Batman Beyond

Batman Beyond (known as Batman of the Future in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia) is an American superhero animated television series developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett and produced by Warner Bros. Animation in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman legacy. The series began airing on January 10, 1999, and ended its run on December 18, 2001. After 52 episodes spanning three seasons and one direct-to-video feature film, the series was put on hold for the Justice League animated series, despite the network having announced plans for a fourth season.

Depicting a teenaged Batman in a futuristic Gotham City under the tutelage of an elderly Bruce Wayne, Batman Beyond is set in the chronological future of the DC animated universe (despite being released before Static Shock, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited), and serves as a continuation of both Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

Though the initial announcement of the series drew mixed reactions, Batman Beyond went on to receive critical acclaim and a cult following. The show is said to explore the darker side of many Batman projects, playing on key elements such as emotions, personal relations, fear of the unknown, as well as cyberpunk and sci-fi themes such as the issues and dilemmas of innovation and technological and scientific progress affecting society, and the psychology of the character of Bruce Wayne. As such, it was considerably darker than most other children's programs at the time, although producer Bruce Timm recalls it was conceived as a kid-friendly Batman cartoon. It is also the first Batman series to portray the hero as a teenager. IGN named the show 40th on their list of "Top 100 Animated TV Series." The premise of Batman Beyond has been used in various comic book stories published by DC Comics, including an ongoing series beginning in 2011.

## Plot

The prologue initially begins in 2019 (set about 20 years after *The New Batman Adventures* and 15 years after *Justice League* and *Justice League Unlimited*). An aging Bruce Wayne, despite suffering from health complications continues to fight crime as Batman in a new high-tech Batsuit, though having increased difficulty in handling criminals, he once subdued with finesse. In the rescue of a kidnapped heiress and the daughter of an old friend of his, Batman suffers a mild heart attack and at risk of losing his life to one of the kidnappers, is forced to betray a lifelong principle by threatening to use a gun, which scared one of the kidnappers into running towards the police. Ashamed of how far he was willing to go and the fact that he used the very weapon which ended his parents' lives and what drove him to become the Dark Knight in the first place, Bruce ultimately but reluctantly decides that he has grown too old for his crusade and retires from crime-fighting and shuts down the Batcave. By this time, his butler and father-figure Alfred Pennyworth and longtime allies (Commissioner James W. Gordon, Lucius Fox, Hamilton Hill, Leslie Thompkins, Renee Montoya, Harvey Bullock, Summer Gleeson and Amanda Waller) have either died or retired; his partners (Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake and Selina Kyle) are still alive and have severed their ties with him after a falling out before their retirements from their alter egos; all of his foes (The Joker, Harley Quinn,  The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face, The Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Bane, Killer Croc, Clayface, Man-Bat, Deadshot, The Mad Hatter, Ra's al Ghul and his daughter Talia, Phantasm, the Ventriloquist and Scarface, the Firefly, and Hugo Strange) are either retired, reformed, incarcerated (with or without parole), in exile, disappeared, or dead, and he had resigned from the Justice League.

The story then begins 20 years later to 2039 in Neo-Gotham, a futuristic version of the old Gotham City and a megalopolis featuring staggering high rises and flying vehicles. Bruce is now an elderly man in his 70s and a recluse living in bitter isolation in Wayne Manor, with no other companion but his guard dog Ace. Despite having retired primarily due to failing health and old age, it is strongly hinted (he retained the costumes of his former partners and continued to fight ignoring his aging) that he had suffered a traumatic event years before his health began failing which also contributed to his ultimate decision (the exact reasons were eventually revealed in *Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker*) in addition to being still haunted by the fact that he used a cowardly weapon in his final mission to save himself. Terry McGinnis is an athletic 16-year-old high school student and reformed troublemaker with a deeply ingrained sense of social justice. Living on difficult terms with his father Warren McGinnis, Terry disobeys his curfew one night to meet up with his girlfriend Dana Tan, only to incur the wrath of a group of the gang called the Jokerz harassing them. A high-speed motorcycle chase between Terry and the Jokerz leads them to the grounds of Wayne Manor, where they run into the elderly Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Terry fend off the Jokerz side-by-side, but the exertion aggravates Bruce's heart condition. Terry helps Bruce back to the manor and, while exploring the mansion after realizing that he is unable to leave the mansion as Ace is guarding it, stumbles upon the entrance to the Batcave and thus discovers Bruce's secrets, only to be chased out by an angered Bruce.

Terry returns home to discover that his father has been murdered, apparently by the vengeful Jokerz, thus forcing him to move in to his mother Mary's house. Soon after, he discovers that his father had stumbled onto information about the production of illegal chemical weapons by Derek Powers through Wayne-Powers (Wayne Enterprises had merged with Powers' company long ago, sometime around Bruce's retirement from crimefighting and Bruce did not make any efforts to reclaim his company during the interim 20 years because of his status as a recluse) and that the man actually responsible for his father's murder is Powers' personal assistant/bodyguard Mr. Fixx. Terry goes to Bruce for help but he refuses, feeling that he is too old and too weak to be of any use and instead tells Terry to take the evidence to Barbara Gordon (the former Batgirl who has become the new Police Commissioner). After the evidence of the illegal weapon production is forcibly taken from Terry by Derek Powers, Terry subsequently steals the Batsuit, intending to bring Powers to justice. Bruce initially opposes all of Terry's efforts and vehemently demands that he return the suit, but Terry asks Bruce to let him take on the Batman mantle, partially by drawing on the fact Bruce lost both of his parents to a criminal he never caught, and that he (Terry) has the chance to catch his father's murderer. Bruce allows Terry to be Batman, and as Batman, Terry subsequently defeats Mr. Fixx. During the battle, Powers is exposed to the chemical and forced to flee into hiding to receive treatment, which subsequently mutates him into a radiation-emitting entity, though he uses artificial skin to hide the accident. Realizing that crime and corruption are running rampant in Gotham without Batman's presence, Bruce offers Terry the chance to assume the role of the Dark Knight to continue the mission and succeed him , with Bruce himself mentoring Terry, in addition to working as Bruce's chauffeur and assistant so that Terry can support his family, which is essentially a cover for his actual work.

The new Batman soon develops his own rogues gallery, with both new villains (Derek Powers a.k.a. the radiation-emitting metahuman Blight; seductive shapeshifter Inque; the hypnotist Spellbinder; sound weaponizer Shriek; deadly assassin Curaré; insane eco-terrorist Mad Stan; cybernetically-enhanced African big game hunter the Stalker; nerdy psychokinetic Willie Watt and a new version of the Royal Flush Gang) as well as some of his mentor's old foes, such as Mr. Freeze rejuvenated; Bane's strength-enhancing drug Venom reborn as slap-on patches; the longevous Ra's al Ghul; and the Joker himself, somewhat inevitably.

Terry also deals with an issue Bruce never seemed to have during the latter's heyday. Balancing crime-fighting with the demands of his teenage life, such as high school and his relationship with his girlfriend who remains unaware of his double life and this causes minor strains and misunderstandings between though they make up and Dana eventually comes to understand that Bruce Wayne has essentially become a father-figure for Terry and which is why Terry is doing errands for him (actually crime fighting) and thus away for longer periods of time.

Terry also makes allies in Neo-Gotham, including computer genius and fellow student Maxine "Max" Gibson. After discovering Batman's secret identity, Maxine helps Terry with everything from computer hacking to babysitting akin to the duties Bruce's former butler Alfred Pennyworth performed for him. Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon also works with Terry. Though initially unhappy about another person following in Bruce's dangerous footsteps, as she is haunted by the same tragic event that broke the Bat-Family and eventually contributed to Bruce's retirement, she admits that the city needs Batman, and that Terry could not be deterred from being Batman any more than she could have been from being Batgirl. He also has a relationship with Melanie Walker, who was forced to do the bidding of her family's new Royal Flush Gang under the code name Ten. Terry and Melanie's relationship is similar to that of Bruce and Selina Kyle. Terry also eventually meets Bruce's old ally Superman and his former team Justice League, even being offered membership though he eventually declines. He does later on join the team sometime in his adulthood though on a part-time basis like his mentor before him.

## Cast

* Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis / Batman:
 The second Batman, he is a high school student and former delinquent. Under the pretense of doing errands for Bruce, Terry fights crime as the new Batman. Terry was chosen to be the new Dark Knight as he shared a similar loss as Bruce had; that being the death of a parent.
* Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne:
The original Batman, he is Terry's employer, mentor, and predecessor who guides Terry through the Batcomputer but occasionally ventures into the field to help his successor if the situation demands it. During his final mission as Batman, Bruce suffered a heart attack that nearly cost him his life, forcing him to almost use a gun in self-defense; abhorred by this, holding the such-like weapon that took his father's and mother's lives, he reluctantly hung up his cape and cowl.
* Cree Summer as Maxine "Max" Gibson:
 A genius high schooler and friend of Terry's. She discovers his secret identity, and from then on occasionally helps Batman in an "Alfred"-type role, though she is considered a nuisance to his predecessor (but less so as time went on). Her parents are divorced and she has an unnamed sister.
* Lauren Tom as Dana Tan:
Terry's on and off girlfriend in high school who is unaware of his secret identity as the new Dark Knight, and thus surprised or upset by his frequent absences which she only knows due to him working as a personal assistant for Bruce Wayne, to support his family financially following his father's death. She also has a father who is disapproving of Terry because of the latter's past as an irresponsible delinquent, which serves as a reminder and another motivation for Terry being Batman.
* Frank Welker as Ace:
Bruce Wayne's pet dog and his sole companion in Wayne Manor, the billionaire rescued and took in the stray Great Dane after the canine defended him from a Jokerz thug during one of Wayne's annual visits in memory of his parents to Crime Alley. Fiercely loyal to Bruce, he eventually develops a bond with Terry as well.
* Stockard Channing (1999–2000) and Angie Harmon (2000) as Barbara Gordon:
The new Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, having succeeded her father Jim and Bruce's former crime-fighting partner Batgirl. Unlike her father, Barbara has initially has a rocky relationship with the new Batman, showing resentment towards Bruce for dragging him into this life and is at first against him intervening in police duty. Though this is revealed to have been due to a long standing grudge towards Bruce for how he treated his former partners as she later gains respect for Terry after he helps her in several sticky situations and begins acknowledging his help whenever needed, though does not use a Bat-Signal unlike her father, presumably because she has direct access to the Batcave from the office and because of her past as Batgirl. She is married to Sam Young, the District Attorney of Neo-Gotham.

## Spinoff

A spinoff from *Batman Beyond*, an animated series called *The Zeta Project*, featured a revamped version of the synthoid Zeta from the *Batman Beyond* episode "Zeta". Batman would guest-star in the episode "Shadows". The supervillain Stalker was to have appeared in *The Zeta Project* episode "Taffy Time", but ultimately did not do so. The second-season episode "Ro's Gift" has an appearance by the Brain Trust from the *Batman Beyond* episode "Mind Games". Terry McGinnis/Batman was originally slated to appear in this episode as well, but was cut since Bruce Timm and company were working on *Justice League*.

## Reception

While the idea of *Batman Beyond* seemed as if it were "not a proper continuation of the legacy of the Dark Knight", it gathered acclaim after its release. It has been praised for its dark, mature, and often unsettling storytelling. The show was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which it won in 2001 for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program and Outstanding Music Direction and Composition. In addition, the show was nominated for five Annie Awards and won two of those nominations in 1999 and 2001. In 2009, IGN.com named *Batman Beyond* the 40th best animated television series of all time.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The World's Finest - The Zeta Project. Worldsfinestonline.com.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 40. Batman Beyond. IGN.
3. ↑ Template:IMDb title