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The villains appearing in Batman Beyond.
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Terry's Rogues Gallery

    Blight (Derek Powers) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clipart638836.png
"And behold, I shall be a blight upon the land, and everything I touch shall wither and die!"
Click here to see him as Derek Powers
Voiced by: Sherman Howard
Voiced by (Italian): Mario Scarabelli
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"It's better to be feared than loved."

The corrupt CEO and co-owner of Wayne-Powers Enterprises. After being exposed to his own nerve gas, he is treated with high levels of radiation. He glows green in his natural form, so he must wear an artificial skin that only lasts temporarily and must be regularly replaced. The skin wears out faster if he gets angry.


  • Abusive Parents: He exiled his own son and his Machiavellian, power-at-all costs mindset ultimately turned Paxton into as much as bastard as him. This comes back to bite Powers hard when Paxton decides to seize his company from him.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: An amoral businessman whose experiments turn him into a deranged, green-colored supervillain and Arch-Enemy to a teenage crime fighter. Are we talking about Derek Powers or Norman Osborn?
  • Ambition Is Evil: He's willing to do anything at all to be in charge of the greatest corporate power in Gotham. And no, he doesn't care how many ethics he has to toss out the window to do it.
  • Arch-Enemy: He's the new Batman's most hated foe, as he's responsible for his father's murder.
    • In a sense, he's also become this to the post-Batman Bruce Wayne in the Beyond era. This is also justified given the Joker has been dead for decades at this point and that slot's since been open. Bruce's enmity with Powers is no less personal than Terry's; Powers seized control of Wayne Enterprises, booting Bruce from his family's company and corrupting it to further his ambitions.
  • Arc Villain: Of Season 1. He's ultimately responsible for the murder of Terry's father, his corporate takeover of Wayne-Powers is the long-running conflict of the season, and he's the mastermind behind Inque and Shriek, as well as Mr. Freeze's return to villainy. After his defeat in the finale, "Ascension", Powers never appears again.
  • Arms Dealer: His first appearance—and the event that kicks off the series—involves him creating a mutagenic nerve gas and selling it to a foreign diplomat as a chemical weapon. When Terry's father finds out what he's created, Powers has him killed.
  • Atomic Superpower: He's heavy with radiation, which vaguely resembles fire powers when he uses it, and can shoot it through his hands.
  • Ax-Crazy: Not at first, but his Sanity Slippage results in him gradually becoming this over time. By the end of the first season, he's a gleefully psychotic maniac who will try to kill people at the slightest provocation.
  • Badass Boast:
    • In "Meltdown", as he takes down Mr. Freeze:
      Blight: And behold, I shall be a blight upon the land, and everything I touch shall wither and die!
    • He makes another one to the protesters in "Ascension"
      Blight: You want to talk about POISON?! (Evil Laugh) I AM POISON!
  • Bad Boss: In order to test his nerve gas on humans he arranged for one of his employees to be "accidentally" exposed and documented his agonizing death. When Warren finds out about the nerve gas, Powers has him killed to cover it up, and is willing to kill the man's teenage son as well if he interferes.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: A walking radioactive wasteland is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think "Super Hero" and boy, does he let you know that.
  • Beneath the Mask: It's heavily implied that becoming Blight gives Powers the ability to act on his base impulses. The second he's out of his human skin disguise, Blight immediately goes into full-blown Ax-Crazy mode and starts trying to vaporize anyone who had the misfortune of angering him.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Derek Powers is a nasty piece of work, for sure, but he's nowhere near the Machiavellian mastermind he believes himself to be. His threat comes more from the nature of his powers and his position of authority than his scheming as his plans are consistently thwarted by Batman and his condition deteriorates his mind to the point he's tricked into exposing himself as Blight to the public by his own son. Without his powers, he'd be just another run-of-the-mill Corrupt Corporate Executive, and with his powers he's as much a threat to himself as anyone else.
  • Blessed with Suck: He is a walking, talking radioactive wasteland. This gives him an impressive range of superpowers and enables him to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Mr. Freeze and Batman, but it also ruins any semblance of a normal life. He can't go out in public or run his business, his very presence is toxic to everyone around him, and his condition eats away at his mental state, making him more unstable than he already was.
  • Body Horror: After undergoing radiation therapy to counteract the exposure to his own nerve gas, his skin and organs are glowing green and translucent, with his skeleton in full display
  • Boring, but Practical: In "Shriek", this is why he turns down Walter Shreeve's sonic weapon, despite being impressed that it can destroy buildings. As he points out, for regular tasks like demolition, conventional tools like dynamite are just as effective and cheaper, and the Awesome, but Impractical nature of the device itself means mass-producing it will be too expensive.
  • Breakout Villain: Despite his short run on the series, Blight is easily the most iconic villain in Batman Beyond, to the point where he returned from the dead in several comic spin-offs and briefly turned up in present day DC, where he faced off with a gang of resourceful high schoolers as well as a vampire. Quite ironic considering how loathsome he is in-universe.
  • Bright Is Not Good: He emits a bright radioactive green glow. This contrasts with Batman, who is dark and can even turn invisible.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During "Ascension", he demands to know who Batman is. Batman informs him, "You Killed My Father." Powers' response?
    Blight: Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?
    • This is especially bad because simple correlation of facts should have told him exactly who Batman was since the first appearance of the new Batman coincided with the murder of Terry's father during the Nerve Agent scheme that caused his powers. How many people does he have killed on a weekly basis that he couldn't manage that much?
  • Card-Carrying Villain: When Shriek complains about his ruined life, he openly extols to the luckless engineer how much better it is to be feared and ruthless. Also, his chosen monicker of "Blight" makes it pretty clear that he doesn't see himself as a friend to life.
  • Cast the Runner-Up: Sherman Howard, though really in terms of the larger DCAU rather than the initial casting for Beyond. Howard was the original front-runner for Lex Luthor on Superman TAS (and would've reprised the role from the Superboy show from the late 1980s). Then Clancy Brown came in to audition and while they ultimately chose him, they liked Howard enough to cast him in several guest roles (ex. The Preserver, Steppenwolf). When development began on Beyond and they decided to give Bruce Wayne a Luthor-esque villain, Howard was Bruce Timm and company's first choice.
  • Clothing Damage: His costume as Blight is his regular clothes without a shirt and torn jacket sleeves and pant legs. It sounds unimpressive, but just look at him without the protective skin he uses.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: He has money, schemes and superpowers, and at the end of the day, this is his main game.
  • Create Your Own Hero: His murder of Warren McGinnis is what pushed Terry into going to Bruce and becoming the second Batman.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Gives one to Mr. Freeze, of all people, by quickly defeating him as Blight, then proceeds to mop the floor with Batman shortly after. He likely could have killed Terry then and there had Freeze not intervened.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Averted. Powers already is a wealthy executive whose schemes revolve around advancing his company, albeit through heinously amoral means. While he does have superpowers, he clearly isn't happy about it and puts more effort into suppressing or curing them than actually engaging in wanton supervillainy.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In the pilot, he reflexively shoots a nerve gas canister thrown at him before he realized what it was.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has a very dry, underhanded sense of humor, and it shows when he's dealing with someone.
    Shriek: But I can't show my face or use my name!
    Powers: The face is no loss, and if you miss your name, I'll give you another one.
  • Death Seeker: In "Ascension", he's grown tired of the treatments for his radiation and his constant dilemma of maintaining his public image. When he's finally exposed as Blight, he decides to run away but is left without support from his son and settles on being left alone. Then Batman and his son go after him, so he recklessly sinks the submarine he's been hiding in.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype: Derek plays the Corrupt Corporate Executive... but his appearances show the kind of person who would indulge in such criminal behavior: a scheming sociopath who only cares about money and power. His actions earned him the hatred of people like Terry, and his own estranged son, who internalized his father's lessons, turns on him.
  • Dem Bones: As Blight, he appears as a walking, talking radioactive skeleton with transparent skin and a Sickly Green Glow.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The last shot of the show's intro before Batman himself is of Blight's sickly green visage.
  • Emotional Powers: His rage literally fuels his radioactive powers; he's mentioned to burn through suits faster the angrier he gets, and even trying to control his anger isn't enough when he remains outwardly calm, but is angry inside when the phone rings with news about Batman foiling one of his plans while he's talking to Inque.
  • Engineered Public Confession: His son Paxton set it up so Derek would lose it in front of the board of directors of Wayne-Powers, effectively exposing him as Blight.
  • Enlightened Self-Interest: Powers is a total sociopath, but he's willing to do both evil and beneficial things to reach his ambitions. He "generously" gives Mr. Freeze a new body and later tries to make amends with his son, but both times shows his true bloodthirsty self when the situation backfires. Overall, Powers can never truly hide the self-serving monster at his core.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: A very minor example given all of Powers' crimes, but he doesn't seem keen on spreading radiation sickness and on a few occasions warns people not to come too close to him when his radioactive form is exposed. Some of this could be chalked up to Pragmatic Villainy since many of those people work for him, or in Inque's case, is hired to take out Batman for him. And thus, he can't afford to end up killing the underlings and employees who are covering for him, caring for him, or carrying out his orders that he can't just casually carry out himself without serious risk of exposing himself.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Mr. Freeze, of all people. In his first appearance as Blight, he nearly kills Freeze to solidify himself as Batman's new Big Bad. Their physical conditions also deteriorate to the point that they depend on a suit to stay alive. While Freeze lashes out in revenge, Powers lashes out because he's a power-hungry asshole.
  • Evil Makes You Ugly: The radioactive treatment given to him for the exposure to his own mutagenic nerve gas leaves Derek Powers looking like a pitch-black skeleton surrounded by fluorescent green tissue. Terry even lampshades it in "Ascension", stating that Powers was always a monster; all his transformation did was make that obvious.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: When in his Blight persona, Powers's voice drops considerably and becomes more guttural as a result. Though it does slip in on occasion when in his normal persona, it becomes his main voice after his condition is revealed.
  • Fatal Flaw: Pride and wrath. Powers gleefully abused his position, thinking he was above the law, and that he was untouchable. Upon transforming into Blight, his temper became harder to control, until it cost him everything, possibly including his life.
  • Faux Affably Evil: His public face is polite and charming, if smug, but he's ruthless and completely unscrupulous when he drops the act.
  • Gone Horribly Right: He apparently taught his son Paxton to be ruthless in acquiring power. Let's just say that Paxton took it to heart and backstabbed his old man in the latter's final appearance.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Powers' already short fuse worsens with his radioactive condition.
  • Hate Sink: Big time. Even without being a casually murderous sociopath who represents the worst of Corporate piracy, Powers' snarky sense of humor just highlights what a smug slimeball he really is. Absolutely everyone who gets to know the guy detests him, including his own son, and Terry has no pity seeing his foe waste away from his condition. Whether businessman or Blight, Derek Powers is an irredeemable, toxic monster both inside and out.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: During the pilot, he's accidentally gassed by his own nerve gas. The only treatment involves a massive dose of radiation.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: After his son exposes him as Blight, he's on the run from the law, he lose control of Wayne-Powers Enterprises and is forced into hiding. All alone in the world, with no wealth, no power and nothing but his shredded rags for possessions.
  • Humiliation Conga: After he murders Terry's father, he suffers a season-wide humiliation ritual that begins with him being exposed to his own nerve gas when the new Batman comes after him. After that, he's transformed into Blight and while he gains tremendous power, he's more Blessed with Suck than anything, since he's forced to periodically put on new synthetic skin just to live anything resembling a normal corporate life. Throughout the season, all of his plans get foiled by Batman, he gets blasted into a freezing lake by Mr. Freeze despite him having the initial advantage, and slowly loses his mind as his anger gets more and more out of control, with his synthetic skin lasting less and less long because of how much his powers are growing. By the end of the season, his own son exposes him to the world as Blight and later on, captures him with Batman... only for Paxton to reveal his true treacherous nature to Derek. Once Blight gets free during a fight between Batman and Paxton's men, something inside of him snaps as he finally goes nuclear and sinks the sub, with himself, into the bottom of the sea. And if some of the tie-in comics can be considered canon, Blight does come back once again but the Stalker and Batman come after him, resulting in him being killed by being dunked in molten steel with Stalker taking him as a trophy to top it all off.
  • I Resemble That Remark!: Inverted. At one point, he angrily acknowledges that he's losing his temper when his doctor points that out to him.
    Doctor: It's not just the radiation, sir; your temper is out of control.
    Blight: (shouting) I KNOW, DOCTOR! (pause) I know.
  • Irony: His transformation into Blight. He was already evil long before his transformation. Afterward, his exterior simply matched what was within.
    Terry: Now everyone can see him for what he is...even in the dark.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Whenever Powers does something "decent", it's all for his self-serving goals, and he's just as likely to turn around and Kick the Dog.
    • In Meltdown he not only funds the project that gives Mr. Freeze a new body, but also personally oversees his rehabilitation into this new world. However, he's only doing it as a test run to see if he can transfer his own mind into a clone body due to his own condition worsening. When Freeze starts to deteriorate, Blight has no problem with having an unscrupulous scientist biopsy Freeze's organs.
    • While he tells Walter Shreeve his invention is ultimately impractical and redundant, he's still willing to give him another way to use his talents...provided he kills Bruce Wayne first.
    • When it becomes clear how much worse his condition is growing, he brings his distant son out of exile, tells the truth about him and steps down as chairman so his son can takeover. Except that's only because he wants to use his son as a puppet through which he can control the company from the shadows. Unfortunately for Blight, his son is just as ruthless as him and orchestrates a way to take out his old man for good.
  • Jerkass: Beneath his affable façade, he's a smug, callous jerk who doesn't care about anyone and with the act, he's unbearably condescending to everyone around him.
  • Large Ham: As his sanity degrades, Blight becomes increasingly over the top. His Badass Boasts are good examples.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: His ultimate defeat in the show (he does survive into the comics) is a gigantic case of this. Everything Blight has done to result in his final defeat is 100% his fault. His attempt to escape and live his remaining days in peace is rendered moot when Terry tracks him to make him pay for his many atrocities. While Terry opts to spare him, this isn't the case with Blight's own son, Paxton, who through Blight's own abusive upbringing has shaped into a twisted miniature into himself. As soon as Paxton decides to kill his old man, Blight is finished; he goes critical and sinks with the submarine screaming his son's name.
  • Laughably Evil: Downplayed, since he's still a truly monstrous person, but his snarkiness and transparent attempts to be charming and polite(despite being a living radioactive skeleton) can be quite amusing.
  • Laughing Mad: When he first sees his altered self in the mirror, his response is to giggle insanely.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Even putting aside his radioactive powers, he's surprisingly good at getting people to do what he wants and convincing them it's in their own interest. Notably, he actually talks Shriek out of killing him by appealing to his desire for power and recognition.
  • Might Makes Right: As demonstrated by his speech to Shriek, he's a firm believer in this philosophy and doesn't care how many people he ruins as long as he's on top in the end. It comes back to bite him when his son reveals how he inherited this mindset as well.
  • Mutants: One of the side effects of the nerve gas he developed (and got exposed to) was that it was mutagenic and influenced by its environment. It served as the catalyst with its own "cure" to turn him to the walking meltdown.
  • No One Could Survive That!: Apparently died in the Season 1 finale. He was never seen again, though the possibility that he was out there, hungry for revenge, hung over his son Paxton. According to the comics, Blight did indeed survive, sort of. His body did survive, but he doesn't seem to remember anything about his past life outside of hatred and a desire for vengeance against Batman and Paxton Powers, and was eventually made into a target for the Stalker, and was eventually killed by being caught in a blast furnace.
  • Offing the Offspring: Wanted to kill his son Paxton, after he was betrayed by him.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: He's a nasty piece of work, but he's more cut out as a businessman than supervillain. As such, he rarely engages in gleeful supervillainy and spends more time trying to cure his condition. And during his time as Blight, he never truly crosses the line into Bad Boss territory, not because he isn't an evil person, but because he's constantly at risk for being exposed to the world due to the nature of his powers. And thus, he knows that he can't afford to kill or radioactively infect the people who are caring for him, covering for him, or carrying out his orders to kill Batman so the worst his minions suffer are verbal insults or being rudely shooed away.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Not touched upon much, but during his rant in "Ascension", he refers to two South American emissaries as "animals".
  • Poisonous Person: Emits dangerous amounts of radiation as Blight. See also his Badass Boast quote above.
  • Power Limiter: His medical staff design a special synthetic skin resembling his original self, both to allow him to continue appearing in public and to act as this for his body's radiation. However, as said radiation gets stronger, the skin lasts for shorter amounts of time before he burns through it; his Hair-Trigger Temper doesn't help.
  • Sanity Slippage: His grasp on sanity begins slipping as soon as he acquires his powers, which slowly degenerates his mental state over the course of the first season.
  • Skin-Tone Disguise: When he needs to appear like his old normal self, Powers hides his transparent glowing green flesh behind artificial skin. Unfortunately for him, the covering wears off quickly, especially when he becomes angry and starts emitting more energy.
  • Smug Snake: Powers is smarter than he looks, but not as smart as he thinks he is. He barely hides how he sees everyone beneath him, which makes his fall from grace all the greater.
  • The Sociopath: A pretty major case. He essentially regards others as tools to fulfill his motives, only cares about money and power, regularly manipulates and uses people under a veneer of charm, and when asks Batman who he is and Batman answers by saying that Blight killed his father, he casually replies "Do you have the slightest idea how ''little'' that narrows it down?"
  • Starter Villain: He's Terry's first Big Bad and the most important villain in his rogues gallery on account of him ordering the murder of Warren McGinnis. While he's the most frequently recurring antagonist throughout the show, he's never heard from again after his ambiguous death in the first season finale.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • Visually an Expy of minor villain Doctor Phosphorus. Phosphorus even calls himself the "Baron of Blight" in Stephanie Brown's Batgirl series.
    • His visuals aside, the showrunners specifically modeled him to be a Lex Luthor type though, with his relation to a teen hero, he evokes a bit of Norman Osborn as well.
    • He's also very similar to Superman villain, Atomic Skull, visually and ability-wise.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: His son Paxton is just him with brown hair.
  • Uncertain Doom: He seemingly perishes in "Ascension", yet Terry doubts that he's gone for good.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: As Blight, Powers lacks any formal hand to hand skills, but just being in the same room as him is enough to catch a potentially lethal dose of radiation poisoning and his very touch allows him to go toe to toe with the likes of Mr. Freeze.
  • Villainous Breakdown: His mental starts deteriorating from the pilot episode forward as his hope of being cured dwindles and he embraces the power of being Blight. He really loses it when he's conned by his son into exposing himself to the business world. It gets even worse after Paxton almost kills him, causing Powers to go absolutely nuclear with rage and destroys the submarine around him, seemingly killing himself in the process.
  • Villains Out Shopping: Somewhat surreally, his final episode features a scene of him eating a sandwich.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Averted; he has a bad reputation even before his illegal actions are made public.
  • Walking Wasteland: After his treatment, his body is glowing with radiation, making him toxic to all surrounding life. He eventually embraces it by naming himself "Blight".
  • You Killed My Father: Mr. Fixx may have done the deed, but Derek Powers is the one who gave the order to have Warren McGinnis killed. When he demands to know who Batman is and why he's targeting him, Terry quotes the trope word-for-word. Cue Powers iconic response of, "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?"

    Inque 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inque_pose.png
Voiced by: Shannon Kenny
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Justice League

Inque: "That money put a roof over your head! You had new clothes, enough to eat, it's more than I ever had as a child."
Deanna Clay: "Is that why you let them turn you into a biohazard? For more money?"
Inque: "Yes. For money. More money than you can imagine."

A metahuman who is able to transform into liquid after being paid to be a human test subject for a mutagen. She works as a freelance saboteur and is often hired by powerful corporations.


  • Abhorrent Admirer: Gains one in the form of Aaron Herbst in "Disappearing Inque." He's her caretaker while she's frozen in ice following her first encounter with Batman and is completely lucid while he drones on and on about his problems to her and kisses her frozen body for luck. She uses him as an easy accomplice after he breaks her out then condemns him to a Fate Worse than Death by giving him only a half dose of the mutagen he wanted to use to become like her, turning him into a permanent, powerless blob creature.
  • Action Mom: She's one of Terry's deadliest enemies and the episode "Inqueling" reveals she has a daughter.
  • Affably Evil: Being a Punch-Clock Villain, Inque can be quite friendly and personable at times. That said, she can also be downright mean to those who cross her.
  • And I Must Scream: Her first appearance has her frozen and in police custody but still completely lucid. Which unfortunately means she was aware and had to endure the endless whining of her loser caretaker about his life.
  • Antagonistic Offspring: Her daughter ends up trying to kill her to seize all of Inque's sizable fortune for herself. Despite this, Inque still loves her daughter and never goes after her in revenge, according to the comics
  • Anti-Villain: She is a brutal mercenary and one of Neo-Gotham's deadliest residents, but she really just wants to get by with the unique condition she has, as well as provide for her daughter, who she can't be with due to her underhanded work. It's somewhat understandable why she's so cruel when Terry keeps getting in her way.
  • Blob Monster: The mutagen that she was a guinea pig for turned her into an inky black mass of sludge, giving her shapeshifting capabilities and thus a large arsenal of weapons to turn her appendages into.
  • Child by Rape: It is strongly implied Deanna's conception was not willing in the comics, given Inque's status as a terrorized refugee shipped off by sex traffickers.
  • Combat Tentacles: One of her main combat tactics is to use her transformed arms as whips.
  • Dark Action Girl: She regularly goes toe-to-toe with Batman, and usually wins, sometime even winning easily.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Sweet mother of God. Her backstory from the comics was awful.
    • Her country was ripped apart due to a civil war. She ended up a refugee. Disease nearly killed her and her father twice. Her mother gets shot and killed when it looks like they might escape. She manages to get on a boat to America, but her father is left to die and she is sold by sex traffickers. She is left in the hands of people who give her rotten meat and stale bread to live on and that's on a good day. It's heavily implied that she also gets sexually abused by a group of slavers and later finds out she's pregnant. Once she reaches the States she gets experimented on and it looks like she's about to die, so she leaves her daughter with people who can take care of her.
  • Dark Is Evil: Her true form is a living black liquid, and she is one of Terry's worst enemies.
  • Does Not Like Men: Never stated outright but Inque expresses almost no attraction to men outside of manipulating and using them. She seems to take special pleasure in tormenting and dominating both Terry and Aaron. Fridge Horror when you realize she's so defensive to male contact because she was gang-raped by sex traffickers in her youth.
    • An unusual exception to this is during Disappearing Inque, where she does kiss Terry in the middle of threatening his and Bruce's lives. Notably, she never displays any future attraction to him following this moment.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She tried to provide for her daughter, Deanna Clay, but her condition and life of crime made her influence at best mediocre. Unfortunately, the feeling's not mutual, which is kind of her fault. Despite this and the clear insinuation in the episode that Inque will return to revenge herself on her daughter, it turns out she still deeply loves her and never once considers harming her for the betrayal.
  • Expy:
    • As a shapeshifting Blob Monster in a Batman show, she's very similar to Clayface.
    • Inque bears more than a few similarities to Marvel's Mystique, as both are blue-skinned shapeshifting Femme Fatale, complete with difficult relations to their estranged children.
    • For that matter, her Blob Monster powers, ability to make claws, blades and tentacles, and her extreme power comparable to Terry bring to mind Marvel's Carnage.
  • Forceful Kiss: She gives one to Batman. It comes as a surprise since she shows no romantic interest in him or any instances of flirting with him before or after the kiss. She simply does it as a way to gag him and stop him from talking to Bruce over his intercom.
  • Give Her a Normal Life: The episode "Inqueling" reveals that, before her mutation, Inque gave birth to a daughter she subsequently gave up for adoption. When the two reunite in the show, Inque explains that she had grown up poor and allowed herself to become Inque all for the money, and she wanted to give her daughter an easier life with normal parents and a large trust fund. This instance is a bit of a deconstruction of the trope as the story shows how strong the bond between a parent and child who hardly or never see each other would actually be. Hint: Not very strong at all. While Inque loved her daughter, to her daughter she was just a stranger who randomly showed up on her doorstep one day. When Inque reveals just how much money she has, however, her daughter attempts to kill her in order to get control of her bank accounts. She points out that Inque never gave her anything except money, so why is Inque surprised that she's just taking more of it?
    • It may also explain why, despite Terry's/Batman's warning to her daughter, she's never seen taking any kind of revenge on Deanna.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Bruce has come out of retirement twice to aid Terry in defeating her.
  • Hero Killer: Noticeably deadlier and harder to defeat than Terry's other foes. Terry has never beaten her without assistance, and she's dangerous enough that Bruce has come out of retirement twice to help him out and nearly died for his troubles. Out of all of Terry's Rogues Gallery, Inque has come the closest to killing him on several occasions, something not even Blight or the Joker were able to accomplish.
  • Hired Guns: Inque is a mercenary who specializes in industrial sabotage, though she's not above assassinations if the price is right.
  • The Juggernaut: The only member of Terry's Rogues Gallery that he was almost never able to beat on his own because she could power through or escape anything he tried. Most of his victories against her were owed to by the aid of others; Bruce (twice), Inque’s treacherous daughter, and Superman.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: She doesn't particularly like being an unstable Blob Monster, as shown in the comics. Downplayed in that it's not having powers she has problems with, though. It's just that her form is chronically unstable, and she hates being dependent on various chemicals for keeping her form intact. It's likely this had something to do with why she has so much contempt for Aaron Herbst.
  • Interplay of Sex and Violence: She forces a deep kiss on Terry right after threatening to kill him if "the old man" didn't show up, while simultaneously crushing his neck with her tentacle arm.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In her second episode, Inque betrays her accomplice Aaron (who has deluded himself into thinking she returns his obsessive feelings for her), and grants him his request to be like her by turning him into a powerless, barely mobile blob monster. In her next appearance, Inque herself is betrayed by her own daughter, Deanna, who could not care less about her and tries to have her killed for money - something Inque is not happy about in the slightest when the backstabbing happens.
  • Meaningful Name: If her daughter is anything to go by, her surname is "Clay." Also, her name is "Inque" and she looks like the mascot of a pen company.
  • Morphic Resonance: She always has a black coloration with the blank, white eyes (her human form is black all over, with chalky blue skin and normal eyes). Batman exploits this when he recognized her, after Inque very nearly loses him by impersonating a member of a group of walruses.
  • Ms. Fanservice: A very attractive, curvaceous woman who often carries herself in a very seductive manner.
  • Mugging the Monster: In one episode, she attempts to hold off Terry by grabbing what she thinks is an Innocent Bystander and holding him hostage. The "victim" turns out to be Superman in disguise. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: What else can you call someone who got their jollies off pouring themselves into another person to drown them?
  • No One Could Survive That!: Her daughter Deanna injected her with a dissolving agent and assumed it killed her. Ever the smart crimefighter, Terry knew better. The end of the episode shows that Terry is right to think this, and Inque later appears in "The Call" and in a Justice League episode set farther in the future.
  • Not Quite Dead: Her second and third appearances each ended with her seemingly dying. Each time she's able to reform. Batman even brings this up to successfully freak out Inque's treacherous daughter.
  • Older Than They Look: Her human form looks surprisingly youthful given the later reveal that she has an adult daughter. Presumably the experiment that gave Inque her powers also stopped her from aging.
  • Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Whatever the purpose of the experiment that transformed her, it left her a dark-hued polymorph mutant capable of assuming malleable or even liquid forms, hence why she chose the alias "Inque".
  • Orifice Invasion: Good lord, EW: Her last-ditch attempt to kill Terry in her first episode is to force herself down his throat to either drown him or shred him apart from the inside out.
  • Pet the Dog: Terry warns her daughter that Inque might want revenge after her betrayal. The comic continuation shows that Inque felt she deserved the betrayal on account of being an absentee parent and never thought to go after her for revenge.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Inque is a fairly mundane corporate saboteur for hire. While she isn't harmless, and repeatedly demonstrates a willingness to kill anyone who gets in her way, she isn't a standard psychotic, mercenary-for-fun personality you'd expect to see in a supervillain and unless it's to stay alive or part of a job, Inque doesn't do anything villainous unless somebody is bankrolling her.
  • Shapeshifter Baggage: Possibly averted, but never outright stated. She's implied to be relatively quite heavy for her size (i.e. roughly that of an average sized woman for most of the time), implying she has a dense body. The strength she's demonstrated can explain her ease of movement if that's the case.
  • Shapeshifter Default Form: She has a "human" form that imitates her original human body, though she can only get the shape right, not the color. Her regular form is much more simplistic, humanoid with an oval-shaped head with a single white spot on it for an eye.
  • Shapeshifter Longevity: Appears quite youthful in her Shapeshifter Default Form... and yet, it turns out that she has an adult daughter, so presumably the experiments that turned her into a polymorphic Blob Monster made of Ominous Obsidian Ooze have prevented Inque from aging.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: Mostly Combat Tentacles, but has used blades and giant needles.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: To Batman. An interesting version though, as it there was no romantic subtext or growing interest between the two, but only to keep him from talking.
  • The Spook: Interpol has been after her for years but they have no photos of her on record. Inque's real name, her past, even the experiment that turned her into a polymorphic ooze is all shrouded in mystery. The most that's revealed in the show is that she endured an impoverished childhood, had a daughter and claims to have willingly partaken in the experiment for "more money than you can imagine."
  • Superpower Meltdown: She's in the midst of one throughout the series (see above). Despite this, Inque still manages to be the most physically powerful foe Terry faces.
  • Super-Strength: Part of her success as a criminal is due to the enhanced strength her new form provides.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: She stops Batman from warning Bruce not to come like she says to by kissing him deeply on the lips. There were plenty of other ways she could easily gagged him to stop him from talking, but it is clear she chose to force a kiss on him just to mess with him since he was at her mercy.
  • Taught by Experience: In "Inqueling", she manages to escape being frozen by compressing herself into a sphere, allowing her to simply burst free of the ice.
  • The Tease: Can be rather flirty at times.
  • Unstable Genetic Code: In her second episode, "Disappearing Inque", it turns out that being cryogenically frozen destabilized her genetic code, rendering her unable to return to her human form. Her goal becomes assembling the DNA-altering chemicals she needs to repair the damage to her genes, restoring her full Voluntary Shapeshifting ability.
  • The Vamp: Isn't above using her sex appeal to get what she wants, stringing along a lovesick Aaron, leading him on with promises of a "reward" but not actually following through.
  • Villainous Face Hold: While holding Terry captive she briefly holds him by the chin after realizing he is speaking to "the old man" over his intercom. She holds him by the chin again — as she is choking him with a tentacle — while telling Bruce where they are and while forcibly kissing Terry to stop him from warning Bruce. Once she releases Terry from the kiss and pulls away, she brushes her hand against his chin in a teasing fashion.
  • Villain Team-Up: In "Epilogue", the Fully Absorbed Finale to Batman Beyond from Justice League Unlimited, Inque is revealed to have teamed up with Shriek, Stalker and the second Parasite to form a group called the Iniquity Collective.
  • Voluntary Shape Shifting: Inque can change her shape at will and demonstrates quite a bit of cunning with this ability (posing as someone's shadow or a jacket to avoid detection).
  • Weaksauce Weakness:
    • Her inky, liquid body is vulnerable to water. Just some water can dilute her enough so that she can't form a solid shape, but it doesn't permanently kill her either, since she's usually able to eventually pull herself together from being flushed.
    • Averted with her other main weaknesses: being frozen and electrocuted. While, yes, both are very effective ways to stop anyone, she's probably the only one in the series whose biology allows for Harmless Freezing as well as being lucid while frozen solid. In a later episode, she demonstrates a technique she learned for breaking out of ice blocks instantly, though Batman starts bringing along electrified equipment at about the same time.
  • The Worf Effect: The sole reason for her appearance in "The Call" was to demonstrate just how easily Superman is able to defeat her.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Subjected to this in Disappearing Inque and Inqueling. In both instances, she is weakened and needs a treatment to restore her full shapeshifting potential. Notably, these are the only times that Terry is able to overpower her, though Aaron and Deanna both run interference that ultimately prevents Terry from cementing his victory.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
    • One of Inque's crueler touches? Stringing along an orderly with promises of love and power, then giving him a dose of the serum that changed her...except giving him only enough to leave him a half-blob mess unable to do anything.
    • She's on the receiving end of it in "Inqueling" when her employer uses a special weapon to destabilize her rather than pay her the agreed upon fee. She survives and seeks refuge with her daughter. Where it happens to her again when her daughter tricks her into taking chemicals that destabilize her even more after she's gotten access to all of Inque's bank accounts. Again, Inque survives.

    Willie Watt 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_willie_watt_1484.jpg
Before
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_1willie_built_2976.jpg
Voiced by: Scott Mc Afee
Voiced by (European French): Benjamin Pascal
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"You know what I learned in juvie, Batman? You don't kick a man when he's down. You crush him!"

A bullied nerd at Terry's high school. He steals a giant construction robot from his father and, after an accident, is able to control it with his mind. He uses it to take revenge on his bullies. Though Batman destroys the robot, Willie is left with telekinetic powers.


  • Abhorrent Admirer: In his first appearance he's a stereotypical nerd who has an obvious crush on Blade. Blade, just as obviously, has no interest in him. While she privately insults him and only uses him to make Nelson jealous, she doesn't mock him to his face and doesn't want to publicly humiliate him after going to the dance with him. In his second appearance, he still wants Blade, but he's taken it to psychotic levels, using his psychic powers to run amok at the school while pretending to be the ghost of a deceased student to earn her affection. When that plan fails, he just uses his powers to try to force a kiss on her despite her being obviously horrified of him.
  • Abusive Parents: Willie's dad is an aggressive macho idiot who calls Willie a "wuss." After looking somewhat sad about how his son turned out in their debut episode, Willie's next appearance reveals that his father has never visited him once in juvie.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: After both his defeats. In the first, the other characters look at him with pity because even though he was trying to kill them, he was lashing out because of constant abuse from bullies and his father and didn't know any better way to express it. In the second, he ends up back in juvie, only this time his powers are exposed and contained, he's gotten a longer sentence, and he's just as alone as ever with no one coming to visit him.
  • Alliterative Name: Willie Watt.
  • Became Their Own Antithesis: He was a scrawny nerd bullied by both Nelson and his father, but after bulking up in juvie and gaining psychic powers, Willie tells Nelson he never understood why Nelson got so much enjoyment out of picking on people weaker than him until Willie got power of his own.
  • Bond Creatures: Willie treated the Golem like this was the case after he discovered he could control it himself.
  • Companion Cube: After the accident that bonded the golem to him, Willie treated it like a fellow human being.
  • Cover-Blowing Superpower: Based on a hunch, Terry throws a glass of water right at Willie's head. Yup, Willy has telekinesis and halts the glass mere inches from his face. And since it was caught on a security camera, Terry doesn't have to worry about blowing his own cover.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Batman accidentally electrocuting the Golem while Willie was still wearing its control halo gave Willie his powers.
  • Didn't Think This Through: His escape from juvie and subsequent rampage seem more like a spur-of-the-moment thing than anything; if Willie hadn't blown his own cover or even just gone quietly when the guards stormed his cell, he still might have gotten his early parole. Terry even points out that they might never let him out now.
  • The Dreaded: His fellow detainees and some fellow guards at juvie became quite afraid of him, to Terry's surprise. After Willie breaks out, Terry even manages to convince Commissioner Gordon into help shutting down the school until he gets caught.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Naturally what happens when a bullied youth with an abusive parents gains control of a giant robot and gets a taste of what it's like to step on people weaker than him.
  • Expy:
    • Of Carrie White, also a Distaff Counterpart. A meek teenager who's always being bullied by classmates, not helped at all by an abusive parent, who develops psychic powers which are let loose at a dance after an incredibly vicious humiliation.
    • Also of Doctor Octopus from the Marvel universe. Like Doc Ock, Willie is a jerkass woobie technopath who was bullied in school and who grew up with a cruel father. The two even have similar hair styles.
  • Freudian Excuse: Willie tried to kill his father and everyone at his high school dance. But only after putting up with his Jerkass of a father, getting bullied and assaulted by a Jerk Jock, and getting pushed off a 30-foot dock into the water by said jerk jock. Then he gains the power to control a giant robot with his mind, and then Psychic Powers, and his main motivation is getting back at everyone who ever wronged him.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: He was a nobody who was picked on by the jocks and shunned by all the girls until he was given a visor to control a mini-Kaiju-sized, remote-controlled robot by his overly-aggressive and never-satisfied father to fight back with. Willie then donned the visor and essentially went crazy because he was drunk with power and succeeded at getting back at the people who bullied him until Terry/Batman intervened, destroyed the visor and short circuited Willie's brain. Then at the end of the episode with Willie in juvenile, he found out he had gained psychic powers. THEN in an episode in the next season, Willie has become buff, breaks out of juvie, rampages through the school with his powers and tries to take Blade, the girl who had rejected him before. Now he was a jacked-up, psychotic psychic Somebody.
  • Genius Bruiser: After a while in juvie with nothing better to do than hit the gym. When Terry commented on it, Nelson said there wasn't much to do in juvie besides lifting weights.
  • Hopeless Suitor: For Blade. Before his imprisonment he was a stereotypical, bullied nerd who Blade only went out with to make Nelson jealous. He's still obsessed with her during his imprisonment only now she's terrified of him because he's a super-powered psychopath.
  • Humans Are Psychic in the Future: His telekinesis was treated in an oddly normal manner, although he wasn't born with it.
  • Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Willie Watt a complete nerd and not the cute kind. Conversely, his father Frank is a well-built man who is into construction. He makes it clear to Willy that he "ain't raisin' no wuss" and encourages Willie to use violence against the bullies that torment him. This inspires Willie to steal a high-powered construction Golem and attacks his fellow students with it at a school dance. He even aims to be a Self-Made Orphan and tries desperately to kill his own father. What was Frank's response when his son got arrested for all this mayhem? "Guess this means he ain't no wuss anymore." Batman's Disapproving Look makes him regret saying that.
  • The Kid with the Remote Control: Villainous example. He had first the remote control for, and later mental command of, a massive humanoid construction machine known as a Golem. He did not use it wisely.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: After he was electrocuted while controlling the Golem, he gained the ability to control it without the control headband, and has clearly gained technopathic powers. It's later scrapped in favor of an array of other psychic powers.
  • Like Father, Unlike Son: His dad is an abrasive construction foreman who barks orders at his co-workers. Willy is a wimpy nerd who gets walked over by everyone. This changes later on as Willy goes to prison and becomes a tougher man, much to his dad's pride.
  • Not Me This Time: In the tie-in comic, the Golem (or what's left of it) starts attacking people. Terry goes to Willie, who claims that, while it's not him, the Golem did send him the message that it found a new master, so he still might have a connection to it. It wasn't him, either.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: In his first episode he was dependent on the Golem to be any kind of threat. By the time Terry sees him again, Willie's become anything but harmless. Not only has he bulked up in prison but he's also developed psychic powers from his bond with the Golem.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: At first, letting loose only against the likes of Nelson Nash and the Jokerz, before being pushed too far at the dance.
  • Prisons Are Gymnasiums: He becomes a lot more buff after he spends his time lifting weights in juvie.
  • Psychic Powers: At first, he could control a robot, and by the end of the episode, it was revealed he appeared to be developing a greater talent as a Technopath. Later demonstrates levitation and some serious psychokinesis.
  • Running Gag: Willie destroys Nelson's Cool Car in every episode he appears in, knowing that it'll be one of the few things that really upsets him.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Though he ditched them after becoming buff.
  • Self-Disposing Villain: In his second appearance, he knocks himself out after he creates a huge whirlwind with his psychic powers, accidentally uprooting a tree which hits him in the head.
  • Self-Made Orphan: He tries to kill his abusive father at the end of "Golem." Weirdly enough, it's the first time his dad expresses pride in him for "not being a wuss anymore."
  • Slasher Smile: He loves making these when he's using his powers.
  • Stalker with a Crush: On bit character named Blade initially.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: A man who can control a giant robot via his mind named "Watt." It's pretty self-explanatory. Even more appropriate when he demonstrates a little technopathy.
    • Later, he's developed other psychic powers, and his name is still "Will(ie)."
  • Tacky Tuxedo: Wears an orange version to the spring dance in the episode "Golem." Made worse by the fact that other episodes show that future formal fashions are even more streamlined than those of today, meaning it was really, really out of date and it wasn't actually a formal occasion (the only guys are wearing pretty casual clothes).
  • Technopath: At first, he was limited to commanding a robot which he was controlling when he got electrocuted. At the end of the episode, he demonstrated full-on technopathy by blowing out a TV with his mind. On his eventual return, the writers had scrapped the technopath angle in favor of full-blown psychic powers.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Twice. The first time was when he gained a psychic link with the Golem after being electrocuted while controlling it. The second time he hit the gym in juvie and bulked up considerably, while also developing psychic powers he got from the Golem in secret. If he ever gets out of jail, he's going to be one scary member of the Rogues Gallery.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The episode "Revenant" is Willie's last appearance in both this series and the DC Animated Universe. Apart from being imprisoned for longer with a power dampener, his ultimate fate is unknown.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: His ultimate goal is to push everyone around like they used to do with him.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Willie was more than willing to kill his father with his new control over his robot, even with Terry trying to reason, "But he's your father!" Only for Willie to respond, "Not for long."
  • You Are What You Hate: Nelson did a pretty good job of humiliating Willie in front of their peers. But when Willie returns, more powerful than ever, he now understands why Nelson enjoys bullying people weaker than him (Batman asks him "How are you doing this!?", to which Willie responds "With supreme satisfaction!" while grinning dementedly.)

    Shriek (Walter Shreeve) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shriek_batman_beyond_by_alexbadass_d986b13_fullview.png
Voiced by: Chris Mulkey
->Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Juan Guzman
Voiced by (Italian): Marco Balzarotti
Voiced by (European French): Patrice Baudrier
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Justice League

"Credits? After what was taken from me, do you honestly think I care about money? Ollie, there's a whole world of sound out there that I'll never hear outside of this stinking suit!"

A sound engineer whose focus on researching brilliant but impractical inventions nearly drove himself out of business. He was bailed out by Derek Powers, who eventually pressures Shreeve into becoming a hitman. He wears a suit with built-in speakers that fire destructive sound blasts. After losing his hearing because of Batman, Shriek turns to supervillainy in his quest for revenge.


  • Affably Evil: He's pretty friendly to Terry while he's posing as a pizza guy, and later, treats his assistant, Ollie, with a fair amount of courtesy.
  • Ambiguously Gay: He wears one gold earring on his right ear, which was rumored to be a fashion for gay males in The '90s. He also is close enough to Ollie that he lets him pleasure himself with his instruments, and the two are even seen living together in his third appearance. Ollie also comforts him when he's venting his problems or letting his hatred of Batman get the better of him.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Powers' opinion of Shreeve and his work. Shreeve invents the sound suit for construction and demolition purposes, but Powers points out that dynamite is cheaper.
  • Benevolent Boss: To Ollie, for the most part.
  • Big "NO!": His reaction to losing his hearing.
  • Butt-Monkey: By the time we meet him, the guy has run his company into the ground and can only get funding if he does Powers' dirty work. Then he loses his company when he flips out at a suspicious pizza boy. Then he loses his hearing when his own suit backfires. In his second appearance, a building falls on him. In his third, he's forced to live in underground tunnels and gets beaten by Bruce with a cane. Even Dak, who supposedly idolizes supervillains, has nothing good to say about him. Really, if Shreeve wasn't such a violently vengeful dick, you'd almost feel sorry for him.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: When Barbra tells him that he's out of his mind to bargain the sanity of Gotham for Batman's life, he only replies with "duh".
  • Character Development: Shreeve starts out as a relatively stable Punch-Clock Villain who isn’t particularly malicious, and is only working with Powers to finance his research. After his life is stripped away from him and he’s left deaf after a fight with Batman, he embraces his villainy and becomes a vengeful madman who doesn’t care about money or anything other than revenge.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: His sound suit.
  • Conspicuously Selective Perception: Variant on ignoring sounds not made by the protagonist: his suit's abilities include nullifying sound in the surrounding area. When Batman turns on the machines in a factory in order to mask his own movements, Shriek uses his suit to block out the sounds, followed by another adjustment so that he can still hear Batman moving around.
  • Cool, but Inefficient: Lampshaded in his debut, where he demonstrates his powerful sound weapon to Derek Powers. Shreeve finds he has a tough job selling his technology when Powers notes that for regular tasks like demolition, conventional tools like dynamite are just as effective and cheaper than some exotic new technology that'll take a long, long time to pay for itself.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Inverted; it's the fact that his inventions weren't cost-effective that led to his supervillain career, even if it took some pushing from Powers to get him there.
  • Driven to Villainy: He didn't originally plan to be a criminal, but he was forced to become Powers' hitman because of his Awesome, but Impractical research and lack of business skills. That said, he doesn't seem to have many reservations about killing Bruce Wayne, or in threatening all of Gotham to get revenge on Batman.
  • Earthquake Machine: He later uses a modified version of the same utility to get this effect.
  • Electric Instant Gratification: He pays his assistant Ollie by letting him use a "pleasure wand" that directly stimulates the brain's pleasure centers.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: A minor example but in Babel he is visibly disgusted at Ollie after he gives him the tuning fork for pleasure purposes.
  • Everything Is An I Pod In The Future: An Ur-Example. He first appeared before iPods were released, but he's a futuristic villain whose suit is made up of white plastic.
  • Evil Cripple: Was subjected to crippling levels of tinnitus following his first defeat. Without his suit, he can hear, but only a perpetual loud ringing noise that blocks out all other sound. Which is arguably worse than being deaf.
  • Evil Gloating: Just what Bruce needed to attack him by surprise.
  • Expy: Bears a resemblance to the Shocker, a recurring Spider-Man villain.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: He was once Walter Shreeve, a phonologist, sound student, and engineer. But when he was told his funding would be cut, Derek Powers offered to let him continue if he would kill Bruce Wayne. After his initial battle against Batman, Shriek lost his hearing and began using his powers to torment the city, including at one time, completely muting all sound in the city.
  • Heel–Face Turn: In the 2016 series, he becomes a protector of some sewer dwellers without any ulterior motive, letting go of his grudge against Batman (as long as he and his charges are left alone) and helps stop another supervillain.
  • Hidden Depths: He's generally a vengeful, vindictive man who doesn't care how much damage he causes in his quest to kill Batman. But he shows a decidedly different side around those who seem to appreciate his work. When Terry shows up disguised as a pizza boy, he takes pity on him for getting the wrong order and gives him a tour of his workshop...before snapping back to paranoid anger when he realizes the kid is a spy. This also extends to his partnership with Ollie, as Shreeve generally treats him as an equal and confides his frustrations with him. For all his talk of vengeance, Shriek still on some level does value companionship.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • The irony. A sound engineer turned deaf by his own invention.
    • Another time, his deafness was an advantage in a fight. Too bad he couldn't hear the massive building coming down on him from behind.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: After Terry exposed him to the police and accidentally deafened him, Shriek went from a somewhat amiable Punch-Clock Villain Only in It for the Money to a deranged, vengeful madman willing to throw all of Gotham into chaos if it meant getting his revenge.
  • Make Some Noise: Shriek uses his sound manipulation tech to try and convince Bruce that he was hearing voices and going insane. He can use the same technology to stimulate pleasure centers of the brain with vibrations and drive animals berserk with a special frequency only they can hear. When that fails, he often goes the conventional route of pummeling Batman with concussive blasts of sound.
  • Meaningful Rename: In his debut, Terry incidentally exposed him to the police. Knowing that his civilian life was shot, he turned to Powers, who suggested that he rename himself "Shriek", noting that it wasn't a friendly name, but it was better to be feared than loved.
  • Nature Is Not a Toy: Shreeve was an excellent audio engineer whose inventions allowed him to manipulate sound waves in a variety of different ways, from demolition to outright psychological manipulation. Unfortunately, brilliant as they were, they began proving to be too expensive to build and, as Derek Powers points out when Shreeve tries to land a legitimate job at Wayne-Powers, impractical. Derek instead enlists Shreeve as a hitman in an assassination attempt against Bruce Wayne but is foiled by Terry. In the ensuing fight, Terry briefly manages to use Shreeve's own inventions against him by turning on every machine in the factory they're fighting in, making it impossible for Shreeve to locate him at first. Shreeve adjusts the disks on his suit to mute all other sounds except for Terry's footsteps, but this backfires on him rather spectacularly when one of the disks gets struck by Terry's Batarang and massively amplifies all audio input, rendering Shreeve completely deaf.
  • Never My Fault: Blames Batman for causing his deafness, even though it never would've happened if Shriek hadn't tried to kill him.
  • Nice to the Waiter: In his first appearance when Terry poses as a lost pizza guy to investigate him, Shreeve takes pity on him, invites him into his workshop and patiently answers all of Terry's questions regarding the science behind his inventions. It's only after Terry keeps digging by asking about using sound waves for destructive purposes that Shreeve realizes Terry knows about his villainous activities and tries to kill him.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: At first. He just wanted continued funding from Derek Powers for his research, which (to Shreeve's regret) he could only get by assassinating Bruce Wayne. After Batman deafens him, his villainy becomes personal.
  • Revenge Before Reason: At first, he just wants to secure funds so he can keep doing his research, but as his life is stripped away, he degrades to this. Summed up in one exchange, after he's exposed as Shriek and goes to see Powers with the intent of killing him:
    Powers: That's not going to help.
    Shriek: No, but it'll make me feel better.
  • Sanity Slippage: He started out as a fairly stable Punch-Clock Villain, but after being exposed as a criminal his mental state begins to decline. When a fight with Terry leaves him with an extremely severe case of tinnitus which leaves him only capable of hearing a loud ringing noise that drowns out all other sound, he loses it completely and becomes consumed with a desire for revenge against Batman.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the Manly Man to his more laid-back and affable assistant, Ollie.
  • Sensory Overload: What caused his impairment. He was fighting Batman with all types of sound muted, but when Batman destroyed one of his devices, he got suddenly exposed to vibrations from all over the city.
  • Unexplained Recovery: In his second appearance, a skyscraper falls directly on him. But he comes back later perfectly alive and well and there's no reason given how he survived.
  • Villain Team-Up: In "Epilogue", the Fully Absorbed Finale to Batman Beyond from Justice League Unlimited, Shriek is revealed to have teamed up with Inque, Stalker and the second Parasite to form a group called the Iniquity Collective.
  • Would Hurt a Child: The episode “Where’s Terry?” has Shriek taking a child named Dax hostage and threatening to murder him if Batman doesn’t give himself up. To highlight what a loser Shriek is among Batman’s rogues, not only does Dax, who idolizes super villains, have nothing but insults for Shriek, but Shriek can only throw out petulant and lame threats in response.

    Spellbinder (Dr. Ira Billings) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spellbinder_batman_beyond.jpg
"Don't be afraid, I don't bite."
Voiced by: Jon Cypher
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"For years, I've fought the demons in the heads of those ungrateful little snots, while their coddling parents paid their garbage men more than me! Now I'm taking what I've earned!"

A disgruntled, underpaid high school psychiatrist who decides to take up villainy to get back at the people he tried to reform.


  • Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, Spellbinder's first name is Delbert.
  • Adaptational Badass: Spellbinder was based on an obscure Silver Age Batman villain from the comics.
  • Adaptational Late Appearance: In the comics, Spellbinder was one of Bruce's rogues, while here, he only appears by the time Terry has become Batman.
  • Age Lift: Related to the Adaptational Late Appearance, he's younger than Bruce instead of the same age.
  • Child Hater: Calls the kids he treated "ungrateful little snots", and in both his first and second appearances he uses illusions and addiction, respectively, to get kids to steal for him. Possibly he cared more for them in the past, but grew increasingly embittered since no matter how much he helped them he never got the compensation or respect he felt he was owed for it.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Played with; he does what he does because he feels severely under-compensated for the work he puts in. He already did put his skills to legitimate use and didn't find it remotely satisfying.
    • On the other hand, the fact that he's capable of developing such an advanced VR technology should mean that he can make a fortune in the IT field. Maybe the guy is pursuing a wrong career, after all.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Spellbinder's existence can be hinted at as early as the show's opening credits.
  • Evil Gloating: In "Eyewitness," when his scheme to trick everyone into thinking Batman murdered Mad Stan is exposed, he takes the time to indulge in this as he's taken into custody, outright stating that it was easy to fool Barbara because of her Inspector Javert tendencies towards Batman.
    Spellbinder: You were so ready to believe the worst, it was easy.
  • Evil Is Petty: Everything he does is motivated by him being angry over being underpaid,
  • Expy: While there is in fact a Spellbinder in the Batman comics (four of them in fact), this guy—an evil psychologist and illusionist who is a bit of a wimp underneath the mask—is most likely the Beyond version of The Scarecrow. He also shares similarities with the Spider-Man villain, Mysterio.
  • Faceless Eye: His favorite gizmo.
  • The Fagin: In "Hooked Up" he's become an incredibly dark example. He gets runaway teens addicted to a G-Rated Drug VR arcade where they experience very real and painful withdrawal symptoms whenever they're forced to leave. If they can't pay him for the experience, he forces them to steal for him. Eventually the process leaves the runaways comatose, at which point he has their bodies dumped across town then sends the other runaways out to recruit other teens.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He acts polite and snarky while dealing with people, but he takes pleasure in psychologically abusing his victims. The one time we see him actually doing his job—before he is exposed—he seems friendly and professional, but he is mostly interested in the fact that Terry works for a billionaire and takes advantage of Terry's father's recent death to get close enough to brainwash him.
  • Flaw Exploitation: His plot in "Eyewitness" hinged on exploiting Barbara's Inspector Javert tendencies towards Batman, duping her into thinking he killed Mad Stan in cold blood. It almost works, and he's exposed and arrested, he gloats to Barbara's face that it was easy to trick her because she was already fully prepared to believe the worst in Batman anyway.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: He was at first a bitter and underpaid psychologist at Terry's school. To gain some cash, he used his self-made VR technology to get students to steal for him. After being arrested and escaping, he began making even stronger VR simulators giving runaways and unwanted kids a perfect life for a short time in exchange for stealing, knowing they would overdose in time and didn't care. He also got a city-wide manhunt going against Batman by making people think he killed Mad Stan in cold blood.
  • G-Rated Drug: Opens a VR arcade, where people can experience their greatest fantasies. However, he deliberately made the effect addictive. As soon as people leave VR, they experience intense withdrawal symptoms. He uses this to get people to steal for him.
  • Greed: His main motivation. His first two schemes are all about getting money through increasingly despicable means. His final appearance has him opting for revenge against Batman instead.
  • Hate Sink: Out of all the recurring villains, Spellbinder stands out as one with absolutely no redeeming qualities or humanizing moments. Even his Freudian Excuse amounts to "I wasn't being paid enough, so I'm going to destroy children's lives", which doesn't get into why he doesn't use his skills for something more successful. At the end of the day, while he isn’t nearly as bad as Blight, he's still a greedy, vile, manipulative, sadistic, child-abusing monster who targets troubled teenagers and delights in snatching their fantasy lives away in exchange for more money, and that's all there is to him.
  • It's All About Me: Everything Spellbinder does is over a sense of entitlement to anything he wants, and he claims he is justified in brainwashing and harming troubled teens because he isn’t paid enough.
  • It's Personal: Implied in this case, but his first two appearances he was driven by greed and encountered Batman only incidentally. By his third appearance, his scheme involves tricking the police into hunting down and imprisoning/killing Batman for him.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Spellbinder prefers to let his illusions do the fighting for him, but isn't afraid of getting his own hands dirty when necessary.
  • Manipulative Bastard: His specialty. His training as a psychologist and his advanced technology gives him an edge in this, and all of his evil plans involve using or brainwashing innocent people to get them to steal for him or, in the case of Barbara Gordon, to kill Batman for him.
  • Master of Illusion: Downplayed; he's skilled at tailoring illusions for specific psychological profiles but his technology is limited to close-range and he usually can only affect one person at a time.
  • Mind-Control Device: His handheld Evil Eye, which allows him to implant hallucinations in his victims’ minds. It can also be used for Mind Rape, which he inflicts on Terry in his second appearance.
  • Motive Rant: His debut appearance has him ranting about how he deals with all the problems of the kids at Terry's school and believes he's underpaid and underappreciated for his services.
  • Motive Decay: His first two appearances have him only after money, but apparently being foiled by Batman twice got to him, because his scheme pivoted into purely revenge by his third appearance.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: He's a high school psych counselor that somehow gained an advanced, palm-sized device through which vivid and complex illusions can be directly beamed into people's brains, a uniquely designed hovercraft and a seamless form-fitting suit. His second appearance sees him set up an underground virtual reality arcade. There is no explanation as to how he acquired any of these things.
  • Psycho Psychologist: He turned out to be the psychiatrist at Hamilton High School, who used his position to hypnotize his young patients into aiding him to steal from their wealthy parents. He's called this by the news in his second appearance as well.
  • The Shrink: He's supposed to be one for the student body.
  • Sky Surfing: He has his own mechanical device to fly on, although it's more spherical than board-shaped.
  • The Sociopath: He has no regard for the lives of others and loves to manipulate and endanger teenagers all for his own greedy purposes.
  • Soft-Spoken Sadist: He's usually deadpan and snarky while he psychologically destroys his enemies.
  • Squishy Wizard: His illusions are dangerous but he depends on the element of surprise and he's all but useless in a straight fight. In his second appearance he subdues Batman with a sneak attack, but easily gets defeated by Max.
  • This Is Not a Floor: Uses an illusion to nearly trick Terry into walking off a cliff. He has also tricked Terry into diving off of a building by projecting a waterfall over it.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: He started off as a thief motivated by greed and a sense of entitlement, but in "Hooked" he becomes a sadistic monster who gets teenage runaways hooked on his VR lab and forces them to steal for him in exchange for more, and he doesn’t give a shit about overdosing them.
  • Villain Has a Point: In "Eyewitness." Sure, he tricked Barbara Gordon into thinking Batman killed Mad Stan. But his taunt to her proves his point of her biased opinion and how she's ready to believe the worst in Terry. His trick just finally pulled the trigger for it.
  • Warrior Therapist: With an emphasis on "therapist" rather than "warrior", but he has gotten the better of Batman in the past, albeit with the help of distractions or illusions. He's not afraid to get physically violent with his enemy.
  • We Have Reserves: A disturbing example in "Hooked Up," whenever one of his runaway recruits ends up comatose from overdosing on his VR arcade he just has the others dump the bodies somewhere and makes them go out and recruit another teen to take the other's place.
  • Weak, but Skilled: He has no fighting skills, but proves a formidable opponent to Batman because of his ability to produce powerful illusions. In their only actual battle, Spellbinder is able to get the upper-hand on Batman because of this, and if it weren't for Bruce helping Terry see through them, Spellbinder might have actually succeeded in killing him.
  • What the Hell Are You?: When Batman meets him for the first time, he's shocked by Spellbinder's unusual appearance (he wears an orange suit that seamlessly covers his body, even his face) and asks, "What the heck are you!?"
  • Would Hurt a Child: Most of his schemes involves manipulating and endangering teenagers in some way.

    Curaré 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/curare_7.jpg
Voiced by: Melissa Disney
Appearances: Batman Beyond

A silent but deadly hitwoman with blue skin, and uses a sword that can slice through anything.


  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Her primary weapon is a scimitar.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: In the cartoon's concept art, she has a distinct zombie-like appearance to her face. In the comics, she's a stunner, and no longer bald.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Pastel blue, to be specific. Justice League Beyond Issue 21 revealed that she was actually born with normal skin, but during her induction as an assassin, she got covered with a strange liquid that changed her skin color (as well as apparently damaged her face.)
  • Ambiguously Human: Her appearance is, for lack of a better term, weird. Blue skin, bald, a face that seems unpleasant to look at, and she never talks. Whether she's human or not is something nobody onscreen confirms or denies. Justice League Beyond Issue 21 reveals she is indeed human, but was transformed into her current state through drinking a strange brew upon joining the League of Assassins.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Curaré originally hated living at the Buddhist ashram where she'd been abandoned as a child. She chafed at what she considered the monks' restrictions and dreamed of leaving to get riches and fame in the outside world. When she tried rigging the ritual to determine who would become the next Dalai Lama, she was banished from the ashram. Curaré then joined the League of Assassins, where she realized her goals.
  • Assassin Outclassin': Is sent after Commissioner Barbara Gordon's husband, DA Sam Young. When she fails, the society she's a member of starts hunting her down for her failure. Thinking proactively, she in turn starts hunting down and eliminating them. She succeeds, but fails when she attacks her final target on her list: Batman himself, the one she held most responsible. (For some odd reason, she didn't include either Young or Gordon, but that may be for the best.)
  • Attack Reflector: Her sword, which has deflected lasers.
  • Bad Butt: She's an assassin with a perfect off-screen kill count before meeting Batman and she has a razor sharp scimitar that can cut through just about everything. Due to the nature of her career and deadly weapon, she should theoretically cause a lot of limbs and heads to go flying and blood to spill like water fountains. But due to being on a Kids' WB show, she does not succeed in killing her target when Batman intervenes, tends to miss more often than not when swinging her sword at Batman, and even when she does seemingly hit people with her sword like the way she cut down the soldiers on the moving train in her first appearance, it's done in the manner of Bloodless Carnage. In her second appearance, even when she's taking out all the members of the Society of Assassins, she only does so by throwing gas capsules at them that erase their minds, rather than outright murdering them.
  • Bald of Evil: The only thing we see under her veil, beside her eyes, is that she has no hair.
  • Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Her white outfit exposes her belly.
  • Butter Face: Implied by Terry's reaction and shown by her concept art. It's implied this was due to drinking a brew that also turned her skin blue.
  • Cain and Abel: Justice League Beyond Issue 21 reveals that she is Green Lantern Kai-Ro's adoptive sister and they were the only two kids in the monastery.
  • Cassandra Truth: It's unclear if she doesn't believe Batman's telling the truth about a bomb that'll kill both of them as well as a large chunk of Gotham or simply doesn't care. She's not exactly talkative on the matter.
  • Consummate Professional: She's considered to be the best assassin in her organization, which gives her the tools for when she starts eliminating them.
  • Contract on the Hitman: At the end of her first episode, she's targeted by the Legion of Assassins for failing to eliminate her target. She then turns the tables by taking out the Legion single-handedly until only one remains.
  • Dark Action Girl: Natch. She's an assassin and all.
  • Determinator: She's relentless in her goals, stopping only when failure is the outcome.
  • Evil Versus Evil: In her second appearance, the last of the Society of Assassins blackmails Batman (by taking Gotham city hostage) into helping him defeat Curare.
  • Evil Virtues: Surprisingly yes. She once attacked Maxine while she was searching the hotel room of her intended target for evidence. She came very close to killing her but as soon as she got a good look at who it was, Curaré spared her life and left. Apparently while she's unconcerned with collateral damage, Curaré only kills her intended targets along with anyone who gets in her way.
  • The Faceless: We never see her face in full, though the animation studio actually did produce some concept art that had a distinctive zombie quality to it.
    • Batman managed to rip her veil off after a particularly wild tackle. He was so shocked by her face she was able to effortlessly kick him, grab the veil and put it back on immediately. This scene was shot from behind her back, so trust Batman on this one.
    • Justice League Beyond Issue 21 reveals that she was actually fairly normal before drinking some sort of brew that transformed her, turning her skin blue and implied to warp her face.
  • Facial Horror: Implied. Her veil falls off during a fight with Batman, and he's so shocked by what was underneath that she gets a free hit in. However, the audience isn't privy to it because it's shown from the back and she quickly recovers her veil.
  • In the Hood: She wears a white veil/burka, although it's clearly only to hide what's underneath, since she's pretty distinct.
  • Inverse Law of Sharpness and Accuracy:
    • Her scimitar, which is unreasonably sharp, and she sure knew how to use it, cutting everything from park benches, steel poles, and reinforced steel doors down! However, not a single actual person felt the steel of her blade.
    • She does have a scene where she fights a few dozen cops on top of a train, a few got thrown off while she was running through them and conspicuously cutting their guns apart. She managed to knock out the ones left, or the producers were being discrete about her work.
  • Life Isn't Fair: As a kid, she told her younger adoptive brother that life was not fair, given how they were living poor lifestyles among monks and abandoned by their parents. However, while her brother never let it bother him and tried to make the world a better place while appreciating what he had, she stewed in her bitterness before becoming Curare.
  • McNinja: She has a vaguely Arabian getup, implying she may be some variety of Hashshashin, and quite similar to the original League of Assassins.
    • However, it's revealed that she was originally a former monk of Tibet.
  • Meaningful Name: Curaré is also the name for a poisonous plant used by South American native peoples to tip their arrows.
    • The plant is also used by some doctors as a muscle relaxant, with one of the side effects being blue-tinged skin.
  • Murderous Thighs: When she had her arms tied, she manages to wrap her legs around Batman, to great effect. Jumping around the scenes as she does, she clearly has a good deal of leg strength.
  • Obviously Evil: A mean-looking assassin with a nasty-looking sword isn't an appearance that suggested she wanted to give Terry a big hug...
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Curaré shows no mercy either to her targets or to anyone that tries to hinder her, but she'll spare anyone who isn't a target or a threat. She initially tries to kill Max when she finds her in her target's hotel room, but once she gets a good look at Max and realizes Max isn't related to her target, she simply leaves.
  • Professional Killer: Certainly of the "assassin" variety, she's very good at it too.
  • The Resenter: She was this in her backstory. She was raised in a Tibetian monastery and wished to be the Dalai Lama, only to be upset she wasn't even considered. However, it turns out she tried to rig the selection in her favor, but was exposed for her treachery. Who exposed her? None other than her adoptive brother, Kai-Ro, who instead of being confirmed to be the Dalai Lama, became the Green Lantern. She even cuts ties with her brother, saying the next time they meet, they are enemies.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Even after Batman warns her that a bomb is about to go off that will take out both of them, as well as a large portion of Gotham, Curare insists on trying to murder Batman for defeating her before rather than let him focus on disarming the bomb. Though, due to her status as a Silent Antagonist, it's unclear if she even believes him or not.
  • Sharpened to a Single Atom: Her scimitar is sharpened by lasers to a single molecule. It cuts very well.
  • Silent Antagonist: She never says a word in the original cartoon.
  • Sinister Scimitar: Her sword was called a scimitar, although it's certainly shaped more like a katana.
  • Suddenly Voiced: She never talks in the cartoon or the tie-in comics, but she does in subsequent comic appearances.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: While she throws it like a spear once, she throws it spinning like a frisbee twice, and on one of those occasions, it arcs back to her.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Not her, but her sword. In its first appearance it falls into a giant whirling meat grinder, but she has it back in later episodes without any explanation (although it's possible she has more than one identical sword).
  • Younger than She Looks: Possibly. Her backstory revealed she is only a few years older than her adoptive brother Kai-Ro. While he appears to be a young teenager at most, she would likely only be in her late teens if not very early twenties. However, she looks like a full grown woman and her face makes it complicated.

    Paxton Powers 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paxton_powers.png
Voiced by: Cary Elwes (Ascension), Parker Stevenson (King's Ransom)
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"You taught me by example, dad. The only way to get power is to seize it."

The estranged and exiled son of Derek Powers. Once Derek's condition deteriorates to the point where he can no longer act publically as the head of Wayne-Powers, he calls in Paxton to serve as acting chairman while Derek controls him from behind the scenes. But Paxton has no intention of being someone else's puppet and angles to seize true power for himself.


  • Abusive Parents: It's not at all hard to see where Paxton acquired his sociopathic tendencies from, considering he has Derek Powers as a father. Outside of an implied lifetime of emotional abuse, Derek exiles his son Paxton when he refuses to become a puppet ruler for his company, and then flat-out tries to murder him when Paxton tries to (not at all unfairly) arrange his dad's death.
    "You taught me by example, dad. The only way to get power is to seize it."
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Paxton Powers was able to out his father Derek Powers as supervillain Blight and took over his father's position as CEO of Wayne-Powers Enterprises. Unfortunately for Paxton, he isn't as effective as his father when it comes to villainy. Prior to King's Ransom, he was mostly known for private parties. When he does decide to involve himself more in criminal affairs in that episode by hiring the Royal Flush Gang, his refusal to honor his deal due to damages to the stolen goods gets him kidnapped by them. He offers to pay King millions by assassinating Bruce Wayne, but that falls apart fast, and he's arrested at the end of the episode, destroying his family's control over Bruce's company.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He does a pretty good job of masking his callous, power-hungry nature by playing the role of the concerned son, all to manipulate Batman into finding his father so he can kill him and take power for himself.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Refuses to pay the Royal Flush Gang the full amount for a hired robbery after the piece they procured ended up damaged. Naturally, disrespecting a family of supervillains lead to him being kidnapped and ransomed by them.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Like father, like son. He's a Machiavellian businessman willing to pollute rivers and destroy the livelihoods of local fishermen or murder his own father for wealth and power.
  • Eviler than Thou: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he actually manages to topple his own father, even fooling Terry into thinking he had good intentions. On the other hand, he turns out to be terrible at white collar crime and goes to jail when he takes a stab at it.
  • Freudian Excuse: His father Derek treats him like shit, and is a sociopath who only sees him as a potentially useful pawn whenever he isn’t outright ignoring that he exists. It’s honestly surprising that Paxton didn’t turn out to be worse.
  • Hated by All: He's widely loathed by the people of Verdeza for polluting their lands and rivers. He's not exactly beloved back in Gotham either, even by his own father who exiled him for unknown reasons (though considering who his father is, he likely caused this to happen to him).
  • Idle Rich: Despite trying to kill his father for real power over Wayne-Powers as a company, he spends most of his time afterwards partying according to Ian Peak.
  • I Lied: He says this verbatim after Batman said he was going to try to help his father, not kill him.
  • Impoverished Patrician: After the Royal Flush Gang kidnaps him to get the money he owed them for their last heist, Paxton reveals that aside the money for his art collection he is completely broke, as everything he owns or uses is due to company perks.
  • Jerkass: He's an incredibly unpleasant person once he's no longer pretending to be a decent guy. Just not to the same extent as his father.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: He ends the first season victorious, taking his father's place as the new head of Wayne-Powers, and contents himself with being Idle Rich in season two. The season three premiere has him finally face justice when he's arrested for trying to have Bruce Wayne assassinated.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: While he's by far no saint, being another self-interested corporate sleazebag, he's still not as bad as his father, who tested nerve gas on his own employees, conducted illegal arms deals, dumped radioactive waste in the ocean, caused mass destruction through corporate sabotage by hiring Inque, and ordered frequent assassinations. Paxton, meanwhile, is a polluter, art thief, and "only" occasionally orders hits, usually content to just party and enjoy the perks of his vast fortune.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Like his father, Derek, Paxton is a Machiavellian and wildly unpopular corrupt corporate executive with no scruples and a smug, slimy demeanor.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He effortlessly cons his father into exposing himself as Blight to the corporate world and later plays Batman into finding him when he goes on the run so he can kill him off and seize total control of Wayne-Powers for himself. Aside from a few hitches near the end, he ultimately succeeds and ends the first season as the new head of the company.
  • Noodle Incident: It's never revealed why his father exiled him to Verdeza, but it's implied to be because of a screw-up.
  • Overlord Jr.: Paxton grew up learning from his dad's example, seizing power by any means necessary. He says this before trying to kill his father to take control of his company.
  • Patricide: An attempted example. His attempted murder of his own father for power would be more reprehensible if his father wasn't Blight, a villain worse than him in almost every way.
  • Puppet King: What his father intended him to be. He wanted Paxton to serve as the acting chairman while following Derek's commands from the shadows. Paxton had other plans.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: He was exiled to Verdeza by his father for some undisclosed reason.
  • Remember the New Guy?: He's never mentioned before returning from Verdeza, although considering how unsentimental Derek is, this comes across as easier to believe than most uses of the trope.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: When the law finally catches up to him for his hired robberies and the attempted assassination of Bruce Wayne, Paxton says he'll buy the courts and force all the police into the sanitation department. Naturally this didn't work.
  • Self-Made Orphan: In his debut episode he attempts to murder his father to seize control of Wayne-Powers for himself. While the episode ends with Blight's body never being found, Blight never reappears in the show and Paxton succeeds in taking over Wayne-Powers, albeit briefly.
  • Smug Snake: Another trait he shares with his father. He's far more smug and self-satisfied than he has any right to be.
  • The Starscream: He shares his father's craving for power and concocts a scheme that exposes him as Blight to the public and effectively cripples his hold over Wayne-Powers. Although Paxton's later attempt on Derek's life hits the fan, his father presumably perishes regardless, leaving him as the new CEO for a time.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Looks like a younger version of his dad.
  • Villainous Breakdown: He finally drops his smug demeanor and is reduced to shouting petulant threats at Commissioner Gordon once he's finally arrested for trying to have Bruce Wayne killed.
  • Wicked Cultured: He developed an affinity for pre-Columbian art while exiled in South America, and since moving to Gotham he's been hiring thieves to procure new items for his collection.

    The Stalker 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stalker.png
"For that I'll drink your blood!"
Voiced by: Carl Lumbly
->Voiced by (Italian): Pietro Ubaldi
Voiced by (European French): Patrice Baudrier
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Justice League

"I’d always imagined this Batman to be an ageless soul, inhabiting the greatest warrior of each generation. If this bat-spirit really existed, it would present the ultimate challenge."

Stalker is a dexterous hunter with keen senses and reflexes. He was given an enhanced body after a hunt with a panther went awry, but found himself without a challenge, until he heard of Batman. Believing him to be a spirit that reincarnates itself in the greatest warriors throughout history, he considers him to be the ultimate prey.


  • Achilles' Heel: His artificial spine is vulnerable to electricity. In his first episode, an electrick shock causes him to hallucinate. In his second appearance, it merely incapacitates him.
  • Affably Evil: To folks who aren't his prey, he can be quite civil and open about his past.
  • Bald of Evil: A ruthless former poacher turned supervillain with no hair.
  • Blessed with Suck: The surgery used to repair his spine gave him superhuman strength, speed, and agility, but that made hunting too easy. For him, this was a Fate Worse than Death, until he set his sights on Batman.
  • Boxed Crook: In his second appearance he's working for the government by tracking down a terrorist.
  • Captain Ersatz: Of the Spider-Man villain Kraven the Hunter.
  • Death by Secret Identity: He finds out Batman's secret identity by tracking Terry back to his house, and is apparently killed at the end of the episode, but it's later subverted, as it turned out he somehow survived being run over by a train. It's okay though because he doesn't care about Batman's secret identity. To him, Batman is Batman in or out of his suit.
  • Egomaniac Hunter: Before he was injured due to underestimating a wounded panther.
  • Enemy Mine: Eventually he works with Terry to hunt down Kobra, but by no means are his sights off Batman's head.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • He's willing to kidnap a child if it means getting his target, but he never actually hurts Matt or even threatens to, acting surprisingly civil to him instead. He's just bait for his real prey.
    • His second appearance shows that, when Kobra threatens to release a virus that could potentially kill millions, he'll put his goals aside to stop them.
  • Evil Poacher: He was a big game hunter wanted for poaching on three continents before becoming a supervillain.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: He has a very deep voice, and, while far from the worst of Terry's adversaries, is still quite evil.
  • Expy: An Egomaniac Hunter who wants to battles a masked superhero in the city? Sounds an awful lot like Spider-Man's Kraven the Hunter.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Sort of. He can hunt man with incredible ease; he feels the most elusive prey is Batman.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: During his team-up with Batman to find a virus, he forgoes staying put while Batman gathers information and instead attacks the members of Kobra they've found, knocking them all out. When Batman points out that now they can't even question them, Stalker admits he might've acted hastily.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Is tall, muscular and can move with leopard-like agility.
  • No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: After a panther attack nearly killed him, he was surgically augmented with cybernetic enhancements that greatly increased his strength and honed his senses. However, it made hunting dangerous animals way too easy, so he retired, until he heard that Batman had returned and decided to hunt him instead, deeming Batman the "greatest warrior" that would provide the "ultimate challenge".
    "I had become so powerful, no prey could challenge me. To one who lives for the thrill of the hunt, this was a tragedy."
  • No One Could Survive That!: His first appearance ended with him seemingly being hit by a train; the next episode to feature him didn't mention how he survived, though Terry wasn't surprised to see him alive. Although this is the man who survived his spine being removed while still conscious...
  • Not So Stoic: During his Villainous Breakdown, he freaks out at the hallucinations of the panther that crippled him.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Says this to Terry after saving his life.
    Stalker: "When you die, it will be by my hand, and my hand alone."
    Terry: "...thanks...I guess..."
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Stalker is only interested in hunting Batman for sport and is never seen partaking in any other acts of villainy outside of that goal. In fact, he's surprisingly cordial to Matt when he takes him hostage and his second appearance has him willingly risking his life to help Batman stop Cobra from unleashing a virus that'll kill millions.
  • Recruiting the Criminal: The NSA lets him out prison to track down a criminal smuggling a deadly virus into Gotham, because the stakes are high enough and his skill at Hunting the Most Dangerous Game is obviously unparalleled.
  • Scary Black Man: A dark-skinned man with some formidable weapons and intense determination in hunting Batman.
  • Secret Identity Apathy: He finds out Batman's civilian identity, but it doesn't matter to him. He doesn't even bothering learning Terry's name, because to him, "Terry" doesn't exist. Since he wants to be the one to kill Batman, he obviously wouldn't tell anyone else information that would allow them to kill Batman more easily.
  • Secret-Keeper: Sort of, he knows that Terry is Batman, but it doesn't matter because to him, they are one and the same. He never even bothers to know Terry's name.
  • Tattooed Crook: Sort of. He's never been to prison as far as we know and the markings all over his body are actually body-paint (Terry mistakes them for actual tattoos, but still).
  • This Means Warpaint: Scenes with him applying it to prepare for hunting Batman are shown in his first appearance.
  • Unexplained Recovery: At the end of his introductory episode, he's seemingly run over by a train. He returns alive and unharmed in another episode and no one comments on how he survived.
  • Unusual Eyebrows: The No Eyebrows type.
  • Villain Team-Up: In "Epilogue", the Fully Absorbed Finale to Batman Beyond from Justice League Unlimited, Stalker is revealed to have teamed up with Inque, Shriek and the second Parasite to form a group called the Iniquity Collective.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After he's given an electric shock, he starts having hallucinations of the panther that maimed him, causing him to flee in terror.
  • Villainous Rescue: He saves Terry from a burning to death in a fire started by Falseface. Then says if Batman is going to die it's going to be by the Stalker's hand, and the Stalker's hand alone.
  • Worthy Opponent: He came to Gotham because he believes the legendary Batman is the only quarry worth facing after gaining his advanced body and finding other prey too easy. He even saves Terry's life in his second appearance, saying if anyone is going to kill him, it'll be the Stalker.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He has no problems kidnapping Matt and putting him in a cage as bait but wouldn't harm him for practical and personal reasons.

    Stanley "Mad Stan" Labowski 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mad_stan.jpg
Voiced by: Henry Rollins
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"Blow it all up!"

Stanley "Mad Stan" Labowski was a nonconformist radical that went up against the "System".


  • Ax-Crazy: Mad Stan is pretty mad. Being voiced by Henry Rollins will do that for you.
  • Bomb Throwing Anarchist: He wants to blow up society. It's eventually revealed that there's some method to his madness — he chooses his targets based on local news stories that really piss him off. He is a pretty literal example of this trope too since he does in fact throw bombs and his beliefs seems to align quite neatly with anarcho-primitivism, raging against both technology and big government, making him something like a louder, dumber version of the Unabomber.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To Zeta in the episode "Countdown" after he planted a bomb on Zeta's back once his disguise wore off when his pet dog Boom-Boom sniffed at him. Terry and Ro's timely intervention saved Zeta before the bomb had a chance to explode and kill Zeta.
  • Breakout Villain: Originally a one-shot joke villain thrown in to make Terry miss his date with Dana. The fans loved him, and he eventually became a regular member of the Rogues Gallery.
  • Catchphrase: "Blow it all up!"
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: He seemingly has no superpowers at first, but is later shown that he can toss a batsuit-wearing Terry through walls and take blows from the superhumanly strong Beyond Batsuit. He's never explicitly established as being any kind of superhuman but you'd think otherwise, given what he's capable of.
  • Expy: Stan is a more violent version of Spider, Henry Rollins's character in Johnny Mnemonic.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Bruce eventually divines that Mad Stan's rampages are always sparked by either a local news story or something directly affecting him. (Raising the cost of pet licenses? "Blow it all up!")
  • Hidden Depths: The digital comic tie-in reveals that he knows how to speak Russian and isn't nearly as stupid as he seems. Admittedly, even in the show he does in fact show a good deal of technical know-how and some of his plans are actually quite clever; it is just harder to notice when he is shouting and raving like the madman he is.
  • Hot-Blooded: Stan has a very short fuse, often being riled to destructive action by local news stories ticking him off. Batman's intervention just makes it worse.
  • Ink-Suit Actor: Just look at him. He's Henry Rollins.
  • It's All About Me: Bruce eventually figures out that all of his attacks on locations are always prompted by them slighting him in someway prior. For example, he decides to blow up the Department of Health's offices because they raised the fee for pet licenses (he has a pet dog), and it's implied he wanted to blow up city hall because he got called up for jury duty.
  • Knight Templar: Stan is convinced that society is progressing into collapse and that he must stop it, and the only way he sees fit to do it is to bomb everything like a maniac.
  • Laughably Evil: He’s a goddamn maniac, but damn if he isn’t a funny one.
  • Large Ham: Prone to loud, dramatic rants about the breakdown of society and his idea of a solution.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: He's placed in one by Spellbinder in order to frame Batman for Mad Stan's murder. In the end, Batman is cleared and the officers find him in one of Spellbinder's virtual reality devices him wondering what he's so happy about. Stan's fantasy was him blowing up city hall.
    Mad Stan: [Evil Laugh] Finally! An end to the bureaucratic nightmare! (presses switch on a detonator, reducing a building to rubble) No more graft! No more payoffs! NO MORE JURY DUTY! [Evil Laugh]
  • Mad Bomber: His first line is "BLOW IT ALL UP!" He is a complete Conspiracy Nut who is obsessed with blowing up large businesses and government institutions, thinking he is saving the public from mass brainwashing.
  • Made of Iron: In his introduction in "Rats" he survives events that would reduce most humans to a fine, red smear. In "Eyewitness", he's blown up and launched through a wall hard enough to leave a crater in the wall behind it, but it barely even winds him. Given the prevalence of superpowered humans in the DCAU in general, it's possible he has minor Super-Strength and Super-Toughness powers to be able to do all the stuff he does.
  • No Indoor Voice: Stan screams most everything he says.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • He owns a chihuahua named Boom-Boom, whom he cares for deeply.
    • In "Countdown" he goes out of his way to save Zeta from the government agents chasing him, believing Zeta to be "another victim of an uncaring society." It's only after learning he's an android and believes he's part of a setup that he attaches a bomb to him.
  • Remember the New Guy?: In his first appearance, dialogue implies that Batman has already dealt with him several times.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
    • In "Eyewitness" it seems Batman murdered Mad Stan to prevent him from being a threat again, but it turns out the whole thing was an elaborate illusion by Spellbinder to get Batman arrested or killed by the police. Stan was fine, he got kidnapped by Spellbinder and placed in a virtual reality bubble for the duration of the scheme.
    • It was believed that he was among Hush's victims in the comics, but it turns out he was just out of town visiting his mother during Hush's murder spree, and comes back from his vacation extremely annoyed that everyone thinks he's dead.
  • Strawman Political: He is a loud, violent parody of anarcho-primitivists.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: He embodies this, and became an Internet meme involving him popping out of somewhere, followed by everything blowing up.
    Mad Stan: You think this is a joke? Look around, Batman! Society's crumbling! And do you know why? Information overload, man! As a society we're drowning in a quagmire of vid-clips, e-mail, and sound bytes! We can't absorb it all! There's only one sane solution: BLOW IT UP!
  • Super-Strength: Not on the level of Superman, but at least enough to combat Terry's futuristic suit.
  • Super-Toughness: To the point that he can go toe-to-toe with Terry, who is an Empowered Badass Normal street brawler with already decent athletics.
  • Tattooed Crook: You can see an atomic symbol on the back of his neck in "Rats."
  • Unstoppable Rage: "When Mad Stan's on one of his rants, he's unstoppable."
  • Western Terrorists: He's a domestic terrorist with radical anarcho-libertarian ideals.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: In "Rats!", he performs several wrestling moves on Terry, including a pile-driver that leaves his ears stuck in the ground.

    Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/big_time_revenge.jpg
"Where's the respect?"
Voiced by: Stephen Baldwin ("Big Time"), Clancy Brown ("Betrayal")
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"Big Time's my middle name."

An old friend of Terry's who turned to a life of delinquency and crime. Thanks to a super serum, Bigelow transforms into a hulking monster who makes use of his old nickname, Big Time.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Even though there was nothing sympathetic about him at all, his fate in his first episode is seen by Terry in a tragic light due to Big Time being an old friend of his. At the end of “Betrayal”, Terry no longer feels this way and sees that Big Time was no good.
  • Bait the Dog: For as much of a selfish and manipulative Jerkass as he is, Big Time seems to genuinely view Terry as a friend. However, at the end of "Betrayal" Big Time makes it clear that their friendship was conditional on Terry being an obedient Yes-Man and tries to murder him for standing up for himself.
  • Bald of Evil: He’s a supervillain, and as Big Time, the top of his head is completely bald.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Charlie always wanted a score that would bring him into the "big time." When he finally participates in one, he ends up doused in a chemical that leaves him a hulking monstrosity. Although he learns to love his new form due to the respect and fear it gets him.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Charlie wants to stop being a little fish in a big pond and become a major criminal in Gotham's underworld. However, all of his attempts to do so end in failure.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He repeatedly makes it seem like he's trying to reform or working to redeem himself, but it's always just another attempt to advance his criminal career.
  • Body Horror: He becomes a deformed hulk in his transformation into Big Time with unevenly sized appendages.
  • British Teeth: As Big Time, he has very crooked, yellow teeth.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Big Time rarely thinks anything through in spite of his grandiose ambitions and never plans beyond the short-term. He can be fairly cunning when he puts his mind to it, as seen in "Betrayal", but he never overcomes his impulsiveness.
  • Disney Villain Death: Falls off a high bridge into the river and is never heard from again.
  • Dumb Muscle: Downplayed. Big Time is cunning and good at manipulating people, but he's also impulsive, childish, and rarely thinks his actions through.
  • Evil Former Friend: He starts out as a shady old friend of Terry's and becomes a true villain when he turns into Big Time, although it may be he never truly saw Terry as a friend and always as a meal ticket.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He only ever seems to see a future in becoming a feared criminal, and continuously rejects any attempt at reform even when they're handed to him on a silver platter, because he can't imagine ever making it "big" legitimately.
  • Evil Is Bigger: As Big Time, he’s at least five times bigger than Terry.
  • Evil Makes You Monstrous: An accident turns him into a nine-foot-tall, deformed, hulking monster with Super-Strength. And that suits him just fine; he considers himself Cursed with Awesome, and likes the fact that people respect him now, even if it's because they're afraid of him. (In his second appearance, Max told Terry that "Charlie always was a monster, now he just looks the part.")
  • False Friend: Subsequent events in the episode "Betrayal" make it clear that at that point Bigelow just saw Terry as hired muscle and he may have never been Terry's real friend. He even tries to kill him by the end of the episode due to Terry refusing to be his toady anymore.
  • Falsely Reformed Villain: In both his appearances, Big Time fakes trying to reform in order to manipulate Terry for his own ends. Each time, Terry winds up kicking himself for even being surprised at Big Time's betrayal.
  • Fatal Flaw: Ambition. His obsession with making the "big time" causes him to make poor decisions, and leaves him open to being manipulated by the actual big timers.
  • Genius Bruiser: Maybe "genius" is the wrong word, but he's certainly cleverer than the brute he resembles.
  • Irony: Nicknames himself Big Time, but never rises above being a small-time criminal, and can't even attempt to take leadership of his own gang without tricking Batman and the police into arresting his rivals.
  • It's All About Me: He only valued Terry's friendship insofar as he could benefit from it. Bigelow doesn't actually care about anyone except himself.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Every time it seems like he's trying to do Terry a favor, it's really just a way for Charlie to manipulate him for Charlie's own ends. Reaches its pinnacle in "Betrayal", after Major orders him to kill Terry to eliminate him as a loose end, Charlie tracks him down, and then admits he can't go through with it. Terry promises to tip off Gordon on Major's operation and get Bruce's help in finding a cure for Charlie's condition in exchange for Charlie's cooperation. Then, once Major's arrested, Charlie reveals he was only using Terry to get Major out of the picture so Charlie could usurp his gang, and then reveals he has absolutely no problem trying to murder Terry in cold-blood.
  • Jerkass: Terry goes out of his way to get him a second chance on more than one occasion, but he always reverts back to his crime-loving ways. The guy just doesn't seem to be capable of accepting that there are ways besides breaking the law to make a good living. He also has a bad habit of wanting to pull Terry into a life of crime simply for the sake of having someone he knows and can trust, even arranging for Terry to be kidnapped. Terry is quick to call him out on his selfishness.
  • Killed Off for Real: In his final appearance he falls to his death off a high bridge.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice: A villainous example. He has a big chin, especially as Big Time.
  • Large and in Charge: After his mutation, he's a hulking monster. In "Betrayal", he states that he likes the way he looks now, believing it grants him "respect".
  • Manipulative Bastard: He's always manipulating people for his own ends, even his supposed friends. He befriended Terry and Richie while the two were vulnerable - the former after his parents's divorce and the latter during his prison sentence - and then uses that to demand endless favors from both men. He's also able to get the Major to believe he's just a loyal Dumb Muscle when he's actually scheming to overthrow him.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The fact of the matter is, he may not be smart, but he knows how to push Terry's buttons.
  • Post-Support Regret:
    • In the episode "Big Time" Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow was Terry McGinniss's old friend from back when he was a delinquent and trouble maker. They would get into trouble until one day when Charlie was eighteen; he dragged a 14-year-old Terry along on a heist to prove himself to a gang. However, things went awry, and Terry and Charlie were arrested. Unlike Terry, who was underage, Charlie was put on trial as an adult and sentenced to three years in prison. Terry away feels guilty because he feels he got off easy and could have easily gotten into jail. So when Charlie got released from prison, Terry tried to help his friend by getting Charlie a job at Wayne-Powers. Terry's girlfriend Dana Tan and friend Max Gibson who both know Charlie, both hated him, rightfully saw him as a bad influence on Terry and wanted Terry to cut him out of his life. Bruce openly distrusts Charlie and only gives him the job because of Terry. All three of them prove to be right about Charlie when it turns out that Charlie taking the job was merely a ruse so that Charlie could steal Wayne-Powers' Cerestone, an experimental hormone developed by Wayne-Powers that accelerated plant growth. For his ex cellmate Richard Armacost, a top executive at Agrichem, an agricultural company. During the heist to the company's laboratory, Charlie Bigelow was soaked in the chemicals and mutated into the brute known as "Big Time." Big Time was defended and jailed; while Terry was sad that his friend got in jail, Dana just told Terry that she knew something like this would happen and was glad that Terry did not get mixed up with him or he got hurt.
      • In the episode "Betrayal" when Big Time escaped from jail allied with the mobster Major. Terry was torn between his anger at Big Time, wanting to capture him, and feeling guilty for his transformation into a monster. Big Time abducted Terry and tried to entice Terry to join his gang. However, when Terry refuses, Big Time goes berserk, and Terry seizes the opportunity to escape. The Major reprimanded Big Time and gave him an ultimatum to fix his mistake. Big Time finds Terry but admits that he can,t bring himself to kill him. Terry convinces Big Time to go to the police, promising that even those he goes to jail, it will not be forever, and while in prison, Terry's employer, Bruce Wayne, will work on a cure for him. Those reluctant Big Time agrees and asks if he can just say in his hiding place while the cop arrest the Major. After the Major was arrested, Terry found that Big Time was gone; when Terry ran into him again, Big Time revealed that he was never going to the cops, that it was all part of his plan to get rid of the Major and take over his operations. Big Time uses Terry to call the police on The Major and admit that he lied about wanting the cure because he liked his new look and lies about being unable to kill him. Terry escapes, and as Batman battles Big Time, Big Time is killed when he falls off a bridge; Bruce tries to comfort Terry, but Terry just coldly says that he outgrows him, letting go of his guilt and seeing him for the monster he is.
    Bruce: I'm sorry, I know how hard it is to go against a friend.
    Terry: I outgrew him, that's all.
  • Redemption Rejection: Terry gives him many, many opportunities to give up a life of crime, including getting Bruce to give him a job at Wayne-Powers and as Batman telling him if he just walks away he'll let it slide this one time. But Charlie never once considers an existence beyond a self-destructive life of crime.
  • The Sociopath: Bigalow is a ruthless, self serving bastard perfectly willing to use and kill Terry without any regret.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: He's little more than a common thug by villain standards, but he repeatedly attempts to boss around criminals far more skilled and/or powerful than him and is always angered whenever he's treated as being a mere subordinate. He actually likes getting grotesquely mutated into a huge monster because people genuinely fear him now.
  • Smarter Than You Look: After his transformation, he looks like a big dumb monster, but he's cunning and manipulative enough to trick Terry and usurp his boss, the Major.
  • Smug Snake: Big Time has a very high opinion of himself and entertains fantasies of being a criminal mastermind. While he is genuinely cunning and good at manipulating people, Charlie's impulsive and self-destructive behavior generally results in him screwing himself over.
  • The Starscream: Big Time's clearly chafing under the Major's control and the constant lack of respect he's given by his boss, yet despite Charlie's vocal dissatisfaction and interest in rising up in the organization, the Major continues to underestimate him. This ends with Big Time selling out the Major to the cops and taking the remainder of his empire for himself.
  • Super Serum: His transformation is the result of a growth steroid for plants. Apparently learning from his example, said serum is used on dogs in another episode.
  • Super-Strength: As Big Time, he’s strong enough to throw a car and then smash it with his bare fists.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: When he was eighteen and Terry was fourteen, Charlie initiated the heist that got Terry sent to juvie. According to Terry, he had no idea what Charlie was planning until Terry saw him sneaking in through the window. After getting released from prison, Charlie keeps trying to get Terry to follow him into a life of crime, despite Terry having turned his act around.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: In “Betrayal”, after all the times Terry has tried to help Big Time better himself, he repays Terry by trying to kill him.
  • Villains Want Mercy: His last words to Batman before falling to his presumed death are, "Help me!"
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: In his second appearance, he was attempting to gradually bring in more and more of his own boys into a supposed "partnership" with another criminal until he had enough manpower to oust his "partner" and his men completely, but when Terry offers him leniency from the police commissioner if he turned himself in, he instead uses this as an opportunity, manipulating Terry and the police to have his partner and his men arrested while not turning himself in, leaving him the sole leader of the criminal operation much quicker.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He kept Terry around whenever he could manipulate him into getting him something. The moment he figured Terry wouldn't ever trust him again, he immediately pivoted to murdering him.

The Jokerz

    In General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jokerz.png
J-Man's Jokerz
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terminals_jokerz.png
Terminal's Jokerz

Voiced by: Bruce Timm (J-Man), Marc Worden (Scab), Scott Valentine (Coe), Lauren Tom (Dottie in "Rebirth"), Pauley Perrette (Dottie in "Golem"), Cree Summer (Dottie in "Curse of the Kobra" and Tayko), Ethan Embry (Lee), Michael Rosenbaum (Smirk), Joe Lala (Spike in "Golem"), Mark Slaughter (Spike in "Bloodsport"), Omar Gooding (Trey), Will Friedle (Weasel)
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker | Static Shock | Justice League

J-Man: "Who do you think you're talking to, old man? We're the Jokerz!"
Bruce: (smirks) "Sure you are."

A street gang consisting of hoodlums wearing clown costumes, styling themselves after the late Joker.


  • Big Bad Wannabe: Although they base themselves on the Clown Prince of Crime, they are a far cry from the original villain as Bruce is quick to point out. The movie has their inspiration calling them "a disgrace to the name Joker" while spending the rest of the scene scaring the crap out of them, culminating in the cold-blooded murder of Bonk.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Jokerz, as mentioned above, take the likeness of Batman’s most recurring and notorious arch-villain—-but are more of a recurring nuisance to Terry and rarely feature as major antagonists in a given episode.
  • Delinquent Hair: Weasel (the guy with the pink coat) from Terminal's gang.
  • Enfante Terrible: Most of them are young, some even in high school, and like their namesake show zero empathy for their victims and take delight in causing random chaos. Little is ever characterized, but some—such as Coe and Scab—seem to come from rougher backgrounds, explaining their desire to join a gang to begin with. Otherwise, no explanation or humanizing elements are given to Jokerz—like their namesake, they might as well not have a reason for being.
  • Gangbangers: A futuristic version.
  • Gang of Hats: They all wear clown-themed makeup and outfits of some variation.
  • Happy Harlequin Hat: Scab and Coe from J-Man's gang wear jester hats.
  • Harmless Villain: Compared to the rest of the rogues gallery, they are rather unimpressive and rarely serve as the main antagonists of an episode. Terry can often defeat small numbers of them even as a civilian.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Of J-Man's gang, Dottie swings around a rubber chicken and Spike carries pies which apparently have acidic properties.
  • Ink-Suit Actor: Gang leader J-Man, who is voiced by DCAU creator Bruce Timm, is designed as Timm himself cosplaying as the Joker.
  • Miles Gloriosus: A villainous example with J-Man, who acts tough but is actually fairly weak and possesses very few fighting skills on his own. He is quick to flee and retreat whenever a confrontation doesn't go his way.
  • Mugging the Monster: Among their intended victims are two Batmen, Zeta, a superhumanly strong robot, a boy controlling a Humongous Mecha, and Static. Since all of these end in the Jokerz running for their lives, it's a wonder they're still trying to mug people.
  • Never Learned to Read: Joyride reveals Coe to be completely illiterate and he apparently believed the same of Scab.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: In "Joyride", when a group of them manage to steal a military vehicle and wreak havoc around the city. However, Bruce still isn't too impressed, and the real threat comes from the fact the vehicle's secret nuclear reactor is overloading, threatening to turn Gotham into a hot zone if it blows.
    • Though oftentimes portrayed as small time hoods more interested in starting fights, riding bikes, and mugging random people than anything more serious, Jokerz have on occasion shown a willingness to outright murder people, and buy illegal weapons from smugglers and have been scene attacking with clubs and knives.
    • As proven in “Once Burned,” large numbers of Jokerz, especially in a confined space, can quickly overpower Terry and prove potentially lethal due to sheer numbers.
  • Power Fist: The top-hat wearing Joker in J-Man's gang has brass knuckles.
  • Practically Joker: Mold themselves after the Joker, though are more hoodlums than their inspiration. The Joker wasn't impressed by them when he saw them.
  • Shout-Out: Trey bears a certain resemblance to Clown from AKIRA.
  • The Starscream: Scab from J-Man's gang seems eager at the idea of taking over himself in Joy Ride.
  • Teens Are Monsters: The Jokerz are all various assorted teenagers, many of whom are juvenile delinquents, although a few such as Terminal also led seemingly wholesome double lives.
  • Villainous Legacy: The Joker might have died decades ago, but his legend lives on in the roving bands of clown-themed delinquents calling themselves the "Jokerz", who've taken up his gimmick of violent theatrical mayhem. Bruce thinks that they're a joke compared to the real deal though.

Joker's Gang

    In General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jokersjokerz.png
The Joker's Jokerz

A unique gang of Jokerz recruited by the original Clown Prince of Crime upon his unexpected return to Gotham.


  • Book Dumb: In "Time Warped", Chronos asks the gang if they know what killed the dinosaurs after throwing Chucko back in time. None of them seem to be able to know the answer which is basic knowledge that children know in present day.
    • Could also double now as a prediction of Science Marches On: For one, only the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, as birds of today are literal dinosaurs. Further, there is some debate as to whether the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs was from just the meteor impact. It could also be multiple impacts, sea level rise, and/or rampant volcanism.
  • Cyborg: In the future, Chronos has given them all, save possibly Dee Dee, cybernetic upgrades, to make them deadlier enforcers.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Joker's gang are shocked and horrified when their fellow teammate is executed. Notably Chucko, who seems to be the most sadistic, tries to warn Bonk not to keep mouthing off. Even he isn't the type to stand back and watch his friend be killed.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain:
    • They twice end up as muscle for a much more dangerous villain- in the movie, they end up working for the Joker himself, and in the Justice League Unlimited Season 1 finale, they work for the time-travelling villain Chronos who takes over the city creating an Alternate Timeline. They sport cybernetic enhancements and are absolute beasts; they even succeeded in killing Terry, but it was all undone when Chronos is defeated.
    • They are also easily the toughest batch of Jokerz gang members Terry had faced (though that might be due to Joker organizing them properly for once. Usually he can take a small batch of Jokerz fairly easily, but even given their smaller group, these Jokerz best Terry multiple times.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: They’re more dangerous than the usual Jokerz Terry has to deal with and each has their own defined personality and gimmick. They serve as this first to the Joker and later to Chronos.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Their Justice League Unlimited Alternate Universe versions are absolutely terrifying. Chucko takes on Wonder Woman and dominates the fight, Dee Dee kills Terry, Bonk presses the assault on Static and Woof mostly kicks Warhawk's ass.
  • Underestimating Badassery: They're sent by the Joker to kill Terry in his civilian identity, never once thinking the teenager may be a threat to them. By the end of their fight, Terry has disabused them of that notion.
  • Villainous Friendship: The gang in "Return of the Joker" are about as close and friendly to each other as a gang of violent hooligans can be. It's telling that Bonk tries to encourage the others to stand up to Joker before his death.

    Dee Dee 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dee_dee_twins.png

A pair of twin sisters modeled off of Raggedy Ann who serve the Joker once he returns to Gotham.


  • Alliterative Name: Delia and Deidre Dennis (better known as "Dee Dee").
  • Always Identical Twins: They're twin sisters.
  • Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: The Dee Dees wear tube tops.
  • Combat Parkour: Dee Dee often tag-teamed Batman and used flips and high jumps to get away from his attacks or find a better position behind him from which they would attack.
  • Combat Stilettos: Even while wearing heels as part of their disguise, the twin is still able to deliver Terry a good kicking.
  • Comedic Spanking: Are on the receiving end of this after getting bailed out by their Nanna, who rebukes her granddaughters for being criminals before she uses her cane to spank them.
  • Creepy Twins: A pair of Monster Clown twins who serve the original Clown Prince of Crime.
  • Cute Bruiser: The Dee Dees are two cute (and attractive) girls, but are also capable of kicking you.
  • Dance Battler: Their moves in battle, particularly their kicks, resemble ballet moves.
  • The Dividual: Probably to play up the creepy angle but they both refer to each other as Dee Dee and talk in a back and forth manner that comes across more like a person talking to themselves than with another - not quite in unison but close enough.
  • Even Evil Can Be Loved: Even after serving in the Joker's evil scheme, their Nanna still comes to bail them out of jail, even if she does insult them all the while. Given who their Nanna is, it's not a stretch to say she still relates to what her granddaughters did even if she herself has gone straight.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The twins do love each other. When one is in danger of falling to her death, the other immediately abandons her mission to save her sister's life.
  • Evil Redhead: To complete the Raggedy Ann look, they have orange hair that's matted to resemble yarn wigs. Subverted, however, as they are naturally blonde, like their grandma Harley.
  • Expy: Dee Dee are based on Double Dare, a pair of acrobatic sister thieves from Nightwing's rogue gallery.
  • Faux Affably Evil: The Dee Dees banter sounds playful, but it's painfully insincere and they really just enjoy toying with their victims before killing them.
    Dee Dee: (After Green Lantern saves them) A real gentleman, isn't he, Dee Dee?
    Dee Dee: They're practically extinct, Dee Dee.
  • Femme Fatale: When not on their clown makeup, the twins can look downright ravishing and they use it to their advantage distracting Terry at the club, not that it succeeds.
  • Generation Xerox: The Dee-Dees are bailed out at the end of Return of the Joker by their grandmother:
    Grandma: "You rotten little scamps! I struggle to make a good home for you and this is the thanks I get? [Smacks both with her cane] Break your grandmother's heart! I hope they throw the book at you!"
    Dee Dee: "Oh shut up, Nanna Harley."
  • Head-Turning Beauty: Several men can be seen turning their heads toward them at the club as they walk by.
  • Hero Killer: In the Bad Future episode of Justice League Unlimited, they casually admit to murdering the previous Green Lantern, Kai-Ro. During the climax of the episode they murder the second Batman, Terry McGinnis.
  • Kick Chick: Most of their attacks in center around kicking the crap out of their opponents.
  • Leg Focus: They wear short hot pants that expose quite a bit of their legs, with the camera angles often showing off their lower bodies.
  • Lightning Lash: Chronos gives them a laser whip that they use to get effect in their JLU appearance.
  • More Deadly Than the Male: The Dee Dee twins are the best fighters in their group, and give Terry the most trouble out of any of the Jokerz.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Both of them are quite curvy and attractive, and they habitually wear rather revealing tube-tops and hot pants.
  • Perky Female Minion: They act as the upbeat henchwomen to the Joker, serving him in a similar capacity to Harley Quinn, which may be In the Blood as they're her granddaughters. Though they're Faux Affably Evil instead of being Affably Evil like Quinn, they're just as terrified of the Joker when he's showing off just why he was the most feared monster in Gotham.
  • Raised by Grandparents: Implied to be the case. After they're arrested by the GCPD, they're bailed out of prison by their Nanna, who immediately berates them for breaking her heart after she struggled to make a good home for them, with no mention of their parents at all.
  • Self-Duplication: In the Bad Future episode of Justice League Unlimited, Chronos has given the twins the power to duplicate themselves.
  • Single-Minded Twins: The Dee Dees dress and act alike, finish each other's sentences and trade banter on the fly, and coordinate effortlessly in combat.
  • Would Hurt a Child: They claim to have murdered the previous Green Lantern in the Bad Future episode of Justice League Unlimited. The Green Lantern at the time was Kai-Ro, a young boy.

    Chucko 
Voiced by: Don Harvey
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chucko.jpg

An overweight member of the Jokerz sporting a clown mask.


  • Asshole Victim: Given that he's a murderer for hire in both timelines, Chronos placing him at ground zero for the spot where the meteor wiped out the dinosaurs is more satisfying than anything.
  • Bald of Evil: Not completely bald as he does sport some stubble, implying he may shave his head.
  • Fat Bastard: Chucko is a fat man who enjoys killing random teenagers on his boss's orders "so long as it's fun."
  • Form-Fitting Wardrobe: He exclusively wears pink, skin-tight spandex. Given that he's a bald, overweight killer in a scary clown mask, it's played very much for Fan Disservice.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: Chucko is never seen without his smiling clown mask.
  • Number Two: Chucko appears to be the leader of the gang serving Joker, making him the Joker's second by default. He serves a similar role to Chronos when he recruits their gang in an episode of Justice League Unlimited as he offers to head the investigation into the rat in the group, but he doesn't last long as Chronos knows Chucko is the rat.
  • One-Wheeled Wonder: His cyborg upgrade in Justice League Unlimited has his body ending below the waist with just a big, red ball serving as a wheel to give him extra mobility.
  • Only Sane Man: By comparison in Return of the Joker. He's a sadistic killer but he's also pragmatic enough to know when to stay on mission and tries to keep other members of the crew like Bonk and Woof from needlessly endangering themselves. This trait is gone during his appearance in Justice League Unlimited.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: A vicious killer who feels completely comfortable walking around in skin-tight pink spandex.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: He sells information on Chronos's plans to the Justice League for a few credits. When Chronos finds out, he strands Chucko in the past with dinosaurs... seconds before a meteor wipes them out.
  • The Stoolpigeon: He sells Terry information on when the Jokerz will be attacking the time displaced Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.
  • Stout Strength: The overweight Chucko packs a decent punch.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: His reaction upon seeing the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs is going to fall on top of him? "Aw, phooey."
  • Too Dumb to Live: During his Justice League appearance, Chucko thought it would be a great idea to hand over information to the Justice League just for a few extra credits. Unsurprisingly, Chronos, who is able to see through space and time, finds out about his treachery and kills him for it.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: During Return of the Joker, Chucko seemed the most competent of the Joker's gang and tries to stop his teammates from doing anything stupid. In his Justice League Unlimited appearance, he betrays his boss Chronos, a man who can control and look through time, for a few extra credits. Unsurprisingly, this get him killed.
  • Villainous Valor: Despite being stranded in the past by Chronos and coming face-to-face with dinosaurs, Chucko remains defiant, brandishing his weapon and boasting that he'll be running the place soon enough. Then he sees the meteor falling to earth and his tune changes.

    Ghoul 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghoul_4.jpg

A trick-or-treater themed member of the gang serving the revived Joker.


  • Chainsaw Good: His cybernetic upgrade in Justice League Unlimited is a hand that can turn into a chainsaw.
  • Chemistry Can Do Anything: Ghoul is a talented chemist, capable of not only creating substances that can boost metahuman powers, but also improve on Joker Toxin.
  • Dirty Coward: He puts on an act of bravado, saying he won't tell the Justice League anything about Chronos one minute, then spilling his guts after Bruce threatens him the next.
  • Expy: His voice sounds like a young Christopher Walken. His Halloween-themed appearance makes him look like he modelled himself more on the Scarecrow than the Joker.
  • Halloween Costume Characterization: His costume looks like he's celebrating Halloween all year. His witch's hat, orange skull shirt, weaponized pumpkin candy bucket, and gray and black makeup all serve to make him look as ghoulish as his name implies.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: In a Bad Future episode of Justice League Unlimited, Ghoul is interrogated by a time-traveling Batman who attempts to get answers out of him by hanging Ghoul off a ledge. Batman is then interrupted by his elderly self, who calls the younger Bruce green, and shows him how to really interrogate someone offscreen. The next scene cuts to Ghoul spilling his guts about everything he knows.
  • Lean and Mean: In keeping with his namesake, he's ghoulishly thin and a willing henchman to both the Joker and Chronos.
  • Lecherous Licking: In Return of the Joker, when Ghoul grabs Dana in the nightclub scene, looking carefully shows he licks his lips before he pulls her offscreen.
  • Non-Action Guy: Out of all the Jokerz, Ghoul has the worst record in fighting Batman. Terry takes him out with an Offhand Backhand during the climax of Return of the Joker.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Ghoul manages to not only recreate Joker's Toxin, but he makes it stronger than before leading to the death of Vigilante.
  • Potty Failure: When Bruce still expresses doubt that Ghoul has told him everything he knows about Chronos after threatening him, Ghoul admits the last thing he was holding back: he wet his bed until he was fourteen.
  • The Stool Pigeon: He rats out everything he knows about the Jokerz operation throughout Gotham, including their numbers and the cells they're divided into, as well as everything he knows about Chronos after an elderly Bruce Wayne threatens him offscreen.
  • Would Hit a Girl: In Return of the Joker he sends Dana to the hospital by throwing her off a balcony in a club.

    Bonk 
Voiced by: Henry Rollins (Return of the Joker), Adam Baldwin (Justice League Unlimited)
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bonk_3.png

A thuggish hothead serving as the gang's muscle.


  • Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel too sorry about his death at the hands of the Joker given his unpleasant attitude and disregard for the lives of his teammates.
  • The Brute: Bonk even outranks the spliced hyena member of his gang in being the most aggressive and ill-tempered bruiser in the group.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Bonk thinks it's a great idea to insult the Joker, the most feared and psychotic criminal to ever plague Gotham. Unsurprisingly, it does not go well.
  • Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: In the alternate timeline created by Chronos, Bonk gains a cybernetic hand that can turn into a hammer.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: In "Time Warped" when Chronos is telling off the gang for failing to kill Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman despite him giving them their new powers, Bonk says that the JLU showed up and got in their way. Chronos admits that's true, which just leads to the realization of there being a mole in the gang.
  • Dumb Muscle: With his lack of subtlety, his short-fuse, and his inability to think ahead, about the only thing Bonk is suited for is fighting, but even then he becomes as much a danger to his gang as he does Batman.
  • Failed a Spot Check: He loses his first fight with Batman because he's focused more on killing him than paying attention to his surroundings, like, say, his speeding vehicle heading towards a flagpole.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Unlike most examples, it's not a sign that he died peacefully. Instead it's a nightmarish rictus death grin.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: First seen when he gets angry at being unable to control a lift the gang is using in their heist and slams the controls, he quickly rushes off to fight Batman, endangers the Dee Dee hanging onto his ship, and eventually ends up mouthing off to the Joker because he can't control his temper. This final action gets him killed.
  • Hope Spot: When the Joker first pulls a gun on him and prepares to shoot him, all that comes out is a flag that says "BANG!" Just as Bonk and the others breathe a sigh of relief, the Joker pulls the trigger a second time causing the flag to spear Bonk like a harpoon and kill him.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Joker kills him firing a flag with the word "BANG!" written on it into his chest, like a harpoon.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While it predictably gets him killed, he calls out the fact that the Joker gives the gang no respect or reward for their role in his heists, unfavorably compares them to his past exploits, and refuses to even divulge his true plans.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: His first fight with Batman has him rushing in to attack without thought to how his actions are endangering the plan as well as the lives of his teammates, ultimately ensuring the mission's failure and his own defeat because he was too busy attacking Batman to pay attention to his surroundings.
  • The Millstone: Bonk is poor at driving the hover forklift and is also a hothead who keeps going after Batman (who beats him quite easily), at one point while he was needed to lift the very important piece of technology the Jokerz were stealing.
  • Resignations Not Accepted: After raising complaints over how the Joker is running his operation and voicing his doubts that the Joker is who he claims to be, Bonk tells him he wants out. The Joker lets him go. With a harpoon to the chest.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Risking the heist just to get a shot at Batman, and later mouthing off to the Joker. The latter earned him a flag stabbing his chest.
  • Uncertain Doom: In the censored version of the movie, the Joker only shoots him with his signature gas and simply leaves him laughing on the table. Because there's no scene where they have to get rid of his body, it's not as clear what happens to him afterward.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Though he does receive a lot of characterization in his limited screentime, he still dies early in the movie just to prove the Joker is still the biggest psycho in Gotham. In Justice League, he ends up surviving in an alternate timeline created by Chronos, but that timeline is undone by the end of the episode.

    Woof 
Voiced by: Frank Welker (Return of the Joker), Dee Bradley Baker (Justice League Unlimited)
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/woof_64.png

A member of the Jokerz spliced with hyena DNA.


  • Artificial Limbs: Chronos replaces Woof's arms with robotic claws.
  • Beast Man: He's spliced to the point where there’s barely any human left in him, just a giggling bloodthirsty animal.
  • Dumb Muscle: Whatever human intellect he had has been replaced with animal instincts. Though he can still obey basic commands, he acts more like a wild animal.
  • Feral Villain: Due to the level of splicing he's undergone Woof mostly just serves as an attack dog for the gang.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Thanks to the miracle of splicing Woof is half man and half hyena.
  • The Hyena: Woof actually is part-hyena and whenever he's not growling as a threat or whimpering, he's laughing.
  • The Quiet One: Since he articulates a lot of growls and laughter, it seems like Woof may be physiologically incapable of speech, but it's revealed in the alternate universe seen in Justice League Unlimited (where he has several cybernetic modifications) he says, "Sorry, Lord Chronos." In Paul Dini's original movie screenplay, he was supposed to get one line as the GCPD captures the Jokerz, "Aw, nuts."
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When Terry sets Ace on him, Woof immediately turns tail and runs.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: How Terry defeats him in the climax of the movie, setting Ace on him rather than fighting him outright.

Individual Jokerz

    Terminal 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terminal.jpg

"Me? I'm the best."

Real name Carter Wilson, he's a classmate of Terry and Max's who seems the ideal student on the outside. Secretly he lives a double-life as Terminal, a particularly psychotic gang leader in the Jokerz.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Terminal's mother is cold and highly demanding of him, which pushes him towards crime as a way to lash out, and when he is arrested, his former friends immediately mock him as a "loser," possibly his greatest fear.
  • Always Second Best: Terminal hates the idea of being second best due to his emotionally abusive mother considering it nothing more than "First Loser." When Max gets a better score on a test than him, he devotes himself to murdering her, and when she demands to know who he is, "Me? I'm the best."
  • Ax-Crazy: While the other Jokerz just like committing acts of vandalism and petty crimes, Terminal is a would-be murderer who tries to kill an innocent bystander for fun and a fellow student for having better grades than him. He is also likely the most competent, intelligent and dangerous of them all, and ruled his gang through a combo of force of personality and pure fear.
  • Bad Boss: He intimidates the rest of gang in subservience and when one of them makes a joke at his expense, Terminal hangs him off the ledge of a building until he apologizes. Then he drops him anyway. The guy only survives because he was lucky enough to grab hold of some scaffolding.
  • Berserk Button: Don't laugh at him. One of his gang members made a joke at his expense and Terminal's response was to drop him off a building.
  • Broken Ace: Terminal is one of the best students in his year and excels at almost everything ... but "almost" isn't good enough for his mother, so he becomes a violent criminal to take his anger out on everyone else.
  • Creepy Monotone: As Terminal he speaks in a disturbingly emotionless tone of voice as he carries out his crimes.
  • Deadly Prank: He attempts this in his Establishing Character Moment on an innocent bystander by trying to have him torn apart by lethal chattering teeth. Once Max becomes his target, he treats her to such pranks as custodial machines that squirt acid instead of cleaner and a pie in her locker with a brick inside.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Max scored higher on a test than him and is a better student than him? Terminal's response is to dedicate himself to murdering her. To call him a sore loser would be a MASSIVE understatement.
  • Education Mama: The source of Terminal's Freudian Excuse is a cold and domineering mother who belittles him for being second best no matter what he accomplishes.
  • False Friend: His civilian friends and girlfriend are revealed to be this to him at the end, being kind to his face but laughing at him and revealing they always considered him a loser after his arrest.
  • Institutional Apparel: Invoked by Terminal as his outfit seems to be an unfastened straitjacket (although it's likely from a Halloween costume or something).
  • Stepford Smiler: On the surface, Carter is a model student, a star athlete, class president and a contender for class valedictorian. Underneath it all, he’s a psychopath who murderously lashes out at anyone who could damage his sense of identity as "the best."
  • Unknown Rival: Max doesn't care about her test score and brushes it off as "just a number." Carter considers it worth murdering her.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Terminal is a rare mother-son variant; he is almost the top student at his school, but his mother thinks that isn't good enough and pressures him to do better. Secretly being a criminal is him acting out because of this.

The Royal Flush Gang

    In General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/royal_flush.png
The complete group
Appearances: Batman Beyond

Bruce: "The Royal Flush Gang's been around a long time. They're a family. They bring in new members, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, as the older ones retire or go to prison. They think they're better than everyone else. The aristocrats of crime."

The future incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang after Justice League, consisting of the entire Walker family and a programmed robot. In the past, Bruce broke up the gang, which angered King and made him swore that he'd reform the gang and return to Gotham. Although they have no powers, they make up for it with weapon mastery, flying boards shaped like cards, and Ten's computer hacking skills.


  • Affably Evil: These guys are ruthless thieves, yes, but they're less gleefully homicidal than some of Terry's other foes and are a somewhat dysfunctional family rather than just a gang of crooks. They also seem to genuinely care for each other, with the exception of King.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: They look down on other criminals while styling themselves the aristocrats of crime, with the leading couple calling themselves the King and Queen.
  • Badass Family: Unlike previous incarnations (or future incarnations, for the order they were produced), this Royal Flush Gang was related.
  • Cain and Abel: In the comic tie-in, King's twin brother and Queen's twin sister try to kill them.
  • Calling Card: The things they steal are tied to playing card suits. For example, robbing a yacht because it was part of a Yacht Club. Even Terry winces at the pun.
  • Death Dealer: They use several thrown implements shaped like playing cards; King even had a high explosive card he had been saving up for Batman.
  • Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: By their final appearance they've fallen so far that they're reduced to working for Paxton Powers, which Queen finds demeaning, especially when he hires them to act as common killers.
  • The Family That Slays Together: A gang of career criminals that also happens to be a family. Deconstructed as their criminal activities (and King’s abusive nature) eventually leads to the family falling apart.
  • Gang of Hats: Rather obviously by this point, they and their crimes are themed off of playing cards.
  • Kick the Dog: Their first scene introduces them robbing a yacht full of Rich Jerks who mock people who can't afford bigger boats. Not that they're any better themselves in that regard.
  • Know When to Fold Them: In their second appearance, after Terry leads them into a trap where they're faced with the cops and Batman on one side and rival criminals on the other, they give themselves up without a fight.
  • Laughably Evil: Their pompous attitude and attempts to sound high-class when robbing people at sword point can be somewhat chuckle-worthy.
  • Legacy Character: As Bruce notes in their first appearance, the family takes on new members to replace those that retire or go to prison. Ironically, even though the series takes place 50 years in the future, this version of the gang is the first to ever be featured in the DCAU. The first two iterations would appear later on in Justice League. It is unclear if the Royal Flush Gang that King and Queen grew up in was a ripoff of the super-powered Royal Flush Gang, if a member of that Royal Flush Gang was the founder/original patriarch of the non-powered gang or even if the Joker created the super-powered Royal Flush Gang as a ripoff of the non-powered gang if the non-powered gang was becoming active at that time.
  • Not Me This Time: The comics feature the royal flush Gang running amok, but King and his family are currently facing the parole board. It's revealed that the RFG running amok are actually literal twin siblings and cousin of King, Queen and Ten (Jack is the only one without a twin cousin).
  • Outdated Outfit: Befitting their playing cards/aristocratic aesthetic, King, Queen, and Jack's civilian clothing look like something one might wear in a 19th century ball, with King and Jack wearing frilled, ruffled shirts and Queen wearing a white Gorgeous Period Dress. Only Ten/Melanie, being the White Sheep of the family, wears contemporary fashion.
  • Playing Card Motifs: Each of them is named after the higher-ranking cards.
  • Remember the New Guy?: While their debut is Terry's first time fighting them, it is stated that the current King and Queen fought Bruce back during his days as Batman.
  • Ret-Canon: DC Rebirth (more specifically the first arc of All Star Batman) saw the Royal Flush Gang wear the costumes of this version of the Gang.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Both in-universe and out. In-universe, much like their comic counterparts, the Gang started off as enemies of the Justice League, then became solely enemies of Batman. Out, because Justice League came out afterward, this version of the Gang debuted fighting Terry's Batman before the Gang's appearances in JL.
  • Sky Surfing: They use a set of playing-card shaped hoverboards.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Queen and especially Jack in the 2016 comics. All King says is that they turned on him, and Melanie doesn't even mention them, despite Jack having joined her in the honest life in their last appearance on the show and the tie-in comics that reversed that not being canon to any other continuity.
  • Wicked Cultured: They consider themselves the aristocrats of crime and look down on other criminals. Their fight banter sometimes also includes jabs at their opponents' lack of class.

    King 
Voiced by: George Lazenby
Appearances: Batman Beyond
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_6.jpg

"I'll tell you the difference: years ago, when I was your age, he broke up this gang for a while. He outsmarted us, humiliated us, and I've been waiting years to pay him back."

The patriarch of the Walker family and the current leader of the Royal Flush Gang. He's a manipulative, selfish control freak who views his wife and kids more as goons than as family. He's not only driven by a desire to get revenge against Batman for humiliating the past incarnation of the gang, but also to break free of the shadow of the previous King, his father-in-law.


  • Abusive Parents: He's both physically and emotionally abusive to his children. Hitting his son hard enough to draw blood for pointing out revenge won't make them richer, and threatens his daughter at sword point when she objects to killing a hostage. He and his wife pressure Melanie into giving up her chance at happiness by staying with her criminal family and later fake the family's kidnapping to force Melanie to prove her loyalty to them. His final appearance has him leaving Jack behind to the cops, overruling Queen when she tries to go back to help him.
  • Always Someone Better: As his wife constantly reminds him, he's this compared to her father, the former leader of the Royal Flush Gang. Instead of holding onto the integrity of the gang, King's actions bring them to ruin, forcing them into demeaning jobs just to get by, and ultimately completely destroying his family.
  • Beard of Evil: King wears a beard that, suitably, makes him resemble a king in a deck of cards.
  • Berserk Button: Questioning his authority. He hits Jack for pointing out pursuing King’s vendetta isn't profitable and holds Melanie at sword point after she objected to killing a hostage just to stop Batman from pursuing the gang.
  • Control Freak: King cannot stand someone in the family going against his authority, no matter how small the objection.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: King has an inferiority complex pertaining to the previous King, Queen's father, and it's quite clear he's only barely masking his resentment and inability to properly lead the team by being loud, assertive and domineering.
  • Evil Old Folks: Outside of his costume it's revealed he's grey haired and looks noticeably older than his wife, in addition to being an abusive father and husband as well as professional thief.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: King has a very deep voice, provided by former James Bond George Lazenby.
  • Eviler than Thou: He's the most despicable member of the gang, ultimately being only out for himself and willing to sacrifice any of them, his children included, for his own benefit.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He affects the mannerisms of an aristocratic gentleman but his veneer is more transparent than most.
  • Hate Sink: His lack of redeeming qualities makes him the most despicable member of the gang and make other members such as Jack look sympathetic in comparison (Melanie is already sympathetic due to her wanting a more normal life.)
  • High-Class Glass: Styles himself an aristocrat and sports a monocle when out of costume.
  • Hypocrite: Orders his daughter to save him from Batman and the cops but abandons his son to get arrested rather than risk his own skin.
  • Inadequate Inheritor: As his wife repeatedly reminds him, her father, the former King, always thought he was a poor replacement. This proves true as King's actions end up completely destroying the gang and the family as a whole.
  • It's All About Me: King doesn't care about anybody but himself. He sees his children as dispensable muscle and will physically and emotionally abuse them to get what he wants, and in his last appearance, he's cheating on his wife with a younger woman who he plans on leaving her for, taking all their riches with them while Queen rots in jail. But considering how Queen treats him by comparing him to her father, who despised him, is it any wonder he decides to cheat on her and leave her?
  • Jerkass: The whole gang except for Ten and Ace has shades of this, but King stands out, abusing and manipulating his children while pursuing a homicidal grudge against Batman and cheating on his wife.
  • The Leader: The leader of the current incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang. Unfortunately, he’s not a very good leader.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He and his wife fake their kidnapping in their second appearance to force Melanie to prove her loyalty to the family.
  • May–December Romance: While their exact ages are unknown, outside of their costumes, King looks a great deal older than his wife. King later has an affair with the much younger Sable Thorpe, Paxton Powers's personal assistant.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His and his wife's attempts to manipulate Melanie into proving her loyalty to the family end up alienating Melanie to the point where she pulls a Heel–Face Turn and permanently gives up a life of crime.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: On the receiving end in "King's Ransom".
    King: I couldn't stand it anymore. The constant comparison. Do you have any idea what it's like living in someone's shadow?!
    Terry: Actually, I can relate.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: During "King's Ransom", he starts losing the upper-class accent, notably when he says "Shaddup" instead of something more proper and posh. While this could be his actor slipping by accident, this could have been intentional and hint this was an act as part of being a member of the gang.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Batman broke up the Royal Flush Gang when he was Jack's age, outsmarting and humiliating them in the process. The reason he comes back to Gotham is to get a shot at revenge on him. Both his children point out his obsession with revenge against Batman doesn't make them richer (per Jack) and needlessly endangers the gang (per Melanie).
  • Smug Snake: He's proud and overconfident but all of his plans end up only weakening the family's standing until they fall apart completely.
  • Unholy Matrimony: He and his wife are both career criminals. The relationship seems mostly stable until King's plans keep hurting their family to the point where King just decides to leave Queen to be arrested while he runs off with their riches and a much younger woman.
  • Villainous Breakdown: King has one at the end of "King's Ransom," going on a rant about how he's tired of being forced to measure up to his predecessor.
  • Woman Scorned: After cheating on and abandoning his wife, Queen tracks him down and tries to kill him for his betrayal.

    Queen 
Voiced by: Amanda Donohoe and Sarah Douglas
Appearances: Batman Beyond
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donna_walker_dcau_001.jpg

"Someday the right one will come along, one who will fit in. He'll be your King, you'll have all the money you want, all the freedom, the very finest life can offer. But only if you stick with this family."

The matriarch of the Walker family and the current Queen. She was the daughter of the former King, and believes her husband can't live up to him. While still forcing her children to participate in their criminal lifestyle, she at least cares for them and is increasingly angry at King's poor decisions, which are only tearing their family apart.


  • Abusive Parents: Queen emotionally manipulating Melanie into staying. In their second appearance, they faked their own kidnapping just to see how far Melanie would go to prove her loyalty. To be fair though, Queen at least is willing to speak to Melanie using her real name, and in their third and final appearance, she's still upset about Melanie leaving for good. Later on, she reluctantly leave Jack behind to the cops after King prevents her from going back to rescue him.
  • Daddy's Girl: Given how she constantly compares her husband to her father, the previous King, in “King’s Ransom”, it’s likely that she was this when she was the previous Ten. This might explain why she didn’t understand that Melanie really didn’t want to live a life of crime.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Queen mentions how her father never approved of King, seeing him as an inferior replacement as head of the gang. She started to realize her father was right about him when King betrayed her.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Queen expresses concern when Jack is apprehended by the police and tries to go back for him. She also dislikes working for Paxton Powers and balks at the idea of resorting to hired killing. Not that she doesn't have any problem endangering others for money, but being killers for hire is just too gauche for her liking.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While she's still emotionally abusive and controlling, at the very least she does love and care about her children. She's upset about Melanie's defection and tries to save Jack from the cops before King forces her to retreat.
  • Evil Matriarch: The matriarch of the Walker family and current Queen. She's also not above using familial ties to manipulate Melanie into remaining part of their criminal gang instead of trying to pursue a normal life with Terry. She does seem to believe she's acting in her children's best interest though, unlike her husband.
  • Manipulative Bitch: In her first appearance she manipulates Melanie's feelings for her family to convince her to stick with the gang rather than try to run off with Terry. Her second appearance has her and King faking the family's kidnapping to get Melanie to prove her loyalty to the family once and for all.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her and her husband's attempts to manipulate Melanie into proving her loyalty to the family end up alienating Melanie to the point where she pulls a Heel–Face Turn and permanently gives up a life of crime.
  • Unholy Matrimony: She and her husband are both career criminals. The relationship seems mostly stable until King's plans keep hurting their family to the point where King just decides to leave Queen to be arrested while he runs off with their riches and a much younger woman.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: In her first appearance, she endangers a yacht full of people to force Batman to release her husband. This disappears as their relationship takes a turn for the worse in subsequent episodes.
  • Woman Scorned: After being abandoned by her husband, who's been cheating on her with a younger woman, when Queen breaks free and finds out, she tries to kill him in revenge for his betrayal and for destroying their family.

    Ten 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/melanie_walker.jpg
"There's an old saying, once burned, twice shy."
Voiced by: Olivia d'Abo
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"All I've ever been to you is an accomplice, never a daughter. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to realize it."

Melanie Walker is the only daughter of King and Queen and the current Ten. She's the white sheep of the family, a reluctant thief who'd rather leave her criminal life behind in pursuit of a normal one. While in Gotham she starts a whirlwind romance with Terry in their civilian lives which ends in tragedy as Melanie is forced to choose whether or not to stay with her family.


  • Anti-Villain: Ten/Melanie hates her life of crime, doesn't like hurting people, and only sticks around because of misguided loyalty to her family. At the end of her second episode, she realizes her parents (or at least her father) care about her more as an accomplice than a daughter and makes a genuine effort to go straight.
  • Betty and Veronica: Ten/Melanie as the Veronica for Terry because she is a criminal (although a reluctant one) as opposed to Dana, Terry's Nice Girl childhood friend.
  • Birds of a Feather: Melanie, with Terry.
  • Compressed Hair: Melanie has a rather voluminous head of blond hair, but in costume, her head is as smooth as an egg.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: In her first two appearances she's torn between loyalty to her family and a desire to just have a normal life with Terry. By the end of "Once Burned" she cuts ties with her family after realizing her parents only see her as a henchman, not a daughter (although “King’s Ransom” suggests that only King saw her as just a henchman, while Queen still saw Melanie as a daughter as well).
  • Dark Action Girl: She's a criminal, albeit a very sympathetic and reluctant one, who's also a capable ass-kicker.
  • Dating Catwoman: Between her and Terry. In a variation, there's no romantic tension between them in costume, only in their civilian identities. Bruce comments on it.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Her parents disapprove of her relationship with Terry, believing he wouldn't fit in with their family (they’re right, though they aren’t aware that he’s Batman). It's how Queen convinces Melanie to give up on their relationship in "Dead Man's Hand," something Melanie still resents them for in "Once Burned."
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: While she doesn’t end up with Terry in the show, Melanie still successfully breaks away from her family's criminal dealings and manages to convince Jack to reform alongside her.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Her first line of dialogue is somewhat gently telling a woman whose necklace the gang is stealing that she can buy another one, in a way which implies envy, not for her wealth, but for the normalcy.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: She objects to throwing a hostage to his possible death just to get Batman off their trail.
  • Faux Action Girl: Melanie is reduced to this in the 2016 run of the comic. She even spends an issue as a hostage being tossed around by another villain.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Melanie gives up her life of crime for good at the end of her second appearance, after she concludes that her parents see her more as an accomplice than a daughter (which is true about King but less so about Queen). Her final episode has her making an honest living working in a restaurant.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: One of the better fighters in the family (as shown by how well she does on her own in Once Burned) and their expert in disarming security systems. It's especially notable given how poorly the family's jobs in King's Ransom go without her.
  • Loves My Alter Ego: Melanie is attracted to Terry, but hostile toward Batman
  • Military Brat: Played in a weird way with Melanie, whose family travels often as they go from one city to another in their life of crime.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Melanie turns on the rest of the gang due to parental abuse.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: The only reason she's a villain at all is because her family is forcing her into it. She's the one with the most morals of the group and after one manipulation too many by her parents, she quits the team for good to pursue a normal life.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: In B.B. 2.0, Melanie attends the same college and wants to make up with Terry, but he rejects her for her past. They later make up, but Melanie dumps him when he accuses her of stealing a valuable coin.
  • Romantic Rain: Terry and Melanie's second date has them reuniting in the rain after both worried the other had missed their date.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the Royal Flush Gang's second appearance, Melanie was devastated to learn that her parents had manipulated her by faking a kidnapping. When Batman attacks the gang again, she chose to run away from the conflict.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Melanie veers into this in the 2016 comics. Years after their whirlwind relationship, she's still obsessed with him, has a wall of photos of him (including one that she stole from his house), and is explicitly working as a vigilante to get his attention.
  • Token Good Teammate: While she is part of the Royal Flush Gang, Melanie is this, as she’s only in the gang because of manipulation of her feelings for her family. Eventually, after one too many manipulations from her parents, Melanie goes straight.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: In the tie-in comics, it is revealed that King and Queen each had an identical twin, who also married. Their daughter, Melanie's cousinnote , could be mistaken as her twin.
  • White Sheep: Melanie's family treated her relationship with Terry as teenage rebellion. When she actually completed her Heel–Face Turn, they disowned her. Then Jack joined her when his parents refused to pay his bail money.

    Jack 
Voiced by: Scott Cleverdon and Nicholas Guest
Appearances: Batman Beyond
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jack_walker_dcau_001.jpg

"Ah, the old revenge game. But tell me something, sire. How's that gonna make us any richer?"

The only son of King and Queen. He's focused more on profit than petty vengeance.


  • Beard of Evil: A sinister looking goatee.
  • Blade Enthusiast: He favors knives in combat, throwing knives in particular.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Spends most of his time snarking, usually at his father but also at Batman and Commissioner Gordon as well.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He does love his sister Melanie, and, in the show, the love is enough to redeem him.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. At first he acts shocked when his father orders him to throw a hostage to his possible doom to distract Batman, but when King insists, Jack simply quips, "Sorry, gramps," before dropping him.
  • Happy Ending Override: "King's Ransom", their last appearance in the show, ended with Melanie bailing Jack out of jail and offering him a job, which he seems grateful for, with dialogue implying that they're going to be a healthy family from then on without their parents pushing a criminal lifestyle. The Schrödinger's Canon tie-in comics however have Jack quickly return to his criminal ways and crown himself King of a new Royal Flush Gang, and Melanie always appears by herself in other comic iterations and continuities.
  • Heel–Face Turn: The end of "King's Ransom" has Jack deciding to leave their criminal family and join Melanie in making an honest living after their parents abandoned him. Sadly, it didn't last for Jack, as in the series tie-in comics, he tried to revive the Royal Flush Gang with himself as King.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: When his parents leave him for the cops and don’t come to bail him out of jail, he quits the gang and joins Melanie in going legitimate.
  • Only in It for the Money: If it doesn't make a profit, he doesn't see the point to it.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Jack prefers profit to petty grudges. While he's fine with murder, vengeance at the cost of money is pointless in his eyes.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: He's not as sympathetic as his sister in this regard but neither is Jack particularly cruel. He just wants to do the heist, get paid and get out.
  • Siblings in Crime: With his sister, Melanie/Ten.
  • Villain Has a Point: He's a career criminal but Jack makes a very good point to King that picking a fight with Batman to settle an old grudge won't make the family any richer. Too bad for him that King was such a Control Freak.

    Ace 
Voiced by N/A
Appearances: Batman Beyond
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ace_5.jpg

A hulking android used by the gang as their main muscle.


  • The Blank: He doesn't have a face.
  • The Brute: He's really just around for whenever the gang needs someone to punch a hole through a wall or duke it out with Batman.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Bullets, explosions, several story falls, nothing can keep him down for long. Except water.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted with Ace, who shares the name with the Bat-Hound, who was named after a previous incarnation of Ace, one seen in Justice League. Lamphaded by Bruce:
    Bruce: What kept you?
    Terry: They had an Ace in the hole.
    Bruce: Luckily, so did I.
  • The Speechless: Ace, due to being an android with a blank face, never speaks.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: He can take bullets, explosions, and several story falls just fine, but being doused in water is enough to short-circuit him.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In his first two episodes he's handcuffed and arrested along with the rest of the gang rather than being dismantled or destroyed like the average villain robot. He seems capable of independent thought, and Queen at one point collectively calls out to him and Jack "Boys". Either Ace is a cyborg instead of an android or he warrants a little more respect than the average robot.

Kobra

    In General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kobralogo.png
Voiced by: Xander Berkeley (Dr. Childes), Keith Szarabajka (Bracelet Kobra), T'Keyah Keymáh (Makeba), Victor Raider-Wexler (Muscles)
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Static Shock

Kobra worshipers:"Praise Kobra! Let all fear our might!"

A reptile-worshiping cult that seeks to take over the world.


  • Animal Motifs: Snakes, obviously.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: In "Unmasked", after Batman defeats all his mooks, the leader of Kobra throws himself into his own cobra pit.
  • Green and Mean: The main color for their logo is green.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Many of them use reptile DNA (snakes, lizards, dinosaurs) to splice themselves with.
  • Lizard Folk: Their ultimate plan involves causing catastrophic global warming and then turning themselves into dinosaur people to rule over the ruins of human civilization.
  • Nebulous Evil Organization: They are a global evil organization bent on world domination.
  • Snakes Are Sinister: They are an evil organization who worship reptiles, thus their name and logo is a snake.
  • Outside-Genre Foe: With the exception of the League of Shadows, Batman doesn't normally deal with cults plotting world domination. Especially not ones that have both serious firepower, weaponized genetic engineering and enough followers to constitute a large army. These guys would be more fitting in a Sci-Fi horror story.
  • You Have Failed Me: This is punished in a very gruesome way, namely, being thrown into a pit of cobras.

    Zander 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zander.jpg
Voiced by: Alexis Denisof
Appearances: Batman Beyond

"Everything Kobra did for me had one goal. To make me their perfect leader."

Zander was the genetically engineered leader of Kobra.


  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He starts out as a friend to Terry until his true colors are revealed and that he threatens to kill Terry should he follow him and attempt to rescue Max from him.
  • The Chains of Commanding: He's officially Kobra's "leader", yet his life seems more like that of a prisoner or slave.
  • Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: The biggest give away that he's probably going to be a bad guy is the dark rings around his eyes.
  • Deceptive Disciple: Played with. Zander, the leader of Kobra, was taught martial arts by Kairi Tanaga. Kairi actually knew Zander was a cult leader of some kind and taught him anyway, hoping that by teaching him the way of Bushido, she could instill honor in him and steer him away from the dark path he was heading down. Unfortunately, Zander ultimately decides to go through with the path he was groomed for and Kairi has to step in to stop him.
  • Designer Babies: His DNA was synthesized in a lab, and he was grown in an artificial womb.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: Presents a very tragic example when Batman tries to talk him out of wiping out the human race.
    Batman: These people tried to raise you without family or friends or love — but you couldn't get along without those things, could you?
    Zander: You're right...it was my weakness!
  • Entitled to Have You: He's genuinely confused that Max doesn't seem flattered to be chosen by him. "It's an honor to be brought to the leader of Kobra," after all.
  • Evil All Along: He initially comes off as just a lonely rich kid with no social skills and controlling guardians, and, while that's all true, he's still the head of a global cult who plans on killing all humans.
  • Expy: Exceedingly similar to Serpentor, the genetically engineered leader of Cobra from GI Joe.
  • Kill All Humans: The end goal of Zander and Kobra is to use a thermal bomb to raise earth's temperature, making it too hot for humans to survive. Zander and the rest of Kobra will be spliced into dinosaur-men so that they can survive what's to come and rule the world as a superior species.
  • Killed Off for Real: Zander is seemingly killed alongside Kairi when the ship they're on crashes into the side of a dormant volcano and explodes.
  • I Love You Because I Can't Control You: The nature of his attraction to Max.
    Zander: She's so different from these mindless automatons I'm surrounded by. She's...she's a person.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: He may have a cult dedicated to satisfying his every whim, but it's obvious from his interaction with Terry and Max that he's starved for the affection he's never known. He and Terry seemed well on the way to becoming true friends before the Jokerz and Kobra showed up the one time they snuck out.
  • Love Is a Weakness: This is the only lesson his experience with Max teaches him.
  • Never My Fault: After the thermal bomb is disarmed, he rants against Terry that he can no longer survive in his new reptillian form. He blatantly ignores the fact that he chose to transform himself before the bomb could be launched, ignorant of the idea of the plan being stopped.
  • No Social Skills: Having been raised all his life by Kobra with no interaction with anyone but servants and teachers, he has no idea how to have fun or interact with people his own age in the outside world and expects everyone he meets to follow his orders.
  • One-Winged Angel: Ultimately rejects his humanity by splicing himself into a dinosaur.
  • Shadow Archetype: Was supposed to be a dark mirror to Terry before he turned into a dinosaur man.
  • Sore Loser: His reaction to being beaten by Max in a video game is to petulantly claim that he never loses. Max responds by shoving a slice of pizza in his mouth and Zander says once they're done eating he demands a rematch.
  • Spoiled Brat: "What I want, I get." He was bred to be the leader of Kobra and has received nothing but Blind Obedience from his army of servants and subordinates his entire life, and it shows in his attitude towards people like Terry and Max.
  • Tragic Villain: Despite his goals, Zander is arguably just as much a victim of Kobra as anyone else. They created him to be their perfect leader but his life has been more like one of a slave. His childhood was spent being brainwashed into believing the cult's psychotic beliefs and he was never given a choice to be anything other than what Kobra desired. He was raised without family, friends or love, and experiencing them briefly is enough to make Zander desire them. Unfortunately, he's too indoctrinated to realize the tragedy of his own situation and he ends up going through with Kobra's plan rather than leave the path the cult had dictated for him.
  • Tyke-Bomb: He was created to be the leader of Kobra, to the point where he was incubated in an artificial womb for nine months then spent his childhood being tutored around the clock so that he could be groomed into the perfect leader for Kobra.
  • Villainous Crush: His attraction to Max. He soon kidnaps her and, against her wishes, tries to have her spliced into a dinosaur-person to serve as his mate, though fortunately Batman stops that from happening.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: He has zero understanding of concepts like love, affection, and friendship and, thus, doesn't understand the nature of his feelings towards Max. It really doesn't help that he's been isolated for so long that he doesn't know what lots of things are, including video games and pizza, so his character is less posed as Evil Cannot Comprehend Good and more of "Super Sheltered."

    Kobra One 
Voiced by: Kerrigan Mahan
Appearances: Batman Beyond
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kobra_one.jpg

The leader of the Gotham sect of Kobra.


    Kobra Leader 
Voiced by: Lance Henriksen
Appearances: Static Shock
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kobra_leader.png

The leader of Kobra.


Bruce's Rogues Gallery

    The Joker 
Voiced by: Mark Hamill
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jokerbb.jpg

"Hello, Gotham. Joker's back in town!"

The deranged nutjob himself, and old Batman's arch-enemy who died years before the new Batman was even born. Somehow, he's alive and in Gotham to wreak new havoc with the help of a gang that was inspired by his criminal achievements.

See here for more info about him.

    Mr. Freeze (Victor Fries) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5b66fcf1_991b_4309_ae8b_774c966ff4f1.png
Voiced by: Michael Ansara

Mr. Freeze is still the severed head in a jar that last appeared in The New Batman Adventures. Dr. Stephanie Lake creates a clone body for him and transfers his brain patterns into it, hoping to use the same procedure for Derek Powers.

See here for information regarding his previous adventures.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: He genuinely wanted to use the opportunity and new life given to him to change for the better, atone for his previous crimes and make up for the people he hurt. Unfortunately, his "benefactors" tried to murder him and carve up his remains for further study, making him go back to his villainous ways. Even then, his goal was not to exact revenge on Gotham for his terrible fate, just on those people who actually wronged him. Eventually, thanks to intervention of Batman, Freeze (and Dr. Lake) ended up as the only victims of his actions. Victor's final words when Terry tries to save him ("believe me... you're the only one who cares") emphasize his tragedy and show that he saw no more reasons to go on now that a chance for normal life has been denied to him.
  • Always a Bigger Fish: He manages to subdue Batman, but as it turns out, there's something in the building even stronger than he is. That something is Blight, and his power is heat-based, allowing him to lay Freeze flat on the floor without breaking a sweat.
  • And I Must Scream: For the last 50 or so years before Dr. Lake intervened, he was a head in a jar, presumably locked in a room where he had very little human contact.
  • Anti-Villain: Went from villain in name only back to Woobie villain at the end of his episode.
  • Arm Cannon: His latest suit has freeze rays built into the arms.
  • The Atoner: He genuinely did want to try to make up for all the pain he caused. Too bad nothing ever goes his way.
  • Back for the Dead: He's a recurring villain in the old series and doesn't last one episode in the new series.
  • Backported Development: His clone body was still bald despite having hair before his accident in Batman: The Animated Series, though considering his condition later redeveloped, it might've been an early sign of the clone body degenerating.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece: The suit he wears after his body begins to degenerate would have be at least ten years old, or even older, considering the length of time since Bruce hung up the cowl. Like Terry's Batsuit, it's remarkably cutting-edge despite that fact.
    Derek Powers: Fries? But how-
    Mr. Freeze: It's something I've kept in cold storage.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He doesn't remember what he did to an old victim of his, but unlike other examples of this trope, he's genuinely remorseful that he can't remember and vows to make amend by paying reparations to everyone he's ever hurt.
  • Creepy Monotone: Averts it after he gets a new body, but when things start to go south, it begins making a comeback.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • Yes, the terrifying, emotionless villain who likes to freeze people solid is made even darker because he gets to commit his first on-screen murder since his debut.
    • In addition to freezing his traitorous girlfriend to death while she howls in pain (with a Gory Discretion Shot), he also freezes an oncoming car in a block of ice and encases a squad of soldiers shooting at him. This may be the biggest killing spree he's ever gone on in the DCAU.
  • Death Seeker: After crossing the Despair Event Horizon again.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Sometime between his new body regressing back to requiring sub-zero temperatures and Derek Powers' and Dr. Stephanie Lake's betrayal. At that point, revenge is the only thing he has left (again).
  • Dramatic Deadpan: When he's revived, he puts his tragic past behind him and talks with more emotion. When he's betrayed, he still talks more emotionally than he used to, but a few lines are dramatically used in his classic monotone.
  • Driven to Suicide: When he reverts back to needing subzero temperatures to survive and is nearly killed by Dr. Lake when she wants his organs, Freeze snaps and tries to destroy the facility he was recreated at, intending to go with it. He gets a cracked helmet in the ensuing fight with Blight, exposing him to temperatures above zero. Terry tries to help him get out, but Freeze creates a wall of ice to force Terry to leave him behind to die in the collapsing building.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Ice blasts are all well and good, but it's rough to try freezing a literal walking nuclear meltdown. At the end of the episode, Blight tears him up with little effort.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: The suit gave him some new abilities.
  • An Ice Person: Apparently it's rooted in his DNA.
  • Ironic Echo: Uses one towards the scientist who had betrayed him Dr. Stephanie Lake, who had also become his lover. It also doubles as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
  • Mad Scientist: Not as heavily emphasized here, although he appears to have made the new suit some time before the events of "Meltdown."
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Saving a kitty cat from an oncoming train, letting go a man who tried to shoot him in revenge for killing his family decades before, and starting a charity dedicated to helping the victims of his previous actions and naming it after his beloved wife, Victor really wanted to make up for all the horrible things he had done.
    • In the end, he didn't give Terry the option to attempt to rescue him and erects a wall of ice between them. This action likely saved Terry's life, as the factory detonated shortly after.
      Mr. Freeze: Stay where you are. *labored breathing*
      Terry: You've got to get out of here, Fries. The whole place is gonna go!
      Mr. Freeze: Believe me...you're the only one who cares.
  • Powered Armor: Upgraded with the option to emit even more powerful ice blasts from his hands.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: Unlike Bruce, Terry is more accepting of the possibility that Freeze has really reformed. At the end, Bruce seems to have come around to the point of believing that Freeze sincerely tried to reform.
  • Revenge: His murder of Stephanie Lake may be blood-chilling, but then again, Dr. Lake was an utterly amoral scientist who treated him as nothing more than a guinea pig, pretended to be his friend while secretly watching his condition and eventually decided to kill and dissect him for further study with absolutely zero remorse. When you hear her dying screams while Freeze kills her, remember that a few minutes ago, she turned up the temperature in test chamber he was locked in and watched with complete and total indifference as he was slowly dying and fruitlessly begging her for mercy.
  • Tragic Villain: Even more than he already was in Batman: The Animated Series. Considering he had lost his wife, and it's decades after The New Batman Adventures, it's hard to not feel sorry for the poor man.
  • Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted, then subverted! Freeze's new suit (implied to be something he created to deal with the first Batman) is bullet-proof, laser-proof, and has a freeze gun built-in both arms...bolstering every previous weakness he had against Batman. Unfortunately, he ended up playing Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors with Blight instead, which almost resulted in his own death had Terry not stepped in to save him.
  • Villainous Rescue: Saves Terry from Blight with an ice blast, though it was mostly due to his own anger than concern for Terry's safety.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: His opening monologue goes along these lines. He's well justified in thinking this since by then he's nothing but a head in a jar.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: See Tragic Villain for more.
  • The Worf Effect: Mr. Freeze reappears halfway through the episode decked out in a new set of bulletproof Powered Armor, and displays a more powerful Freeze Gun built into the suit. However, he gets one-shotted by new villain Blight in order to demonstrate the strength of the new Big Bad.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: The clone body he received allowed him to live a normal life, but his condition regresses back to his abnormally-low body temperature. Things go downhill fast.

    Bane 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images_69.jpg

Chappell: "In the end, he needed Venom just to keep going. It got so bad, he couldn't even make it himself. He had to trust someone."

A former enemy of the original Batman, who has been drained dry after decades of abusing Venom.

See here for his previous exploits.


  • The Brute: Used to be, but now he's stuck on life support.
  • Dark Lord on Life Support: He's wholly dependent on life support, his life of Venom abuse having turned him into a shell of the man he once was.
  • Fate Worse than Death: His state in the future is this. Decades of injecting himself with super steroids has left him a literal shriveled up shell of his former self stuck on life support and barely conscious.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: He used to be a well-muscled man even without the Venom, but years of using the stuff has reduced him to a bag of bones.
  • Power Degeneration: His super-steroid Venom causes this. A lifetime of Venom use has left him a comatose and broken man dependent on Venom and hooked up on life support 24-7.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: His constant use of Venom has left his body broken down. Injecting a chemical version of what is an even more powerful equivalent of steroids, will no doubt have long term negative effects on the body. Even more so when you consider just how drastically it would change his body from a muscular but still normal physique, to a giant mass of inhuman amount of muscles to his then back to normal look when he was no longer using it. No body can take that amount of back and forth changes without there being long term damage.

    Ra's al Ghul 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/48.jpg

An old enemy of Batman who hasn't been seen since the "Near Apocalypse of '09". He only becomes relevant to the new Batman once his daughter offers Bruce Wayne the secret of immortality.

See here for information regarding his previous exploits and adventures.


  • Beard of Evil: Ra's' original body had a beard. His current form, being female, doesn't.
  • Beyond Redemption: Bruce declares as much after learning Ra's hijacked Talia's body, effectively killing her. He even goes as far as to stop Terry from saving Ra's when the latter is stuck in his exploding base, implicitly acknowledging that Ra's isn't worth saving anymore.
  • Grand Theft Me: On his own daughter, Talia, with plans to do it to Bruce.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Says this line verbatim to justify placing his mind into his daughter's body in order to cheat death.
  • Immortality Immorality: He's avoiding death through Grand Theft Me.
  • Immortals Fear Death: Bruce outright accuses him as such:
    Bruce: Sure, Ra's, why not? Anything to hold off the Grim Reaper another few seconds. I take it back. You don't cheat death; you whimper in fear of it.
  • Karmic Death: Despite all of his persistent and heinous attempts to avoid death, with his latest stunt being killing and body-snatching his own daughter, it's an exploding Lazarus Pit of all things that finally puts an end to Ra's and his quest for eternal life.
  • Killed Off for Real: This fate ironically befalls Ra's at the end of "Out of the Past", when a loose wire falls into a Lazarus Pit and makes a massive explosion that destroys Ra's lair with Ra's inside of it, making the observation "it's safe" just before everything explodes without Ra's realizing.
  • Living Forever Is Awesome: He loves immortality so much he's gone through three separate methods of beating back the grim reaper.
  • My Grandson, Myself: Upon successfully taking over Bruce's body, he planned to create an identity as the long-lost son of Bruce and Talia.
  • Noodle Incident: The Near-Apocalypse of '09 where Batman kicked his ass harder than usual.
  • Offing the Offspring: By taking over his daughter's body, he's essentially killed her.
  • Parasitic Immortality: After Ra's' body was mortally wounded to the point even the Lazarus Pit was unable to do anything for him, he decided to insert his consciousness into his daughter Talia's mind, which basically killed her and gave Ra's full control of her body. Ra's intends to do the same to Bruce, having come up with a plan to trick the latter into rejuvenating himself using the Lazarus Pit so that Ra's can steal his body and return to Gotham pretending to be the son of Bruce and Talia in order to get control of Bruce's assets. Bruce is so disgusted by Ra's' actions that he's willing to leave him for dead when Ra's' lair explodes and forbids Terry from trying to save him.
    Bruce: Sure, Ra's, why not? Anything to hold off the Grim Reaper another few seconds. I take it back. You don't cheat death; you whimper in fear of it!
  • Shadow Archetype: Like Bruce, he wants to carry on his goals via a younger successor.
  • Showing Off the New Body: As the commentary points out, Ra's in Talia's body has a much more stereotypically feminine and sexy swagger than Talia herself ever did. Ra's seems to relish dressing in a Spy Catsuit, swinging his hips, and tossing his hair.
  • Vocal Dissonance: It's quite jarring to hear Ra's' voice come out of Talia's body.
  • Voices Are Mental: Sort of. He can use his body's original voice when he feels like it but also uses his own.


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