Batman Beyond (1999-2001)

aka Batman of the Future (1999-2001)

52 episodes, approx 22 minutes each, split over 3 seasons.

The team that created Batman Beyond (aka Batman of the Future) achieved the near-impossible: they made a show that's the equal of Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95) in tone and content and they did it without having Billionaire Bruce Wayne as the lead! Holy personnel changes, Batman.

It's set in 2039, forty years after TAS' successor, The New Batman Adventures, and continues the continuity set up by both it and TAS. The era of the original caped crusader has passed and the world has moved on.

Even Gotham has evolved, into Neo-Gotham, a towering, high-tech megalopolis wherein crime and corruption is as rife in the shiny office buildings as it is on late night docks.

Bruce (Kevin Conroy) is still around, possibly because like one of his contemporaries said he's too stubborn to die. He is, however, a retired, cranky and cynical recluse that rarely leaves the seclusion and safety of Wayne Manor.

Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998)

Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998)

Dir. Boyd Kirkland

Victor Fries (Michael Ansara) does the wrong things for arguably the right reason: for love, but it's the all-consuming kind that can cloud judgment and rationale. He's a tragic figure whom tragedy seems to follow, even when far from civilisation.

When the world that Victor purposefully left behind intrudes upon the peaceful existence that the cryogenics expert created for himself, Batman (Kevin Conroy) is forced to step in and take him down. Bruce isn't alone this time, however, because he has Robin (Loren Lester) to help him.

It's the second film in the DC Animated Universe (TAS) continuity, set sometime between the end of The Animated Series and the beginning of its successor, The New Batman Adventures.