Epilogue (Justice League Unlimited)

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“Epilogue”
Justice League Unlimited episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 26
Written by Bruce Timm and Dwayne McDuffie
Directed by Dan Riba
Production no.
Original airdate July 23, 2005
Episode chronology
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"Divided We Fall" "I Am Legion"
List of Justice League episodes

"Epilogue" (airdate July 23, 2005) is the second season finale of the animated series Justice League Unlimited. In addition, this episode also tied together and continued some plot points from the cancelled Batman Beyond animated series, which was written by the same team. This episode focuses around Batman, revealing a dark secret.

The episode was written and produced before Justice League Unlimited was renewed for an additional season, so the episode was also intended as an epilogue for the entire DC animated universe started in Batman: The Animated Series, all the way to Justice League Unlimited.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

After the last world crisis the Justice League faced, Amanda Waller (the government agent who tried to take down the JL because they were too powerful) started becoming their ally, and in her role as US Ambassador to the Justice League, got to know Batman, Bruce Wayne, very well, gaining a large respect for him. As time went on, Waller saw him age, and realized he wouldn't be around forever. However, in her mind, the world needed a Batman.

Waller used her old Cadmus contacts to launch "Project: Batman Beyond". She found a young couple, Dr. Warren and Mary McGinnis, that was almost an identical psychiatric match for Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne after twenty-three years of searching. When Warren went in for what he thought was a flu shot, his reproductive DNA was overwritten by that of Bruce Wayne's. A year later, Terry McGinnis was born, genetically the son of Mrs. Mary McGinnis and Bruce Wayne.

Genetics, however, do not alone make a Batman, so Waller hired an assassin (Andrea Beaumont, the Phantasm from the Batman: The Animated Series movie Mask of the Phantasm) to kill Terry's parents when he was eight years old as the three of them were leaving a movie theatre showing The Gray Ghost Strikes hoping that the same tragedy would cause the same response. Andrea couldn't go through with it though, and the project was effectively scrapped. With the McGinnises spared, Matt McGinnis would be born. Since Warren McGinnis continued to carry Bruce Wayne's genetic material after Terry's conception, Matt is also the biological child of his brother's mentor.

However, nine years later, due to a cruel twist of fate, Terry's father was killed, on the orders of Derek Powers. Terry stumbled upon Wayne Manor and the Batcave, and the rest is future history (as seen in Batman Beyond). Waller implies that she believed it was a form of divine interference which led to the death of his father because it was still Terry's fate to become Batman.

Fifteen years later, when Bruce needed a new kidney, Terry was checked for compatibility. He was surprised that his DNA was similar to Bruce's. It took him months to finally run a DNA test, and the result is that he is the son of Bruce Wayne, not Warren McGinnis. When Terry learns that he is (genetically) the son of his mentor, he is at first angry, thinking that Bruce planned the whole thing. He imagines how he confronts Bruce Wayne with this information (in the form of black and white segments), ends his relationship with Dana, and turns his back on the future Justice League after their latest battle with the Iniquity Collective, saying "Batman is dead". Convinced that Bruce won't tell him the whole story, Terry breaks into Waller's home to get the story straight from her. From Waller, Terry finds that Bruce is innocent, and he became Batman purely by chance. Amanda's advice to Terry that "if you want to have a little better life than the old man's, take care of the people who love you. Or don't; it's your choice." Taking this advice to his heart, he returns to the Wayne Manor, prepares to propose to Dana (who now knows his secret identity), shares a moment of mostly unspoken reconciliation with Bruce, and takes off to patrol Gotham.

[edit] 1st Appearances in JLU

Dr. Light (Full), Iniquity Collective, Justice League Unlimited (Aquagirl, Green Lantern (Kai-ro))

[edit] Behind the scenes

[edit] Batman Beyond: Catwoman Movie

Epilogue used story elements from a Batman Beyond movie that would have had Selina Kyle/Catwoman as the person responsible for the cloning of Bruce Wayne instead of Amanda Waller. Due to the dark tones of Return of the Joker, however, the second movie was rejected[2].

[edit] Producer Bruce Timm

"This was originally an idea we had for a Batman Beyond direct to video movie, except an elderly Selina Kyle would've been the one to clone Bruce, and there were going to be several of his clones. We thought we could tie it in with the Cadmus arc."

  • According to Bruce Timm, Wayne is also the biological father of Terry's younger brother Matt.[3]

[edit] Dwayne McDuffie

  • Although it is ambiguous on-screen, producer/writer Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that the black-and-white sequences are Terry's imagination of what will happen if he resigns as Batman, not flashbacks.
  • According to writer Dwayne McDuffie, Bruce, as the world's greatest detective, was aware that Terry and Matt are his genetic offspring some point after Terry assumed the role of Batman and realised the machination of Amanda Waller and Project Cadmus, but would never bring it up as he wanted Terry to be his own man, and out of respect for Warren McGinnis as well since he was the one who raised him since birth. [4]

[edit] References to other DC Animated Universe shows

  • The episode ends with a scene featuring a flying Terry silhouetted against buildings and startling an airborne police craft, is a reference to the opening scene of "On Leather Wings," the very first episode of the original Batman: The Animated Series.
  • When questioning Bruce about the Cadmus procedure that could have altered his DNA, Bruce says that those procedures have been illegal for decades. Terry responds, "Didn't stop the Joker from using them on Tim Drake," referencing the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie.
  • The episode takes place fifteen years after the end of Batman Beyond in the year 2054, placing Terry's age around thirty-one and Bruce around ninety-five.
  • The movie Terry and his family went to, when the tragedy is supposed to happen is called "The Grey Ghost Strikes".

[edit] Cast

Actor Role
Kevin Conroy Batman/Bruce Wayne/Sky Patrol Officer
Will Friedle Terry McGinnis / Batman Beyond
CCH Pounder Amanda Waller
Lauren Tom Dana, Dr. Light, Kai-ro
Hynden Walch Ace
Marc Worden Parasite

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Epilogue
  2. ^ Epilogue
  3. ^ Epilogue
  4. ^ Epilogue

[edit] External links

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The Bruce Timm DC animated universe
Television series
Feature-length films
Comic books
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