The story of Bruce Wayne is long and packed full of one dark adventure after another, but a person -- even a fictional one -- can only live that life for so long. Bruce educated himself, trained intensely and armed himself to become Batman for virtually his entire adult life until he physically couldn't do it anymore. What was to become of Batman when Bruce Wayne grew too old? That's the question the 1999 animated series Batman Beyond sought to answer by introducing us to Terry McGinnis and the Gotham of 2039.
In the show, Bruce Wayne discovered how far he could push himself physically only after being forced to break one of his own rules in order to survive. That's why, in 2019, Wayne retired from being Gotham's Dark Knight.
The very first episode of Batman Beyond, "Rebirth" (written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini), opens with one of Bruce Wayne's last daring rescues as Batman.
Bunny Vreeland, a wealthy debutante, is kidnapped by a gang looking to ransom her. Under the cover of darkness, Batman, wearing a state-of-the-art suit, enters the jet hangar where the gang is held up and begins to do what he used to do best: Thrash bad guys. When it looks like they've been taken care of, Bruce takes a labored breath before his heart problems are revealed. While he tries to untie the debutante, one last thug, wielding a crowbar, attacks Batman from behind. Bruce can't fight anymore and is violently beaten. It looks like the end of Batman, until the Dark Knight spots a gun just within reach. He grabs it, knowing that it's the only way to survive this fight, and aims it at the thug, who immediately backs away and runs straight into law enforcement. Horrified by his actions, Bruce vows never again to don the cowl.
But why is this event so important to the character of Terry McGinnis, who hadn't even been born when this occurred and would only become Batman 20 years later?
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According to the events of the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue" (written by Bruce Timm and Dwayne McDuffie), Amanda Waller did everything to ensure that there would be another Batman, going so far as to covertly rewrite Warren McGinnis' genetic code to match that of Bruce Wayne. There's no doubt that, even if Waller had kept Project Batman Beyond going, she would have failed to recreate the Dark Knight. She knew that, which is why she stopped after the assassin she hired confronted her. Batman and Bruce Wayne are simply too closely entwined.
NEXT PAGE: Bruce's Mentorship Helped Forge the Tomorrow Knight
There are so many ways that fight in the hangar could have gone, and if it weren't for that gun it's very likely that Bruce would have continued to fight crime until he perished at the hands of a different thug, if he even managed to survive that fight. It's just his character. He's just that dedicated to his principles and the fight to save lives. Without Bruce Wayne, there simply wouldn't be a Batman.
As we mentioned, through the machinations of Amanda Waller, Terry is Bruce's biological son. That first Batman Beyond episode showed that, even without training, he was unafraid of standing up to the criminals of Neo-Gotham, like he did when one of the Jokerz threatened to steal a woman's purse.
Does that combination of fearlessness, compassion and genetics prove that Terry would have instantly made a great Batman? No. As the episode later revealed, the then 16-year-old Terry still had a long way to go. After all, unlike Bruce, Terry didn't immediately start preparing for the role at a young age. He lost his father at 16 and it compelled him to straighten his life out, but without a mentor the path of Batman would have been far too difficult a challenge for him.
Throughout Batman Beyond, Terry discovered a multitude of different things about himself that he could only really learn through his exploits as the new Batman, but he might not have survived or looked that far within himself if it weren't for the mentorship of Bruce Wayne, who constantly imparted wisdom he had gained throughout his crime-fighting career.
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It was Bruce's teachings and the strength of Terry's character that allowed the Tomorrow Knight to truly become the Batman, and one that, in some ways, was better than the old one ever could be. It wouldn't have happened if it weren't for that event set in 2019.
The relationship between Bruce and Terry shone through in the show, and it's one of the reasons why the show is still totally shway to both the fans and the show's creators and why, to this day, passionate fans of the series continue to call for an adaptation of the character.
Well, we may not be looking at flying cars, splicers or radioactive supervillains disguised as CEOs in the next 20 years, but hopefully the story and characters of Batman Beyond will still be in our future.