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The writers gave Powers some of the best lines I've ever heard; whether as himself or as Blight. "It's better to be feared than loved." -While selling the idea of villainy to Walter Shreeve; and this is after calmly no-selling Shreeve admitting he's in the office to kill Powers! He never takes the guy with a suit capable of easily killing him seriously! "And behold: I shall be a blight upon the land; and everything I touch shall wither and die." -This is Derek Powers in a nutshell even before the radiation. While some moguls in fiction are unscrupulous or amoral; Powers ruins everything and everyone he comes in contact with. Wayne Enterprises may've been more profitable as Wayne-Powers; but look at the kind of stuff Powers got the company involved in. Look at Shriek, Mr. Freeze; hell, look at the man's own family! His son is a less competent chip off the old block! "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?" -I'm convinced that the split second between Terry saying that Blight killed his dad and him responding to it was him actually trying to think of someone he'd killed/had someone else kill, realizing how huge that list was, and giving up!
@@ianfinrir8724 True, but his temper ends up escalating significantly throughout the third act. "Why do you persist in tormenting me? All I want is to be left alone."
Yeah, I always took that last line the same way. Like, he _does_ want to know. But that declaration is legitimately so useless to him that he's actually annoyed about it. Like "give me something I can actually go off of".
Blight is single-handedly the best villain in Batman Beyond. I’d say he’s one of the best Batman villains in general. Such a shame he wasn’t used that often in the actual series but he was nonetheless amazing. I know this is a DC focused channel but if I could compare Blight to anybody, it would be the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 1
Blight has to be the best combination of Corporate Greed reminiscent of Lex Luthor with the classical supervillain motivations of a Batman Villain. His quoting from The Prophecy of Darksyde for his personal moniker of Blight is so fitting for such an evil man who doesn't care for all the harm he causes so long as he keeps all of his power. [Edit: It wasn't the Bible, I was mistaken as I haven't seen the Episode in awhile. It's actually by Midian, the quote coming from The Prophecy of Darksyde.]
I always wished that the show would have done a big 2-part or even 3-part episode where Blight returned for one last time and gathered a team of other rogues to take down Batman. I still like the way his story ended but I will always believe they could have done so much more with him.
Actually, in an official Batman Beyond Comic, Batman teams up with the Stalker to defeat Blight, who was rendered mindless after escaping the sub. They killed him by dosing him with molten lead.
Something notable which I like about Batman Beyond is... just how many villains are stopped or often outright die to their own powers or themes. Blight dies to his own meltdown.. Shriek deafened by his suit.. Guy who could walk through walls fell through the floor.. Guy who took the venom drug overdosed.. etc..
5:58 There’s definitely some poetic irony to his eventual death leagues below the sea. Despite all the power and wealth he has accumulated, with much of it no doubt being ill gotten; his death isn’t glorious or spectacular; it’s a very mundane (By superhero story standards) and human way to die. He has ground up the lives of so many under his heel and no doubt taken away the basic living necessities of many, and now his fate is for him to be trapped beneath the sea, deprived of his own basic necessities.
I'm not really sure Batman Beyond needed to have stand out villain, at least initially. Blight was certainly the big bad evil guy that was in the background, but really when it came to Terry's villains they were more about demonstrating who the new Batman was. Even looking at Return of the Joker, you get to hear that loud and clear as Terry 'talk's' to Joker in their fight. They likely could have continued with the theme too - making Terry join the Justice League, demonstrating where he fits in, and so forth. Eventually they would likely have to go have a main villain to deal with for him perhaps in the long run, but as this is a new IP they really could just stick with world building for quite a bit.
Yes, that’s very true and that’s part of why the Beyond villains don’t feel as fleshed out at the BTAS villains. We all knew who Bruce Wayne Batman was, so we didn’t need to get to know him in the same way that we did with Terry.
Bruce Timm has a quote about how difficult it was to create villains for Batman Beyond because it was too easy to fall into the trap of just remaking all of the classic villains as "Future" versions. That at some point they were like "We really can't just give Terry a Joker and a Scarecrow and stuff right? That seems dumb."
Blight was criminally underused. I always expected him to return before the end of the series but he never did. It's a shame because he was an awesome villain, from his design to his powers to his personnality. Powers was a serious piece of work even for Gotham and he was really good to hate. He has some of the coldest lines you can ever think of to (the "do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?" is going very hard in the ruthless department).
I wish they did more with Blight in the series instead of Killing him off in the first season. He was honestly Terry's best villain and could explore more with him in the last two season like his problems with the disease or his complicated relationship with his son, so many miss opportunities.
Yeah, it would’ve been nice to get a bit more out of him. But at least he had a clear beginning, middle, and end. You can’t say that about many of the villains in Batman Beyond.
I think Blights story in itself is good but could definetly have been saved and streatched out a bit. Maybe have the transformation be gradual, reaching its hight in s2 and having his ultimate end be in s3. But alot of this is with the benefit of hindsight tbf
@@jonryder7269 yeah, it feels that they were going to do more with Blight but either it was a Warner Bros. decision or Bruce Timm and his team decision but seemed like they going to make him Terry's very own Joker or Lex Luthor or Norman Osborne.
@@tylerbertram7065 he is the reason why terry even becomes batman, why is he only in season 1 lol?!? Its so weird but i gotta imagine maybe part of it was bruce tim and co didnt wanna make the series and didnt see it go past 1 season but....i really dont know
@@jonryder7269 from what I heard Bruce Timm wasn't really interested in making Batman Beyond because he found the idea of a teenage Batman to be stupid which is weird because it doesn't show in the finished project.
I always wanted to know what Blight did to keep that secretary around. She's even bringing him a sandwich in his sub! Is she paid _that well_ or does she have some shred of pity for him? Anyway, Blight was my favorite Batman Beyond villain. I wish we could have gotten more with him.
Because she is the only person Derek trusts,she is loyal and cares about him. She would have made a great sidekick,just like Harley Quinn with Joker in the TAS show.
you said everything that is about him. he was such a horrible father that his son ended him . Also, Derek is not only a foil to Terry's father, but also a foil to Bruce Wayne as well. Bruce has Terry to continue to the Batman legacy while Derek has his son Paxton to continue his legacy. Blight's radiation body wasn't going to last. The radiation was going to kill Blight eventually so Derek was slowly dying since he was exposed to the chemicals. The downside was before they should at least Derek finds out that Terry is Batman before he dies.
well death of mind but in batman beyond volume 2 of the dcau comics issue 18 blight survived physically by not mentally sound basically he became a radioactive hungry animal that the stalker wanted to hunt down but need terry's help so he drugged terry with a cocktail of performance enhancing drug to make him a better hunter and flavor him with a small dose of radioactivity to be used as bait for blight to be incased in melted lead and taken by the stalker as a trophy
Yes, it’s the 2010 Hush Beyond mini series but it’s listed by DC as Batman Beyond volume 3. I suspect you’ve already read it though. I don’t view it as being canon because none of the people working on it had any connection to the show.
On the subject who's Terry's archnemesis would be, I honestly considered Inque to be one for some reason, at least past the first season. I guess it's because she showed up the most, or at least I remember her showing up the most.
I think a look at Mad Stan would be worth a video one day. I say this because Mad Stan, as ridiculous as he is in concept, is ironically the most realistic of the Batman Beyond villains. Theres no shortage of politically motivated violence eve during the show's original run n television, and I actually did a brief analysis of his character when I was studying up a bit more on various political ideologies. On the surface, Mad Stan is an anarchist, but the thing with anarchism is its supposed to be the rejection of unjust hierarchies, which while that could include a government, even the most die hard anarchists as a result of the need for humans to form societies would still form a type of government. Factoring how traditional anarchism is a left wing concept, Mad Stan comes off as a very deranged far right anarchist, which is actually a contradiction in terms. The concept of right wing anarchism was an invention of people like Henry Kissinger along with Murray Rothbard, and Frederik Hayek as a means to make government "profitable" under the guise of freedom for people (in reality freedom for rich people). These men inevitably inspired the kind of societal decay that has infected Gotham City so badly, and in the process created Mad Stan in the Beyond era. And like real life, Mad Stan is angry at the wrong people for this decay, driven mad as a result by the lack of means to sort out his mental issues.
It always confuses me when people conflate greed with capitalism like their synonymous. All capitalism is is free market trade. Think about mom & pop shops who genuinely make your community objectively better. Now if people were anti greed and anti big business id 100% agree but just daying capitalism which is what has allowed up to medically and technologically get to the advanced point we are is stupid as hell ngl Ankther example without capitalism DC, and Marvel would have never had a chance.
“do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?” has to be one of the coldest lines in the entire DCAU. It never gets old and it lived long enough to be beautifully meme-worthy.
Which is haunting for two reasons 1. The fact that made it through the censors 2. How many people has this guy directly or indirectly killed? It kinda reminds me of the “it was Tuesday” scene from street fighter the movie.
This line manages to be absolutely chilling in context, but out of context it’s so memeable I found out about it as a joke years before I first watched Batman Beyond.
My favourite Blight line is in Meltdown where he says "I shall be a blight upon the land and everything I touch shall wither and die" while he's trying to kill Freeze.
@@kaleblam5084just checked and 2 Kings 19:7 is not that, and after a bit of research it seems like it is completely original. Though it definitely sounds biblical.
@@kaleblam5084 in further searching in the TMBA version 2Kings 19:7 Behold, I will send a blight upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'" Definitely looks similar.
I think the fact that Batman/Terry never once considered that Paxton would want to kill Derek is pretty in-character for him and is a good juxtaposition for the 2 father-son duos. Like Paxton and Derek, Terry and his father rarely got along, and like Paxton, Terry felt like he was a disappointment to his father. However unlike Paxton, Terry could never once imagine ever wanting to hurt his father, no matter how bad their relationship got. So when Paxton says that he’ll only drain enough power from Blight to incapacitate him, of course Terry would believe him. He couldn’t imagine a son actually wanting to see his father dead. If anything, the biggest doubt he might have is Paxton actually following through with his end.
Another great vid. I recall someone once saying the villains in Batman Beyond mirrored Spiderman's. Inque = Sandman; Shriek = Shocker; Spellbinder = Mysterio; The Stalker = Kraven. Blight was Terry's Norman Osborn, which to me makes him a standout villain.
Well I think I heard some would say Venom for Inque but I guess you haven’t heard the original concept of Eddie Brock being a woman and that his hating Spider-Man is like that movie the Hand that rocks the cradle from Tom Defalco, Falseface is definitely the Chameleon who is Kraven’s half brother, Paxton Powers is Harry Osborn and Kobra is definitely Hydra, Hail Hydra
My friends and I always compared this to Spider-Man TAS because of all the similarities between the two. Terry can climb walls, use grapples to tie up and traverse, and he has wrist-mounted batarang launchers. His suit has proportional strength, too.
Seeing powers get hit by the same poison gas he planned to sell was so satisfying. I just can't help but crack a smile when Powers recognized his goose was cooked. Happy to see it.
I know. At least the Babel-esque actions of Shriek (and Scarecrow in the debatably canon The Batman Adventures tie-in comics) are far more interesting.
Maybe they see poetic villainous beauty to it. Like Red Death tying someone to the train tracks: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BKwAoRJxwUE.html
@@plasticweapon Two episodes. Meltdown and Ascension. Not deliberately to poison water for the sake of it, but in both cases he's poisoning water to dispose of radioactive waste. It's really not much of a plot point though; it's a cold open in the former, and the latter being called on it almost exposes Derek as Blight.
My favorite part of the "Do You Have Any Idea How Little That Narrows It Down?" bit is that even a moment's thought about the timeline between when Batman first appeared, what Batman was fighting him about, and who he'd killed in relation to that should have given Blight the answer. How many people was Derek Powers killing per day that even with all that info he had no clue who Batman might be?
I just can’t get over the fact that Mr Fixx was voiced by George Takei. He’s supposed to sound menacing but all I hear is him saying “oh my” and the facade shatters
@@VALonRU-vid Say that too her face! I know Batman two-pieced her Keaton-style but he's a different animal. Even without her added weapons I'd say she was dangerous on par with DCAU Lois (who doesn't really use weapons but you know she has the skills she learned from her military dad.
The comics have recently introduced Geri Powers, Derek's mother who was the creator of the company that would one day buy out Wayne Industries. It's only a matter of time until her boy becomes the monster we all know and... tolerate.
That’s right, I remember her being responsible for Jim Gordon Batman and his mech suit. I don’t think she’s been in the comics much in recent years though
...Isn't Geri actually the false identity of Victoria Beaumont, Andrea's mother and otherwise known as the DCAU Red Hood (up until the travesty known as The Adventures Continue came into print), as said in the "what could have been" details of the unfortunately cut short Batman Adventures Vol. 2 comics, or am I misremembering?
also Blight showed up in Gotham Academy, like he time traveled back in time to become a school teacher to try and Merc Terry's dad Warren but was defeated by the detective club
The fact that Powers is responsible for Terry's father's death, to me at least, makes Powers the main villain in Batman Beyond. Also, as you mentioned in your video, for a period of time Powers was in charge of Wayne Industries. On a side note: I had previously suggested on you creating a coin flip emoji as a tribute to Two-Face. Well, do I not have egg on my face when, just now, I see a Two-Face coin in your emoji collection. The hardest thing to find is what sits right in front of you. 'D'oh!'- Homer Simpson (The Simpsons) 😅
0:17 Honestly, I considered Terry's constant battle to balance his social life his main antagonist. Terry has established life before he takes on the mantle of Batman and he doesn't want to give that up. Batman Beyond had episodes where Terry's personal life and hero life clash. In some hilarious ways, like the egg baby episode.
@trainman5675 Not only that, The Egg Baby Episode (TEBE) was very popular as well if memory serves. Just the thought of that episode is enough to make me start laughing. It is not among my top ten "best" episodes, but it does rank as the most amusing.
@jayt9608 well it knows how ridiculous the situation is. Many other shows would have the character loving the baby and another reviling it....but nobody likes that assignment
Inque is my favourite but Blight was up there with her and was the best villain ever, such a shame that they didn't bring him back in season 2 & 3 as he was definitely The Joker of the show in terms of being the big bad for Terry.
Yeah Inque doesn't appear in Beyond after getting beat by Batman and Superman, she cameo's in the epilogue episode of JLU though. SO she does survive into the future.
On one hand I agree Derek Powers/Blight was such a underused character it's blasphemous. The fact he used Bruce Wayne's company and assets to create a bioweapon to sell to dictators or/and terrorists, and had Warren McGinnis murdered to cover it up made him an enemy of both Batman generations. Also add his powers as a walking nuclear reactor and you have a formidable supervillain for sure. On the other hand, I can kinda understand why he was dropped in season 2. The simple fact it was lethal to just be anywhere near Blight can be seen as him being overpowered. Now one could make the argument Bruce could've upgraded Terry's Batsuit to provide better protection from radiation, but they clearly stated Blight's radiation became more severe as the season continued.
I think my favorite villains from Batman Beyond were Willie Watt, Terminal, and Big Time. Why? because they feel like genuinely real people. How many of us have met a CEO or scientist? Meanwhile, we've all met the small and weak bookworm who gets relentlessly bullied, the kid who despite excellent academic performance is emotionally abused by parents pushing them to unrealistic standards, or the small-time bully who thinks he'll make it big. More importantly, however, we've all seen people like these three end up suffering similar fates to these characters. While Willie Watt getting a gigantic construction robot to attack the prom is unrealistic, how often do we hear about the quiet, bullied kid finally having enough and pulling out a pistol and gunning down his bullies? While Terminal becoming a psychotic gang leader is unrealistic, how often do we hear about the kid who had a stellar academic performance but had an awful home life and turned to drugs or crime as an outlet? While Big Time getting turned into a hideous mutant is unrealistic, how often do we see some small time criminal with delusions of making it big wind up either arrested or killed while committing small-time crimes? Batman's rogues gallery is more memorable, but Batman Beyond's rogues gallery feels more genuine.
It's also worth noting that the DC Animated Universe started (with "Batman: The Animated Series") as being an adaptation/expansion of "Batman" and "Batman Returns". With that in mind, Terry's relationship with his primary antagonist Blight seems to have a lot in common with Batman('89)'s take on Batman and the Joker. It's also worth noting that Blight's forerunner, Dr. Phosphorus, would seem to have a lot in common with Max Shreck.
Blight was the best villain on the show. I wish they brought him back in an animated special or something because he was too wicked to just "die" in the S1 finale. Especially since his body was never found. Derek was literal poison. As he once said, he was a blight upon the land, and everything he touched would wither and die.
But I truly love and respect about the Batman Beyond crew is taking classic villains like the royal flush gang, Dr phosphorus and even spelled binder and making them their own unique interpretations while still keeping respect to their comic roots❤
You know that's kind of funny that Bruce Tim got involved with three skeletal characters in his career!😂 He drew the He-man mini comics for Mattel that involve our boy skeletor, came up with a unique design for Dr Destiny in Justice League and now made some shady dealings with Blight!
I think Blight is also fairly similar to Tyler Stone from Spider-Man 2099. So that might be fitting to mention in your follow up video. There's a lot of Spider-Man/X-Men/Spider-Man 2099 influence in Batman Beyond to look into, like Spellbinder being more like Mysterio than his comic version from the 50's or so.
1:35 I LOVE this reaction shot, it's a fantastic way of letting the viewer's imagination take over and make us think of something far more horrible that they could ever show. It's so bad, the buyer is disgusted (see 5:16.) And Powers just keeps his trademark smile and continues with the sales pitch, unaffected.
Just finished watching the 1st season of Batman Beyond. Honestly gutted that Blight/Powers was only in the show for one season a very dark twisted character.
Inque is my favourite but Blight was up there with her and was the best villain ever, such a shame that they didn't bring him back in season 2 & 3 as he was definitely The Joker of the show in terms of being the big bad for Terry.
I really like the Blight /Derek Powers storyline from season 1 of Batman Beyond I really like his Voice Actor Sherman Howard . He really put a lot of Sly & Charming personality to this character. I kinda Wish we got to see Powers during Justice League Unlimited pre Beyond .
Batman Beyond’s biggest flaw is that they didn’t bring Blight back for the rest of the show. Show is still amazing without him, but I stand by what I said.
Great video! I kind of like that there wasn’t a main villain after Powers/Blight. As a kid I thought that there would be no way Blight would die so soon, it felt radical like Game of Thrones (“anyone can die”). Today I like it from a perspective where the stories can return to villian of the week and the crimes are lower stakes (the show was good at making these feel exciting). I feel like since this is Terrys early years, there could’ve plenty of time for Terry to find a nemesis and establish a rivalry. I also like that after Blight is taken out, there’s something like 20-30 years worth of low level crooks and gangs to deal with (his time to grind /train before the next Boss)
I don't believe Powers died at the end of season 1, for a couple of diferent reasons. First, and most importantly, Terry says at the end of the episode to Paxton that he just made a big enemy, and shows his excepticisim to Blights death. Secondly, this is the DC universe we're talking about. As Nick Fury once said in Ultimate Spider-Man "if there's no body, he isn't dead" (I know Spider-Man is a marvel character, but the quote works in both worlds). How many times have we seen the Joker, for example, "die" )or at leats fall in a place where he should have) yet he came back as if nothing happened? Now, I will admit It's a bit weird that he didn't show up again if he survived, but this can be explained by the creators. I once heard that they initially wanted Blight to be the big bad threw all of Batman Beyond, but they changed plans throw development. Either way, I personally think he survived and, if the show would have continued, we could have seen him again at some point
I’m certain they left it open just in case they wanted to bring him back later on, but I prefer his story coming to an end in Ascension. Not only was his death very smarty conveyed through the light under water slowly fading away, but it gave Terry closure. I think the line to Paxton was more intended to give Terry some power over Paxton, after Paxton had deceived him. But of course, as you pointed out, we never did see the body (hence those not very good Batman Beyond comics…)
@@katmore9 True, but the comics referenced in the video aren't the two tie-ins to the animated show, which is what I'm referring to, that take place within the DCAU. Those mentioned in the video aren't directly connected to the show but rather to whichever DC continuity was recognized at the time, unrelated to the animated series.
Personally my favorite villain in this series is Skriek but Blight is definitely the best villain. And his line after Terry said he killed his father “do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?” It reminds me of the “it was Tuesday” scene from Street Fighter but also makes you wonder how many people has this guy killed directly or indirectly?
I mean Blight coming back from that ship would be as believable as all the time Joker lived. Until Robin Beyond kills him I could see Blight returning. But much rather him gone. 1 without his company not sure what Blight could do to even come close to hiding. 2 it is a fitting end he had.
I feel you should've waited to do Blight. End strong with the man who started the next gen Batman. I genuinely wonder if Derek ever had a shred of humanity or compassion in him.
I'm kind of hoping you get to Mad Stan, if just for the hilarity of him being an apolitical villain that both liberals and conservatives try to assign to the other side.
He was also Batman Beyond's Harley Quinn, as he was only meant to have one appearance but just kept coming back due to the creators and fans loving him.
Derek Powers / Blight is based on Dr. Phosphorous, a forgotten Batman villain who is also a glowing, radioactive skeleton! Trust me, there are a lot of forgotten villains in the comics, even in the Batman comics like Crash and Burn, The Mime, Orca, The Werewolf, Clayface 3, The Eraser, Signal Man, Polka Dot Man, Crazy Quilt, The Penny Ponderer, Faceless, etc. Some of those villains I had did research on by Mr. Rogues and Comic Origins.
Is it just me or do Blight and Meltdown from Transformers Animated have a few similarities? Two business men getting radioactive based powers and it’s basically a “You made me this” kind of villain?
Honestly glad you addressed the comics as a foot note- they fuggin reduce Powers to a vat of radioactive goo both physically and character wise, instead of doing something interesting. Pass.
Batman Beyond does a much better job of creating villains it's hard to have sympathy for, while the original Batman had sympathy for almost all of his villains, even ones he shouldn't have.
Id say villains like Powers and Luthor are less criticism of capitalism itself, moreso the subset of capitalism known as corportism. Capitalism itself isnt evil, but it along with other forms of economics can easily be corrupted by those who are greedy and want power both politically and economically. In its own sense corporatism is the least capitalist form of capitalism as at its peak ends up resembling authoritarian state operated economies such as communism and fascism with monopolies that control every aspect of a persons life, because it ends up becoming the state controlled economy by becoming the government.
1:25 we saw two photos of the effects of that poison, the camera cut before we saw the third (lest the censors soil their nappies), and powers was holding onto a fourth one. That is some grade A warcrimes, my guy.
I liked Blight the minute I discovered him a few years ago. He's basically a sapient Glowing One from Fallout, and if I could get my writer's block back in its bastard-closet, I'd use the idea in a story. Not *him* specifically; that'd be plagiary, but the whole rad-corpo maniac glowy dealy. It's neat!
oh I know I will @@SerumLake Love your videos!! including that tribute to the late Kevin Conroy. did you know he went to college with Robin Williams and Christopher Revee?
I don't know if you ever read Spiderman 2099, but I always say Powers as having heavy influence from Tyler Stone. Tyler is kinda the main antagonist to Miguel O'Hara and even has the father angle.
