Cartoon Corner- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Originally posted at the DL August 2015

There are two very distinct parts to this film.  We'll be talking about them separately.



The first half of the movie is pretty typical of Batman Beyond stuff.  Terry gets the job done, if with somewhat more collateral damage than he'd like, but something is off.  The subplot about Bruce Wayne returning to control of Wayne Enterprises serves two purposes (gives a date to the film: between seasons 1 and 2, and as an obvious but plausible red herring for later) but largely fluffs things out.  But hey, gotta have something for Bruce and Terry to be doing while the villains are getting the plan together.

I should  note that the Jokerz gang in the film is fun to watch, not just because it's a neat set of designs but because they're very distinct from the ones in the show proper in a critical way: They actually resemble the average Joker gang from TAS.  Ghoul's tech savvy is a fine stand-in for the Joker's chemical wizardry, Dee-Dee is obvious, Bonk shares a lot of character design with Joker Goons, Wolf of course is half hyena.  I guess that makes Chucko Captain Clown.  Heehee.

The second half has a sense of drama between Terry and the old guard that so rarely got a chance to crop up in the series, but makes a lot of sense.  Bruce mentoring a teen through super-heroing is nothing new, but with Robins he was on the scene, able to deflect the worst of it to himself.  Terry might have a guiding voice in his ear, but he's out there on his own.  Bruce getting such a cruel reminder of how that can end and more seriously questioning the morality of this is good to see addressed.  It's also a nice chance to do a "Terry's identity is discovered" story without having it TOO seriously impact the continuity.  They also continue the trend of giving Jason Todd's backstory to other characters because they can more or less, which works out nicely here because it goes in an opposite direction; Terry often comes across as a bit Spidey-ish anyway, so that element of never getting to reconcile with his father over his own stupid mistakes makes perfect sense.  In a lot of ways this isn't Terry's story, but he still gets good moments in it and it's pretty enjoyable as such.

But much like Epilogue, a Justice League story that's actually the capstone Batman Beyond story, Return of the Joker is a Batman Beyond story that's actually the Grand Finale for Batman: TAS.  And, y'know, damn.  I feel like this is a sort of stand-in for The Killing Joke, not just in terms of scope and some visual elements, but in basic outline.  Which funnily means that the difference between them is Harley having an odd mediating effect on the Joker... that actually makes him do WORSE THINGS.  Kudos guys.  But yeah I think this bit is actually animated differently, and the whole thing is gorgeous and creepy and mmmm.

Grade- 8/10.  Probably my favorite bit of Batman Beyond, to the surprise of nobody because to my knowledge that's basically true of everyone.