In attendance is Diedrich Bader (the voice of Batman), John
DiMaggio (the voice of Aquaman), James Arnold Taylor (the voice of the Green
Arrow), executive producer Sam Register, producer James Tucker, story editor
Michael Jelenic and legendary voice director, Andrea Romano. The reason we’re
covering this is because Neil Patrick Harris (of Dr. Horrible fame, obviously)
is in an upcoming episode called “Mayhem of the Music Meister,” wherein he
plays the Music Meister himself.

 

 

The panel began with a clip from last season wherein it took
place in a Comic-Con-like atmosphere, which helped, they hope, set the tone for
the panel. Eventually all the panelists were introduced. They first thanked
Warner Brothers and Mattel for publicity, toys and so on, as well as Cartoon
Network for showing the show. They also thanked the crew that were present, as
well as all the children in the room. It was pretty fun.

 

First they talked to James Tucker, who first off thanked the
fans for liking the show, and who understand Batman goes further than 1989 and
who can see the character in a new way, as he envisioned the show for geek mom’s
and dad’s. Michael Jelenic has had to disregard what he knows about story editing
due to the nature of this show, as some episodes are very dark and some are
light. Apparently they had a discussion as to whether Batman should wear a
scarf and goggles for a WWI episodes, for example, to show some of the odd
discussions they have as to what’s going to happen to the character.

 

Andrea Romano was next. She feels she’s fortunate enough to
be able to put together such a wonderful cast that they can just play and do
their thing, and she can get out of their way. Each session is very much a “play
date” where the outcome is a little bit sillier than other shows she’s worked
on.

 

Diedrich Bader was up next, and he said this is his favorite
role ever. He wasn’t sure, at first, where to go with the character at first,
but now he’s become emotionally invested into the character. Apparently a
future episode has some “closure for Batman,” and while reading the script, he
began crying while reading the script. Sam Register confirmed that he cried
indeed. The next episode Bader worked on the same day was a different tone,
which shows the variety of the show. He’s also having a fantastic time on the
show.

 

Next up was John DiMaggio. He said it’s a joy to work on
this show, and to play Aquaman – the guy who just used to summon whales all the
time – is a real treat, as its “outrageous.” He’s loving working on the show
and is very excited about what we’ll see next season.

 

James Taylor was next. Apparently he auditioned for Batman,
but when Bader walked in, he said that he was perfect for it. He also talked
about being Green Arrow and his alter-ego. He said the next season is a lot of
fun, and can’t wait for us to see it, and that he’s really happy we’re all
supporting toe show.

 

Romano said that both DiMaggio and Taylor auditioned for
Batman, as well as a ton of other actors. When they described the show to her, however,
her first thought was that Bader should play the role, but they went through
the process anyway. DiMaggio then did his Batman impersonation, which was hilarious.
Apparently his Batman sounds like he has a slight cold. Taylor discussed how
there’s a resonance when Bader does the voice of Batman, and how good it feels
when the room vibrates, which was also hilarious.

 

Enemy Ace, G.I. Robot, Detective Chimp, Vixen, Captain
Marvel , Firestorm, the Metal Men, Doom Patrol and others are apparently will
in season two, according to Tucker, which solicited a huge reaction from the
crowd. Jelenic then discussed how their plan on the shows is to not have a
plan, and that if logic gets in the way, they’re doing a bad job. Apparently,
when stuff makes way too much sense, it doesn’t work, as their approach is
putting things that don’t fit together, together.

 

Going back to the actors (as they’re more interesting
according to Register), they talked to DiMaggio  about how Aquaman became cool. DiMaggio says
when working with Romano, who gives you room to move, it makes it easy to make
the choices to get where you want with the character. It allowed him to be
sincere with the character. The origin of “outrageous” as Aquaman’s catchphrase
is also from DiMaggio, and at first played it straight, but then camped it up a
bit and made him cooler. Bader then discussed how DiMaggio tapped into his “inner
outrageousness.”

 

Bader then discussed how the show goes back and forth from
the campy Batman to the dark Batman. He talked about how he’s smoothed out the
voiceover until it’s just all Batman all the time. He also said he’s doing a “poor
man’s Kevin” in talking about Kevin Conroy from Batman: The Animated Series. He’s
worked hard to make the character grounded. Romano also gave him an audio
recording of the first Batman, which helped him get a sense of the character.

 

They then showed us the episode I mentioned earlier.
According to Register, he was wary of this episode and didn’t want to see it
until it was done, as he wanted to be surprised. He says the episode takes the
show to a new place, and applauds the cast and crew for doing so, as well as
the people who scored it. The episode itself was AMAZING. Think of an epic musical
episode on the same level as “Once More with Feeling,” but with Batman,
Aquaman, Black Canary, Green Arrow and so on. It was funny, charming, and
wonderful. I totally loved every moment of it, and you could tell the cast and
crew did too.

 

Then the panel was opened up to questions. The first
question was about Batman’s favorite gadget – asked by a little kid – in which
Bader did the voice of Batman too. It was wonderful. The next question was, how
many musicals did they have to watch to do that episode, and did it drive them
batty. Tucker says he loves musicals and comics, so it works out well.

 

The next question was the favorite episode, of course. This
always gets asked, and we got the Bat Mite episode, going into Batman’s brain,
the second episode of the Joker two-parter and so on. You can tell these guys
are passionate about the show as they talked a little bit about why each of
their episode is their favorite. DiMaggio even did whale noises, which was
hilarious. It’s fun to see these guys talk about their own show.  Bader praised the entire panel for hitting the
mark on their direction of the show as well.

 

Someone asked about Superman making an appearance, and they
would like to see both Superman and Wonder Woman might make an appearance. They
might also do Crisis on Infinite Earths if only it’s a musical. Taylor loves to
talk about the competition between Batman and Green Arrow, and Bader also
discussed about their backgrounds and their rivalry.

 

They closed the show with a special clip. The clip had Julie
Newmar doing some voice work on the Brave and the Bold. It looks as if she’s
playing Martha Wayne, as her dialogue looks to be with Thomas Wayne. It was
great to see her back involved with Batman. It looks as if it involves the
portion of the Batman mythos wherein Bruce’s parents are killed, and looked
pretty amazing.

 

Overall, this was a great day to start the day, with a
passionate panel, a musical Batman episode, and some fun banter with the
panelists as well. I can only hope this show keeps going for a long time,
because this episode showed how versatile they can be with the character and
the universe he inhabits.