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Batman Beyond 2.0 Writers Address Shocking Twist

The Bruce/Barbara/Dick drama is finally unveiled.

BY JOSHUA YEHL (IGN.com)

Spoilers for the Batman Beyond 2.0 comic ahead — beware!

If you’ve been following the Batman Beyond 2.0 comic — or heck, even if you’re not — you’ll definitely want to grab last Saturday’s Chapter 28. It contains a huge twist that sends shock waves throughout the Bat-family, past and present.

But again, beware of spoilers!

Still here? Okay, here are the details: Bruce and Barbara were in a short-lived relationship, and then Barbara started seeing Dick again. However, during their time together, Barbara became pregnant with Bruce’s child. Bruce decides to confess to Dick that he and Barbara were in a relationship and that she’s having his baby. Understandably, Dick doesn’t take it well and attacks Bruce, who doesn’t resist. Concurrently on the other side of town, Barbara is shown taking down a mugger, but takes a nasty blow and winds up on the ground clutching her stomach, implying she lost Bruce’s unborn baby.

Believe it or not, that’s not even the entire story — there’s a whole plot line involving the Mask of the Phantasm, Joe and Jake Chill, and future Bruce and Terry — but you’ll have to read the comic to see how that plays out and how it ties into these events of the past.

IGN conducted an email interview with Batman Beyond 2.0 writers Kyle Higgins and Alex Siegel addressing the big twist. Check out our preview of the chapter by clicking through the slideshow gallery, then hear what they had to say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IGN Comics: This chapter is the back-story a lot of fans have been wanting to see. What was it like planning out how their romance would play out and how Batman would eventually get involved?

Kyle Higgins: A lot of this story is me answering the questions I had as a fan… but in a much more dramatic way. I remember seeing the episode A Touch of Curare, where Barbara sits down with Terry at a diner and—in so many words—tells him that she and Bruce had been in a relationship. I remember wondering how that went over with Dick Grayson—surely he knew about it, right? Barbara dismisses her initial relationship with Dick as nothing more than puppy love… but I never believed her. So, when I took over the book and started planning out Terry’s future—including why he and Bruce split—I knew I wanted to incorporate wounds from Bruce’s past, which Terry learns about, as well as a mistake from the present. Terry has his own doubts about Bruce, due to the Jake Chill reveal, and then has those feelings reinforced when he learns about the Bruce, Barbara, and Dick history.

As far as the Dick and Barbara stuff goes, I always thought it was a pretty big time bomb move on Barbara and Bruce’s part to get involved with each other… which I’ve stretched out to say they never told Dick Grayson about. I mean, Bruce and Barbara are both adults who made their own decisions, and obviously cared about and were attracted to each other—heck, Barbara’s second time on the show opens with a dream sequence where she kisses Batman—but when you have the history that these three have, it’s a really hard relationship to rationalize getting involved in. From Barbara’s standpoint, it’s like trying to date your ex-boyfriend’s brother. Or, from Bruce’s standpoint, your brother’s ex-girlfriend. When the heck does THAT ever work? It’s not a healthy move. Which, you know, is probably why the original show writers did it. If explored, it can be incredibly dramatic.

IGN Comics: There was a lot of heavy, dramatic, personal content that you don’t normally see in comics, let alone one adapted from a children’s cartoon. How did you approach writing a story that included infidelity and a miscarriage?

Alex Siegel: Actually, it’s not infidelity at all. If you look at the timeline in chapter 26, 27, and 28, we’re pretty clear that Bruce and Barbara were together up until Return of the Joker. Very shortly after Return of the Joker, Barbara quits being Batgirl and also ends things with Bruce. She wants out. A few weeks after that, Dick Grayson comes back to Gotham… feeling guilty that he wasn’t in town to help Tim. He’s back now though, looking to spend time with the people he cares about. Two weeks go by, and he and Barbara start to give things another go. When she finds out she’s pregnant, she’s seven weeks along… and Dick has only been back in Gotham for three. That’s a month in between her ending things with Bruce and her getting back involved with Dick. Is it fast? Sure. But it’s far from unrealistic. Dick and Barbara are exes, too.

Higgins: Right. Yeah. That’s something we were very specific about—this is a messy dynamic, sure, but no one cheated on anyone. The fact that Bruce and Barbara were together and didn’t tell Dick about the relationship sucks, but that’s life. That said, it was very important to me that we portray what happened and the choices these characters made in a responsible way. If we were going to tell this story, the timeline had to work in a way I was comfortable with.

For me, this arc was heavily inspired by Return of the Joker. My feeling has been that if you’re going to build a mystery about the past, like we’ve built the Beyond 2.0 series on, then when you give the answers… they have to be big, meaningful, and dramatic. And, most important, they have to give big insights on your characters and the wounds they’ve endured. When Return of the Joker finally revealed what happened to Barbara, Tim, Joker, and Harley, it did all of that.

IGN Comics: It’s hard for me to encompass just how huge this moment is for the Batman mythology as a whole, so that’s why I’ll have you guys do it. How huge is this moment for the Batman mythology?

Higgins: I’m not sure that’s for us to decide, to be honest. Our focus is on telling a story in the animated continuity that we’re passionate about. I will say this, though—the Beyond timeline has always had very progressive versions of the Bat characters, which is a big part of why I loved the show so much. Just by the very nature of its premise, the series allowed for a lot of social commentary and also dealt with very human, relatable fears. Aging, death, regret, relevancy, etc. Those are qualities that are built into the fabric of Batman Beyond. Our goal is to stay true to that.

IGN Comics: There are two stories going on — one in the past and one in the present — that paint Bruce in as a flawed person, and certainly not a heroic one. He’s had his usually-heroic image tarnished. What does this mean for the character going forward? [Editor's Note: As you might have noticed, when I read the comic, I saw the Bruce/Barbara relationship as infidelity. Given the timeline, it actually wasn't, as pointed out by the writers above, but this being an email interview, I wasn't able to alter this question. Still, the writers respond appropriately and address the topic.]

Higgins: See, I don’t agree with you there. I think these are stories that paint Bruce as a human being, flaws and all, but I don’t think they tarnish his “usually heroic image.” He’s endured a lot of pain and heartbreak over the years. The things he’s done, in my mind, are defensible and relatable. After everything he’s been through, and the people he’s seen hurt, IF he knew about Jake Chill… I totally understand why he would want to keep that from Terry. Is it the right decision? I don’t know. Probably not. But I completely understand him making it.

Siegel: That’s IF he knew about Jake.

Higgins: Right. IF.

Siegel: And going forward, what this means for Bruce is the same thing it means for any of us who do things we might regret—it’s a chance for him to learn and hopefully grow. But that’s up to him to decide.

IGN Comics: You have a lot of moving parts that involve all of the hallmark elements of the Batman animated series — classic timeline Batman and supporting cast, Batman Beyond and all those characters, the Mask of the Phantasm villain — and now it’s all come to this. How long were you planning this moment and how did you decide how and when to use those elements?

Higgins: A long time. In fact, this was the first thing I pitched to DC when they asked me to launch the book. A lot of the details were malleable, but parts of this story arc have been staples of my series for a good year and a half.

Siegel: When I came on, Kyle had just decided that he wanted to use the Phantasm as a way to bring about the realization of who Jake Chill was. It was fitting, in my mind, to use one of the big, impactful characters from Bruce’s past.

IGN Comics: Anything else you’d like to add about this big development?

Higgins: I think we covered everything, really. We don’t want to spoil the rest of the story, so I would just urge people to keep picking up the book. Everything has been building to this and what it sets up after.

IGN Comics: What would you say to fans to get them excited for what you have coming up next?

Siegel: Melanie Walker, a classic Beyond villain, alternate timelines, and the return of some other Beyonders.

Higgins: I’d read it!

 

Batman Beyond 2.0 Chapter 28 is written by Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel and drawn by Phil Hester and Craig Rousseau. Chapters of Batman Beyond 2.0 are released digitally through Comixology and other digital comics services at a price of $0.99. The chapters are also collected in print comic titled Batman Beyond Universe.

 

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Game of Thrones, Spider-Man, or Super Smash Bros. are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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