The DC media community lost a major player last month, with longtime Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy passing away at the age of 66. While Conroy voiced the Caped Crusader in all sorts of projects over the decades, he’s arguably most associated with the DC Animated Universe, which kicked off in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Series (his favorite episode from that show being “Perchance to Dream”). His Batman was also a key figure in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and Conroy’s costars from those shows recently came together with some other individuals to honor the man.
Michael Rosenbaum, who voiced The Flash in both Justice League shows, organized this reunion, allowing him to reconnect with his Justice League/Justice League Unlimited costars Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), Phil LaMarr (Green Lantern), Carl Lumbly (Martian Manhunter) and Maria Canals-Barrera (Hawkgirl). Take a look at the pictures Rosenbaum shared on Instagram of their get-together to celebrate Kevin Conroy’s life, one of which includes special appearance from Rosenbaum’s dog Blanche.
Other folks in attendance for this event included Will Friedle, who worked closely with Kevin Conroy on Batman Beyond and reprised Terry McGinnis for a few Justice League Unlimited episodes, as well as voice director Andrea Romano, publicist Gary Miereanu, Friedle’s wife Susan Martens and Maria Canals-Barrera’s husband David Barrera. George Newbern, who voiced Superman in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited following Tim Daly’s run as the Man of Steel in Superman: The Animated Series, was absent.
Justice League ran from 2001-2004, and Justice League Unlimited picked up just a few months afterwards and ran until 2006. Some of the actors would later voice other versions of their respective characters in projects like Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, Justice League: Doom and Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, and there were also opportunities for them to reconnect at conventions and other events. So it’s good to see that all of the people mentioned above were able to enjoy each other’s company and reminisce about the good times they had with Kevin Conroy a month after we lost him.
“A Better World” and “Epilogue,” episodes that respectively came from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, ranked on our list of Kevin Conroy’s best DCAU episodes. In addition to voicing Batman, Conroy also gave uncredited performances on Justice League Unlimited as Joe Chill, Etrigan the Demon, The Crimson Avenger, Atom Smasher and Commander Steel. Justice League Unlimited ended up being Conroy’s penultimate time voicing Batman in a leading capacity on a TV show, the final time being in Justice League Action. He also finally got the opportunity to play Bruce Wayne in live-action in 2019 thanks to the Batwoman chapter of The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event.
If you’re now in the mood to revisit Justice League and/or Justice League Unlimited, those shows can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription alongside nearly all of the movies and shows featuring Kevin Conroy’s Batman. It was recently announced that we’ll hear him posthumously as Gotham City’s Dark Knight in the video game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
