Batman Beyond - "Driver"-David Press

PAGE ONE.

1.1: 

Imagine we're a bird way above the future GOTHAM CITY and the shadows of light that shine up into the night sky there's a black hole in the shape of a the flying BATMOBILE. 

MCGINNIS  (CAP)

This used to be the time of my life. Now it's just the same thing every day. 

1.2:

A better shot of the Batmobile as it edges between skyscrapers. Let's try to mask Darwyn Cooke's design sensibilities here with the sharp lens flares all around the buildings, bouncing off the edges of the Batmobile. 

MCGINNIS  ( CAPTION)

I've been Batman for five years now, and I feel like I should have graduated by now. That's what Bruce used to say: 

1.3:

We're in the cockpit. Red and black, with TERRY MCGINNIS driving, draped in the colors. He's older here, let's say this is about five or so years after the original animated series ended, and I know there's no way to show this here but imagine him with some stubble--like he hasn't shaved in weeks. He's no longer a teenager--he's now in his mid-twenties. 

MCGINNIS 

"Do you know why school is structured to four years?"

(CONT)

No.

(CONT)

"Because that's how life goes-we graduate every four years and end up a freshman all over again."

1.4:

From behind Terry's head: we see the skyscrapers and the other flying cars looping around the futuristic Gotham City. 

MCGINNIS 

But a year after he's been gone, there's just this. Driving endlessly.

END.

Batman Beyond - Past Crimes, Present Punishments - Perry Kent

Panel 1

Interior, dim, warehouse. A single lamp illuminates Terry in full bat-suit, sitting in a chair with his head slumped forward and his arms secured behind the chair. Terry groans as he wakens. 

1. BATMAN:    Uhhh… What the hell just happened. I think I got knocked--

 

Panel 2

Terry strains to pull his wrists apart, but they are fastened together with some futuristic looking cuffs at the wrist. They are secured together behind the chair.

2. BATMAN: What the hell? 

3. BATMAN: My wrists.

Panel 3

Terry tries to stand awkwardly with the chair being lifted with him as he looks around.

4. BATMAN: And my gizmos aren't responding...

5. BATMAN (hushed): Big B, you there?

Panel 4

A baseball bat slams into Terry’s gut, knocking him back down into the chair. The villain is not yet revealed, but she is wearing tactical gloves.

6. IRON-WOMAN (OP): Sit down!

Panel 5

Reveal of our villain. A shorter woman, in tactical gear with a mask that looks like it is made of iron. She steps into the light, baseball bat in hand. 

7. IRON-WOMAN: You’re not leaving yet. Not before I tell you the tale of a lowly henchman, whose life you destroyed 20 years ago. 

8. IRON-WOMAN: And his poor daughter who was left to rot.

- END -

Batman Beyond – Bat in the Machine – MK Stangeland Jr.

(BRUCE WAYNE has finally died – but it turns out he left a program based on his brain inside the BAT COMPUTER. Turns out this has not gone without problems.)

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: TERRY MCGINNIS is in the BATCAVE. His mask is off as he faces the BAT COMPUTER. Text is displayed on the BAT COMPUTER that matches its dialogue.

BAT COMPUTER (1): I MUST DO WHAT IS NECESSARY.

BAT COMPUTER (2): I AM BATMAN.

TERRY (1): No.

TERRY (2): Batman…Bruce Wayne, he’s gone.

Panel 2: The BAT COMPUTER.

BAT COMPUTER (1): BUT I AM BATMAN.

BAT COMPUTER (2): I MUST PROTECT GOTHAM CITY.

Panel 3: TERRY.

TERRY (1): You’re right. Batman must protect Gotham.

TERRY (2): But you’re not Batman.

TERRY (3): And you’re not trying to protect Gotham, you’re trying to control it.

Panel 4: BAT COMPUTER.

BAT COMPUTER: BUT I AM BATMAN.

Panel 5: TERRY attempts to close in on the BAT COMPUTER.

TERRY (1): I’m sorry, but no, you’re not.

TERRY (2): You’re a program gone wrong.

TERRY (3): And it’s time to let go.

Panel 6: TERRY gets hit by a large electrical shock and flung backwards.

BAT COMPUTER (1): NO!

(END PAGE)

Batman Beyond - Machine Learning - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Close on an in-progress marble bust. It's suppose to be Alfred, but that is not an easy thing to decipher.

BRUCE (off-panel): Terry, I said to do this without assistance.

2 - On Bruce and Terry. Both are sculpting marble busts based on the completed bust of Alfred between them. Bruce is using classic sculpting tools, including a hammer, chisel, pointing machine and calipers. Terry has the hammer and chisel, but he's wearing some big goggles with red lenses that look very tech-y. Let us say that Bruce's bust is the rough one from panel 1, while Terry's actually is looking pretty similar to the model at the moment.

TERRY: That you're asking me to do this at all is ridiculous.

3 - From Terry's point of view, looking at his Alfred bust. There's a computer readout giving various numbers and measurements, as well as a point on the bust itself that has a tag reading "SUBSEQUENT IMPACT POINT, 37.5° ANGLE".

TERRY: Technology exists specifically so we don't need to know this kind of stuff.

4 - On Terry as he hammers the back of his chisel into the point marked by the glasses. Perhaps have a small crack fracturing out from the point of impact.

SFX: whap!

5 - Terry is surprised as his bust crumbles apart, completely and utterly ruined.

NO COPY

6 - On Bruce, wearing a serious expression (does old Bruce have any others?).

BRUCE (1): Technology fails.

BRUCE (2): The only thing you can rely on is what you know.

Batman Beyond - Red_Hood.EXE - P. A. Nolte

1/ Batman clutches at his head in pain.

Batman: AAAAaarrrghhh--

Bruce (VO): Terry!  Get your hands off your head so the sonics in your suit can readjust correctly!

SFX: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

2/ Having removed his hands, he stands up straight and a little confused.  Everyone around him with new sTech headphones in is screaming.  The rest are watching in teror.  They are in a rooftop courtyard.  The Batmobile has a large hole torn in the front driver's side.

Batman: --hh?

Batman: Looks like you were right.  Those new sTech vidphones are definitely un-schway.

Batman: And whoever that was took out one of my tandem flight computers.  Who would even think to do that?

3/ The sTech vidphone buds wrap around behind the head and go into both ears.  The screen is supposed to be projected in front of your face and controlled via eye movement.  Everyone with a pair right now is experiencing a debilitating sonic pulse as their new devices' screens draw power from their hosts to put up localized fields that look like domed hoods.

Batman: Wait a minute...  I've seen this.

4/ The sTech vidphone helmets turn from freshly rendered blue-white to an angry computerized red.

Batman: Didn't I already take out The Joker?

5/ Bruce sits at a control panel.  On the monitors behind him is a wall of images of people who have disguised themselves as the Red Hood over the years (and even a Red X if possible).

Bruce: That doesn't rule him out.  Still.  Better to hope for something else...

Why Batman Beyond?

If not for The Zeta Project, Batman Beyond might be the redheaded stepchild of the DCAU that ran through Batman: The Animated Series to Justice League Unlimited.  It's a weird mish-mash of Spider-Man and Iron Man in a Batman shell.  Bruce Wayne's an old man and some punk kid gets to be Batman instead of Dick Grayson or Tim Drake?  And then The Return of the Joker.  And Epilogue.  It's a lot to take in.

But when Terry McGinnis faces off against the Jokerz, there's a comforting parallelism there.  Someone who has suddenly inherited a mantle he doesn't necessarily want going to war with a gang of idiots hellbent on emulating ideals they don't fully comprehend.  Themes that haphazardly deepen until Terry eventually faces The Joker himself.  Kind of.  There's also Shriek, Inque, a new incarnation of The Royal Flush Gang, and a handful of other villains that nicely fill some gaps in The Dark Knight's extended rogues gallery.

And that's what we're going to try and tap into this week. Because for every episode about Spellbinder, there's Terry's Friend Dates a Robot, or Heroes, or half a dozen others.  Stories that explore, however briefly, just how freaking weird it must be to live in Gotham, a city that was by all accounts a terrible place to live even before sixty plus years of elevated, bat-themed vigilantism.