Batman Beyond #29: The Final Joke

[Tulku]

Tough to ask this without spoilers, but does anybody believe it?

So, reminder, we are no longer in the Earth-12 (if I recall correctly) universe that was the home of the Batman Beyond animated series and its epic "Return of the Joker" movie. This Terry McGinnis has not faced the Joker before, and this Joker does not have the knowledge that the character from Earth-12 had.

If you follow the way I'm drifting.

So this issue wraps up the Joker's first major appearance in this version of Batman Beyond (he was a subsidiary character in an earlier arc). Does anybody believe the ending? Frankly, I really really really hope it is true. All the other Bat Books, no matter how often the writers may like to say that they are "shaking things up," still have to ultimately preserve the status quo. Bruce dies? Yeah, wait a few months and he'll be back. Babs is crippled? Wait a few years and she will be back. Dick has a bullet in the brain? Wait: he'll get better. The current day Bat Books have to preserve the status quo of the Bat Universe. Oh, they can add family members--no doubt about that. But the essential grouping (Bruce, Dick, Barbara, Jim Gordon, Alfred) all have to persist, relatively unchanged in the long run.

But Batman Beyond is under no such restrictions. Set in the future, it is free from the confines of the present-day books. It can make permanent, final changes to the group. It is the only Bat Book that can. It does not have to preserve the status quo. Nothing that happens here has any effect on the rest of the Bat Books. In #29, it appears to have done a major change. I hope it sticks, because that would make Batman Beyond a truly special addition to the Bat Books--the one book where permanent change is possible. A book worth reading to see the final end to several stories of characters in the current-day books.

But does anybody believe it?

[scribbleMind]

I believe it. Most of this run has been Terry dealing with Bruce's messes, Bruce's past, versions of Bruce's enemies. Solicits seem to suggest Jurgens is headed toward more of a Terry centered direction.

[Vinsanity]

I still want to find out who's Dick's daughter's mother is.

[Jackalope89]

I still want to find out who's Dick's daughter's mother is.

Think she could become the next Batgirl?

[Tulku]

I still want to find out who's Dick's daughter's mother is.

Admittedly, that would be interesting--especially if it turned out to be a woman that has appeared in the present day books, but for whom Dick has shown no interest in!

As for being the next Batgirl, I really hope not. Batman Beyond works best when it isn't a slavish copy of the current Bat Books. I was irritated enough with them adding a Robin (Terry really didn't need one). Adding a Batgirl would be signaling that Beyond is not its own creative book, but just a pale echo of the current-day books. One of the strengths of the animated series (and most of the Beyond books up to this one) is that they were very stingy in bringing in connections with Bruce's rogue's gallery. There were some, of course (Mr. Freeze, the Joker, Bane) but they concentrated more on giving Terry his own new rogue's gallery (Inque, Spellbinder, Shriek). If this book goes the route of just repeatedly giving "future versions of current characters" it may as well be cancelled, because its reason for existing will be gone.

IMHO. YMMV.

[Miles To Go]

I still want to find out who's Dick's daughter's mother is.

I feel if Jurgens were to reveal that, DC might want to make it look more important by making it a mainline romance, think "How I Met Your Mother" Bat-fam style.

Mind you, turning Nightwing into that would be much better than what it's currently getting.

[Arsenal]

Isn’t there already a Batgirl Beyond? Or was that wiped out?

[Armor of God]

She exists as far as I'm aware.

[Tulku]

Yes, we were introduced to a Batgirl Beyond back in issue 12. I'm not sure she has even been mentioned since then.