Batman: The Animated Series Returns As Comic With Paul Dini

Just days after Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey -- a movie that featured several original characters and concepts from the beloved "DC Animated Universe" -- hit theaters, DC announced today that Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm would return to the world he helped make an indelible part of so many fans' childhoods with a new comic book series set in the DCAU. As an extra treat for fans who may have enjoyed The Batman Adventures, a previous comic set in that universe, DCAU writer Alan Burnett and artist Ty Templeton -- who worked on that series for much of its run -- will return for the new book.

Batman: The Animated Series ran for 85 issues from 1992 until 1995, and spun off a number of series, including Superman and Justice League shows along with Batman Beyond, which picked up with an older Bruce Wayne in the DCAU's future and introduced a whole new Batman in the form of Terry McGinnis. The voice of Bruce in all of these was Kevin Conroy, who has been the gold standard since and recently made his live-action debut as Bruce Wayne in The CW's "Crisis on Infinite Earths."

DC will publish the six-issue, digital-first miniseries as Batman: The Adventures Continue, another reference to The Batman Adventures. You can see a first look below.

In addition to familiar DCAU characters like Superman and Lex Luthor, Dini told the magazine that the comic will introduce Jason Todd, Deathstroke, and Azrael.

"Fans familiar with the Batman of The New Batman/Superman Adventures will be right up to speed," says Paul Dini. "Alan and I approached the writing with the idea that we were doing the season you might have seen if we had not put the series aside to do Batman Beyond."

Dini also teased that they will be dealing with the Bruce Wayne/Lex Luthor relationship, more or less building on the World's Finest animated movie. Between that and the Jason Todd stuff, it should be pretty clear that they are not looking to fill in all of the gaps in the time since The Batman Adventures.

"We're going back to cover certain gaps in the original series, events that didn't have a bearing on the series at the time, but now do," said Burnett. "In other words, there will be secret histories that will turn Batman's world upside down. Things that no one knew were out there, until now."

Batman: The Adventures Continue #1 will be available digitally in April, with the first issue hitting comic shops on May 6.