If you’ve been thinking to yourself, “I need some new Legos to put on my shelf,” the company’s got you covered. Along with its newly revealed set for Batman: The Animated Series, a new array of sets for its Super Mario line are in the works.
Mario Kart Live But With Hot Wheels!
As part of its Mar10 Day celebration (seen below), Nintendo announced it was partnering with Lego again for three new sets. The Bowser Express Train set, inspired by the characterr’s locomotive in the games, comes with two carriages and a car in the back, plus a pair of train stations individually representing Bowser’s Castle and the Mushroom Kingdom. Like in the games, Lego Mario gets onboard the train by being blasted out of a cannon and onto a handcart.
Celebrating MARIO DAY with LEGO Super Mario
King Boo’s Haunted Mansion sees Lego Luigi fight enemies in the estate and unlock a treasure chest (or sit down on a chouch that floats). Last but not least, the Battle with Roy set has Lego Peach defend her castle from the Koopaling and his Chain Chomp Chariot with Lego Mario and Lego Toad at her side.
At the very end of the video, Lego revealed it was working on Mario Kartsets aiming to drop sometime in 2025. There’s no real glimpse of what it looks like, sadly, but it’s nice to hear that one of the character’s biggest spinoff franchises is getting some bricky love in the near future. Next year is also supposed to see the release of the next Nintendo console—Mario Kart games tend to release early into a system’s lifecycle, so it’s easy to imagine the next mainline entry will come sometime not long after that new console drops.
Earlier in the week, My Dad the Bounty Hunter creator Patrick Harpin and Yuhki Demers, a visual artist on Sony Animation’s Spider-Verse films, revealed their concept art for an animated Batman Beyond movie they’re trying to get made. They’re both fully aware nothing might come of this, and talks are still happening. But it didn’t stop said art from going viral, both because it looks really cool, and also because it’s Batman Beyond, a fan-favorite character who’s always felt like he’s within spitting distance of a big bat-break.
If you work in a creative field, you likely have to pitch something to your boss before actually starting on it. That’s particularly true in animation, and that’s doubtful to change anytime soon. But there’s something ugly, for lack of a better word, in seeing Harpin and Demers have to publicly rally for support to prove their project’s “worthy” in this way to WB. It wasn’t that long ago that we learned the studio’s executives, led by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, are likely going to cancel Coyote vs. Acmewithout really considering any of the deals offered to them, or having actually seen the film. The people in charge of WB seem very anti-art in a way that makes this all come off as rather cruel, especially when folks have been so vocal about their love for Batman Beyond over the years.
Legacy superheroes have become so widespread nowadays, but Terry McGinnis was an early example of that working to great success. Separate from their love of Batman: The Animated Series, fans have had an affection for 1999-2001 animated series BatmanBeyond and Terry’s exploits as the Batman of Neo-Gotham. It wasn’t just that the show was offering a new take on the Dark Knight, it was also really good and not just coasting off the novelty of a teenager in a high-tech Batsuit. And while he briefly showed up in Justice League Unlimited, DC didn’t make any active moves to continue Terry’s story, and largely closed the book on him after JLU revealed he was Bruce’s son.
Comics-wise, Terry’s actually been doing fairly well for himself in the past decade, where he was weaved into the prime DC universe. In his recent solo runs, he’s crossed paths with more recent Batman mainstays like Damian Wayne and the Court of Owls, and he’s now at the point where he’s on his own now that Bruce is dead. Yet even with that, WB has never tried to give him a bigger presence outside of the comics: a live-acton Batman Beyond movie was junked several years ago, much like an animated one rumored in 2019. He hasn’t been revived via the animated movies that WB likes to put out three or four of every year, and he doesn’t even have a video game presence beyond being costumes for Bruce in the Lego or Arkham games.
Outside of comics, WB has always handled Batman’s supporting cast oddly. Sometimes it puts embargoes on specific characters so there can’t be multiple versions; sometimes other characters can headline shows for about half a decade or be a supporting player in the story of another, bigger Batman character. The studio constantly overcomplicates itself for no real reason, and the same is true here—it loves Batman to death, and DC’s often been at its best when animated. Harpin and Demers’ hypothetical movie checks both those boxes, and gives audiences something they’ve never seen in theaters before: Batman being a detective in the cyberpunk future is a cool idea! And again, folks have been clamoring for more Terry for years.
Image: Warner Bros. Animation
In a sane universe, a Batman Beyond movie in a Spider-Verse art style would probably be out by now. But this WB is trying to burn money and stall for time ahead of a likely buyout, so we’re watching an interesting idea by a pair of creators more than eager to work on it be held hostage. Batman Beyond isn’t owed this just because Harpin and Demers asked, or even because he’s been around for 25 years. What he’s owed is a legitimate chance to have something with him move forward with people who care about the property at the helm. But the focus on the bottom line means WB will be making moves that are more dystopian than the actual dystopia of Gotham City 2049.
ANAHEIM, CA – MARCH 29: Kevin Conroy talks onstage to promote Warner Bros. Animation’s ‘Justice … [+] League Vs. The Fatal Five’ at WonderCon 2019 on Day 1 held at Anaheim Convention Center on March 29, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
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Everyone reading comics imagines the voices of the characters in their own heads. But for the generations that came of age in the wake of Batman: The Animated Series, which began airing in 1992, which first aired aired for 85 episodes on Fox Kids from 1992-1995, the intimidating timbre of the Dark Knight was pegged to one man: voice actor Kevin Conroy. Warner Bros. confirmed that Conroy died Thursday after a battle with cancer at age 66.
Conroy graduated from Julliard and began his acting career in the late 1970s with various roles in front of the camera, but truly found his voice behind the microphone when he took the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman for the groundbreaking WB animation series produced by Bruce Timm, Tim Reuger and Eric Radmoski. The show took its immediate cues from the then-current Batman live action franchise films directed by Tim Burton, but the creators’ vision extended back to the early history of the character and, for many fans, captured the essence of Batman’s appeal.
Conroy’s voice was the glue that held it together as he modulated between easy-going Bruce Wayne and the clenched and intense growl of Batman. Apparently it took him a handful of episodes to hit his stride. Once he did, it was impossible to imagine anyone bringing as much gravitas to “I am vengeance… I am the night… I am Batman!” than Conroy.
“Kevin was perfection,” said Mark Hamill, who leant his voice to the iconic version of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and beyond. “He was one of my favorite people on the planet, and I loved him like a brother. He truly cared for the people around him – his decency shone through everything he did. Every time I saw him or spoke with him, my spirits were elevated.”
Conroy voiced the character in dozens of animated series, feature films, video games and other media over three decades, while becoming a popular figure on the convention circuit. In 2019, he finally got to bring his definitive Dark Knight to a live action portrayal of the aged Bruce Wayne in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” episode of the CW series Batwoman.
Conroy, who was gay, wrote about his experience with the character in a story called “Finding Batman” in DC Comics’ Pride Anthology. He is survived by his husband, Vaughan Williams.
