With a new Batman Beyond comic, Neo Year, coming next year, fans are eager to revisit the world of Batman Beyond. A major gamble at the time, the show jumped into the future and featured a retired Bruce Wayne training a new and younger person to be the Batman of Neo Gotham. The show became a hit, lasting for three seasons and cementing Terry McGinnis as a lasting character in the Batman mythos.
Throughout the run of the show, Terry went up against an almost brand new gallery of rogues which included many iconic villains. Some of the recurring adversaries ended up being some very powerful foes for the new Batman to go up against.
The Royal Flush Gang
The Royal Flush Gang could make their appearance in the upcoming Batman: Caped Crusader TV Series, but for the DCAU, they weren't introduced until Batman Beyond, and immediately ingrained themselves into Terry's Rogues Gallery. Bruce mentions that he had fought a version of them before, but for Terry, The Royal Flush Gang, a family of thieves consisting of Queen, King, Jack, the Robotic Ace, and Ten, gave him his own unique problems.
The gang’s advanced weaponry was always a match for Batman, especially when it came to Ace, who seemed to be almost as strong as Bane, but it was Ten that proved the most powerful against Batman's weakest point, his heart. When her double life is revealed to him, his allegiances are compromised which leads to many initial defeats.
Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze - one of Batman's greatest villains - had his head cryogenically preserved by Derek Powers and they attempted to clone him a new body to see if that would lead to finding a cure for Powers' ailment. However, Freeze's body couldn't sustain itself without a cold suit so he was forced to return to his villainous ways.
Freeze's new futuristic suit was more than a match for both Blight and Batman. With his enhanced strength and new and improved Freeze gun, Batman wouldn't have been able to defeat the new and improved Freeze if Freeze hadn't decided to take his own life.
Derek Powers/Blight
The man who killed Terry's father and took over Wayne's company. Derek Powers was a dangerous figure before he became the villain known as Blight. An accident caused by the young Batman exposed Powers to a biological weapon and had to be treated with radiation. The side-effect rendered his body translucent and radioactive.
Blight was the closest villain Terry had to an arch-nemesis. Terry's desire to take Powers down for the murder of his father blinded him in more than one of his battles. Blight could shoot radiation energy from his hands that made keeping a distance difficult and the powerful radiation he emitted made getting in close hard as well.
Dr. Abel Cuvier
A cunning scientist who developed "splicing," Dr. Cuvier made it possible for people to splice their DNA with that of any animal they choose. Some kids chose more extreme animal traits, while others opted for more subtle ones. He used his spliced kids to commit all sorts of crimes.
When confronted with Batman, Dr. Cuvier decided to splice his DNA with a hawk, a snake, and a tiger, turning himself into a formidable monster. Cuvier almost did away with Batman by splicing Batman with bat DNA, but in this form, he's more than a physical match for the teenage protector of Neo Gotham.
Jackson Chappell
Even though Bane was alive in the time of Batman Beyond, his reliance on Venom had crippled him in his old age. Jackson Chappell took the Venom formula and turned it into a handy patch that would give the wearer the strength of Bane for a short time. This patch also became very addictive.
While on the surface he was just like any other druglord in Gotham, trying to turn kids into addicts, he caused a major problem for Batman. His cunning made him an intellectual match for the new Batman and when he slapped multiple patches on, he became even stronger than Bane. He most surely would have killed Terry if he didn't overdose and fall into a coma.
Spellbinder
Spellbinder appeared on the show as an underpaid psychologist at Hamilton Hill High School, named after the mayor from Batman: The Animated Series in one of the best connections between BTAS and Batman Beyond. Deciding to get back at the rich for his situation, he creates an orb capable of projecting images into people’s minds to control them.
Throughout his various appearances on the show, Spellbinder was always trying to find a way to get back at the well-off people of Neo Gotham. His mind control technology proved to be a useful weapon against many victims, including Batman. Spellbinder’s technology was so impressive that it could fool everyone’s senses, even Batman’s, rendering Spellbinder, practically invisible during their confrontations.
Joker
Joker's influence in the series was felt from the first episode. Sometime between the events of Justice League Unlimited and Batman Beyond, the Joker had died and inspired a mob called The Jokerz. What happened to the Joker was explained in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, where it was revealed that he was still alive in the body of Tim Drake, the second Robin.
Joker's desire to drive Batman to kill him puts him in the crosshairs of two generations of Batman. The chip that he installed in Tim Drake allowed him to take control of the former Robin and even though he had the appearance of the Joker, he still had Robin’s skill. Terry doesn’t have the physical prowess of his mentor so Joker was finally a physical match for the dark knight. In the end, it was his unwillingness to see how these Batmen were different that did him in.
Shriek
Initially, Shriek - aka Walter Shreeve - had intended his sound devices to be used in demolition, but Derek Power wanted him to use them to try and kill Bruce Wayne. This led Shreeve down a path to becoming one of the most powerful villains Batman would ever face.
Shriek's suit was capable of using sound waves as weapons and he would use this technology to try and incapacitate Batman multiple times. Once Shriek was able to use a building as a tuning fork and cause chaos throughout Neo Gotham. Due to this ability, no one in the city was able to understand each other. Anyone capable of taking over a city is more than a match for Batman.
Inque
Batman Beyond would often try to improve on BTAS, most notably when it came to its villains. Every Batman needs a Clayface, and for Terry's Batman of the future, that role fell to Inque. Inque could shapeshift into dark or black objects, even sharp and deadly blades. Unlike most of the new Batman's Rogues, Inque arrived on the scene having already gone through whatever voluntary treatment turned her into a being made of ink.
Inque is capable of turning herself into a liquid form and suffocating her enemies. Her ruthlessness in a fight makes brings her close to killing Batman on multiple occasions. Since she was born in poverty she's willing to do anything to make sure she and her daughter have enough money, which means she’ll go for the kill almost every time.
Starro the Conqueror
Starro the Conqueror is one of the most iconic villains the Justice League ever faced, but the character didn't appear in the DCAU until Superman came to recruit the new Batman to the future Justice League. Sometime before the events of Batman Beyond, Superman had rescued a little Starro and kept him in a menagerie in the Fortress of Solitude.
Starro was able to multiply and take over Superman, the most powerful character in the DC Universe, causing him to turn on his team. After which, Starro was also able to take over the rest of the Justice League and got far too close to taking over the rest of the Earth. Any character capable of taking over the most powerful heroes in the world is not someone that Batman should be going up against.