Characters / Batman Beyond – Main Characters

Batman Beyond character index
Main Characters (Terry McGinnis, Bruce Wayne) | McGinnis Family | Villains (One Shot Villains, The Joker) | Recurring Characters | Justice League Unlimited (Superman) | Comic-Only Characters

---

The main characters of Batman Beyond.

---

Batman II (Terry McGinnis)

See the Terry McGinnis page.

Bruce Wayne

See the Batman page.

Maxine "Max" Gibson

Voiced by: Cree Summer
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Astrid Fernandez

Appearances: Batman Beyond

Maxine "Max" Gibson was Terry McGinnis's friend, and later an invaluable ally in his life as the second Batman.

---

• Affirmative Action Girl: Deliberately added to the show to try to up the show's female viewership.
• Black and Nerdy: She has quite the advanced computer programming skills and is the best student at school, qualifying as Valedictorian, although she dismisses her perfect scores as "just numbers that don't matter".
• Boyish Short Hair: She has short hair and is the most tomboyish girl in the show.
• Canon Foreigner: As with the majority of the characters featured in the series, she is an original character created exclusively for the series.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being one of the major characters of the series, she does not appear or get mentioned in either the movie or the "Epilogue" episode from Justice League Unlimited.
• Damsel out of Distress:
  • She does not go willingly when the Kobra organization kidnaps her and tries to make her their new queen.
  • When she is cornered by a gang of Jokerz, Batman intervenes and tells her to run. She interprets this as running to tackle one of the thugs.
• Gamer Chick: She's featured in a lot of the video game-based eps and in one episode, she gains a Stalker with a Crush when she beats him at an action/adventure game.
• Girl Friday: This is what Terry would like her to be (he even jokingly calls her his "Alfred"), but she's not content with it and likes to think of herself as more than an assistant.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Puberty has been very kind to Max, she is very buxom and has unbelievable curves.
• Most Common Super Power: Despite the fact that she is a 17-year-old high school student without any powers, she's noticeably very stacked.
• Mission Control: Occasionally when Bruce is out of town, she is the one giving him intel from a computer terminal.
• Nerds Are Sexy: A very hot computer whiz.
• The Not-Love Interest: She's the only person Terry's age who knows his Secret Identity and they share a lot of emotional moments, but these are always strictly platonic and more sibling-like. Terry's love interest is firmly Dana.
• Painted-On Pants: She wears very form-fitting black tights.
• Parental Neglect: Max explains early on in the series that her parents are always away on business so if anyone is at home, it's her older sister who works all the time as well. In fact, the only time Max's parents are seen onscreen is during an episode in which Spell Binder creates a virtual reality room that gives those who enter any kind of life they want. Not bad right? Wrong. It's extremely addictive and will leave you in a comatose state if entered too often. What is Max's ultimate dream? Her family being there for a meal and hearing about her day at school. She's so eager for the feeling that the Virtual room brings that she's willing to betray Terry just to get back inside. After knocking Batman out in the middle of his fight with Spellbinder she casually remarks something to the effect of "Don't kill him okay? I'm just going in for a few minutes."

• Reckless Sidekick: Not an official sidekick, but fills this role on occasion for Terry's Batman. Used most egregiously in "Final Cut", where her recklessness almost gets her killed by Curare. On the flipside, she saves Terry's life twice in the show's run.
• Secret-Keeper: She once created a computer program to find out Batman's identity. After a little Jokerz-related mix-up, she realizes that it must be Terry.
• Shipper on Deck: She supports Terry/Dana and tries to ease the rough spots caused by his superhero duties and frequent absence.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: She is involved in both Terry's civilian and superhero lives; as a consequence, she takes the most screentime of Terry's supporting cast. It's most noticeable with the decreasing prominence of Terry's family and Dana, his girlfriend, in the later seasons, and the number of episodes that barely feature Bruce Wayne or leave him out completely.
• Teen Genius: She's at the very top of her class (nailing perfect scores on school tests), breezes through examinations of all sorts without trying, and is a very good hacker. She also created a computer program to discover the secret identities of those living double-lives at school and it actually worked, albeit with some bugs. She originally made the program to discover Batman's true identity, narrowing down that he was a young person who likely attended the school and a new person taking up the mantle. The follow-up comics have her using her hacking skills against Brainiac.
• Tomboy: She is the least feminine girl in the whole show.
• Tomboyish Name: Her real name is "Maxine", but she prefers "Max."

Dana Tan

Voiced by: Lauren Tom
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker | Justice League

Dana Tan is Terry's long-time girlfriend, and later fiancée.

---

• Betty and Veronica: The "Betty" to Ten/Melanie's "Veronica" for Terry's "Archie" because she's his childhood friend and Ten is a villain.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The Gentle Girl to Terry's Brooding Boy. He's ashamed of his delinquent past, father's death, and how he views being Batman as a curse, and she gives him nothing but comfort and empathy.
• Cain and Abel: Her brother was going to kill all of his family. She told him to kill her first.
• Childhood Friend Romance: It's implied that Terry and Dana have been dating since they were at least 14, since she knows who "Big Time" is, so... By the time of "Epilogue", she wishes to be with Terry despite his worries that she might get hurt. Terry plans to propose to her, and she likely accepted.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Both her hair and her eyes are black.
• Damsel out of Distress: Dana manages to defend herself pretty well when push comes to shove (such as in "Rats" and a bit in The Movie), but she ultimately must get rescued by Terry/Batman even when not distressed.
• Demoted to Extra: In the second and third seasons, with the introduction of Max, she went from being Terry's main "normal person" confidante and having a scene in almost every episode to mostly being a background presence who got tossed a few lines every now and then, except for the one episode where she got to be a Damsel in Distress. Notably, she was (and remained) the Official Couple.
• Demoted to Satellite Love Interest: She starts out with a character beyond being Terry's girlfriend, as she was the most well-rounded of Terry's high school classmates in the first season. But as her screentime shrinks in later seasons, her characterization dwindles to just being The Obstructive Love Interest.
• Derailing Love Interests: Subjected to this in the 2016 run of the comics. She goes from defending Batman's importance to Gotham and encouraging Terry to answer the Bat-signal instead of spending time with him mere hours after finding out he's Batman to threatening to break up with him if he doesn't stop being Batman. The shift in opinion strangely coincides with Melanie's reappearance as a potential girlfriend and sidekick.
• First Girl Wins: Despite a couple of flings with Melanie/Ten, a few Girls Of The Week and a Just Friends relationship with his Secret-Keeper/Sidekick Wannabe Max, the Fully Absorbed Finale confirmed that Terry seals the deal with Dana, his first girlfriend, who he's implied to have dated since they were fourteen. They broke up in 2.0 comics and then they got back together once she figures out who he is and becomes his Secret-Keeper.
• Flanderization: Dana starts out as a sweet, friendly, teasing, mostly understanding girlfriend who tries to deal with Terry's new priorities and sometimes loses her patience and temper with his absences. By the second season, nagging him is almost all she does, with very little of the teasing tone she used to have. Justified; Dana would logically get more annoyed with Terry ditching her over time.
• High-School Sweethearts: Has been dating Terry since they were both fourteen and "Epilogue" reveals he's planning to propose to her.

• Love Interest: Her main role in the show is to be Terry's girlfriend.
• Meaningful Appearance: Her white dress in "Rats" is a plot point. It's apparently Terry's favorite and sets a contrast with her grimy stalker with a crush and his dark sewer home.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is a very beautiful teenage girl after all. She was also this in the white dress from the episode "Rats." She seems aware of it too because when she invites Terry out for a date, she calls and says "Meet me at Rhino's. I'll be wearing that dress you like." Cue Terry's shocked expression and "Whoa." She also has her sky blue dress, which is only about an inch low enough to avoid trouble with the censors, as well as being very form-fitting.
• Neutral Female: Averted. She keeps away from the action most of the time, but when it comes to her, she fights back.
• Nice Girl: Possibly the nicest character in the series. The only people she's not pleasant to are the show's Jerk Jock, her one-time Stalker with a Crush and her boyfriend when she's been Stood Up one too many times.
• No Sympathy: She averts this. While she does get understandably irritated at Terry's frequent disappearances, she rarely gets mad at him personally, and readily accepts his explanations that are more in-depth than "I had work". In "Golem", she's shown to share Terry's strong sense of compassion by offering to drive Willie Watt home, even though it would likely cut her date with Terry short.
• The Obstructive Love Interest: Edges into this in Season 2 when dates with her become an obstacle that Terry has to deal with to get some crime-busting. She gets better in Season 3.
• Official Couple: She's Terry's girlfriend for the duration of the show.
• Secret-Keeper: Eventually becomes this, as revealed in "Epilogue." It is revealed when Terry shouts for her to get down when The Joker King i.e. her brother attempted to kill her.
• Silk Hiding Steel: A nice girl in a nice dress, who doesn't take well to being kidnapped.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: It is clear that she likes Terry for his kind heart, even if he does stand her up a lot for dates. Exhibit A is the episode where Terry's class had to raise an eggbaby for home economics class, and Terry scores the highest grade. The teacher says he is excellent father material, and the camera focuses on Dana running a hand through her hair in the most silently-smug fashion possible.
• Stood Up: Constantly by Terry because of his "job" for Bruce Wayne.
• Uptown Girl: Dana comes from affluent family while her boyfriend/eventual fiancé is from a middle-class background.

Ace

Voiced by: Frank Welker
Appearances: Batman Beyond | Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker | Static Shock

Bruce Wayne's pet Great Dane, who's been a loyal companion to the old man for years. Originally taken in to participate in illegal dogfighting, the entire ring was busted, leaving Ace to run away and live in the streets. Bruce discovers and takes Ace in, the two staying together ever since. Occasionally, he helps Terry when the kid takes on the mantle as Batman.

---

• Action Pet: Whenever Terry's in trouble, Ace doesn't hesitate to save him, even when he's completely outmatched. Add to his aggressive design and personality and he's a dog that every kid wishes they had.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Now a rescue dog from a brutal history of abuse and neglect. Much more intimidating than the comics counterpart, and is even named after Ace, the child member of the Royal Flush Gang who perished beside Batman in Justice League.
• Adaptational Badass: Ace the Bathound, given a new treatment and role as Bruce Wayne's guard dog. He even got a flashback origin story in one episode.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In the comics, he became part of the Bat Family when Bruce was in his prime. With this series being set in the future of the DCAU, he doesn't join Bruce's side until he's an old man.
• Angry Guard Dog: Was actually raised for dog-fighting and rescued by Bruce.
• Berserk Button:
  • As you'd probably expect, he goes ballistic when he spots his abusive former owner in a crowd.
  • If you endanger Bruce or Terry he won't hesitate in trying to rip your throat out.
• Canine Companion: Whenever he goes along with Terry, he's like a heroic version of Right-Hand Attack Dog.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Just like his owner. Ace had a horribly abusive past involving dogfights, before he was taken in by Bruce.
• Defrosting Ice King: Initially hostile towards Terry. After saving Ace's life the great dane finally warms up to him.
• Dogs Are Dumb: Subverted, being a trained attack dog for the goddamn Batman, the Bat-Dog is extraordinarily smart. He was shown to be this even before he met Bruce, as he escaped capture without needing to hurt anyone from the GCPD when they busted his owner at the time.
• Evil-Detecting Dog:
  • He can be quite aggressive towards the bad guys. In ROTJ, he attacks the Joker.
  • Ace seems to be able to also detect supernatural or paranormal presences/phenomena. When psychic girl Tamara was communicating with Terry via telepathy (projecting herself into his head), Ace suddenly became alert and even growling at the spot where Terry sees her, an indication that Ace seems to at least be able to sense psychic disturbances of sorts.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Ace and Terry had a rough start, with Ace tolerating Terry only because Bruce said so, but eventually Ace comes to accept Terry as his second owner.
• Friend to All Children: Implied in "Eggbaby." The normally-surly dog covers the Eggbaby in licks.
• Heroic Dog: Does his fair share of rescuing, and does it in the way you'd expect an ex-dog fighter to do it.
  Terry: (after Ace chases off a hyena Half-Human Hybrid) Good Bat-Dog.
• Loyal Animal Companion: To the point where Bruce never put a tracer on Ace because it was never needed.
• Malicious Misnaming: Early on, Terry tended to sarcastically call him things like "Scooby" and "Wonderdog". Later, the Joker would call him "Snoopy".
• Missed Him by That Much: Happens twice when Ace was missing in "Ace in the Hole".
  • While Batman was sweeping the city streets searching for Ace, he flew directly over the same street where Ace is. Ace tried to give chase, but gave up because the Batmobile was just too fast.
  • Terry leaves an alleyway when he gets the info he needed from Boxer's men, only for Ace to walk into frame mere seconds later. Ace even sniffs up the bandages Terry just discarded. Unfortunately, before Ace could finally reunite with Terry, Boxer's dog-catcher accomplice finally catches him.
• Nature Versus Nurture: Despite being raised for dog-fighting under an abusive owner, he is naturally a Heroic Dog and defended Bruce from a thug when they first met, with the only reason being that the thug was sneaking up behind Bruce to hurt him.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with the Royal Flush Gang member of the same name. Retroactively, he was named after another Royal Flush Gang's Ace. Sharing a name with the Royal Flush Gang member gets a Lampshade Hanging in "King's Ransom".
• Pet the Dog:
  • One of Bruce's moments of this was taking Ace in.
  • Ace playfully licking Terry's Eggbaby.
• Reimagining the Artifact: "Ace the Bat-Hound" was way too much of a Silver Age concept to fit the more serious tone of the DCAU. Instead, Batman Beyond uses the character without the inherent silliness of a dog in a Bat-mask.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: A heroic example since he's working for Batman.
• Rousseau Was Right: He was a regular puppy who was raised by an abusive owner to be as mean and vicious as possible in order to be used in dog fighting. However, even after years of horrible abuse, he remained good inside, and when he was wandering the street as a stray saved Bruce's life just because someone was sneaking up to attack him.
• Stab the Scorpion: This is how Bruce originally met Ace. He was making his annual pilgrimage to Crime Alley to pay his respects to his parents, when the stray dog rushed at him in a fury. However, he was actually defending Bruce from a Jokerz thug that was about to attack him from behind.
• Team Pet: For both Bruce and Terry, he's a part of the crew.
• 13 Is Unlucky: As a pup, Ace was kept in a pen marked 13 before he was bought by Boxer.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Between his pointed ears, his dark grey fur, and the triangle-shaped shadows around his eyes, he looks a lot like Batman - possibly as a Mythology Gag to his comic counterpart, who wore a version of the Batman costume himself.
• Undying Loyalty: To Bruce. Later extends this to Terry after he earns it.

Barbara Gordon

Voiced by: Stockard Channing (Seasons 1 and 2), Angie Harmon (Season 3 and Return of the Joker)

The former Batgirl, she has put aside her cowl and has now taken her father's place as Gotham's Police Commissioner. Disillusioned with her vigilante past, she has a very rocky relationship with Bruce and repeatedly butts heads with Terry as a result. As time passes, she still prefers to do things by the book, but now willingly works alongside the new Batman.

See here for info dealing with her in the rest of the DCAU.

---

• Abled in the Adaptation: Apparently, this version of the character was never paralyzed by The Joker as her legs work perfectly fine.
• Artistic Age: Is stated in supplementary materials to be in her mid-sixties yet looks to be in her eighties. Then again, she works a rather stressful job, so it makes sense.
• Broken Pedestal: By the time of the series, she has become disillusioned with the idea of vigilantism, causing friction between herself and Bruce and Terry (the latter whom she repeatedly warns to leave the Batman mantle as she believes it bears no true reward and only causes pain). She gradually begins to re-accept things in future appearances in the show.
• The Commissioner Gordon: Like father, like daughter. Except that her relationship with Batman was generally far worse and makes it clear she will not tolerate it as her dad had. It got better over time.
• Cool Old Lady: She's now commissioner, a middle-aged woman and still kicks ass. While she is not a fan of the idea of a new Batman running around and hindering her operations, she warms up to him after he saves her husband.
• Crazy-Prepared: She's taken the lessons of her old mentor to heart, turning the Gotham police into a genuine force to be reckoned with.
• Freudian Excuse: She's become jaded with vigilantism because of her past experiences with Batman especially after seeing what it did to poor Tim in the long run.
• Friend on the Force: Eventually becomes this to Terry, although she's not nearly as chummy with him as her father was with Bruce.

• Hypocrite: In "Eyewitness." Remember Barbara's fear of what her father would do to Bruce with her death in "Over the Edge"? Well, she ended up doing exactly what he was doing towards Terry.
• I Am Not My Father: Barbara felt no need to continue her father's policies towards the Bat in the beginning, and she minces no words about it. Her apparent rancor over it is probably more due to soured feelings toward Bruce rather than her feelings towards her father, since they were always shown to be close.
• Inspector Javert: She was initially quick to believe the worst about Batman, though to her credit, she wises up when it's not his fault. It reaches a head in "Eyewitness", where Spellbinder exploits her biases toward Terry to cast an illusion and make her believe he killed Mad Stan in cold blood. Upon being exposed, Spellbinder rubs in her face how easy it was to trick her since she was already fully prepared to assume the worst in Batman.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Early in the show, the Plucky Girl of a superheroine had been reduced to disillusioned old shadow of her former self who at best is a Police Are Useless Obstructive Bureaucrat who is willing to abide by the legal limitations of her police work or at worst an Inspector Javert who impedes activities of a new vigilante out on the streets.
• More than Mind Control: Is subject to it in "Eyewitness". While Spellbinder did cast an illusion on Barbara to make her think that she saw Batman kill Mad Stan in cold blood, even he points out that Barbara's own biases towards Batman did most of the work for him—as he's being arrested, he even takes the time to gloat about it:
  Spellbinder: You were so ready to believe the worst, it was easy.
• Never Mess with Granny: Despite her older age, she is still fully capable of kicking ass as a cop or being able to throw a mean Batarang just like her younger days.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Eyewitness" she got mad at Terry for blowing an operation that took a year to set up and was ready to presume the worst about him. When she later believes she sees him kill Mad Stan, she announces a manhunt against him and has the entire police force hunt him down. It turns out it was an illusion made by Spellbinder, who knew how paranoid she had become of Batman and used one simple illusion to manipulate her into dealing with him. When Spellbinder is exposed, he takes a moment to rub it in her face how easy she made his plan work due to simple bias. She apologizes to Terry and admits she screwed up, trying to smooth things over for him.
• Older and Wiser: Has definitely learnt a lot in her time after Batgirl.
• Police Are Useless: Starts out like this, due to her willingness to abide by her precinct's legal limitations on handling crime and trying to impede on Terry's Batman activities.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While she fell for Spellbinder's illusion of Batman killing Mad Stan hook, line and sinker, which he points out, she does apologize and, most of the time, is willing to go with Terry's hunches.
• Secret-Keeper: She knows Bruce's secret, and Terry's. She's also one of the few people who knows about the circumstances surrounding the Joker's death, but chooses to keep quiet about it.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: The comics reveal that, even 40 years later, she still suffers aftereffects from when the Scarecrow injected her with a high dosage of his fear toxin and made her hallucinate her father turning against Batman. Every four years, the residual toxin still inside her causes her to suffer extreme fear and paranoia the longer she stays awake, requiring her to sleep in a safe spot for several days until the effect wears off.
• Woman Scorned: Her initial frostiness towards Bruce is due to their previous relationship having ended very badly.
• Working with the Ex: With Bruce. At first, it's frosty as hell, with Terry thinking that she actually hates Bruce. She then corrects him, explaining their past relationship and that she hates what Bruce has become - a bitter, lonely old man with only a dog for a friend. Afterwards, they warm up to each other again, and Out of the Past shows that Bruce is still very fond of her.