Why Villains Were The Key To Batman Beyond's Success

Now do you believe me about why I retired

Not entirely, but tonight I'm glad you didn't stay retired. A hero defined by his villains

Batman has one of the greatest rogues galleries in fiction. But you know who has a highly underrated list of antagonists

Batman Beyond. The show continually introduces new villains, new concepts, and new power sets to the world of Neo-Gotham

However, it's actually how the show utilized villains and developed them over the course of the show

that has cemented its longevity. What the heck was that? A new technique, Batman

Did you think I'd learn nothing from our previous encounters? When development began for Batman Beyond, DCAU head honchos Bruce Timm had a single edict

This would be Terry's show. Bruce had his moment in the spotlight. He was Batman

Terry is Batman. And as such, he needed a rogues gallery of fitting ne'er-do-wells

Characters that had either a personal connection to the protagonist, or characters that would push Terry in ways that he could never have imagined

While some of the initial villains Terry goes up against are fairly forgettable

it's when the show starts to bring characters back over and over again

that it really finds its stride. Batman saved us and the animals

Yeah, the guy's incredible, a real hero. What I want is to change all that

Initially, the show zeroes in on developing Derek Powers, aka Blight, as the central villain of Terry's world

A dastardly businessman who becomes irradiated and develops energy projection abilities. He's snide, scheming, and dastardly

However, he's really just poor man's Lex Luthor for the majority of his appearances

Despite being in almost all the initial 13 episodes of season one

Blight's big bad position was abandoned fairly quickly. Now I suggest you leave

It's not healthy to be around me when I'm shanty. The show pivoted into forming an overarching narrative

about Terry struggling to maintain the balance of his secret identity, real responsibilities and the ever Call of Justice Characters like Shriek Spellbinder and Ink were developed and built out in ways that were atypical for a weekday animated show aimed at kids

They were either given more sympathetic and complex character backdrops, or they were

moved in darker and more homicidal directions. Episode 3 of the series titled Blackout sees the introduction of the aforementioned Ink

a freelance criminal for hire, in the mold of Catwoman. She has the ability to turn her body into a black, ink-like liquid

she almost instantly developed a cult following of fans. In her first appearance, she's a cold-hearted assassin and thief for hire

I'll pay you whatever you want. No wonder I like working for you

However, as the show progresses, she's built out even further. Disappearing Inc. showcases just how destabilized the character has gotten

from her first encounter with Batman. She's forced to accept assistance from a lovesick fan

who wants to gain powers like hers. In both her first two appearances, we see that she's someone with a dark side

a manipulative side, and a keen brilliance. There aren't many villains that can say

they figured out how to sneak into the Batcave, and Ink does it on her first run-in with Batman

and then goes head-to-head with both Terry and Bruce, and nearly beats them

However, it's Ink's third appearance that gives her true depth. In Inkling, we learn that she has a daughter

that she was forced to put up for adoption as a baby, and that all her corporate espionage

was done in the name of making money to secretly send to her estranged offspring

This tragic backstory pulls the character back from being a heinous monster fueled by greed

and repositions her as a single mother who's willing to do just about anything

to support a child who will never know her name. They told me my trust fund was an inheritance

I never thought I was living on stolen money. But Ink isn't the only character

that sees significant growth over the course of the show. The beyond-baddie Walter Shreve, a.k.a. Shriek

is equally as compelling. Shriek was hired by Derek Powers to track down Bruce Wayne and push him to the breaking point in an attempt to get Wayne to give up his shares of Wayne Powers His sound powers proved to be both visually arresting and narratively compelling over the course of the show It pretty hard to take the concept of a sound engineer

who becomes a supervillain and make it cool. But the Beyond team pushed his character to impressive heights

and in a quintessentially comics twist, in the finale of his debut episode

he suffers an accident and becomes deaf. Get up. Oh! No. No

Shriek is one of the few villains that seems intelligent enough to really put Terry's Batman between a rock and a hard place

In Babel, episode 12 of season 2, he constructs a nearly unwinnable scenario for Terry

where he uses a piece of technology that prevents everyone from understanding each other

thus spawning mass chaos across Neo-Gotham. That suit of his was pretty powerful

but I don't see how it could have affected that much of the city. Maybe he found some way to pradish Dash Pagrana

What? You're not making a risk, no. He says that the only way he will return things to normal is if Terry hands himself over

This episode revolves around Terry having to make a choice that could potentially set

a dangerous precedent and discredit the legacy of Batman forever. And it's only through Shriek's brilliance as a villain that this plot is facilitated

This isn't how I wanted it. You were supposed to give yourself up to me. You should have gotten it and write it

Funny. See how funny you think this is. First appearing in the 10th episode of season one, Spellbound, Ira Billings, aka Spellbinder

is a psychologist at Terry's high school who feels as though he's not remunerated properly

for his efforts and thus takes to a life of crime. Utilizing hallucinogenic pieces of technology

that he's developed, he starts stalking kids in the school and forcing them to hand over valuable

items under the duress of nightmarish dream states. In his debut appearance, it's instantly

apparent that Spellbinder is a favorite of the creative staff. The episode feels like a cut above

the rest The psychedelic visuals of Spellbinder powers the eerie dream sequences and even just his costume design make the character instantly recognizable I don get you Doctor You supposed to be helping kids You want to be my therapist Then here get to know me

In the eighth episode of season two, Hooked Up, he develops virtual reality technology that is

highly addictive. He uses it to conscript children from the local high school to steal for him in

order to continue using the machines. Spellbinder is an important player in the broader Batman

Beyond Universe because his stories always deal with the subconscious desires of both Bruce and

Terry. However, in this episode, it's Max, Terry's best friend and confidant, that gets the most

development. Her time in Spellbinder's machines showcases to the audience that she has a fractured

home life and that all she wants is for her parents to love each other. And to push things

even further, in Season 2, Episode 14, Eyewitness, we see Spellbinder manufacturing a scenario where

multiple eyewitnesses believe that Batman killed an opponent in cold blood. Sure, everyone knew that

the original Batman would never kill anyone, but Spellbinder exploits the fact that this new Batman

is relatively untested and hasn't fully secured his place in the minds of Neo-Gothamites

Spellbinder is such a brilliant enemy that he's using Batman's shadowy folkloric persona

against him. You were so ready to believe the worst. It was easy. Lock him up. Bruce Timm's

edict that beyond was Terry's show, held true. For the most part. Yes, okay, they had a few episodes

where they brought back old baddies like Mr. Freeze or Ra's al Ghul, but those were the exceptions

that proved just how much new territory they were covering. They chose to create and develop

original villains as opposed to revisiting the classic characters from Bruce's villains roster

And it paid off. The show blazed new ground by sticking to a specific design remit and then

digging in further and further into it. The villains in Batman Beyond are just as complex, intricate

and exciting as the classic Batman villains. They're the reason why the show succeeded