Batman (Terry McGinnis)

## Terry McGinnis

Mary McGinnis (mother)

Matt McGinnis (brother)

Dana Tan (wife)

****Terrence "Terry" McGinnis**** adopted the identity of **Batman** in the future. Like his **predecessor**, he fought crime and injustice in Gotham City and elsewhere for many years.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

During the **Justice League**'s both hostile and friendly encounters, **Amanda Waller** developed a great admiration for **Batman** and came to believe that someone like the Dark Knight would always be needed. While watching Batman age, Waller realized he wouldn't be around forever and the Dark Knight would have to retire or someone would finally kill him. Drawing on her old Cadmus contacts, Waller devised a scheme to give Batman a genetic "son" who would likewise be compelled to take up a life as his successor. After obtaining a sample of Batman's DNA, a young couple was later found that were almost identical psychological matches to Batman's **father** and **mother**: **Warren** and **Mary McGinnis**. During an apparent routine flu inoculation, Warren was administered a nanotech solution that over-wrote his reproductive DNA with Batman's. A year later, Terry McGinnis was born as a genetic son of Mary and Bruce Wayne.

Knowing that genetics were not the only factor in creating Batman, Waller later hired an **assassin** to murder Terry's parents at the same age and under very similar circumstances as his predecessor to try to recreate these conditions. The hired assassin, Bruce's former romance Andrea Beaumont, recognized what the murders had done to Bruce and subjecting another child to the same horrors would be hypocritical for their cause. Beaumont heavily reasoned with Waller, with the latter realizing she had crossed a line, so she cancelled the project.

Sometime after his **brother** was born and his parents divorced, Terry McGinnis turned to be a juvenile delinquent with **Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow** and then became a member of a street gang run by Charlie Bigelow, and had his fair share of run-ins with the **Gotham City Police Department** in his early teens, even serving a three-month stint in juvenile hall.

As he returned to high school, however, he shed some of his worst habits and acquired **Dana Tan** as a girlfriend. Terry still had trouble relating to his father **Warren McGinnis** accusing him of being irresponsible. On what proved to be the last night of Warren's life, Terry stormed out of the house after an argument.

While defending Dana from **another street gang**, Terry found himself being chased by them to the outskirts of **Gotham City**. He fled onto the grounds of **Wayne Manor**, where an aged **Bruce Wayne** appeared and assisted him in defeating the Jokerz. The strain of the fight placed substantial stress on Bruce's heart, and he collapsed. Terry helped Bruce into the mansion and then stumbled upon the entrance to the **Batcave**.

Bruce kicked Terry out, but Terry returned home to find it covered in Jokerz graffiti, and discovered his father had been murdered. Grief-stricken, Terry looked through his father's belongings and found a disk that Warren had taken from his employer **Derek Powers**, the new head of **Wayne-Powers**. Realizing there was more to his father's death than first appeared, Terry rushed back to Wayne Manor and demanded to be let in.

As Bruce examined the disk in the Batcave, Terry noticed the latest-generation **Batsuit** Wayne had used before retiring. The disk revealed that Powers was making a deadly nerve gas to sell to the government of **Kaznia**, but Bruce refused to get involved and ordered Terry to go to the police. On the way, Terry encountered Powers himself who knew the disk had to be somewhere and it was taken. Terry managed to escape from him, however, and ran off.

Returning to Wayne Manor, he tied up **Ace** and stole the Batsuit. When Bruce discovered the theft, he admonished Terry through the suit's communicator, but Terry was adamant on confronting Powers. Bruce retaliated by shutting the suit down, in the middle of a confrontation with Powers's security guards. Terry pleaded with Bruce for a chance to prove himself, and persuaded Wayne to re-activate the suit and let him carry on as Batman for the time being. Bruce's decision resulted in Terry sabotaging Powers's operation; the stores of the chemical weapon were lost in the Gotham River, along with **Mr. Fixx** (Powers's henchman and Warren's murderer) while Powers himself was inadvertently exposed to his own weapon.

Convinced that there was still a need for a Batman, Bruce visited Terry early one morning at their home and under the pretext of paying back a previous act of kindness hired Terry as his personal assistant. Terry would run various errands and took care of various tasks for Bruce in his civilian identity. In part, this was a cover for secretly training him as Gotham's new Dark Knight. Terry's job also allowed him to earn much needed money to help support his family since his father's death.

### **Crimefighting Career**

Terry McGinnis quickly found himself walking in the footsteps of his mentor in many ways. Like his predecessor, Batman amassed his own rogue's gallery of villains, including **Blight** (Derek Powers's mutated form after radiation therapy), the shape-changing **Inque**, the telekinetic high school nerd **Willie Watt**, sound engineer **Shriek**, the **Royal Flush Gang**, former psychologist **Spellbinder** and the assassin **Curaré**. At one time, Terry also found himself taking after his mentor in getting entangled without meaning to with a woman who was in reality a criminal—**Melanie Walker**. After this encounter, Bruce related by telling Terry of his own complicated relationship with **Selina Kyle**.

Terry also gained a collection of allies. These included **Jason Bard**, the Commissioner of the **Gotham City Police Department**. Terry's most valuable ally by far was school friend **Maxine "Max" Gibson** stumbling on his secret identity when they were both threatened by a **rogue student**, and turned her considerable brains and energy to his aid. Max had first-class skills with research, data retrieval, and computer hacking. More than that, she helped Terry maintain his "normal" life as a high-school student, and was always there with a sympathetic ear (as Terry jokingly called her his "**Alfred**" after she ordered him never to address her as **Robin**).

But Terry was different from Bruce in many ways. Unlike his mentor, he had a childhood (of sorts), and also faced the demands of a normal youth his age: a school career, his girlfriend Dana Tan, and the responsibilities of an eldest son in a family which included his mother Mary McGinnis and his kid brother Matt McGinnis. Although it was often a greater strain for him to maintain his secret life with Mary, Matt and Dana, Terry was able find a source of solace with Bruce, Barbara, Max and Ace.

Batman occasionally faced some of his predecessor's old enemies, including **Mr. Freeze** now in new body and a suit equipped with freeze gun gauntlets; a group of super-strong teenagers using steroids made from **Bane**'s **venom**; the longevous **Ra's al Ghul**; and the **Joker** himself as undoubtedly the greatest Challenge.

### **True Heritage**

He continued to don the cowl for the next fifteen years after finishing high school. Bruce eventually trusted him enough to continue Batman's crusade against crime on his own. To preserve their relationship, Dana was also let in on his Secret.

When he was 31 years old, Terry discovered a shocking truth. When Bruce's failing health required a tissue donor so kidneys could be cloned for transplant, Terry was checked for compatibility and was told he was a perfect match. This led Terry to investigate, discovering that he was Batman's genetic son all along. Disillusioned, he believed that his whole life had been a lie, that Bruce had planned everything from the beginning and "trapped" him into becoming Batman. He even imagined leaving Bruce for good, breaking up with Dana, and eventually resigning as Batman. However, Amanda Waller told him the truth about Project Batman Beyond.

Waller would go on to tell Terry that his life was still his to choose, but he was worthy of being Batman. Waller emphasized he was not a clone, but Batman's son. Maybe Terry was not as smart as his predecessor, but he was every bit as compassionate and devoted to justice. She also enforced upon him that his predecessor's way wasn't always the best way, and Terry should take care to keep his friends and family close.

Armed with this advice, Terry reconciled with his biological father, prepared to propose to Dana, and returned to the role of Batman with renewed purpose and perspective.

## **Batman's Secret Identity**

While Batman kept his identity a closely guarded secret, there were a number of individuals to whom he had either revealed his identity or had discovered it. Among the most prominent ones were **Barbara Gordon**, **Tim Drake**, **Max Gibson** and **The Joker**.

## **Romances**

* **Dana Tan**: Before Terry became the new Batman, he was in a relationship with his long-time girlfriend, Dana Tan. However, their relationship started to become strained as becoming the new Batman took up a lot of Terry's time, which led to him repeatedly having to cancel plans at the last minute, spend less time together and sometimes not even arrive for planned dates, which led to them breaking up more than once. Dana had a short patience for Terry's job, despite knowing that it was also a way for Terry to help his family since his father's death. Dana has sometimes even felt that Terry seems to care more about his job than their relationship. However, Terry and Dana would always work out their issues and get back together. Eventually, Dana came to accept this as she believed that Terry has now started to see Bruce Wayne as a father figure after his own had passed away. Terry and Dana are shown to care a great deal for each other, as Terry became greatly worried when Dana was kidnapped by a disfigured Ratboy and when the Jokerz had attacked them at a night Club. Terry is shown to care such a great deal about Dana that he even admitted to her that while his job is important, he reveals that she is more important to him, which leads to the two to share a sweet-tender moment together. Dana is also shown to worry for Terry in return, as when she first dropped him off near Wayne Manner alone and when Terry was absent from school after spending time with him the previous night. She's also been shown to worry for Terry's well-being as when Charlie Bigelow had returned. The two continued to date for fifteen years after finishing high school and eventually Dana had discovered Terry's secret as Batman. However, when Terry had discovered that he was actually Bruce's biological son, Terry started to believe that his whole life had been a lie and imagined himself breaking up with Dana due to him being cursed to live the life of his predecessor. Eventually after a talk with Amanda Waller and learning the truth, Terry had gained a new perspective and took Waller's advice to look after the people he loved and cared for. He thus planned to propose to Dana during the next date they had previously arranged.
* **Melanie Walker**:

Shortly after one of his and Dana's breakups, Terry soon met Melanie Walker at a night club. Terry and Melanie soon started to bond as they both expressed their problems in life. Melanie and Terry then promised to meet the next night at the same spot, before shortly leaving. However, like Terry, Melanie also had a criminal secret identity as she and her entire family were the new Royal Flush Gang. Due to one of the gang's next attacks, both Terry and Melanie were one hour late meeting each other at the spot they promised. However they shortly met each other and spent the whole night together becoming even more closer. Later, Melanie had sadly informed Terry that her parents were planning on "moving" again. Wanting to spend as much time together as they could, both promised to meet again the next night. However, while Terry had showed up, Melanie was persuaded by her family to stay with them and leave Terry. She called, telling him she couldn't see him anymore. Figuring something was wrong, Batman went to investigate and had shockingly discovered the truth about Melanie and her family. The next morning, Terry watched as Melanie and her family were arrested, leaving him heartbroken. Since then, Terry was deeply hurt from Melanie's betrayal and wouldn't face her again until she had returned to Gotham as she had plans to rob a Derby in order to rescue her kidnapped family. Before the heist, Melanie had sought out Terry, where the two had briefly reconnected as despite what happened in the past, both Melanie and Terry proved to still have deep feelings for each other. Later, while Batman and Ten attempted to rescue her family, Ten gave Batman a letter to Terry and asked him to deliver it to him once this was over. However, Terry had decided to move on from Melanie and continued his relationship with Dana, without ever reading the letter Melanie gave to Batman.

## **Powers and Abilities**

* **Gadgetry**
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)**
* **Throwing**

## **Paraphernalia**

Batsuit: State-of-the-art Batsuit which automatically conforms to his size. The Batsuit features new gadgets such as glider wings, "thrusters" on the boots and even a cloaking device.

* Enhanced strength by a factor of ten, ultimately allowing him to lift up to 1700 lbs.
* Minimal reduction (or increase) in flexibility.
* Forearm spikes can extend out.
* Enhanced visual assistance that allows him to see in the dark (visual from the Batsuit can be fed back to the main computer in the Batcave; it can also receive visual from the main computer, allowing for superior tactical planning). The visor can also serve as digital binoculars and an infra-red filter as well as a scanner.
* Personal communicator allows Terry to keep in constant contact with Bruce at the Batcave.
* Enhanced ballistic protection.
* Significantly resistant to heat, electricity, water, and vibrations, but only slightly resistant to radiation.
* Built-in rebreather for underwater combat/exploration.
* Dispensable Batarangs with a range of auxiliary functions, such as producing electric shocks. However, there is a limit to the amount of Batarangs the Batsuit can dispense; Batman has run out on at least one occasion.
* Disk can be fired from the top of the wrist.
* Electrical discharges throughout the suit that can be activated by pushing the button on the belt.
* Wrist-mounted laser capable of melting metal and stunning his opponents.
* Grappling guns built into the forearms.
* Flashbang grenades.
* Smoke pellets.
* Flexicuffs.
* A lock decipher.
* Launchable tracers.
* Retractable Tweezers.
* A frequency scanner to pick up hot spots.
* A retractable PIN or password decipherer in the form of a key on the right index finger.
* Retractable wings under the arms to glide on.
* Rocket boots enabling limited flight.
* Electromagnetic pads in the soles of the boots enabling him to cling to walls and ceilings.
* Sensitive touch microphone on index and middle fingers that permits eavesdropping through solid surfaces.
* Sensors that work as a polygraph.
* Drug identifier, utilized by dipping fingers into the substance.
* Built-in cloaking device that enables almost complete camouflage. It allows camouflage extending into the visible light and infrared frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. A countermeasure used by Commissioner Barbara Gordon to this in one incident where she was hunting Batman down was through tracking him using an ultraviolet light to illuminate him.
* Retractable claws which can be used to slice or facilitate climbing.
* Can uplink with the Batmobile for remote piloting.
* A remote kill function that can externally deactivate the suit from the Batcave.
* The belt buckle also serves as a buzz saw to get out of a room quickly or to cut through denser material.