When it comes to naming the two most popular superheroes in the world, Batman and Spider-Man are the undisputed champs. Superman and Wolverine and the Hulk all have their fans, but the Dark Knight and the friendly neighborhood webslinger are in a league of their own.
Both of these characters are universally relatable in their own way. Not everyone is as rich as Bruce Wayne, but everyone is hiding their pain and dealing with their trauma in deeply self-destructive ways. Not everyone is quite as unfortunate as Peter Parker, but we can all relate to the foibles of adolescence and the horrors of high school and the plight of the working class. Above all, these are two guys who pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and do the right thing, no matter what, and we can all look up to them.
But, as much as people love Spidey and the Bat, they couldn’t be more different. One wears a brightly colored spandex suit; the other wears all-black armor. One has bona fide superpowers; the other is just a regular guy with lots of high-tech gadgets. One is broke, living in a tiny apartment in Queens; the other is a billionaire, living in a mansion on the outskirts of Gotham. One is bubbly and lighthearted; the other is dark and brooding.
You couldn’t pick two characters more diametrically opposed than Batman and Spider-Man. And yet, somehow, one of DC’s best animated shows managed to do both at once.
Batman Beyond Is A Forgotten Cyberpunk Masterpiece
Batman Beyond takes place in a dystopian, neon-drenched Gotham City in the distant future, where an aging Bruce Wayne is training his replacement. Bruce recruits young Terry McGinnis to take over the mantle of Batman when he’s gone, and mentors him as he fights crime on the streets of futuristic Gotham. It’s one of the greatest superhero cartoons ever made, mixing the tropes and motifs of cyberpunk into the familiar Batman mythos.
Batman is the ultimate neo-noir antihero — a deeply disturbed, morally gray antihero on a futile mission to clean up his corrupt city — and Batman Beyond brought a Blade Runner/Ghost in the Shell sci-fi edge to that quintessential neo-noir aesthetic. It imbued the muggy, crime-ridden urban hellscape of Gotham with the neon-lit billboards and monolithic skyscrapers of Night City.
Batman Beyond is technically a sequel to Batman: The Animated Series, with the iconic Kevin Conroy reprising his role as a retired Batman, but it’s much more Terry’s story than Bruce’s. When Bruce meets Terry, he’s just a rebellious, ne’er-do-well teenager getting chased onto the lawn of Wayne Manor by some no-good street thugs. But over the course of the series, he has to learn that with great power comes great responsibility.
Terry McGinnis Is As Much Peter Parker As Bruce Wayne In Batman Beyond
When Batman Beyond was on the air, many critics described it as feeling more like a Spider-Man cartoon than a Batman cartoon. Obviously, it takes place in Gotham, where a hero in a Bat-cowl fights crime, but Terry’s teenage naivety made him seem a lot more like plucky Peter Parker than brooding Bruce Wayne.
Batman Beyond is as much a coming-of-age story as it is a cyberpunk show. Terry’s burgeoning career as Batman coincides with the chaotic experience of growing up, so there’s an interesting contrast between his crimefighting antics and his typical adolescent struggles. It feels a lot more like a Spider-Man story than a Batman story, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Batman Beyond was a lot darker than its more child-friendly predecessor, Batman: The Animated Series, but that boldness earned it critical acclaim and a passionate cult audience. Now, it holds up as one of the greatest superhero shows ever made.
Batman Beyond
8/10
- Release Date
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1999 – 2001-00-00
- Network
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Cartoon Network, The WB
- Directors
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Butch Lukic, Dan Riba, Curt Geda, Tom Ruegger, Yukio Suzuki
- Writers
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Stan Berkowitz, Hilary Bader, Rich Fogel, John P. McCann, John Shirley
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James Eckhouse
Zacharias (voice)