COMIC REVIEWS
(BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES by Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton)
(BATMAN BEYOND by Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton)
(SUPERMAN ADVENTURES by Dick Grayson)
BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES
ISSUES: "In Arms" (#26)
WRITTEN BY: Scott Peterson
PENCILLED BY: Tim Levins
INKED BY: Terry Beatty
ISSUED: May 3, 2000 (cover date, July 2000)
RATING (out of 5): ***1/2
Batman is on the hunt for something called "Kristov" - something that all the different mafias and government agencies throughout the world are searching for. His search finally ends when he comes across a Kristov itself - a child whose DNA has
been imprinted with missile launch codes.
As far-fetched as it MAY sound, it still is an interesting twist to the story. Once I found that this "Kristov" was a child, I figured he or she must be related to someone in power somewhere in the world, and would therefore be used for ransom; the launch codes
provided an original change to this type of mafia story.
This issue made me wonder about a few things, though - and that's a good thing. I recall that when BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES started up way back in 1992, one of the things they had to ABSOLUTELY stay away from was child endangerment; in this issue we see three consecutive
pages of Batman fighting crime, rescuing people, and otherwise saving the day - all while Kristov is in his arms. Dangerous? Probably - but I think Peterson wrote the story this way to show not only how skilled and competent Batman is, but how much more he cares for children than anyone
else. I suppose his excuse to NOT give it to Alfred back in the cave was reasonable, too; Ra's Al Ghul just might come through, looking for the baby.
The scenes where Batman shows his incompetence of actually taking care of the baby were cute, too; Batman's all heart, yes, but he knows nothing of raising infants, like feeding and diaper changing. Then again, Batman does have absolutely no experience here - all of his
"kids" (i.e. Dick and Tim) were pre-teens when they entered his life.
To continue protecting the baby, Batman actually gives up his secret identity to the FBI (though they're unaware of it); I won't say HOW, because the way in which he does it makes sense. I just hope that Batman sometime gets into the DNA database and erases that information;
he's got to cover himself. That's the only thing that could cause problems in this issue - but it also provides the story for a future issue.
Overall, I thought it was a great issue.
;-Y
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COMIC SCHEDULES & COVERING THE BASICS
This section gives a little bit more in-depth look into each monthly issue of BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES, BATMAN BEYOND, and SUPERMAN ADVENTURES. Below each comic listing is a link to the cover of that comic. TALK ABOUT SERVICE!
The price for any of these issues, unless otherwise posted, is $1.99 in the US and...grrrrr...a whopping $3.25 in Canada. (Both our editors and many subscribers are Canadian, hence the "grrr".)
If we are unsure of the exact date of when an issue is being released, just check out "DIRECT CURRENTS" at http://www.dccomics.com for details.
BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #27
June 7th
Synopsis: A popular college professor of law who teaches a class on organized crime is in jail for the murder of a known mob boss. Has the professor stepped over the line and become judge, jury and executioner? Or is he being framed by a new player on the mob scene in Gotham?
Cover: Unavailable
FOLLOWING MONTH:
Synopsis: The return of the Riddler.
Cover: Unavailable
BATMAN BEYOND #9
May 24th
Synopsis: Batman VS. Curare. Oh, and Bruce Wayne, too.
Cover: http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0002/22/BatmanBeyondCvr9.jpg
FOLLOWING MONTH: .
Synopsis: A new, improved Golem returns to Gotham.
Cover: Unavailable
FOLLWOING MONTH:
Synopsis: Unavailable
Cover: Unavailable
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NEWS AND RUMORS
ALL-ENCOMPASSING/OTHER
-The BATMAN CHALLENGE is now up and ready at OnStar.com. Go check it out!
-Terry Beatty has been and will be selling Gotham Adventures and Batman Beyond original art on eBay. His Seller ID is: beatty@machlink.com Do yourself a favor and check out some great art!
-Craig Rousseau has been and will be selling Gotham Adventures and Batman Beyond original art on eBay. His Seller ID is: cerousseau@aol.com Feel free to check it out! You don't wanna miss it!
ANIMATED SERIES (BTAS, STAS, BEYOND)
-YTV has just got the rights to air episodes #27 - 52 of BATMAN BEYOND. It's unknwon when these episode to air, but expect fall 2000. YTV may air all the episodes through in ONE run, unlike the first 26 episodes.
-The results for the Daytime Emmy Awards (in which BTAS, STAS, and BEYOND earned a combined 9 nominations) will be aired on May 19.
ANIMATED COMICS
-Chuck Dixon has written an upcoming issue of GOTHAM ADVENTURES, in which Batman is poisoned and has one hour to live; he enlists in Robin and Poison Ivy's help to find the culprit. The Penguin and Harley Quinn also appear.
-Craig Rousseau will be penciling and Rob Leigh will be inking the comic adaption of RETURN OF THE JOKER, most likely due out Oct. 18 or 25.
-The first six issues of BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES will be collected in tradepaperback form, being released on May 17. These six issues feature great stories by Ty Templeton and great art by Rick Burchett and Terry Beatty; characters in the spotlight are Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing,
Joker, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, the Riddler, Clayface, Deadman, and more. It will cost $9.95, and the cover will be the same as the cover of GOTHAM ADVENTURES #1.
-Terminal (villain in HIDDEN AGENDA) will return in BATMAN BEYOND #12
-BATMAN BEYOND #15 is being touted as nothing but a "WOW" issue. Wow!
-Min Ku may return to fill in for Rousseau on Issues #13 and #14.
OTHER COMICS
-DARK VICTORY #10: Mr. Freeze enters the mix as the Batman/Gordon/Two-Face/Mob war escalates.
-Devin Grayson will be revealing the narrator of the GOTHAM KNIGHTS series in a five issue story beginning in issue #8, this August.
MOVIES
-A teaser poster for RETURN OF THE JOKER can be found at this address:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news6/p-bb.jpg
-A SPECIAL EDITION of the 1989 BATMAN film is in the making. It will feature two previously deleted scenes (the Joker at a radio station, for one), as well as the two preview trailers and commentaries by Tim Burton and Michael Keaton. This is due out in October.
-DARK HORIZONS reports that Julia Roberts was offered $20 Mill. to be involved with Batman 5. FORTUNATELY, she turned it down. (Thank God.)
LIVE ACTION TELEVISION
-For more info about the ONSTAR commercials, go to:
http://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/news.html
-Check out http://www.fandom.com/batman for downloadable versions of the ONSTAR commercials if the official ONSTAR site is not being cooperative with your PC. Two of the commercials can also be found at http://www.adcritic.com - just search for "Batman".
-It appears a fourth ONSTAR commercial will now be made. The release date is currently unknown.
TOYS, BOOKS, AND OTHER MERCHANDISE
-For a preview on BATMAN VEHICLE ADVENTURE (a forthcoming Playstation game), check out this address:
http://www.gameinformer.com/previews/preview_detail.cfm?ITEM_ID=4831
-For a preivew of the RETURN OF THE JOKER game for GAMEBOY COLOR, click here:
http://pocket.ign.com/previews/14819.html
-You can also find a preview of the N64 version here:
http://ign64.ign.com/previews/14845.html
-It looks like the fourth and fifth BATMAN BEYOND videos, SPELLBOUND and CRUSH, are available; I saw them on eBay not 5 minutes ago.
SPECIAL NOTE
For more BATMAN, SUPERMAN, AND BEYOND news throughout the week, check out the WORLD'S FINEST
NEWS PAGE at:
http://www.geocities.com/bbeyond/news.html
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FEATURED BAT-SITE FOR THIS ISSUE
(feel free to submit your own for our consideration)
None whatsoever for this issue. Why am I not surprised? Sigh... ;-Y
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ANIMATED BATMAN/SUPERMAN SITES:
* - indicates a shameless plug for a site a certain double-faced editor created with his bare hands - in other words, a cheap advertising technique.
OFFICIAL SITES
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THE NEW BATMAN/SUPERMAN ADVENTURES
http://www.batman-superman.com
BATMAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES
http://www.batmantas.com
BATMAN BEYOND
http://www.batmanbeyond.com
BATMAN BEYOND VIDEO SITE
http://www.batmanbeyondvideo.com
YTV'S BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES PAGE
http://www.ytv.com/shows/batman_animated/
YTV's BATMAN BEYOND Page
http://www.ytv.com/shows/batman_beyond/
SUB-ZERO: THE DEFINTIVE GUIDE
http://www.batman-subzero.com
KID'S WB
http://www.kidswb.com
DC COMICS
http://www.dccomics.com
KTLA KIDS WB SCHEDULES
http://www.ktla.com/backstage/programming/KIDSWB.htm
TOON ZONE
http://www.toonzone.net
PSYCOMICS
http://www.psycomics.com
RAVING TOY MANIAC
http://www.toymania.com
VOICE CHASERS
http://www.voicechasers.org
UNOFFICIAL SITES
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*TWO-FACE'S TOWER OF TRANQUILITY AND TERROR
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/TimTwoFace/index.html
BATMAN, SUPERMAN, & BEYOND: THE WORLD'S FINEST DISCUSSION CENTER
http://welcome.to/worldsfinest
THE DISCUSSION CENTER (same as above)
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Taping/2928/boards.htm
BRIAN CRUZ' WB CARTOON PAGE
http://www.toonzone.net/brian/index.html
BATMAN UK (BRIAN'S BATMAN PAGE)
http://www.batmanuk.freeserve.co.uk
RA'S AL GHUL'S THE LAZARUS PIT
http://zap.to/lazaruspit
THE DARK KNIGHT
http://www.darkknight.ca
BATMAN BEYOND: WELCOME TO THE FUTURE
http://www.batmanbeyond.net
TIM WAN'S BATMAN BEYOND
http://come.to/batmanbeyond
DCU ANIMATED
http://www.DCUAnimated.zzn.com
BRUCE TIMM ARCHIVE SITE
http://members.xoom.com/brucetimm
BATMAN ANIMATED: THE UNOFFICIAL FAN CLUB & FANZINE
http://www.batmanuk.freeserve.co.uk/club/
HARLEY'S HAVEN OF HEDONISM
http://www.harley-quinn.com
GOTHAM CITY LIMITS
http://www.batman.gexner.net
BATMAN: DEFENDER OF GOTHAM
http://www.fandom.com/batman
THE RIDDLER - EDWARD NYGMA'S PUZZLE WEBSITE
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/prospero.milan/nygma
THE BATMAN ACTION FIGURE PAGE
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7659/
CHARACTERS ON THE ADVENTURES OF BATMAN & ROBIN
http://www.xse.com/leres/batman.html
ARKHAM ASYLUM
http://animation.acmecity.com/saturday/352
JOKERZ TERRITORY
http://members.xoom.com/Jokerz84/index.htm
THE BATZONE
http://www.batzone.cjb.net/
JLA: THE ANIMATED SERIES
http://animation.acmecity.com/character/375
ANIMATED TALES
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/2294/at
A TRIBUTE TO BATMAN
http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/russkafin/batman.html
ANIMATED STYLE ARTWORK ARCHIVE
http://hjem.get2net.dk/twt/asaa/home.html
BATMAN CEL SITE
http://animation.acmecity.com/carbon/111
DARK JUSTICE
http://www.mania.com.au/~grahark/darkjustice/
ROGUE AVENUE, GOTHAM
http://www.ultros.com/rogue_avenue
THE BATMAN BEYOND INFO PAGE
http://www.rogue-spear.com/BB
THE VAULT
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Animation/Voice_Actors
NEWSGROUPS
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news:alt.comics.batman
news:alt.animation.batman
news:alt.comics.superman
news:rec.arts.sf.superman
news:alt.tv.cartoon-network
news:rec.arts.animation
news:alt.animation.warner-bros
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QUESTIONS, SUBMISSIONS, AND FAN-MAIL
If you have any questions, problems, links do not work, or anything else, then please e-mail this address with your problems and we'll try to fix them as soon as possible. Also if you'd like to send any fan-mail then please send it to this address:
juno@direct.ca
As for submissions, feel free to submit an article or opinion on anything pertaining to BTAS. Keep in mind that as the editors, we have the right to edit your submissions if we deem it necessary. Such instances would include problems with length, grammar, and language.
If we do feel we must edit something, however, we will do our utmost to ensure that the opinion and the basic message of the submission does not change, as that is the most important part of any article, and everyone is entitled to it. And if you do submit something, please don't just
submit a basic review of an episode or a comic or something (because we have people writing for those purposes already) - write about an issue you'd like to discuss.
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BATMAN: THE ANIMATED ARCHIVES
The very kind people at TOONZONE were nice enough to give us our own little section of their huge and diverse website. The archive contains past newsletters and is semi-regularly updated with the latest one. To check it out go here:
TOONZONE's BATMAN: THE ANIMATED NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
http://www.toonzone.net/wbc/newsletters/btan
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LIKE WHAT YA SEE? WANNA SUBSCRIBE? HERE'S HOW!!!
For those of you who are seeing this at the WBC HOMEPAGE BTAN ARCHIVES section and want to subscribe, just follow these simple instructions:
To subscribe email juno@direct.ca, put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line, and put the e-mail address you'd like the newsletter to be sent to in the body of the message.
For more information about the newsletter just email
juno@direct.ca Thank you for your time, and thanks for reading! Tell your friends!
-Tim TWO-FACE Leighton and Dick Grayson, editors
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TO ALL GOOD THINGS...
...there must be an end. We would like to thank the endless amount of contributors for contributing their editorials, columns, news, jokes, reviews and other articles. We hope you've all enjoyed it as much as we've enjoyed making it! Thank you for reading! See ya next time!
CREDITS FOR BATMAN: THE ANIMATED NEWSLETTER
EDITOR AT COLLEGE, NOT IN A DORM: Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
EDITOR AT COLLEGE, BUT IN A DORM: "Dick Grayson"
AIR DATE SCHEDULES: Brian Cruz, RiddlerWB (at the official BTAS/STAS site), and YTV.com
EPISODE REVIEWS: Zanna/Justin Chen, and occasionally Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
EDITORIAL: Kelly Tindall
COMIC REVIEWS: Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton, Dick Grayson
UNDER THE KNIFE: Brian Davis
MERCHANDISE REVIEW: Various
"BTAN ARCHIVES" MODERATOR: Eileen Delgadillo
TRIVIA: Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
PROMOTIONS AND JUST GETTIN' THE WORD AROUND: Dick Grayson, Eileen Delgadillo, Brian Cruz, Brian Davis
THOSE WHO FILL IN FOR OTHERS WHEN THEY FOUL UP:-Y Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
DELIVERY: Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
E-MAIL RECEPTION HANDLING: Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
BATMAN CREATED BY: Bob Kane & Bill Finger (who else?)
Batman and all related indicia are trademarks of DC Comics, Copyright c 2000.
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