Batman Beyond

Batman Beyond (known as Batman of the Future in Europe, Latin America, Australia and India) is an American animated television series created by Warner Bros. Animation in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman legacy.[1] Depicting a teenaged Batman in a futuristic Gotham City under the tutelage of an elderly Bruce Wayne, the series began airing on January 10, 1999, and ended its run on December 18, 2001. After 52 episodes spanning three seasons and one direct-to-video film, the series was put on hold for the Justice League animated series, despite the network having announced plans for a fourth season.[2]

Batman Beyond is set in the chronological future of the DC animated universe (despite being released before Static Shock, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited), and serves as a continuance of both Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

Batman Beyond is said to explore the darker side of many Batman projects, playing on key elements such as emotions, personal relations, fear of the unknown, to cyberpunk and sci-fi themed elements such as issues and dilemmas of innovation and technological and scientific progress affecting society, and to the disturbing psychological elements of the character of Bruce Wayne. As such, it was considerably darker than most other children's programs at the time, although producer Bruce Timm recalls it was conceived as a kid-friendly Batman cartoon.[3] It is also the first Batman series to portray the hero as a teenager. IGN named the show 40th on their list of "Top 100 Animated TV Series."[4] The premise of Batman Beyond has been used in various comic book stories published by DC Comics, including an ongoing series beginning in 2011.

Story
The pilot episode (titled "Rebirth") initially begins in the year 2019. An aging Bruce Wayne continues his role as Batman in a high-tech Batsuit. In the rescue of a kidnapped heiress, Batman 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 by threatening to use a gun. Ultimately, Bruce reluctantly decides that his time as Batman is over and vows "never again" as he shuts down the Batcave. By this time his allies of Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox, Commissioner James Gordon, Leslie Thompkins and Harvey Bullock have died. His partners Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon and Tim Drakehave grown up and left or had fallings-out with Bruce. All of his enemies are either retired, in prison or dead and he has severed his ties with the Justice League.

The story fast-forwards 20 years later to 2039 in Neo-Gotham, a futuristic megalopolis featuring staggering high rises and flying vehicles. Bruce is now an old man and a recluse living in bitter isolation in Wayne Manor, with no companion but his guard dog Ace. Terry McGinnis is an athletic 17-year-old high school student and reformed troublemaker with a deeply ingrained sense of personal justice. Living on poor terms with his father Warren McGinnis, Terry disobeys his curfew one night to meet up with his girlfriend Dana Tan, only to incur the wrath of a group of the Jokerz gang harassing them. A high-speed motorcycle chase between Terry and the Jokerz leads them to the grounds of Wayne Manor, where they run into the elderly Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Terry fend off the Jokerz side-by-side, but the exertion aggravates Bruce's heart condition. Terry helps Bruce 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 a recovered and angered Bruce.

Terry returns home to discover that his father has been murdered, apparently by the vengeful Jokerz. Soon after, though, he discovers that his father had stumbled onto information about the production of illegal chemical weapons by Derek Powers' Wayne-Powers (Wayne Enterprises now merged Powers' company) and that the man actually responsible for his father's murder is Wayne-Powers' personal assistant/bodyguard Mr. Fixx. Terry goes to Bruce for help but he refuses, feeling he is too old and too weak to be of any use. Terry subsequently steals the Batsuit, intending to bring Powers to justice. Bruce initially opposes all of Terry's efforts and vehemently demands he return the suit but Terry convinces Bruce to let him take on the Batman mantle, partially by drawing on the fact they both lost a parent to criminals, 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.

The new Batman soon develops his own rogues gallery, with both new villains (the radiation-emitting metahuman Blight; seductive shape-shifter Inque; hypnotist Spellbinder; sound weaponizer Shriek; deadly assassin Curare; insane terrorist Mad Stan; cybernetically-enhanced African big game hunter Stalker; nerdy psychokinetic Willie Watt; and a new version of the Royal Flush Gang) as well as some of the original Batman's old foes, such as a rejuvenated Mr. Freeze; Bane's strength-enhancing Venom substance reborn as slap-on patches; the longevous Ra's al Ghul; and somewhat inevitably, the Joker himself.

Terry also makes allies in Neo-Gotham, such as the 17-year-old computer genius Maxine "Max" Gibson discovering Batman's secret identity and helps Terry with everything from computer hacking to babysitting, and police commissioner Barbara Gordon initially unhappy about another person following in Bruce's dark and dangerous steps (though she admits the city needs Batman and that Terry could not be deterred from being Batman any more than she could have been from being Batgirl).

Cast

 * Terry McGinnis: The current Batman. 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. Voiced by Will Friedle.
 * Bruce Wayne: The original Batman, he is Terry's employer, mentor, and predecessor. During his final mission as Batman, Bruce suffered a heartattack that forced him to use a gun in self-defense; abhorred by this, he hung up his cape and cowl. Voiced by Kevin Conroy.
 * Maxine "Max" Gibson: A genius high schooler and friend of Terry's. She discovers his secret identity early on in the series, and from then on occasionally helps Batman in an "Alfred"-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. Voiced by Cree Summer.
 * Ace: Bruce Wayne's pet, the billionaire rescued and took in the stray Great Dane after the canine defended him from a Jokerz thug at Crime Alley during one of Wayne's annual visits there in memory of his slain parents. Fiercely loyal to Bruce, he eventually develops a bond with Terry. Voiced by Frank Welker.