Batman: The Animated Series is rightly famous for his take on Batman’s villains, which were often so compelling that those versions were quickly incorporated into the comics. So it’s doubly remarkable that when the B:BAG team took a chance on “What if Batman was a loud teenager from the cyber world Akira future?” for the series Batman Furthershe Also decided that they would no longer name villains.
Batman Further wouldn’t bring up any old villains from the comics or Batman: The Animated Series unless the story was really, really, worth it. That alone should be enough to get you interested in Batman Beyond: Return of the Jokerthe playing time Batman Further film, which, conveniently enough, is included in the series’ remaster/upconversion set, Batman Beyond: The Complete Serieswhich amounts to a 24% discount during Prime Day.
Is Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker a good movie? I… I’m not sure. But I can tell you this: it’s a movie where the Joker gets an orbital laser cannon.
The first act of Return of the Joker finds the eponymous clown — who has seemingly not aged a day — taking charge of the Jokerz — a reverential gang of biker clowns who often serve as the show’s props. It’s up to a young Batman, Terry McGuiness, and his mentor, a 70-year-old Bruce Wayne, to thwart him, even as Bruce insists that there’s no way this is the same man he fought in his prime. The Joker is dead.
Return of the Joker For much of the playing time, one question remains hanging in the air: Why is Bruce so sure that the Joker is gone? What happened that night, so many years ago, that neither he nor anyone else involved wants to talk about it?
The answer is the darkest, most emotionally devastating twist the DC Animated Universe has ever put to screen—one that so upset Broadcast Standards and Practices (BSP) that the entire thing was rewritten and reanimated for the film’s initial airing and VHS release (the original scenes were restored for DVD and future releases).
If you’ve never seen it before Batman Beyond: Return of the Jokerand especially if you’ve never seen it before Batman Further If so, now is a good time to change that.
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