Batman: The Adventure Continues

[DisneyBoy]

Why are they going back to tall Hatter when TNBA Hatter is short and has grey hair?

What's the new Batmobile design they're using?

Does Luthor appear in the green kryptosuit?

[K7P5V]

I liked the story but man did it feel like it ended very quick. My only gripe was the different Batmobile. I really want the classic Batman animated series batmobile back!!!

BTAS version of the Batmobile was fine. But, I'm rather partial towards the TNBA version of the Batmobile:

My understanding is that the real universe reason was to make him look scarier (I think they were even toying with the possibility that the Scarecrow was no longer human).

Good memory, WebLurker. I do remember a staff member mentioning this some time ago.

The Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles miniseries did provide an in-universe explanation.

Assuming Dini and Burnett think of it as canon, of course.

Very appreciative for the info.

I guess I'll have to take a "wait & see attitude".

[WebLurker]

Assuming Dini and Burnett think of it as canon, of course.

Even if not, the story still did create an origin story. (On the other hand, with the show done, are they really the arbiters of continuity? Granted, I know people cited them when establishing that the Batman and Harley Quinn and Justice League vs The Fatal Five movies were in DCAU continuity and it seems like the tie-in comics have never realy been counted, but still.)

Good memory, WebLurker. I do remember a staff member mentioning this some time ago.

Thanks.

[Bergman]

Pretty much agree with the ComicPOP review here, this was utterly forgettable. The story is bland and doesn't reflect the animated series. The art is stiff and just boringly copies the character model sheets.

[Styles]

[Lvenger]

This is a smart move from DC. I know I imagine Kevin Conroy's voice when I read a Batman comic so getting him to read over the new issue of Batman: The Adventure Continues makes sense. I wonder if this would have happened if it weren't for the current pandemic.

[Gaius]

Pretty much agree with the ComicPOP review here, this was utterly forgettable. The story is bland and doesn't reflect the animated series. The art is stiff and just boringly copies the character model sheets.

Yeah, this was underwhelming to me. I also didn't care for it using Lex (Superman's villain) in the first issue, Batman is the last character who should be villain poaching.

[FBarnhill]

This gives me an idea: let’s get Peter Cullen to do a reading of a Transformers comic book. I’ll pay big bucks for that.

[Frontier]

Pretty much agree with the ComicPOP review here, this was utterly forgettable. The story is bland and doesn't reflect the animated series. The art is stiff and just boringly copies the character model sheets.

Yeah, this was underwhelming to me. I also didn't care for it using Lex (Superman's villain) in the first issue, Batman is the last character who should be villain poaching.

It's just starting out and we haven't gotten to the real meat of the story in my opinion (even what would constitute the full first issue), so I'm refraining from judging at this point.

[Gaius]

It's just starting out and we haven't gotten to the real meat of the story in my opinion (even what would constitute the full first issue), so I'm refraining from judging at this point.

I'm not giving up on yet but I think I got my expectations too high by going through the old Batman Adventures collections.

[Mr. White]

BTAS version of the Batmobile was fine. But, I'm rather partial towards the TNBA version of the Batmobile:

Good memory, WebLurker. I do remember a staff member mentioning this some time ago.



Very appreciative for the info.

I guess I'll have to take a "wait & see attitude".

Think the TNBA improved on a number of things including some character designs.

[Ascended]

Finally got around to reading this last night. Major wind storm had the lights flickering so I didn't dare play Final Fantasy 7.

I thought it was solid enough, but like others have said I think my expectations were too high. It was a good read, but kinda thin. Over before I knew it.

I'm digging Lex being the villain though, I always enjoy the Bruce-Lex dynamic, and it's something we don't see all that often. Sure, Batman has enough quality villains he doesn't need to steal from Clark, but it's still something relatively fresh.

And this is just a "me" problem, but I was sad that Dick and Tim didn't appear at all. Half the reason I grabbed this issue was because I'm starving for quality Nightwing. But I'm curious how they'll handle Jason.

I'll probably grab the second issue, especially with all the shops and everything shut down. I don't know if I'll stick with it beyond that though, that first issue was decent but mostly just made me miss the actual cartoon.

[DisneyBoy]

I find it really really odd that Dini says this is set within the TNBA continuity and that they are revisiting Bruce and Lex's relationship dynamics following the events of World's Finest, but then in issue 1 they immediately show Lex in his Justice League power suit, which means he's no longer a businessman, already has Kryptonite poisoning and the suit the Ultra-Humanite made to slow its progress.

I really hate those kinds of continuity issues because they're just too hard to sidestep. Could Lex have had a power suit exactly like the one Ultra-Humanite put him in before the episode Injustice For All? I guess so, but why would Lex, the still-respected businessman, dare to put on a power suit that shows his face and commit crimes openly? That doesn't make any damn sense. And this is Paul Dini writing this? And Ty Templeton doing the art? They know better. This is their world.

This seems like the kind of thing that a bunch of novices would do, by accident, without realizing it. Not two Pros. We already know the Mad Hatter appears in his original design later on at some point, and that I can almost forgive, even though he was redesigned to be shorter and older, because I doubt he's a main player and it's possible to make small mistakes like that, I guess. But the evolution of Lex's character is pretty memorable because his costumes reflect the different chapters of his story. He was a businessman until he was thrown in prison during Justice League, at which point he wore the power suit or the purple and green commando uniform, until he made his deal to help take down the Justice Lords and then began to rehabilitate his Image and run for president.

...and considering this is the first official-seeming continuation of the long-dormant DCAU, and more specifically Batman Adventures, I'd expect that they would be extra careful with continuity and details.

...it makes me far less excited to see how they're going to shoehorn Jason Todd into the story, and Azrael, and Hush, and whoever else they want to shove in there for the sake of selling toys. We're only one issue in and they're already playing fast and loose with Lex.

[gregpersons]

Finally read the first two issues. They were okay.

I agree it was a bit of a letdown. Focusing on Lex out of the gate feels like a mistake; this didn't really feel like a Batman story. The ways that it did feel Batman-ish were in kind of tired, dull ways (ie, Alfred patching his ribs and Bruce ignoring medical advice; an enemy in a trenchcoat who knows Bruce is Batman talking to himself about his revenge and why it's deserved). Lex Luthor is a pretty dull villain and you'd think giant robots would be more fun, but it just felt sort of limp, even with the Superman reveal. Maybe in animation with music it would've been cooler. On the page it fell flat. Lex's scheme was also... I just read it yesterday and already forgot, so there you have it. I truly don't remember what the point of any of it was; there was robots and industrial espionage and Lex wore a power suit and the robot was powered by Superman because of course.

Would've been much cooler to start bigger and bolder with the first issues, even if it's just doing the in media res thing -- start off with Jason Todd beating Batman, then flash back to a few weeks before and how we got to that point, alternating perspectives. God I'm really hoping we spend a ton of time with the family / sidekicks - Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin. Those were often the best issues of Gotham and Batman Adventures, too. The Bat Family is missed! Considering that it's Jason Todd and Azrael on the horizon, obviously they'll all appear, but whether they have meaningful story opportunities is a different question.

What these issues reminded me is that, oh yeah, Bruce is extremely boring when he's in cruise control mode, as in this story. Not really challenged. Just doing the thing, against another crazy villain of the week.

The biggest challenge Batman faced at all was Veronica Vreeland putting him on his back foot with his views on family, pointing out Bruce's hypocrisy about marriage, but has adopted 3 boy wards. Unfortunately, Veronica is just there to say basically that sentence, and then be dismissed by Lex. She's wearing the high society ballgown gloves past her elbows. I swear, with different women, Burnett/Dini have written this exact scene... thousands of times. It's in Mask of the Phantasm, it's in so many comics and other episodes. It's one of the most common Bruce Wayne interactions - "why won't you get married Brucie?"

It's boring because he never has to really answer; he's always pulled aside by someone or someone throws a drink or whatever. It's the writer giving a scene where a walk-on character asks a question the writer knows they can't answer, and arguably, the writer doesn't know the answer either. It's just exposition to set up Jason Todd and the writer mistakes that for being the answer. "Hey remember you've had multiple Robins, which means you've had multiple wards; including one we haven't heard much about until just now."

But, besides Jason, it does also open up an opportunity to answer the question in a way DCAU Batman totally has license to do so -- which is to have Bat and Catwoman partner up together in a simpler, healthier way than the Rebirth version. We know Selina isn't with Bruce by the time of Batman Beyond, that doesn't mean they couldn't have been married for awhile before divorcing.

This would be great, too, because it would over-write the awful Bruce/Babs romance that Bruce Timm seems to be obsessed with... and Bruce can have a healthy partnership, romantically and crime fighting wise, at least for a little while in his career.

Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin should form their own little side unit, obviously connected to Batman, but operating independently -- Nightwing & Batgirl are partners, and Robin is their sidekick/backup. They're a fun club together... and again, Babs being removed from Bruce is great for everyone's character development.

Nightwing / Batgirl / Robin could have their own adventures in back-up stories, or alternating arcs with Batman's more epic stories -- Nightwing/Batgirl/Robin could fight the forgotten classic rogues, and explore more of the deeper DCAU-universe. What happens when they encounter the Phantasm AND the Batwoman, while Batman is away on Justice League missions?

I really hate those kinds of continuity issues because they're just too hard to sidestep. Could Lex have had a power suit exactly like the one Ultra-Humanite put him in before the episode Injustice For All? I guess so, but why would Lex, the still-respected businessman, dare to put on a power suit that shows his face and commit crimes openly? That doesn't make any damn sense. And this is Paul Dini writing this? And Ty Templeton doing the art? They know better. This is their world.

...
But the evolution of Lex's character is pretty memorable because his costumes reflect the different chapters of his story. He was a businessman until he was thrown in prison during Justice League, at which point he wore the power suit or the purple and green commando uniform, until he made his deal to help take down the Justice Lords and then began to rehabilitate his Image and run for president.

Hmm. I hear what you're saying, and I agree that his arc is memorable and fun in that way. But I think you can probably cut them a bit more slack. For one, I don't think this in particular was a mistake. Even if it was, it's easily smoothed over with headcanon.

This comic is set post-TNBA and the last Adventures comic, and either before or concurrently with JL/U -- it's not entirely clear. At this point, having not seen Robin (only hearing of Tim), it's not clear if it's before the flashback in ROTJ -- it's possible this is after. We don't know.

I don't think it's supposed to be the same suit; if it was, I think they would've dropped some exposition in there to say so. I think it's just Lex Luthor happens to have this power suit, which is a pretty typical Lex thing. The one from Injustice For All may've been because this model of suit already exists for Luthor (like back-up Bat suits for Bruce); it was his first time in that suit, but not his first time in that type of suit.

Or, Injustice For All has already happened, and Luthor has managed to re-establish his business persona, having somehow dodging out of his sentence; maybe he got a presidential pardon from President Cobblepot (jk but that actually would actually be great since everybody's already made the observation that Trump is a lot like the Danny DeVito Penguin)
Again, I think this is less likely.

Easiest explanation is that the suit is simply a different / earlier model from Injustice For All, and at this point, Lex's crimes and power suits are still completely secret (to everyone except Batman and Superman).

His face being exposed is hubris on his part, assuming he's going to kill Batman there and it won't matter. Maybe there's a helmet that usually goes along with it. It's mostly just artistic license because that's how the Lex power-suit traditionally looks since the 50s or whatever and comics are traditional like that. Same reason why it doesn't make sense for Robin to be a little boy in bright pajamas. It's fantasy.

[thwhtGuardian]

Not sure if I dug the softer take on Deathstroke here