Batman: TAS: Beware the Grey Ghost

[Trinary]

which adds a bit a meta irony considering timm's reputation in recent years when it comes to the bat mythos

Elaborate, please.

If I had to guess, it'd probably be how Bruce Timm's reputation took a bit of a hit with animated version of "The Killing Joke."

[Wargriffin]

oh no... the killing Joke was just Timm just being honest about it and then you had Harley jump Dick in Batman and Harley Quinn

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4795817.html

It been there for a while, Behold the Death of the TAS Dynamic Duo

[Trinary]

oh no... the killing Joke was just Timm just being honest about it and then you had Harley jump Dick in Batman and Harley Quinn

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4795817.html

It been there for a while, Behold the Death of the TAS Dynamic Duo

Oh, I know that was the story Timm took with Batman Beyond, having Barbara Gordon and Bruce Wayne be ex's. It didn't really amount to much in that series, so it never really bothered me the way it did some people. But putting that front and center in "The Killing Joke" was just a dumb, dumb idea so there was a lot more blowback to that as opposed to Batman Beyond, which was generally liked.

[vncredleader]

Continuing Chuck's point about the no gun rule continuing into Batman returning to his more pulpy style; the "new look era", when Infantino stepped in, did almost bring back the guns however Schwartz said no.

http://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-507/

[BlackoutCreature2]

Still one of my favorite episodes. Always wanted to see the Gray Ghost reappear again in the DCAU. Maybe if the Justice League ever returned to the "Legends" universe he would've been a good fit.

[Steve]

We do see a new "Gray Ghost" movie in a flashback in the JLU episode "Epilogue", namely the night that Amanda Waller's agent (the Phantasm of all people) was supposed to murder the McGinnises so that Terry would experience the same loss as Bruce.

I looked back at an old quickie review I wrote of this episode about 10 years ago on SDN, apparently the plight of Trent wasn't based solely on Adam West, but also on the real life fate of Al Hodges, star of the "Captain Video" pulp SF show in the 1950s, who died penniless.

Also, I don't think that Chuck brought it up, but the Mad Bomber was voiced by Bruce Timm (And was clearly designed to resemble him slightly too.) Apparently the other production crew talked him into doing the voice and so liked the result they kept trying to find ways of getting him to voice more characters.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

You know, I saw this as a kid, then rewatched it later, but I remembered the collector character being Toy Man. They're both pretty similar in theme and goals but it looks like there isn't any link between them.

[RobbyB1982]

Oh, I know that was the story Timm took with Batman Beyond, having Barbara Gordon and Bruce Wayne be ex's. It didn't really amount to much in that series, so it never really bothered me the way it did some people. But putting that front and center in "The Killing Joke" was just a dumb, dumb idea so there was a lot more blowback to that as opposed to Batman Beyond, which was generally liked.

It wasn't squicky in Batman Beyond because there was no clear timeframe for when they dated, so it very well could have been when she was in her late 30's and him in his early 40's, and there's not really any problem there at all.

Killing joke kinda forces it down to her being a teenager and being a student/daughter figure, with him being closer to her father's age which is... iffy.

A 7-10 year age difference isn't a problem *eventually*, (my own parents are 10 years apart) but you go young enough and it's an issue.

[Rocketboy1313]

Is nobody else going to point out how great the "I'm opening a new Red Lobster" gag was?

Like we can complain about how Bruce Timm is a good animator but awful writer (without Paul Dini or Dwayne MacDuffie around to fix it) all day, but that doesn't take away from the image of the Grey Ghost taking a gig that even Booster Gold would feel kind of low at.

[CharlesPhipps]

Is nobody else going to point out how great the "I'm opening a new Red Lobster" gag was?

Like we can complain about how Bruce Timm is a good animator but awful writer (without Paul Dini or Dwayne MacDuffie around to fix it) all day, but that doesn't take away from the image of the Grey Ghost taking a gig that even Booster Gold would feel kind of low at.

The joke didn't make me laugh because as a lifelong Batman fan who watched a number of documentaries and read books on the RL subject, I remembered the fact Adam West did exactly that sort of job with dirt bike conventions and strip mall openings. He'd squandered his fortune by then and needed to work his one act in increasingly demeaning roles until he hated Batman.

Weirdly, there's a lot of reality subtext to the Grey Ghost as the Michael Keaton Batman movie had a weird effect on Adam West's career (which the Animated series was ostensibly a spin off of). His career as a promising actor (who was almost James Bond) was destroyed in the Seventies but then people who were children watching his show grew up and liked him--which caused Adam to reevaluate his relationship with the role.

Which is kind of the situation with Bruce Wayne (not Batman notably) giving Trent a career boost with Wayne Industries. One of his childhood fans helped him.