It started out as show designed to sell kids toys based on an edict from the powers that be at Warner Brothers and DC Comics, but thanks to an experienced crew of writers and artists, and a top notch voice cast it went on to become a beloved, and even integral part of the Batman mythos. So much so that a few years ago, they launched a series of comics featuring these characters depicting it as the future of the DC Universe. That show was Batman Beyond.
Already Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and the other writers and producers they worked with had achieved critical and commercial acclaim with the Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, as these shows quickly became fan favorites with their takes on the characters being seen as definitive, while their theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was praised by such esteemed film critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert . However, by mid 1998, the shows focusing on the World’s Finest were starting to wind down and the higher ups at the WB network wanted something new. They felt kids couldn’t relate to Batman as he was an adult, so they suggested making a new show that would feature Bruce Wayne as a teen-aged Batman . The network wanted to move merchandise and teen related shows could sell. Timm and company wisely disagreed, as it would undercut Bruce Wayne’s story. The solution came to them in setting the show a full 45 years in the future from 1999, or when the last episode of the originals series was produced and released.
The story opens with an aging Bruce Wayne wrapping up his last case. The daughter of a wealthy socialite is kidnapped, and he goes to the rescue, donning an all-new Bat suit . However, Bruce Wayne has gotten to old and while on the case, he suffers a near heart attack. When one of the kidnappers approaches him, ready to beat the living daylights out of him with a crowbar, Batman grabs a discarded gun and points it at the criminal .The criminal drops the crowbar and runs, but the end result is the very weapon that created Batman ends him as Bruce realizes he almost broke his one rule and vows “Never again” as he hangs up his mantle.
The story picks up 22 years later in a futuristic Gotham City. A High School student named Terry McGinnis was on the run from a gang of thugs that idolized the Joker when he stumbled upon Wayne Manor and he and Bruce fought him off. Bruce had another episode and Terry helped him to the house where he discovered who Bruce really was. Returning home, terry discovered that his father had been murdered and in going through his personal effects he learned that his father n stumbled on a dreadful secret that cost him his life. When Bruce refused to help as Batman, Terry took up the mantle and guided by Bruce Wayne he became the Batman of a new era.
Terry is voiced by actor Will Friedle. Best known as goofy older brother Eric Matthews on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World, the role of Terry did for his career what voicing the Joker did for Mark Hamill and established his career as a top-notch voice actor. His Terry played like a cooler version of Peter Parker, while pulling off a pretty cool Batman that didn’t sound like some kid doing a bad Batman impression. Terry’s journey saw him grow and develop into a unique character, with a persona defined separately from the Robins. He also has an additional motive to help.
As he tells Bruce in the spin-off film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker,
Yes, there was my dad’s murder, but we come from two different worlds. No offense to your other Robins, but I wasn’t anything like them or anyone else you took in. I was a bad kid. I broke a lot of laws to say nothing of my parent’s hearts. The kind of punk you wouldn’t have wasted a second punch on back in the day….The state says my record’s clean, but my soul says differently… Being Batman gives me a chance to be somebody worthwhile.”
Balancing his youth and exuberance was Kevin Conroy, reprising the voice of Bruce Wayne from Batman: The Animated Series . No longer does he need to distinguish his Batman and Bruce as he has become so lost in this creature he created and hardened and battered by his years of tragedy, pain, and service. This is a Batman not brought down by any of the members of his fabled rouges gallery but by the inevitable ravages of time. It’s Terry who pulls him back into action, reminding him he still has a city, and a legacy to fight for .Early episodes largely relegated him to the role of the man at the computer in Terry’s ear, but a sit developed we saw him work to take back the company his parents built after it was sullied by the arch villain of the series, Derek Powers.
Powers, is a bit of the typical greedy corporate exec in the vein of Lex Luthor and Norman Osborne, a dark reflection of Mr. Wayne. However, he is key to Terry’s journey to becoming Batman as he is the one who orders the hit on Terry’s father. Further, he uses the Wayne name to legitimize himself, much to Bruce’s disgust as he develops weapons and technology that are antithetical to the Wayne family name. Thus because of Powers not only is a new Batman born, but Bruce gets back into the fight for the soul of Gotham and his family legacy.
Along with Powers the series boasted a pretty decent rouges gallery. One thing that was key to the show runners was that terry’s Batman didn’t just fight Two Face II, Catwoman Jr., or other junior versions of Batman’s classic rouges gallery. While we did see the likes of Mr.Freeze, Ra’s Al Ghul, Talia, Bane, and yes, The Joker and Harley Quinn, Terry got a roster of villains all his own. If the original Batman’s rogues gallery was stepped in film noire and old school horror and sci-fi films, then Terry’s Batman, likes his Gotham was all tech based. Thus, villains like Shriek, Inque, and Spellbinder felt as much like they were apart of Gotham as The Joker, Riddler, Penguin, or Poison Ivy. However, another hallmark of the series as it focused on a teenage hero was focusing on the “Youth culture” of Gotham in the forms of street gangs like The Jokerz who idolized the Crown Prince of Crime, and Splicers who use illegal technology first pioneered by Batman foe Man-Bat in the originals series to augment themselves into human/animal hybrids.
It’s pretty easy for Batman fans to draw comparisons to Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, but one area where this show excels is in its world building. Miller’s Gotham, was run down, decrepit, more befitting for a dystopian classic like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451. The Gotham of Beyond , however, was heavily inspired by Japanese anime, and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, while retaining the sleek art-deco feel of Batman: The Animated Series. In contrast to other sci-fi cartoons like The Jetsons that feel hokey and dated, Batman Beyond feels timeless as Lang’s classic film. Gotham doesn’t just look like New York anymore but a hybrid of New York and Tokyo and it feels like it could actually happen.
Not only is Gotham more sleek and futuristic, so is Batman’s look. Gone is the familiar black and grey uniform of Bruce Wayne and in it’s place is a sleek black uniform, with a red logo, calling back to the look of the Adam West Batmobile. With futuristic threats for Terry to face, his suit keeps him up the challenge as it features built in binoculars, thermal sensing, recording devices, camouflage mode, flight capabilities, and enhances his strength.This Batman doesn’t even support a cape, but a high tech retractable Bat-wing glider.
However, if there is any toy in Batman’s arsenal that is most essential, it’s the Batmobile. Since every single Batmobile since the 1960’s TV show has utilized futuristic concept carts in the look of the car to give Batman something that stands out from the normal cars on the road, so to does Terry’s car. With streets that go to the skies and flying cars, the classic car wouldn’t be able to keep up like it once did. Thus, the new Batmobile is a flying car that “doesn’t need roads”, that looks as much like justice in the sky, as the old Batmobile looked like justice on wheels.
While Bruce had a supporting cast that included the butler Alfred, Lucius Fox, Commissioner Gordon, other police officers like Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and Barbara Gordon, Terry as he was a high school kid focused more on his student life. To that end his cast included his mother, younger brother, Matt, best friend Maxine “Max “ Gibson who went on to be another person in the chair, Melanie Walker AKA “Ten” of the Royal Flush Gang who serves as Terry’s equivalent to Catwoman, and girlfriend Dana Tan. While Bruce dealt with cooperate problems as the CEO of Wayne Industries, Terry tried to navigate his life as a son, brother and high school student while learning to be Batman.
Terry was not without his own Commissioner Gordon, a role now filled by none other than Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl. Unlike her father, Barbara is no fan of Batman, refusing to work with him. However, as the series goes on, we find it isn’t out of hatred for Batman, but out of concern for Terry. She saw what this life did to her, Dick, Tim, and Bruce and doesn’t want Terry heading own the same path.
Batman Beyond was a risky prospect for the shows creative forces, but in the twenty years later it has gone onto become a well loved and well regarded part of the Batman legend. Like many Bat-fans I’ll admit I was skeptical. While I love science fiction, the area that raised an eyebrow for me was the fact that the one to take up the mantle of Batman wasn’t Dick Grayson or Tim Drake. However, thanks to great writing, a sleek futuristic aesthetic , excellent characters, top notch voice acting and solid animation, the show became a hit for me, and the current Batman Beyond books have found a place in my pull list at my local comic book store, and I’m even among the fans who would love a life action Batman Beyond movie with Michael ein the old man Wayne role. For me more personally, the show has a special place in my heart as it was one of the key influences on creating my own superhero stories, earning a spot alongside Smallville and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man .
How did it do this? By creating a great character I could not only root for, but relate to, all while Terry grew and developed into his own person and forged his own chapter of the legacy of one of one of my favorite superheroes. 2019 may have been the year Bruce Wayne retired in Batman Beyond continuity, but 20 years on, the show has not lost it’s luster and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. It’s not only a great Batman show, but one of the best sci-fi cartoons ever made.
Happy 20th, Batman Beyond. Stay Schway.
Photocredit: 1999-2001. WB.
Jonathon D. Svendsen 