The final episode of Batman Beyond.
After Max cracks a joke about Terry’s connection to Batman, Terry tells her a cautionary story about why he has to keep his identity a secret. The story is about Miguel Diaz, a kid who was so frightened by the Batsuit that Terry had to unmask to get the boy, who was in danger, to trust him. After Miguel mentions seeing Batman’s real face on the evening news, he becomes a target of Kobra, who are eager to find out who Batman is under the mask.
The villains are some random Kobra mooks, but the villains aren’t important in the episode. It could have been any of Terry’s rogues, and the fact that it isn’t someone who already has a vendetta against him like, say, Shriek or Inque is a little surprising. But, again, the villains don’t matter here. The message is what’s important.
Though I will say, Kobra has been rather inconsistent in their appearances across the show, with constantly shifting goals. In their first episode, they were terrorists with a bioweapon, in their second appearance they were a cult trying to usher in an era of scalies, in this appearance they’re robbing a bank. They’re all over the place and it doesn’t make for very compelling villains.
The meat of this episode is in its statement about who Batman is. I can’t really talk about it without getting into spoilers, so if you want to watch this episode spoiler free, go do that first, then come back here.
We good? Okay. Moving on.
In the episode, Kobra agents manage to capture Miguel and hook him up to a machine that processes thoughts into images. They make him remember Batman’s face, then, when they have the image, they upload it to their own database. We the audience are not shown the image until after Terry has fought off the agents, and the last one standing commits suicide while gloating that Kobra has finally defeated Batman.
Then, Terry turns to the screen, and we see that it’s not his face on the monitor, but that of the soldier action figure that Miguel has been carrying around all episode as a comfort item.
The takeaway is that Batman is more than just a single guy - Batman is every hero.
Batman can be a rich white man.
Batman can be a poor white teenager.
Batman can be a 10 year old Latino boy’s toy solider.
Hell, Batman can be that 10 year old Latino boy.
Four out of five. As a statement about Batman, this episode is fantastic.
But as a series finale? There’s something left to be desired. A passing of the torch, officially and finally, from Bruce to Terry, perhaps. Or a passing of the torch to an even newer generation. Additionally, the pacing felt off, with the constant switching back and forth to Terry telling the story. The villains were weak, though that’s not entirely a bad thing, as it would’ve detracted from the main point of the episode.
But I don’t know. Perhaps I’m just bitter that the show I loved so much had to end.
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