Midnight Ramblings

Wow. I am happy. There is a God.

For you see, tonight, YTV just happened to re-run the episode of Justice League Unlimited that I missed last week due to the cable being out. I saw, what is potentially, the final episode of Justice League Unlimited and, prehaps, the entire DC animated universe.

The episode is called Epilogue. Wanna know what happened? Wanna know the last deep, dark secret of the DC animated universe?

We flash forward 65 years. Terry McGuiness, aka the future Batman and star of Batman Beyond, is now fully grown and in his late-20s/early-30s. And he's just learned a horrible truth.

The man who was killed at the hands of Derek Powers way back in the first episode of Batman Beyond, Mr. Warren McGuiness, was not Terry's father.

His real father is Bruce Wayne.

Short story long: OK, so, in this final season, they introduced the government agency known as Cadmus. The goal of Cadmus was to genetically engineer superheroes to work for the US Government, should the Justice League ever go rouge.

Well, Justice League and Cadmus finally resolved their differences and Amanda Waller, the head of Cadmus, became a close ally and friend to the Justice League. Over time, she really grew to respect and admire Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Naturally, as time went on, she realized that Batman was only mortal; that someday Batman would grow old and die. But this couldn't happen. The world needs a Batman.

So, Amanda Waller and Cadmus created "Project: Batman Beyond."

They obtained a sample of Batman's DNA. They analyzed psychological profiles until they found a young married couple whose personalities were virtually identical to that of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Of course, that couple was Warren and Mary McGuinness.

Nanites were prepared that contained samples of Bruce Wayne's DNA. These nanites were injected into Warren McGuinness, and through the mircale of nature, these nanites were used to impregnate Mrs. McGuiness.

9 months later, Terry was born. As Amanda Waller put it, "Not quite a clone, but it would do."

Now here's where the plan fell apart. When Terry turned 8, an assasin was hired to murder Terry's parents as the family walked home from the movie. It was an exact recreation of the tragedy that killed Bruce Wayne's parents. The goal was that, since everyone had a virtually identical personality, this would drive Terry down a path of vengeance and turn him into a new Batman.

But, at the last moment, the assasin froze. For you see, the assasin was the Phantasm. And, as Phantasm explained to Amanda Waller, Batman would never resort to murder. And if they were to commit cold-blooded murder, then they would be dishonouring everything that Batman stands for. Waller agreed, and the project was abandoned.

but then, in that true comic book fashion, there were some strange twists of fate that saw the murder of Terry's father and Terry's meeting up with Batman.

All in all, it was a great end.