Why Villains Were The Key To Batman Beyond's Success 

I like how Spellbinder’s motivations for becoming a villain were that he hates his job. Considering how he’s a school psychologist, I think that’s very understandable.

One thing about the old villains that appear, they are used to highlight how Terry and Bruce are different, as well as the legacy of Batman. Terry saw Freeze, the new man, Bruce saw the old villain. Ra's Al Ghul highlighted that change is necessary, or you destroy the point of life. And finally, Terry defeated the Joker by playing the game on different terms than Bruce, hitting the weakness only he could see.

I like how Inque, Blight and the Royal Flash Gang fit one of the core themes of Batman Beyond. That being family and legacy. We see a father get betrayed by the son he never wanted. We see a mother get betrayed by the daughter she, deep down, wanted in her life and we see a family unit tear itself apart from within.

"You killed my father." "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down"-Blight

I love Shriek. He’s probably my favorite Beyond villain. His suit and powers are so cool. The scene where he realizes he’s lost his hearing left a big impression on me. I always felt like he was Terry’s Freeze because both he and Victor specialized in a specific field of science and, thanks to an accident relating to that field, they lost a part of themselves. Freeze lost the ability to survive in warm environments and Shriek lost his ability to hear. He, Blight, and Inque are probably my top three favorites but he’s number one.

The kid from golem was a great villain. He shows that sometimes villains need help and throwing them into the criminal system only makes them worse. Plus his powers were super cool.

Shriek turning off all the sound but Terry’s footsteps was one of the most memorable TV moments from my teen years.

Any hero is only as good as their villains, and Batman has one of the best (if not the best) collections

That’s why I love Batman Beyond growing up. Their villains were original and each challenged the new Batman in different ways that Bruce wouldn’t be able to attempt. Terri sympathized with his foes and in the process made them human and unique. When it comes to Bruce Wayne, his villains may be unique but not entirely human, only extreme juxtaposition of Bruce Wayne.

10 was a recurring character that I thought could use some attention as well. Inque was more like Clayface (if he'd had his act together), while 10 was positioning herself as Terry's Selina Kyle-esque matchup. But you're spot on about how great the BB villains were :).

Always loved that the creators got to have total silence in the “Shriek” episode. We’re used to Batman sneaking around quietly in the shadows, but having him have to fight someone that he couldn’t hear was genius.

The fate of Inque's fanboy left me deeply scarred as a kid, as shapeshifting is my dream super power. I almost felt personally called out.

Some of the villains also seem to be very Spider-man inspired. Their powers and weapons at least. Shriek is Shocker, Spellbinder is Mysterio, Inque is Venom.

Mr Freeze was a great villain for Terry even as a throwback one off. Terry wanting to believe Victor Fries was a reformed man while Bruce doubted it every second Freeze was a free man and in the end Terry and Bruce both admitted the other was right.

Batman Beyonds villains are absolutely incredible, i was really hoping for an Arkham game set during Beyond just so they could get as much love as they deserve

I wish they had done more with the Golem kid. His father constantly pushing him to be strong while being bullied. His accident even resulting in him being able to control the golem telepathically later putting power into someones hands who has been bullied while still in highschool and who will act on the impulse to get back at his bullies.

Having knockoff villains or retreading old villains would have kept Terry in Bruce's shadow, keeping him from growing as a character. Having old ones occasionally pop up reminded you what universe the writers were playing in, but they had a good balance.

LOVE that you’ve been using a 4:3 aspect ratio on these videos that discuss the cartoons of our childhood. Excellent work

Inque has been the Batman villain who has both stood out to me most as a kid and has been my favorite Batman villain since 1999. Shriek is my second favorite Batman beyond villain because I have never seen any one use sound in such a creative badass way. Shriek inspired me to create a villain of my own that uses sounds in his everyday escapades in my novels; a villain I came up with 7 yrs ago

I think it's worth noting that even in Return of the Joker the story still focused on the fact that this show was Terry's Batman by hilighting the different styles between Terry and Bruce through the lens of Bruce's greatest villain. The exception to prove the rule.

I loved Shriek! He controls sound which on paper sounds pretty dumb. But they found some pretty creative ways of using him. Sound waves, making there either be no sound or too much, confusing the languages, then causing the cities animals to go nuts!

Wasn't expecting a Batman Beyond Video today! Loved this one 👍🏼

Stalker was cool too. His story about getting his revenge on the Tiger that mauled him was interesting. It set him apart from other hunter characters like Kraven. Also he was voiced by JL Martian Manhunter

April Moon still lingers in my mind. I loved the villains with their biomech weapons especially Bullwhip and Kneejerk.

Who's video did you copy for this weeks release, guys?

Even though it's been a long time since I really watched Batman Beyond, but I love that you made a video about the villains of the show. Spellbinder reminds me of a mix between Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter. This reminds me of why Terry was my favorite Batman.

I find Batman Beyond villains had a lot of potential but few had a lasting impression outside of their design. For example can you immediately recall Spellbinder’s voice, and would you be able to differentiate it from Shriek? Compare that to the original animated series who not only had their own theme songs but character actors doing iconic voices for them. Blight is excellent but killed off early, and Inque is an exception but for most of the villains they’re mostly recalled for their looks and abilities; Batman has always been deeper then that.

BOYCOTT NERDSTALGIC for stealing smaller channels videos

Terry McGinnis has one of the most underrated rogues gallery, but then again I am a sucker for cyber punk and colorful distinct outfits

Nerdstalgic and Batman Beyond. Never clicked a video so quickly

So who did you steal this one from?

Spellbinder is fantastic. Love how clever and dasterdly his episodes are by necessity. Though, of course, all the major villains have something going for them.

Nerdstalgic steals videos from smaller channels and then trys to hide it. Where did that district 9 video go right when you get accused of stealing it entirely?

Speaking of the few times old villains came back, when they brought back the Joker in the movie, it led to the iconic iteration of the Jokerz because they held true to Batman Beyond being Terry’s story

So from which creator did you steal this video?

just bring back Batman Beyond man please the show was so good

Something I like is in one of the director commentaries where the team talk about how the new villians were modled after the old ones. Ink is a liquid shapeshifter like Clay Face. And there were couple other examples I can't remember at the moment.

Earth Mover will haunt my nightmares for my entire life....

Blight, Shriek and Inque gotta be my fav

Batman & Spiderman are both my favourite comicbook heroes almost exclusively because of the villains, Batman Beyond included!

Batman beyond villain design kicked ass.

I absolutely loved Batman Beyond!

Yeah I was always a fan of Inque.

Hope you guys didnt copy and paste this video from another RU-vidr

Who did you steal this video from Nerdstalgic?

The villains are also similar to those of Spider-Man: Derek Powers/Blight= Norman Osborn/Green Goblin Shriek= Shocker Stalker= Kraven the Hunter Willie Watt= Dr Octopus and Electro Inque= Venom, Sandman, and Hydro-Man Spellbinder=Mysterio Melanie Walker/Ten= Felicia Hardy/Black Cat False-Face= Chameleon

Of course Spellbinder would be a favorite of the designers. He was very briefly in the intro.

Heroes and villains both have to be great

Anybody remember how terrifying some of the future concepts were or how there were opportunities for Terry to save a villain that was about to die but he sort of didn’t. I mean he killed the guy who was sent to murder his dad and no one batted an eye, it kinda sells Terry as a Batman who has some anger issues and still needs to develop his conscience more and I think that’s really interesting since it helps separate him from Bruce.

I wish they used blight more... As a kid I lived the design.

One villain appears more than once and even fights with batman than needed respect : The Stalker.

Man the first season and the corprate espionage angle was so cool. I definitely think Batman Beyond could've been a good way to show how systems are the new villians. Corpos who don't care about the human casualties as long as theyre companies get profit. Or the nurse guy who was actually siphoning Banes venom to make those patches. That coulda been a whole thing about old villians being used to make new Neo-Gothan rogues.

You know, depending on what day you ask me, I might actually cite Beyond as being better than its predecessor 🤔

Terminal was a bad ass Joker and a leader in his own right. I wish they gave the character more of a backstory. It would’ve been cool to see how he became a Joker and form his own gang.

from which smaller content creator did you steal the content of this video?

Who'd you steal this video concept from this time?

“The villain is the hero of their own story.”

“You killed my father!” “Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?” 😂😂😂😂

Terry: But that's my name [Batman] now. Bruce: Tell that to my subconscious.

1:01-1:02 NAH, THOSE 2 ARENT FORGETTABLE, the first one had a pretty cool and dark death ( I always love when a superhero kids show shows some kind of drought to use it on a villain) and the second one has such a great quote “ me?, IM THE BEST” just powerful as fuck, this one doesn’t sound so good until you watch the episode, I think is one of the first ones in the second season

Great video! Only reason I’m not finishing it is cause you made me want to watch the series all over again, then come back to your video!

dude, this is insane; i literally just watched return of the joker an hour ago

IIRC, Blight was phased out as a villain due to the fact that higher ups wanted the show to stop "corporate stories"

The Condiment King will one day have his day in the spotlight

crazy how you steal a mfs video, they call you out, and you just delete it and go on like nothing happened.

Spellbinder RULES! Loved that guy as a kid!

Just being honest though Batman Beyonds villians are all kind of remixes of the OG batman villians. Inque is clayface but sexy spy lady, royal flush gang are kinda like Joker and his extended gang / family. Like how he has the giant robot clown dude in that one episode with the garbage boat in the original series and has Harley Quinn by his side. Spellbinder is basically scarecrow. Blight is basically Terry Mcguinness own Joker style nemesis character as both created each other. Curare is basically Talia Al Ghul as she's a master assassin who faces up against Terry just minus the love interest and backstory. The Kobra cult are basically the league of shadows.

That vore scene of Inque shoving herself down Terry's throat is a scene I will never be able to forget no matter how hard I try. It really disturbed me as a kid and to this day I still shudder at the memory of it. You just HAD to slip it on there, huh? Thanks for that. Edit: OH GOD YOU DID IT TWICE? For Pete sake, man. I'm trying to eat!

Even the returning villians got new ground covered in their story. Mr. Freeze was put on a redemption path. Bane was to see how venom killed him. Ras al ghul was to see how twisted his obession with beating death has become.

Villains are the key to every superhero. The better the villains the more popular the hero.

So who did you steal this video from?

Batman Beyond is the one show that must have a Live action 🤔🤔

Shriek was always one of my favorites

I wish I can see Damian as Ra al ghul successor a former Robin who took over his grandfather organization which will make him very interesting Villain.

A black and red wearing younger iteration of a classic hero also sums up Miles Morales whom I have a love/hate relationship with. What you said about the villains here may be the thing that stops me from liking him as much or more than Terry. The video games have done him justice but he definitely needs something. Maybe more weighty villain not shared by his active mentor.

Shriek was my favourite!

Blights probably one of my favorite villains ever, top tier design

Inque became one of my favourite villains in the Batman lore and I'm a bit upset of she only having 3 episodes centered on (considering her backstory in the comics). Pd: I'm the only one who finds her humanoid/sillhouette form more hot than her human form?

Exactly my cup of tea after work.

Can't wait to see the next video Nerdstalgic copies gets deleted. You guys could at least have the decency to give the revenue to the original creators.

Now i See How Great these Villain are Capable of.

i loved batman beyond, still wish they could do more with it like a movie or a game

DID YOU STEAL THIS VIDEO TOO???

The episode with Mr. Freeze really affected me. As did the one with Bane. This show was actually really damaging to the young psyche. I wanted Frieze's redemption so much, I was bawling like a toddler at the end.

Stalker and Mad Stan are interesting villains and I wouldn't mind seeing a follow-up with them, as well as how the Joker highlights the similarities and differences between Bruce and Terry's Batman styles.

If Batman Beyond ever gets a live action adaptation, first casting for Blight that comes to mind is Cillian Murphy

Alternative title: Why Batman Beyond is underrated asf

While not a real villain, I think the story behind 10 from the Royal Flush Gang was interesting. The way she was torn between trying to reform herself, and loyalty to her family, she seemed like a good character.

*Did you steal this video idea too???*

I feel like bruce timm was inspired by spiderman to create batman beyond. Terry miginis/Peter shriek/shocker stalker/kraven inque/sandman or venom

My first Batman Beyond stopmotion used Shriek and Blight, spellbinder and the Knightfall task force (my own creation) are the villains of the second!

Inque and the Royal Flush Gang were definitely my favorite villains in the show.

Since DC is making elseworlds stories, they should make Batman Beyond live action

Hi, great episode. I believe fans, myself included would love a thorough comparison of Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman to Melanie Walker AKA 10, love interests to Bruce and Terry respectively.

I kinda wish that we had gotten more of Blight. You say poor mans Lex Luthor. I say a villian that tied Bruce and Terry together. Bruce by twisting Wayne Corp into one of the enemies and Terry by being the reason that his father died.

Heroes had the most tragic villains of all. They took what were a parody of the Fantastic Four and showed how horrifying it would be to have powers forced upon you. How something as petty as jealousy can ruin so much. And what the difference is between choosing to be a hero and forced into being one.

Excuse me, did you just imply Mad Stan was forgettable? Inconceivable!

You didn’t mention The Royal Flush Gang or Curare? They're the better Batman Beyond villains in my opinion.

Having new villains was great, but freeze was a perfect bring back, that sorrowful reluctant villain was not really filled by any new villains.

Big Time was a standout villain for me because it’s a classic case of the hero’s regrettable past coming back to try and undo all the progress he’s made on himself as a person.