Batman Beyond tek's rating:

Batman Beyond, on The WB
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The show is set roughly 50 years after Batman: The Animated Series, and Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) is now retired from both Wayne Enterprises and his secret life as the Batman. The old supervillains are pretty much gone, but Gotham is still full of crime. There are the Jokerz, a gang of kids who model themselves after the Joker, at least in costume. A much bigger problem is Derek Powers, who now runs Wayne-Powers (a company created when his merged with Bruce Wayne's).

One of Powers's employees finds out about one of his deals to sell a newly developed toxin to foreign countries to kill their enemies rather quickly and grossly. Powers has this employee killed. The man's son, Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle), finds evidence of this and brings it to Bruce Wayne. Terry discovers Bruce's secret, that he used to be Batman, and Terry becomes the new Batman. Meanwhile, Terry exposes Powers to his own toxin, and Powers then has his people try to cure him with intense radiation therapy, unexpectedly mutating him into Blight, a new radioactive villain. This will remain a secret for only so long, before Powers's equally treacherous son, Paxton, takes over Wayne-Powers.

Meanwhile, with a new Batman in town, of course new supervillains start crawling out of the woodwork. We occasionally see some familiar ones as well as ones Bruce used to fight that we've never seen before.... What else? Terry has a friend named Maxine Gibson (Cree Summer), who knows that he's Batman. And he has a girlfriend named Dana Tan (Lauren Tom), who doesn't know his secret. Another person who does know Terry is Batman is Barbara Gordon, who is now the police commissioner of Gotham. Aside from working both as the new Batman and as Bruce Wayne's assistant, Terry has to go to high school, and stuff. And there are new slang words, like "shway" (which means cool). New technology; Batman wears a very advanced suit that makes him stronger, lets him fly, has a radio/video link to the Batcave for Terry to communicate with Bruce, and turn invisible, and stuff. Also the new Batmobile is more like the Batwing than a car; but then, all cars seem to have hover capabilities. There are other new forms of technology, too, as well as old ones. Anyway, it's a pretty cool show. Not as good as the real Batman, of course, but still....

There's also a movie called Return of the Joker, which is way shway. And there's a spin-off series called The Zeta Project, about a robot named Zeta whom Terry met in one episode of Batman Beyond.


animation index
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DC Animated Universe
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TV: Batman: TAS * Superman * Batman Beyond * Static Shock * The Zeta Project * Justice League
Movies: Mask of the Phantasm * SubZero * Return of the Joker * Mystery of the Batwoman
Comics: The Batman Adventures * Gotham Girls * Batman: The Adventures Continue
Other: Chase Me (short film) * Gotham Girls (web) * Lobo (web)