Silly Question Time: If you were Hired to Write a Batman Beyond Adaptation Would You Give Terry a New Love Interest?

[Winter]

Terry is a GREAT Batman, he is as far as I'm concerned, equal to Bruce and along with Dick a worthy successor to the Cowl. Yet I do feel that his supporting cast and Rogues Gallery is somewhat lacking. None of them are bad but they don' really do all that much to make them stand out with a few exceptions the most notable among them being Max and Inque for both the heroes and villains respectfully.

However, for me Terry's love life has always been the most lackluster when compared to Bruce's. Dana is one of the most boring and bland characters even when she was starting out I found her boring and uninteresting. And Melanie Walker aka Ten from the Royal Flush Gang is an interesting character I never really got to into her romance with Terry because it reminded me to much of Bruce and Selina's romance which bugs me because I've always felt that Terry works best when he ISN'T being Bruce. And while I've always been a shipper for Terry and Max a part does like the fact that he likes girls, she likes guys and they're just friends.

So, obviously, if I was given the opportunity to write an adaptation of Batman Beyond (be it a movie, game or new TV series) I would give Terry a new love interest to which the question then becomes, who would it be?

Well, odd as this may sound, my preferred romantic partner for Terry would actually be a character from another part of the Batman Mythos, that being Ellen Yin from The Batman (animated series not the movie). I know that seems odd but hear me out.

I honestly think that Yin's personality, Ice Queen Jerk with a Heart of Gold, would contrast and complement nicely with Terry's. There's even potential for an interesting romantic arc with them staring off at odds with Yin wanting to arrest Batman but gradually working with him while also getting closer to Terry in their civilian lives before eventually becoming a couple.

Yin would also be able to have more of an active role in Terry's Superhero life as her being a detective means that her work and Batman's often overlap instead of never being involved outside of getting kidnapped. And it would also be interesting if she was able to figure out, on her own, that Terry is Batman and from that deduce that Bruce was the original Batman and how that could effect their relationship.

On top of that it would be an interesting contrast to Bruce. Bruce's most iconic love interest is Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, one of DC's greatest thieves while Terry's love interest is a honest cop/detective.

So, yeah might seem odd but I think the perfect match for Terry is Ellen Yin.

[Madner Kami]

Personally, I'd first try to see, if Dana can be made interesting. I liked her design and the fact, that she wasn't a constant damsel in distress or roadblock (at least in the series). I also liked her more mature and laid back behaviour, compared to Terry's hot-headedness. There's potential for being a good foil there, but she just never got anything to do.

[Winter]

Personally, I'd first try to see, if Dana can be made interesting. I liked her design and the fact, that she wasn't a constant damsel in distress or roadblock (at least in the series). I also liked her more mature and laid back behaviour, compared to Terry's hot-headedness. There's potential for being a good foil there, but she just never got anything to do.

DC has had 25 years to try and make Dana interesting and thus far they have yet to succeed in doing just that.

The problem as I see it is that the writers just have no interest in her and are keeping her around out of habit. Contrast her with Mary Jane who started out as an intended one shot character. She has no powers and us usually just a model/actor but she's gotten to do so much over the years and is a badass in her own right despite Marvel doing everything it can to get rid of her ever since she first appeared (I've mentioned this before but Stan Lee was originally not found of MJ and was actively trying to get readers to side against her. He came around and said she was one of his favorite characters.)

The reason for MJ's popularity is that people are Passionate and most writers shared that passion with fans. The same can't be said about Dana because ever since day one there wasn't really all that much to her. She had more personality then Terry's other high school friends but as the show went on that became less the case. Chelsea ended up having more personality in the few times the show focused on her and Max proved to be more useful.

I remember Bruce Timm saying that he had plans to flesh out Dana and was just waiting for the right opportunity to do so. But apparently the higher ups read what he planned for Dana which basically boiled down to... nothing of interest out of less then a boring filler episode that from what little I read did not thrill me, (basically a generic high school romance) and they just ordered Max to be created instead.

Again, the passion just doesn't seem to be there for Dana and we're fastly approaching 30 years at this point and they've STILL done more with Max and 10 then they will likely ever do with Dana.

[Madner Kami]

So you're saying it's not a failure of the character, but every writer just dismissing her. Reason being ... she boring, so they write her boring? Seems kinda circular reasoning.

[Winter]

So you're saying it's not a failure of the character, but every writer just dismissing her. Reason being ... she boring, so they write her boring? Seems kinda circular reasoning.

It is rather paradoxical, no one was really that passionate about the character at the start and that lack of passion has gone on throughout the series. Let's take a look at Cindy Moon, when she was first introduced she almost universally HATED. Her backstory was viewed as a needless retconned to Peter's story that even the characters questioned the inclusion of, her "Romance" with Peter was so poorly conceived that the person who created her felt personally ashamed of and she was seen, rightly, as to OP.

However, that hatred led to people checking out the series just to see what all the fuss was about which led to Marvel deciding to give Silk her own spin-off series which led to Robbie Thompson taking over and Thompson saw a lot of untapped potential in the character and decided to really delve into what made her tick. This led to Cindy from being one of the most hated characters in Marvel at the time to being a fan-favorite that people have been DEMANDING a film or show for and are excited when she was revealed in Insomniac's Spider-Man 2.

And Cindy has not been around as long as Dana she is only been around for 10 years.

Or to go back to MJ, again she was suppose to be a one off character who was only going to be in the series for a short amount of time and Stan Lee at the time didn't like writing her all that much (even went out of his way to give her a bad haircut). But fans LOVED her because she was unlike Peter's official love interest at the time Gwen Stacy and other writers soon saw the potential in MJ and in time so did Stan.

And to go back to Ellen Yin, she was seen as the WORST part of The Batman but by season 2 fans came to love her and were annoyed when she was just vanished from the show.

There was passion to these characters, be it passion of hate or the passion of love either way there was something about these characters that made fans want to see more of them and made writers want to write them more often.

Again, Dana has been around for 25 years and during that time no one has thought to do anything with her outside of having her learn that Terry is Batman and can't make up their minds if she's supportive of his secret identity or isn't supportive.

She's never had a major role in the series despite being a regular and the writers keep forgetting that she even exists. No really, there have been whole issues where the writers keep forgetting to include her and just focus on other parts of the Batman Beyond cast because they do not care about Dana.

Dana is almost the Jonah Maiava of Batman, she's not here because there is a huge outcry for her to be in the series she is here because the Executives think she's needed but the writers don't know what to actually do with her so they just stick her in the background until they need someone for Terry to rescue.

[sayla0079]

It depends on the storyline used.

[McAvoy]

You could make Dana as a girlfriend for a regular Joe type of Terry. An idea of what Terry would have if he wasn't Batman and perhaps something he still clings to even if it is boring. Introduce a couple of new characters too to show a different path Terry could take when it comes to relationships. He doesn't have to be closed off like Bruce but maybe he could venture into other types. Dangerous. Passionate. Mysterious. Tragic. Etc.

Dana being the boring safe option could always entice him though. You just have to make it more appealing though to the viewer.

[Winter]

You could make Dana as a girlfriend for a regular Joe type of Terry. An idea of what Terry would have if he wasn't Batman and perhaps something he still clings to even if it is boring. Introduce a couple of new characters too to show a different path Terry could take when it comes to relationships. He doesn't have to be closed off like Bruce but maybe he could venture into other types. Dangerous. Passionate. Mysterious. Tragic. Etc.

Dana being the boring safe option could always entice him though. You just have to make it more appealing though to the viewer.

That's actually not a bad idea but for me that does raise another issue I have with Dana and it's the same problem I have with Jake in Deep Space 9, Dana really only exists for Terry's character and has little going for her.

In the comics they tried to give Dana something by having her brother be a Joker fan boy, go crazy and tried to kill Terry. I remember really not liking this story and it was mostly because we had the opportunity to flesh out Dana and her character and they used it to further develop everyone BUT her. Dana's brother being a Jokerz is more about him then his sister and how Terry reacts to it.

When Max was created she was given her own interests and personal goals, and her backstory was fleshed out and developed in season 2. Melanie is the same, they did a more with her character in three episodes then they've done with Dana in, again, 25 years.

So while I like the idea of Dana showing a different path for Terry it doesn't seem like Dana is getting much out of this deal.

[Thebestoftherest]

I always like Max, it kinda what Bruce Tim thinks Batman x Barbara look like without being creepy.

[Winter]

I always like Max, it kinda what Bruce Tim thinks Batman x Barbara look like without being creepy.

Oh I like Max and Terry as a couple too but I honestly like the fact that the two are just friends more because that is so rare, especially at the time.