One of the most under-developed characters in Batman Beyond is... a dog? Yeah, Bruce's canine companion, Ace, has been with us since the series premiere. But in this episode, he gets a chance to shine as we learn about his history and how he ended up with Bruce. Batman Beyond: Ace in the Hole So…

Mary McGinnis is a bad mom. Terry, her eldest son, goes missing for well over 24 hours, and she barely notices. She notices that he's been absent, but he's able to shrug it off by just agreeing with something she made up. Do you really talk to your son that little? I guess if he's…

Getting justice for those who have been legitimately wronged is important. Without it, abusers keep abusing, exploiters keep exploiting, and more people are hurt. Getting justice before you have all of the facts, though, can destroy lives. That's what this week's Batman Beyond is about (mostly). A criminal going by the name of Payback is…

In one of its more whimsical episodes, Batman Beyond explores fandom, the response to Star Wars: Episode I, and other significant events in American culture at the turn of the century. Welcome the Sentries of the Last Cosmos, a Batman Beyond episode that uses an ultra-immersive game as a way to break formula and give us…

There have been some weirdly silly, cliche-driven episodes of Batman Beyond, especially in its second season, but we've also had our share of really dark episodes that fall into the "nightmare fuel for children" category. This one is one of the latter, and I want to like it. Batman Beyond: April Moon If you know…

Batman Beyond is better than whatever this episode is supposed to be. This episode is made up of off-the-shelf TV show parts bought at the same store as "Terry's friend dates a robot." Batman Beyond: Plague Nelson Nash returns from the tropical island of Saint-Denis, and airport security finds a green vial on him. They're…

The Batman Beyond episode "Terry's Friend Dates A Robot" dared to ask the question, can a robot be sexy? Now, seven episodes later, we're getting down to sci-fi basics with Zeta, a story about a robot fighting its programming. Batman Beyond: Zeta While this season is still disappointingly devoid of episodes that dig into the…

In the 1990s and early 2000s, TV was a very different place from what it looks like now. Everyone watched television as it aired, and shows premiered at certain times of year. They had to have a certain number of episodes to fill out a given calendar. Writers couldn't depend on people catching every episode,…

If it bleeds, it leads--that's the old saying about salacious stories and headlines in the news, and that's what this episode is all about. A journalist who would be an award winner if he directed his efforts at meaningful stories, but who instead has decided to cheat his way to prominence through technology and titillating…

While Bruce is away, Terry is working hard to handle his daily work as Batman. This time, things are a little closer to home when the father of one of his friends turns to crime to make ends meet. Batman Beyond: Armory This episode doesn't scrape the bottom in the same way that the episodes…

When kids start disappearing from Hamilton Hill High, everyone knows where they're going--a new correctional facility for wayward teens. But Terry, Max, and their friend Chelsea think something is up--especially when Chelsea goes missing a day after protesting the new facility. Batman Beyond: Last Resort The episode prior to this, "The Final Cut", was boring.…

You can skip this episode. No, really. There's nothing here. It's not terribly interesting visually. Curare brings absolutely nothing as a character to the story. Bruce is out of town. Terry doesn't develop in any meaningful ways. The closest we get to an emotional beat is Max being pretty freaked out after an encounter. This…

If you saw something that you know probably wouldn't happen, but secretly believed it would, how ready would you be to accept or deny it? Barbara Gordon, one-time vigilante and current commissioner of Gotham City Police, has a tenuous relationship with vigilantism in the city she watches over. When she sees Batman kill Mad Stan,…

Naming this episode must've been a rough one in the Batman Beyond writers' room. By this point, they'd already used Meltdown, Hooked Up, and Mind Games. So when they had to name an episode about a guy getting an android girlfriend, they only had one option left. Batman Beyond: Terry's Friend Dates a Robot Is this…

What does it mean to be Batman? There are the things he does, of course--he stops crime, he protects innocents, he sheds light on the darkest parts of Gotham City. Those are challenging. But the truly difficult part is about the decisions. Batman has to make difficult, painful, and sometimes suicidal decisions. And then he…

This is a strictly-okay episode of Batman Beyond that also has one of the most heartbreaking lines I've ever heard a child character utter in a television show. Batman Beyond: Revenant One solid story idea that Batman writers can go back to over and over is to take a boilerplate story situation and then just…