Here's something I snorked off of today's edition of www.comicscontinuum.com...

Sources have told The Continuum that the WB network is considering a live-action television pilot, tentatively called Bruce Wayne, that would feature an 18-year-old Bruce traveling the world in his training to become Batman.

Paul Dini, a producer of the Batman and Batman Beyond animated series, told The Continuum that he knows nothing of the Bruce Wayne pilot, although his team once considered something similar for animation.

"There has been some talk of a live Batman show for a while and this could be the latest permutation of that," Dini said of the recent buzz.

"One of the rejected ideas for a new Batman animated series was one which dealt with young Bruce's early days. We didn't do it because there was no Batman in it and how exciting is a batless Bruce Wayne? No villains, no car, no gadgets. It would be the flashback sequences of Mask of the Phantasm but without the promise of any Batman to come. That's why we did Batman Beyond instead."

One source said that the Bruce Wayne project might be tied to the possible Batman: Year One-style feature film that could be the next installment of the Batman movie franchise from Warner Bros.

Hmmmm. Did the "sources" simply misinterpret things when hearing of the ideas that lead up to Batman Beyond, or is there some truth to this?

In the right hands, this could be an interesting idea. After all, the reworking of Superman into a format that emphasized his relationship with Lois (Lois and Clark) worked reasonably well, so this might as well. Still, it'll be hard work... as Dini said, it's Batman that makes Bruce interesting, so the creators would have to really work to make Bruce interesting enough to stand on his own. Still, I'm worried... it could be a really lame, pointless show filled with proto-versions of Batman's rogues gallery. Ech.

It's something to ponder, though...

---Hatter

Batman Beyond Spoilers(?) & New WBSS Stuff!
Thu Nov 25 04:26:17 1999

If this is old news to any Bat-fans, I apologize, but in light of recent events, I haven't had time to keep up on the latest news.

According to Action-Figure.com, a new line of Batman Beyond action figures, "Batlink" (formerlly known as "Cyber Justice"), may be in stores just in time for Christmas shopping (for yourself!).

Because the page takes so long to load (or maybe it's just my browser), I'll give you a list of what all there is in the line. Keeping in mind that the odds of action figures Kenner develops from an established toy line/TV series actually making it into an episode are about 95 to 1 (even more rare if they make figures that look anything like they do on the show), I have doubts that these characters will make it into the series.

But here's what's in the line currently:

Codebuster Batman (computery-looking virtual suit that looks to be somewhat transparent)

Virtual Joker (giant cyber head with teeth and claws... froinlaven!)

Netrunner Batmobile (new design)

Firewall Robin - yes, you read that correctly. Maybe Robin will be in the series after all. Although the figure pictured here looks to me like Terry with Robin's costume on.

Power Cape Batman - [as Brain] YeeeeEESSSS! Finally, they made a figure that looks JUST LIKE THE ONE ON THE TV SHOW! Huzzah!

Shower Power Dana Tan - ha-ha! Just kidding! (Don't we guys WISH!)

J's Gang - Jokerz Gang two-pack. Goodie! More Jokerz figurz for all those 32 different designs of Batman to wrangle with!

And for those who don't wanna wait for that page to load, I'm gonna try my hand at linking two of the images for the first time:

Virtual Joker
http://www.action-figure.com/new99/newsreports/index.shtml#943015290

http://www.action-figure.com/new99/newsreports/index.shtml#943015290

Firewall Robin
http://www.action-figure.com/new99/newsreports/index.shtml#943014854

http://www.action-figure.com/new99/newsreports/index.shtml#943014854

And NEW at the WB Studio Store:

- Pinky & The Brain t-shirt, all-black with an image on front only that you've seen many times before. Text reads: CONQUER YOUR FEAR! My guess is it was a delayed Halloween release. Sells for $14.

- Animaniacs keychain/mini-purse (or coin purse, depending on your gender POV). It's yellow and features all 3 Warners along with Hello nurse. It's about 4 inches in diameter. There are two others in this set - one with the Scooby Gang and one featuring Looney Tunes characters. The gimmick is it has this little spinning circle of plastic that reveals "hidden messages" for each character. Naturally, none of them coincide with their popular catchhprases. Like I told the sales clerk (cute girl who also happened to be an A! fan too and loved the Six Flags shirt I was wearing), "That's what happens when fans don't make the merchandise." She replied, "Yeah, like them promoting Tweety as a girl. Go fig!" Still, it's new and it's better than nothing. Sells for an overpriced $6.

I bought the t-shirt right away - they seem to sell out here real quick-like. But I'll wait on that keychain/purse thing since there were plenty of them and I don't think they'll be going anywhere fast.

I also wanted to comment on "The Iron Giant" VHS and DVD release. Even though I already pre-ordered my copy, I still checked 6 other stores to see if the reports I'd heard that standees, displays or promo posters were noticably absent from most retailers except the WBSS. It was true. In fact, at the store where I picked up my copy of the DVD, IG wasn't even on the new release wall! (What the @#$%???) And what sort of moron in manufacturing could screw up so bad as to seal a toy tie-in INSIDE THE FRICKIN CLAMSHELL COVER?!? That's right, it's not merely held in place under the shrinkwrap - they sealed the sucker inside the clamshell's vinyl cover!!! Whatever collectable value it had is ruined because, 1) You have to literally cut the clamshell cover open to get the figure out, and 2) The figure being sealed inside the vinyl cover damages the packaging because of the way they're packed in shipping. So after you've made a surgical inscision on the cover to procure the figure, you're left with a nasty-looking dimple in the box cover and a poofy, stretched place where the figure once was.

But I'm trying not to let these things place a cloud over how excited I am to now have this film in my very possession. I watched it two more times last night and after I post this, I'll be watching it again. Maybe if I win this passenger van they're giving away in this sweepstakes, or that cache of toys and videos with the Cartoon Network, I'll be able to forget how miserably WB has treated this animated classic.

Okay, I'm done. You may return to your consumption of turkey-like meats and your sports-watching activities.

But if you need a useless amusement to occupy your time on this wonderful day off (for many of us anyway, unpaid though it be), you should check out this transcript of last week's episode of Space Ghost: Coast-To-Coast which is in my brother's and my opinion (except for 2 short minutes of "filler") the hands-down funniest episode ever of SGC2C, if for no other reason than the writers tried to see how many times they could get away with using the word "S-E-X" in an episode. But they didn't stop there, this ep also marks the debut of the first cursewords uttered on a Cartoon Network program. See it for yourself.

Logging off now,

Gookie
--May cause drowsiness.