I Just Started Reading Batman: The Adventures Continue and I Am Confused When This Takes Place

[Raider969]

So Batman: The Adventures Continue takes place between The New Batman Adventures and Justice League shows of the DCAU. But there are things in the comics that aren't possible considering when it takes place.

So if it takes place between The New Batman Adventures and Justice League, that would mean it takes place somewhere from 1999-2001. But then there is a part where Deathstroke mentions 9/11, which happened on September 11th, 2001. Which means that it must take place between that day and November 17th 2001, when Justice League starts. It does still make sense if you consider that the events of Batman: The Adventures Continue to take place within two months.

But here are the parts that confuses me a lot of when it takes place. There is a scene in the comics that Batgirl has a modern looking phone with touchscreen and not the older flip phones, and on top of that, The Joker says he has HBO Max which wasn't a thing until 2021.

So I am confused of when this takes place. I know that people say the DCAU comics aren't canon to the DCAU shows because of continuity inconsistencies, but still, I have to ask.

 

[Yojimbo]

I gave up when it became clear past continuity didn't matter and this was more of a reboot than a continuation despite the title. I mean, Jason fought Firefly. Makes no sense.

But I guess if you take into account Dick graduates in May 1997 per Lost Years, Batman would have to taken in Jason between Dick leaving mid-1997 but before Tim in May 1999 as Dick was gone for around 2 years. And Jason returns to Gotham 4 years later so The Adventures Continue #1 would have to start between 2001-2003. But Dini intimated Lex wears a prototype war suit so it would be before the events of Injustice For All. So pretty much has to be in an alternate universe 2001-ish. And assume technology advances faster than IRL. And assume Batman "switches" between costumes when he's in Gotham or with the JL (sorta like when he guested on Static Shock).

 

[Raider969]

I gave up when it became clear past continuity didn't matter and this was more of a reboot than a continuation despite the title. I mean, Jason fought Firefly. Makes no sense.

But I guess if you take into account Dick graduates in May 1997 per Lost Years, Batman would have to taken in Jason between Dick leaving mid-1997 but before Tim in May 1999 as Dick was gone for around 2 years. And Jason returns to Gotham 4 years later so The Adventures Continue #1 would have to start between 2001-2003. But Dini intimated Lex wears a prototype war suit so it would be before the events of Injustice For All. So pretty much has to be in an alternate universe 2001-ish. And assume technology advances faster than IRL. And assume Batman "switches" between costumes when he's in Gotham or with the JL (sorta like when he guested on Static Shock).

I just started reading season two and in the issue with Huntress, Batgirl says she is with the Justice League. So now it is supposed to take place during or after Justice League Unlimited?

 

[Yojimbo]

I just started reading season two and in the issue with Huntress, Batgirl says she is with the Justice League. So now it is supposed to take place during or after Justice League Unlimited?

I don't remember but maybe there was a time skip between season one and two. Or as I said, they didn't pay attention to established canon as they wrote it.

edit: Yeah and in season 2 #1, Bruce tells Zatanna he and Nightwing solved Deadman's murder which before hand we knew from "Dead Reckoning" was between JL and JLU. So felt like some weird time skip happened / or the established timeline of JL/JLU is different in this comic's continuity.

 

[Millicay]

I ended up mostly liking these comics, so I've given this a lot more thought than I probably should've.

From interviews during its announcement and some comments by Dini (Luthor's prototype armor) it seems that the original intent was for this to take place shortly after TNBA, sort of a "what if" they'd kept doing TNBA and not Justice League. But then, with the second season, Huntress' appearance placed it somewhere in JLU at the earliest, and then in the third, Waller's appearance along with the Suicide Squad places it somewhere after the Cadmus Arc. But also, Waller says Harley was a member of the Squad who has already completed her sentence. We see Harley meeting Waller and the Suicide Squad for the first time in the tie-in comic to Batman and Harley Quinn, written by Templeton, the main artist of Adventures Continue. This would place S3 after that movie.

Now, how long between each season? Season 3 takes place shortly after Season 2, since it's the direct aftermath of an important death in S2 (keeping it vague just in case), and I don't remember any exact detail but while reading it, it felt that S2 occurred shortly after S1 as well.

Personally, I don't put too much stock into most of the dates mentioned in either comics or the shows since it seems to me the writers didn't put too much thought on them either, so just a heads-up that I'm sweeping that under the rug a bit.

So in conclusion, you can make arguments for exactly when each season of the comic takes place but I feel it works best if read last, after all of JLU, Batman & Harley Quinn and (personally) JL vs Fatal Five (I feel like Fatal Five works best seen after B&HQ, with Harley and Ivy's cameos in the movie)

This works, with some caveats.

First, Huntress' origin is slightly different to the one shown in JLU, but I just chalk it up to unreliable memory, after all, they're close enough.

Second, (and most importantly) Lex Luthor somehow came back from the Source Wall shortly after JLU (which I believe, as did Dwayne McDuffie, if I recall) and, despite all of his confirmed criminal activity, Lex Luthor was still rich enough to somehow bribe his way into being given a second, second chance (which, just looking at the world around us, I definitely believe).

EDIT:

Yeah and in season 2 #1, Bruce tells Zatanna he and Nightwing solved Deadman's murder which before hand we knew from "Dead Reckoning" was between JL and JLU.

Pretty sure this is a reference to Gotham Adventures #6, where Batman, Robin and Nightwing help Deadman solve his murder. It was also written by Templeton.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

It's Comic Book Time. It takes place now, as you're reading it. And if you pull out an old copy of Mad Love right after reading Batman: The Adventures Continue, it also takes place now. And if you watch "Heart of Ice" or Mask of the Phantasm right after that, those will ALSO take place now.

Comic Book Time is nebulous by design, and it's always moving forward so that the characters stay eternally young. Batman was 35 back in 1992. He's still 35 today. And 30 years from now, he'll STILL be 35. Past events usually took place in some vague timeframe, like "months ago" and "years ago." And really, that's all you need to enjoy most stories.

The DCAU was never meant to be a time capsule of the 1990s and early 2000s. They were just making shows that took place in the present day. That's all. It's about the STORIES, not about what model cell phone was around, if HBO Max was a thing yet, or whatever.

Pretty much every DCAU timeline that uses real world dates draws those dates from ancillary materials (comic book tie-ins, guidebooks, video games whatever) that were produced by folks not working on the shows themselves. (Please understand: I'm not saying that this means those ancillary materials are bad. I'm just saying they are outside sources.) There are very, very few real world dates that are in the DCAU shows themselves, and that's by design.

And before you say, "...Well, what about The Zeta Project?" or "...What about Static Shock?", please remember that TZP was not produced by Bruce Timm or the others behind BTAS, STAS, BB, or JL/JLU. It's really its own thing, even though it was a spinoff of Batman Beyond. And Static Shock began as an unrelated series that basically got grandfathered into the DCAU through several crossovers. When SS began, Superman/Clark Kent was referred to as a fictional character on the show. And then after it became part of the DCAU, they took that line out. And you've just got to roll with stuff like that.

It's Comic Book Time. It's always now unless the story says otherwise, and the characters don't age unless the story says they do. Just like Peanuts or The Simpsons. If the Simpsons used Real Time instead of a Sliding Timescale, Bart Simpson would be 46 years old today instead of 10.