In the history of comic book-inspired animation, one of the most popular series of all time remains Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's "Batman: The Animated Series" and its subsequent spinoffs that formed the DC Animated Universe. The DCAU forged its own path and continuity, and nothing demonstrated the creators' willingness to innovate than "Batman Beyond," a series that went to the far future of the DC Universe and followed Terry McGinnis as the new Batman under the tutelage of an aging Bruce Wayne. The character and show remain incredibly popular to this day -- he is currently the star of "Batman Beyond 2.0," a digital-first title based in the cartoon's continuity -- and fans have been asking for his introduction into the mainstream DC Universe for years.
Now, readers will get their wish thanks to the upcoming "Futures End" weekly series. In a recent interview with CBR, "Batman Beyond 2.0" writer Kyle Higgins indicated that the Batman on artist Ryan Sook's "Futures End" zero issue cover is, indeed, Terry McGinnis.
"DC is introducing a New 52 version of Terry McGinnis in ['Futures End'], but that is completely unrelated to what we're doing in 'Batman Beyond 2.0,'" Higgins told CBR in a recent BAT SIGNAL. "The version we're exploring is a continuation of the animated continuity. I'm as interested as anyone to see what the New 52 version of Terry will be like, but I don't know much beyond that."
McGinnis' arrival in the DCU was confirmed by writer Brian Azzarello in CBR's roundtable discussion on the series. "I just needed a character from the future," Azzarello said of the reason for bringing McGinnis to the New 52. "And that was the only one I knew. [Laughs] I thought we needed a hook -- we needed somebody big, and somebody that hadn't really appeared in The New 52 yet. Since we were dealing with this jump into the future, it made sense to bring in Terry McGinnis."
However, don't expect the "Futures End" version to be a carbon copy of the character headlining DC's digital-first series. "He's got the same costume, I think. Is he different? Yes. It's different, it's New 52. It's from a different sort of future. Is it going to be recognizable? Yes. Is he going to have differences? Yes, of course he's going to have differences. I'm not going to tell you what they are."