Batman Beyond Returns in New Series, After Bruce Wayne's Death
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman Urban Legends #7
Spinning out of Batman: Urban Legends, DC Comics has announced that Terry Mcginnis' Batman will be getting his own comic series after solving the murder of his mentor Bruce Wayne. Set in Gotham's future depicted in the animated Batman Beyond series of the early 2000s, the time has come for Terry to truly become his own version of the Dark Knight as he fights Neo-Gotham city itself, going beyond what it means to be Batman.
The seventh issue of the Batman: Urban Legends anthology series featured a tale that served as a prologue for the newly announced series from DC. Beginning with the death of Bruce Wayne, his protégé Terry investigates all over the futuristic city of Neo-Gotham. However, he eventually comes up empty until he realizes that the attack came from within the Batcave itself, originating from the Bat-computer and its connections to the whole city's infrastructure and systems Wayne himself helped to create. Having transformed into an AI super-intelligence with dark intentions, Neo-Gotham has come alive with its first act being the killing of Bruce Wayne. Forced to destroy Wayne Manor and the Batcave with all its resources Terry is now on his own, ready to begin a new era as a new kind of Batman.
Now, DC's Batman Beyond: Neo-Year has been announced by SYFY WIRE. The series is a play on the classic Batman: Year One story featuring the formative years of the original Dark Knight. However, Bruce Wayne's last words to Terry were for him to go beyond what he had taught him, wanting Terry to surpass who he had been as the original Batman. The six-issue Batman Beyond miniseries will be coming from writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with artist Max Dunbar, and cover artwork for the first issue was revealed from Dunbar with a variant from artist Christian Ward:
Lanzing shared some of the inspirations for Batman Beyond: Neo-Year with SYFY, speaking to the new era Terry will be entering without Bruce:
"We're digging into the noir tradition of Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween to push Terry past the lessons Bruce gave him and into a tradition defined by his own character and the strange new Gotham in which he operates. What's past is prologue. This Batman must go beyond."
It's certainly going to be interesting to see where the future's Batman will start when his new series begins, seeing as how he'll be going on his own while trying to be more and go beyond what he has been taught. Furthermore, it appears as though Batman's successor will be trying to save a city that no longer wants to be saved, which will certainly come with its own kinds of challenges. In any case, Batman Beyond was a massively popular and beloved cartoon series from DC and Warner Bros., and as such it's going to be pretty exciting when this Batman's story continues in the sequel comics series releasing in April of 2022.
Source: SYFY Wire