Terry McGinnis: The Batman of Tomorrow | Batman Beyond

in January of 1999 the world was introduced to the future of the animated Batman franchise via the new show Batman Beyond from the same creative team as the wildly popular Batman the Animated Series Superman the animated series and the new Batman Adventures Batman Beyond would bring us the neon futuristic world of Neo Gotham and the brand new Batman that sprung up to protect it from a whole new generation of Misfits and miscreant unless you lived outside of the us where the show was retitled Batman of the future apparently just calling it Batman Beyond would be too confusing for us Europeans better to eradicate the beautiful alliterative Symmetry and give us a title so on the nose that it insults my intelligence every time I hear it even 25 years later but I digress the creative team behind the show had an uphill battle ahead of them the dcau version of Batman is widely considered to be the best version of Batman and introducing his replacement a teen replacement nonetheless was doubtlessly very challenging it' be too easy to fall into the Trap of Simply making him Bruce Wayne 2.0 or going in completely the opposite direction and alienating fans think of the short-lived James Bond Jr cartoon however 25 years later I think we can safely say that they knocked it out of the park with their Batman of the future Terry mcginness before going into the character's Origins first let's talk about the Genesis of Batman Beyond in 1998 while the new Batman adventures and Superman the animated series were still in production one Friday afternoon producers Bruce Tim paulini and Alan Bernett met with Warner Brothers executive Jamie Kelner to talk about what they be working on next the trio fully expected tnba and estas to be renewed so confident were they that they even ended That season of Superman on a cliffhanger of sorts with Superman vowing to regen the world's trust after he had been brainwashed by dark side however the Warner Brothers Executives had a different plan in mind in the pursuit of an even younger demographic and inspired by the then popular show Buffy the Vampire Slayer one of Brothers had decided that they needed to freshen things up with a new show starring a teenaged Batman the original proposal was The Adventures of teenage Bruce Wayne but of course that would have contradicted everything that had already been established Bruce Wayne didn't put on the Batman costume until he was in his 20s as seen in mask of the fantasm so as you might imagine Tim Dei and Bernett were not entirely thrilled at the prospect of scrapping everything and starting over but at the same time they also feared giving up Batman and handing it over to a new creative team it was then that the idea of a Teenage replacement for an elderly Batman was brought up and the show was green lit there then meaning they had to finish off the remaining tnba and estas episodes and start working on the new show immediately in his modern Master's book Bruce Tim recalls how he spent the weekend fretting about the whole concept behind the show but it wasn't until the following Monday when he explained what had happened to Glenn murakami and was greeted by murakami's boundless enthusiasm for the idea that they started to take things seriously now the reason I bring this up is that Warner Brothers were very enthusiastic about the idea without even seeing any scripts or character designs in fact they would even start promoting the show in Wizard magazine a now defunct comic book fan magazine using the working title of Batman tomorrow with its protagonist Terry McGavin both the title and the protagonist name would change by the time we saw the full show of course I think that most people watching this video will already be pretty familiar with who Terry mcginness is and how he came to become Batman so I'll try to keep this synopsis brief we're introduced to Terry in the first episode of Batman Beyond rebirth part one Terry is a 17-year-old High School student with a bit of a chip on his shoulder his mother and father are divorced and he lives with his father while his younger brother lives with their mother Terry is a little rough around the edges but he seems to have a good heart when we first meet him he comes to the defense of a woman being bothered by a punk dressed as a clown he doesn't do it for the glory or because he likes looking for trouble although I suppose there might be an element of that it's primarily the fact that he doesn't like bullies and refuses to Stand By and Watch people be victimized which will come back to bite him on the rear end repeatedly after a glimpse at his school life in which gets suspended after coming to blow the school bully Nelson Nash we can see that while Terry's heart is often in the right place he doesn't respond proportionately likewise when he returns home and is scolded by his father Warren Terry lashes out at him and heads out for the evening while queuing up to get into a nightclub with his girlfriend Dana tan Terry comes into conflict with more punks dressed as clowns The Jokers these wannabe clown princes of crime clearly idolize The Joker and go around town causing Mischief on their motorcycles think the biker gang from the movie Akira but with clown face paint while trying to evade The Jokers he crosses paths with an elderly Bruce Wayne who despite his age brutalizes the gang members but not without making himself unwell Terry being the kind soul that he is takes the alien Bruce home and gets him his heart medicine along the way he spots a bat seemingly trapped within a grandfather clock most people probably would have just ignored the animal's distressed cries but Terry couldn't ignore it and tries to let the bat out and in the process discovers the Batcave after being cast out by Bruce Terry heads home with his tail between his legs only to find his home vandalized with Joker graffiti and his father dead the reasonable assumption to make is that the Jokers he had fought earlier that evening had somehow figured out where he lived and killed his father in Revenge as such Terry blames himself for his father's death and is haunted by their final angry conversation so right off the bat LOL here's what we know about our new Batman he's compassionate he saw a woman in distress and stepped in to defend her when Bruce fell ill he help helped him he saw an animal in distress and wanted to help it he doesn't like bullies he thrashed Nelson and the Jokers he's hot-tempered he reacted badly to Nelson spitting in his face he lashed out at his father for not understanding him he's trustworthy he learns Bruce Wayne's secret and doesn't tell anyone now Terry is clearly very different to Batman's past proteges the robins were trained from childhood to fight crime Terry came to it much later and did a lot of on the job training as such Terry is very much his own Batman yes he is driven by tragedy the murder of his father but he solves that case in his first Adventure I took care of his old man didn't I this is significantly different to the original Batman the dcau Batman never solved the murder of his parents because it wasn't really a crime to solve it was an opportunistic random act of violence the killer saw the chance to make a quick buck and took it fleeing into the night once he realized what he'd done and was never seen Again by Never Getting closure Batman would be compelled to solve crime in the hope of preventing other people experiencing the same despair that he did Terry meanwhile remains in the role of Batman Because he believes it's the right thing to do he's not driven by the need for vengeance although he does site some feelings of guilt over his childhood misdeeds fighting and stealing mostly and sees his work as Batman as being a way of atoning Bruce is physically in capable of continuing his mission as Batman as we see in the opening of rebirth but in Terry he sees a way of continuing his mission by being a mentor at this point Bruce had been locked away in his Mansion for years living a solitary life he had let his company be taken over by the villainous Derek powers and frankly he didn't care by mentoring Terry Batman would begin rehabilitating his own life as well yes he would always be a grumpy kudin but Bruce would begin reintegrating himself into Neo Gotham Society firstly by taking Terry on his assistant after all needs a good excuse for Terry to be spending all that time with him and the wages he pays would go some way towards providing some Financial stability to the mcginness after Warren's death Bruce would then become more involved in the Runnings of his company until he eventually regained full control from Powers after his meltdown as blight and that's the key thing about the relationship between Terry and Bruce Wayne they saved each other without Bruce's guidance Terry would very easily have found himself making the same mistakes over and over again and probably find himself in prison and without Terry Bruce would have remained hidden away in Wayne Manor for the rest of his days and I think that's one of the key reasons why Terry mcginness is so beloved by the fans he isn't a carbon copy of Bruce Wayne he's his own person with his own desires and flaws and he adds to the Batman Mythos one episode that really highlights the complimentary differences between the two Batman is meltdown I've talked about this episode a number of times and come to think of it it's probably my favorite episode because it deals with the rehabilitation of Mr Freeze Mr Freeze was a significant character in the DC Animated Universe Heart of Ice transformed the character from a gimmicky cold themed villain to a tragic figure that sought Revenge this take on the character would go on to be adopted across every other form of media including the comic books by the time of Batman Beyond freeze is a head in a jar locked away in the basement of Wayne Powers the villainous Derek Powers uses freeze as a guinea pig for a potential treatment for his own ailment by cloning freeze a new body editing out the mutated DNA and transferring his mind into this body in the hope that freeze would be cured and be able to start over with with his Humanity restored freze renounces his past criminality and pledges to dedicate himself and the significant amount of cash in his savings account to writing the wrongs of the world Terry is fully on board with supporting Mr F's Rehabilitation and is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt Bruce meanwhile is convinced that it's only a matter of time before freeze reverts to his villainous ways of course Bruce's cynicism would be proven correct when Freeze's body begins to deteriorate again Powers orders him to be killed so that they can examine his organs to figure out what went wrong and just like that Mr Freeze returns and enacts his Vengeance by murdering the treacherous Dr Lake trying to kill powers and blowing up the facility that he was housed in effectively killing himself Terry pleads with freeze in his final moments asking him to come with him it's not too late he can still put things right however freze rejects the offer and puts up an icy wall both figuratively and literally leaving Terry no choice but to Run Bruce and Terry survey the wreckage the next morning and note that despite their different views on freeze they were both right about him Terry was correct that Victor freeze was a man who should have been given a chance to make amend for his past misdeeds while Bruce was right that it was only a matter of time before Mr Freeze would rear his ugly head Terry is an optimist that sees the best in people while Bruce is a bit more pragmatic some would say cynical but I think that depends on your view on life and this is a really neat way of summarizing the differences between the two Batman and how they complement each other and I have to think that's one of the reasons why the fans have embraced Terry it would be at this point in the video that I would go on to talk about how the character has gone on to be represented in the comic books and yeah Terry mcginness is part of the mainline DC continuity now hooray however outside of the first two series Batman Beyond and Batman Beyond Volume 2 both of which were primarily written by Hillary J Bader who wrote almost a dozen episodes of Batman Beyond including meltdown DC Comics have mismanaged the concept of Batman Beyond part of the reason for this mismanagement is that the whole concept just doesn't fit with their established continuity in the mainline Comics Batman has created a clear line of succession after he is no longer able to be Batman Dick Grayson was expected to take the role if he wasn't able to then it would go to Tim Drake and if he wasn't able to then it would go to Bruce's son Damian and there have been multiple stories over the years of different robins as well as a few other supporting characters picking up the mantle of Batman Terry mcginness being mentored by an isolated elderly Bruce Wayne is the proverbial square peeg that doesn't quite fit the Batman Beyond character first appeared in Superman Batman 2 and it was Tim Drake wearing the costume Terry mcginness would eventually appear during the leadup to the Futures End crossover in which he traveled back in time to prevent the rise of brother I a powerful supercomputer that would enslave Humanity however he would be killed passing the mantle to a time-traveling Tim Drake thankfully this was reconed fairly swiftly with Terry reclaiming the costume however in my opinion most of the Batman Beyond Comics from Batman Beyond volume 3 onwards have not hit hit the mark part of the problem is that they ignore the teachings of the show the show's writers were adamant that Terry should be his own Batman with his own villains and threats and there were very few occasions where old villains returned and that made them all the more special it also allowed Terry to develop his own identity and not just battle the same people that Bruce Wayne did those Comics however have mostly focused on retreading Old ground with Catwoman 2.0 the return of the fantasm manbat and more recently pitting Terry against the court of ows which I just find really tedious and don't get me started on attempts to answer fan questions like what happened to Dick Grayson I view those Comics as little more than glorified fan fiction and as such they're pretty easy to ignore there is a reason why they never answered most of those questions in the show and that's because our existence is fleeting the majority of us will wind up being forgotten within a generation or two of our passing no matter how significant our contributions to society are and that is such a beautiful melancholic sentiment that I really resent those comics for tarnishing it okay I'm getting a bit s track now and going down the melancholic path again sorry to close things out I want to acknowledge the Justice League Unlimited episode epilog which acted as closure for the Batman in the dcau if you're a fan of Batman Beyond and you haven't watched it do so at your earliest convenience I'm not going to talk about that episode at this point because frankly it opens a huge can of worms that is well worth an entire video essay on its own and I will go into it in the future just know that yes I have seen it and yes I understand the impact it has on Batman Beyond's Legacy but I think the overall message at the the end of the episode reinforces what I've said so far Terry's biggest strength is that he isn't Bruce Wayne he's his own man with his own flaws okay that's the end of this week's video essay this is the first in a series of Batman Beyond Centric video essays that I'm writing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Batman Beyond hooray if you've enjoyed this video don't forget to like subscribe leave a comment share the video tell all your friends about me because it really helps another great way to help me out would be to make use of the thanks button you can donate a b or two to help me maintain the quality of these videos likewise I offer Channel memberships for $199 a month this will get you early access to my weekly video essay sporadic membersonly videos priority responses to your comments an icon on your profile indicating that you're one of my members and custom emojis I'm going to be back next week with a video looking at how Batman Beyond was intended to be an all ages kid-friendly show and how it spectacularly failed in that regard hope to see you then [Music]

Channel: Serum Lake

Views: 57,047

Keywords: Batman, batman the animated series, btas, dc, comics, animated, animation, cartoon, anime, adventures, TNBA, the new batman adventures, bruce wayne, Beyond, Terry McGinnis, blight, Derek powers, rebirth, part 1, part 2, review, video essay, meltdown, of the future, Character analysis, hero analysis, Batman beyond explained, Batman beyond analysis, Terry McGinnis analysis, Terry McGinnis explained

Id: SwprWRrk8So

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024