This April DC Comics will return to the Batman the Animated Series Universe with a six-issue, digital-first miniseries entitled Batman: The Adventures Continue.
The series is written by the producers of the show Paul Dini and Alan Burnett with art duties handled by Ty Templeton, who worked on the original tie-in comic series Batman Adventures.
Batman the Animated Series, which ran for 85 episodes, became the definitive version of Batman for an entire generation who grew up with the original show. When it first came out, Batman the Animated Series provided viewers with stories that provided viewers with a concise and easy to understand version of Batman and supporting cast while staying true to the character from the comic book universe. The series was the place where Dini was able to introduce new characters like Harley Quinn and Rene Montoya, who would eventually find their way onto the pages of the Batman comics. Besides the influence the series had on the Dark Knight’s comic book adventures, it also provided the basis for several full length animated films, a series of video games, and the animated superhero shows which have followed throughout the years.
Dini told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview that the comic series will feature not only some familiar faces from the DC Animated Universe but will introduce characters like Jason Todd who never appeared in the animated universe:
“We’d gone from Dick Grayson to Tim Drake, and we had left out Jason. What we’re doing with this is looking at this as a chance to go back and actually acknowledge that was a part of the animated Batman’s history. For the first time, you’re going to see that story and you’re going to see what happened in that relationship. So, it’s our chance to not only to do Jason Todd but also the Red Hood. There are other characters like Azrael, who was popular in the comics around [the time of the show], and Deathstroke, who we never used in the animated series.”
Ty Templeton who is designing these new additions to the universe in Timm’s style added in the same Entertainment Weekly interview:
“It’s fun that it doesn’t feel like we have to deal with the 15-year gap since we told stories with these characters. We can just feel like we just stepped into these things yesterday because the shows and comics are always out there. They never go away. I didn’t want it to feel like there’s a big gap, and Batman was old, and Tim was in his 30’s or anything like that (The comic takes place before the events of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker). I’m really happy it just feels like the next day.”
The first issue finds Batman and Bruce Wayne dealing with mysteries on two fronts. First, a giant robot breaks into Wayne Enterprises and steals an entire laboratory and the second centers around Lex Luthor’s mysterious return Gotham City after the events of ‘World’s Finest’ as a quasi-sequel to the Batman and Superman crossover.
Dini as so talked about the impact that his work on Batman the Animated Series has had over the years:
“It gives me a feeling of pride and satisfaction to know there are certain elements I introduced to the world that have gone on to become iconic. I guess I feel the same way that Bill Finger, Denny O’Neil, or Jerry Robinson felt when they would introduced a character that would click, and it would go on to have this history. As far as the characters themselves go, I always get a little bit of a secret smile on my face when I see somebody cosplaying as Harley Quinn or all the attention paid to her. I really, really love the movie. I love Margot Robbie’s version of her. It’s almost like, ‘Oh, I knew her way back when and see she’s still working. On a personal level, it just makes me more determined like, ‘Alright, now the next time I’m working on is going to be just as big,’ So it’s very encouraging for me as a creator to get some positive feedback and keep going.”
Batman: The Adventure Continues features a cover by Dave Johnson and a variant cover by Dan Mora with the Digital-first chapters released in April and the comic book hitting shelves May 6, 2020.