TV Talk - Batman Beyond

Hey all. I'm back with another Batman show. Yes, this counts as a Batman show because even though Bruce Wayne isn't Batman here, he still is around in some form. Ladies and Gents: Batman Beyond.

Background
This show came on in 1999 (7th/8th grade). Anyway, I really didn't know what to expect with this show when it came on. I mean, it looked really different. Since I was bored, I checked it out. It was pretty cool. I'm glad I checked it out every Saturday when it was on. I also have Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker at the house. And yes, it's the unedited version where ____ kills _____. I haven't  really watched the show since it aired, but I have seen some episodes online and BB: ROTJ is a movie that I try to watch occasionally. Yeah, it's that good.

Likes

• Continuation of B:TAS - One of the coolest things about the show was that it continued the ever-growing story of B:TAS. We start out the show by seeing Bruces's last night as Batman 20 years after the original show. Knowing that he's likely to die of a heart attack or crowbar, he quits. 20 more years  pass by and a high school kid named Terry McGinnus finds out that Bruce was Batman. Since his father was recently murdered, he takes the new suit to find his father's killers. Bruce tries to stop him (literally, the suit has a shut-off mechanism of all things), but he relents. After Terry finds his father's killer, Bruce asks him to be Batman and be his helper. Along the way, we see some old faces like Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Mr. Freeze, and even Superman. 
• Pretty serious and funny as well - The show was a lot like it's predesessor. It could go dark and be funny as well. To me, some of the darkest moments were a lot of the scenes from BB: ROTJ. Also, the episode that featured Mr. Freeze was a little dark and really sad. There was also this episode that featured a parody of the Fantastic Four and some of that was a little dark. If anything, this show was Spider-Man + Iron Man + Batman = Batman Beyond.
• Terry McGinnes - I liked Terry as Batman. He was everything Bruce wasn't. He was young, a wise-cracker and a little rebellious. He was kinda like a Robin but he was doing all of the work. Bruce could only help so much. It was also cool (shocking!!!) that he was voiced by Will Firedle  who played Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World. If you watched that show, especially in the final seasons, you wouldn't think that he could play the role of Terry well.  
• Awesome voice-casting - The rest of the voice-casting was good as well. Kevin Conroy was back as Bruce. Plus, all of the other voice-acting was pretty cool.
• Some of the villains were cool - A lot of the villains that Terry faced were a little different from Bruce's old ones. Most of his main villains were more greedy than crazy.  You had the Jokerz, a street gang named in honor of Joker, Mindbender, Shriek, Inque, and Blight. There was also that one crazy dude with the bombs strapped to his chest...(lol)...Mad Stan. Ha. Terry also faced some of Bruce's old villains like the Royal Flush Gang, Mr. Freeze, Bane (sort of), and of course: The Joker...sort of. Just watch the movie!
• The theme song (techno-rock rules!!!) - Last but not least, that theme song rocked!!!!! Click here to see the awesomeness!!!

Dislikes

Don't worry, I loved this part from"Out of the Past".

• The fact that it ended - The show lasted 52 episodes, which sucks. It should have gone on more. We do a little more with the movie and a couple of episodes of Justice League Unlimited.
• Not too many classic Batman villains - While Terry did go up against some classic villains like Mr. Freeze and the Joker, he really didn't face any others. It's not like I wanted to face the offspring of other villains, but it would have been nice to see if other villains like Two-Face, Penguin, Catwoman, and others had any kids that grew up to be villains. 
• No Nightwing - This was one thing I wondered about: Dick's whereabouts. We never saw him during the show's run, but we got references to him being away. It would have been nice to see him and to see if he was still Nightwing. He did show in a BB comic book though.
• All in all, that's really it. 

Favorite Episodes

• Rebirth - The pilot episode of the series. 
• Meltdown - This episode marks the only time Mr. Freeze shows up. The episode's pretty sad actually.
• Heroes - This features the Terrific Trio, a parody of the Fantastic Four.
• The Winning Edge - Venom is being supplied to high school kids. Bane is sort of involved. 
• Ascension - The final episode that features Blight.
• Terry's Friend Dates a Robot - Just look at the title.
• Out of the Past - Talia al Gul persuades Bruce to take a dip in the Lazurus Pits. We get a Bruce/Terry team-up, a hilarious musical at the beginning, and one of the freakiest things I have seen.
• The Call - Superman and the JLU make an appearance here.
• Future Shock - This is an episode of Static Shock that has Virgil transported to the future. 
• The Once and Future Thing - A JLU episode. The JL end up traveling to the future and encounter the old Bruce, Terry, and an older Static.
• Epilogue - Another JLU episode that was a nice end to Batman Beyond as well as the animated universe.
• BB: Return of the Joker - The movie pits Terry and Bruce against the Joker and we see an unknown piece of Batman's and Joker's past involving a certain Boy Wonder.

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This was a good show, but it's not one of my favorites. Still, I say check it out. Also, definitely check out BB: Return of the Joker. It's a good movie. If you can, find the unedited version. Well, I'm out. Next time, I'll look at what's probably the best Spider-Man cartoon.