Batman Beyond

The story begins in the-then distant year (20 years following Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures, and about 16 years following Justice League and Justice League Unlimited). An aging Bruce Wayne, despite being in his 50s, continues to fight crime as Batman in a new high-tech Batsuit, although he has increased difficulty in handling criminals he could once subdue with finese and they are not afraid of him anymore as he has lost his mystique. In what was supposed to be a routine mission, the rescue of a kidnapped heiress and daughter of an old socialite friend of his, he suffers a mild heart attack and, at risk of being beaten to death by one of the kidnappers, is forced to betray a lifelong principle and his paramount rule by threatening the criminals at gunpoint, mirroring the actions of the mugger who killed his parents. Bruce is ashamed and, knowing his frailty and fearing that he eventually will surrender to his murderous temptation if continuing crime-fighting, decides to retire from being Batman for good. By this point in his life, his butler, father figure and close confidant Alfred Pennyworth has died and his close allies Commissioner James Gordon, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, Hamilton Hill, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, Lucius Fox and Summer Gleeson have all either retired or died of natural causes. His crime-fighting partners Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake and Selina Kyle are still alive and are now estranged from him following their retirements from their alter-egos and possible falling outs with him. His rogues' gallery, consisting of Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, Mad Hatter, Bane, Clayface, Ra's al Ghul and his daughter Talia, Phantasm, Ventriloquist, Scarface, Firefly, Mr. Freeze, Hugo Strange, Rupert Thorne, Deadshot, Baby-Doll and Killer Croc are all either in prison, institutionalized, in exile, on the lam, reformed, have disappeared or are dead. He has also severed his ties with Superman and the Justice League.

The story moves ahead 20 years later in Gotham City, a futuristic version of Gotham City, a megalopolis featuring staggering high rises and flying vehicles driven by upper class society. Bruce is now a man in his 70s, living in solitary isolation in Wayne Manor, with no other companion but his guard dog Ace. It is implied by his virtue of continuing to fight crime for as long as possible and ignoring his aging and deteriorating health (he had retained his former partner's costumes) in addition to his obsessiveness that he had suffered a tragic event years prior to his retirement, which is revealed in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Terry McGinnis is an athletic 16-year-old high school student and reformed juvenile delinquent with a deeply ingrained sense of personal justice. Living on difficult terms with his divorced father Warren McGinnis, Terry disobeys his curfew one night to meet up with his girlfriend Dana Tan, only to be harassed by a criminal gang called the Jokerz, who have seemingly modeled themselves after the original Batman's archenemy Joker. A high-speed motorcycle chase between him and the Jokerz ends in the grounds of Wayne Manor, where they run into Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Terry fend off the gang side-by-side, but the exertion aggravates Bruce's heart condition. Terry helps him back to the manor and, while exploring the mansion, 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. Soon after moving in with his mother Mary and younger brother Matt, 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 around the time of and following Bruce's retirement as Batman) and that the man actually responsible for his father's murder is Powers' personal assistant/bodyguard Mr. Fixx. Terry goes to Bruce who tells Terry to take the evidence to Barbara Gordon, the current 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 demands that he return the suit, but Terry convinces Bruce to let him take on the Batman mantle and 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 Batman, with Bruce himself mentoring Terry and in addition to working as Bruce's chauffeur and assistant so that Terry can support his family.

The new Batman soon develops his own rogues gallery, such as Powers himself who adopts the name Blight; the seductive shapeshifter Inque; the hypnotist Spellbinder; the sound weaponizer Shriek; the deadly assassin Curaré; the insane terrorist Mad Stan; the cybernetically enhanced African big-game hunter Stalker; nerdy psychokinetic Willie Watt; and a new version of the Royal Flush Gang. Terry often also clashes with some of his mentor's old foes, such as a rejuvenated Mr. Freeze, Bane, who has become a shell of his former self due to his overuse of venom, which is now being used as slap on patches by corrupt athletes, the longevous Ra's al Ghul, and somewhat inevitably, the Joker himself, reborn via a microchip he inserted into the brain of Batman's former partner, Tim Drake.

Terry also makes allies in Neo-Gotham, including computer genius Maxine "Max" Gibson, who discovers Batman's secret identity but helps him with everything from computer hacking to babysitting. Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon, Bruce's former partner Batgirl, also occasionally works with Terry. Though initially unhappy about another person following in Bruce's dangerous footsteps and at first vehemently opposed to his efforts to help, she admits that the city needs Batman, but neither uses the Bat-Signal nor has a very close working relationship with him, unlike her father during Bruce’s time as Batman. He also has a brief relationship with Melanie Walker, who was forced to do the bidding of her family, the new Royal Flush Gang, under the codename Ten. Bruce sympathizes with Terry and tells him of his own relationship with Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Terry also later encounters Superman and a future incarnation of the Justice League (Kai-Ro/Green Lantern, Aquagirl, Warhawk and Big Barda) and helps them fight an alien threat, although he does not join the group until adulthood where he presumably like his mentor only operates as a part-timer.

• 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 Batman:
  The original Batman, although initially reluctant he later becomes Terry's employer, mentor, and predecessor who guides Terry through the Batcomputer but also occasionally ventures into the field to help his successor if the situation demands it, despite the risks associated with his age. During his final mission as the Dark Knight twenty years prior to the events of the main story, Bruce suffered a heart attack that nearly cost him his life, forcing him to break his primary moral principle by threatening to kill a criminal with a gun in self-defense. Abhorred that he nearly used the type of weapon that took his parents' (Thomas and Martha) lives and the very thing that drove him to become a vigilante, and afraid of what he might do next, Wayne 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 a 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 initially and formerly 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 one of Bruce's former crime-fighting partners, Batgirl and was at one point in her younger years romantically involved with him which ended badly. Unlike her father, Barbara initially has a rocky relationship with the new Batman, being aware of his criminal record and 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 and also because of what happened years ago, the night the Bat-family splintered 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.

A spin-off 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 super villain Stalker was to have appeared in The Zeta Project episode "Taffy Time", but ultimately did not do so.[7] 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.[7]

While the idea of Batman Beyond seemed as if it were "not a proper continuation of the legacy of the Dark Knight",[8] the series received critical acclaim and a cult following after its release. It has been praised for its dark and cyberpunk 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.[9] In 2009, IGN.com named Batman Beyond the 40th-best animated television series of all time.[8]

Den of Geek, when listing the best episodes of the series, wrote that "Batman Beyond's first year on the air represents the show at its most realized form. It's the only season of the show that's written at the same level of quality as Batman: The Animated Series. Not to say that later seasons don't have their moments, but it seemed like the writers approached Beyond as a Saturday morning cartoon during seasons two and three, whereas during season one, they most certainly did not."[10] Creator Bruce Timm has stated Batman Beyond is the most uneven series of the main DC Animated Universe shows, particular in regards to the latter two seasons.[11]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Batman Beyond.

• DC page
• Warner Bros. site Archived October 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
• Batman Beyond at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Batman Beyond at IMDb
• Batman Beyond on the DC Animated Universe Wiki, an external wiki
• Batman Beyond at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018.