Batman Beyond/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
→What happened to the heroes?
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== The Episode "Sneak Peek" ==
* In this episode Bruce Wayne claims that Peek isn't actually a criminal because being a reporter isn't against the law. I'm pretty sure trespassing is illegal and videotaping people without their permission violates a ton of privacy laws. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the information he reveals seems to put people directly in danger... or that he has been knocking out security guards and setting fire to buildings. Seriously, the guy's a supervillain, why is Bruce acting like its not their job to take him down?
** It's because the guy is being portrayed as no different from any other papparazzi. He's just really good at it. Bruce at the very least thinks it's beneath Batman to go after the papparazzi.
** Probably the bias of the show's writers. Despite being a sleazy, privacy-violating, thieving reporter, Peek is still a ''reporter'', and from the viewpoint of a lot of people, pesky laws like private property and property rights don't apply to The Fourth Estate, who can do as they please as long as it's in the name of bringing "news" to the people.
* At the end of the episode, Ian Peek sinks into the earth's core and begins to [[Villainous Breakdown|go crazy.]] Okay...but then why exactly does he start [[Laughing Mad|laughing maniacally]] and then wave goodbye to Terry as he sinks to his doom?
** He finally realized he was boned and just snapped
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** Maybe there was a security camera on one of the floors he fell through that showed him falling through solid matter. People put 2 and 2 together and realized he wasn't coming back.
** The Commissioner of the GCPD is Barbara Gordon. She's willing to trust Bruce's word that Terry didn't murder Peek (and even if she isn't Bruce can just show her the footage from Terry's helmet cam). With her on their side Bruce and Terry have nothing to fear from the cops.
** It's also important to remember that Peek hadn't exactly been making himself a lot of friends. Even if he hadn't started dishing on any powerful political figures yet, his information rustling abilities would have certainly made those figures start looking over their shoulders. Even without Barbara's help, some Senator probably decided that if Batman had murdered Peek, Batman had done him a favor, and threw his weight around to get the investigation closed.
== The Episode "Splicers" ==
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*** The effed-up thing is that it ''did'' work -- after a fashion. "Sleep deprivation, endless harangues; it's classic brainwashing." It's also basic '''military training'''. Meaning that the kids who came back were obedient and unobtrusive for the foreseeable future. A decade or so down the line they'll probably beat their '''''own''''' kids into comas, [[Sarcasm Mode|but so what? They're out of their own parents' hair forever.]]
**** Erm, there's a bit more to military training than sleep deprivation and emotional abuse. The whole point of breaking down new recruits is ''building them back up again'' afterward to be better than they ever were before. But we never saw any indication that the program included anything like that. Not to mention that you can always voluntarily wash out of military training (at least in the US).
***** And, y'know, that level of military training is usually voluntarily undertaken by adults.
== Terry's tactics ==
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** Step 3: ???
** Step 4: Batman
*** I think we all know what [[Step Three: Profit|step three]] [[South Park|is...]]▼
* Perhaps that's the real reason Waller didn't try again with a different assassin after the first one got cold feet. She realized it was a stupid idea that would never work.
** Or maybe the fact that she'd asked a hardened killer to do something and they couldn't do it because it was too immoral made her reconsider the path she was taking. While she ''sounds'' very pragmatic and matter-of-fact discussing the whole thing, that's just Waller... she's human too, and she does feel things, even if (like Batman) she does her very best not to show it.
▲** I think we all know what [[Step Three: Profit|step three]] [[South Park|is...]]
* It's possible that Waller was planning to either arrange for social services to ask Bruce if he'd be willing to take in the orphaned Terry, or that Waller was planning to ask Bruce herself, thus guaranteeing that Terry would end up in Bruce's care from a young age. Of course, Waller obviously wouldn't tell Bruce that she herself had caused Terry to be orphaned. But even if Bruce found out, it's very possible that the now-elderly [[I Did What I Had to Do|Waller would be perfectly fine with that, knowing that even if she was punished, Terry would already be under Bruce's tutelage and on the way to becoming Batman.]]
* Maybe Waller was planning to take Terry in herself, or have a third party in her employ do it, to subtly exercise the sort of psychological influence that would be required to set Terry on a similar emotional path as Bruce.
== Talking is a REALLY free action ==
If anyone goes into a fight with Terry expecting Spider-Man type banter, they must think he's completely insane. His half of the conversations with Wayne seem to go completely unnoticed by villains, what gives?
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This one hit me when I saw Batman hitting them with a missile during the second part of "The Call." Seriously, he hits {{spoiler|Superman right in the chest,}} where Starro is, and Starro is completely unharmed. This is believable for {{spoiler|Superman}}. A space starfish? not so much. Considering that a brief burstt of heat vision is enough to put one down for the count... Does {{spoiler|Superman}} just exude some aura of invulnerability or something?
* Yes. In response to the age old question "Why isn't Superman naked after he walks through acid/the sun/nuclear explosions?" some writers have explained Supermans indestructibility as a forcefield he projects a few millimeters thick around his body (and thus also protecting his costume), others gave him some sort of telekineses power over everything he touches (thats why airplanes he lifts don't break) istead of just saying "the censors wouldn't let us print it otherwise". If I remember correctly (not a big Superman fan) both explanations were used in the golden age were Superman got new powers on a weekly basis and were ignored since then.
** They weren't ignored, the whole telekinesis thing was used extensively by Superboy, who got ''actual'' telekinetic powers due to Cadmus futzing about with DNA they didn't properly understand. They also pop up occasionally, both in comics and in novels, it's just that like most parts of the Superman mythos they fall in and out of fashion with various writers.
* Alternatively, Starro could have shifted around Superman's body to protect himself. The Starro aliens can control people no matter where they're attached. We know this because the boss Starro was attached to Superman's chest but the smaller Starros were face-hugging Aquagirl and the other Leaguers, yet neither had trouble controlling the host. Maybe when Batman hit him in the chest with a missile Starro was hiding on Superman's back or something.
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== Why didn't she just tell them? ==
* In the Eyewitness episode, Terry accidentally ruins a police sting operation because he didn't know it was a set-up. Barbara knew there was a risk that Batman would see a "weapons deal" and intervene. So why didn't she contact Bruce and tell him not to let Terry get involved in that specific weapons deal at that time/ignore that specific vehicle and anything going on near it, or even to only intervene in the unlikely situation of one of the perps getting away. The failure of that sting operation is as much her fault, for keeping it to herself, as it was Terry's.
** She already made it clear from the getgo she isn't her father. She still didn't completely trust Terry. Error in judgement obviously on her part. But she still doesn't trust the kid, it's that simple.
*** It's more than that. It's pretty clear that throughout the series, especially in the early parts, any anger or dislike Barbara shows towards Terry is really deflected emotions she feels towards ''Bruce''. She's mad at Bruce, not Terry, but since Bruce is Batman and Terry's wearing Batman's suit, she takes out her anger on Terry. Notice that while as the series goes on, Barbara relaxes a little towards Terry and starts showing a willingness to work with him, she ''doesn't'' act that way towards Bruce.
== Terry's cracked ribs ==
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*** Doubtful for two reasons. The first is that the kids are doing it on such a scale that it's clear splicing is supposed to be like getting a tattoo. Perhaps a little dumb since it's something permanent and most of the people getting them are too young to be making permanent decisions but not inherently bad or illegal. Second Kryptonians are physically indistinguishable from humans and Tamarians just have green eyes. There doesn't appear to be a side effect of being the Flash or an Amazonian. So even if splicing was illegal it would be easier to hide a splice of Kryptonian than cat's eyes. My guess is the writers simply weren't thinking about that possibility or perhaps as similar as we look to Kryptonians perhaps the fact that we do share a common ancestor with the earth born slug but presumably don't share a common ancestor with Kryptonians. Look they failed biology. They aren't the first writers to have that problem!
*** Actually being physically indistinguishable from normals makes it even more likely that splicing up with superpowers is completely illegal. A street thug spliced up with bull genes is easy to spot. The horns and the cow nose are a dead giveaway. So it's no surprise when he turns out to be super-strong. But how do you spot someone spliced up with Kryptonian DNA? You can't. Not until they've already punched your head off at a quarter the speed of light.
** Bruce is definitely just joking. He's clearly never been interested in giving himself any more superpowers than he can do with his gadgets. Remember, villains were splicing genes and creating half-human hybrids back in the early days of his own adventures, he's had ''decades'' to trick himself out genetically if he intended to.
== What happened to the heroes? ==
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* Obviously the real reason is because JLU was barely a twinkle in the creators' eyes back then. That said, just because we don't see more than six or so heroes doesn't mean there aren't more running around out there. The better question would be what happened to the Justice League in between JLU and BB. They went from dozens (hundreds?) of members down to a small handful. How did that happen?
** Presumably it was decided at some point that having a completely united and organized group of heroes posed as many problems as it solved, especially regarding god complexes and corruptibility. That was, after all, a major theme of Justice League, Who Watches the Watchmen and all that, particularly the season with Cadmus and the comparisons to the Justice Lords dimension. Presumably they decided at some point that they'd be safer if most of the heroes worked independently and simply teamed up on occasion, so they could more effectively act as checks on any potential corruption among their ranks..
** A lot of heroes may have retired for various reasons, as well, without many new ones rising up to replace them. Remember that a lot of the members of JLU were Bruce's contemporaries as far as their age, which means all the unpowered ones are likely dealing with being elderly about as well as he is, and not all of the powered ones would have powers that necessarily kept them in fighting shape into their seventies or eighties. (Vixen, for example... animals get arthritis and brittle bones too, after all.)
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