SDCC JLU/Teen Titans Panel Review and more...(SPOILERS!)

[Brainiac]

Okay, I wasn't sure if this goes under the official thread because that seemed devoted to action figures and whatnot, and this is likely to spark a lot of talk, I guess...So if it is meant to go under that thread, sorry!

On to the coverage...I made it to SDCC today JUST in time for the DCAU Panel. First up they had focused on Teen Titans--you'll have to forgive me--I'm really not at all a Titans fan (I was there for JLU n' Batman) but I'll try to describe as best I can what happened. First we saw an extended Teen Titans theme song with the two female singers who do it...pretty funny, btw. Then we got to see a clipshow set the theme song of old clips (I recognized some of the episodes I had caught before). Lastly there was a scene involving the Titans fighting a villain whose power was based on a Red X. No idea who he was, but apparently he got the suit from Robin...? Sorry about the lack of info there--I just was pretty much in the dark. Then the cast came out, including Ron Perlman (YES) and Tara Strong and the guys who do the voices for Robin n' Beast Boy. Fun stuff.

Teen Titans Spoiler/Re-cap:
-Villain used was guy with a Red X who got his suit from Robin

NOW, on to JLU. We saw an AWESOME clip reel with revamped music. Basically, most of it was the stuff in the promo that's been popping up (in fact, it may have been just that same promo). Regardless, we were treated to not one, not two, not three, but FOUR separate scenes!!!

SCENE 1: "For the Man Who Has Everything"--This looks awesome, to say the least. It began with Batman and Wonder Woman severely wounded on the floor of the Fortress of Solitude struggling to get up. Meanwhile, Mongul beats the crud out of Supes. FINALLY, Superman takes control and smashes Mongul into the Zoo area (yes, it returns!) of the Fortress, fighting him and yelling at him, saying "Do you know what you did to me/put me through?" Mongul cooly replies with something about giving him "Ultimate bliss." Not a direct quote. Right before the clip ends, WW gets up and sees Batman with a contraption wrapped around his face, and yells out "Bruce!"

SCENE 2: "Initiation" Whoa. The Watchtower is HUGE! Imagine the old watchtower, but able to house hundreds of Javelins. Which it does. It's like a gigantic hero home base, where they all fly in from missions and whatnot. GL seems to have returned to being militaristic and angry (after the events of "Starcrossed) and his leading Green Arrow, Supergirl, and (sorry, I'm not versed in DC Heroes outside of animated continuity) the white guy with a red asterisk/star that can absorb things to a Javelin. A very funny scene involving Supergirl asking if she could drive, and Mr.-White-Star-Guy saying "You'd let an amateur do that?" Supergirl then replies with, "You should take that stick out once in a while, y'know?" It was great--as was Supergirl shying from Green Arrow, who is characterized as a HUGE flirt, who doesn't really like the idea of being part of the JLU--more on that later.

SCENE 3: "Initiation" Now on to a fight between the four above mentioned heroes and 'Brimstone' (quotations because later Bruce Timm said that he is not called Brimstone, nor does he have the same origins at all. He just looks like him, basically). They basically fail miserably. GL goes off to save civilians and...two rhinos (yes, you heard me). Green Arrow shoots a bunch of explosive arrows and it does nothing. Mr.-White-Asterisk-Guy tries to absorb his powers (?) but it's too much and he passes out. Finally, Supergirl takes the good old-fashioned approach---her fists! She beats his fiery skull...but this does nothing. Basically, they weren't able to stop him in the clip.

SCENE 4: "Initiation" We see Green Arrow coming out of the Watchtower showers with a couple bandages and shirtless. BTW, the Watchtower seems to literally be teeming with heroes. They just kinda fill the space and walk by. Very cool. Batman (woo-hoo!) was standing outside the shower, and encourages GA to join the JLU. GA says that he's a loner and it's not quite his thing. Batman says the JLU does have its perks--and suddenly GA notices Black Canary sitting and...ahem...provocatively putting on her stockings. Okay, not provocatively. But the insinuation was. Anyway, GA decides to stay after that, and Batman gives one of his classic coy/wry smiles.

Finally, after being treated to all those clips, a panel including Bruce Timm, Berkowitz, Dwayne McDuffie...and more...discussed.
Spoilers: Villains that will Appear
-Circe and Ares
-AMAZO (but they mentioned that he's...not quite a villain)
-Thanagarians!
-Mongul (duh)
-Granny Goodness and Apokolips (Darkseid not mentioned, though?)
-LUTHOR!!! They said that he was at this point "straddling the fence;" he was trying to be good, but Bruce Timm said that "ultimately we all know he's evil." Can somebody say President Luthor...? I dunno...hmm...

The Batman spoilers/review in another thread...there's just oo much to say. It'll be up ASAP.

-Brainiac

[Brainiac]

Let me start by summarizing the episode (sorry about the constantly changing text size...I copied and pasted from Word and it wouldn't let me change all of it for some reason):


We were actually treated to one FULL episode of....."The Batman!"

Here goes...

PLOT

The episode featured (but no title) was the Man-Bat episode. Like JL, there is a brief intro before the theme song. We see a police car housing two detectives (one female Asian detective, and one African-American one) following the Batmobile in a high speed chase. Just as they corner it in an alley, the Batmobile blinds them with a flash of light, and when they can see again it is gone. But then as they look for Batman, they see swarms of bats above a building flying off in the distance. They follow it, and discover that the bats have headed to Wayne Enterprises.



We see the theme song, which is pretty cool. It includes character design sheets and then a clip of the following villains: Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and Mr. Freeze. It also shows clips of Batman, Bruce, and the Batmobile. And at the end it says “Batman” (unlike BTAS).



The two detectives enter the Wayne Enterprises building just as Bruce seems to be flirting with a secretary. The African-American detective says, “Bruce, we know your secret. We know you’re Batman.” Bruce looks worried, but then the detective starts laughing. Throughout the episode, it seemed as if Bruce and that detective were close friends. Investigating the bats, Bruce lets them poke around while he leads them around, and they end up in one of the laboratories. Bruce is surprised when a swarm of bats in present in the dark. Suddenly out of a freezer for science equipment walks a short and creepy old man—Dr. Kirk Langstrom. Bruce nonchalantly dismisses the bats as part of Langstrom’s work, and the detectives leave soon after, but not after Langstrom says that he couldn’t possibly be/know the Batman because he doesn’t even know of him.


After they leave, Bruce yells at Langstrom about not telling him about it, and Langstrom appeals to Bruce’s sympathetic side by showing him a picture of his niece, who he says is deaf. He is experimenting on bats to see if he can cure deafness. Bruce leaves, and he calls Alfred to let him know he’ll be paying a visit to Langstrom’s niece. He goes in person and delivers a hearing aid to her, in a pretty humorous sequence. He is speaking in sign language and saying at the same time, ‘I brought you this hearing aid in the meanwhile to help you out.’ The girl suddenly screams, ‘Mom! There’s some crazy guy at the door who’s giving me a hearing aid!’ Unfortunately, it’s followed by a line that was supposed to be serious but just made me groan and laugh when it wasn’t supposed to be funny. Bruce says dramatically: ‘If he’s not curing deafness…what IS he doing?’



Back in the laboratory Bruce goes snooping around as Langstrom isn’t around. He finds a scrapbook with newspaper clippings, psychoanalyses, and lots of scribbled questions about the Batman. Looks like Bats has got a stalker. Langstrom then surprises him and walks in. ‘You shouldn’t be snooping, Mr. Wayne!’ Wayne replies by saying, ‘Well you lied about knowing about Batman! You’ve got tons of stuff on him!’ (again—NOT direct dialogue quotes) Langstrom shrugs it off and explains how he will be the TRUE Batman of Gotham. He then drinks a serum, and voila, Man-Bat is born. We see from Man-Bat’s perspective everything in black and white...like some sort of negative. I guess it was their way of representing echo-location. Anyway, he lunges at Bruce, who dodges him. They scuffle and fight in the room, breaking beakers and test tubes, etc. Bruce then shoves him into the freezer, holding the door shut. Suddenly all goes quiet, Bruce opens the door, and sees that the Man-Bat has broken out by destroying the floor beneath him.



Bruce taps a small electronic device signaling the Batmobile to drive up to Wayne Enterprises form a remote location. We see it drive out from his penthouse (?) through a movable set of (fake) bushes and lowering fence, very much like the old ‘60’s Batman show. Anyway, Bruce is surprised to see the two detectives outside and quickly presses a few buttons to stop the Batmobile just out of view of Wayne Enterprises. He pretends that he got a spam e-mail from someone that he was deleting. Anyway, he is arguing with the detectives about letting them in, when suddenly the female detective gets a report on her police radio about a huge bat creature attacking people. She assumes it is the Batman, and they race off.



Batman does so as well, and calls Alfred saying he’ll need a few extra “surprises.” We don’t see him get these surprises—but he’s soon zooming off to fight the Man-Bat. There is a quick clip of the Man-Bat lifting an animal from the zoo out of an exhibit at night and sucking it’s blood (offscreen) and screeching. Batman follows Man-Bat from his Batmbobile, paralleling his flight. Finally, Batman grapples up to an apartment balcony and jumps on top of the Man-Bat (can anyone say “On Leather Wings”?). They fly around and duke it out, ultimately landing in an alleyway. Basically, the female detective suddenly stumbles in and only sees Batman, thinking that he is the one causing all the trouble. Then Batman throws a smoke bomb and disappears. Langstrom and Batman are then face-to-face (Langstrom reverted back to human form). Langstrom basically rants about being ‘the better Bat in Gotham.’ He then is about to gulp another vial of his formula, but Batman throws a batarang and shatters it. The detectives arrive again, and Batman and Langstrom run. Langstrom gulps another vial, and the female detective cuffs him. Of course, just as she does he turns into the Man-Bat. Batman saves her, but the Man-Bat spits out a gooey (what can only be described as brown Spider-Man web fluid) at the male detective’s mouth and carries him off. The female detective admits she was wrong about who Batman was.



Batman then goes off in his Batmobile, thinks about where Man-Bat would be hiding, and then realizes…the sewers—his own personal “cave.” Batman goes in the sewers, and finds hanging upside-down the cop with sticky stuff on his mouth. Man-Bat has already figured out Batman was there (via echo-location-vision) and just as Bats frees the cop, he is attacked. A medium-length fight scene later, involving Batman using a high-pitched sounding device to throw off Man-Bat’s “vision,” the Man-Bat is flushed out of the sewers after Batman destroys some piping which shoots out torrents of water. Langstrom is now human again, and is put in jail. We see him at the end sitting in his cell carving something into the wall by holding on to it with his toes and cackling maniacally about the Man-Bat ‘reigning supreme’ sometime in the future. End of episode.



THOUGHTS: I liked the character designs for Man-Bat and Batman—but it seems the animation for the actual people is a bit clunky. But it wasn’t too bad. And for some reason the Man-Bat figure on display by Mattel was inexplicably white. Man-Bat is not white. Man-Bat is beige…he’s lighter than the BTAS one, but not by much. Strange.



The animation was hit and miss. The action was very well-done, but the rest was kind of strange. It reminded me a LOT of the animation for Jackie Chan Adventures. The backgrounds and tone was nice—red sky, dark and menacing buildings.



The voice work…obviously, this Batman is no Kevin Conroy. But, I didn’t mind him so much, actually. I thought of him as a completely separate entity compared to Kevin Conroy Batman. The Man-Bat was a little mad scientisty, but he was fine. Actually, I didn’t’ really like the female detective’s delivery of lines that much, but the male detective was good.

My main problem was the story. It was very uneven, and just felt all over the place. They could’ve really made it interesting by developing Langstrom’s obsession instead of having the stupid conversations between Bruce and the Detective. Also, Batman said ‘freaky.’ That just kind of annoyed me. He’s much lighter than the Batman we know from BTAS, but it’s refreshing. I went in expecting something really really bad, so I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed myself, and hopefully the later episodes will be more fleshed out. And I hope the Joker sounds good…oh yeah. Mr. Freeze looked FANTASTIC. Stills don’t do him justice. In motion, he looks really cool…no pun intended. I’ll be happy to answer any other questions you have (provided I actually know, haha).



-Brainiac

[Bird Boy]

The other thread is actually for everything, but since these are so in-depth, and probably what a lot of people are wanting to read, I'll let this float on it's own for awhile...

-BB

[king_k4life]

Great should of told us more TT stuff tho

It's official I am going to hate this batman

Kevin Conroy is **BATMAN**

Mark Hamill IS **JOKER**

This series ***** on EVERY THING

[ArtificialIdiot]

I have to say, I'm quite disappointed on their take of the man who becomes Man-bat. My memory is a bit foggy, but did the DCAU actually want to be Man-Bat? Or was it an accident?

I'm also disappointed they seem to have based him on a vampire bat (seeing as he sucked the blood of an animal). :(

Still, I want to see that episode for myself :)

Teen Titans sounds fantastic though! And JLU? My god, it sounds like it's going to be amazing! I'm sure Timm and his team WILL NOT disappoint :D

[Simpler Simon]

- Interesting that WW yells out "Bruce!" at the end of that clip - I guess now that secret identities have been revealed, the League's gotten a bit more chummy (which also raises the question of if potential JLU members needs to reveal their identity before joining).

-An army of Javelins instead of a teleporter? I know the team always said the teleporters were cheesy, but you'd think it'd keep the League's costs down to install them (as well as production costs for the show, maybe).

-I can already predict that ppl will be annoyed that it's not Brimstone and has no connection to Darkseid, ignoring the fact that Timm has given us another nod to the comics :shrug:

-When Batman mentions the "perks" in the League, he was referring to something else....right? Watching Black Canary dressing seems a little perverted and out of character for Bats, even though the scene sounds hilarious.

-Thanagarians! Yay :D

[EJill34]

-When Batman mentions the "perks" in the League, he was referring to something else....right? Watching Black Canary dressing seems a little perverted and out of character for Bats, even though the scene sounds hilarious.
It could be that he knows that's what it'll take to get Green Arrow to join. I'm glad to hear that they're keeping the Black Canary/Green Arrow relationship. Too bad we can't get Blue Beetle though. Booster Gold without him just won't be the same.

[Cyber E.]

Where is my bloody Krypto news? =[

[Karkull]

Interesting that WW yells out "Bruce!" at the end of that clip - I guess now that secret identities have been revealed, the League's gotten a bit more chummy (which also raises the question of if potential JLU members needs to reveal their identity before joining).
Mongul is a different kind of villain than, say, the Joker. Mongul couldn't care less about Batman's secret identity, thus -- in this case -- it isn't that big a deal.


I can already predict that ppl will be annoyed that it's not Brimstone and has no connection to Darkseid, ignoring the fact that Timm has given us another nod to the comics :shrug:
But are they giving Brimstone an alternative origin, or any origin at all? Brimstone may still have a link to Darkseid the way that G. Gordon Godfrey did...an unstated, but possible one.


When Batman mentions the "perks" in the League, he was referring to something else....right? Watching Black Canary dressing seems a little perverted and out of character for Bats, even though the scene sounds hilarious.
Batman rules.

***

Great news on Captain Marvel -- I hope he appears a few times, as there's a treasure trove of untapped potential there (the Monster Society of Evil, for one). As for Blue Beetle, it's sad -- but we'll live. Besides, we got the Flash / Green Lantern friendship going, and a Blue Beetle / Booster Gold friendship might feel like a retread. Besides, Booster Gold has been defined by his friendship with Beetle for so long; maybe this will bring out a new facet of the character.

[Nick K.]

JLU is a week away and it is going to rock. That panel stuff must've been amazing. I wish I could've gone.

I have to say the GA and BC stuff is going to absolutely be the best!

EDIT - Just saw this at the DCUA...


... and Timm revealed that they asked for but could not get Blue Beetle for the show, due to a logjam of rights issues. Timm did say that the Power of Shazam would be coming to Cartoon Network, with an appearance this season by Captain Marvel.

:eek: Cap Marvel is going to appear apparently. Too bad about the Beetle, though maybe in the future.

[Knight]

The Captain Marvel News is great. I dont like his enemies though except for Black Adam I hope we get him as well.

On a sad note Beetle gets screwed. I wonder what they have his rights caught up in.

[Nick K.]

The Captain Marvel News is great. I dont like his enemies though except for Black Adam I hope we get him as well.

On a sad note Beetle gets screwed. I wonder what they have his rights caught up in.

Maybe the rights were just unattainable due to the creator not wanting him to appear or something like that.

[Brainiac]

Okay, some clarifications...

1) When WW yells out "Bruce!" it is in a separate room in the Fortress. Mongul is busy beating the bajeesus out of Supes. So he didn't hear her at all.

2) Batman referring to the perks didn't sound like he was being perverted--more like he was playing to what he knew GA would...find a perk, if that makes any sense? And for all we know, he could be referring to other things.

-Brainiac

[DarkLantern]

- -An army of Javelins instead of a teleporter? I know the team always said the teleporters were cheesy, but you'd think it'd keep the League's costs down to install them (as well as production costs for the show, maybe).
Wait till you see the episode, then you'll get a better idea how it works out...


-When Batman mentions the "perks" in the League, he was referring to something else....right? Watching Black Canary dressing seems a little perverted and out of character for Bats, even though the scene sounds hilarious.
Batman mentions perks? This is the actual dialog as I understand it:


Batman: Well, if it isn’t the “monster-killer.”

Arrow: I was lucky. So was everybody else. Still don’t think I belong up here.

Batman: That’s the point. Someone like you will keep us honest.

Arrow: Gee, Bats… I dunno. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good radiation burn as much as the next guy, but I don’t think…

(Arrow stops himself when he sees Black Canary for the first time… who is slowly putting on her boot, not adjusting her stockings by the way. Great music score.)

Batman (noticing what Arrow is looking at): So… see you soon?

Arrow: You just might.


DL

[Knight]

I cant wait to see some Green Arrow /Batman interaction.One week.

[Captain_Lothar]

Green Arrow is a pimp! Hah! This series will do just fine now. I have complete and absolute faith that Green Arrow will make it succeed!

[Who?]

Wait till you see the episode, then you'll get a better idea how it works out...


Batman mentions perks? This is the actual dialog as I understand it:


Batman: Well, if it isn’t the “monster-killer.”

Arrow: I was lucky. So was everybody else. Still don’t think I belong up here.

Batman: That’s the point. Someone like you will keep us honest.

Arrow: Gee, Bats… I dunno. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good radiation burn as much as the next guy, but I don’t think…

(Arrow stops himself when he sees Black Canary for the first time… who is slowly putting on her boot, not adjusting her stockings by the way. Great music score.)

Batman (noticing what Arrow is looking at): So… see you soon?

Arrow: You just might.


DL
That sounds freaking awsome! And it proves for everyone that JLU will have character moments, setting it apart from the cardboard Superfriends. Can´t wait!

[Brainiac]

DL (as usual and for good reason, probably) is COMPLETELY right. Now that I actually see the dialogue I have NO idea where teh perks came from...I was just trying to sumarize and could've sworn there was something in there about...perks. Anyway, sorry about the confusion.

-Brainiac

[Simpler Simon]

Thanks for clearing up the "perks" issue, DL. With that kind of humour and dialogue, Green Arrow's definitely gonna be a fan favourite. Nice way to slip in characterization and a comic nod too, and

I'm guessing Green Arrow's gonna deliver the finishing blow to Brimstone?


Mongul is a different kind of villain than, say, the Joker. Mongul couldn't care less about Batman's secret identity, thus -- in this case -- it isn't that big a deal.
Never considered that actually, but cool. My original point was that you rarely see Batman being addressed as "Bruce" while in costume. Superman gets away with it because he's Superman, but would Batman allow someone like say, Flash to call him Bruce? I would've thought that WW would also stick to calling him Batman too, but "Bruce" implies that they've gotten closer since season 2 ended?

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I would've thought that WW would also stick to calling him Batman too, but "Bruce" implies that they've gotten closer since season 2 ended?
Well, the bigger league does leave them with more free time.;)

[Redraptor]

I was at comicon and saw the clips…just wondering for those others who saw the Batman episode…

Is it just me or does the police woman look like an asian version of Elisa Maza with just her hair up? Maybe its just cause I’m a Gargoyles fan too…but as soon as she got out of her car and walked around I did a double take and was like “whoa she looks just like Elisa!”

Back shirt, solid, deep-red overcoat/jacket, blue jeans, black longish hair, a cop(dont remember if she mentioned being a detective...altho she wasn't wearing any police uniform...) …and I know some of that sounds generic, but on screen seeing those few details in animation I made an instant connection (also my friend next to me noticed it too after a few seconds)
Anyways, overall, the episode was /decent/. It wasn’t as horrible as I thought it was. Although I'll have to see an episode of how Joker of the Jungle(what I call him after seeing a short clip at the Batman booth) is handled before I make my own judgement. I don’t think I’m going to enjoy it as much as TAS, but I will give it a chance. Especially the Joker. I'm a both appalled, yet curious as to what they have done with his character.

What struck me as the biggest visual problem that was bothersome, was the direction/motion of the characters during a fight. The way they move is so fast and quick that it is inhuman even for animation. It makes it look /too/ cartoony imho. It even makes Teen Titan’s fighting look more realistic. (Not that I’m bashing Teen Titans; I saw the promo for it and thought the fight scenes looked fierce and awesome. But even Teen Titan’s being styled as it is, their movements looked more natural in comparison to The Batman) Or if anything, the super quick animated movement of The Batman makes the characters seem /too/ superhuman.

The movements are "Flash" quick sometimes, or the characters jump around on walls almost like Spider-man. Thats fine...if they have the proportional strength and agility of a spider..but they don't....(for those who saw the clips at the booth in the exhibit hall, I'm talking about the Joker and Penquin being all hoppy all over the place...and the way Batman kinda zips around here and there.)

This is just my first impressions from seeing those clips...they might change as the serious goes on...I don't know but I sure hope they do ..at least a little.

Also, I can’t wait for JLU. I sooo want to see what happens in that scene in the Fortress of Solitude, before and after.

[ArtificialIdiot]

Well, the bigger league does leave them with more free time.;)

Free time? For Batman? But he's like, the workaholic of the superhero universe! :p

[Captain_Lothar]

Batman and freetime are almost contradictory.