Batman Beyond Rewired Review

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

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Why hello there!

Joker here, and I want to welcome you to the

second annual Batman Month here, inside the pole

bag. Hey Wade, this is my 75th anniversary! Why

does the bat get all the attention? Where's the

month dedicated to me? Anyways, this year TFG1

Mike brings in Steve Megatron once again, Jeremy

Fine, and JT from Saskatoon as they discover

many facades of Batman. This year we aren't going

bat shit crazy, but we are covering three very

different Batman. Bruce Wayne in Mad Love, Terry

McGinnis in the Batman Beyond books. and Dick

Grayson in Gates of Gotham. So tune into... So

tune into Channel Joker for all things bat -

Motherfucker! So tune into Channel Joker for

all the bat worshipping you can handle. The joke's

on me, apparently, for my 75th anniversary. So

jump inside my garbage scow, and listen to the

second -annual Batman monkeer inside the pull

bag. Hello and welcome to the pull bag. This

is episode 107. I am one of your hosts, DFJR

Mike. Joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello.

Batman month is in full swing here at the pull

bag and as I said last episode I wanted to do

Something a little different and also be able

to continue coverage. We've already done in episode

99 you and I covered Batman Beyond 10 ,000 clowns

and Batgirl Beyond that was the first that was

the 2012 series from DC Comics and They continued

it a year later in 2013 The Adam Beechin is no

longer on writing and Norm Brayfogle is no longer

on art, but this time around They brought somebody

awesome. Actually, they brought a bunch of people

that are gonna be awesome But on writing this

time around for Batman Beyond Universe aka Batman

Beyond 2 .0. We have Kyle Higgins. Oh Boy, I

love Adam Beechin's run so You know, no disrespect

to Adam at all, but I am so glad they picked

Kyle to write this because no one else could

write this the way Kyle did. Well, they could've,

but they wouldn't've. Yeah. Kyle has been, you

know, has been known to say in interviews that

he's done before that he is and was a huge DC

animated universe fan. Obviously, he's a huge

Nightwing fan since he wrote the new 52 Nightwing

until it... ended in whatever else. So having

him back here and knowing how big of a fan of

the DC Anime University is, I had complete faith

in him. Tony Silas on art. Tony is amazing on

the art. He really is. It's like the cartoon

series has just plopped right onto the page.

Or I should say it's plopped right onto the page.

Because it looks like we need Batman Beyond animated

films. I know they're not gonna do that because

they're into this whole new That's a argument

for another day, but I'm wondering now where

they're gonna take the DC films the animated

films Now that the new 52 is no longer the new

52. I don't know whatever anyway, so Batman Beyond

Rewired is the first trade we're gonna talk about

these in trades When you first read these these

first well digitally it was the first 16 chapters

In print. I think it was the first Five six or

seven I forget anyway when you first read this

first arc. What was your initial reaction to

it? I? Wasn't sure whether I was gonna like it

or hate it Really because of the new villain

Okay, that was more so what it was I in I wasn't

a huge fan of some of the art styles. I mean,

yeah, I enjoyed some of it. And yes, the story

was actually very well put together considering

I haven't liked any DC comics since Batman Beyond.

And I think that's the last time I collected

comics from DC was Batman Beyond. because the

the rest of it's kind of a mess and this stuff

it's actually kind of cohesive and it makes sense

in the the continuity it's not playing to the

the bs new 52 or the convergence or any of that

it's it's playing to the actual batman beyond

and it does touch on what came previously but

it it it's more connected to the cartoon than

anything else yeah i mean it it expands it and

i actually asked kyle higgins with reference

to certain parts of the series like well next

time around when we do because the third trade

has not or the next trade there are two trades

out right now there's Batman Beyond 2 .0 Rewired

and Batman Beyond 2 .0 Justice Lords Beyond those

are the first I think 24 chapters of the story

Chapter 25 is when Kyle started his Mark of the

Phantasm arc, and that was the story that he

pitched to DC to get the job, and they gave it

to him. Now, I asked him where some of this stuff

takes place within the DC Animated Universe continuity

timeline, and he said it's pretty much... He

said it's after Return of the Joker, but before

Justice League... unlimited epilogue so in the

context of this story and of this series terry

does still does not know yet that bruce's father

which is fun that he doesn't know yet or yeah

that bruce's father oh it made sense What I love

about the art style and how they they laid this

out is how? For new readers for someone who may

have not picked up the Adam Beach and run which

you should so totally do folks They introduce

Each character with a little blurb Terry McGinnis

aka Batman, you know, they have these little

logo things and I absolutely love how they do

that I thought that was interesting And it's

kind of a refreshing way that they're not really

telling like they're using a storyline in in

here, but they're not you really using a lot

of In the internal monologues are done over the

radios There really is no internal monologue.

I mean, yeah, there's a couple of things that

that that have, you know, there's maybe like

one or two pages that have like a little blur,

but it isn't like you would normally see like

a Scott Snyder New 52 Batman book where Batman

has these giant, you know, three, four, five

page monologues. It isn't like that at all. I

think Terry looks good in the art I know you

said there's some of the designs you don't like

but I think most of the show characters that

previously existed I think Tony Silas really

hit on on the core of the characters Dana looks

a little older than she should but other than

that I mean I'm just loving this art and whenever

Tony draws Terry in the suit It's just amazing.

It really, really is good. I do like that they

kind of switch things up. Bruce isn't really

running the cowl anymore. You think he is. I

mean, that's the beautiful thing about this first

issue, this first chapter within the trade. I

remember when I got this first chapter digitally,

because these digital comics are maybe... 20

22 pages something like that. It's not the when

DC does their digital issues. They are very short

They're they're meant to be you know short to

the point and get it across and I didn't know

who the hell he was talking to and I kind of

figured it out when The person was talking to

Barbara, but to hit that last page where it said,

you know where You know where where terry says

uh... uh... you know uh... the person says barbara

wants to talk i'm headed to arkham now meter

on the roof i'll let her know man just when i

thought the city was on the right track well

you know better than anyone terry things change

and you have did grace informally nightwing i've

had to know all sitting there in his little loft

with the flying circus uh... you know banner

behind him and i was like oh wow i cannot believe

they did that but it was so cool it really really

was um so this story for people who don't know

and there will be spoilers here folks we pick

up one year later from joker night um and it's

just It really doesn't matter the time has jumped

I know we've said before I know you've said in

several things with DC when they do time jumps

it really matters and it's like it's too jarring

to do it but this this made sense because if

you don't read the Batgirl Beyond trade and all

the the aftermath of Joker night and just end

on Batman Beyond 2012 issue number 13 it just

Going from that to this It kind of makes sense

and they also have to bring in new readers because

it's a new new writing team new new new artist

team And I think they brought people in very

well with this. What do you think? I think I

think it all worked out really well with how

they brought in people and how they kind of made

them the mesh in the story I like the plot that

the the jokers had to play in this or actually

Gula, I should say. Again, and it was kind of

neat seeing a modern Arkham, because we've never

actually gotten that, because then the animated

series Arkham was long closed down. Yeah, and

in return of the Joker they mentioned that you

know It was moved to a new high security facility

and you know the old silly hung open like a rotting

wound But we never actually saw that new facility

or the rotting wound No, we saw the rotting we

did but we didn't really get to see it. Oh I

wanted to see it. They had the Animatic on the

desk. Oh Yeah, okay, not animated really but

it was there Love that Bruce does obviously show

up because we are gonna have to see him In the

first panel he shows up. They also have this

This Tag here Bruce Wayne formerly Batman, and

I love that. It's black and yellow black background

with yellow text. That's awesome an ace looks

great Crazy as dog I love the interaction between

Terry and Barbara. I always have. That's a really,

really cool thing. I love how he just goes after

Ghoul. And he really has become Batman. I mean,

he hangs the guy upside down. I guess piranhas

really can't smile if they're upside down because

that's what ghouls design makes me think of as

the piranhas from mad love with his teeth. That's

not a smile. At all. So basic gist of these first

couple issues here folks is that the mayor, Mayor

Dusk has been killed, looks like a heart attack.

As we go along, Barbara finds out it was an electrical

shock and some sort of bioelectrical shock. We

see Terry at Dick's loft working out and training

and we see that Terry still doesn't do time management

quite well. He hasn't spoken to his mom in a

while and he hasn't seen his brother and Dick

is kind of worried about him and he missed his

midterm and... It's like oh, but I have to be

Batman, but you also have to juggle your real

life. You know mm -hmm So we get a prison break

for the next couple of scenes and Batman obviously

comes and foils that I just I love everything

about this I really do Thoughts sir um Well This

is probably the better part of the arc getting

to see, you know, Terry kind of grow into his

own and then Having to deal with real life Unlike

Bruce who really doesn't deal with life. He's

like, yeah Bruce Wayne's not real I remember

when I first was reading this and even going

back into trades You know The page where Terry

has to turn around and there's like this shocked

look on his face and the next Page we see night

wing and I'm like, whoa, what? What's going on

here? There's got to be something wrong with

this I was glad they finally brought night wing

in because I was always kind of sitting there

during Batman Beyond going Okay, where's dick

at? Well, he was in the original 10 ,000 Clowns

thing. He was Old Man Dick, but I mean, he was

still there. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, you're right.

I mean, it's nice seeing the old animated designs

in comic form. And I just really love it. And

you can really tell that, you know, that Kyle

still has Lauren Lester's voice in his head because

these are lines I can hear Lauren saying. Oh

yeah, definitely. And as this fight goes along,

we also get the arrival of Batgirl and Robin.

And since Dick Grayson is Nightwing, this Robin

is obviously Tim Drake. So this is very clear

that this is before Return of the Joker. Which

means, the joke's still inside. So we get more

and more of a fight as the fight goes along we

get this this monologue from this unseen character

and In between this we have Barbara at the house

of mrs. Dusk and her children Davis and Nicole

so we've got that part of the plotline and We

go, you know we go from that back to the fight

and We see a thing that says in my eye is far

from untrained and Terry's just like no So tell

me Batman Can you guess which one I see in you

and we get this beautiful splash page? I Would

say that's a new adventure style for the most

part obviously, but we get Batman Robin Nightwing

and Batgirl all in one panel. I Remember when

I first saw this image I nearly passed out folks

It is just so awesome because you got to think

we haven't seen Even Justice League is you know

Justice League is what 11 years old now Batman

Beyond even further that stopped in 2001 so that's

almost 15 years old at this point So just seeing

the classic designs and seeing The Batman beta,

you know Real Batman beat up on Batman Beyond

and Terry is just I just love it. I Really really

do So you said you weren't too big on the new

villain Why weren't you too big on them introducing

a new villain? Well in general I'm not a huge

fan of a lot of the villains in Batman Beyond

Just putting that out there. I mean, I would

say he's one of the stronger and of the newly

created, you know villains Certainly more so

than at least they gave ghouls something important

for once instead of being a lackey He was actually

useful which was kind of nice to see and see

that he was kind of a chemist kind of like the

original Joker in a sense but I don't know. I

just like rewire. I just I didn't know. I didn't

know what they were trying to do exactly. I mean,

I knew, but I didn't. It was kind of. He really

wasn't my type of favorite character, who just

kind of seemed like another roided out guy that

was. Using whatever miraculous powers, it was

just this guy has electricity instead of. you

know, sound waves or... Yeah, but how he has

the electricity and the power is interesting.

True. Because, you know, going back to Ghoul,

Ghoul basically combined Joker Toxin and Bane's

Venom to make Rewire what he is. Which, again,

was interesting. mean it is a you know it is

a story that's old as time with the whole you

know the son wanting to live up to the father

and wanting to have absolute power like he thought

his father didn't and that kind of thing I can

still overlook it because of so much awesomeness

like I wasn't expecting shriek spellbinder ink

and and Crap There's the other one. I wasn't

expecting any of those guys to show up I mean,

I guess I kind of should have because it's a

Batman Beyond book. You'd think that they'd be

used there The show's core villains and they

did and we get to see the original animated series

like core heroes So that was kind of cool. Mm

-hmm. I Love how you get As this art kind of

ends is the rewire Story kind of ends. I love

how you have the whole thing at the end where

you know, they're on the water and and you know,

you know the cops are like any idea who that

was not a clue because dick had come in and saved

them and gave them a life raft and whatever else

and He's looking in his little nightwing boat

to see where the hell Terry went cuz Terry got

you know swam off and whatever we go back to

the villains and see that they're you know having

to recoup and whatever else but the rest of them

basically walk out on google and rewire what

is so interesting to me is where terry ends up

he ends up floating down river into the cave

it's like all roads lead down to the low road

if only rhinox was here farting and burping um

So the suit I guess it's homing signal takes

him back to the cave and Bruce essentially figures

all this out and figures out who Rewire is What'd

you think of the Fox Teca reference? I thought

that was kind of cool Yeah, that was kind of

neat seeing that he has his own company. Yeah

So we find out and I love the way the cave looks

I really do I wish we had more time in the cave

in this series I Mean we will next podcast where

we have you know more time in the cave, but it's

a different cave. It's a alternate dimension

or alternate timeline cave The one thing I'll

give Kyle Higgins and Tony Silas is when they

show Bruce Wayne in this it's in nothing but

epic poses that first panel where we see him

sitting in the chair in the Batcave with Ace

next to him the one where he's standing over

Batman as Batman washed ashore and then that

final panel kind of where it's where Batman flies

off and it's him sitting in the chair by the

window with Ace by his I just Tony really knocked

it out of the park with that Yes, sir. Overall,

I think the Rewire story did very well to relaunch

the series and to introduce it to new readers

and to bring in people to this universe. I'm

hoping a lot of people after they read this wanted

to really go and get the comic and the animated

show and all that good stuff. Now much like you

I am not a fan too much a fan of man of man bat

But it's when they use him in the regular DC

comics that I don't care Because it just doesn't

it doesn't have the heart that the character

I mean Man bat was the first villain Batman ever

fought in BTAS and in on leather wings as we

all know so I kinda like that they did this and

the cover that they used for this was done by

um for this section of the story was done by

Raphael Albuquerque and I love the whole sonic

thing and the scratches on Batman I just I love

all that so this is a story about Batman and

both Man -Bat and Batman we have Terry going

up against Shriek. He loses his hearing, goes

back to Dick's loft, and Dick has these special

headphones for him. His hearing will eventually

return, obviously, and he actually asks Dick

at one point here, you know, was this always

so... Where is it here? Let's see. He says...

He says try not to be too hard on yourself. You

have no idea how many of these I've botched over

the years Yeah, like what? Off the top of my

head the scarecrow one sticks out nightwing days

not quite and we get the kick -ass old limousine

Because I don't know that no, that's the Batmobile

duh I it's a it's a flip. It's a flipped upside

down limousine for the thing, but whatever We

get the old Batmobile we get classic BTIS Batman

and Robin. What do you think of these? I mean,

I know it's not the I know it's not the yellow

and black bat symbol on his chest, but it's kind

of I could live with it. It's not like it's it's

enough to Dissuade me from paying attention And

what this is essentially referencing folks is

the episode from BTIS called fear of victory

So I love that Kyle uh you know had it end and

I love how how Dick just constantly you know

Terry asked him so uh how did it end did you

sit out while Bruce found the scarecrow Dick's

like oh well uh and we see him engaging in his

fantasy life of saving the day I love seeing

the Gotham Historic District in this. Once again,

Tony's backgrounds and colors and how he's made

Gotham look is great. Now I know you don't care

about Manbat, but... Did you have any emotion

having the character come back here and seeing

man bat in the future in the Batman Beyond Timeline?

I mean I did have some emotion just because it

was another revival of the animated series Mm

-hmm. The only problem I have is I still don't

like him at man bat. I found him more useful

here And with more of a purpose than I ever did

in the animated series But I still can't stand

the character I would like rewire was was probably

ten times better than man bad And then like future

bet man baddies probably still like five times

better Just because I I give this one props because

he actually had a purpose he had a goal he it

was about family it was about you know, and then

he also knew that Bruce was Batman and Getting

to see those two kind of argue and duke it out

was kind of interesting Also in this part of

the story we have Terry who is in college now

and as I said before he's still struggling with

his time management issues, but In this college

class that he's trying trying to sneak into is

our old friend Melanie Walker aka 10 from the

royal flush gang and they are going with you

know 10 after she's left the royal flush gang

and He, you know, he and she and Terry, uh, you

know, catch eyes with each other and Terry just

can't let things be bygones, I guess. Um, what

I love about this part of the story is that we

see Melanie kicking ass and she doesn't really

need Terry. Cause obviously she was in the royal

flush gang. You know, um, I remember when the,

the digital version of this came out. and it

ended on the Bruce Wayne reveal of him showing

up to help them with the plan to get Langstrom.

Best shot out of this whole book though, the

best art Tony Silas has done to this point is

when Bruce and Terry team up and we see the Batmobile

for one of the first and only times in this series.

I love that, with the floodlight. I remember

when I first saw that, the digital chapter, as

soon as I did it with screencap, and I'm like,

oh my god, look what Tony Silas did in the comic,

it's so cool. It's just, ugh. I wish they'd use

it more and they didn't. Yeah, it made an appearance,

that was the point. Yeah, I know. So the whole

point of this Manbad story with kirk langstrom

is he needs this substance called canium and

canium is to go with this new weapon he has which

allows him to turn everyone into a bat yep he

wants his big bat family So Bruce and Terry have

to go underground and try to subvert them and

whatever and that doesn't happen meanwhile Barbara

is trying to hold the feds off and That's not

really working. I Love the action in this book

The action the colors the the quips just it's

just so good We get the reveal, and this is interesting.

We have the story pick up here where after Bruce

and Terry are caught, and Bruce essentially tells

us the story of what happened to Francine, Kirk's

wife. And it's a sad, sad story. You can really

see why Kirk is doing what he's doing. almost

reminds me of Magneto in a way like when it comes

to his children Kirk's children that were at

the funeral with him and they basically wanted

nothing to do with him after that and after this

the story kind of goes in a direction where for

Bruce and for Kirk it's all about you know making

amends for the lives that they've led figuring

out you know what they can do to help each other

and in the end Kirk puts a force field around

the building that he's he's got the machine in

instead of setting it off because Bruce did an

amazing thing he's like you know it's funny thing

about those government satellites it's built

on Wayne tech and he clicked the button and disabled

the satellite I thought that was great in the

end Kirk destroys himself and we have the final

thing is more about second chances and we see

Terry and Dick talking about that and we see

them talking about the fact that Bruce actually

gave Dick the headphones and all this and all

that and we end on this one with Terry going

to Deckard's kitchen to see Melanie overall just

in story and art wise what did you think of the

man bed arc? Like I said the story it got better

I wasn't sure it was kind of slow at points and

kind of dulling up until they actually had Bruce

meet up with Kirk Langstrom But before that I

was kind of like but Once it got to that point

then everything kind of started Getting more

interesting because you had them conversing you

had you know there was a lot of tension And then

you get to see another one of Bruce's rogues

go by the wayside. Yep. But they never explained

what happened to some of his old ones, but...

Like which ones? Well, I mean, for instance,

Batman Beyond never touched on Ivy, the Riddler,

Two -Face, Whiteface. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ones like

that. Well ink is essentially a new version of

clay face, but yeah I mean I still as far as

the originals because they still had Bane they

still had Freeze, Rache, Talia, Joker, and now

Manbat. The final chapter in this trade here

folks is actually it was digital chapter 16 forget

the actual print issue number but it was digital

chapter sixteen and this was uh... this was done

by different people this was done by eric white

uh... and kyle actually wrote this issue for

him to do this and it's basically all of it's

pretty much all flashback issue and we start

at barbara's wedding to sam what do you think

of this Definitely interesting, kind of going

back and showing what happened to them. Dick

shows up and gives her a batarang and he says,

he says, and take care of yourself, okay? We

flash to the future and old Barbara and old Grayson

are meeting up and the only thing I don't like

about this issue is the way Eric White Drew and

colored Dick Grayson old Dick Grayson. Mm -hmm.

He he just doesn't look right His facial features

just he looks older than he actually like Compared

to what we saw him as when Tony was drawing him.

He looks like he's 85 here I know he's obviously

not but just the way the facial features are

they just don't So we get a flashback to a Nightwing

adventure with the flash that's interesting That's

really cool seeing Nightwing and Wally West team

up True yeah, because you never get to see the

flash either in this future the you know the

real They do make mention of him though later.

We'll talk about that next week You know and

that you know this one kind of goes through Barbara

and Dick's problems and issues and they want

to go back to you know being friends and being

able to talk and he breaks the honorable batarang

in half and gives her half of it and We go back

to a another flashback where we have the three

of them Batman Robin and Batgirl and I do actually

see the yellow and black symbol on Batman even

though the batarang is kind of covering it up.

You can see the yellow around it So that's kind

of cool. Mm -hmm And we fly in to see you know

dick reminiscing and he goes on to say Terry

flies in and says, so how was dinner? Kind of

amazing, kind of terrible. And basically, Dick

leaves and says, see you in the morning. And

we get to a McDonald's box, apparently, what

looks like a McDonald's box. Terry's like hey

Apple pie sway, and he sees the bat the corner

of the battering on the on the thing And it says

the end man these things do not hold up I Just

absolutely Love this writing these stories. I

really do even going because I haven't read this

I haven't read these first two three stories

in maybe a year a year and a half because like

I said when I was reading them digitally the

digital chapter issues I was also doing written

reviews for them on geekcaster .com and I just

never you know once I read them I was like oh

okay I'll go back to it eventually but I never

actually did I just can't recommend this enough

folks really really can't what are some of your

other thoughts on it um I don't know I just I

enjoyed it it's it's still Batman Beyond it's

I mean I think you kind of took all the sorry

no that's fine took all the good points Alright

folks, I think that's gonna do it for us What

would you rate on a zero to five star scale for

this one for this whole trade? Yeah, I Guess

I give it a four because it did like I said it

did have some Some strong elements in it it did

have a lot of callbacks it had a new villain

Got to see the old bat suit Got to see Dick Grayson

kind of not as old as Bruce, but still younger

enough to help. Yeah. And just a lot of history

getting actually like explained to some degree

and a lot of things before Epilogue. It's just

a lot of it made sense and it kind of put at

ease some of the issues we were going to run

into or that did happen. We gave old characters

purpose that didn't have purpose. True. I'm going

to give it a four and a half. I really dig all

of this. The only thing I'm going to take a half

point off for is the design on Dick Grayson in

Chapter 16. He looks so old and decrepit. Where

can people find you online sir on the Twitter's

at SCP 21? All right, you can find me at TF2

and Mike you also follow at geocast radio for

all the other network updates That's gonna do

it for us here on this episode of the pullback

make your greatest give it a comics We will catch

you next week as we take the Justice Lords beyond

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