Batman Beyond (known as Batman Of The Future in the UK for reasons unknown) was an excellent, underrated animated series. Set in the same universe as the nineties Batman cartoon, it took what could've been a hacky premise in the far-flung future, an elderly Bruce Wayne trains a young whipper-snapper to take his place as a high-tech Dark Knight and did a lot of good with it, by riffing on the character's history and introducing some cool new stuff. Eventually the series ended, and was mostly forgotten about. Except recently DC decided to return to Batman Beyond, with a new comic book series that continued where the cartoon left off and then some. Recently they confirmed that the future seen in the animated series and the comic is the canon future for the DC Universe as a whole. At least until they change their mind with yet another retcon which resets everything and makes Superman young again. Which means that, amongst other things, it's canon that at some point Bruce Wayne is going to hook up with Barbara Gordon. Yucky on a number of levels, not least of which is that his ward/sidekick Dick Grayson had previously had a relationship with her, and Batman is a fair few years Barbara Gordon's senior. But don't worry, it gets worse, with an explanation for why future police Commissioner Bas has it in for Batman. It turns out they were bumping uglies before Barbara got involved with Robin, and she subsequently got pregnant. So, erm, that's a thing everybody has to look forward to...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
