Welcome to Adventure(s) Time's 152nd installment, a look at animated heroes of the past. This week, the first time Superman asks Terry McGinnis for help, and a little-known meeting between Batman Beyond and Superman…that might technically be the other first time Superman needed Terry's help. This week's suggestion was inspired by Matthew Washburn, who asked for a look at the times Batman Beyond teamed up with a current-day hero. And if you have any suggestions for the future, let me hear them on Twitter.

Airing on November 11th and November 17th, 2000, "The Call" is perhaps Batman Beyond's most famous two-parter. Directed by Butch Lukic, the story comes from Paul Dini & Alan Burnett with teleplays from Beyond's staff writers, Rich Fogel, Hilary J. Bader, and Stan Berkowitz. The two-parters significant for not only introducing a future version of the Justice League and offering intimations about Bruce Wayne's strained relationship with the heroes but for also hinting at something executive producer Bruce Timm had publicly disavowed ever doing -- animating the Justice League.

Related: A Major DC Team Just Crashed Into Batman Beyond's Neo-Gotham

No Animated Justice League. Ever. (Maybe.)

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Demands for an animated Justice League series in the style of Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series persisted in the 1990s. The desire was so intense, a few fans even created fake videos that were circulated at comic conventions, showing what they claimed to be secret footage of an in-development Justice League series.

These fans were actually taking clips from Superman that featured the Man of Steel teaming up with various heroes and passing them off as a Justice League pilot. Bruce Timm seemed bemused that anyone would do this, and reiterated his lack of interest in doing a Justice League series. His argument was that the show, with numerous heroes and villains engaging in elaborate fight choreography, would be too difficult to pull off due to budget and scheduling demands, and he wasn't going to do Justice League unless it could be done right.

"The Call" (titled "The League" in an earlier draft) turned out to be Timm's test run for this long-desired Justice League cartoon. Only after negotiating the story's large cast and intricate action sequences did he feel confident finally contemplating a Justice League series. And, as it turns out, the promo reel his team produced for the series actually did feature some recycled footage from Timm's previous shows (archived by the Watchtower Database YouTube Channel), just like those bootlegs passing around cons years earlier.

Related: Batman Beyond Turns Terry McGinnis Into Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight

Batman Receives "The Call"

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The story opens with a gray-at-the-temples Superman entering Gotham City and aiding Batman during an encounter with the villainess Inque. Superman drafts Batman into joining the Justice League in the hopes of sniffing out a traitor on the team. Bruce Wayne, the teenage Batman's cranky mentor, is wary of his ward joining. Bruce's comments indicate his time with the League didn't end well. In fact, the elderly Bruce refuses to shake Superman's hand when they meet in the Batcave.

Batman faces opposition within the League, especially when member Warhawk is apparently killed with Batman as the only witness. With Bruce Wayne's help, Batman is able to identify the team's traitor as none other than Superman himself! While Batman Beyond is often a cynical show, however, it's not so cynical as to reveal Superman as a true villain. That's merely the enticing Part One cliffhanger.

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In fact, the Big Blue Boy Scout is under the thrall of classic DC villain, Starro the Conqueror. (Not that he's actually named on the show, as the producers had an aversion to DC's plethora of "O" themed villains.) Batman convinces the League to face the true threat, and a major showdown occurs at Superman's Fortress of Solitude. With the mind-warping Starro removed from Superman's chest, the reunited team faces an army of Starro's offspring. Batman's willing to sacrifice his life to prevent the offspring from escaping the Fortress, something Superman coolly accepts when he hurls massive rocks Batman's way in the hopes of plugging the creatures' escape route.

Batman slips free, however, and the offspring are again contained. The team debates simply killing the creatures, with Superman (who had no apparent issues with Batman dying only a second earlier) arguing for their right to live. Leaguers Big Barda and Aquagirl combine their abilities to locate the creatures' birth planet and teleport them home safely. Batman's offered a spot on the team but refuses, reasoning that he's as much a loner as his mentor.

Related: Barbara Gordon's Batman Beyond Fate Proves the Flaw in the Dark Knight's Legacy

The Justice League...Beyond

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The "Beyond" version of the League consists of an aged Superman, Big Barda (seemingly ageless) and characters with ties to present-day heroes: Micron, Aquagirl, Warhawk, and the latest Green Lantern, a boy named Kai-Ro. These episodes mark the team's debut. Years in the future, both Justice League Beyond and Superman Beyond will become DC titles, inspired by these episodes.

Although Micron's connection to the Atom is never explored, we do see Aquagirl's file in the League database, indicating she's Aquaman's daughter. Warhawk, as the viewers later discover on Justice League Unlimited, is the son of Hawkgirl and John Stewart. On the DVD release, Bruce Timm reveals that certain contractual issues prevented the use of Wonder Woman. Paul Dini came up with the idea for using Big Barda in her place.

There are some interesting casting decisions here, with comedian Wayne Brady voicing Micron, Jodi Benson (the Little Mermaid herself) portraying Aquagirl, and Christopher McDonald voicing the older Superman. McDonald previously appeared in the DC Animated Universe as Superman's birth father, Jor-El, which helps to sell the concept of this as an older, more rugged Superman.

Related: Batman Beyond's New Series Sees a Bruce Wayne Ally Make a Major Change

Continuity Conundrums

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"The Call" is an early example of the producers calling on continuity from previous DCAU shows. Starro's backstory is taken from the Superman: The Animated Series episode "The Main Man," which had Superman and Lobo as captives of the Preserver, who also kept Starro as a prisoner in his space-zoo. The flashback sequences had to be re-animated, however, due to the transition to digital coloring in the years following Superman's cancellation. An eerie rendition of Shirley Walker's Superman theme is also played during Superman's action sequences in "The Call."

Future DCAU series remained loyal to concepts introduced in "The Call." Batman, for example, is consistently portrayed as a part-time member on both Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, matching the future Superman's comments in the episode. The sliver of Kryptonite Bruce gives to Terry is alluded to in the Justice League episodes "Injustice For All" and "Tabula Rasa." Farrah Forke would return to the role of Big Barda during her appearance on Justice League Unlimited. And Unlimited would feature the Justice League Beyond in episodes like "The Once and Future Thing" and "Epilogue."

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What doesn't fit as smoothly are some of the concepts introduced within the episode itself. The creator's commentaries on the DVD release are frank about some continuity and logic problems. Bruce Timm refers to Warhawk's fakeout death scene as a "total cheat," and none of the creators seem sure why the ensorcelled Superman was reaching out to Batman in the first place. There's also the question of how the "last of his kind" Starro is now able to reproduce like mad.

Related: Batman Beyond's Gotham Is Going Through Some Radical Changes

A Tie-In & A Time Paradox

Two years after "The Call," and four years after the final episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, DC's Adventures line of tie-in comics was reaching its closing days. Superman Adventures never quite received the same level of acclaim as the Eisner Award-winning Batman Adventures, and spent many of its final issues running inventory stories from various creators. The quality varied greatly, but the creative teams did seem to have the freedom to explore some wild ideas.

Superman Adventures #64, "Brainiac Beyond" (from writer Jordan B. Gorfinkel and penciler Aluir Amancio) is one of the strangest of these closing issues. Not necessarily in terms of the plot, but simply in the lackadaisical attitude exhibited when toying around with the rules of DCAU time travel. Having the future Batman travel to the present day and interact with one of the world's central figures would, presumably, be treated as a significant event. And would require an excessive amount of in-story justification to not only sell this as truly momentous, but also rationalize why we won't be seeing Terry McGinnis popping up in the early 2000s every week or so to collect Pokémon cards.

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Instead, "Brainiac Beyond" treats Terry's first visit to our time period as a minor plot inconvenience, something to be brushed aside after a few panels. (Batman's not even on the cover!) The true threat this issue is Brainiac, who's aimed a missile at Metropolis, one that Superman's redirected towards the sun. This would seem to be a classic Superman way of dealing with the problem, yet Batman Beyond arrives in the present day to stop him.

It's a clever hook for the story, and soon enough, we learn Terry is obstructing Superman because this is all a part of Brainiac's scheme -- the missile is actually designed to trigger a solar flare that will cause massive global warming in Terry's future. This is followed by yet another twist -- Terry traveling through time is also a facet of Brainiac's plan, as it enables him to steal Terry's hi-tech Batman suit.

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Ultimately, the heroes are victorious (technically making this their first team-up, decades before "The Call"), and Terry returns to his future. Will their meeting cause a time paradox? The question is dismissed by having the heroes saying the equivalent of, "Well, maybe." There is, however, a brief acknowledgement of "The Call," during a two-page montage recapping Terry's career.

As for how Terry managed to make it to the distant days of 2002, a quickie sequence establishes that future Bruce Wayne has mastered the art of time travel.

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Just imagine…this technology is lying around the Batcave, collecting dust like that giant penny. Is Terry upset Bruce is revealing this to him now? That he never revealed Terry could've traveled in time and prevented his father's death? Has Bruce never been tempted to time-travel to that night in Crime Alley and save his parents? Well, don't ask questions like that. It's an inventory issue of a tie-in book with only a few issues left. It's not going to get too deep.

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Even though "The Call" has some moments that don't quite add up, it remains an enjoyable (and significant) episode. The ropey plot details in "Brainiac Beyond," however, actively work against the story. And even though Terry meeting the present-day Superman should feel like an event, the mechanics of a done-in-one inventory issue prevent the comic from doing anything that memorable. There are certainly some lost treasures worth seeking out in the Adventures titles, but this wouldn't seem to be one of them.