There is no way to deny it.
DC Comics has been absolutely fantastic when it comes to all of their animated projects
and in my personal opinion, their crowning achievement was Batman Beyond.
It went strong for a solid three seasons, but believe it or not, it’s actually spawned
multiple comics.
So today, I want to take a look at the history of Batman Beyond himself, Terry McGinnis,
from the cartoon to the comics and beyond!
But before we hop in, I want to make it very clear that we’re going to be hopping in
and out of different continuities and if that doesn’t really make sense then I highly
recommend that you check out this video right here where I talk about the DC Animated Universe
and the universes that spawned from it.
That’ll make this a little bit easier to understand if you’re feeling lost.
Anyway, let’s go!
In the second season finale of Justice League Unlimited, it was revealed that Amanda Waller
of Project Cadmus noted Bruce Wayne’s increasing age and realized that the world would always
need a Batman.
Because of this, she spearheaded Project Batman Beyond.
This involved taking Bruce’s DNA and finding a couple that matched the psychological profile
of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
The couple?
Warren and Mary McGinnis.
When Warren thought he was getting a flu shot, his reproductive DNA was actually being overwritten
with nanotechnology making any children that he fathers sons of Bruce Wayne.
This is why his offspring, Terry and Max have black hair when both of their parents are
red heads.
They’re more or less clones of Bruce, but genetics aren’t everything.
In order to recreate the events that turned Bruce into Batman, Waller hired the assassin
Phantasm to kill Terry’s parents just as they were leaving a movie.
However, Phantasm couldn’t do it.
Terry’s parents were spared and Project Batman Beyond was scrapped.
Despite his parents not being killed, Terry still grew up with his own hardships.
When his parents divorced, McGinnis lashed out at a troublemaker, got into gang violence,
and frequented juvenile hall.
In fact, the only reason why Terry didn’t do to prison for some of his crimes was due
to his age.
Though on one fateful night, Terry pissed off a local gang, the Jokerz, and accidentally
stumbled upon Wayne Manor when trying to outrun them.
Enter, Bruce Wayne who helped Terry kick their butts, but the commotion was way too much
for his decrepit body.
McGinnis helped the old man back into his mansion, but when he saw a bat stuck in a
grandfather clock, Terry tried to let it out and accidentally discovered the Batcave and
Bruce’s former life as Batman in the process.
This field trip was cut short however as Bruce quickly chased McGinnis off his property,
but little did they know that Terry’s life was about to change dramatically.
See, Bruce’s company underwent a hostile takeover and now stands as Wayne-Powers which
Terry’s dad works for.
After a corporate whistleblower gives Mr. McGinnis some of the company’s sinister
secrets, the Wayne-Powers “Quiet Squad” was sent to take him out.
Though commanded by the intimidating Mr. Fix, Terry’s dad was actually killed by man named
Jake Chill.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because yes, the triggerman who killed Terry’s dad
is directly related to Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents.
Terry tried to get Bruce to take on the Quiet Squad, but was turned down.
However, McGinnis was fueled by revenge so he stole the Batman Beyond suit and went off
on his own.
Though he was initially opposed, Bruce monitored and assisted Terry on his mission remotely
from the Batcave and after taking down Mr. Fix, Terry was able to win Bruce over.
Under the guise of being Mr. Wayne’s assistant, McGinnis was free to fight crime as the all
new Batman, with Bruce’s help of course.
And really, that was pretty much the entire cartoon series.
It was a villain of the week style show with an all new rogue’s gallery, some tie ins
to the original Batman Animated Series, and focused heavily on Terry trying to balance
being a superhero, spending time with his family, and his on and off relationship with
his girlfriend, Dana.
Of course, there was also Terry’s brief fling with a girl named Melanie who was secretly
a part a villainous family called the Royal Flush Gang, but ended up reforming.
Thankfully, Terry is able to have SOME sort of balance in his life and that’s mainly
because of his best friend, Max Gibson, the only other person to know the secret of Terry’s
double life.
Outside of helping him make excuses for absences in school, Max is a hacker extraordinaire
who assists McGinnis in his escapades.
Yet no amount of help would be enough to prepare Terry for one of the biggest trials of his
life, the return of The Joker.
Though he was seemingly killed off, The Joker had created a piece of advanced technology
that allowed him to rewrite the genetic code and memories of Tim Drake, one of Wayne’s
former Robins.
With access to Tim’s secrets, Joker took over the Jokerz gang, infiltrated the Batcave,
and severely injured Bruce.
This left Terry more or less on his own against the Joker and his henchmen, but was able to
defeat the clown prince of crime, cementing himself as the true successor to the Batman
legacy.
Now Batman isn’t the only hero in this future era.
In fact, Superman is still alive and kicking along with an all new incarnation of the Justice
League.
Heck.
Supes himself invited Terry to join the League when he suspected a traitor among the group.
Spoiler, it was Superman the whole time.
Much like Bruce before him, McGinnis only became a part time member of the League, coming
in when he had the time or in case of extreme emergencies.
Besides, Terry had his own share of problems in Gotham such as a clone of the first Robin,
Dick Grayson, masquerading as the villain Hush and Bruce almost replacing Terry with
a legion of Batman drones.
Eventually though, the Justice League was able to convince Terry to officially join,
under a few conditions of course.
Gotham is Batman’s main priority, if Batman says he’s busy, he’s busy, and Gotham
is off limits unless Batman specifically asks for help.
Interestingly, this was only the beginning of Terry’s group of friends expanding.
He started teaming up with a new hero named Vigilante, who unbeknownst to McGinnis, was
Jake Chill, the aforementioned trigger man who killed Terry’s father.
Not only that, but Terry’s girlfriend Dana FINALLY figured out that her boyfriend was
Batman.
Like seriously girl, it’s about time.
Then we got some more cool stories, but nothing of life changing note.
However, there was this one time in the Justice League Beyond series where Terry temporarily
became the demon Etrigan to fight the legendary serpent Ouroboros.
Fast forward a couple of years and EVERYTHING changes.
Terry started to attend college and discovers that Vigilante killed his father when Jake
was under the influence of fear toxin.
When Bruce said he had never even HEARD of Jake until that moment, Terry refused to believe
him.
There wasn’t much time to process everything though because Jake was killed by Joker toxin
shortly thereafter.
Despite Terry’s anger over Jake killing his father, McGinnis still mourned his death
and pulled back from everyone by officially separating from Bruce and by breaking up with
Dana… again.
Now, McGinnis works with Dick Grayson who took over Bruce’s role and honestly, they
work pretty well together!
On top of that, Terry and Melanie got back together and despite some anger and angst,
things are looking pretty good in Terry’s life.
That is until Terry ends up on another universe, Earth 50, the home of the dark version of
the Justice League, the Justice Lords.
Terry was able to find his doppelganger on this Earth, but unfortunately, he’s a member
of the Jokerz gang.
Okay, you know what?
Dealing with two characters with the same name is going to get a bit confusing so let’s
call the Terry that we know from Earth 12 “Terry 12” and his doppelganger “Terry
50”.
So that make things a little less confusing.
Alright, let’s continue.
With the help of Terry 50, a kick ass alternate universe Batsuit, Terry 12’s Justice League,
and Dick Grayson’s doppelganger, Terry 12 was able to take down this world’s leader,
the evil Lord Superman.
Not only that, but the doppelganger of Terry 12’s father was still alive on this Earth.
Terry 50 sets it up to where our boy could meet up with his father about once a week
via a portal in the Batcave.
Plus, while he’s on these cross universe trips, Terry 12 helps train Dick Grayson’s
doppelganger and Terry 50 who has taken over as Batman.
Now back on Earth 12, Melanie suited up in her Royal Flush costume one last time to take
on her mother who had returned to a life of crime, but Terry didn’t believe that Melanie
had really changed her ways so they broke up… again.
If that wasn’t enough, the villain Rewire took Dick Grayson hostage and learned about
the portal that took McGinnis to and from Earth 50.
Without hesitation, Bruce destroyed the portal.
Dick move.
After defeating Rewire, Terry took one last look at the portal to see if it was truly
beyond repair and it turns out that Terry 50 and Dick Grayson’s doppelganger were
able to get a portal of their own going.
See, the doppelganger of Terry 12’s father was mad that his “son” was missing on
their visits so he went to his apartment only to discover Terry 50, blonde hair and all.
When his ACTUAL son explained, he actually came around and was comfortable with seeing
both versions of Terry.
Sadly, Terry 12 didn’t take him up on this offer, deciding to live his own life in his
own universe, but took solace in knowing that Terry 50 could repair his broken relationship
with his father.
With a hug, Terry 12 bid the residents of Earth 50 adieu and at the end of the series,
he even makes back up with Bruce to give us a happy ending.
Now, let’s hop out of the Earth 12 continuity to go right on back to the original DC Animated
Universe.
Remember how I said how that episode of Justice League Beyond gave us Terry’s true origin?
Well it also serves as an epilogue for the entire Batman Beyond series.
One day, Bruce’s kidneys fail and the hospital needed a tissue donor to clone a new one.
McGinnis stepped up only to discover that he was an identical genetic match, Bruce’s
son.
Naturally, Terry...
did not take this news well.
It’s also revealed that Terry got back with Dana and had been dating her for FIFTEEN YEARS...
before breaking up with her… again to keep her safe.
Oh, and also he quit the Justice League for good measure because why not?
Now in Terry’s mind, there was only one person who had the answers to the mystery
of Wayne being his father, Amanda Waller.
She went through the aforementioned story of Project Batman Beyond and this actually
gave Terry some peace of mind.
With that, he went back to working with Bruce and he even has plans to FINALLY propose to
Dana.
Now I’d like to point out that there hasn’t been a Batman Beyond from the DCAU or any
of the Earth 12s since 2014 and you can learn more about why about in my video guide to
the DC Animated Universe that I mentioned earlier.
Yeah, this guy right here from Future’s End, the New 52, and Rebirth?
Completely different Terry than we were talking about in this video and it’s just going
to get really confusing if I try to dive into that.
So I’m going to save that for a different video if you guys want.
Let me know in the comments down below, but today, I wanted to focus on just the Terry
from Earth 12 and from the cartoon series.
If you’re looking for a place of where to start Batman Beyond then I’d recommend watching
all three seasons of the animated series, read the Batman Beyond digital comic series,
and of course, Batman Beyond 2.0.
Now I know I mentioned it in this video, but if you’re still confused about how the DC
Animated Universe became the Earth 12s then I’d highly recommend watching this video
guide I did for the entire DCAU.
It’s a really solid video that I worked pretty hard on and I think you might enjoy
it.
So there you go.
Hope you enjoyed this video.
Hope you enjoy that video and as always, I just hope that you have a fantastic day.
Thanks for watching!