Batman Beyond's two-part pilot episode. Twenty years after the events of Batman: The Animated Series, an older Bruce Wayne is forced to hang up the cowl due to his declining health and retires from crime-fighting, becoming an isolated recluse.

Another twenty years later, crime in Gotham is worse than ever, and the city itself has largely fallen under the influence of 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.

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...

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Tropes:

• Adventure Rebuff: 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.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • When Terry goes to Wayne Mansion to to ask Bruce for his help in uncovering Derek Powers' plans, Bruce is evidently uninterested in helping till Terry says "You're no Batman, you whacked-out old fraud!".
  • Bruce is content to leave this whole thing to the police and threatens to cut off the suit again if Terry doesn't return, but this gets him to reconsider and provide the needed directions to the transport pad.
    Terry: I read up on you, Mr. Wayne. I know how you lost your folks. The guy who murdered my dad is on that transport. This is my one chance to nail him.
• As You Know: Derek's doctor was doing this as part of Good News, Bad News, in order to ease into explaining what effect the radiation treatment had on him. Derek cuts him off, demanding a speedier explanation, which leads to the Wham Shot.
• Asshole Victim: Although the Jokerz certainly intend to prank everyone at the nightclub, Nelson's the primary victim because of his fancy car. Considering how he managed to get Terry into detention earlier and being an overall bully, his beating from the Jokerz is well-deserved.
• Badass Boast:
  Mr. Fixx: You're pretty strong, for some clown who thinks he's Batman.
  Terry: I am Batman!
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Powers shows the Vilmos Egans footage of how they tested the nerve gas on a calf. Although it is not shown, based Egan's reaction it appears the fate of the calf was quite gruesome.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: 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.
• Being Good Sucks: Terry realizes this about Bruce after he refuses to do anything about Powers' nerve gas project.
  Terry: Something happened to you, didn't it? And it wasn't just that you got old.
• Big "NO!": Powers after being exposed to his nerve toxin.
• Bittersweet Ending: 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 the new Batman. Meanwhile, Powers himself has not only been treated of his own plague with a radiation treatment, he's become a radioactive being who may pose a threat...
• Break Out the Museum Piece: The new Batsuit is at least 20 years old by the time Terry wears it, but he mentions that it's still cutting-edge.
• Career-Ending Injury: Bruce's bad heart (and his deteriorating physical state in general from all the injuries he'd sustained over his years as Batman) finally catches up to him during a fight with some kidnappers, and he is forced to use a gun to make the last attacker stand 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.
• Changing of the Guard: 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.
• Chekhov's Gun: 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.
• Coincidental Broadcast: 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 Batman: The Animated Series and introduces Derek Powers as a rival trying to take over his company.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Bunny Vreeland, the kidnapped young woman in the prologue, is confirmed to be the daughter of Veronica Vreeland, a recurring character from Batman: The Animated Series.
  • Powers is trying to sell the nerve gas to the Eastern European nation of Kasnia, which had been introduced in the Superman: The Animated Series pilot and would remain the DCAU's go-to fictional European country through Justice League.
  • When Terry discovers the Batcave, the lighting system illuminates the TNBA Batmobile and Batwing in their respective vehicle bays.
• Commonality Connection: 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.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: 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.
• Costume Evolution: The Distant Prologue shows Bruce using a flat black batsuit with a larger red chest symbol, the more advanced technology was an attempt to counter the fact he was getting older and health was deteriorating.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Even in his advanced age, long past the point where he could reasonably expect to get into any sort of physical confrontation, Bruce still keeps some Batarangs handy at all times. He uses one to free Ace after Terry ties him to a fence to get to the Batsuit.
  • Despite the only way to get it would be to break into the batcave, Bruce has a shut-down command on the batsuit to render the user frozen in place.
• Create Your Own Hero: Powers having Warren McGinnis murdered for his knowledge about the nerve gas is what brings Terry and Bruce together, reviving Batman. Terry was also begrudgingly going to deliver the disc to Barbara Gordon rather than do anything more, but Powers prevented him from doing so and failed to keep him captive.
• Create Your Own Villain: 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...
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: 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, exposing himself to the gas, and eventually resulting in his transformation into Blight.
• Data Drive MacGuffin: The events of the episode started Powers having Mr. Fixx recover a disk containing the information about the nerve gas from Warren, then Terry, leading to the latter becoming the new Batman.
• Death by Origin Story: Warren McGinnis and Mr. Fixx.
• Dented Iron: 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.
• Didn't See That Coming: 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.
• Dirty Coward:
  • The kidnapper in the Distant Prologue 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 Batman threatens him with a fallen gun.
  • 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.
• Distant Prologue: The first episode begins with Bruce Wayne's final night as Batman, twenty years prior to the rest of the story.
• Downer Beginning: The Distant Prologue that shows Batman taking on his last case, suffering a Game-Breaking Injury and retiring the cowl.
• The Dragon: Mr. Fixx to Powers. He is the one who murders Terry's father.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • 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).
  • Bruce ordering Terry to take the nerve gas evidence to Commissioner Barbara Gordon. Terry doesn't understand why Bruce is passing this off and why he's so confident the GCPD's leader can handle this (especially after previously pointing out the GCPD are friendly with Powers). The audience, by contrast, knows that Barbara was Batgirl during BTAS. So, they know that Bruce has very good reason to trust her capabilities and that she's most definitely not corrupt.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Terry's first scene had him defending monorail passengers from a Jokerz gang member harassing them. Later scenes showed him with a bad attitude and temper, but established his character arc for the first few episodes.
  • Derek Powers is first mentioned on a news report, where it mentions how he has been increased his power and wealth by acquiring several smaller businesses and laying off over three hundred people, after successfully taking over Wayne Enterprises 20 years after the opening prologue.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted with 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, as well as its effect on humans via photographs of Harry Tully and other victims, but decides to buy the gas anyway.
• Evil Gloating: The mook while he's overpowering Bruce in his last fight as Batman.
• Evil Laugh: Powers after seeing what effect the radiation treatment has had on his body.
• False Flag Operation: Jokerz graffiti covers Terry's home when he arrives to find his father was killed. Given he had ran into a Jokerz gang that night, he assumes it's related and blames himself. He later finds the hidden disk and realizes it was a distraction.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Fixx drowns when his craft crashes into the Gotham Bay.
• Feeling Their Age: 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.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the Distant Prologue, the news mentions Powers trying to take over Wayne Enterprises. Post-Time Skip, he's succeeded.
  • This dialogue:
    Terry: Something happened to you, didn't it? And wasn't just that you got old.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Mr. Fixx meets his end by drowning and his body ends up at the bottom of the ocean. This repeats in a climactic episode with another villain.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Bruce is a much taller and broader chest guy than Terry, but the batsuit he designed for himself fits Terry perfectly.
• Friend to All Living Things: Terry only stumbled onto the Batcave because he saw a bat up against the other side of the clock. He assumed the little thing was trapped inside the clock, so he was trying to help it get out, inadvertently opening the secret entrance in the process.
• Get Out!: Bruce snarls this at Terry after catching him in the Batcave.
• Glasgow Grin: One of the Jokerz draws a knife on Terry while declaring his intent to put a smile on Terry's face.
• Godzilla Threshold: Bruce ordered Terry to deliver the disc with the evidence to Barbara Gordon, saying that was that was going to be done on their end. Terry didn't like it, but he tried to comply, only to get cornered by Powers and Mr. Fixx. Terry is forced to toss the disc and make a run for it to save himself, so he heads back to Wayne Manor to help himself to a certain suit.
• Good News, Bad News: 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.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Mr. Fixx has a jagged scar down from his left eye.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • The eventual fates of the test subjects of Powers' nerve gas, given the horrified reaction by the Kaznian minister upon seeing the pictures.
  • We never see Warren's corpse either.
• Groin Attack: Terry manages to escape Mr. Fixx by kicking him in the balls.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Averted. The guards find Batman sneaking around twice (first when he's eavesdropping on the office, second at the launch bay) and immediately attack him.
• He Knows Too Much: Harry Tully and later Warren McGinnis are murdered by Mr. Fixx for knowing about the nerve gas.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Bruce after 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.
  • Terry also has one after his father's funeral. He sits morosely in his bedroom and later breaks down in his mother's arms as he laments his parting words to his dad.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • During the fight with Batman, Powers gets exposed to his own nerve gas, quickly suffering from the effects. Moments earlier, he perfectly shoots a batarang that Terry threw at him out of the air, smugly comparing it to skeet shooting; turns out he's too good of a shot, since he shoots the gas canister just as perfectly when Terry throws it at him.
  • The climactic struggle between Terry and Fixx ends when the former knocks the latter backwards into the transport shuttle's control panel, causing the electrified brass knuckles he was wearing to short-circuit the panel and causing the shuttle to crash into the Gotham Bay, eventually drowning Fixx.
• History Repeats: 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.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Bruce's final battle as Batman begins with him easily taking down criminal mooks as usual... until he clutches his chest in distress.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Zigzagged. 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.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: 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.
• Impairment Shot: When Bruce collapses during his final battle as Batman, we see a wavering double-vision view through his eyes.
• Ironic Echo: When Terry tries to convince Bruce to do something to stop powers because he is Batman, Bruce retorts this by saying he was Batman. Then during his fight with Mr. Fixx, the latter gives him a Pretender Diss for thinking he’s Batman, Terry fires back by saying that he is the new Batman.
• 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.
• It's All My Fault: 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 could have stayed and fought off the Jokerz with his dad if he had known about the attack, not yet knowing that it was actually Mr. Fixx, Powers’ right-hand man, who killed Warren, and that he too would have likely died himself if he stayed.
  Terry: He grounded me, and I didn't listen.
• Karma Houdini: 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.
• Karmic Transformation: Derek Powers is turned into Blight by the same nerve gas he created and exposed Harry Tully to. As added bonus, it was done when he was trying to shoot the new Batman, who unbeknownst to him is the son of a man he had killed.
• Kick the Dog:
  • The crooks who kidnapped Bunny Vreeland in the prologue. Even after they get the full ransom they demanded, they decide to murder her anyway, for no discernible reason.
  • When Terry remarks his father advised against taking rides from strangers, Derek makes a point of reminding him that Warren isn't around anymore.
• Kick Them While They Are Down:
  • When Bruce is incapacitated due to a sudden heart attack, one of the kidnappers gleefully beats him with a crowbar.
  • The Wayne-Powers guards take glee upon beating a helpless Terry once Bruce shuts the Batsuit down.
• Laughing Mad: Powers, upon seeing his new appearance after receiving the radiation treatments.
• Layman's Terms: 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".
• Leitmotif: In the prologue, Shirley Walker's iconic Batman theme is reprised when Bruce begins his rescue of Bunny Vreeland.
• Little "No": Powers immediately after accidentally exposing himself to the nerve gas. He gets louder from there.
• Make It Look Like an Accident:
  • Harry Tully "accidentally" got exposed to the nerve gas.
  • Later, Mr. Fixx makes it look like Warren was murdered by Jokerz.
• Momma's Boy: Terry appears to have favored Mary over Warren, remarking she would always hear his side of things rather than give him the brush off. Warren's frustrated "You're not living with your mother!" response suggests this has come up many times.
• Mugging the Monster: When the Jokerz run into Bruce, they assume that he is just a feeble, crippled old man and not a threat. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
  J-Man: Who do you think you're talking to, old man? We're the Jokerz!
  Bruce: [smirking] Sure you are.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The weapon the leader of Bunny Vreeland's kidnappers uses to beat down Batman before Bruce is forced to grab the kidnapper's firearm? A crowbar.
  • Powers' reaction to seeing his mutated form is to laugh insanely at himself in the mirror.
• Never-Forgotten Skill: 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 Offhand Backhand skill is still in top form. He also frees Ace, who's been tied to the front gate of Wayne Manor by Terry, with a batarang on the first try.
• Never My Fault: When Bruce angrily ejects Terry from the Batcave, Terry whines that he didn't do anything wrong, as if snooping around someone's property without permission isn't extremely rude.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Bruce in Part II orders 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 to recover it, thereby forcing Terry to steal the Batsuit and go after Powers himself.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: 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.
• "Not So Different" Remark: 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.
• Nothing Is Scarier: When discussing the nerve gas's effectiveness, Powers shows the Kasnian diplomat footage of animal testing and pictures of what became of poor Harry Tully. We're spared the grisly details, but the Kasnian diplomat is left wincing.
• Offhand Backhand: At the tail end of his brief fight with the Jokerz, Bruce does this to their leader when he attempts to hit him with a pipe from behind, with nary a change in expression. With his cane. Age has done nothing to blunt certain skills it seems.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: 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.
• Oh, Crap!: In the prologue, the kidnapper is reduced to terrified babbling after Batman Grabs a Gun, apparently realising the significance of this act.
• Old Master: While in his 80's and walking with a cane, Bruce proves to be no slouch in using that cane against Jokerz members.
• Outside-Context Problem: 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.
• Override Command: Bruce had a "kill-switch" in the Batsuit in case the wrong person gets into it. He activates it on Terry, but decides to show mercy and deactivate it when the guards start beating him.
• Parting-Words Regret: Terry bitterly regrets his last conversation with his father.
  Terry: I yelled at him, Mom. He grounded me, and I wouldn't listen. The things I said—!
• Police Are Useless: The reason why Terry didn't try taking the disc to the cops was because they're "cozy" with the local Corrupt Corporate Executive. Bruce knows Barbara is entirely honest and trustworthy to handle this matter, but Powers and Mr. Fixx ensure Terry is unable to deliver the disc to her.
• Powered Armor: The new batsuit is fairly slim with a fabric texture, belying the strength enhancement as well as a Hyperspace Arsenal in the case of batarangs.
• Post-Victory Collapse: 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 Reestablishing Character Moment (building on what we saw in the Distant Prologue); he still knows how to fight but lacks the stamina to do it for very long.
• Pretender Diss:
  • Bruce gives one to the Jokerz when they try to threaten him.
    J-Man: Who do you think you're talking to, old man? We're the Jokerz!
    Bruce: Sure you are.
  • Later, Mr. Fixx tries to give one to Terry. Unlike the Jokerz, Terry shows he's no pretender.
    Mr. Fixx: You're pretty strong, for some clown who thinks he's Batman.
    Terry: I am Batman!
• Red Herring: Terry thought that the Jokerz killed his father. When he investigates Powers, Terry overhears that Mr. Fixx was the one who did it.
• Reestablishing Character Moment: When we meet Bruce Wayne twenty years after his final battle as Batman, he has withdrawn to Wayne Manor with no company except his dog Ace. He still has his old martial arts skills (supplemented by Cane Fu), but he no longer has the stamina for an extended fight.
• Reflexive Response: 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.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: It's implied that by becoming the new Batman, Terry McGinnis did this to Bruce Wayne, who was demoralized after how his last mission as Batman saw him grabbing a gun in desperation due to suffering a heart attack at the worst possible time.
• Rule of Symbolism: 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 a 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).
• Save the Villain: Defied in the climax. Terry makes no effort to save Mr. Fixx, leaving the man who murdered his father to drown when his hover vehicle crashes into Gotham Bay. To play devil's advocate, even if Terry had wanted to save Fixx, it was also his first outing as Batman and he was inexperienced at this point in the series. A rescue attempt from a crashing and sinking vehicle would likely have ended with Terry drowning alongside Fixx.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Terry comes to the mansion for the second time he calls Bruce's dog, Ace, Scooby.
  • The motorcycle chase that leads to Wayne Manor is an homage to AKIRA, which was a general inspiration for the series overall (the megastructure buildings in particular). As the DVD commentary notes, Terry's even riding a red motorcycle just like Shotaro Kaneda.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • While the kidnappers only appear in the Distant Prologue, they're the ones who drive Batman to his Moment of Weakness by forcing him to threaten one of them with a gun, causing him to give up the cowl and retire from his superhero career for good.
  • Warren's coworker, Harry Tully: without him, the entire series may never have happened. After meeting with Terry's father, Warren, Tully was grabbed by Powers; when discovering Tully didn't have the missing information, Powers figured that he'd passed it off to Warren and sends Mr. Fixx to retrieve it by any means necessary. Mr. Fixx kills Warren and stages it to look like a Jokerz hit, but the inconsistencies in the scene give Terry a reason to investigate his father's murder and become the new Batman.
  • Mr. Fixx only appears here in the Pilot, but he's one of the most important villains in the entire series. As Derek Powers' enforcer, his murder of Warren ultimately results in Terry becoming the new Batman. The death of Fixx also impacts Powers' storyline for the remainder of Season One, forcing him to rely on new agents like Shriek and Inque (a recruitment drive which helps build Terry's own Rogues Gallery).
  • Ace, in this episode, has very little impact on the plot. His one big contribution is barking at Terry when the latter tries to excuse himself from the Wayne estate, which causes him to try phoning his father instead, stumbling upon the Batcave and sealing his fate in becoming Batman.
• Smarter Than You Look: Terry shows that he is more than a rule-breaking teenager when he examines the last Batsuit, recognizing that the technology is cutting-edge despite being decades old.
• Spiteful Spit: 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.
• Spotting the Thread: Played with when after Warren's funeral when Terry's going through his It's All My Fault 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).
• The Teaser: The only one in the series. The Distant Prologue is shown being the opening credits.
• That Man Is Dead: Bruce invokes the inverted version when Terry tries to enlist his help against Powers:
  Terry: You have to do something! You're Batman!
  Bruce: I was Batman.
• That Poor Plant: As Derek Powers is showing the effects of the nerve gas to the Kasnian diplomat, the full effects of the gas are only shown on a plant Although the effects on cattle and Harry are also displayed, what happens is not clear but leaves the diplomat horrified.
• This Explains So Much: Upon seeing the Batcave (and more specifically Batman's costume in the display case), Terry suddenly realizes why the old man had such great fighting moves.
  Terry: Geez! No wonder he could fight.
• This Is Gonna Suck: The doctors in the closing scene when Powers demands to know what's the bad news about his radiation treatment. Everyone looks resigned, dreading what's going to happen when they kill the radiation lamps.
• Underestimating Badassery: 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.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Terry is a decent fighter already, but he heavily relies on the batsuit to augment his strength and speed. Mr. Fixx is a Giant Mook and was a serious threat to Terry even with that advantage. This would become a recurring theme for Terry, as he doesn't have the more rounded skillset Bruce spent years honing.
• Villain Respect: Though giving Terry a Pretender Diss, Mr. Fixx admits the pretender is certainly strong.
• Villainous Legacy: While the Joker is implied to be long gone by the Present Day (even if the circumstances won't be revealed until later), Gotham alas isn't quite free of him yet. His legacy has inspired street gangs modeling themselves on his clown motif and love for chaos, anarchy, and violence. The only upside is the Jokerz are a pale reflection of their inspiration and idol.
• Weak, but Skilled: Bruce can't put up a prolonged fight, but does a lot with just a cane.
• Welcome to My World: 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 taking up the mantle of Batman.
• Wham Shot: During the radiation treatment, the doctors are giving Powers a Good News, Bad News explanation. One of the doctors gives the order to cut off the radiation, leaving the room dark, except for a translucent, glowing green Powers.
• You Killed My Father: Terry's motivation for stealing the Batsuit and taking on Powers and Mr. Fixx.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: The thugs in the prologue decide to murder Bunny anyway after the ransom is paid. Fortunately, Batman is there to save her.

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