AllMovie

Twenty years after Batman has hung up his cowl, gangs of face-painted kids calling themselves the Jokerz roam the streets of Gotham City preying on innocents, and Bruce Wayne barely holds on to the reins of power at his company, now merged as Wayne-Powers. When troubled teen Terry McGinnis stumbles onto Bruce Wayne's secret, he pleads with him to become Batman to avenge his murdered father, who planned to blow the whistle on Wayne-Powers CEO Derek Powers. When Wayne refuses, McGinnis dons the suit and takes the fight to Powers himself, leading to an uneasy mentorship under the original caped crusader. Batman Beyond premiered in 1999, seven years after the launch of Batman & Robin, itself considered one of the most faithful adaptations of a superhero comic in the past few decades. Although created in part to capitalize on the exploding teen market, Batman Beyond easily won the hearts of comic fans of all ages by extending the Batman mythos while sticking with the elements that made it popular in the first place: action, pathos, and the blending of superhero and film noir detective aesthetics.