The DC3 decided to take on the Herculean task of covering DC’s weekly books! Our coverage will rotate between creator interviews, issue reviews and annotations, and long-form pieces on featured characters. This, friends, is the DC3kly!
In this week’s character spotlight, I want to spend some time looking at one of “Futures End’s” biggest contributions to the New 52 thus far; Batman Beyond. In the midst of Y2K-fever, the story of Terry McGinnis brought the Dark Knight mythos into a cyberpunk vision of the 21st century.
McGinnis brought a youthful exuberance and teenage angst to the role of Batman, a stark contrast to the brooding Bruce Wayne. The show’s unique vision for a futuristic Gotham, distinctive vocabulary, and colorful new rogues gallery captured the imaginations of many a viewer over the course of its three year run. “Batman Beyond” would go on to become of the most enduring creations of the Bruce Timm DC animated universe of the late 90’s/early 00’s, spawning comics, licensed materials, and unrequited hopes for a live action adaptation. Over a decade later, Terry follows in the footsteps of fellow DCAU alumns Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya, joining the DC universe proper.
So, what does Terry’s inclusion into “Futures End” mean for the future of the DCU, what do you need to know, and frankly, why should you care? I’m prepared to answer those questions, and more.
Rebirth
Picking up some forty years after the events of Batman: The Animated Series, Beyond finds Bruce in self-imposed exile after his failing health leads him to violate his strict code. That is, until the day he rescues a young Terry McGinnis from a gang of “Jokerz,” street thugs modeled after the most famous of Batman rogues. This leads to a series of events that see a return of the Bat for a new era, but one who is about as unlike Batman as possible.
I’ve always seen Batman Beyond as a cross between Spider-Man and Iron Man, with a touch of Batman thrown in for color. Terry is not the brooding, hyper-intelligent, peak of human condition that Bruce was. He’s not the great detective. Rather, he’s a quick witted and moody teenager, one who happens to be thrust into a situation of great power and great responsibility in the wake of great tragedy. Sound familiar? Likewise, his suit is far from the barebones set-up with MacGyver utility belt of old. The Beyond suit is a technological marvel, with rocket boots, cloaking, sound amplifying finger pads, self generating batarangs, and extendable wings for gliding. As such, Terry’s Batman is that is just as likely to go in figurative guns blazing as he is to lurk in the shadows.
Due to his inexperience, as well as Bruce’s obsessive compulsive personality, the duo becomes a unified force against crime, with Terry as the soldier in the field and Bruce playing General in the bat-cave. The two characters butt heads constantly, but over time Terry is able to break past Bruce’s tough exterior, just as other members of the Bat-family have done throughout the years. This is good, as most of the Bat-family has deserted Bruce by this time, for varying reasons, but that’s a story for another time.
Because of his differences from Bruce, Terry became a much more easily likable character in the vein of Dick Grayson. While this was likely in hopes of ensnaring younger viewers, it was not a the cost of deep story-telling. Like all of the Dini/Timm-era animated universe creations, Batman Beyond featured strong writing, deft character development, and a fully realized world in which these characters inhabit. This of course created a sizable fan base, and left a rich foundation for new imaginations to build upon.
Epilogue
When Batman Beyond ended in 2001 after only three seasons and a direct to video film, it passed on without a clear resolution for Terry. Thankfully, that resolution was provided four years later, in the second season finale of Justice League Unlimited. This episode finds Terry fifteen years after the close of Batman Beyond, facing the startling revelation that he is, in fact, the biological son of Bruce Wayne. Meeting with an aged Amanda Waller, Terry learns that his entire life was engineered by the ex-Cadmus director as part of “Project Batman Beyond,” in the hopes of creating a new Batman once Bruce’s time has passed. Waller even went as far as attempting to hire an assassin to murder Terry’s parents in a perfect recreation of the Wayne’s death. The act was not carried out, however, due to the mercy of Andrea Beumont, a.k.a The Phantasm. This stayed Terry’s fate, leading to the events of “Rebirth” and the story told in Beyond. While the explanation for Terry having Bruce’s DNA requires some comic science mumbly jumbly that’s best left forgotten, the story stands as one of the best Batman stories ever told, and casts the duo’s relationship in a whole new light.
Continued belowBeyond Television
Even while on television, Terry McGinnis was featured in comic book adventures. As six issue mini-series set in the show’s animated universe was published in 1999, followed by a 24 issue series that ran until the show’s cancellation in 2001. Both series were primarily written by Hilary J. Bader, with art from Rick Burchett, Joe Staton, Craig Rousseau and others. These books, like other animated universe titles at the time, were aimed at younger readers and stuck closely to the tone of the show.
After the cancellation of his second series, Terry experienced a long hiatus from comics. There was at one time rumblings out of Warner Bros regarding a live action film adaptation of the series, but whatever plans existed were shelved in favor of what would go on to become Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.
After a few cameos in books like “Superman/Batman” and “Countdown,” Terry returned to comics in a big way in 2010 with a new six issue mini-series from Adam Beechen and Ryan Benjamin. The series followed the continuity of the original series, and depicted Terry fighting against a Hush-styled serial killer, one who targets Bat-villains. The series saw the return of old favorites like Dick Grayson, as well as the debut of a futuristic Catwoman. The series spawned an ongoing series, which was then cut short at 8 issues by the launch of the New 52. The series was relaunched once more, however, as a digital series alongside “Justice League Beyond” in the burgeoning days of DC’s digital first initiative. That era birthed what is not only one of my favorite animated universe stories, but one of my favorite DC stories ever (check it out).
While nearly all of Terry’s appearances in comics were either tied to the animated universe, or in “Elseworlds” style scenarios, the character did receive one close brush with mainstream continuity prior to “New 52: Futures End.” In “Batman” #700, Grant Morrison told a story of three Batmen across three time periods, dealing with a single mystery. One of these Batmen was an adult Damian Wayne, working to rescue a kidnapped child from delightfully named Two-Face-Two. As it turns out, this infant is none other than a young Terry McGinnis. After the story’s resolution, Morrison fast-forwards several years, finding Terry taking on the mantle of Batman just as he did in Beyond, but with Damian playing Bruce’s role. Of course, the New 52 relaunch and subsequent death of Damian puts a nail in this proposed future.
Futures End
So, with that relatively (I could’ve gone on much longer, trust me) brief look at Terry’s history as Batman, what does his appearance mean for “Futures End” and the DC universe as a whole. Well, honestly, its too soon to tell. We don’t yet know much about this Terry, other than the fact that he worked closely with Bruce and is not yet much of a detective. It’s unclear how much of his history holds up, although I’d wager the “Futures End” team will attempt to stay relatively close to what has come before. His point of origin (35 years into the future) already points toward this fact.
However, even if the origins remain the same, the potential for wildly differing stories is huge. This will be the first time Terry has interacted with many denizens of the DCU, making for an endless number of new character dynamics. The DC3 have drawn many comparisons between “Futures End” and “52,” and I think Terry is quickly falling into a role similar to the one Booster Gold played in that most beloved of weekly books. After all, he’s from the future and has a snappy talking electronic sidekick (yes A.L.F.R.E.D. is totally Skeets). Regardless of Terry’s past, his future stands solely on the creative team capturing the thing that separates him from Bruce; his youthful optimism. As long as Terry remains a light in the midst of these grim proceedings, then I’ll call it a job well done.
Moving forward, things get murkier yet. Will Terry become a permanent fixture of the DCU, or will he fade away Back to the Future style once the day is saved? We’ve already seen an indication that the Beyond suit exists in the current New 52, with Bruce donning an early version in “Batman” #20. What impact will this have on the digital first “Beyond” books, especially if the character becomes a breakaway success? As with all things, only time will tell. However, with the fast moving nature of the weekly “Futures End,” you can expect answers sooner rather than later.
I hope you’ve gleaned something worthwhile from this spotlight on Terry McGinnis, and will now join me in eagerly awaiting new adventures of Batman and A.L.F.R.E.D. Join us next week as Vince analyzes “Futures End” #2 and #3, andk eep checking back with us weekly as we dive deeper into the mysteries of “Futures End.”
