Batman Beyond first aired on television in 1999, and it has maintained an IMDb rating of 8.1 ever since, as well as attracting a significant, almost cult-like following. For Batman Beyond, all credit goes to Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett, who created the fourth and final season of the DC Animated Universe, which was produced by Warner Bros.
Animation in collaboration with DC Comics and covered three seasons and 52 thrilling episodes. This superhero animated television series, which served as a continuation of both Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures, ended up taking a darker turn.
This animated series literally went to the future and re-imagined itself, from exploring elements like fear of the unknown, personal relationships, and emotions to delving deeper into science fiction and cyberpunk themes like the dilemmas of innovation, technological and scientific progress influencing society, and the psyche of the character of Bruce Wayne.
Batman Beyond was extremely great in terms of its captivating premise, riveting chapters, and, of course, a brilliant work of animation on show. It was also the first Batman series to have the hero represented as a teenager.
In today’s video, we’ll go over 12 of the series’ most gruesome episodes, which every Batman fan will undoubtedly enjoy!
“Rebirth”
The year is 2019 and an aging Bruce Wayne continues fighting crime as Batman. But, in spite of his new high-tech Batsuit featuring increased strength, flexibility, propulsion, and agility among many other powers, he experiences trouble handling criminals the way he used to do before. While rescuing a kidnapped heiress and the daughter of an old friend, Batman suffers a crippling chest pain and at the thought of losing his life to the thugs, he ends up breaking his life-long principle of not using a gun.
Embarrassed at the extent of how far he was literally willing to go and the solitary realization that it was precisely that particular weapon that ended the lives of his parents, driving him to become Batman in the very first place, Bruce retires from fighting crime, shuts down the Batcave and vows never to use the Batsuit again. Include the dialogue ‘never again’ here.
The story then takes a leap forward to 20 years and we get to witness a rather futuristic version of the old Gotham City – this time, it’s a megalopolis boasting skyscrapers and fancy flying vehicles. Bruce has retired from his role as the Dark Knight and is now in his 70s, living a bitter, isolated life in the Wayne Manor along with Ace, his guard dog. He is still occasionally haunted by the fact that he actually took resorted to a gun to save himself during his last mission.
Meanwhile, Terry McGinnis is a 16-year-old high school student and reformed troublemaker who lives with his father, Warren McGinnis, on difficult terms. One night, post an argument with his father, Terry leaves home in anger and heads out to a nightclub to meet up with his girlfriend Dana, only to invite some trouble upon himself.
He comes across a gang of clowns addressing themselves as ‘The Jokerz’ and soon a high-speeding motorcycle chase between Terry and the Jokerz lead them to a seldom-used path straight to the property grounds of the Wayne Manor, running into the elderly Bruce Wayne. And, although Bruce and Terry fight the Jokerz together, the exertion causes Bruce’s heart condition to intensify and Terry helps him back to his manor. Unable to leave his property with Ace guarding it, Terry stumbles upon the entrance to the Batcave and discovers who Bruce really is, only to be driven out by an infuriated Bruce.
Terry comes back home to find it in shambles and his father killed. Initially, holding the Jokerz responsible for his father’s demise, he is forced to move in with his mother, Mary. But it does not take the kid much time to comprehend that his father had come across some information regarding the production of illegal chemical weapons by Derek Powers through Wayne-Powers and the man to be held accountable for his father’s death was Powers’ personal assistant, Mr. Fixx.
Of course, Terry initially goes to Bruce asking him to help him out but the latter simply refuses to help him out thinking he had become too old and weak to be of any help, and instead tells Terry to contact Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, who had then become the new police commissioner.
But after the evidence of the illicit weapon production was taken away from Terry by force, he asks Bruce to let him take on the Batman mantle to the extent of initially stealing the Batsuit, then reminding him of his parent’s death and how this was his one chance to catch hold of his father’s murderer. Bruce eventually gives in and Terry driven by repentance and revenge revives the role of Batman in the form of Bruce’s newfound errand boy. The legend continues to live on, under the supervision of an elderly Bruce Wayne.
“Meltdown”
Directed by Curt Geda and written by Hilary J. Bader, the fifth episode of the first season is backed by an incredible background score by Lolita Ritmanis and an equally impeccable work of animation by Koko Enterprise and Dong Yang. The episode begins with Batman testing the water at the Gotham Docks and discovering that it’s infested with radiation. He also encounters a group of men in lead suits, unloading containers of radioactive waste into a barge. Batman is not only able to defeat the group and stop the evidence from being removed, but he also learns of Derek Powers’ involvement when he manages to lay his hands on the crew leader’s mobile.
Derek, on the other hand, upon hearing from Batman, gives up his negotiation of trying to purchase a company. He heads right back into his lab complaining about his mutated skin not lasting anymore. A new doctor called Dr. Stephanie Lake approaches him and tells him that she can clone him into a new body and even put his mind into it.
Powers is fascinated by the idea but Dr. Lake wants to perform a trial on Mr. Freeze first, whose disembodied, the immortal head has been preserved in a Wayne-Powers vault for the last fifty years. The procedure is carried on and Mr. Freeze soon finds himself in a rather new, healthy body, one that’s capable of feeling both heat and cold like a normal person would. However, Bruce being suspicious of both Victor Fries and Powers directs Terry to keep a close watch on the former.
Fries, vowing to make amends declares that he’s starting an organization called the Nora Fries Foundation in order to help out the people he had hurt before. But right after the announcement, he starts feeling uncomfortable from the heat and soon realizes that he is starting to mutate back to his older self. Dr. Lake upon learning this informs Powers of Fries’ condition, who decides to get rid of Fries.
Powers seals him inside a cell, turning up the temperature but eventually, Fries manages to escape. Bruce tells Terry to keep a tab on Wayne-Powers as he believes that Fries will come back. His forecast comes true; the building is soon covered in ice and Fries arrives donning an exceedingly powerful suite with enhanced protection against bullets.
His suit also features cold guns built into the gauntlets. It goes without saying that he kills Dr. Lake and freezes Powers trapping him in an icy coffin. And, while Fries makes his way toward the main generators, Powers releases the full heat of his body’s radioactivity, leading him to shed the icy prison along with his artificial skin.
Batman intercepts Fries in the generator’s control room imploring him to stop from causing further suffering but gets attacked by Fries who attacks and captures him. Powers arrives and blasts Fries with radiation, one that’s hot enough to be felt through his suit. Batman is able to free himself and soon attacks Powers, who introduces himself as the radiation-emitting metahuman, Blight.
As the duo fight against each other, Bruce warns Terry that his suit will not be able to guard him against such extreme levels of radiation. Nonetheless, the fight continues and Blight is about to kill Batman when Fries as Mr. Freeze intervenes and bombards Blight with an amplified cold gun blast, throwing him literally out of the building.
Batman tries his best to stop the system overload but the room starts to crumble due to the accumulated weight of all the ice generated. Freeze having been fatally injured by the radiation burn tells Batman to go ahead while he would stay back and although the latter wishes to save him, Fries obstructs his way with a barrier of ice, eventually forcing him to get out of the compound before it blew up. As for Powers, his doctors end up saving him from the pond where he crashed into.
“Shriek”
“The face is no loss, and if you miss your name, I’ll give you another one. One that fits your new persona… ‘Shriek’.” – Begin with the dialogue here.
Written by Stan Berkowitz and directed by Curt Geda, the seventh episode of the first season is still memorable for introducing one of the craziest villains ever – the renegade sound-amplifying engineer Walter Shreeve also known as Shriek. The episode opens with Shriek attempting, and failing, to terminate the elderly Bruce Wayne at the behest of Powers only to have his right-hand sound generator damaged by Batman’s signature weapon, the Batarang. Bruce, having collapsed from the exertion is hospitalized and now it is solely up to Terry to uncover the killer’s true identity.
Terry ends up examining the sound generator from Shreeve’s suit and soon learns it to be made up of acoustics, which is an alloy developed by the Shreeve Sound Laboratories. He further poses himself as a lost pizza delivery boy and tricks his way into the laboratory with free pizza. This leads to Shreeve showing Terry some of his creations like a tiny radio receiver and transmitter and device to cancel out the noise. Terry’s inquisitiveness almost has him captured but he manages to flee just in time.
Terry goes right back to the hospital to meet Bruce only to learn that the latter has been shifted to the mental ward as directed by Powers. Terry as Batman on visiting Bruce in the psycho ward discovers one’s of Shreeve’s miniature radios hidden in Bruce’s bandage and comes to know that he had literally bribed a nurse to place it there and drive Bruce crazy enough to make him want to jump from the window and fall to his death. The duo leaves the hospital together and traces the signal back to Shreeve now known as Shriek.
Batman locates him in a car factory and what follows is a manipulative fight between the two of them. Shriek not only gets the upper hand with his daunting sonic blasts but with Batman hiding to evade the super sound blasts, Shriek’s powerful sonic suit further helps him in locating Batman and thwarting most of his plans. The villain even goes to the extent of canceling out all ambient sound waves not only for himself but also for Batman and had it not been for Ace, Batman would have almost been hit by a truck.
Eventually, things work out in favor of Batman as he manages to damage his right-hand sound generator once again with a Batarang. As a result, Shriek’s ears are overwhelmed by the diverse sounds of the city that he had canceled out initially and he ends up collapsing and screaming in pain. That’s not all, he even receives a shock to the extent of going deaf after Batman removes his helmet.
“Spellbound”
“For years, I fought the demons in the heads of those ungrateful little snots! While their coddling parents paid their garbage men more than me! Now I’m taking what I’ve earned!” – Begin with the dialogue here.
Directed by Butch Lukic and written by Robert Goodman, the tenth episode of the first season has Ira Billings, a high school psychologist at Hamilton Hill High, feeling unappreciated and underpaid while helping out troubled children deal with their set of problems. This leads him to make use of his talents and concoct a plan to control the mind of the rich. Wearing a spandex suit featuring black swirls with a floating ‘eyeball’ engraved in his right-hand glove, his task was to simply project lifelike illusions into the minds of others.
His first victim was Terry’s classmate Chelsea Cunningham; Billings literally made her believe that she was in the midst of a jungle adventure to retrieve a valuable idol from an ancient temple. He mind-controlled her to such an extent that he had her throw the ‘artifact’ in a pool of lava. In reality, all she did was enter her home, pick up a statue from her father’s study and drop it off the riverbank outside her home. Billings covered his tracks by describing Chelsea’s actions as a recurring cry for attention.
His next victim was the father of another student – Mr. Deakins, who was working as the curator at the Gotham City Museum of Fashion. Billings as Spellbinder actually made him believe that he was right in the middle of a war where he was trying to save a fellow wounded soldier. In reality, the man was carrying a priceless gown out of the building just for him. Soon afterward, Spellbinder intruded on the wedding of Lorraine Tate, the mother of one of Terry’s friends, giving her a shot of his nightmarish fantasy and making her believe she was in an insectoid monster world. Lorraine, while running for her life, literally threw her jewelry away thinking them to be insects, thus allowing Spellbinder to collect them later.
Billings just didn’t want to stop; he ended up calling Terry into his office making it look like he wanted to check upon him. But in reality, he just wanted information about Bruce Wayne and his list of valuables of course. It goes without saying that he managed to spellbound Terry into looting Wayne Manor and while he waited outside the mansion to collect the valuables, he made Terry believe that he was some kind of a contender in a supermarket spree contest.
Thank God for Terry, who was ultimately snapped back into the reality and he as Batman categorically went after the Spellbinder only to be back in a state of trance and mind-controlled by Billings. But full credits to Bruce for helping him overcome the Spellbinder’s mind-control powers, have him not only defeated but also unmasked and taken to custody soon after.
“Ascension”
Directed by Yukio Suzuki and written by Robert Goodman, season one of Batman Beyond unquestionably ended with a bang. Boasting a current IMDb rating of 8.3, the episode begins with Blight hosting a robbery of many canisters of polymer all by himself. He is soon confronted by Batman, who is not only successful in putting a stop to the robbery but also has Blight destroy most of the containers during his botched attempts to stop him. Although Blight manages to flee, Batman discovers an ID card from Wayne-Powers which makes him realize that Powers was somehow linked to his crimes of Blight.
Meanwhile, Blight unable to keep up with the charade makes up his mind to call in some help – his own son, Paxton. While telling him of his plan to appoint him as the temporary chairman of the board, Powers also reveals his condition to his son. At the meeting with several people in attendance, Powers tries his best to remain calm but when one of them dumps a bucket full of polluted water and dying fishes right on top of the boardroom table splattering Powers, he goes absolutely nuts and transmutes into Blight before everyone. Terry, upon realizing that Powers was in fact Blight wasted no time arriving at the boardroom and after a rather brief fight, Blight escapes.
Paxton takes control of the leadership of Wayne-Powers in the absence of his father and also goes to the extent of pleasing Batman to help him and his father out. But it’s soon revealed that the villager who was responsible in triggering Powers to transform into Blight was in reality, Paxton’s henchman, whom he directs to get rid of Batman later.
Meanwhile, Batman post discovering Blight’s hideaway passes on the information to his son and unbeknownst to him, Paxton has plans of his own for his father. He had earlier laid a trap via a net that was connected to the radiation-sucking machine and as visualized by Paxton, his father walks right into the trap, and, to Batman’s horror, Paxton simply switches on the machine to full power, with plans of draining his father to death.
Despite his own crusade against Powers, Batman’s sense of morality refused to let Powers die like that. With Paxton signaling his henchman to open fire on Batman, it results in the ultimate destruction of the controls of the machine. Seeing his father reviving, Paxton flees the submarine in terror. However, with Blight unleashing tremendous radiation, the submarine eventually sinks with Blight inside not before Batman manages to escape. The season finale ends with Paxton confirmed as the acting chairman of the board and Batman paying him a visit.
“You made a bad enemy tonight”
“What are you going to do? Testify against me in that mask?”
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about me. I’m the least of your worries.” End with the dialogues here.
“Splicers”
Co-written by writers Evan Dorkin and Sara Dyer, and directed by Curt Geda, the first episode of the second season has on display a brilliant background score by Michael McCuistion and an amazing work of animation by Koko Enterprise and Dong Yang. The episode begins with a new craze amongst Terry’s classmates, known as splicing, which is more like a blend of animal characteristics into human DNA for cosmetic effect and physical advantages. This creates a huge uproar amongst the people leading to the city trying to shut down the operations. D. A. Sam Young has also taken charge of outlawing the practice of splicing, which has caused a massive increase in aggressive behavior.
Terry, on the other hand, while trying to investigate, takes his girlfriend Dana to the Chimera Institute and that’s where he gets to know about Dr. Abel Cuvier, the creator of the process, and his intentions of killing Sam Young. However, before he could warn the D. A. about it, one of Cuvier’s splicers, Tigress senses his smell and they end up capturing him. It goes without saying that Batman is unable to save himself from getting injected with some kind of DNA which is later revealed to be an overdose of vampire bat serum but despite that, he makes his way out of the lab to save Sam Young from getting killed.
Tigress along with Ramrod and King Cobra break into the house of Sam Young. The D. A., who had Barbara as the company with him around the time eventually gets captured by the three spliced thugs but Batman arrives right on time to save them and attack the thugs. But strangely, instead of being able to say anything, he is only able to growl. Batman also starts foaming at the mouth and upon realizing that he’s transforming, he quickly leaves Young’s house.
Although Barbara calls up Bruce to warn him of his condition, Terry by then was already looking similar to a Man-Bat. He ended up attacking Bruce only to get hit with a dart filled with the antidote for Splicing. Post waking up, he learns of Sam surviving the attack and Cuvier went into hiding as he is now wanted by the law. With the help of one of Cuvier’s claws that were stuck in his body, Batman has Ace pick up the scent and track him to a taxidermy facility.
Even though he does get attacked by the thugs yet again, Batman is able to fight and cure his attackers and goes straight after Dr. Cuvier, who by then had mutated himself into a ‘true chimera’, splicing himself with the DNA of a hawk, snake, and tiger.
It goes without saying that Cuvier in his new mutated form, proves to be quite a dangerous threat to Batman and becomes a humongous creature after the latter injects additional tubes of DNA into him. Although Ace intervenes in the situation, he too gets captured by Cuvier. Batman eventually ends up saving the canine and also has the creature killed when it hits a power cable and it explodes.
“Earth Mover”
The second episode of the second season directed by Dan Riba and written by Stan Berkowitz and Alan Burnett is what one can unquestionably regard as an episode that was truly terrifying. The episode begins with one of Terry’s classmates, Jackie Wallace, fearing that she was being stalked. With Terry notices the stalker, he goes after them only to learn that it wasn’t human. Terry takes a sample of the creature to Bruce who after inspecting tells him that the sample was nothing more than “soil, plain old dirt.”
Back at the school, Terry tells Jackie about the incident and hints at one of her father’s enemies as accountable for the incident. To this, Jackie discloses that Bill was not her real father and refuses to divulge further information. Later, Bill shows up and agrees to give them all a ride back home but not before insisting on showing them something. He takes them to an empty land that he plans to buy.
As he discloses to them his plan of constructing a new factory there, an earthquake takes place with more of the dirt men appearing and attacking the group. But with Jackie and Bill escaping in the car, the dirt men stop attacking and return back to the ground.
This leads Bill to explain to them about an incident that had taken place ten years ago – back at that time, Bill was barely starting his company and he had to get rid of some toxic waste. While coming across a sealed mine shaft, he intended on burying the waste there.
He also offered a partnership to his friend, Tony, the real father of Jackie, who was reluctant about the whole thing from the beginning and his partnership was more like an act to have him cooperate. Later, when Tony went into the mine to supervise the lowering of the canisters, one of the containers tore apart leading to a cave-in. No points for guessing that Tony was eventually buried in the cave when the canisters ruptured and to make up for his grievous mistake, Bill had taken in Jackie.
The ground begins to shake again right after Bill concludes his story and realizes that Tony was solely after him, Bill attempts to drive off but falls into a hole in the ground that opens up. Although Batman goes after him, he fails to save him and while thinking about his next move, the whole house with Jackie inside sinks to the very ground.
As Jackie wanders out of the house, she comes across a corpse half-buried in the ground, one that’s surrounded by metal canisters. It does not take her much time to figure out that the creature was her father and she soon engages in conversion with him. Tony, however, gets furious after getting to hear that his daughter was made to think what happened to him was being regarded as an accident.
He releases briefly Bill who apologizes to him but to no avail. According to Tony, he still believes Bill didn’t want a partner and therefore had arranged for the so-called accident. He gears up to cause Bill to sink into the ground and even has one of his dirt men grasp Jackie when she tries to save him.
Although, Batman interrupts; the Earthmover further summons his army of dirt men to deal with him. He also commands a giant dirt man who grabs Jackie before she can escape. Batman, who had been fighting the dirt men with a spinning blade all this while had managed to rescue Bill by then. After an ensuing fight with the giant dirt man, Batman’s finally able to break apart his hands and take Jackie back to the sub he came in.
The trio tries escaping but a massive boulder obstructs their escape route. Thanks to the love that the Earthmover still had for his daughter that he makes use of his full strength to send out tentacles of earth to crush the boulder thus helping Batman pilot the sub out of the large, underground cave. The chapter ends with Jackie finally accepting Bill as her father.
“Sneak Peak”
Written by Stan Berkowitz and directed by Dan Riba, the eighteenth episode of the second season begins with reporter Ian Peek with another episode of The Inside Peek, disclosing the secrets of the elites of Gotham. Later that night, Jimmy Lin, a crime boss, happens to sneak into the City Hall to discreetly testify about the activities of his gang to D. A. Sam Young.
Although Lin is quite nervous about being discovered, Sam guarantees him that they were completely alone. But unbeknownst to them, a mysterious figure, one who was capable of passing through walls and had followed him into the very building starts filming Lin’s testimony till the time Sam notices him and calls a guard.
The mystery man manages to disable the guard and even with Batman arriving at the scene, things seem to work in the favor of the former. While Batman’s down, the mystery man touches a particular device on his belt, switching off the black and blue energy field around him, and is soon disclosed to the reporter Peek.
When the tabloid news show airs again, Peek reveals the events of the previous night disclosing the meeting of Lin with D. A. Sam Young. Terry, upon realizing the connection heads out right away to pay a visit to Peek. But before he could interrogate Peek, Lin and his gang of thugs enter the studio to kill the reporter. Peek manages to flee but not before planting a camera in the Batmobile.
Batman, unaware of his activity, returns to the Batcave, removes his mask, and even speaks to Bruce without having a single clue about the whole thing getting recorded on the camera. Terry is woken up the very next morning by his excited brother, Matt, and is shocked to see the teaser of Peek’s latest episode which had on display footage of the Batcave, blurred out images of him as well Bruce. Peek has promised to reveal the secret identity of both Batman and his mentor later in the night episode.
Meanwhile, Peek is visited by Batman yet again at his office, whom he addresses by his real name. Terry demands Bruce to be left out of the whole thing only to be refused and mockingly asked for an interview by Peek before he leaves. The whole city is excited about seeing the show; Peek gears himself up for it as well and takes a tablet to soothe his stomach aches that have gotten worse by then. However, when he looks down, he is horrified to see that his body has been partially ‘phased’ even without the belt. As a result of this, the show is abruptly postponed. Terry being suspicious rings Bruce up but seeing no answer, he goes to investigate things himself.
Back at the studio, Bruce arrives after being urgently summoned by Peek, who tells him to find a cure for his current situation. The reporter further states about Nabuo Taka and admits that he was the last one to interview Taka before he died. Bruce realizes that Peek had not only stolen Taka’s belt but was also the one to have caused the fire that took Taka’s life.
Bruce is even more disgusted when Peek shamelessly confesses that he had to do it in order to keep his successful career intact and simply refuses to help him out with his condition. Witnessing his body further deteriorate, Bruce keeps walking. Peek, literally goes to the extent of throwing the evidence of the footage at the feet of Bruce but when the latter still refuses to help him out, he becomes enraged and attacks Bruce. Goes without saying, Batman intervenes and saves his mentor. And, as for Peek, he helplessly sinks into the ground!
“Ace in the Hole”
The final episode of the second season is written by Hilary J. Bader and directed by James Tucker. Backed by a fabulous musical score by Kristopher Carter along with a brilliant work of animation by Koko Enterprises and Dong Yang, the episode begins with Terry driving Bruce to a doctor’s appointment and taking Ace for a walk while he is waiting. But, upon noticing a strange man, the canine becomes absolutely wild, pursuing the running man and literally dragging Terry along. Soon, Ace becomes uncontrollable, tears off his leash, and vanishes.
Terry, who is literally stumped as to why Ace ran after the man tells Bruce all about it and the latter ends up drawing a man’s face on the basis of the description given. Matching the drawing against criminal records, Bruce eventually comes up with a match and the duo is equally sickened to learn that it was Ronny Boxer, a promoter of illicit dog fights, who has been under arrest before for suspicions of animal cruelty and illegal betting.
While Bruce files a report of Ace missing to the police and animal control authorities, Terry discloses that he has his own plans of finding Boxer. With Terry gone, Bruce wonders what happened to his dog. The canine’s real story is told in a flashback – Ace, as a puppy was initially sold to Boxer illegally by a corrupt pound attendant called Ozzie. Ace was raised held in Boxer’s captivity, deprived and literally tormented to make him as brutal as possible.
During his first fight, he was also being matched against a much larger animal, and honestly, Boxer didn’t even expect him to survive the fight. But lucky for Ace that the police raided right before the fight began and Boxer was arrested. Ace, post escaping the arena lived the life of a stray dog for a very long time and was finally taken in by Bruce on a snowy night when the latter whilst making his regular visit to the Crime Alley was being solicited by a Joker looking to rob him.
Cut to the present, Ace is seen wandering the streets before catching the attention of Boxer’s corrupt attendant, who recognizes him and is quite impressed by his size and strength. He even sells Ace to Boxer for a much higher price, who at first does not recognize the dog and it’s only after Ace barks viciously at him that he identifies him.
Meanwhile, Terry who has tracked down Boxer’s latest illegal arena enters his den as Batman. But the minute he enters, Boxer shuts the doors behind him and makes him come face to face with what might have once been a dog but now happens to be an unrecognizable vicious beast boasting a size of a bull elephant.
Terry tries his best to pacify the beast evading his attacks. This somehow loosens the locks on Ace’s nearby cage and he manages to break free chasing Boxer. After he was done dealing with Boxer, Ace comes back for Terry, biting at the beast who had almost swallowed the whole of Terry. The beast is finally electrocuted, Boxer is seen screaming for help while hanging off a rail above the churning propellers and Terry is seen bringing Ace back to the Wayne Manor.
“Inqueling”
Directed by Butch Lukic and written by Hilary J. Bader, the third episode of the third reason begins with Inque emerging from the ground and setting to destroy a satellite, one that’s worth a billion dollars. Batman, while patrolling over Gotham goes in to probe deeper and finds Inque there. He rapidly tries to capture her by bathing her in liquid carbon dioxide but Inque goes to the extent of concealing Batman in her body.
Batman, who seemed to be prepared for this, activated an electrical field over his suit, thereby driving Inque out of him. Inque eventually manages to knock the rocket over and it launches over the ground ultimately hitting a truck of petroleum, and getting entirely destroyed in the explosion.
However, Inque soon gets betrayed by her very employer, Winchell, who decides to keep all the money for himself and pulls out a gun, blasting her. Inque, unable to evade his attacks, gets severely injured in the process but manages to jump out of the window right before Winchell can kill her. Elsewhere, a repo man starts towing a car away but Deanna Clay, the owner of the car runs out and insists on paying her balance. After handing him a number of credit cards, which are all over the limit, she gives him one claiming that it is her brand-new card, and pays off the balance.
Deanna tosses the card away and goes back into her apartment oblivious to the fact that Inque had been observing her all this time. Having sneaked inside her apartment, Inque discloses her human face and reveals herself to be her mother. Her condition has grown steadily worse and she badly needs a revitalizing mutagen shot. Batman, on the other hand, sneaks into Winchell’s office and upon discovering black spots all over the wall, he takes a sample and identifies it as remnants of Inque.
He confronts Winchell about it and gets to know of the accounts he transferred Inque’s payment to and the fact that she was wounded. He also learns of the address and is almost successful in capturing Inque but Deanna happened to inject her mother with the mutagen before. With renewed strength, Inque attacks Batman and literally throws him out of the window and while Batman tries his best to surprise Inque with his moves, he is defeated at the end of the day when Inque finally drops a cement truck on him.
She is almost about to kill the helpless Batman when her body abruptly starts to dissolve and evaporate. It’s then when Deanna explains to her that she contaminated the mutagen with a solvent and it’s the result of that which is causing Inque to break up.
Also, with her having her mother’s account numbers, she doesn’t need her anymore. Of course, Inque disappears and sometime later, Deanna is seen relishing a drink in her new mansion. She is interrupted by Batman, who tells her that the police were never really able to find her mother’s residue to which she shrugs off saying that Inque was dead. Batman leaves responding “She has been dead before” – insert the dialogue here.
The episode ends with Deanna looking at the black spots on the surface of the pool and the shadows cast by the garden plants. Suddenly, she just doesn’t feel safe anymore and to top things up, one of the shadows on the wall behind her, turns into an angry eye!
“Out of the Past”
Directed by James Tucker and written by Paul Dini, the fifth episode of the third season can easily be regarded as one of the best episodes of the series and several reasons can be cited to establish the point. The episode begins with Terry taking Bruce out on his birthday to show him a musical based on the legacy of Batman called ‘The Legend of Batman’. Bruce, however, believing the show to be ridicule of everything he has worked for so far, leaves in the middle of it naturally unimpressed.
He goes back to the Batcave and while looking through some pictures of the women in his life, is visited by Talia al Ghul, the daughter of his long-time nemesis Ra’s al Ghul. Talia, who also happens to be one of Bruce’s former lovers, wishes him Happy Birthday and offers him the gift of eternal youth via the now-perfected rejuvenating properties of the Lazarus Pit. Faced with the mounting frustrations and physical challenges of his advancing age and at the mere thought of being young again, Bruce accepts the offer.
During his first exposure to the Pit, Bruce is literally driven mad by the process and he ends up attacking Terry. Talia explains that it will take many more treatments before the process is complete. Soon, Bruce starts resembling a man in his 50s, flaunting a physique almost as commanding as it was back in his days as Batman. Bruce is also shown working out with Terry together and while he is briefly excited about the whole thing, it dawns upon him that he is cheating on nature just the way Ra did.
So, while the duo eventually makes up their minds to leave, it is made pretty clear to them that they are only prisoners there. Furthermore, it’s also revealed much to the duo’s horror that it was Ra’s al Ghul, who had been occupying the body of his own daughter all this while. He discloses how to post the last battle between him and Bruce, his own body was way too injured even for the Pit to restore him back to his former self.
Therefore, in order to avoid death, he made the ultimate sacrifice of calling on his daughter and taking her life. He had also developed a computer that allowed him to transfer his own consciousness into another body. In fact, the whole plan was to make Bruce’s body ideal to house his spirit, appear in Gotham with proof as being the long-lost son of Bruce and Talia, and ultimately make himself the heir to his fortune and money of Bruce.
No points for guessing what happens next. Right from Terry donning the Batsuit, entering the Pit chamber to interrupt the mind transfer to Bruce being able to break out from his restraints, the duo eventually manages to reach outside the mansion seconds before it blows up.
“The Call”
The two-parter episode directed by Butch Lukic and written by Paul Dini and Alan Burnett begins with Superman visiting Gotham and meeting up with Bruce. Disclosing to his old friend about Terry earning a spot, he wishes to offer the young Batman membership in the Justice League.
Terry, who is quite taken aback, ends up accepting Superman’s invitation to visit the Watchtower. However, he is instantly greeted with unfriendliness by an astonished Big Barda and Warhawk, both of whom were not checked with before Superman made up his mind to invite Terry. Superman insists that his decision is final which leads Barda, Warhawk Kai-Ro, and Aquagirl to walk out leaving Terry to already regret his decision.
Later, Superman confides in Terry that he suspects one of the League members trying to sabotage and kill the others. Superman also divulges information about Micron’s current state explaining to Terry that he was taken down using a particular method, which only an insider was capable of knowing in the first place.
Terry, initially reluctant about suspecting Earth’s greatest heroes eventually begins reviewing the files of all the members. He also contacts Bruce, revealing how he just cannot even imagine anyone being a traitor in the first place. Bruce tells him to keep up with his work as the answers are lying there themselves.
Soon, Aquagirl is revealed to be in trouble when her tank malfunctions. It’s Batman who rushes to the training room and rescues her and although he is criticized for acting without the others, he later ends up investigating the tank’s control panel along with Superman and finds it sabotaged.
Next, while doing a flyby patrol of Metropolis, The League along with Batman upon receiving a distress call helps save the civilians and minimize the threat caused by a series of explosions. Warhack, who is accompanying Batman on receiving another distress call flies up to meet the threat, which happens to be an incoming ballistic missile.
Although he is able to push it off the course, the missile ends up exploding and taking Warhawk along with it seemingly killing him. It’s further revealed that it was only Warhawk who had received the second distress signal. Later, in the Batcave, with Bruce reviewing footage from the Batmobile’s recorder, the identity of the traitor is finally revealed and as shocking as it might seem, the traitor happens to be none other than Superman.
Batman ends up showing the footage to every member of the remaining Justice League except for Superman. Soon, a fight breaks in between Barda and Batman with the former accusing the latter of fabricating the whole thing. It is then that the viewers get to see a very much alive Warhawk doing just fine by himself who reveals to them how he managed to survive, thus confirming Batman’s suspicions about Superman.
Soon, the stage for a final confrontation is set and Batman seeks aid from Bruce who knew of an old enemy of theirs called Starro the Conqueror. Batman is not only able to defeat the creature but also earn the heartfelt reverence and gratitude of all the other League members, including a very grateful Superman. Upon being offered to join the Justice League on a full-time basis, Batman coolly refuses, as he now comprehends the reason the original Batman did not join the League full-time in the first place.