Batman Beyond
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Batman Beyond (Batman of the Future in Europe, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand) was an animated television series created by WB Network in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman character saga. While not in continuity with the comic book, the series is consistent with other animated series created by the same team, including Batman, Superman, Static Shock and Justice League. In Europe, the show is broadcasted on Toonami.
The show was cancelled in 2002, and there are no plans to revive the series in the future. The setting and characters were however briefly revived in 2004 for an episode of Static Shock in which Static is accidentally transported forty years into the future, and again in 2005 for an episode of Justice League Unlimited in which Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern get transported fifty years into the future to stop a time-travelling villain with the help of Static, the Batman Beyond cast, and Warhawk.
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Story
The story is set approximately thirty to forty years from present day Gotham City, a darker and more futuristic city. An aged Bruce Wayne is no longer able to fight criminal elements as he once used to. During a battle, hampered by age and a heart condition, he breaks with a lifelong principle by threatening a criminal with a gun to keep the upper hand. Shocked and dismayed at what he was forced to do, Bruce retires from crime fighting indefinitely.
One day, he rescues high school student Terry McGinnis from a pack of Jokerz (teenage gang members who idolise Batman's archenemy The Joker, who has been missing for decades); the exertion sets off his heart condition, and Terry has to help him back to Wayne Manor. While there, Terry discovers the entrance to the Batcave, and "borrows" the Batsuit to seek vengeance against the men who murdered his father. Just as the criminal elements begin to threaten Gotham again, Bruce allows Terry to assume his 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, and the bitter, deaf sound expert Shriek, though on occasion he is forced to face his mentor's old foes, such as Mr. Freeze, Bane (elderly, wasted, and dying from his consumption of Venom, the substance that gave him his strength), Ra's al Ghul, and even The Joker.
Terry's greatest 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 for discovering his 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 wanted Powers's job.
Movies
- Return of the Joker - A direct-to-video feature in which the Joker makes his return to Gotham.
Spinoffs
The series has a spinoff called The Zeta Project, featuring the shape-shifting android Zeta from the episode "Zeta."
External links
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- Batman Beyond Batman Beyond @ The World's Finest (http://wf.toonzone.net/WF/beyond/)
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker site (http://www.batmanbeyond.com)
- Batman Beyond: The Tomorrow Knight index (http://www.batbeyond.com)fr:Batman, la relève