Batman Beyond

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Template:Infobox television Batman Beyond (Batman of the Future in Europe, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand) was an American animated television series created by WB Network in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman legacy. The series is part of the DC Animated Universe; kicking off the future time period of Bruce Timm's still continuing universe.

The show began in 1999 and ended in 2002 with 52 episodes and one Direct-to-Video movie under its belt, the series was then put on hold for the new Justice League animated series. Still to this day Batman Beyond remains on hiatus with no plans to revive the series in the near future. However, there was a short lived spin-off, The Zeta Project, also set in the DC Animated Universe's future.

In season three of Batman Beyond, a two-part story featuring the Justice League entitled "The Call" formed an early basis for Bruce Timm's next series, Justice League, in turn succeeded by Justice League Unlimited.

The setting and characters of Batman Beyond were also briefly revived in 2004 for an episode of Static Shock in which Static is accidentally transported forty years into the future.

Justice League Unlimited revisited the world of Batman Beyond twice in 2005. The first time featured Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern transported fifty years into the future to stop a time-traveling villain with the help of the future Justice League Unlimited cast - including Terry McGinnis as Batman. The second time occurred during the episode "Epilogue", where we learn the true secret origin of the future Batman in a story meant to be the de facto series finale for this Batman's story.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

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Story

The story is set approximately fifty years from the conclusion of present day DCAU (as evident by the commentary found on Batman Beyond: Season One). Gotham City is a darker and more futuristic city, equipped with staggering high rises and hovering/flying vehicles. The aged Bruce Wayne is having increasing difficulty handling criminals he once subdued with ease. Hampered by age and heart trouble, he is finally forced to betray a lifelong personal principle by threatening a criminal with a gun and subsequently decides to retire from crimefighting permanently.

One day, he rescues high school student Terry McGinnis from a pack of Jokerz; the exertion aggravates his heart condition, however, and Terry has to help him back to Wayne Manor. While staying at the mansion, Terry discovers the entrance to the Batcave, and "borrows" the Batsuit to avenge the death of his father (who had accidentally become involved in the revelation of a secret biological weapons development). As crime and corruption are beginning once again to rear their ugly heads in Gotham, Bruce gives Terry his permission to assume the Batman alter-ego.

Young McGinnis continues the battle against crime tutored by Bruce, and aided by a new black-and-red, high-tech batsuit that augments his abilities, fires Batarangs from the wrists, flies using jets fired from the feet, allows eavesdropping through a hypersensitive touch microphone, and provides camouflage abilities. He has his own rogues gallery, such as the seductive, shapeshifting Inque, the confusing hypnotist Spellbinder, the bitter, deaf sound expert Shriek, and the African hunter Stalker. However, on occasion he is also forced to face his mentor's old foes, such as the atrophying Mr. Freeze, Bane (elderly, wasted, and dying from his consumption of Venom, the substance that gave him his strength), the immortal Ra's al Ghul, and even The Joker.

Terry's greatest initial foe is Derek Powers, a ruthless billionaire who took over WayneCorp and was later accidentally mutated into a radioactive monstrosity who called himself Blight. Powers had Terry's father murdered after Mr. McGinnis discovered Powers was in the process of developing a biological weapons program. The first season ended with a showdown between Batman and Blight aboard an abandoned nuclear submarine, where Powers was in hiding after his identity as Blight was revealed to the world by his ambitious son Paxton, who planned to usurp his father as chairman of Wayne-Powers.

Maxine "Max" Gibson is a 17-year old computer genius who discovers Batman's secret identity. Since she discovered Terry's alter-ego she's been helping him with everything from computer hacking, to babysitting, to coming up with excuses for Terry's girlfriend Dana Tan. Max plays an integral part in Batman's war on crime.

Terry also finds one other ally, though a begrudging one: Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl. Having followed in the footsteps of her father, James Gordon, Barbara is now Police Commissioner of Gotham City, and she is unhappy with the idea of a new Batman, especially a teenager, as she is still haunted by the Joker's torture and mutilation of Tim Drake (Robin) as seen in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. However, knowing from personal experience that she cannot deter Terry anymore than she could have been deterred from being Batgirl, she relents, possibly also out of respect for her mentor, the original Batman. Also, passing lines between Barbara and Bruce suggest that, at the time of Batgirl's retirement, the suit had bulletholes in it that had not yet been repaired. It is implied early on in the series that Barbara and Bruce were in love for a period of time. It is also confirmed during Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker that Dick Grayson, Nightwing, is still alive in this time period.

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Episode guide

Season 1Season 2Season 3
1- 1 Rebirth (1)2- 1 Splicers3- 1 King's Ransom
1- 2 Rebirth (2)2- 2 Earth Mover3- 2 Untouchable
1- 3 Black Out2- 3 Joyride3- 3 Inqueling
1- 4 Golem2- 4 Lost Soul3- 4 Big Time
1- 5 Meltdown2- 5 Hidden Agenda3- 5 Out of the Past
1- 6 Heroes2- 6 Bloodsport3- 6 Speak No Evil
1- 7 Shriek2- 7 Once Burned3- 7 The Call (1)
1- 8 Dead Man's Hand2- 8 Hooked Up3- 8 The Call (2)
1- 9 The Winning Edge2- 9 Rats!3- 9 Betrayal
1-10 Spellbound2-10 Mind Games3-10 Curse of Kobra (1)
1-11 Disappearing Inque2-11 Revenant3-11 Curse of Kobra (2)
1-12 A Touch of Curaré2-12 Babel3-12 Countdown
1-13 Ascension2-13 Terry's Friend Dates a Robot3-13 Unmasked
2-14 Eyewitness
2-15 Final Cut
2-16 The Last Resort
2-17 Armory
2-18 Sneak Peek
2-19 The Eggbaby
2-20 Zeta
2-21 Plague
2-22 April Moon
2-23 Sentries of the Last Cosmos
2-24 Payback
2-25 Where's Terry?
2-26 Ace in the Hole
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Project Batman Beyond

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue", set fifteen years after the conclusion of the Batman Beyond series, reveals that Bruce Wayne is actually Terry's genetic father. During the time of the Justice League, Amanda Waller, the head of Project Cadmus, came to believe that there would always need to be a Batman in Gotham City. To that end, she used Project Cadmus nanotechnology and a sample of Bruce's DNA to create a nanovirus that was injected in Terry's father Warren during a routine physical. Waller's plan was to parallel Bruce's childhood trauma in Terry to 'create' another Batman, and she enlisted the aid of an assassin to murder Terry's parents. However, the assassin could not go through with the killings, and, in a nod to the Mask of The Phantasm movie, it's revealed that Waller's assassin WAS The Phantasm, Bruce's former fianceé Andrea Beaumont. The insinuation made is that Beaumont wouldn't kill the McGinnises because she knew firsthand what the death of Bruce's parents did to him, and she refused to see that happen to another person. Also, Waller realizes that by killing to create a new Batman she would be going against all that he stood for. Terry eventually mends fences with Bruce (who didn't know about Waller's interference) and makes the first steps towards treating him as his father. Terry also calls his girlfriend Dana Tan and asks her to meet him. He is holding a diamond ring while they talk, clearly insinuating that he is going to ask her to marry him. By the end of the episode, Terry is on his way to having full lives as both Batman and a family man — a balance which Bruce was never able to reach.

It should be noted that the black and white sequences of the "Epilogue" episode are intended to represent a dream (a fact which was confirmed by show writer Dwayne McDuffie).

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Movies

  • Return of the Joker - A direct-to-video feature in which the Joker makes his return to Gotham.

There was also a planned Batman Beyond live action feature, to be written by Paul Dini, however Warner Bros shelved the project and eventually went with the Batman Begins concept instead. A "Batman Beyond: Year One" live action short fan-film was made as a tribute to the show by a group of fans.

Finally, a Direct-to-DVD sequel to Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was to feature Selina Kyle/Catwoman. This project never made it off the ground, however much of the concept of this film eventually made it into the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue", which is seen by many as Batman Beyond's true finale.

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DVD releases

Batman Beyond: The Complete First Season - Contains a two-DVD set with all of the episodes from the first season as well as audio commentaries, interviews, and other special features. Released on 21 March 2006.

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Comics

Image:Superman-batman22 batmanbeyond.jpg Like most DCAU shows, Batman Beyond had its own comic series (after an initial limited series) set in the same world of the show and aimed at younger readers. But more recently, in Superman/Batman #22 (written by Jeph Loeb), a Batman wearing the Beyond costume appears, making his first foray into the regular DC Comics continuity. The plot involves Bizarro being transported to an alternate version of Gotham. It would appear from #23 that this Batman is not Terry but someone named Tim, presumably Tim Drake. However, the writers admitted to the mistake of misnaming the character, and the name will be changed to "Terry" in the trade paperback. Another oddity is the Batwing is the version from the original Animated Series, not Batman Beyond. Whether this is the regular DC universe or a parallel one is still to be seen. It seems possible that this may be an alternate reality as the same story has Batzarro transported to the world of Superman: Red Son, an Elseworlds communist version of Superman. Template:-

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Spinoffs

The television series had a spinoff called The Zeta Project, featuring the shape-shifting android Zeta from the Batman Beyond episode "Zeta." Batman would guest star in the episode "Shadows".

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External links

Template:Dc-animationde:Batman of the Future fr:Batman, la relève pl:Batman Przyszłości pt:Batman Beyond

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