BATMAN BEYOND: TERRY MCGINNIS

Terry was once a member of a street gang run by Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow, and had his fair share of run-ins with the Gotham Police Department in his early teens, even serving a three-month stint in juvenile hall.

As he returned to high school, however, he shed some of his worst habits and acquired a girlfriend, Dana Tan. Terry still had trouble relating to his father, Warren McGinnis, who accused him of being irresponsible. On what proved to be the last night of Warren's life, Terry stormed out of the house after an argument.

While defending Dana from another street gang, the Jokerz, Terry found himself being chased by them to the outskirts of Gotham City. He fled onto the grounds of Wayne Manor, where an aged Bruce Wayne appeared and assisted him in defeating the Jokerz. The strain of the fight placed substantial stress on Bruce's heart, and he collapsed. Terry helped Bruce into the mansion and, in the process, stumbled upon the entrance to the Batcave.

Bruce kicked Terry out, but Terry returned home to find it covered in Jokerz graffiti, and discovered his father had been murdered. Grief-stricken, Terry looked through his father's belongings and found a disk that Warren had taken from his employer, Derek Powers, the new head of Wayne-Powers. Realizing there was more to his father's death than first appeared, Terry rushed back to Wayne Manor and demanded to be let in.

As Bruce examined the disk in the Batcave, Terry noticed the latest-generation Batsuit Wayne had used before retiring. The disk revealed that Powers was making a deadly nerve gas to sell to the government of Kaznia, but Bruce refused to get involved and ordered Terry to go to the police. On the way, Terry encountered Powers himself, who knew the disk had to be somewhere and it was taken. Terry managed to escape from him, however, and ran off.

Returning to Wayne Manor, he tied up Ace and stole the Batsuit. When Bruce discovered the theft, he admonished Terry through the suit's communicator, but Terry was adamant on confronting Powers. Bruce retaliated by shutting the suit down, in the middle of a confrontation with Powers' security guards. Terry pleaded with Bruce for a chance to prove himself, and persuaded Wayne to re-activate the suit and let him carry on as Batman for the time being. Bruce's decision resulted in the sabotage of Powers' operation; the stores of the chemical weapon were lost in the Gotham River, along with Mr. Fixx, Powers' henchman, whom Terry discovered had murdered Warren. Powers himself was inadvertently exposed to his own weapon, and the radiation therapy necessary to save his life mutated him into the villain Blight.

Convinced that there was still a need for a Batman, Bruce visited Terry and his mother early one morning at their home and under the pretext of paying back a previous act of kindness hired Terry as his personal assistant. Terry ran various errands and took care of various tasks for Bruce Wayne in his civilian identity. In part, this was a cover for secretly training him as Gotham's new Dark Knight. Terry's job also allowed him to earn much needed money to help support his family since his father's death.