Batman Beyond - Season Two (DC Comics Classic Collection) | Will Friedle, Kevin Conroy

Batman Beyond - Season Two (DC Comics Classic Collection) | Will Friedle, Kevin Conroy | Bat To The Future With Season Two!

DVDs:

Batman Beyond - Se...

	Batman Beyond - Season Two (DC Comics Classic Collection) Will Friedle, Kevin Conroy Warner Home Video, 2006 average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Terry comes out of the shadow of the Bat.

Batman Beyond's second season expands on the storyline first, developing the character of Terry McGuiness and exploring his universe. A great box set with 26 solid episodes Every Bat fan has to pick this one up.

While some viewers see the introduction of Maxine Gibson as a sidekick and the shift in focus to more high school centered storylines as decline in quality, I see it as part of the natural course in storytelling. Batman Beyond is the story of Terry's Batman, not Bruce. He can't spend all his time fighting corporate villains like Blight and juggling a full high school course load. To me the gradual shift in focus allows us to see how much Terry is growing into the role of Batman. Some viewers seem to forget that Terry is only 17, and he did have a life before donning the Batsuit. He has to reconcile his personal life as a son, a student, and a boyfriend with his present role as a superhero.

The entire season is great. Standout episodes include Earth Mover (If you like your Batman stories EXTRA EXTRA DARK this one is for you) Babel, (An episode with a wonderful parallel to I am Night) Eyewitness, (a great detective story) Terry's Friend Dates a Robot (Cheesy but I like the fact that it's just so funny) Rats (Just plain creepy) Armory (just a solid episode all throughout) and the noirish April Moon. Every episode is action packed and a lot of fun for both kids and adults to watch.

Batman Beyond's second season is a Shawn James Five Star essential box set. It's well worth the price and maybe a little more. If you're a fan of the Timmverse, you have to get this. While you're at it, pick up season 1 and the upcoming season three. And don't forget to pick up Return of the Joker to complete the set!

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Bat To The Future With Season Two!

With Season One, "Batman Beyond" had gained a new following of Batfans by successfully expanding the Batman mythos with the introduction of new younger Dark Knight Terry McGinnis. The presence of old Bruce Wayne as mentor to the new hero for a new era not only provided the series with a linchpin, but also allowed the producers to do something new with the character, but still stay true to the Bruce Wayne/Batman legend.

For Season Two, the series creators' intent, according to producer Bruce Timm, was to focus a little bit more on Terry and a little bit less on Bruce, believing [from focus groups they'd done with the series, and their own instincts] that the teenage kids watching the show were much more interested in Terry than in Bruce, given it was TERRY'S show now. To that end, Terry reluctantly gets his own confidant/sidekick in schoolmate Maxine "Max" Gibson (Cree Summer), a computer genius who stumbles upon his secret identity in "Hidden Agenda." "You call me Robin, and I'm outta here," Max warns. Terry coyly responds with "No problem...Alfred." To her credit, Max [at given times] proved to be quite useful to Terry, covering for him to girlfriend Dana; babysitting younger brother Matt; plus employing her technical skills. Also included in this set is "Once Burned" featuring the return of Melanie/Ten (Terry's own Selina Kyle/Catwoman) and the Royal Flush Gang; "Blood Sport", "Sneak Peek", and runaway robot "Zeta" which was spun-off into the short-lived series "The Zeta Project."

Batman Beyond - Season Two is a 4-disc (544 min.) set featuring all 26 Season Two episodes; Full-Frame (1.33:1) video; English Dolby Digital Stereo audio; Spanish, French subtitles; plus extras.

Disc One: Splicers, Earth Mover, Joyride, Lost Soul, Hidden Agenda, Blood Sport, Once Burned
Disc Two: Hooked Up, Rats, Mind Games, Revenant, Babel, Terry's Friend Dates A Robot
Disc Three: Eyewitness, Final Cut, The Last Resort, Armory, Sneak Peek, The Eggbaby, Zeta
Disc Four: Plague, April Moon, Sentries of the Lost Cosmos, Payback, Where's Terry?, Ace in the Hole

Special Features:
Featurette: "Inside Batman Beyond - The Panel": Batman Beyond Season Two panel discussion continues with Bruce Timm (Producer), Alan Burnett (Producer), Glen Murakami (Producer), Paul Dini (Producer) and Moderator Jason Hillhouse

Commentary: "Splicers" by Bruce Timm (Producer), James Tucker (commentator replacement for director Curt Geda), Glen Murakami (Producer), Andrea Romano (Voice Director) and Will Friedle ("Terry McGinnis/Batman" Voice)

Commentary: "Eggbaby" by Bruce Timm (Producer), James Tucker (Director), Glen Maurakami (Producer), Andrea Romano (Voice Director) and Will Friedle ("Terry McGinnis/Batman" Voice)

Highly Recommended!

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Awesome 2nd season!

I don't understand why people did not catch on with this series. I think maybe many in the audience could not comprehend the original Batman being an old man, and having a newcomer take his place but from Series Theme(WHAT A GREAT FANTASTIC BATMAN THEME, I play it loud all the time.) to the writing is exceptional. I wish people would take a chance on this great animated series.

Some Good, Some Lax

I've got to agree with other reviewers that, after Season One, Season Two is a letdown. You can get a sense of this from the Added Features that frame the 4-DVD set.

The first episode, "Splicers," gets good commentary from the actors and other interested parties, including Will Friedle's description of how he distinguished vocally between Terry and Batman. There are also appreciations of fellow voice actors in the series, including the late Paul Winfield. But "Splicers" itself is terribly derivative, an unimaginative imitation of Season One's "The Winning Edge."

Disk 4 gives us an interview with four of the series producers, who confirm that they were charged with (1) introducing a new character (Max), (2) making the stories more "high school" and Terry-centered, less "crime comics"/Batman-centered, and (3) reducing the reliance on corporate baddies. All these they did, with the result that the stories are, more often than not, vehicles for long-term character and relationship development.

That's not bad, if the characters are interesting, which often they are. But I don't hear much excitement from the producers, except when it comes to "Earth Mover," a "return from the grave" story reminiscent of EC Comics. There's also some talk about the younger cartoonists not knowing Jack Kirby's work. But does that really explain why the artwork is, in general, pretty slack in the second season?

In addition to Max, new characters in Season Two include Stalker (Terry's nemesis in "Blood Sport," his ally in "Plague"), the incapable-of-introspection schlump Howard Groot, and one real gem, Stanley "Mad Stan" Labowski, voiced to perfection by Henry Rollins. Catch him in "Rats" and "Eyewitness," two episodes that seem to have caught the imagination of artists, writers, and actors alike.

The season's emphasis on high school brings us some good comedy--best being "The Eggbaby"--and effectively shifts antagonism away from the corporate and toward the family. "Hooked Up," an addiction drama like "The Winning Edge," gives us affecting portrayals of troubled or neglected kids' compensatory fantasies. "Armory" shows what happens to the rich family of Season One's "Spellbound" when all-sufficient Dad loses his job. In "The Last Resort" family and corporation collaborate as betrayers and oppressors. In the better-drawn, better-imagined episodes, I get a fuller sense of who Terry and Max are: working-class kids living in the projects: architectural design can be traced to London's Barbican, and sometimes you can see the bubbles in the cast concrete, a reminder of Le Corbusier.

A final word. I like the dark, creepy side of "Batman Beyond," so my personal recommendations are "Mind Games" and "April Moon." The first is a take on the classic anime "Akira." The second is film noir, predictable, but with an ending almost as good as that of Season One's "Disappearing Inque." Looking forward to Season Three.

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Sadly disappointing compared to the first season

The second season of the futuristic Batman Beyond is sadly disappointing compared to the surprisingly great debut season. That being said, the episodes contained on these discs are much, much better than anything you could find in modern DC animated series, such as The Batman or Teen Titans. High schooler Terry McGinnis continues his exploits as the Dark Knight of the future, with the aging Bruce Wayne (still voiced by the great Kevin Conroy) remaining his mentor and partner. Throughout the season, there are some simply awesome action sequences that take advantage of the newer animation techniques used by Warner Bros., which themselves are reason enough to give this DVD collection a look. However, the villains that appear throughout this season are nowhere near as good as many of the ones that appeared in the debut season, and are downright corny to boot (case in point, "Eggbaby"). Not to mention that Terry's character seemed downright moronic at times throughout the season to boot. Those negatives aside, the decline in writing quality seemed to be something to worry about, but thankfully the third season would be a nice improvement over this. That being said, the second season of Batman Beyond isn't bad, it's just not very good, and certainly not up to the standards set by earlier DC animated shows.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6

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