Justice League Unlimited S02E13 Review: Before Beyond

Justice League Unlimited, Season 2, Episode 13: Epilogue

So, this episode is supposed to cap of the DC Animated Universe. And honestly still works. Batman: The Animated Series changed the game for superhero cartoons on television. It's not the first cartoon, nor the first good cartoon, but it's the first one that really, truly respects both the source material and the audience's intelligence, being meant as entertainment not to appeal to children of the ages below five, but to a broader audience. The voice-acting and dialogue wasn't asinine, the character writing were actually amazing, the action scenes were great, and while it doesn't steep to the dark themes of modern comics it's still very much content on tackling more mature issues.

It spawned many, many other stories. Superman: The Animated Series. Batman Beyond. Static Shock. Justice League. Justice League Unlimited. Of all these, Batman Beyond perhaps can be called the DCAU's biggest and most ambitious creation, being almost entirely original and not based on any prior DC creation. It's also chronologically the last stories of the DCAU, and where Justice League and Justice League Unlimited served as a capstone to some Superman stories that the showmakers weren't able to tell, not a corner of the DCAU goes without being respected. And one burning question is the whole mystery in Batman Beyond. I have to admit I haven't watched the series beyond its first season at the time of writing this review, but it's still an emotional story nonetheless.

The story works both in-universe and out-of-universe, showing the influence that Batman has on the world, essentially spawning the entire generation of heroes in the DCAU. Amanda Waller as the old, mysterious woman from Bruce's past that reveals a lot of things to Terry -- namely of the 'Batman Beyond Project' to ensure that the world will always have a Batman to protect it, is well done and ties this all to JLU pretty well. It ties in to the greater Cadmus plotline very well, and actually answers a question about Terry -- that he has neither the hair colour of both his parents, and actually resembles Bruce a fair bit. Does it take away from his agency as a character, that he was just 'destined' to become Batman? No, as Amanda Waller points out, Bruce never reveals that he knows (or if he knows) to Terry, and all the trials and tribulations that Terry McGinnis went through to become Batman, to succeed Bruce Wayne as the protector of Gotham City, is real.

It's really an amazing bit of television as Terry hallucinates some black-and-white events of him breaking up with his girlfriend Dana, rejecting the Justice League, rejecting Bruce, and generally acts like a douche after hanging up the mantle of Batman because he feels betrayed. It's not until the final set of scenes (where both Dana and Bruce are very amicable to Terry, and locales that should be destroyed are actually repaired) that we realize it's Terry's imagination and not flashbacks to what recently happened. As someone who has to succeed what is possibly the biggest burden out there -- to be Batman -- Terry goes through a crisis of self-worth as he's confused just how much of the Batman mantle he deserves, thinking that he's the result of Bruce's machinations. Except that Bruce is innocent. Everything is Amanda's fault.

It's a huge bombshell, of course, as Amanda Waller reveals that the world will always have a Dark Knight because of her own machinations, that she alters the genetic code of the reproductive organs of some men, including Warren McGinnis, effectively making Terry the biological son of Bruce Wayne. It changes the dynamic and relationship between Bruce and Terry, but then Amanda Waller always was an extremist. Hell, she very nearly has an assassin murder Terry's parents in a dark alley... it's a good thing the assassin she hires is Phantasm, making a very welcome return to the DCAU in a short but impactful cameo where she refuses to do the deed.

What really sells Amanda Waller why Batman is a hero that the world needs and not, say, Superman or J'onn J'onzz, is not the ease at which Batman maneuvers around her, or how Batman was the one that uncovers Luthor's conspiracy during the Cadmus crisis, but rather one of the best Batman moments ever, in an encounter with the Royal Flush Gang's Ace, one of my favourite creations of the DCAU. See, Ace is a very powerful realty-warping telepath, one of the creations of Cadmus. She doesn't belong among the heroes, she doesn't belong among her other Royal Flush Gang members, she doesn't even belong among crazy villains like the Joker. She tries to make a 'new' Royal Flush Gang, transforming a group of people to be her friends, but they're more intent on destroying stuff.

And Ace has used her powers to transform a huge part of the city into her own personal wonderland, and where Doctor Light and the other League members fight against the four Royal Flush Gang mooks, Batman enters Ace's realm to stop Ace from killing everyone -- she's suffering from a terminal aneurysm that'll kill everyone in the city. Waller is insistent that Batman kill the terminal Ace. It would be a mercy-killing, since the kid's terminal anyway... but Batman is not just a hero because he can fight, or he has a lot of gadgets, or that he's smart. He's a hero because no matter the cost, he upholds his code of honour.

Both Ace and Batman know that Batman isn't going to use the killswitch Waller gave him. Batman finds a different way, and this way is compassion. He holds Ace's hand, sitting on the swing, calming the girl down from her fear of death and her crippling loneliness -- things that Batman is familiar with. It's a moment that tugs at the heart strings, that's for sure, and Batman sees a lot of his young, afraid and lonely self in Ace. Yes, he is the vengeance and the night, but deep down Batman's a nice guy, a hero that's strong enough to be gentle, and it's this compassion that really sells Batman's character as a hero not only in the audience's eyes, but also in the eyes of Amanda Waller.

It's an amazing story, and one that helps Terry get past his own insecurities. Yes, he's part of a legacy both as a son of Bruce Wayne and as the second Batman, but he's still his own man. He's Bruce's son instead of his clone, which is an important distinction. And as he patches things up with Dana and Bruce, and the moment where we see Bruce making dinner for Terry (Bruce knows, doesn't he, damned detective that he is) and Terry setting Bruce's medicine for him is really heartwarming, and he embraces his destiny as Batman... but in his own terms.

It would've been a really great end for the DCAU, where Terry, as the Batman, finally gets a happy ending while still upholding the legacy of the dark knight, showing that Batman and the League's efforts are still being fought for in the future, while telling a very emotional and heart-tugging story for Bruce and Terry.

Of course, it's not the end, since we have another season to go. This is practically the perfect episode to end the DCAU on, though, the perfect epilogue with lots of great character moments and lots of callbacks to earlier stories.

We'll take a break from Justice League Unlimited for a month or so before we go through with the third season. JLU is such an excellent bit of superhero storytelling that it's a gem to review, but it's pretty exhausting too at the same time simply due to how much I have to talk about every episode.

Justice League Roll Call:

• Speaking Roles: Batman (Terry McGinnis), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Amanda Waller, Kai-Ro, Tomahawk, Aquagirl, Dr. Light
• Non-Speaking Roles: Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Stargirl
• Main Villains: Parasite, Ace
• Non-Speaking Villains: Inque, Shriek, Stalker, King II, Jack II, Queen II, Ten II, Phantasm

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• This episode takes place after every single episode of Batman Beyond, the latest chronologically in the DCAU canon. 
• Ace last appeared in the Justice League episode "Wild Cards". Retroactively and coincidentally, this probably means that Bruce's dog, Ace, is named after this Ace.
• The new Royal Flush Gang is based visually on other properties. King is based on Marvel comics' supervillain M.O.D.O.K., Queen is based on Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts (also she's really a he, a stealth reference to a drag queen), Jack is based on the cartoon Samurai Jack, and Ten is based on Bo Derek in the movie '10'.
• Terry briefly mentions how Joker used DNA alteration on Tim Drake, referencing the events of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Terry also briefly mentions Mister Freeze, a villain that both Batmen have tangled with.
• The Justice League Unlimited roster that appear in the future, namely Warhawk, Aquagirl and the Green Lantern Kai-Ro, are all seen in the Batman Beyond episode "the Call". The villains they fight, other than the Parasite, are all Batman Beyond villains: Inque, Stalker and Shriek. It's revealed that Terry isn't a member of the JLU yet.
• Parasite has mutated to develop a fanged, lamprey-esque mouth, referencing his appearance in the comics. It's unclear if this is the same Parasite as Rudy Jones or not. 
• Phantasm, a.k.a. Andrea Beaumont, was introduced and last seen in the movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. 
• Terry watches a movie titled "The Grey Ghost Strikes Back", which is a reference to Bruce Wayne's childhood hero. The title is probably a reference to the Frank Miller comic "The Dark Knight Strikes Again."
• Waller's offhand quip about how the Royal Flush Gang here is "the second or third incarnation" is a reference to how chronologically this would be the second incarnation, but due to Batman Beyond airing before Justice League, then in the real-world this would be the third incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang shown to the audience.
• The events of this episode recycles several plot points from a cancelled Batman Beyond movie which would have Catwoman as the person responsible for the cloning process.
• The episode's final scene features Terry's Batman flying, silhouetted against buildings and startling an airborne police hover-car, with one of them yelling "did you see that?", which is a homage to the opening scene in the very first scene of the very first episode of Batman: The Animated Series, "On Leather Wings", complete with the B:TAS score.