it we get the old Jim Gordon robot suit which

I was like because at this point Tim's suit something

happened we don't know what happened but the

suit died it ran out of juice or whatever and

after reading this first arc I'm like oh hmm

maybe that was Brother Eye's intentions all the

time because brother i was the one that shut

down the suit because he read to me run out of

power after he well in the system of the first

of the first to begin the second issue yes we

ran out of power so what we have to seize fighting

as the superman mech yeah and that's right he

got some juice back to reactivate the suit we've

got reactivated the alfred you know i and then

remove the the core Because he's like where's

your core and the suit guy? I love how this version

of the Beyond suit isn't kind of like a Cloth

woven with circuitry like in the cartoon. It's

it's almost Kind of like a symbiote how it'll

peel back and expose areas of that. Yeah, I I

look at it as It's a Tron style because it's

yeah, it's elated. Yeah, it's got like that kind

of nano technology that appeals back and at certain

things like when the first issue where Tim goes

back to Nora was it boxers the lady looking after

Terry's brother Matt. Yeah, you see it kind of

peel off his face They have that scene where

he asked Alfred wears your core and he exposes

that bit in the shoulder. He removes the Alfred

core And he could still use the suit but now

he's kind of on manual versus automatic Yeah,

and the suits kind of ratched a bit when he gets

the Jim Gordon special Well, yeah, like his suit

is still kind of screwed up and he has to use

the now I want to go back and do this. Steve

and I did cover up to Death of the Family on

the New 52 Batman, the 2011 Batman series, but

we never actually did Zero. I think we may or

may not have done Zero a year, but I like covering

the Batman, the Scott Snyder Batman series by

the story arcs. And I wanted to cover the second

Joker arc from Endgame from 35 to 40. And then

I read issue 41 where Jim becomes Batman. So

I knew exactly where the suit, you know, where

the 1 .0 suit that Barbara mentions in this series,

in this story arc, I knew where that came from.

Like, oh, very cool. You know, they're... They're

pulling stuff from this, but I never actually

read anything past issue 41 of the Snyder run.

I do want to go back to it, but honestly, and

I've said this before on this show, Scott Snyder,

he is an amazing writer. I don't know the man

personally. I have no opinions of him personally

because I'm not going to pass judgment on the

guy, but Court of Owls was, for me, was his best.

death of the family to quote the joker from batman

beyond return of the joker was sadly anti -climactic

to me and then zero year was a cluster flunk

of time travel five years this five year that

bs well the end game was cool but yeah well it's

just i mean the new 52 by and large up until

rebirth was an experiment in new things a lot

of ways I mean the whole like they had up to

end game where it's like the ultimate battle

between the Batman and Joker and then Batman

Bruce Wayne's missing and that's when they start

to kind of bring in they bring in the powers

corporation which at this point in the comics

Bruce is kind of lost can lost control of Wayne

Enterprises. He's lost his fortune. Wayne Manor

has been turned into the new Arkham Asylum. And

so Batman's missing, and they go to Jim Gordon

and say, okay, you're the top cop. You are close

with Batman. We recognize Gotham needs a Batman.

So they bring in this suit, which for me, I kind

of looked at. It looks like Appleseed because

there's this anime that I've watched where one

of the main characters is this cyborg. With these

two antenna that kind of look like bunny ears

and that's kind of where I went to with that

suit You know jim gordon as batman and then at

the same time they had depowered superman to

slightly less than A ridge like golden age superman

where you know, he's he's leaping buildings in

a single bounce sort of thing and By the end

of that series by the end of that gordon as batman

storyline, you know Bruce comes back and everything

but yeah, I kind of figure well yeah, if you're

gonna make a Batman of course you're gonna give

him like some sort of power suit cuz It's just

not Batman because you know Batman is just to

a lot of people in the universe It's just some

dude with a boomerang on a rope Yeah, you know

the average man's looking at like that so of

course you know we gotta Jack this guy up with

all the tech we can get so yeah so when the when

the jim gordon special shows up in the storyline

like i think it was like issue five i was just

like oh yeah yeah and i love that little bit

like once they've got it powered up and it's

calibrated to tim they have that little effect

of like the electricity going down the suit and

going from like the the blue and silver to the

red and black of beyond yeah I really like that

yeah that was so awesome the color change and

I kinda knew that was gonna happen only because

of I remember reading like I said Batman issue

41 where Jim gets the suit and they showed us

in that issue hey look we can make it any color

you want you know so I do remember that I think

it's great you know we haven't really kind of

talked about it but technically Tim is facing

off against Terry's greatest foe in ink I mean

he's also facing off against Brother Eye but

Brother Eye has ink working for him because she'll

work for you know she goes where the money is

but she's also doing it because Brother Eye has

her daughter captured so I think Dan Juergens

did an amazing job with creating a whole new

self -sacrificing story for Ink. She's not just

an everyday villain. They handled her very, very

well. Oh, they treat her very well. I love the

little touches of nods to the animated series.

They have that idea that Ink's doing this for

her daughter. A mother loves her children no

matter what, you know, they sacrifice everything

for them. And I really did like that. And ultimately,

like how ink sacrifices yourself because you

get Terry gets the Jim Gordon. He goes to lay

waste. Sorry. Yeah, that's what I meant. Sorry.

Tim, Tim gets the Jim Gordon special on. He's

laying waste to some of these these cyborg bums.

He. i love the nod to again the mixing and matching

of stuff from batman and batman beyond because

he goes to a former stronghold of the court of

owls yeah and there is a off well not off brand

but off the books jla teleporter that Bruce had

hidden away for an emergency. And I love the

whole time in the comic book, Brother Eye was

like, Bruce Wayne owns this. There is nothing

here. Why is he here? Why is he here? And like

the recurring theme of Brother Eye being scared

of what he doesn't know. Yeah. You know? So,

anyone? Sir, you go. Well, the funny thing for

me was with the whole teleporter thing, the first

thing I thought of was when Superman in Justice

League in secret origin said, how did you get

this past your stockholders, Bruce? A line item

hidden in the R &D budget. Talking about the

JLA tower in the Justice League cartoon. And

that's kind of what was here. It's like, oh,

Bruce. Always, you know. When you say that, what

are my favorite line item lines was in an early

issue, I think it was the second or third issue.

there's something like that in the jeff john's

teen titans run that came out in the early aughts

when it was like tim connor cassie bart uh he

tim somehow gets a batmobile to san francisco

because that's where the titans were stationed

at the time it was like how did you get this

past batman i hid it in the batarang budget and

then the first thing i chuckled at that that

i thought about She's a crow. How much money

does he spend on those goddamn things? You know,

where does he get all those wonderful toys? Yes,

that's that's kind of like in the old in the

Kyle Higgins series it I think it was issue 16

of the Kyle Higgins series or chapter 16 or whatever

where at the very end of it Where you have the

broken one that's in half and and it ends on

Terry saying Geez, these things don't you know

these things don't last these things aren't very

well made are there something like that is just

hilarious oh yeah um so yeah so we got brother

i versus batman we got ink doing her thing um

i thought issue six was an amazing way to end

Like I said before the whole reinvention of the

1 .0 suit seeing the the man I mean see just

seeing the manner in like a sunset kind of like

we don't we never need Full details. We don't

need a 1966 Adam West Full detail Wayne Manor

house. All's we need to do is see the house on

The Cliff or hill that we know it's normally

on and just see it and we know exactly what fucking

house that is Well, yeah, cuz I mean We don't

care what's in the house. We want the basement.

Yeah, we want the basement Yeah, probably the

only time somebody wants the basement apartment

is yeah, it's the cave and you know, we'll see

the That's really okay. Well, we see the cave

and we see that the cave isn't dumb It's not

exactly classic, but it's classic to this era

of new 52 because you have the the Batgirl Burnside

new 52 outfit the after Gail Simone unceremoniously

got let go again jerks You know so you got the

purple and and yellow Batgirl suit there and

they reference that and hell Barbara even references

the Burnside precinct Yeah, we at least know

that Burnside is still obviously part of Gotham

even though they basically said oh It's like

you know 15 miles outside of Gotham or whatever

As these six issues progressed and then leaving

us wondering what story they're gonna tell next

I absolutely love it. They they did an amazing

job putting a beginning middle and end Story

together without really leaving us on a hook.

I mean the hook at the end of issue six is not

necessarily One of those cliffhangers where it's

like, oh my god, what's gonna happen now? It's

more of okay, so What's next? We handled the

Brother Eye issue. What else are they going to

throw at us? And we'll find out about that later.

Yeah, no, that's the one thing I loved was how

they end, like, even if this was just a mini

-series, you know, just kind of cap off, you

know, Terry's sacrifice in Future's End and all

that, it's kind of like the end of the first

Matrix movie. Like, if they hadn't made Reloaded

or Revolutions, it still stands on its own. Right,

which I feel about this first arc if they had

you know, just cancel it after this point and

just like hey, I'm good But and one of the things

I liked and that I loved in this series overall

and especially what they used in this first one

is little details of stuff like Like I have the

single issue. So if you go like look in the first

kind of panel of the second issue Just on the

cover there like as they're running away from

being culled in this like concentration camp

Barbara's fingers kind of form sort of into an

R over Tim's left pectoral muscle So kind of

like an R and he's got that armor on which is

vaguely reminiscent of his robin suit and robin

and something that they did currently in detective

comics uh... where batman brings together like

rock red robin spoiler uh... clay faces they're

trying to try to reform a batwoman in this like

one location he'd they've put red robin out of

like uh... adrian tombs special they've taken

out of the the vulture suit and put him into

more of a traditional red and green Robin. I

love little touches like that. When you first

see Brother Eye's headquarters, he's taking over

the Watchtower on the moon, and the design of

that is the design of the Watchtower from the

Justice League of America series previous to

the New 52, and they kept that design with the

current satellite. in the current ongoing JLA

title, a little stuff like that. The fact that

in Brother Eye, and you look at even the first

cover of the first issue, and later on in the

series, you see other bits of it, there's all

these nods to the great cataclysm, which is like

one of the most longstanding and one of my personal

favorite bits of lore, the Jack Kirby. Contributed

to the DC canon way back in the day because you

look at it and Like brother I was one of the

concepts of you know in the omak series and they

got on the first cover they've got omak and the

atomic knight and Ben boxer and commande and

Hercules and Prince Tufton and it's just all

this there's all these little subtle nods to

Jack Kirby's great cataclysm like We're in omak

brother. I was the satellite that would turn

buddy blanket to omak and give him like any of

a thousand superpowers to You know deal with

whatever he's dealing with and like years ago

when they turned brother. I into like this Ultron

level You know bad guy I love that and yeah as

the series his first six issues like there's

just so many little nods going forward Just I

kept looking for some night. It's just a game.

I played with myself. It's like every issue I

read I was looking for Some Kirby, you know winking

a nod like that Like hey, you remember this from

curry, but yeah, just overall I love this series

like ink sacrifice like I love the whole Trojan

horse camp that they had with the Jim Gordon

special like Tim Teleports up to the moon He

tries to get a few licks in brother. I is just

working him like the undertaker works Well, everybody

up until Barack Lesnar. And then, you know, ink

explodes out and envelops and invests herself

into Brother Eye's like corporeal form. And I

like the idea that they just they don't even

hint at that. OK, Brother Eye is dead. The cyborgs

are dead. There's no more Brother Eye. They could

totally bring Brother Eye back. I hope they don't.

Well, yeah, no, because I mean that it. It would

be fun, but it both lessens his, uh, it lessens

the story in this first six issues and also kind

of lessens him as a character becomes like Ultron

and just, you know, I'll be back, you know, that

sort of thing. So I like the fact that, you know,

they, they blow up the factory on the moon, the,

the cyborgs all just drop dead. Like, and it's,

I know I talked to a couple of friends, it's

kind of like Iron Man just nuking that spaceship

in Avengers. I was like, Very much so and I love

that this like again. It's just that the constant

Pushing forward like you think they're gonna

be safe. No this happens like they have the veil

and then brother I you know co -ops the suit

and You know brings all the mechs down on him.

I think How he did it was he infected Alfred

he infected the Batman Beyond suit AI and that's

how he got the veil to come down and Gotham was

exposed and and all that and getting the robots

and whatever else to go I don't think I think

he just infected the suit and then he it's kind

of like Ultron did to not not exactly what it's

kind of like Ultron just pushed Jarvis away and

then killed him in age of Ultron he just kind

of locked up Alfred because he says before he

gets a hold of terry almost said terry again

before before he gets hold of tim in the suit

his his technology is inaccessible his ai is

inaccessible so whatever programming bruce put

into alfred was able to hold off brother i but

i mean he still he infected the suit broadcast

the signal that penetrated the veil because of

how the veil worked it was like kind of a cascading

computer virus and he brings in the max and he's

laying waste and all that and just the idea that

they up the jokers from being like these socially

disaffected youth and the need to rebel and as

alfred calls them a terroristic street gang yeah

and then you see even have that girl in the first

issue who she's not like Mr. J kind of crazy

Joker girl. She's she's somebody who lost her

family in this apocalypse and she's just looking

for an outlet and something to lash out about

and like she's like, yeah You know, she's like

pardon my French fuck it. Let the world burn,

you know, she she has nobody left in her life

So she's like why shouldn't we all just die?

And that's why I said like with Dan jury is like

he has this great storytelling like he keeps

the fun, but he also Balances it so it's not

straight Silver Age pomp and circumstance like

he gets some darkness in there, but it's just

enough You know, it's not drowning in it Which

is another thing I love. Yeah, absolutely. It's

just one of those things where After reading

this first arc it was hard not to just reread

through the whole series again because it's just

so good and How they did this like was I expecting

this series to go? 20 40 50 70 100 issues no

because I should know by now to not really expect

a lot when it comes to certain DC properties

when it comes to the comics because Look how

screwed he man has gotten with the DC license

over the years, you know You got the six issue

miniseries from 2012. You got the digital series.

That was eight issues The 2013 proper series

was only 19 issues attorney war was only 15 issues

and now we've got in the DC universe Versus Masters

was only six, but that was meant to be only six

and then we got You know, he manned thundercats,

which is supposed to be only six or eight or

something or other So yeah, I'm not really surprised

that Batman Beyond 2015 was only 16 comic books

and I don't mind that it is because how Again,

as I said with this specific opening story They

between issues one and two three and four and

five and six one and two at the beginning three

and four middle five and six ending And then

as you look at the whole arc of the series, you

got Brave New Worlds. Next up, in May, the first

episode we'll do for this series is City of Yesterday.

And then the final storyline, Wired for Death.

And how Dan Jergens and Bernard Chang progress

through the series is they, what I see is them

looking at, okay, how can we tell a unique story

for ourselves, including Tim Drake? and as well

as throwing in those Batman Beyond nods from

the series, from other comics, from other con

- you know, and they just do such an amazing

job of it. Oh yeah. It's just so good. Well yeah,

and I mean just speaking about like the publishing

thing, like at least with the He -Man, I found

it annoying but not too much because there was

that story that carries through all the Sundry

miniseries and everything. Mean, honestly, my

only bitch about that was when they gave he man

and like a new suit and I just kind of like Yeah,

they tried to make him Iron Man. Well, yeah,

it's just but it was part of the story I forgive

that but it's a sad fact of the business, especially

with the big two companies like Marvel and DC

that You know nothing seems to last more than

a year a year and a half tops before Something

happens in the company that a lot of titles get

you know rebooted with a new number one It's

still canarying on the story and a lot of times

the art and writing staff But it's just it just

almost like somebody hits that do -over button

constantly So yeah, it wasn't a huge. Yeah, it's

one of those things where like at this point.

I don't expect a he -man series whether it's

a crossover with another property or not. I don't

expect it to be a full -on, you know, and then

you look back and like, oh, guess what? We're

gonna take new 52 Detective and we're gonna return

it to its original numbering so we can reach

issue 1 ,000. So like Detective Comics has never

been, you know, stopped or what, and it's just,

I don't know. That's something, again, something

for Action and Detective, like the, two longest

-running continuously published comic books that

that I can understand because that's a Monumental

achievement in and of itself. It's kind of like

when they start crowing about the Monday Night

Raw being the Longest -running weekly episodic

TV series. It's sort of been going on for 23

years or but Yeah, it's not like You know, you

could make the argument for some soap operas

and such I'm just saying like I can understand

why they would want to do something like that

and again even that the Renumbering and then

bringing back the old numbering is something

do Marvel started doing that in the 90s like

when they Rebooted spider -man and then like

the Avengers and Captain American Iron Man post

heroes reborn you know you had which was extensively

volume 3 and then Towards the end run low series

or just a few years down the road. They went

back to the original numbering You know stuff

like that. Like again, that's some the industry

it just that's how it is. I'm not a huge I'm

neither yay nor nay because it's just part of

it now unfortunately, and I've just kind of gotten

used to it again like Having only certain number

of issues in the series and then they reboot

it or that. Oh, no It was only a maxi series

the whole time Yeah, it just okay whether I just

thrown up my hands and you know, just whatever

I'm good, you know, it's like bitching about

sales tax And from state to state and province

the province like look do you have enough for

a packet a six pack of beer? Then why complain?

I'm sorry Anyone charges me 35 cents to use my

credit card. There's something wrong. Yeah, that's

just we're not gonna get into that California

anyway Batman Beyond Brave New World's first

six issues 2015 series Dan Juergens Bernard Chang

absolutely loved it Oh, yeah, I'm only and I

and sorry I can fit this into the animated series

timeline. I Can't no just just go with me This

is my headcanon, so make of it what you will.

So you got the animated series. Then you take

the like the tie in comic books and the digital

stuff, which just kind of takes place concurrently.

And then after where Terry in this new world,

because I mean, this is not the future that the

original Terry went back in time to prevent.

Right. So basically. it could be said that the

animated series and the digital comics happen,

then this Brother Eye invasion, you know, Tim

shows up, and it goes from there. Because they

even, again, like references to the animated

series in like the fifth or sixth issue, just

after Tim gets the Jim Gordon, there's a panel,

and I forget what page it's on, I wasn't keeping

count here, but there's a panel where he Lays

into the borgs and kind of rallies the cops and

the citizens and even see shriek and spellbinder

Going to battle You know stuff like that. So

I I mean, it's very it's a very loose connection

But I mean it could be said that all this stuff

happens because this clearly a few years after

Terry's become Batman Which would include him

having a falling out with Bruce and going to

university and stuff like that, which You know

it can work I'm just saying, in my head, that's

how I see it works. Yeah. But yeah. See, the

thing for me is you have the whole of the animated

series. You have Kyle's run up until he did Return

of the Phantasm. Mark of the Phantasm. Mark of

the Phantasm, because I asked Kyle directly,

that obviously takes place after Return of the

Joker. because that was his answer to Return

of the Joker. I mean, I can see this kind of

fitting, but I like that it, you know, we kind

of have it fit from the, you know, from the standpoint

of the New 52 because... Like I said before,

I never really, I need to go back and read some

of the Batman stuff. I've never read any of the

Superman stuff in New 52. At some point, hopefully

this year, my buddy Michael Bailey and I are

going to go through all the Supergirl volumes

from New 52, the six volumes for Supergirl. Sorry.

I mean, that initial design of Supergirl with

the hooker fuck -me -boots, and then they turn

her into a red lantern, then she's not, and...

I mean, I read comic books, I'm a fan, like silly

storytelling, but just kind of the argument they

gave in the current Supergirl comic to tie it

in with like the storyline of the Supergirl TV

show, which I love. By the way, I'm not knocking

that because Melissa Benoist is Supergirl. We

all need the living ray of sunshine that has

carried Danvers in our life. Yeah, well Not until

she opens her mouth with Grant Gustin soon as

that happens That's just adorable any time they're

in a scene. I'm looking at her. No, I mean, no,

no, I mean like Later this year the singing episode

is going to happen. So I can't wait for that

They're using the like it's not gonna be in pH,

unfortunately, but they're using the music Meister

from I'm just like that's my one of my favorite

episodes from that series But just kind of the

I wouldn't say convoluted But it's just kind

of I read the read the first couple of shoes

of that Supergirl and I was just kind of like

really That's how you do it So I mean, you guys

can have fun with that. Yeah, I never read a

lot of the Superman stuff. I only really started

paying attention to it when they depowered him.

And just after the John Romita Jr. run on Superman,

I more or less I've kept up with Batman since

the beginning, just because I love Batman. So

I've read a lot of that stuff. Year one or year

zero year is eh. It's kind of it's kind of seemed

like a weak version of no man's land to me and

uh Say nothing of end game like end game Just

kind of just jesus Like it just kind of it brought

the noise is what i'm saying So if you guys get

to that man, just enjoy because it is so good

Yeah, I read end game and I thought it was really

really interesting. Um You know and I just I

Thought it was cool because as I said before

death of the family was kind of sadly anti -climactic

to me But endgame was what was very very awesome,

but Batman Beyond 2015's brave new worlds absolutely

loved it. We have a 0 to 5 rating scale here

at the GCRN I'm gonna just rate the story arc

overall. I'm gonna give it a 4 i i really really

don't get there are a couple of issue points

in the very beginning with the art that i just

kinda i got past eventually but at first i just

couldn't get past them uh... so what about you

would you rate this one now as much as i want

to be like billy bob and you know uh... versity

blues and i think and and uh... agree with you

and given it is solid for uh... it's Take that

one point off. It's a little mix of the art like

I like Bernard Chang's art but I agree with you

like the some of those monochromatic panels and

everything it would I wouldn't say it's strained

my eyes, but it was jarring and It's just it's

there like the story is there I really did enjoy

it. It's just I Can't really it's just like I

can't it's just there's something it just Doesn't

bother me, but there's some there. It's just

if I ever figure it out. I'll let you know Yeah,

we can yeah, we can talk about it as we go along

in the series but it's just one of those things

where as I said for me It's the like super glossy

into the super, you know realistic, you know

effects are the the red white and orange kind

of stuff and the effects of batman punching somebody

or something it just that was kind of jarring

to me but after a while i get used to it Coming

up next on the pull bag my buddy comic revolt

Dan from talking in circles and cinema geeks

actually movie revolt Dan But he's gonna be joining

me for a couple of episodes Next back at you

classics after this will be I hate fairyland

issues 9 & 10 This will be our final I hate fairyland

episode for a while because I think at the end

of issue 10 Scottie says Scottie Young said that

He's gonna go do other stuff and come back later

to I hate fairyland. It's on hiatus Yeah. And

then episode 138 of the podcast is gonna be myself

and Adas Baron finishing off Eternity War with

He -Man for issues 14 and 15. That'll be the

series finale for that. And at some point in

late March, early April, we'll get to He -Man

Thundercats. We're gonna do that as one whole

episode, so there's that. Dan will be back to

talk. Hatteran's Wall, which is Kyle Higgins,

Rod Rice, and Alex Siegel, their newest project.

That's an eight -issue series from Image. Episode

140 get your voicemails emails in now I'm gonna

tell you right now folks because this episode

of the pullback that you're listening to now

airs the second week of February Episode 140

is five years of jumping inside the pullback

March 5th 2017 is our five -year anniversary

So if you have any feedback anything you want

to send in just send it to TF2 and Mike at gmail

.com you can find me on Twitter you can Follow

the pull bag on Twitter at the pull bag at geek

cast radio for all the other network updates.

What is your Twitter? It's at JT from Saskatoon

Awesome. Awesome Make your greatest game in the

comics and we will catch you next time here inside

the pull bag The voice kept calling me Bruce

in my mind. That's not what I call myself. What

do you call yourself? Oh, yeah, I suppose you

would But that's my name now hmm tell that to

my subconscious You've just heard the latest

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