Batman: 80 Greatest Ever Moments
20. A New Mission - Batman Beyond
If you're looking for a brilliant reinvention of the Dark Knight, look no further than Batman Beyond. The animated series was helmed by BTAS alumni Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, and centred around a new Batman in Terry McGinnis, a young high schooler more comparable to Spider-Man than to the steely detective fans were then familiar with.
The genius of Batman Beyond doesn't necessarily lie in its cyberpunk dystopia (although that is brilliant), but rather the decision to make Bruce an aged mentor unable to fight crime via traditional methods. The only other comic to broach what Batman would do when faced with the prospect of no longer being able to continue his mission was The Dark Knight Returns, but Beyond's premise is the superior of the two.
Sacrilegious though it may seem to compare the two, Beyond genuinely innovated the character. Conroy was given a whole new way to channel his fan favourite performance as the Dark Knight, while Will Friedle's McGinnis developed into a worthy successor.
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19. "The Apocalypse Is Cancelled" - Batman #666
When he was first introduced - and even to this day, to an extent - Damian Wayne was a divisive character. The son of Batman was thrown into Bruce's life at the age of just ten, but those brief years spent with the League of Assassins had still clearly left a mark. He was homicidal, not exactly what you'd call well adjusted, and just a plain old nuisance to begin with.
By the time he died in Batman: Incorporated, all of that had changed. But before even all of that the only glimpse Morrison gave fans of the future Damian came in Batman #666. The issue itself might not've sold everyone on the concept of Damian, but the hellscape Morrison showed off was sublime, with Bruce no longer Batman, and his newly anointed son now underneath the cowl.
As a brief look into the Dark Knight's potential future, Batman #666 is one of the most unique Bat-books ever released.
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