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.

The New Batman Adventures (1997-99)

The New Batman Adventures (1997-99)

Dirs. Various | 24 episodes, approx 22 mins each.

A direct continuation of Batman: The Animated Series set two years after TAS ended. It had many of the same cast and creative team behind the scenes, but it's visually different to what came before, with a different title and a distinct logo design.

It's been previously marketed both as a different show with two produced seasons of its own, and, perhaps erroneously, as a third season of TAS. Like many fans I subscribe to the belief that it is indeed its own thing, albeit one that continues TAS continuity. The many visual changes in the series seem to support that belief.

It features Batgirl (Tara Strong), Robin (Mathew Valencia), and Nightwing (Loren Lester) at various times throughout, with Batman (Kevin Conroy) being the only team member who appears in every episode, but the characters were redesigned to more closely match Superman TAS, due to how the two series were being screened on TV at the time.

Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000)

Superman: TAS (1996-2000)

Dirs. Various | 54 episodes (split over 3 seasons), approx 22 mins each [1]

Devised and produced by many of the same creative team that made Batman: TAS (1992–95), Superman's animated series looked familiar but also different. Metropolis is brighter than Gotham, with a different kind of art deco influence, one more inspired by Streamline Moderne. Giving each city its own visual identity is a positive change, but the less textured aesthetic of Metropolis looks cheap and sparse by comparison.

Likewise, and the first indication that what you're watching might be a step down in quality, the opening credits, which are a montage of episode scenes in roughly chronological order, feel tawdry and lazy compared to the dramatic excellence of Batman's. Superman's are spoilery, too, for anyone who's not seen the series before.

And subjectively speaking, Shirley Walker's accompanying theme music is also less memorable.