Pro VS Con: The Cons of Batman Beyond
by THE OLD MAID
(Note : as of this writing, "Unmasked" has not been aired. Therefore
no developments introduced by this episode have been included.)
BATMAN BEYOND first aired in prime time in 1999. Since then it has
consistently produced high ratings. Many fans considered it the most
intelligent animation on Saturday morning television. It is not a perfect series, of course. BEYOND is a curious mixture of drama and
situation comedy, of originality and cliches.
The series mirrored the strengths and weaknesses of its spinoff
film : writers protecting their favorite characters even if this
undermines plot credibility ; differing visions between the creators ; and exploitation of those differences by marketing
experts. Oh, and the story was too short.
In this essay we will explore the weaknesses of the series. They fall
under three categories : Weird Premises, Changed Premises, and Loose
Ends.
WEIRDNESS FOR WEIRD'S SAKE ALONE
*Animals and manimals.
For some reason the Batman writers have a fetish for giant animals
("Cult of the Cat," "Critters") -- and episodes like "Rats" and "Ace
in the Hole" prove that even in the 2040s we will not be spared. The
splicing fad was overused as well. What started as "Terry's tribute
to Man-Bat" ended as "Dana/Max is stalked by a lovesick freak-of-nature" ... enough already.
*Misuse of the medium.
If it's been said once, it's been said fourteen times. Animation may
include cartoons, but animation does not mean cartoons. Cartoons are
skits ; animation simply means you don't use live actors. Also, this
series was advertized as a science-fiction version of Batman. Science fiction, however, does not mean nonsensical.
In "Mind Games" a Brain Trust operative plummets from a skyscraper
window to his "death," only to magically walk away. Why is Terry
surprised? Terry does Wile E. Coyote impressions all the time. He is
constantly "falling into the gorge" ("DMH," "Bloodsport") ; smashing
through walls or ceilings ("Black Out," "Mind Games") ; having
construction equipment dropped on him ("Disappearing Inque," "Big
Time") ; or all three in one episode ("Inqueling," "Untouchable"). He
hauls semitractor-trailers without being drawn and quartered
("Hooked Up"). He survives massive explosions ("DMH," "Ace in the
Hole"). He gets shot ("Ascension," "Eyewitness"), and he slams into
concrete abutments ("The Eggbaby"). Yet it is the metal/wall/pavement
that yields, not human tissue.
The only Batman character for whom the fans will tolerate "cartoon
magic" is the Joker. A running gag of his character is that he just
won't stay dead. When Harley Quinn does it in ROTJ, her death is too
convincing to ignore. When Terry does it -- on a weekly basis -- it
makes him look fake.
Back in Season One a fan pinpointed the problem : Batman must not be
written like Superman. When Bruce Wayne fell off a ledge it was a
life-or-death situation. When Terry falls off the ledge, fans don't
worry about him much more than they worry about Superman. Terry is
almost impossible to kill. Thus, like Superman, he rarely avoids a
beating. He has little incentive to do so. The "suspense" is merely
what type of beating it shall be today.
The suit is extremely misused. True, it should protect Batman from
extreme temperatures and radiation. However it has no padding, so it
shouldn't protect him from impact. In fact the suit is fragile enough
that animals tear it easily ("Splicers," "Ace in the Hole"). Which is
it, armor or fabric?
This may seem petty, but some of the worst arguments the fans have
ever had circle the question of whether Terry would be a Batman
without his suit. Misuse of the suit undermines Terry's credibility.
*A family affair.
When women first entered the police force, their supervisors feared
that mixing partners would threaten marriages. No doubt it did.
Police marriages often fail because the civilian spouse "just doesn't
understand what it's like out there." Other marriages disintegrate
after the spouse begs the policeman to resign. The officer becomes
resentful at not being accepted for who he is. Sometimes the police
prefer not to marry civilians at all. They marry co-workers. This
creates the new problem of bringing one's work home at night. There
is nowhere one can go, physically or mentally, to escape it. These
permutations have been explored between Dick and Barbara, Robin and
Batgirl, Nightwing and Oracle.
BATMAN BEYOND proposed something radically different : that Bruce
Wayne and Barbara Gordon had an affair. Such a relationship would be
logical, even inevitable, if there were only two characters involved.
Instead there are others : Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson. That
tarnishes everything.
In "I am the Night" Batman admits that he looks to Jim Gordon as a
father figure. In other storyarcs the emphasis is on brotherhood.
Either way Batman watched Gordon's daughter grow up. Gordon watched
Batman's son grow up. The possible marriage of Gordon's daughter and
Batman's son was a logical (and more palatable) alliance between
their two houses.
Bruce/Batman and Dick/Robin have always been father and son in every
way but one. They did not have a piece of paper. If Bruce stands in loco parentis, and they look to each other as father and son, then
that's what they are. By definition, adoption only makes legal and
official a relationship that already exists. For her part, Barbara
seemed to have too much integrity to date both father and son. Basing
the decision on the absence of papers sounds like looking for
loopholes, and Barbara seemed to be too good a person to do that
either.
In comic continuity Dick did sign the adoption papers (GOTHAM KNIGHTS
#17). He became Wayne's legal son. He also continues to pursue
Barbara, to the delight of the fans.
It is true that the animated Barbara once had a crush on Batman
("Batgirl Returns"). So did half the women in Gotham, including
several criminals. No harm in that. It is possible for her to have a
crush on one man and still love another. All she had to do was keep
her fantasies to herself. Instead she allegedly left a real man who
loved her -- to chase mirages.
Barbara fantasized about a Batman who did not exist : one who would
change to please her. Barbara quickly lost interest in the real one.
She is deluding herself to claim she and Wayne had a future together,
but then the Batman's obsession got in their way ("ATOC"). Barbara
had never shown the slightest interest in Bruce Wayne. She only
wanted him when she learned her fantasy man wore Wayne's skin. She
created masks for him in her own mind and left when they did not fit
him.
Compare this to the original animated timeline with Dick and Barbara.
Their romance was realistic and almost led to marriage. They've been
flirting since "Shadow of the Bat." They planned a romantic vacation
in "Sub-Zero." Dick loved her enough that he almost died trying to
help her. In "Old Wounds" we see the results of their courtship. It
is graduation day for Dick Grayson and just possibly pop-the-question
night. First he takes Barbara to a tony restaurant. Dick lists his
qualifications as a good provider. He is seeking a job and his first
home. He is financially secure. Then he says, "Whatever my future
holds, I hope it includes you." This isn't a true proposal, but Dick
is clearly testing the waters, summoning his courage to propose.
Barbara seems poised to accept.
Trouble follows, though, and Barbara tries to play peacemaker between
Dick and Bruce Wayne. In response Batman says, "You really care for
him, don't you?" and reveals his true identity. Astounded, Barbara
asks, "Why would you trust me with this?" Batman replies, "For Dick's
sake."
This does not sound like a man who would steal his son's fiancee.
Batman wants Batgirl to join the family -- but as Robin's beloved. He
wants his son to be happy.
Dick, however, is alarmed and horrified by this turn of events. "In
today's lesson Batman learns he has poor people skills." A free-for-all ensues. All three parties give a fine song-and-dance of innocence
wronged. In truth everybody is at fault. Dick walks out because he
feels used, and he views Barbara's behavior as taking Batman's side.
Even so, Dick never stopped loving her. He still wanted her to join
him when he left Gotham for good ("ATOC"). Barbara's answer? That
their romance was "puppy love" and she only went along with it to get
closer to his dad.
The Bruce/Barbara affair soils both characters and serves only to
distance BATMAN BEYOND from other canon versions. There remains an
ugly image of Bruce Wayne stealing his son's fiancee, of Barbara
dating both father and son. There remains the image of Batman
seducing (or being seduced by) his little sister. Who writes this
stuff? This is no better than the relationship between Talia ("Out of
the past") and her father. Some things should be reserved for the bad
guys alone.
*Frozen timeline.
Season One clearly showed the passage of time. Warren McGinnis was
probably murdered in late September, soon after school started.
(Terry would never have lasted a whole month on a wrestling team with
Nelson Nash.) "Meltdown" heralds the arrival of winter. "Disappearing
Inque" states plainly that Terry met Wayne six months ago. In "Earth
Mover" Terry also states that he is seventeen. Yet Seasons Two and
Three are purported to take place in Terry's senior year. "Splicers"
is even set in Halloween week. Either we are to believe that these
are prequels -- stories that didn't get told when Blight was still
around -- or else Terry has spent three years in the 12th grade.
Freezing Terry in time created most of the Changed Premises and Loose
Ends.
CHANGED PREMISES
*From psychological/crime drama to teen angst.
At first the series proposed intelligent, exciting themes. Crime is
rampant. The Powers clam has taken Bruce Wayne's company and put him
on an allowance. Wayne Enterprises, a corporation once dedicated to
humanitarian causes, is now a major source of crime. The new Batman
is not welcome. A three-way fight ensues between Batman, the
villains, and Barbara Gordon, who would rather do the job herself.
In Season Two the emphasis shifted to lackluster stories about the
children Terry meets in school. It was pointless and boring to
develop children that Terry may never see again. He made no progress,
learned nothing from them that would make him a better vigilante.
Frankly these were cases that could have been left to the police.
Call in an anonymous tip and move on.
The fan reactions to The Max Gibson Show have been discussed
elsewhere. Suffice it to say that State-bound Terry and Ivy-League-bound Max would not have met if Terry had graduated on time.
It's hard to tell whether the series meant to mock the legend or to
gently poke fun at it. "The Eggbaby" is one example. Some fans adored
it, others loathed it. It is Bat-related, though, after a fashion.
Batman invented "Take our birds to work" Day. He just doesn't get
credit for it. Until ROTJ was released, this was the closest the
series has come to exploring the ethics of using a boy to do a man's
work.
Many of the high school stories were insulting to teenagers. Not
merely as viewers -- as people. Who were Gotham's children? Gangs
(the Jokerz, the Ts) ; addicts (Mason and friends, Donnie Grasso and
friends) ; nerds out of control (Willie Watt, Howard Groote) ;
thieves, vandals and assassins (Terminal, the Sentries, Payback,
Xander, the Splicer gang, Bullwhip's gang) ; and jerks, especially if
they're jocks (Nelson and friends, Mason and friends). The trend-
setting princesses (Chelsea, Blade) aren't immune either. They goad
the boys to fight over them, which is where the Golem and Synthia
came from. Even Max used her extraordinary gifts to open her own
extortion racket ("or I'll blow your secret wide open") and was
obviously invading (hacking) other people's business years before she
and Terry met.
No wonder Spellbinder got sick and tired of them. The fans know how
he feels. These are not attractive kids. They're also not typical.
What this does is to stereotype a whole generation as menaces or
losers, with only a few gems to be found among them. Did they think
the fans wouldn't notice? There are still more good kids out there
than bad ones. One wouldn't know it to watch television, though.
Allegedly the series was reset in high school to make Batman more kid-friendly. The relentless abuse, however, illustrates what the suits
really think of our children.
*The Nelson Nash Show ; The Max Gibson Show.
Originally Terry was to spend his time apprenticed to the most
dangerous man on earth. He only went to high school to see Dana.
School was just another hassle to be done with as soon as possible.
If crime found Terry (say, if Spellbinder kidnapped him out of
class), he dealt with it, but it wasn't Batman's mission in life to
play Hall Monitor. Very soon the students made it his mission, two in
particular.
Nelson Nash's job was either to be the villain or to introduce the
villain, but rarely to develop Batman. It showed. Nelson garnered
more scenes than did any single supervillain. What are the odds that
this ordinary jerk should meet the villain in six different episodes?
Even Wayne only met nine villains himself, and that's cheating
because he knew several of them before the series aired.
Fans often mistake Terry's tolerance of other students for
friendship. In reality Terry merely supported Willie Watt, Howard
Groote, Corey Cavilieri, etc. because Nelson was cruel to them. Terry
loathes Nelson. It's a reflex. It's not a sufficient foundation to
build a series.
In Season Two Terry became the belle of the ball, friend to all. This
new Terry flourished in his school environment. New Terry was a good-natured, carefree, slightly dumb guy with a secret identity. Max
became his secretary, the power behind the throne. She intercepted
visitors, scheduled meetings, shared watercooler gossip, pulled
files, and briefed him on his homework. Terry soon became as obsolete
as any middle manager who can't operate his own equipment or research
his own reports. He stopped learning. He became too dependent upon
her. While Wayne's Batman used Alfred (a retired spy, remember), Earl
("The Mechanic"), Lucius Fox and Oracle at his convenience, he
learned to do their jobs first, THEN delegated the tasks. Terry on
the other hand seems content to be helpless. It's not just a
dangerous strategy for a vigilante. It's also out of character for
the fiery, rebellious young man who dragged the hibernating bear (or
Bat) out of his lair.
Terry needs to learn to do his own job himself. If he doesn't feel
like it, he doesn't deserve the mantle.
*Changing Terry-as-Batman.
Once upon a time, Terry's Batman won even when he lost. Batman failed
to bring Derek Powers and Fixx to trial for killing Warren McGinnis
but did stop the killers from selling nerve gas. He finished what
Warren started. Terry/Batman failed to capture Inque, Curare or
Shriek when he first encountered them, but he stopped whatever they
were doing. The villain escaped ; lives were saved. Such was life in
Bruce Wayne's day also.
The degradation of Terry's Batman is painful to witness. In Season
Two Terry fought six teenage gangs, not counting the lone operators.
Several times he was knocked out cold. Blight, Curare and Paxton
Powers never managed to do that. Why can children do it? This is not
the Terry who earned Blight's respect. In fact Blight harnessed his
whole stable of hitmen in his yearlong campaign to murder Batman.
Considering the source, that's a compliment.
Blight, Inque, Curare, Spellbinder, the RFG and Shriek all abandoned
their original plans or assignments just to go kill Batman. They took
him seriously. Where did that respect go? The Terry of Season Two
rarely impressed anybody. This is not the Terry who fought Freeze and
Blight at the same time. Or the Terry who defied Curare and Barbara
Gordon at the same time. It's not the Terry who outsmarted the Joker
in Terry's first feature film. No, this is just some kid with the
world's coolest afterschool job. How is that any different from the
other 200 heroes in the comics or on television? Batman's been called
a lot of names in his day, but "generic" must never be one of them.
*Missing persons report : the hero.
Several "Year One" series have been proposed over the years : a
Nightwing series, a Bruce Wayne live series. It's likely that none of
these will ever be produced. Having Terry begin at the beginning was one way around the suits and their bias. Bruce Wayne would pass on
what he has learned. That's difficult to do when he is missing from
entire episodes.
Bruce Wayne's absence crippled Season Two. In time ("Revenant") he
got thoroughly fed up and delivered a grand and glorious temper
tantrum :
"Terry, enough. You should be down at the piers looking for
smugglers, not staking out your old high school. You've already
invested too much time in this. I've seen it all ... but this thing,
I don't know, it just feels so, so HIGH SCHOOL."
Thank you, Bruce, for saying everything we were thinking.
Wayne got his banishment and his revenge for it altogether : he is
such a strong character that he resists manipulation. No doubt if he
had been more docile we would have seen more of him -- but we
wouldn't have liked what we'd see. What does that mean? Only that if
Bruce didn't belong in an episode, maybe Batman didn't either. Now
forcing Wayne into a ditzy episode would not, by itself, help him or
us. (For example, it didn't help "Rats.") Rather, Terry should have
been made tamper-proof so that he did not appear in ditzy episodes
either. Many episodes weren't worthy of any Batman's time, regardless
of which Bats it was.
*Missing persons report : the villain.
The "death" of Blight was written to be ambiguous so that Blight
could return if the series survived its first thirteen episodes. It
did survive. So where was he?
LOOSE ENDS
*Terry's fighting skills.
No new character ought to be perfect right out of the box. Where did
Terry learn the martial arts? He couldn't have learned from his
criminal mentor Charlie Bigelow as Big Time demonstrated no such
abilities. Also, these skills might Terry more independent ; Bigelow
wouldn't want that.
One fan proposed that Warren taught him. ("We could have fought them
off, me and Dad" -- Rebirth.) This is reasonable since we never got
another explanation for it. (Although my opinion is that Warren paid
for lessons.) There is precedent in the series. Kairi Tanaga taught
Xander the way of bushido even though she knew it might make him more
dangerous. ("I thought I could set him on the right path" -- COTK
part II.) It would also explain the inconsistencies in Terry's
fighting style. Unlike Kairi, Warren probably realized he was wasting
his time and stopped the lessons. This creates bizarre
juxtapositions : Terry can dance with Curare but not with Payback, a
12-year-old child.
A related question is why Terry uses more martial arts in his street
clothes and more boxing (or just plain brawling) while in costume. So
far no fan has found an answer for that one.
Then there is the problem of Terry's erratic stealth skills. Terry
must have been a talented shoplifter as he was never caught ("Big
Time"). He even broke into Wayne Manor and stole the suit while Wayne
was watching television ("Rebirth"). Not many people get by Samurai
Bruce. However Terry seems to have gotten out of practice since then.
He is always dropping things ("Shriek"), colliding with things
("Disappearing Inque"), tripping alarms ("Last Resort"), or stomping
on rooftops ("Armory"). Wayne should have addressed this problem
immediately.
One final note : Terry once trained as a school wrestler ("Rebirth").
He never uses this skill again. True, some villains cannot be dealt
with this way -- but why didn't Terry use this skill when it would
work?
*Image, poverty and crime in Gotham.
In superior Batman stories Gotham City itself is a character. It's
the place where even criminals don't dare walk the streets alone. In
this environment Wayne/Batman used fear as a weapon. Fear of the city
and fear of its protector were both downplayed in this series.
For example, what excuse do Gothamites use nowadays to commit crime?
Poverty? Poverty has always been blamed for the real problems :
greed, a sense of entitlement, despair. The Powers clan encourages
these qualities in their city. Wayne-Powers employs much of Gotham
but layoffs are constant ("Rebirth," "Armory"). The military's
cutbacks crushes its own people ("Joyride") and civilian suppliers
alike ("Armory"). Such factors affect the wealthy and middle class
only. One has to have a job to lose it. None of them clarify the
plight of the poor. Traditionally Gotham's poor suffer most from
violent crime because they comprise the majority of the population.
Where are these people hiding?
Many fans think Max is poor because of her home. With its lack of
decoration, its high small windows and crumbling concrete walls she
seems to live in a bunker. She's not destitute, though, or she
wouldn't let Howard Groote ("Speak no evil") hoover up all her food.
Donnie Grasso and Tamara Caulder lived in worse neighborhoods
("Hooked Up," "Mind Games"). "April Moon" is one of the few episodes
in which all the sets were as rundown as Gotham ought to be. It isn't
a competition ; rather, the question is why one could, if one chose,
easily list all scenes set in the bad parts of town.
Aside from the Historic District, the WP Tower, Shriek's Towers, the new police station, and our old favorite the Stacked Deck ("Ace in
the Hole"), the buildings are interchangeable. The new city has no
personality. It is merely walls with lights. An updated Dark Deco
look would have made so much difference!
The new Gotham is a sterile, cookie-cutter city with an undercurrent
of steady-state poverty. In contrast most of old Gotham City was one
vast brownfield. Despair was contagious and the slums ever expanding.
Batman only met the glitterati when Bruce Wayne was compelled by a
plot point to do so.
A contributing factor is that Terry merely flies over his turf. He
rarely walks it like Bruce did. This might actually encourage crime.
Batman's enemies once expected to see him patrolling streets where
the police were afraid to go. Gothamites rooted for Batman in Wayne's
day. They might like Superman as a person, but they looked at
Superman and knew here was a man who never went to bed hungry in his
life. But somehow, they felt, Batman knew. He was down in the
trenches with them. He "earned" the right to be judge in their town. In contrast Terry's flyover habits give the appearance he doesn't
want to get his hands dirty. Yes, this is unfair. Terry works very
hard. Also, Gotham has 12 million people ("Plague") and it really is
too far to walk. Nevertheless Batman is as much an image as a person,
and Terry has not learned how to harness the terror or the moral
authority integral to the image. Gothamites see Terry as a busybody
rather than their protector.
On the other hand, there is no reason they should see the police as
their protectors either.
*Law and order in Gotham.
From the moment fans saw Batman without his gold medallion, it was
plain the Batman/Gordon alliance is done. True, Batman didn't always
have the medallion ; it was created in the New Look in 1964. It
echoed the Bat-Signal and was meant to represent the symbiotic
relationship between the Batman and Jim Gordon. A blood-red bat does
not remind one of Jim. This emblem reinforces the fact that Batman is
completely alone.
Barbara resents this backseat vigilante, and it shows. Twice the
police shoot at Batman ("ATOC," "Disappearing Inque"), and Barbara
neither reprimands them nor disapproves. Apparently it's permissible to take potshots at Batman whenever they wish. (If Batman is not a
legal entity then he has no rights to lose.) The hunt in "Eyewitness"
is decidedly bloodthirsty. The GCPD itself, though, is a faceless
mob. Terry never meets one policeman. Even a foe like Nightwing's
Soames would have been a valuable addition.
In "Rebirth" Terry states something that should have changed the
series. He insists he won't present his evidence to the police
because "you know how cozy they are with Powers." This is a serious
charge. It puts either Terry's credibility or Barbara's at risk.It is hard to imagine Barbara Gordon tolerating even the appearance
of wrongdoing in her troops. Nevertheless Terry's claim is
strengthened by the fact that neither Warren McGinnis nor Harry Tully
called the police when they had the chance. What do they know that we
don't?
Terry may have made such an allegation because :
1. He is lying ; he hates all police for arresting him.
2. He is repeating something he heard Warren say.
3. He is repeating something he heard from Big Time or in Juvie Hall.
The latter two suggestions have especial merit. If Terry does hate
the GCPD he loved his father more. It does not serve Terry to shun
anyone who could help him. The second proposal would be predicated on
whether Warren talked too much. The third scenario seems most
probable. Inmates meet many policemen, and like the police they do
compare notes. Now criminals almost always protest their innocence ;
police will sarcastically remark that prison is full of innocent men.
However if there really were corrupt officers, the inmates would know
about it.
It is convenient how incompetent the police can be when it benefits
Batman's enemies. Warren's murder should have been solved. At minimum
it should have been reclassified. Why did Warren open the door? How
did no one hear a gang of Jokerz rampaging through an apartment
building? They have no mime faction. In fact Jokerz prefer to make
noise because it paralyzes the victims and witnesses. There is also
the fact that another Wayne-Powers employee disappeared the day
Warren died. Phone records would indicate they spoke just before
Tully vanished.
One cannot argue that Fixx picked the lock and erased the phone
records. Barbara would have uncovered such tampering since as Batgirl
she solved similar cases. One cannot argue that Barbara suppressed
the case to protect Terry. Terry did not don the uniform until the
week after the funeral ; the case could have been reclassified by
then. In any event Barbara could not protect "the new errand boy"
without knowing which case to suppress. She never met Terry until
episode nine. Whoever did handle this case was either unqualified or
uncooperative.
Or consider the breathtaking incompetence in "Disappearing Inque."
Inque attempts to escape by wrapping herself around a policeman's
body. Did he not notice she was there? Was he helping her escape?
Perhaps he only agreed to go along with it to put some distance
between her and the hostages, but this was never stated. In fact the
policeman expresses surprise when Inque disengages from him. His
colleagues also shout "what is [Batman] doing?!" when Batman tries to
pry Inque off her prey. If this was a ploy to save the hostages, none
of the key officers knew about it.
Later on the news it is announced that still no one knows why Inque's
cell melted. Did no one check the circuit breakers to see if the room
had lost power? How could anyone miss something so basic?
Why does no one know where Inque went? A disgruntled worker has had a
crush on Inque for some time. Security cameras show that Aaron visits
her regularly. He was the last person to be seen near her. Shortly
after he is fired, she escapes. Not a hard case to solve. Even if Inque erased the surveillance footage, it wouldn't change the fact
that Supervisor Chandler already saw it. The police should have
interviewed both men. Instead Inque and Aaron spend a whole day
together. No one ever comes looking for her.
Even in "Shriek" the police fail to follow up on the obvious. They
see Shreeve destroy his own lab ; then he attacks them. Shreeve owed
money to Derek Powers, Powers having bailed out his company. Surely
Powers could tell them how to contact his own employee. No one
pursues this investigation either.
It is possible the police really are incompetent, but every one of
these incidents could be explained if crooked cops were protecting
Blight's operatives.
What is truly blatant is how promptly the police clean up their act
when Blight leaves the series. (Maybe Paxton informed on them all?)
Therefore this could also qualify as a Changed Premise.
One has to wonder how the former Batgirl, a daughter of Jim Gordon,
could miss such problems. If her troops could not solve these cases,
she certainly could. What would explain all this?
1. Barbara is so short-handed that she would rather hire substandard
policemen than have none at all.
2. Barbara is unaware of any problems because she hands off cases to
trusted underlings, corrupt underlings.
3. Barbara is aware but is too proud to ask for help.
The mass confusion gives the impression that Barbara Gordon was only
included in the series out of a sense of obligation, but that no one
had specific plans for her.
None of the problems with the police are, by themselves, a Con
against the series. Batman has a long tradition of fighting crooked
cops. The Con is that the fans have the right to know what is going
on. If the police are good guys, show the audience. If the police are
bad guys, show the audience. Follow up on it.
Finally, no one knows what D.A. Sam Young thinks of all this. Does
Batman's presence make his job easier or harder? Did voters re-elect
Young based on his association with Batman? Batman saved Young's life
four times ("Splicers," "Eyewitness," twice in "ATOC") and always in
a very public way. Also, does Young have any idea what kind of woman
he married? None of these questions are answered. All the fans know
is that Gordon wishes Batman would go away -- but we already knew
that.
CONCLUSION
It is true that Bruce Wayne's Batman had sixty years of development
and Terry has had only three. However no amount of time is a
substitute for a clear, consistent vision. Most of the problems in
this series were simply caused by lack of thought. They shorten its
shelf life and limit its appeal.
Some of these problems will always resurface as long as outsiders
interfere with the Bat mythos. Other problems are easily corrected.
One of the nice things about BATMAN BEYOND is that all its Cons
easily fit into one editorial. Its Pros would take a lot more than
one. Understand that none of the Loose Ends had to be Cons against the series. The Con is that they were ignored, undeveloped, in a
series craving more texture and depth. That is unfortunate. The Wayne-and-Terry show had the potential for a long and celebrated run.
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