Shriek (Batman Beyond)
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Shriek is a fictional character from the animated television series Batman Beyond, making him a villain of Batman. In the series, he was voiced by Chris Mulkey.
This Shriek should not be confused for the Marvel Comics villain Shriek, though it is notable that both use sound as a weapon.
[edit] Character History
His real name is Walter Shreeve, a sound engineer with a robotic body armor able to use sound as a weapon. His primary weapons are the hands of his armor that carry disc-like sound blasting weapons, allowing him to use soundwaves and sound vibrations to destroy anything in its direct path.
He is first seen in the episode "Shriek", where Shreeve tries to find a job through Derek Powers with his sound technology. Derek Powers has other plans for Shreeve, hiring him to assassinate Bruce Wayne. Shriek fails in directly killing Wayne, but manages to put him in a hospital. He then implants a radio device on a band-aid on Wayne's head, and attempts to compel him into committing suicide. The voices refer to Bruce Wayne as "Bruce Wayne" however, so he knows he cannot be crazy (aside from the old habit of dressing up as a bat and hunting villains in the night) because he mentally refers to himself as "Batman."
In one of the most memorable sequences in the series, Shriek completely turns off all sound in a battle with Batman within a running factory, and later out in the streets. This leads Batman to being repeatedly struck by various moving objects that he cannot hear approaching. He hunts Batman down by adjusting his suit's volume pickup to hear for Batman's footsteps only. Batman manages to destroy his muting device, and with the volume of his suit still adjusted so high, his suit picks up and amplifies every noise around him, which ironically leaves him permanently deaf. In his returning appearances, he must rely on his suit or a special headphone set to be able to hear again. The loss of his hearing drives him completely insane, and he becomes obsessed with destroying Batman.
He appeared in "Babel" where he sent out high pitch frequencies to drive animals in Gotham City crazy, and made speech impossible between its citizens to communicate. He appeared again in "Where's Terry?" In both of those appearances, he makes an alliance with a character named Ollie.
His last appearance was in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue", in a dream sequence by Terry, where he is seen having formed an alliance with Inque, Stalker, and Parasite as members of Iniquity Collective.
Shriek is interesting in that he is one of the few villains in the show who is obsessed with Batman, who he blames for his loss of hearing. His crimes will always center around Batman's destruction; while he had the entire city at his mercy in "Babel", all he wanted was Batman. Indeed, his obsession is his weakness; he becomes so focused on his target, he cannot concentrate on factors that may stop him.
