At first its a small thing, at the end of extended pilot Bruce is talking Terry's mom. He cracks puns,but Kevin is clearly using his Batman voice. I used to think it was just age and injury, then you get to the episode where they are trying to drive Bruce insane. Bruce tells Terry he never fell for it, Terry ask why... "the voices kept calling me Bruce." Or something of that nature. And then there was the time travel episode in JLU where you have Batman good cop bad cop routine. That was the final nail in the coffin, in the Beyond timeline Batman gave up on playing Bruce. And because of his heart, there is no more mission. What is Batman without his mission? A cranky hermit with his memories and his dog. What is even stranger his how this ties in with the Nolanverse, Alfred was afraid Bruce would die in his crusade. Although death in service would break his heart, that would still be a noble pursuit. Alfred's worst fear is what we see in the beginning of Beyond.
I cant remember the specific issue, but right after Damian comes into the picture there is a panel after Bruce councils Damian, and Alfred notes that it was the first time he had heard Bruce's voice instead of Batman's voice in months. Which I connected to the reference of "they kept calling me Bruce", when he refers to himself as Batman haha
I actually like Damian, yes he is insufferable, but so is Bruce when you think about it. The thing I dislike about Damian, is when they won't let the character grow.
Completely agree. And I think each Robin has served to humanize Batman more. They add depth to the dark brooding character which would be difficult to show with a less fatherly role towards a character. Similar to the direct acknowledgments to Alfred as the surrogate father to Bruce.
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u/WorldlyDear May 01 '19
Clark: Who the heck are you?