WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman Beyond #48, by Dan Jurgens, Paul Pelletier, Norm Raymond, Chris Sotomayor and Travis Lanham, available now.
Time travel -- especially within the DC Universe -- can be tricky. If someone isn't careful, they could cause major ramifications for the timeline that not even time-travelers like Booster Gold can contend with. But the latest hiccup just set up a generational fight -- and it could alter the entire future of the timeline.
In Batman Beyond #48, Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the future, just had to make his way to the past -- and might have ended up setting up a fight between himself and an in-his-prime Bruce Wayne.
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The Batman of the future has secretly had a ticking telepathic time-bomb hidden within his consciousness, waiting to explode and set him on a dark and murderous rampage. This results in Bruce turning his formidable armory against Terry McGinnis and his brother, Matt aka the Robin of this era. Although Terry survives with the help of Booster Gold, Matt is killed in the attack. But Booster argues there's a chance to save Matt, so long as Terry accompanies him to the past and helps keep Batman from ever being given the secret suggestion to go off the deep end in the future.
Although Terry isn't initially pleased by the idea, he seems to relent when he discovers this is the only way to save his brother and restore his mentor. Upon arriving in the past, Skeets also makes sure to remind Booster that he risks doing serious damage to this timeline if Booster allows the present-day version of the Batman to see Terry. This could in turn influence or alter the decisions Bruce makes later in the timeline, setting it up to collapse upon itself. Considering how important Terry has proven to the future of this timeline, it could even potentially unravel the reality at the seams.
The plan to keep Terry hidden goes right out the window though, as he's very quickly forced into action when the Superman villain Blanque is revealed to be the threat they've come back in time to fight. The telepathic villain is capable of implanting the subconscious bomb within Bruce's psyche, although the full reason why hasn't been revealed yet. While Booster does his best to stop the threat before Batman encounters him, Terry rushes to the rescue of a child caught in the ensuing fires from the chaos.
However, the boy turns out to have a deep connection to Terry -- he's Warren McGinnis, the man who will one day raise Terry as his son and who's eventual death will become the motivating tragedy to set Terry on the path to becoming Batman in the first place. But before he can even fully process what has just happened and who he just met, Terry is confronted by the Batman of this era -- who, upon failing to recognize Terry and seeing him holding a child, initially assumes he is a threat and needs to be dealt with.
Terry traveling in time with Booster Gold meant there was very little chance for the future Batman to not meet his heroic legacy. But Batman is very quick to assume the wost of Terry and leap into action, potentially setting up the massive damage to the timeline that Skeets warned about. Hopefully, Terry can keep well enough ahead of Bruce with his upgraded suit long enough for Booster to beat back Blanque. Otherwise, it might be more than just his brother who is lost due to the changes to the timestream.