Pro VS Con: The Pros of Batman Beyond
by THE OLD MAID
(Note : as of this writing, "Unmasked" has not been
aired. Therefore
no developments introduced by this episode have
been included.)
"Batman Beyond" first appeared in prime time in 1999.
Since then it
has produced consistently high ratings. Many fans
regarded it as the
most intelligent animation on morning television.
It is not a perfect
series, of course. "Beyond" is a curious mixture
of drama and situation comedy, of originality and cliches.
The series mirrored the strengths and weaknesses
of its spinoff film : obsessed protagonists who never quit "forever"
; villains who
implement multiple schemes simultaneously ; and
timeless values like
duty, honor and loyalty.
One of the nice things about this series is that
there are so many
Pros to choose from. These are a few of many. For
readers who would
say, "You missed my favorite," well, did I? Perhaps
I leave it up to
you. Tell us what you liked.
The relationship between Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis
is a topic
for another day. In this essay we will explore some
strengths of the
series itself. They fall under three categories
: Attention to
Detail, the Changing Face of Evil, and Using Villains
to Develop the
Protagonists.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
• Tributes to the past.
TNBA is the most obvious influence ; the artistic
style reflects that series. Fan favorite Kevin Conroy provides continuity
between BB and
BTAS/TNBA. While fans still prefer the BTAS tradition
of psychological/crime drama over the TNBA emphasis
on action/adventure, "Beyond" has a measure of both.
The series also honors the comic book tradition.
The villain in "The
call" is none other than Starro, who first appeared
in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #28. We have an updated Ace the Bat-hound.
Ace originated in
the Fifties, though he had a touch more Lassie about
him then. ("What's that you say, boy? Batman fell down a well?")
The modern Ace
is the perfect dog for a vigilante. Even cats play
an underrated but
vital role in the Bat mythos. In "Lost soul," as
in "Year One,"
Batman is shot while trying to stop the villain
from killing a cat.
It proves to be a turning point in both stories.
Both Batmen lose
their utility belts to this villain ; they must
prove their worth
without it.
Then there is "Kingdom Come." The interpretations
of Bruce Wayne are
incompatible, but some fans said the exosuit ("Disappearing
Inque") and the blood-red bat emblem reminded them of the
technologies and
designs of KC. Also, the KC novelization, like "Beyond,"
has a "roast" scene. Where KC-Wayne must endure an unspeakable
superhero-
theme restaurant, BB-Wayne must endure an unspeakable
musical ("Out
of the past"). In both cases the people who dragged
Wayne to this
monstrosity were trying to do something nice for
him. They just have
a weird way of showing it.
What about "Knightfall?" At first "Beyond" seems
a long way from that miniseries. When Wayne is injured, others take his
place and
fail. "Beyond" should have explored why (whether?)
Terry would
succeed where others failed. So Terry walks in the
footsteps
of "Knightfall" but pays no obvious tribute to it.
But Wayne does. In both settings Wayne is crippled and in pain. It
calls for a different
kind of courage. And yes, it does take courage for
Wayne to accept
partners instead of choosing the Lazarus Pit. Both
storyarcs touch upon the theme of setting limits in the face of
temptation.
"Beyond" pays tribute most of all to Frank Miller's
"The Dark Knight
Returns." Talking Heads provide a running commentary
on Batman's
activities. (This was not mere sniping but a variation
on the Greek
chorus, a way to develop characters and plot points.)
Mutant-inspired
fashions are everywhere. Even the slang survives
: Dana calls her man
a "spud," which was Mutant terminology long before
the real world
adopted it ("The winning edge"). Like the Mutants,
the Jokerz have easy access to military weapons ("The winning edge,"
"Joyride").
Bruce Wayne broods in his manor, having "fired"
himself for a
personal failing. Terry is chosen by a bat. Batman
returns to Gotham
after a gang (Jokerz, Mutants) is blamed for one
act of violence too many. Wayne latches on to a young ally he knows
nothing about. He
does it in spite of what the Joker did to the last
minor in Wayne's
care.
DKR-Wayne and BB-Wayne both maintain a trophy room.
If the purpose
was to keep up morale it never worked. Possibly
he did it to punish
himself. Whatever his motive, it keeps the murder-memorabilia
off the
resale market, the one last thing Batman can do
to protect the
victims and their families.
Debates continue over which Wayne is more terrifying
: the old man
with no one, not even Alfred to keep him human ;
or the younger man
who has an Alfred but drinks so heavily that Alfred
cannot reach him.
Both of these grim figures are a perfect extension
of their timelines.
• Strong women villains.
Fans dislike one thing especially about the TNBA/BB
artistic style : the anorexic women. The resulting stick figures
look thoroughly non-threatening, and even unattractive. They also tend
to be
inconsistent : Ten ("Once burned") is a much healthier
weight than
Melanie, although they are the same person.
The writers found a way around this problem by creating
Curare and
Inque. The characters are obsessed, independent
and virtually unstoppable. Most of all, these women cannot be
judged by their
appearances, only by their abilities.
Curare is one of the few villains not motivated by
greed, insanity or
professional pride. What drives her is her personal
code of honor.
She doesn't care that her attire makes it harder
to blend into a
crowd. When Curare loses her veil, her first response
is to get it
back, not to reach for her weapon. Once her weapon
is drawn, she
never sheathes it again until the victory is won.
(No one would run,
hide, jump aboard moving trains or jets with one's
hands full if one
could possibly help it.) She prefers to die trying
than to fail. Yet
when Curare has a chance to kill Terry in the snare,
she declines to
do so. She will not stoop to such a level. In "ATOC"
Wayne calls her the "the best they have." This means that when she
is scolded for her
failure, she is being scolded before her inferiors.
Curare never
needed words to communicate. The ferocious swipe
at Young's picture,
or her chuff of exasperation in the meat locker,
express her thoughts
more clearly than mere words could.
Curare brings out the professional in Terry's Batman.
He has to earn
these victories. She never hands them to him like
so many other
villains do. She also tames his prattling tongue.
Fans (this one
included) have complained that Terry talks too much.
He takes cheap
shots at Ma Mayhem about her age or the RFG after
they do a pratfall over his tripline. Wayne/Batman used words for persuasion,
terror, interrogation -- that is, for useful things. Batman
should talk only
when he has something to say. Otherwise people might
recognize his
voice. Terry keeps his mouth shut around Curare.
Her dignity makes
Terry treat her with respect. This makes the fans
take her seriously
too.
If Terry and Curare have a relationship of professional
courtesy,
Terry and Inque have one based on one-upsmanship.
As a rule the one who is winning is the one doing most of the talking.
Once it's plain
that Terry is losing, his taunts soon stop. Based
on his behavior,
Inque is probably the one villain Terry is truly
frightened of.
Inque's response to trouble is consistent with her
mixed mental states. Inque is prompt to destroy property but
dallies and toys with her live prey. She solves her problem with water
and thinks all her
troubles are over ("Inqueling"). Her true Achilles'
Heel, though, lies elsewhere. Inque's greatest weakness proves
to be not her fear of water but her consistently poor judgment in selecting
allies.
Both characters are animated with great care, some
of the best work
of the series. These complicated and exciting villains
quickly became
perennial fan favorites.
• Foreshadowing.
Three examples are Melanie Walker, Jared Tate
and Warren McGinnis.
Melanie/Ten has a split costume, reflecting her
divided loyalties.
She also has a different accent that the rest of
her family. Accents
are "set" during early adolescence, yet two children
close in age
have different ones. Their living arrangements must
be unstable
indeed to cause that.
Melanie also hooks Terry with a surprisingly insulting
line : "With
me it's always been now or never." This suggests
she has one in every
port, so to speak. It foreshadows how often she
changes her mind. It
reinforces her development as a character with poor
personal
judgment. Just as she tries to split Terry from
Wayne, so also she is
the wedge that will split her family.
The bribes directed at Jared Tate (two cars in two
years) hint at the
love of money that will destroy this family. So
Jim Tate lost his
job? Let him get another job. He could go back to
the service, become
a policeman, or teach at the police academy. He
could also sell his
large house and move to affordable housing. This
thought never occurs
to him. If he cannot find comparable work he won't
work at all. Mrs.
Tate isn't much better. When she learns her husband
was laid off, her
first response is, "But I haven't finished spending
money!" One can
see why she "goes through husbands like popcorn"
and Jared doesn't
bother to get attached. No one can afford her. Neither
"adult"
actually learns anything. When Tate/Armory goes
to prison it is
Jared's birthday present that is repossessed or
sold. Not the house
or the jewels. The child ends up paying for their
mistakes. This
selfish attitude is what got them into trouble in
the first place.
It's also interesting to see how this couple repays
Batman for his
good deed on their wedding day ("Spellbound"). Like
most people in
Gotham, they squander the second chance he has bought
them.
Warren feared that Terry would squander his own second
chance.
Numerous references are made to Terry's criminal
record
("ATOC," "Rats," "Eyewitness"). When Terry finally
described his
crimes ("Big time," "ROTJ"), many fans were disappointed.
His crimes
didn't seem bad enough to compel him to become a
vigilante.
Warren pinpointed Terry's real motivation in "Rebirth."
"That's your
problem, right there. You can't control your temper,
and you'd better
if you expect to get anywhere in life." Terry isn't
bad-tempered
because he went to jail, and he didn't calm down
because he has put
it behind him. Terry turned to crime BECAUSE he
couldn't control his
rage. He probably scared himself. So he turned to
a strong leader
(Charlie Bigelow) who seemed to be "getting somewhere"
in life.
Bigelow knew exactly how to manipulate Terry's anger
and turn it into
a weapon. Therefore Terry didn't need to calm down.
He mistook
scheming for self-control.
Obviously this solution didn't work. Ever since then
Terry has been
dancing with the people close to him. It's all about
control. He
resisted Warren's efforts to change him. Dana, he
gave a little more
power because, well, she's a girl. No happy, no
smoochie. But then
Wayne came along and he doesn't play games. It's
no secret that
Wayne's a control freak. He is directing Terry's
anger in specific
directions just as Bigelow did. However he recognizes
that Terry is
afraid of being used again. The underlying theme
of the series is
that Batman must control both Wayne and Terry to
survive -- but both
men are afraid of getting hurt. They share power
because both need
this balance of terror.
As for Terry becoming mellow and putting it behind
him? That only
happened when the suits took control of him. The
real Terry would
have flattened all their tires for it.
• State of the city address.
Two criticisms leveled at the series are that
this city no longer
needs a Batman, and that Terry merely set events
in motion himself.
That is, his job is to clean up his own mistakes.
Both statements are
wrong but understandable. The problem is there were
two different
series competing for one timeslot : the Wayne-and-Terry
show and the
teen-angst show. Yes, the teen-angst series could
have survived
without Batman. In fact Static could have handled
most of them and
still have time for his homework. But the Wayne-and-Terry
show is set
in the real Gotham. That series does need Batman.
In the Wayne-and-Terry show Terry's Batman was a
formidable foe. Even
when he lost, he won. Batman failed to bring Derek
Powers or Fixx to
justice for killing Warren McGinnis. He did stop
them from selling
nerve gas. He finished what Warren started. Terry
failed to capture
Inque, Curare or Shriek when he first encountered
them, but he
stopped whatever they were doing. The villain escaped
; lives were
saved. Such was life in Wayne's day also.
Terry did not truly set events in motion. Inque,
Curare, the
RFG, "Talia," Big Time, Kobra, the Powers clan,
and possibly Mad Stan
were all out there looting and killing long before
Batman returned to
Gotham. Some of them were at it before Terry was
born. Terry never
made them do what they did. He never made Spellbinder
hate children.
He never made Shriek try to murder Bruce Wayne.
Shriek tells a fine
story of innocence wronged, almost as if Batman
has deprived him of
his Constitutional right to kill Wayne. ("Shriek
just wants a little
justice" --Babel.) Well, Batman has read the Constitution
and there
is no such right, so Shriek can muzzle it.
Terry didn't make Mad Stan snap under the pressure
of modern living.
He didn't make the villains try repeatedly to kill
D.A. Young. Terry
did contribute to the transformations of Derek Powers,
Big Time and
Willie Watt -- but they were trying to kill people
at the time and
Terry did NOT make them do that.
Ironically the only times Terry "makes someone be
bad" it is in the
teen-angst episodes. Terry corners Willie Watt ("Revenant")
and the
villain breaks out of custody to avoid punishment.
Who wouldn't?
Batman's existence proves too great a temptation
for Max, who's bored
and concludes that identifying him sounds like a
fun hobby ("Hidden
agenda"). Temptation also proves too strong for
Howard Groote
("TFDAR") who sees a chance to (literally) make
his first friend. All
these things were pretty dumb on Terry's part. He
ended up paying for
them. Even so, these teens must have faced temptation
long before
they met Terry, and they will face it long after
he's gone. Whom will
they blame their choices on then?
Does this city still need a Batman? Yes indeed. The
Jokerz and Ts
dominate the streets. The Jokerz repeatedly get
their hands on
military weapons ("The winning edge," "Joyride").
Top-level gangsters
divide Gotham between them. Six gangsters were arrested
in "Once
burned" alone. Barbara states in "Eyewitness" that
D.A. Young has put
nine organized crime bosses in prison. This does
little good ;
immediately new gangsters compete to take their
place. Some are
middle management aspiring to their first command
(the Major
in "Betrayal"). Others arrive en masse like the
Tong ("Sneak Peek").
This mob had five hundred associates in place before
Sam Young knew
they were there.
As for the Rogues' Gallery, the police seem helpless
to stop Inque,
Curare, Armory or Mad Stan. Other villains such
as Spellbinder or
Shriek have new abilities every time they return.
Spellbinder and
Shriek have got the police dancing to their tune.
In "Babel" we hear
Wayne express contempt for "a mayor who would sell
out [a] kid at the
drop of a hat." What Wayne is saying is that this
city will negotiate
with terrorists. Won't this just attract more of
them? It does
indeed. A little later terrorists are strolling
the streets as if
they own the place ("Final cut," "Plague," "Untouchable,"
"COTK").
Kobra even seems to have relocated its headquarters
to Gotham between
seasons two and three. Not only does this city need
Batman -- it
needs as many as it can get.
THE CHANGING FACE OF EVIL
•
From Arkham to Stonegate.
There's no doubt that fans miss the lunacy of
the original Rogues'
Gallery. There simply are not as many insane villains
in the future.
Like it or not it has to be this way. If too many
villains remained
insane, the series would be dismissed as unrealistic.
Most of the old-
style villains would have been cured by the 2040s.
A few disturbed foes linger because they have problems
that medical
intervention alone can't cure. Mad Stans will always
be a problem in
a society where technology races ahead of ethics
and human dignity.
Terminal and Payback had bad parents. Shriek threw
his life away
because, well, he was stupid. He did it because
Derek Powers told him
to. Some fans find the Shriek origin story too weak.
The elements
were there : a man who owes money to Powers is lured
into a life of
crime to pay that debt. Shreeve also has a touch
of monomania that
urges him to prove his invention is good for SOMETHING,
even after
Powers gives up on him. That character flaw and
the extortion threat
should have been emphasized more.
It is significant that Shriek is the only villain
whose lair is
symbolic of his emotional problems. Joker hid in
amusement parks ;
Two-Face hid in the Janus Theater ; Shriek the sound
engineer hides
in a building shaped like a tuning fork. He is the
only villain with
a permanent sidekick. He is also the only villain,
aside from Joker,
who will destroy the whole city just to make certain
Batman was in
there somewhere. Curare, Spellbinder, Inque, the
RFG, and even Blight
are creatures of precision, of surgical strikes.
Shriek is more the
nuke-em-all type.
While Mad Stan would also nuke-em-all if necessary,
he keeps trying
to convert people to his cause while he's at it.
He wants people to
know The Truth. He's convinced that if they did,
they would join him.
Most villains of the 2040s, though, care nothing
for "making a
statement." What then motivates them?
• The love of money.
Why does Gotham City have so much crime? More
than anything the
motive is greed. This has advantages and disadvantages
for plot and
character development. Psychotic villains can be
psychotic in an
infinite number of ways. One is obsessed with plants,
another with
Lewis Carroll imagery. One wants to be acknowledged
the cleverest man
alive ; another leaves all to chance, to the flip
of a coin. The
gimmicks of such villains were fetishes integral
to their disorders.
Batman had to become their profiler. However by
learning to think
like them, he ran the risk of becoming as disturbed
as any of them.
Most profilers burn out in a few years. The job
just eats them alive.
Greed has a limited number of permutations. Also,
the gimmicks of
greedy villains are true distractions, rarely reflections
of a
villain's personal weaknesses. That means they can
change the gimmick
at any time. It gives them the needed quality of
unpredictability.
Now if there is nothing more to a villain than gimmick
or mental
health, it would be true that they don't have as
much potential.
However since there is nothing else wrong with them,
Terry's villains
are far less likely to reform.
Two-Face, Scarface, Catwoman and Harley all tried
to change. Even
Poison Ivy, who didn't reform, sincerely enjoyed
the illusion of
reform. Spellbinder, Inque, Big Time, Paxton Powers,
etc. feel no
such temptations. They lust for money today and
will lust for it
tomorrow. Why would they reform?
Terry's job is to become their profiler -- but by
learning to think
like them, he may become meaner than all of them.
If they don't want
to change, Terry may someday see compassion as a
waste of time. Fans
who think Terry is too nice to become Batman should
look in on him
again in five years. Wayne's going to have his hands
full.
• Crime still doesn't pay.
A villain doesn't need to be insane to amaze
and surprise us. All
villains still have one quality that is timeless,
infinite, creative,
and utterly unstoppable. That is the breathtaking
power of stupidity.
Some may think this will make Terry's villains easier
to control. All
it might do is make them easier to catch. However
it makes them so
much harder to anticipate before they start causing
trouble. It never
occurred to the Batmen that anyone would murder
Nobuo Taka, indulge
in witness tampering, or plant a camera in the Batcave
until after it
was done ("Sneak Peek"). It never occurred to them
that the RFG or
Shriek would try to murder Wayne ; these villains
seemed to have
nothing to gain by it. A classic definition of stupidity
is "that
which harms others while bringing no gain to oneself
or even bringing
harm to oneself." How does one anticipate something
so unpredictable?
Even madness usually has a pattern.
Of all Terry's villains the least stupid are Curare
and Spellbinder.
Curare lives in a reality all her own ; in her world
there is only
victory or death. She cannot quite process anything
else. Spellbinder
the psychologist knows all about human stupidity.
Probably his only
mistake in the series was to let Max into his magic
factory ("Hooked
up"). At the time he was preying upon throwaways,
children no one
would miss. The school valedictorian didn't fit
that pattern. She
ended up attracting too much attention to the operation.
Aside from
this one misstep, Spellbinder probably has the most
promising career
as a supervillain. No one knows any weaknesses that
they can use
against him. An intelligent strategy.
Most of the villains do it to themselves. Armory
almost commits
treason for image and love of money. Inque, Derek
Powers and Paxton
Powers choose unreliable allies for stupidity and
love of money.
Paxton betrays Blight ; he then hires an "environmentalist"
to atone
for his family's crimes. (It is actually his right-hand
man.) Thus
Paxton eliminates the competition while looking
the saint. Yet even
he cannot outrun his own stupidity forever. He hires
the RFG to kill
Bruce Wayne ("King's Ransom"). Why? So that they
can split his money.
We witness King's descent from imperious patriarch
to dirty old man.
His pride compels him to defeat Batman because it's
the one thing his
hated father-in-law failed to do. When his children
protest, he hits
his son so hard that Jack bleeds (two episodes)
and puts his daughter
to a loyalty test that almost kills her ("Once burned").
He then
whines that no one appreciates or understands him.
Queen says that Terry would never fit into her family.
Not so. Before
Terry reformed he was just like Jack : fearless,
greedy and brazen.
Melanie simply found Terry too late. They are a
constant reminder of
what Terry could have been, which is why Terry wanted
to see some
good in Melanie. He saw more than was there.
In one sense Terry will have a harder job than did
Wayne. Every time
Wayne/Batman returned a villain to Arkham Asylum,
he could entertain
a faint hope that this time will be different. Maybe
this time the
patient can be cured. Medical science may indeed
cure Wayne's
villains someday. But who is going to cure Terry's?
USING VILLAINS TO DEVELOP PROTAGONISTS
•
Blight and Batman : mirror image, mirror opposite.
Derek Powers had it all. He controlled Gotham,
possibly owned a few
corrupt cops, and had so much wealth that only a
miser could want
more money simply as money. At first his transformation
into Blight
delighted him. Then he began to feel the weight
of a secret identity.
To outsiders Bruce Wayne also seemed to have it all.
He had
controlled Gotham, protected good cops, and had
so much wealth that,
well, you get the idea. His transformation into
an orphan destroyed
him. The Wayne identity lost all meaning. "Bruce
Wayne" no longer
even felt alive. It became the disguise ; Batman
became the
personality.
Terry has not lost everything, not yet. The two strongest
influences
in his life were Warren and Dana. Now one of them
is dead. (Mary and
Matt may be alive, but they don't seem to be a factor
one way or
another.) If Terry continues on his journey he will
probably lose
Dana too. So Terry is in the process of deciding
whether the McGinnis
identity is one worth clinging to, or if he would
rather leave that
life of mistakes and regrets. Blight's choices made
a good foil for
Terry's choices. What is it about Terry that helps
him adjust, and
what is it that Powers lacked? Wayne could have
helped Terry explore
these questions.
Most fans wish Blight could have remained in the
series. Others were
not so sure. Would the deteriorating creature still
be "our" Blight
anymore? Would he not be insane, even inarticulate?
That wouldn't be
much fun. If he became mindless, Blight would be
reduced to just
another inhuman pest. Perhaps Batman versus Godzilla?
If that was
Blight's future then no one wanted him back. Fortunately
the evidence
doesn't support it.
Powers did lose his temper ("Meltdown," "Ascension"),
but his doctors
never stated the radiation caused it. They only
said that the
radiation levels increased with time. His body never
suffered any
deleterious effects ; why would his mind? No. Powers
was not driven
mad by the accident. He cracked under pressure.
If he could find a
cure, he would be happy to alternate between being
Derek Powers and
playing Blight. He liked being Powers. He didn't
want to give it
up. "Dont' you know what this means to me?" he asked
Dr. Lake. Yes,
we do know. Powers has always gotten everything
he ever wanted. For
once in his life he couldn't get what he wanted,
and he simply could
not handle it.
• Assorted villains and Barbara Gordon.
By far the protagonist who "needs" the villains
most is Barbara
Gordon. She has gotten less character development
than her father or
even Ellen Yindel ("TDKR"). Almost everything we
know about her is
based on her interaction with assorted villains.
Curare ("ATOC") is a perfect example. Gordon sets
a trap for the
assassin, but it snares Terry/Batman instead. If
Barbara had
installed a vidcam nearby, she would have seen that
Curare already
knew it was a trap. "Sam Young" would have heard
the battle in the
courtyard. He would have heard Curare crashing through
the window.
The real Young would have hidden in a closet by
the time Curare got
there. (A fact that eludes both Barbara and Terry.)
Curare suspects a
ruse and won't even go into the room. Instead she
spears the bait
from a safe distance. Also, the snare itself is
flawed. The control
panel should have been out of sight or else out
of the room. Curare
could have thrown a weapon at the control panel
just as Batman threw
his batarang.
Sorry, Commish. It was a good plan but not good enough.
Curare
outsmarted her. Barbara cannot handle this and blames
Batman for the
escape instead. Ah yes, the hardest part is admitting
that everyone
else has a problem.
Shriek and Spellbinder manipulate Barbara easily.
Barbara is a
reasonably capable police officer, but she's not
as good at it as she
thinks she is. The following situations show why.
Shriek orders Gordon to produce Batman at midnight
("Babel") and
Gordon wavers about whether to do it. Wayne and
Gordon discuss Terry
as if he isn't there and has no say in it. Consider
the tone of their
argument :
Wayne : "What are you saying, Barbara, that I should
just hand Terry
over to Shriek?"
Gordon : "No, give him to me. I'll figure out something.
I had some
pretty good teachers, remember?"
Wayne : "I remember. But you work for a mayor who'd
sell out the kid
at the drop of a hat."
Gordon : "Look, if you've got a better plan --"
Wayne : "All I know right now is this. That kid's
done a lot for this
city. It's time for the city to do something for
him."
Gordon : "We're trying, Bruce. But we've only got
until midnight.
What then?" And Barbara hangs up on him.
Wayne is determined to find Shriek's equipment, but
Barbara never
suggests it. If she hopes to figure out something,
why wouldn't it be
that? Wouldn't the three increase their odds of
success by working
together? Instead Barbara tries to separate Terry
from Wayne --
something she has tried to do from Day One.
Wayne comes close to calling her a sellout. Barbara
never challenges
this insult. She only wants to have Terry on hand,
just in case. In
case of what?
This is one of the drawbacks of giving any Commissioner
the name of
Batman's civilian identity. Barbara's strategy is
influenced by her
personal opinion of the civilians, and she doesn't
like them. She
claims she's thinking about what is best for the
city. How would
appeasing a terrorist help the city? Shriek will
still be deaf. He'll
still be broke. He'll still be a wanted man. If
killing Batman won't
give Shreeve his life back, then it won't make him
reform. Also, what
will the other villains do? Will Inque, Spellbinder,
Mad Stan and the
rest say "I have no one to play with ; might as
well run home and be
good?" Highly unlikely.
This behavior is typical of Barbara in the future.
She does almost no
detective work. She seems more trigger-happy and
less detailed-
oriented than the fans had expected.
The real puppetmaster is of course Spellbinder ("Eyewitness").
It's
interesting that Spellbinder's simple attempt to
frame Batman ended
up exposing the weaknesses of all three protagonists.
If only he had
known! How he would have enjoyed it!
Terry's Achilles' Heel was his inexperience. Twice
he "vanished" but
failed to flee the scene before the police found
him again. He should
have been halfway down the block by then. All tuckered
out, perhaps?
But inexperience has more than one definition. Terry
should have
challenged Wayne's advice to hide in Oldtown. Terry
didn't know that
area. He should have asked if Barbara did. In short,
hiding out at
Max's was the only thing he did right all night.
Bruce Wayne's weakness is that he still trusts Barbara,
sellout or
no. Barbara doesn't even like him. Bruce should
have directed Terry
to a new hiding place. He still needed escape routes
; he still had
enemies. He told Terry that he'd been keeping track
of Bane ("The
winning edge"), and the RFG King would remember
him too. Wayne should
have scouted new hiding places, especially since
Barbara was hostile
to him when she quit.
The Wayne/Terry relationship takes a major leap forward
in this
episode. Wayne reluctantly believes Gordon because
she was an
eyewitness. "Barbara wouldn't lie." Terry squeaks,
"And I would?"
It's a loaded question because (after "Once burned")
Terry DOES have
a history of lying to Wayne. Wayne's response speaks
volumes about
his opinions of the two storytellers. If Terry really
is guilty, then
letting him remain free only gives him time to tamper
with the
evidence. Instead Wayne trusts him not to do that.
He has already
chosen Terry over Barbara, and proceeds to interpret
the evidence (or
lack of it) according to his pre-formed opinion.
Wayne asks Terry for his location. "If you want me
to trust you,
you've got to trust me." Terry tells him. This shows
growth on
Terry's part ; it is doubtful that the Terry of
"Rebirth" would have
been prepared to die or go to prison if he guessed
wrong.
Spellbinder sheds light most of all on Gordon. Weakness
number one :
she doesn't trust Bruce.
Weakness two : she doesn't trust Terry because she
doesn't trust
Bruce. Does she really think Wayne would hire a
murderer? What a low
opinion she must have of him to think he would.
Weakness three : she has a very low opinion of Terry's
abilities. She
complained about the sting, but did she bother to
inform Batman in
advance? Either she supposed Terry would be off
doing teenage things,
or that he was simply too stupid to notice. (True,
Terry was stupid,
but not in the way she anticipated.)
All these problems have one thing in common : Barbara
is proud. She
cares desperately about her image. This is the second
time Batman has
competed with her sting operations (the other was
in "ATOC"). Barbara
is so determined to get this collar that she won't
tell Batman for
fear he may drop in as backup. She doesn't need
backup! She doesn't
need anything from anyone!
Is that so.
Jim Gordon would never have wasted a year of his
life on a sting so
that Batman could blow it. Jim would have kept him
informed. "On a
dark and stormy night, in this place at this time,
you may see
something odd. I am aware of it, I arranged the
whole thing." Jim
knew that very little went on in Gotham without
Batman knowing about
it. He knew he couldn't stop Batman from dropping
in as backup. But
then this didn't worry or threaten Gordon either.
Wayne/Batman had a
high opinion of Jim and wanted him to succeed. It
is unlikely Batman
would show himself and undermine Gordon's triumph
if it was at all
possible. (An example is "Shadow of the bat." Batman
never shows
himself until a villain eludes the police dragnet.
When Gordon
arrives to claim the last man, Batman has already
gone.)
In "ATOC" Barbara declares, "I'm not my father."
I took that as a
slur against his memory. Jim Gordon knew there were
things he simply
couldn't do alone. He used Batman to clean up the
city and was proud
to do it. Did that make him a weak man? No. In legal
terms, it made
him too strong a policeman. If anyone had prosecuted
Gordon for
association (in the legal sense), Jim could have
gone to prison under
the RICO Act. But that was a risk Jim was willing
to take. He could
live with Batman because Batman wasn't doing this
for glory. They had
the same goals. They looked out for each other.
Well, Barbara wants
to keep herself "pure." Spellbinder could use that.
The ferocity of her attack is worth examining. If
one didn't know
better, one might think she was trying to kill Terry
to eliminate the
evidence. It would certainly be less complicated
than going to prison
for killing a minor. Dick, Tim and Barbara have
all accused Wayne of
hypnotizing them with his notorious witch powers
(that is,
sacrificing them to his obsession). If that's true,
how can she gun
down a fellow victim? But if Terry is his own man,
why didn't she
expose him on his first day? Why not just tell the
news channel
Terry's name -- unless she didn't want that fact
known? A messy
business any way you look at it. Barbara is bewildered
by her dilemma
and reacts as she always does when she's cornered.
That is, she
refuses to acknowledge it. She cannot stand not
being in control. It
was this character flaw that Spellbinder exploited.
In the end Barbara became so emotional that she wouldn't
even speak
with Bruce. She could have killed an innocent man
before she calmed
down. Obviously this is not about simple justice.
Barbara is
aggrieved by Batman's very existence. In her mind
it implies she's
not doing her job. Well, if she didn't trouble herself
to look to the
surveillance footage for confirmation, then what
else should one call
it? And why did she think Wayne called her, to chat
about the
weather? Perhaps he had new evidence. Perhaps he
agreed Terry was
guilty and had a plan to encourage his surrender.
Either way, Barbara
didn't know and didn't care. Spellbinder gloats
as much as if he had
won. It's clear he is being grandly entertained.
If there is a Con in this topic, it is that so many
things we learn
about Barbara are bad. She doesn't grow as much
as the others do when
they meet a villain. Perhaps it's an inherent weakness
of using a
familiar name for the Commissioner's job. It encourages
the writers
to "write in shorthand," so to speak. Fans are expected
to assume the
best about her because they remember her as a young
woman, passionate
for justice. But a stranger might have become a
more well-rounded
character. The writers couldn't take shortcuts with
an outsider, but
instead would be compelled to develop the good in
the character too.
Going back to Barbara's remark, it doesn't mean she
doesn't love her
father anymore. Clearly she does. We see his picture
by her side in
several episodes. What it does mean is that she
thinks differently of
him now that she is doing his job. If the series
had lasted longer,
perhaps we would have learned why.
Barbara once respected her father so much she put
Batgirl's fate in
his hands ("Over the edge"). Something must have
happened to that
respect. When she says, "I'm not my father," she
is saying that she
thinks he made the wrong choice.
•
The challenge ahead.
Most of Terry's triumphs are hard-won and short-lived.
This is not a
reflection on him (unless he is being beaten up
by children) but on
the life Batman has chosen. Few of these villains
will ever learn or
change. It is a never-ending, heartbreaking process.
Yet every now and
then, one villain lays down his weapon and walks
away. King and Queen
will probably never change, but just maybe Melanie
will. A hundred
Jokerz may never change, but one named Lee will.
One might not seem
like much to the world, but to that one person,
it's everything in
the world to him.
CONCLUSION
While fans look forward to the live movie, they regret
that a second
animated film will not occur. Live action has traditionally
been
Batman's most profitable medium, but it is also
his weakest one in
terms of storytelling. Even so, live films can result
in new
animation. Frank Miller's success in comic continuity
was what led to
the Burton films ; and the Burton films led to BTAS.
A live "Batman
Beyond" film may be the money-making machine for
future Wayne-and-
Terry adventures. Fans certainly hope so.
What do fans expect of this film? Well, they want
characters (heroes
and villains) who mean something. They want plots
that make sense :
plots that are unique to Batman and can never be
co-opted by any
other superhero or related character. Most of all,
fans don't want to
see Wayne die. It's wrong that Wayne should be expected
to pay for
the marketing mistakes made in the real world. Besides,
the character
has outgrown all writers, no matter how good. Bruce
Wayne has become
part of world consciousness. He's just too big to
die. Now Terry has
the privilege to become part of the legend. Let's
explore it, enjoy
it. The Wayne-and-Terry show has so much heart,
it should never have
a true ending.
|