Line #53 Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E1E2Rebirth


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rebirth_4.png]]
2	''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'''s two-part pilot episode. Twenty years after the events of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', an older [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne]] is forced to hang up the cowl due to his declining health and retires from crime-fighting, becoming an isolated recluse.
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4	[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture Another twenty years later]], crime in Gotham is worse than ever, and the city itself has largely fallen under the influence of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Derek Powers]], the new CEO of Wayne's former company. In a chance occurrence, Bruce meets a teenager named Terry [=McGinnis=], who shares his passion for justice and inadvertently discovers his past secret identity as Batman.
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6	After Terry's father Warren is murdered, Terry suspects foul play on the part of Powers, his former employer, and asks Bruce for help. Having long given up vigilantism, Bruce insists that the proper route would be to inform the police and have them further investigate the situation. Terry, upon finding the batsuit, has different ideas...
7	----
8	!!Tropes:
9	* AdventureRebuff: Bruce initially refuses to help Terry. Once Terry steals the Batsuit, Bruce shuts it down remotely, but eventually decides to let him become the next Batman.
10	* ArtEvolution: Musical example. The pilot's prologue follows the familiar, traditional orchestral scoring that had been part and parcel of the DCAU since BTAS. After the TimeSkip, the scoring then shifts into ''Beyond'''s now-familiar electronica. Creator/BruceTimm has confirmed on the DVDCommentary this was deliberately done to help sell how different the show was going to be from its predecessors.
11	* AssholeVictim: Although the Jokerz certainly intend to prank everyone at the nightclub, Nelson's the primary victim because of his fancy car.
12	* BadassBoast:
13	-->'''Mr. Fixx:''' You're pretty strong, for some ''[[UnderestimatingBadassery clown]]'' [[PretenderDiss who thinks he's Batman]].\
14	'''Terry:''' I ''am'' Batman!
15	* BatmanGrabsAGun: Happens in the prologue. In the middle a hostage rescue attempt, the aged Bruce suffers a heart attack and receives a severe beating from a mook. He is then forced to hold off the mook by pointing a gun at him, much to his own horror. This is the final nail that leads him to hang up his Batsuit for good.
16	* BeingGoodSucks: Terry realizes this about Bruce after he refuses to do anything about Powers' nerve gas project.
17	-->'''Terry:''' Something happened to you, didn't it? And it wasn't just that you got old.
18	* BigNo: Powers after being exposed to his nerve toxin.
19	* BittersweetEnding: Terry successfully stops the nerve gas sale and avenges his father's murder. But while Mr. Fixx is dead, he no longer has the evidence to prove Derek Powers orchestrated it. Realizing his city still needs a hero, Bruce accepts Terry as [[LegacyCharacter the new Batman]]. Meanwhile, Powers himself has not only been treated of his own plague with a radiation treatment, [[CreateYourOwnVillain he's become a radioactive being who may pose a threat]]...
20	* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: The new Batsuit is at least 20 years old by the time Terry wears it, but he mentions that it's still cutting-edge.
21	* CareerEndingInjury: Bruce's bad heart (and [[DentedIron his deteriorating physical state in general]] [[HeroicRROD from all the injuries he'd sustained over his years as Batman]]) finally catches up to him during a fight with some kidnappers, and [[BatmanGrabsAGun he is forced to use a gun]] to make the last attacker step down.[[note]]Though it should be noted that it's the fact that he caught himself actually resorting to drawing a firearm that convinces him to hang up his cowl, rather than his evident health problems as would be normal for this trope.[[/note]]
22	* ChangingOfTheGuard: By the end of the episode, Bruce decides to hire Terry as his "assistant", effectively accepting him as a worthy successor to take over the duties of Batman.
23	* ChekhovsGun: A relatively quick one. During the battle at the hover-pad, the bad guys hurry the loading of the nerve gas and the takeoff, conspicuously leaving a single canister behind. Batman soon uses this lone canister to distract Powers.
24	* CoincidentalBroadcast: The kidnappers in the opening scene watch a TV news report of the kidnapping, followed by a business news item that shows Bruce Wayne is now considerably older than he was in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and introduces Derek Powers as a rival trying to take over his company.
25	* ContinuityNod:
26	** Bunny Vreeland, the kidnapped young woman in the prologue, is [[WordOfGod confirmed]] to be the daughter of Veronica Vreeland, a recurring character from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.
27	** Powers is trying to sell the nerve gas to the Eastern European nation of Kasnia, which had been introduced in the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E1To3TheLastSonOfKrypton pilot]] and would remain the DCAU's go-to fictional European country through ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.
28	* CommonalityConnection: Bruce initially demands that Terry hand the Batsuit back after he steals it. Terry manages to win his sympathy by saying that this is his one chance to catch his father's killer, while referring to Bruce's loss of his own parents. It is what convinces Bruce to aid him.
29	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Powers in spades. In the intro, it is mentioned that he had repeatedly attempted hostile takeovers of Wayne Enterprises, eventually succeeding and transforming the company into Wayne-Powers. And he only gets worse from there.
30	* CreateYourOwnHero: Powers having Warren [=McGinnis=] murdered for his knowledge about the nerve gas is what brings Terry and Bruce together, reviving Batman.
31	* CreateYourOwnVillain: Terry causes Powers to get exposed to his own nerve gas. Later, his doctors treat him with high levels of radiation to save his life, but the effects transform him into a translucent glowing green skeleton...
32	* DamnYouMuscleMemory: During the climax, Powers turns out to be an adept hand with a gun, quickly blasting Terry's Batarangs before they can hit him mid-air. When Terry chucks the last remaining nerve gas canister at him from behind, he turns around and reflexively blasts it before he processes what the projectile is, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard exposing himself to the gas]], and eventually resulting in his transformation into Blight.
33	* DeathByOriginStory: Warren [=McGinnis=] and Mr. Fixx.
34	* DentedIron: It doesn't matter how skilled Bruce is; he still grows old and can't do the kind of things he did when he was younger and healthier.
35	* DidntSeeThatComing: Powers and his goons are caught completely off-guard by the arrival of the new Batman as it has been over two decades since Batman last made an appearance.
36	* DirtyCoward:
37	** The kidnapper in the DistantPrologue has no qualms against brutally beating Batman with a metal bar while he's incapacitated and in agony on the ground from a heart attack, but quickly freaks out and bails when [[BatmanGrabsAGun Batman threatens him with a fallen gun]].
38	** The Jokerz at Terry's first scene (named "Scab" in later appearances), once he realizes Terry is not afraid of duking it out with him.
39	* DistantPrologue: The first episode begins with Bruce Wayne's final night as Batman, twenty years prior to the rest of the story.
40	* TheDragon: Mr. Fixx to Powers. He is the one who murders Terry's father.
41	* DramaticIrony: The Jokerz trying to intimidate Bruce during the confrontation outside Wayne Manor in Part 1. They have ''no'' idea they're facing off with their namesake and inspiration's archenemy, or that they're childishly trying to emulate a force of pure evil that they could ''never'' measure up to (and that Bruce's mocking dismissal of them is ''completely'' justified).
42	* DownerBeginning: The DistantPrologue that shows Batman taking on his last case, suffering a GameBreakingInjury and retiring the cowl.
43	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Kaznian Minister Vilmos Egans. He's visibly unnerved during the meeting with Powers when he sees video documentation of the nerve gas and its effects on animals and humans. Subverted in that he buys the gas anyway.
44	* EvilGloating: The mook while he's overpowering Bruce in his last fight as Batman.
45	* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Fixx drowns when his craft crashes into the Gotham Bay.
46	* FeelingTheirAge: In the prologue, the original Batman, who's in his late fifties at least, has a heart attack while fighting Bunny Vreeland's kidnappers. The last thug nearly beats him to death with a giant wrench, forcing Bats to grab a nearby gun and aim it at the thug. The thug stops and runs away, but is stopped by the police. The combination of his declining health and breaking his moral code convinces Bruce that it's time to retire.
47	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
48	** In the DistantPrologue, the news mentions Powers trying to take over Wayne Enterprises. Post-TimeSkip, he's succeeded.
49	** This dialogue:
50	--->'''Terry:''' [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker Something happened]] to you, didn't it? And wasn't just that you got old.
51	** Bruce tells Terry to take the incriminating information on Powers to Commissioner Barbara Gordon, who's taken her now-passed father's place. Of course, she'll be much more important later.
52	** During the sales pitch to the Kasnian diplomat, Powers mentions that intense heat or radiation are the only ways to treat exposure to nerve gas. At the end of the episode, he gets radiation treatment that transforms him into Blight.
53	** [[spoiler:Mr. Fixx met his end by drowning and his body is at the bottom of the ocean and this will later repeat in the season 1 finale Ascension where Derek will meet the same end as well.]]
54	* GetOut: Bruce snarls this at Terry after catching him in the Batcave.
55	* GoodNewsBadNews: In the end, the good news from Powers' doctors is they stopped the deteriorating effects of the nerve gas. The bad news is he's turned into a glowing skeleton from the radiation used to treat him.
56	* GoodScarsEvilScars: Mr. Fixx has a jagged scar down from his left eye.
57	* GoryDiscretionShot:
58	** The eventual fates of the test subjects of Powers' nerve gas, given the horrified reaction by the Kaznian minister upon seeing the pictures.
59	** We never see Warren's corpse either.
60	* GroinAttack: Terry manages to escape Mr. Fixx by kicking him in the balls.
61	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Harry Tully and later Warren [=McGinnis=] are murdered by Mr. Fixx for knowing about the nerve gas.
62	* HeroicBSOD:
63	** Bruce after [[BatmanGrabsAGun being forced to use the same weapon of his parents' murder]] to defend himself against a criminal. This act convinces him to retire from being Batman.
64	** Terry also has one after his father's funeral. He [[CornerOfWoe sits morosely in his bedroom]] and later breaks down in his mother's arms as [[PartingWordsRegret he laments his parting words to his dad]].
65	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
66	** During the battle with Batman, Powers gets exposed to his own nerve gas, quickly suffering from the effects.
67	** Terry and Fixx's climactic struggle ends when he knocks him backwards into the transport shuttle's control panel, the [[ElementalPunch electrified brass knuckles]] he was wearing short-circuiting the panel and causing it to crash into the Gotham bay, eventually drowning Fixx.
68	* HistoryRepeats: While the circumstances differ, the death of Terry's father leads to Terry becoming Batman, much like when Bruce became Batman decades ago after losing his parents.
69	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Bruce's [[DistantPrologue final battle as Batman]] begins with him easily taking down criminal mooks as usual...until he clutches his chest in distress.
70	* HowDoIShotWeb: {{Zigzagged\|Trope}}. After stealing the Batsuit, Terry takes a few minutes to get used to the suit's flight patterns. However, he manages to use the suit's other functions (notably the fingertip microphones that he uses to eavesdrop on Powers). It's implied that Terry took some time to figure out some of the suit's abilities when making his way to Powers' office, but he still shows himself to be a remarkably quick study in using its abilities, especially the Batarangs.
71	* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Before he dies, Harry Tully passes on an infodisk about the nerve gas to Warren. Later, Terry finds the same infodisk hidden in one of his pictures.
72	* ImpairmentShot: When Bruce collapses during his final battle as Batman, we see a wavering double-vision view through his eyes.
73	* {{Irony}}: After Warren's murder, Terry laments their argument and feels they could have fought off the Jokerz together if he'd stayed at home. After discovering it was Mr. Fixx in Part 2, however, Terry's subsequent fight in the climax proves he and Warren ''couldn't'' have won that fight. Terry is barely able to beat Fixx even with the technological edge provided by the Batsuit. Had he not disobeyed Warren, Terry would have surely perished alongside his father.
74	* ItsAllMyFault: While not responsible for his father's death, Terry blames himself for leaving Warren unprotected after being out for too long when he stormed off. He believes he should have stayed if he had known about the attack.
75	-->'''Terry:''' He grounded me, and I didn't listen.
76	* {{Jerkass}}: The crooks Bruce fights in in the DistantPrologue. They kidnapped Bunny Vreeland to ransom five million dollars for her, and despite being given the money, fully intended to kill her anyway.
77	* KarmaHoudini: Zigzagged with Derek Powers. Legally, he's able to get away with the development of the nerve gas and the murder of Warren (as Powers had reclaimed the evidence from Terry and thus he and Bruce have no way to prove it). Personally, however, Powers ''does'' pay for it with his viral exposure, radiation treatment, and mutation.
78	* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown:
79	** When Bruce is incapacitated due to a sudden heart attack, one of the kidnappers gleefully beats him with a crowbar.
80	** The Wayne-Powers guards take glee upon beating a helpless Terry once Bruce shuts the Batsuit down.
81	* LaughingMad: Powers, upon seeing his new appearance after receiving the radiation treatments.
82	* LaymansTerms: When the lead doctor starts answering Powers' question about what happened to him with a line of {{technobabble}}, Powers grabs him and demands that he "bottom line it".
83	* {{Leitmotif}}: In the prologue, Shirley Walker's iconic Batman theme is reprised when Bruce begins his rescue of Bunny Vreeland.
84	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident:
85	** Harry Tully "accidentally" got exposed to the nerve gas.
86	** Later, Mr. Fixx makes it look like Warren was murdered by Jokerz.
87	* MuggingTheMonster: When the Jokerz run into Bruce, they assume that he is just a feeble, crippled old man and not a threat. Cue CurbStompBattle.
88	-->'''J-Man:''' Who do you think you're talking to, old man? We're the Jokerz!\
89	'''Bruce:''' ''[smirking]'' ''[[PretenderDiss Sure]]'' you are.
90	* NeverForgottenSkill: Bruce's showing against the Jokerz gang shows that old as he is, age hasn't blunted his fighting skills in the slightest, only his stamina. Particularly, his OffhandBackhand skill is still in top form.
91	* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
92	** Bruce in Part II ordering Terry to take Harry Tully's evidence to the GCPD and Barbara Gordon instead of sending it himself. Powers and Fixx are able to intercept Terry en route and recover it, thereby forcing Terry to steal the Batsuit and go after Powers himself.
93	** Terry also can't believe Bruce wants him to go to the GCPD as he'd pointed out at the end of Part I that they were cozy with Powers. Bruce doesn't tell him ''why'' Barbara should be trusted (i.e. she used to be Batgirl). Had he told Terry, it might've swayed him. It's justified, though, as Bruce has only just met Terry and doesn't know or trust him yet (and sharing Barbara's secret isn't his decision to make). Moreover, given revelations later in the season, there's also old bitterness between Bruce and Barbara that's strained their working relationship.
94	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Once they obtain the disk, Powers orders his driver to stand down from shooting at Terry. This obviously backfires on Powers in the most awesome way.
95	* NotSoDifferentRemark: When Bruce threatens to shut down the Batsuit again, Terry brings up how Bruce lost his own parents and how this is his one chance to nail his own father's murderer. Knowing all too well what Terry is going through right now--the pain, rage, guilt, and need for closure--is what ultimately convinces Bruce to stand down.
96	* OffhandBackhand: At the tail end of his brief fight with the Jokers, Bruce does this to their leader when he attempts to hit him with a pipe from behind, with [[TheStoic nary a change in expression]]. With his cane. Age has done ''nothing'' to blunt certain skills it seems.
97	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Terry's third foray into the Batcave, stealing the Batsuit right under Bruce's nose. The latter wouldn't have even found out until he saw Ace tied to the mansion gate.
98	* ObviouslyEvil:
99	** Vilmos Egans, the Kaznian Minister.
100	** A security guard at the apartment complex where Mary [=McGinnis=] lives, who is unsurprisingly on Powers' payroll, spying on Terry and reporting that the boy has the incriminating file.
101	* OhCrap: In the prologue, the kidnapper is reduced to terrified babbling after BatmanGrabsAGun, apparently realising the [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness significance of this act]].
102	* OutsideContextProblem: Terry as Batman is this for Powers (and by extension the rest of Neo-Gotham City's underworld during Season One). Be they mugger, mafioso, or corrupt CEO, none of Gotham's current generation of criminals have had to deal with a Batman in 20 years and it takes them by surprise. It's offset, though, by Terry being completely inexperienced and in over his head.
103	* PartingWordsRegret: Terry bitterly regrets his last conversation with his father.
104	-->'''Terry:''' I yelled at him, Mom. He grounded me, and I wouldn't listen. The things I said--!
105	* PostVictoryCollapse: Bruce helps Terry fight off the Jokerz, but then needs help getting back to Wayne Manor for his medicine and falls asleep in his chair right after taking it. This serves as an EstablishingCharacterMoment (building on what we saw in the DistantPrologue); [[NeverForgottenSkill he still knows how to fight]], but lacks the stamina to do it for very long.
106	* PretenderDiss:
107	** Bruce gives one to the Jokerz [[MuggingTheMonster when they try to threaten him]].
108	** Later, Mr. Fixx tries to give one to Terry.
109	* RedHerring: Terry thought that the Jokerz killed his father. When he investigates Powers, Terry overhears that Mr. Fixx was the one who did it.
110	* ReflexiveResponse: Powers easily shoots down the Batarang that Terry throws at him. He's just as quick to shoot the next thing Terry throws at him...a canister of his nerve gas, which bursts open right in front of him.
111	* RuleOfSymbolism: Bruce grabbing the gun in the prologue to defend himself. Bruce is essentially having to use the same kind of weapon that killed his parents in Crime Alley all those decades ago. Batman was created by a desperate man with gun...and Bruce has now ironically ''become'' a desperate man with a gun. While his declining physical health technically forces his retirement, the symbolic damage really, more than anything, is what breaks Bruce's spirit (until Terry's arrival revives it).
112	* ShoutOut: Powers' reaction to seeing his mutated form is to [[LaughingMad laugh insanely]] at himself in the [[Film/Batman1989 mirror]].
113	* SpitefulSpit: Nelson Nash spits on Terry's face after the other insults him during a wrestling match. Terry punches him, causing him to get in trouble and get grounded by his father.
114	* SpottingTheThread: Played with when after Warren's funeral when Terry's going through his ItsAllMyFault monologue. Terry unwittingly pokes the very first hole in the frame-up: how did the Jokerz even trace him? They didn't know his name or ID. Mary suggests it may not even have been the same gang, but Terry ultimately doesn't pursue this line of investigation (as he instead discovers Warren's disc and gradually deduces what must've really happened).
115	* ThatManIsDead: Bruce invokes the inverted version when Terry tries to enlist his help against Powers:
116	-->'''Terry:''' You have to do something! You're Batman!\
117	'''Bruce:''' I ''was'' Batman.
118	* UnderestimatingBadassery: When he hears of the report of Batman sneaking around in his company premises, Powers initially scoffs at the idea and believes it's not a big deal.
119	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Nelson Nash of all people is this to Derek Powers' entire scheme. If Nash had not provoked Terry during their match, Terry would never have been grounded by Warren that evening. If he hadn't, Terry wouldn't have stormed out to go clubbing with Dana and would've been killed along with his father by Mr. Fixx. If Terry had not gotten into that altercation with the Jokerz while clubbing, the chain of events that literally brought him to Bruce Wayne's doorsteps and the Batman legacy would never have happened.
120	* WelcomeToMyWorld: Bruce says this to Terry verbatim. Terry's mother thinks he's referring to the world of big business; Bruce, Terry, and the audience know that he means [[LegacyCharacter taking up the mantle of Batman]].
121	* YouKilledMyFather: Terry's motivation for stealing the Batsuit and taking on Powers and Mr. Fixx.

Context Recap / BatmanBeyondS1E1E2Rebirth