JOKERZ Leader

In selecting figures I've loved over the last few years I wanted to pull a couple of obscure ones that people wouldn't expect from me. Hence the selection of the Jokerz Gang Leader from the Batman Beyond line.

The colors on the figure are so vibrant, and the inclusion of the Hover Cycle is a nice extra. The sculpt is very clean and evokes Bruce Timm's great design work. All in all this was a great piece. The rest of the line didnt really conatin anything noteworthy or groundbreaking. In fact there might have only been another two standout pieces from this line that I actually bought. The Gotham Knight Batman which was the actual costume from the show (much better than the Future Knight Batman which was the first released) and the Power Armor Batman which conatined an unmasked Terry McGuiness (i'm a sucker for unmasked figures).

For those not familiar with Batman Beyond it was great animated series on the WB set in the year 2039. It originally aired 52 episode and had a great opening title sequence done by Darwyn Cooke. The show follwed the exploits of Terry McGuiness a 17 year old high school student who stumbles upon the secrets of Wayne Manor and Bruce takes him under his wing and allows him to assume the mantle of Batman. It was cool and refreshing to see a kid in the guise of Batman (as opposed to Robin). I always dug this cartoon and thought it was a nice evolution of the brand. My favorite episode was when Bruce dons an exo-skeleton (very reminiscent of Batman's Kingdom Come armor) to help Terry fight the very cool villain Ink.

The best part of the series happened many years later in a Justice League Unlimited episode where we learn that Terry is actually Bruce's biological son. It was a convuluted but not a entirely unplausable story (by comic standards) that I really enjoyed, and explained why this kid was able to do what he did.