Fresh Question #70: Reinvent Batman Beyond

[James Harvey]

Hey all,

Got nothing much to report here before the question, so I'll just skip right ahead to the question:

WB has asked you to re-invent Batman Beyond for their fall 2002 line-up. They want you to revamp it from head to toe, just keeping the title as the only similiarity between the current series and yours. How would you change it?

[LazyReaper]

The first thing I probably do is change the costume. Especially the ears, THEY'RE HUGE!! I'd make them the original size. I'd probably make a Terry a bit older and more buff. The suit would have more weapons. And with the mask itself, I'd probably take away the mouth, to make the look more darker...sort of like in 'Lost Soul'...

Bruce, I'd leave him as he is. Killing him off wouldn't be something I'd like. Same with Barbara...

It'd be cool if Terry got an accomplice; not like Bruce I mean, but someone that every now and then actually went along with Terry on the field itself. I wouldn't put Max in as he partner [I despise her :D], but maybe someone who is more aggressive and someone that might be willing to use the metallic costume Bruce used in 'Disappearing Inque'..

I have more ideas, but I can't remember them all right now..

--Aximlli

[Man of Steel]

Hey:

I think the first thing to do is make the animation darker and not make it look like a kiddie show, the next thing they should do is move it to another network that dosen't care about the volience so they don't cut it up, and the other thing they should do is make it like the cartoon show Spawn from HBO, but not with the demons and all that but with alot of bad words and alot of blood. That would be so cool.:rolleyes:

[Nightwing]

Great question! First thing's first, no computer laced animation. The bright Zeta look is gone. Get the HECK outa here! Ever see a man say goodbye to an animation style?

Well anyway. Next up, I'd spruce up Terry's background some more. We'd see more of what we were told so much about. His younger trouble making years. I want people to see it start out that way and go, "this is supposed to be my next Batman!!?" Plus I think it would benefit the viewers' outcome of his development as a whole.

[James]

I think I'd make it a self contained story of a certain length (maybe 36 episodes, 3 seasons - gives you a beginning, middle end) that depict the rise and fall of a new Batman - a little like mixing Year 1 Knightsend and Return Of The Dark Knight.

I'd set it in the future (duh) but not so far in the future. Give it the mix of furture tech the current series has, but make the city less Mega City One style.

I like the Terry character - I think I'd keep him, but make him a little more flawed.

As the story progresses, the mantle weighs heavier on him. For me the show should - as the series should've - portrayed the burden of the Bat on Terry and raise the question - can there only be one Batman? Can a normal kid take the responsibilty that comes with it and keep his sanity? Has Bruce twisted a kid into a more unbalanced version of himself?

The question would be about redemption. Can Terry pull himself out from the mantle before it consumes him? It would be essentially a rather anti-bat series. Dark and nasty. The Bat is an obsession that consumes the soul. Terry starts down the path - can he get out?

The end result would be that he does but not until after he has to stop Bruce from trying to keep the Bat alive....

Animation? Black. Nasty. One off stories, not dissimilar to the BB series. Flawed villians, action packed fights - but the consequences of these battles will have a knock effect for Terry.

Terry's relationship would be similar - edgy, often verging on non-cordial. Bruce would be darker. I keep Dana in it in some form and Max would appear each episode on the shows own version of 'Itchy and Scratchy'.

Naturally, Max would play the cat's part.

[I.R Joey]

Have Dana catch Melonie and Terry together, or at least give them a definative break up/commitment.

Mend the diffrences between the creative team esp Timm's and Dini. :(

Bring back Blight, and make him out for vengance. I'd also like to see more animation similar to Final Cut's climax.

"NOT" making all the villans connected to Terry's school.

That's it for now.

[Salvor]

I'd make Terry older, so that we don't get the highschool crap... I'd make him more.. bitter too, which would give rise to conflicts between him and Wayne.

Otherwise, I wouldn't change much. Oh yes, Wayne should be uglier, he'd kindda look like the original design BT did for him. His main features would be pretty much the same.

More gang stories. I'd want to see gang wars, big ones... and I'd take advantage of the Blade Runner type of world to use multicultural backgrounds... and I'd do more scenes in the streets themselves, not in the sky. The sky is more Superman's thing to me.

Fewer disposable villains, more recurring ennemies.

More heroes and team-ups. A future Green Arrow, a huntress, Etrigan, Nightwing... why not a new robin?

Bring back the old music. I never really got used to it. I happen to miss the good old themes...

Actually I'd change a great deal of things! :)

[DisneyBoy]

A while ago I drew a picture of what I thought a future Batgirl would look like, and I ended up with something between the current Batman Beyond costume and the mainstream Batgirl costume. That's right: No Terry-the man behind the bat would be a woman! Barbara would inherit the cave after Bruce's "death". She wouldn't be old, somewhere in her thirties. She would still be the Commisionner, but she would don the suit at night to stop the crimes that she can't from behind her desk. Dick Grayson would be a returning character. He'd be rich, as would Barbara and there would be a bitterness between them because of their old failed relationship and the fact that Bruce left it all to her and not him. I pretty much just drew up the BB villains fighting her, but it wouldn't make any sense to change the main character and keep everything else the same. I guess, Catwoman would return and there would be a mysterious male character called "Nightshade". I know it sounds nuts, but frankly, I would rather see one of the originals don the Batsuit in the future than some teen who's doing it for fun. Besides, who wouldn't like to see it star a woman?:D

[Peace Keeper]

I'm glad none of you worked for the WB, b/c you would have ruined BATMAN BEYOND. I like it the way it is. NO PARTNERS

[DR. BELCH]

Rather than being Comissioner, Babs Gordon would be crippled in a wheelchair, drawing a check from the government and hating it. The current Comissioner would be some crooked s.o.b., maybe a decendent of Luthor or Ham Hill or even Harvey Bullock. (Sure, Gotham was a toilet bowl under my father's administration," Babs tells Terry, "but those days it didn't seem so g.d. proud of being one.") "Oracle", as she calls herself would be angry, bitter, and possibly borderline schizoprenic --"You can thank your surrogate daddy for that one, McGinness," she mutters as she takes a drag off her cigarette. "And...for these," she adds, looking at her useless legs. She does research for Terry and helps him out on cases, but seldom leaves her apartment and is nowhere near as bubbly or irksome as Max, even if they share a genius for computers. Dick/Nightwing would have, unfortunately, gone mad and committed suicide some years back...another reason for Babs to be sore at Bruce.

[Inque]

They should focus more on Inque. More episodes with Inque. Thats basically all that needs to be done.

[Salvor]

Originally posted by Inque
They should focus more on Inque. More episodes with Inque. Thats basically all that needs to be done.
Why am I not surprised? :)

[DarkAngel]

Originally posted by DickGrayson
Hey all,

Got nothing much to report here before the question, so I'll just skip right ahead to the question:

WB has asked you to re-invent Batman Beyond for their fall 2002 line-up. They want you to revamp it from head to toe, just keeping the title as the only similiarity between the current series and yours. How would you change it?


The big change I'd make is to bring an overall story to the series, a "big picture," instead of all the episodes being self-contained, non-related episodes. That way we'd get definite character development.
"Rebirth" would be the same in terms of setting up the story, but by the end of the ep, Terry wouldn't not have the firm grasp that he did on handling the suit. As the first season progresses, we'd see Terry in training, gradually improving, and only truly being Batman by "Ascension." During these episodes we'd see Terry struggle with handling school, his social life, and new role as Batman.
Season 2 would begin answering questions about past characters. Meanwhile, we'd see the impact that Terry has on the role of Batman, as he starts to perfect his persona as the Bat and become more independent of Bruce Wayne.
Season 3 would feature the return of Blight and begin building up to the final episode. I don't have any specific thoughts on what the storyline would be, but I do feel the series should have an overall thread and that the Batman-Blight conflict would work best.

Basically, I'd want the format to be like that of Star Trek DS9. The show would start out with self-contained episodes that introduce the characters, city, and premise. The show would become more serialized by year 2, and the final season would have a six or seven episode arc that closes out the series.

[NewMaxFranklin]

I'd set it about twelve years after BB. This would give the characters time to grow and leave a bunch of time to refer to in flashbacks. Bruce is dead (wait, hear me out, ok) and Terry and Dana are married with two daughters. They live in Wayne mannor, which Bruce willed to Terry. Barbra's retired.

The first episode would take place on one of there kid's birthday.

Terry would have a mustash and wear glasses and basically, look like a buff version of his dad. Dana would have short hair.

The batsuit would be all black, with a larger wingspan. The chest insignia would be gold.

[watsonlives]

I wouldn't really want to just up and change everything, just add some new plot developments. One thing that would be good would be a story about a rouge Batman. Someone gets hold of that armored suit Bruce fought Inque in and decides to be his own Batman. Hey, that would be a cool thing to do on the RPG pages!

[DarkAngel]

Originally posted by watsonlives
Someone gets hold of that armored suit Bruce fought Inque in and decides to be his own Batman.

That would be cool. I was kind of thinking about that recently. If they had introduced the Azrael Batman during TNBA, then they could have had some descendant of Paul's pop up in BB time claiming to be the true Batman and showing the same over-the-edge tendecies that Paul had. That has some potential. Of course, we didn't really see any Knightfall-inspired episodes during BTAS or TNBA. There was the episode "Bane," but it really didn't reach for much. It's too bad.

[Bird Boy]

I think the only 2 TNBA/TAS episodes that touched ground w/ the actual comic books would be "Mad Love" and "Legends of the Dark Knight" . Mad Love being the episode "Mad Love" and LOTDK ,having Frank Miller's batman in it (I hated that comic by the way.. :D).

-BB

[watsonlives]

The Dark Knight Returns was brilliant! In my opinion it is the best Batman story ever written. Year One, also by frank miller, falls a close second and the Killing Joke by Alan Moore comes in third.

[RockItShipper]

Remember the circus girl from TNBA, Miranda Kane? It's very similiar to Kathy Kane- a character who went around as Batwoman in the '50s... Maybe Kathy's her daughter? That would be an interesting lead-in to either a female Bat (I do like Terry- but how many Caucasian male lead heroes do we need to see?) or another sidekick.