Reflection and Analysis

Batman Beyond - Problems with "Epilogue" (5/27/2017)

I've always had problems with the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue". Admittedly, my personal head canon for the Batman Beyond series likely didn't help matters, as it does mean there is a bias. However, looking at the positive comments regarding the episode over the years, I feel what they liked about said episode could have been done without going the route they did. I also don't think the positives in the episode erase the issues.

Why does Epiloque not work?

What is an epilogue?

~ Google – "a section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened"
~ Merriam Webster - "a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work" or "the final scene of a play that comments on or summarizes the main action"
~ Cambridge – " a speech or piece of text added to the end of a play or book, often giving a short statement about what happens to the characters after the play or book finishes"
~ Dictionary ~ "a concluding part added to a literary work, as a novel" or "a speech, usually in verse, delivered by one of the actors after the conclusion of a play"
~ Vocabulary ~ "The epilogue is a short piece that wraps up the end of a story. The noun epilogue can also refer to the short speech at the end of a play that one of the characters speaks directly to the audience."
~ Wikipedia ~ "An epilogue or epilog is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the work."

So, let's start off with the fact the episode titled "Epilogue" is an epilogue in name only. While the episode serves as a conclusion for BB, said the episode was a section of a completely different series. In turn, while said episode was originally meant as an ending section for JL, it wasn't a conclusion. That in itself makes it hard to take said episode seriously, particularly since it's one of the few television series that has an episode called "epilogue". In fact, it's the only one I know of, likely due to the fact shows like to be left open to a new season. So, even if said person expected it to be the end, it seems odd, unless they wanted to drive home that this was an end to BB despite the poor logic. You might say this was an "epilogue" for Ace, but her character only appears for two episodes, and in two separate series, the first being Justice League and the second being JLU.

What Waller did is ultimately a joke. We're expected to believe, for the first part, that nanobots would be sophisticated enough to alter someone's DNA in the way suggested without the human factor of calculating the exact sequences needed to be changed. Then there is the bit about how Terry's parents were psychologically compatible. This honestly is a mute point, first due to the fact Terry's father is no longer his biologically. Psychology also plays into the nurture aspect rather than the nature aspect and becomes problematic due to the fact Waller could not predict the future outcomes in regards to nurturing. Even more problematic is the fact Bruce's parents were not the main nurture element in his life. Alfred was.

No, we're meant to believe that batman is the way he is because of genetics, completely forgetting the Alfred element, the years of training Bruce went through before he became batman and the other things in his life which ended up shaping who he was. That in itself is the problem with the episode, that everything was tied to genetics – and poorly done genetics – rather than attributing the character's success to their hard work. Some of it is genetics, but some of it is also life experience and person choices. Add to this, Batman stood out from most of the JL crew because he didn't do things based on genetics, so making Terry exist because of this idea Batman is genetic based is laughable, to say the least.

This doesn't mean that I have problems with Terry being related to Bruce. In fact, I actually love the idea. I'd much rather see the show go the route of Terry's mother having an affair, thus effectively explaining why his parents are divorced. I get the fact this wasn't a kids show, and this was the way the creators decided to avoid the idea of a married couple having extramarital sex in a children's show. I think though, we need to give kids a bit more credit. They're going to be aware of Bruce's status as a playboy, but also some of the reasons parents get divorced. I mean, the series was dark, so should the topic have been off limits? We're talking about a series that touched upon using surgical/genetic alterations to enhance one's beauty. I'm talking about the episode with the animal feature trend.

However, we all thought that Nightwing would have been brought into the series, and Bruce was pretty old. Mind you, age gaps of thirty years do happen. However, they touched upon that and not the other thing? Bruce didn't have to necessarily be Terry's father. He could have been his grandfather. I mean, so many continuities explore Bruce's kids, many of whom are born out of wedlock. Nobody had explored one of those kids having a kid. I was thinking the mother of said child being Selena Kyle, as in DCAU I thought she was a blond who decided to dye her hair black rather than the other way around, as I thought they were taking a cue from the original live action movies where Selena was blond. In fact, she's a brownish-blond in Gotham now, not black.

Which meant that her son or daughter could have red hair. A few people may be thinking, but wait, it is impossible for a person to have red hair if one of their parents had black hair. If you go by those genetic calculators, you'd think that Terry was still impossible, as brown seems to come out a hundred percent. However, genetics aren't anywhere near as simple as they are made out to be, as there is actually a wide range of hair colors. Terry could have been born to the parents we were originally shown and had the hair color he did as red hair ranges from very light to very dark. By the logic presented in basic high school education, he's adopted.

No, it never occurred to me that Terry's dad wasn't his real dad in the series because of his hair color, but because of other hints are thrown out. To quote the site parents, "as for red hair, which was once considered recessive, it's now believed to be dominant over blond. You can even be a red head and not know it. Your hair may have a reddish hue that's masked by stronger brown or black pigment." Add to this, I never thought of Terry's father as having red hair, but saw him as having more of a brownish hair color. This same sight talks about how personality is much, much more than genetics.

Beyond that, I'd not thought of things much regarding how things would work back then, outside of knowing it would be a nice, convoluted mess that would have lasted a season or two, rather than being something which could be wrapped up in one episode, let alone a movie. The fact they thought a parentage arc could be wrapped up in one episode, let alone a movie is honestly ridiculous, but it feels like they were going more for shock value with the BB series than anything. Things certainly wouldn't have gone down the way they did in the comics. In fact, Bruce would be a douche, but not just because he can be a douche, simply because he has a reason to.

In fact, what goes down in the comics actually makes the idea that batman is a genetic thing even more ridiculous. He's supposed to be an awesome person, but in reality, he's a complete jerk to those who he loved. How does a person lacking the people skills shown in the BB comics end up being the compassionate hero presented in this particular episode? Yeah, you could argue that Amanda Waller never saw the real Bruce, or was delusional. Except she's really not this kind of character, simply very thorough and very cunning. She would have known but also know that having enough coincidences to create the perfect replacement would be hard to control, if not impossible. Actually, to quote Mark Twain's rules of writing, "the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or if they venture a miracle the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable."

Yes, they had planned on going this route since the movie for BB, but the movie's got the same issues. The idea of a chip being implanted that can genetically alter someone after that much time is ridiculous, to say the least, but both depend on this research to create a new batman.