So, I finally decided what DC thing
to do next. It took some thinking, but I decided to talk about one of my
favorite franchises from when I was growing up, Batman: Beyond. I’m just going to talk about the original two-part
series opener, and then my thoughts of the series overall. I may come back and
do a V-Log of the show some time later, but I’m not certain. We’ll see. Let’s
get to it.
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| God this was an awesome suit. |
The series begins with a bunch of
kidnappers watching the news while their hostage watches. We get a little
exposition in the form of a news segment mentioning that a clearly older Bruce
Wayne had avoided his company being bought out by business rival Derek Powers,
and that the kidnappers are the kind of A-holes that take the ransom money, but
don’t deliver the girl. There’s being a criminal, and then there’s just being
rude. We then see Batman, now rocking a completely black suit with jet boots,
retractable wings, and bat-a-rang launchers, kick the collective butts of the kidnappers.
Batman would have won, if it weren’t for the double bit of bad luck of a lucky
thug blindsiding him, and a minor heart attack. Batman takes a few hard hits,
before in desperation grabbing a gun and pointing it at said thug. Thug runs
off and gets arrested, and Bruce removes his mask, returns home and hangs up
his suit in disgust. I think he should give himself more credit, in what has to
be at least 30+ years as Batman, he only pulls a gun once. That’s a good track
record.
We then jump forward twenty years.
Gotham is now a technological sort of dystopia. They’ve got flying cars, high
tech video screens, and rampant crime. Take the good with the bad I guess. Wayne
Industries is now Wayne/Powers, and headed by so obviously evil that he might
as well be wearing a name tag saying “Hi I’m the Villain,” Derek Powers. We then
meet out series protagonist, Terry McGinnis. He’s the “good kid with a bad
attitude” that fiction seems to love so much. He beats the snot out of a Joker,
the clown prince of crime has an entire gang of worshipers, and utters his
disgust with the group. Meanwhile, Terry’s father, Warren, is given a disc from
a coworker, Mr. Tully, who is clearly ill. Tully is nabbed by some company
security. Nothing sinister about that. Warren is then called in to his boss’s
office, and Mr. Powers feeds him some BS about his coworker just suffering an
allergic reaction. Not being an idiot, Warren keeps the disc to himself. At his
home office, he discovers that his buddy Tully was working on something
horrible for Powers. Moments later, Terry, being an angry teen, leaves the
house in a huff after having an argument with dad. Classic “I hate you, wish I
lived with [other parent].” I’m sure nothing is going to happen that’ll make
Terry regret these actions.
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| Old but awesome. And his Great Dane is terrifying. |
While on the town, Terry witnesses
another Jokerz attack and tries to stop it. Realizing he’s outnumbered, Terry
steals a bike from one of the Jokerz and hightails it out of town, Jokerz in
pursuit. The chase leads them to the outskirts of Gotham, to historic Wayne
Manor. The now seventy, possibly eighty, year old Bruce doesn’t take kindly to
trespassers. And despite now walking with a cane, takes out at least a half
dozen Jokers by himself. With Terry’s help, they drive them off. High Fives all
around. The excitement is a little too much for Bruce’s bum ticker, and Terry
helps him back to the house for his medicine. While leaving, Terry stumbles
upon a bat in a clock, which leads him to the single greatest find in Gotham
City history, The Batcave. Bruce is less than thrilled that a snot nosed punk
had found his secret lair, and kicks him out. Terry returns home, and discovers
his house covered in graffiti, and his father murdered. The cops assume it was
a hit by the Jokerz, but Terry is less than convinced. His dad was a smart
cookie, the kind of guy that wouldn’t open the door to weirdos in clown
make-up, but doesn’t have proof. Yet. After the funeral, Terry discovers the
disk his father had been looking at hidden behind a photo. He takes the disk to
the one person he thinks can help, Bruce Wayne. Why doesn’t he go to the cops?
Derek Powers is the Lex Luthor type of villain that has cozied up to the cops,
making him largely bulletproof. Bruce isn’t interested in listening, until
Terry says “You’re no Batman, you wacked out old fraud.” Bruce opens the gate
and has a look at the disc.
They learn that the disc contained
evidence that Powers had been using the resources of Wayne/Powers Industries to
make an incredibly deadly nerve gas. Terry only half listens as he examines the
Neo-Batsuit. Bruce tells Terry to bring the disc to Commissioner Barbara
Gordon. Guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree. Terry tries to
persuade Bruce to do the whole Batman thing to stop Powers, but Bruce doesn’t
even pretend to entertain that thought. Powers and his #2, Mr. Fix, intercept
Terry. He’s able to get away, but not before losing the disc. Not one to be deterred,
Terry decides to go with plan B. We cut to Bruce watching a news report of a
clearly evil looking diplomat being welcomed by Derek Powers. He’s interrupted
by his dog, Ace, who refuses to stop barking. He lets Ace in, who then leads
Bruce down into the Batcave. Bruce is rather annoyed to learn that Terry had
indeed come back and stolen the Neo-Batsuit. Ace is damn near clairvoyant, I
swear.
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| Do I even need to mention Powers is the bad guy? |
Meanwhile, Terry flies across
Gotham to Wayne/Powers. Using the high-tech spy tools of the Neo-Batsuit, Terry
learns that the clearly evil diplomat is in the market for the gas. Powers
mentions that Mr. Tully, who’d been purposely exposed, died within 36 hours. We
aren’t shown the pictures he shows the diplomat, but from his reaction, it’s
not pretty. Terry also learns that Fix was the one that murdered his dad, just
before having to outrun some Wayne/Powers security teams. Powers is amused to
hear that “Batman” has been spotted on the property. Bruce contacts Terry via a
radio in the suit’s cowl, and berates him for stealing it. Terry ignores Bruce’s
demand that he returns the Neo-Batsuit, which further annoys Bruce. Bruce
activates the suit’s failsafe, which nearly gets Terry killed, but deactivates
it at the last moment. Bruce demands again that Terry brings the suit back, but
begrudgingly lets Terry continue when he learns Terry could potentially get the
vengeance that Bruce never got.
Terry successfully stops the
transport from being loaded, exposing Powers to the nerve gas in the process,
and gets on the hovercraft with Fix. They have a bear knuckle brawl inside the
hovercraft and have the most badass exchange that I’d heard up to that point in
my life.
Fix, voiced by George Takei, “You’re
pretty strong, for some clown who thinks he’s Batman.”
To which Terry responds, “I AM BATMAN,”
before forcing Fix to crash the ship, obviously killing him.
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| Scene still gives me chills. |
The next day, Bruce stops by the
McGinnis household, and offers Terry a job. On the surface, he’ll be the new
Alfred. Bruce describes the job as “A gopher. Go for this, go for that. An Ally
of sorts.” They make it clear to everyone except Terry’s mom that Terry is
going to be the new Batman. Once again, High Fives all around.
We then learn that Powers was able
to get the radiation treatment necessary to kill the virus, but the mutagenic
effects of the virus have caused him to emit dangerous levels of radiation. He looks
like an evil green Jack Skelington. Which, admittedly was scarier looking back
when I was ten. Oh God, now I feel old.
Overall, this series really does
hold up. It’s the story of transitions. Bruce Wayne transitioning from hero to
mentor, and Terry McGinnis transitioning from troubled youth to hero. We see
how Batman’s influence had impacted Gotham, both negatively and positively.
Obviously, things are more or less back to what they were crime-wise before
Batman after Bruce hung up the cowl, but I seriously doubt there’d be an entire
gang of psychos in clown make-up if Batman and Joker hadn’t thrown down so many
times across Gotham’s streets. The first season is largely devoted to Terry and
Bruce battling Derek Powers, both in his black market dealing, and in the legitimate
business sector. Heck, a couple of Terry’s long term foes were initially hired
to kill Bruce. Terry’s involvement in Bruce’s life inspired the elder Wayne to
try and wrestle leadership of Wayne Industries from Powers, which complicates
the evil businessman’s life. Terry eventually earns the begrudging respect of
Commissioner Barbara Gordon, who was initially hostile but quickly realizes
that Batman is a necessary part of Gotham. And we also get to see what became
of some of Batman’s old foes, such as Ra’s and Talia al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and
Bane. Spoiler, none of them got into building pediatric hospitals or selling
ice cream. Ultimately, the show doesn’t have much of an ending, it got the ax
after season three and didn’t get a proper send off. But, Terry and old Bruce
are seen in a few crossover episodes of Justice
League: Unlimited, and do get a TV movie, Batman: Return of the Joker, which answered two of the biggest lingering
questions of the show, what happened to the Joker and to Batman’s extended adoptive family.
I’m talking about Robin and to a lesser extent Nightwing. I’ve rewatched it a
few times, and still enjoy it. I recommend this show to anyone who hasn’t seen
it, it’s a damn good but at times depressing final chapter of Bruce Wayne’s
career as Batman, and first chapter for a new generation of Batman. Next time,
let’s do a Villain Profile. Haven’t done one of those in a while. I’ve got a
good one, Bizarro Superman.
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