Batman 2099? Well, Kinda
The series takes place in what’s known as Neo-Gotham in 2039. The first two episodes set the foundation (in 2019)– the Dark Knight, the original Batman, Bruce Wayne, is aging and his body can no longer keep up with him. When he nearly gets beaten by a group of thugs and has to resort to pulling a gun on them, he knows the time has come to hang up the suit. Bruce becomes embittered and saddened, living like a hermit in his mansion. Twenty years later (2039), Terry McGinnis, an athletic high schooler, manages to stumble upon the mansion after being pursued the by Jokerz gang. Bruce and Terry never become the best of friends, but they both begin to see how they can benefit one another. Bruce still has the technology, the experience, and the brains of the operation — Terry has the young and able physical abilities, though. Together, the two make a great team with Bruce running the show from the cave while Terry gets to work in Gotham.
Batman Beyond is flashy, high tech, heavy on the action, and built for a younger, edgier audience. That said, it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable show. Watching Terry and Bruce work together to face a new assortment of villains like Blight, Inque, and Spellbinder in this futuristic Gotham is fun and engaging. I thought the series also did a nice job of introducing new characters, be they good, bad, or neutral, throughout the series, like Terry’s girlfriend Dana Tan. And while I still ultimately prefer the detective nature of the Animated Series more, Batman Beyond is nevertheless a solid show.
The Box Set
I thought Warner did a great job with the packaging and presentation of this set. For those of you familiar with the Animated Series complete set, this will look familiar, but that’s a good thing. Working from the outside in, the packaging begins with a removable plastic shell. On the front, there is a picture of Batman; the back side has a breakdown of the box contents. The box itself is a nice hard cardboard box that flips open like a book a ninety degree angle. Inside is a bright red Batman logo, and art book, and a thick DVD case. My box interior actually had a small tear in the cardboard surrounding the DVD case, which I’ll chalk up to packaging at the factory, but it doesn’t hurt the functionality of the set at all. The booklet, which I will detail more later, is as big as the box and in full color. The DVD case contains all nine discs stacked in a book-like fashion.
As for the image and sound quality of the show, well, it may not impress some viewers who are used to widescreen presentation cartoons. Expect a full frame image with what I would call a very straight-forward image quality, nothing fancy here. I wouldn’t call the image quality bad, but it doesn’t look like Warner attempted to clean it up or do anything that might help it on HDTVs. Still, the show looks good, and it’s easy for me to be more forgiving considering the cartoon is about a decade old now. The sound quality is the same; it gets the job done but won’t blow you away.
This set contains some new extras including the art booklet and a new bonus disc with three new features. Interestingly, the feature film, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is not included. The book is twenty-four pages and contains lots of sketches and clippings from scripts and brainstorming sessions. There is also a nice introduction by Stan Berkowitz, series story writer and editor. After his intro, a disc by disc breakdown of episodes and features is given before you start to explore pages of artwork. Drawings of characters, weapons, gadgets, and areas around Gotham are included, most with captions to explain what it is you’re looking at. The book is definitely a nice touch to the set.
Extra features carrying over from the original DVD releases of each season include:
-Audio Commentary on Season 1, Episode 1 with Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Glen Murakami, and Curt Geda.
-Audio Commentary on Season 1, Episode 7 with Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Glen Murakami, Curt Geda, and Stan Berkowitz.
-Inside Batman Beyond – Several creators from the series, including Timm, talk about the show and its origins.
-Audio Commentary on Season 2, Episode 1 with Bruce Timm, Glen Murakami, James Tucker, Andrea Romano, and Will Friedle.
-Audio Commentary on Season 2, Episode 19 with Bruce Timm, Glen Murakami, James Tucker, Andrea Romano, and Will Friedle.
-Inside Batman Beyond – The Panel: An interesting discussion with Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Glen Murakami, and Paul Dini with Jason Hillhouse acting as moderator.
-Inside Batman Beyond Season 3 – The same panel gets together for another discussion of the series, this time focusing on Season 3.
-Close-Up On… – Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Butch Lukic, James Tucker, and Will Friedle talk about their favorite moments and episodes in Season 3.
And the brand new features for this set? Those are:
-Tomorrow Knight: The Batman Reborn – (10.5 minutes) Dan Riba, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Stan Berkowitz, Bruce Timm, and a few others talk about the challenges of reinventing Batman as a teenager and how Terry and Bruce differ in their style and approach to the role of Batman.
-Gotham: City Of The Future – (5.5 minutes) Series creators talk about Gotham in 2039, aka Neo-Gotham. Concept art and clips from the show are presented, too. They discuss the sleek nature of Gotham in 2039 and its influences.
-The High-Tech Hero: (5 minutes, 43 seconds) The technology behind Batman, such as the suit, is examined. Concept art and clips from the show complement the series creators talking about the tech.
-Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comcs (1.5 hours) – The documentary of DC Comics which was just released as a standalone DVD is included here as a nice gesture.
That’s what you can expect with the complete series set — to the summary…