Shriek, originally known as Walter Shreeve, was a professional audio engineer based in Neo-Gotham who was trying to fund his sonic studies. Inability to do so, Shreeve used his advanced sound technology to create an armored suit capable of destroying structures with sonic blasts.
He was swiftly recruited under the identity Shriek to assassinate Batman and was nearly successful, but he lost his hearing in the ensuing struggle. He was then sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, where he was able to continue his education while incarcerated. Since then, Shriek has escaped countless times, each time seeking vengeance on Batman and inflicting havoc on the people of Neo-Gotham!
Shriek is widely regarded as the most complex villain in Batman Beyond, according to many fans. Despite the fact that Shriek had no reason to loathe Batman, he attempted to eliminate the cowled crusader because of the principles at stake.
Shriek Origin In Batman Beyond Animated Television Series
The episode “Shriek” from Batman Beyond begins with Derek Powers sitting alone in a dark room, hearing a lecture by sound specialist Walter Shreeve, as he says that sound is the very first signal of danger and is therefore underappreciated. Powers then hears the noise of an automobile approaching him and looks into its headlight. The illusion fades just as he yells in fear, and Shreeve informs him that it was simply to establish his point.
Powers is first irritated by the lackluster presentation. Shreeve, on the other hand, demonstrates to his wealthy benefactor the true reason for his visit: the development of a sophisticated acoustical amplification and manipulation suitable to readily destroy tangible things through the application of concentrated infrasonic frequencies.
Shreeve indicates his wish to use this outfit to revolutionize the building sector, but Powers remains unconvinced. However, in order to take advantage of Shreeve Sound Laboratories’ development and research, which was greatly facilitated by Wayne-Powers sponsorship, Powers devises a particular use for the youthful scientist’s massive sonic suit: he proposes that Shreeve destroy the aging Bruce Wayne.
Later, Bruce delivers a statement to his board of directors in which he expresses his displeasure with Powers’ plan to demolish Crime Alley, also called Gotham’s Historical District, owing to its preservation during the city’s expansion and replace it with an industrial complex.
He suggests holding a shareholders’ conference for a vote. The idea is immediately seconded, and Powers is forced to allow the conference to proceed. Nevertheless, he’s confident that his plan will be successful. Bruce meets Terry and brings him into Crime Alley, at which point he explains why he is working so hard to protect the area, which contains the auditorium where his family was murdered.
“But you know what it’s like getting extra tax money,” the municipal council said about the effort to maintain the region. Terry is perplexed about why Bruce would wish to preserve that memory since he could easily let the place be demolished and erase it from his memory, but Bruce softly relates it to Terry dismissing what transpired with his father. Ace begins to act suspiciously as Bruce reminisces.
Terry walks up to check on him, but Bruce keeps wandering, eventually landing at the ancient Gotham Police Department office. However, as he approaches what was formerly Commissioner Gordon’s office, the building begins to tremble; having been alerted by Ace’s roaring at the GPD, Batman approaches to aid him. When Shreeve appears in his special sonic suit and begins shooting sound blasts loud enough to rip up the floor, Bruce notices that it is not an earthquake.
Batman attempts to move Shreeve away from Bruce; however, when Shreeve indicates he’s just interested in injuring Bruce, Batman smashes Shreeve’s right-hand audio machine with a Batarang. The crackling and arcing device injures Shreeve and causes him to discard it, allowing Batman to recover it, rescue Bruce, and flee the GPD before everything entirely collapses. Shreeve and Batman are fine, but Bruce passes out from exhaustion.
Terry transports Bruce to the hospital, where the elderly man treats the workers horribly. He is irritated by the idea that he must spend the night there and is suspicious of Terry’s capacity to spot the identity of his assailant on his own.
Meanwhile, back at Wayne-Powers, Powers is dissatisfied that Bruce is still alive and being guarded in the hospital. On the other hand, Shreeve feels he can still reach his goal. Bruce begins to hear a voice telling him that he must do something. The voices command him to walk up to the window in the room and unlock it. The voice implicitly encourages him to leap from the window, resulting in his death. Bruce yells and informs the workers, but they are unable to hear the mysterious voices. Although Bruce tries to leave the room, the hospital workers arrive and sedate him.
Meanwhile, Terry examines the sound generator on Shreeve’s suit and learns that it is made of acoustic, an alloy created by the scientist in Shreeve Sound Laboratories. With this information, he hides as a misguided pizza delivery driver and scams his way inside Shreeve’s lab by offering complimentary pizza. Shreeve shows Terry several of his inventions, including a compact radio transmitter and receiver and a sound-canceling gadget.
When Terry inquires about acoustic vibrations, Shreeve grows suspicious and assaults him. Terry manages to flee, and the authorities discover Shreeve’s whereabouts. Terry hurries straight to the hospital to notify Bruce but is then informed by the nurse that he has been moved to the Psychiatric ward, ostensibly on Powers’ recommendation and under his supervision.
A heated debate between Powers and Terry escalates to a short physical struggle, but Terry is quickly subdued by the orderlies. Before going back to his office, Powers dismisses him with a warning to commit him as well. Shreeve plans to murder Powers for vengeance, but Powers quietly convinces him and tells him not to do it, informing him that he currently has absolute power and is dangerous. He renames him “Shriek,” and he resolves to put his newfound abilities to use. Powers then tells him how he still needs Bruce dead and that if Batman tries to intervene, Shriek should get rid of him as well.
When Batman visits Bruce in the insane unit, he uncovers the origin of the mysterious voices: one of Shreeve’s small radios hidden within Bruce’s bandage. He allegedly paid a nurse to have it placed there. They leave the hospital together and follow the feedback signal to Shriek. When Batman discovers him at a car plant, the two begin to fight. Shriek gets the upper hand with his powerful sonic blasts, while Batman tries to hide.
Shriek’s outfit artificially enhances his auditory capabilities, allowing him to find Batman with the noise of a screw falling. Desperate to counteract this advantage, Batman activates the factory’s equipment, generating a cacophony of noise. On the other hand, Shriek demonstrates another of his sonic-acoustic suit’s abilities: the creation of a dampening zone that blocks out all surrounding sound waves for both Batman and himself, after which he separates magnifies the echoes of Batman’s footfall from a distance.
Batman is followed out of the building in complete spooky quiet, nearly murdered not just by Shriek but also by a succession of threats that he is unable to identify in complete silence. However, because Ace can hear, Bruce frees him, and the canine rescues Terry from being struck by a vehicle. Just as Shriek discovers them, Batman strikes his sound generator on his right hand with a Batarang, forcing the noise-dampening field to abruptly cut out, allowing Shriek’s hearing to be inundated with the numerous noises of the city, which are collectively magnified exponentially by his sonic-suit.
Shreeve collapses in anguish, screams, and gets a terrible shock as Batman takes off his headgear: he has become deaf. Bruce arrives at the investors’ meeting opposing Powers now that the crisis is resolved. They explain their respective viewpoints and want a vote from the investors. The motion is lost because the large majority votes “No.”
Terry expresses his optimism that Shreeve may finally decide to testify as a witness against Powers as everyone disperses. Bruce responds that he could if his hearing ever goes back to normal. Terry then questions Bruce about why he didn’t assume the voices were originating from within his skull.
He provides two reasons: First and foremost, Bruce is aware that he is not insane. Second, and maybe more convincingly, the “voice” was addressing him as Bruce, but that isn’t what he called himself. Terry eventually realizes what he means and declares, “that is his name now.” Bruce makes a caustic comment, “Tell that to my subconscious.”
The Return Of Shriek
We see the return of this genius villain in season 2 in the episode “Babel .” Babel” is episode number twelve of Batman Beyond’s second season. Bruce and Terry are working hard fixing the Batsuit following a fight with Mad Stan, as Bruce relives some of his past exploits.
Bruce tells Terry of a time when he stepped into a trap, realizing it might be fatal but trusting that Robin would make it in time to rescue him. Bruce is evasive as Terry questions how he knew. Terry presses Bruce, and he acknowledges the reality: he didn’t. Terry is taken aback, but Bruce says that becoming Batman requires him to be prepared to pay the ultimate price.
Ace, on the other hand, begins barking and viciously assaults Terry and Bruce, causing them to incapacitate him temporarily.
Terry brings Ace to the veterinarian, where he discovers that the entire facility is packed with animals behaving violently. Max arrives with her cat and makes a casual remark about how things must be at the zoo. Terry, realizing she is correct, instantly rushes to examine Batman. Terry notices the elephants seeking to flee from their confinement as he arrives at the zoo. While Batman successfully stops an elephant there, the rest of them charge at him. In addition, a gorilla breaks from its prison and goes into a frenzy. Batman battles the gorilla and eventually manages to subdue it.
Bruce tells Terry in the Batcave that the military was encountering disturbance on their sonar frequency at the time the disruptions began. Because these incidents revolve mostly around sound, Terry and Bruce conclude that Shriek is to blame.
Shriek, meantime, turns off his gear and informs his new helper, Ollie, that his experiment was a success. Shriek’s intention, Ollie believes, is to capture Gotham and hold the city for ransom, but Shriek claims he wants vengeance on Batman, who Shriek accuses and says caused his loss of hearing. He’ll compel Batman to give up his life instead of allowing the city to be destroyed – and if he doesn’t, Batman’s image as a savior will forever be ruined.
In lieu of money, Shriek grants Ollie access to “the Fork,” an electronic instrument that utilizes sound to directly trigger the pleasure region of the human brain.
Terry and Bruce later try to understand how Shriek has been doing this. However, their speech turns unintelligible to each other in the midst of their chat. Terry goes out as Batman right away. Bruce and Terry converse via the Batmobile’s computer via typing, and Bruce hypothesizes that Shriek has changed the frequency of vibration of air particles conveying human voice.
Interference is occurring throughout the city, and people are becoming aggressive with one another. What is worse, a lift attendant is unable to comprehend the landing director’s verbal orders and collides with a crane. Batman barely makes it and manages to avert disaster.
After a while, Shriek shuts off the disturbance and dials Commissioner Gordon’s number. He insists that Batman hand himself over to him. Barbara complains that she is unable to deliver Batman, yet Shriek remains adamant. She approaches Bruce, who declines to hand Terry over or use him as a negotiating chip, enraged that others are considering exploiting Terry in this manner.
Terry is in a pickle, so he goes to speak with Max. It appears like giving himself up is the correct thing to do, but she informs him that he would be harming both his friends and family. It really doesn’t help that news of Shriek’s expectations has spread, and numerous locals have been on the news, urging Batman to surrender instead of letting the people suffer.
Among these are the construction worker and zookeepers that Batman earlier saved. When Bruce sees all of this, he is outraged by how thankless the population is after everything Batman has sacrificed for them. Terry returns to his old house, still undecided, and recalls the episode that prompted him into becoming Batman in the very first place.
Terry returns to a startled Bruce, having made his decision, and Bruce tells him he wouldn’t blame him for declining to give himself up for people who are so unforgivably ungrateful. Terry observes that, just like Bruce, he chose not to become Batman out of gratitude but would face Shriek in order to prevent death. Terry’s strategy, on the other hand, is to visit Shriek at the agreed-upon location, not to surrender, but to put up a fight.
Neither of them had worked out how Shriek was able to broadcast his interference across such a large region of the city until Terry pointed out something on the Batcomputer, instantly comprehending. Bruce is confused, but Terry grabs the Batmobile, still unable to fully explain why the interference has resumed. When Bruce returns his gaze to the computer, he notices a twin-towered structure that resembles a tuning fork.
Shriek tackles Batman as soon as he arrives. The two appear to be evenly balanced until Shriek uses the towers to generate an exceedingly painful ultrasonic tone that renders Batman immobile. Shriek takes off his hearing aids and helmet to shield himself from the onslaught of the tone while he is outside of the towers, regaining his usual deafness.
Fortunately, Batman distracts Shriek for long enough to reach the tower’s controls, but Ollie strikes him, and then somehow, the controls are destroyed. The frequency is now overloaded, causing the buildings to topple. Shriek, who is still unable to hear, cannot hear either the thud of their falling behind him or the warning given by Batman and disappears beneath the falling building.
Emergency teams arrive on the site to look for people who survived, just for Batman to dig himself out of the rubble. They try to aid Batman, but he treats them coldly, recalling that they were prepared to sacrifice him just hours before. Terry goes back to the Batcave to start repairing the suit. Terry praises Bruce for reminding him of why he became Batman in the first place. He also wonders if Terry would ever have handed himself over to Shriek, but Terry remains evasive and does not give a concrete answer.
Mind-Blowing Story Where Shriek Destroys The Batsuit
During his recovery at Blackgate, our incredibly smart baddie, Shreeve, was subjected to tests that could potentially restore his hearing. Still, the damage to his ear lobes was determined to be incurable. However, the prison’s doctor has made certain decisions on Shreeve’s behalf. Shreeve convinced the doctor that he was becoming a typical prisoner who wanted to work with sound-generating equipment to help other people who were also unable to hear.
Shreeve utilized his sound-generating armaments on the correctional officers and busted down holding cells in Blackgate to free his fellow convicts when the moment was perfect. “Slick” Gardner, Shreeve’s accomplice, tells him that their escape submarine is in the caverns of Blackgate. Terry comes to apprehend the escaping inmates, but Slick and Shreeve escape.
Terry goes on a double date the next night with Maxine Gibson and Dana Tan. All three of them see flashing lights and hear massive explosions in the sky. Terry and Dana believe it is fireworks, while Maxine believes the explosions are caused by police scams. Maxine talks to Terry, suggesting that he go get some “help,” and Terry leaps into motion while Maxine drives Dana home.
Slick joined Shriek as Shreeve destroyed the sky cams, blinding the populace to his deeds. Shriek planned to collect power crystals to boost the potency of his sound blasting armaments. Terry arrives at the scene of the robbery, but Shriek has an advantage since he has built his noise blasters to shake the bonds that keep molecules together, causing any substance to shatter apart into nothing. A flying Batarang, for example, can be annihilated before it ever reaches Shriek.
Shriek then attacks Terry’s suit, causing it to come apart. Terry’s face is practically recognizable, but Shriek is unable to connect the dots that Terry was indeed the pizza guy who showed up at Shreeve’s workplace prior to Shreeve becoming Shriek. Shriek then blows Terry off the rooftop of the structure that houses the power crystals. Terry’s rocket thrusters in his shoes were damaged, but Bruce informed Terry through comm link about how he had placed a reverse bat grappler inside his tool belt so that he could grapple up to the roof.
Shriek yells about his apparent accomplishment in slaying Batman, but Terry catches both Slick and Shriek off guard. Terry takes Shriek’s noise blasting gloves and redirects them towards Shreeve’s suit, while Slick is bound by a bat bola. Shreeve’s suit is smashed, and the prisoners are returned to Blackgate. Shriek was fortunate in the sense that he preserved some sound-generating equipment in his former cell and constructed a neural hearing gadget that allowed him to hear again.
Shriek demonstrates to himself yet again that he is sharper than those idiotic doctors who stated he never would be able to hear again, but most importantly, he feels that he is wiser than Batman. Slick begins to whine about being taken back to Blackgate, but Shreeve turns his hearing aid off in order to drown out Slick’s outburst.
What Makes Shriek’s Robotic Suit So Powerful?
While Shreeve lacked any skills of his own, he wore a cybernetic outfit that provided him with a range of sound-based abilities. He had the ability to project sound at a high enough frequency to kill everything he aimed at, along with being able to isolate and intensify anyone sound while simultaneously muting all others. Shreeve can utilize his sound suit to cause an earthquake and other destructive capabilities by generating sound vibrations. He may also “mute” all noise in the immediate region. He can also send radio waves to sensors the length of a paperclip, which he places in his outfit and on Bruce’s head.
When it comes to sound, Shreeve was a genius. All of the equipment was his creation. He was capable of incredible feats such as wiring a structure to operate as a huge tuning fork, disrupting air molecules across Gotham, and making communication impossible, to something as simple as producing a tuning fork that created a vibration as addictive as any narcotic.
Shriek’s high-tech sound suit was a mechanical bodysuit with four sound generators implanted. These generators were built of copper, iron, and acoustic, a sound-amplifying alloy.
The ultra-low level vibrations he could aim in any direction were modified by the chest generator. The generator on his right hand was a “sound masker,” or muting device that generated complete quiet by reproducing the sound it caught out of sync, causing the waves to cancel out.
The helmet could change his perception of frequency by reactivating the sound waves blocked by his sound masker, allowing him to switch on and enhance any chosen sound.
In the case of hand-to-hand battle, the two circular-shaped palms emitted devastating sound wave force and featured razor-sharp claws. These claws are knife sharp and enough to pierce the Batman Beyond outfit. Whenever necessary, the generators on his palm could be removed from the suit if required.
Shriek altered the suit to momentarily restore his hearing whenever he was wearing it after he became deaf. He also wears a unique pair of earbuds that enable him to listen when he removes the helmet.
Shriek stands out as a villain due to his incredible intelligence and creativity. Shriek was honest with himself, accepted his lunacy, and even worked on gadgets to aid other people who couldn’t hear while incarcerated. Shriek’s personality had several facets, all of which helped to keep things intriguing when he fought Batman on the battlefield.
Shriek, unlike many other “important” villains, only appeared once in the tie-in story; in Batman Beyond vol 2 #5, he designs a disintegration weapon that almost destroys the Batsuit. We all love a smart, driven, and an intelligent bad guy who is able to give our fantastically talented superheroes a run for their money, and Shreeve ticks all the boxes. We hope to see him on the silver screen or maybe even featured in a TV show sometime in the future.