Warning: spoilers for Batman Beyond: Neo-Year #4 are ahead!
In DC Comics, Batman Beyond has one of the most iconic costumes, stemming from the futuristic setting of Neo-Gotham. Since the character debuted in the animated 1999 television show, the Batman Beyond suit has stood the rest of time with its minimalist lines and cape-less design. But as much as the Beyond suit radically reimagines Batman's capabilities, it also hides a crucial weakness that Terry McGinnis discovers in the latest issue of Batman Beyond: Neo-Year.
One of the biggest differences between Batman Beyond and Bruce Wayne's Batman is the role that the suit plays in their lives as vigilantes. For Terry, the Beyond suit is a tool, one that helps him escape perilous conditions and outsmart his enemies. On the other hand, for Bruce, the Batsuit plays an important role in creating his fearsome persona in Gotham City. As decades of Batman art can evidence, the animalistic look of Bruce Wayne's Batsuit with its dramatic cape turns the man wearing it into an otherworldly figure.
These differences between Terry and Bruce's Batsuits have dire consequences in Batman Beyond: Neo-Year #4 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Max Dunbar, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Aditya Bidikar. In the midst of a nasty fight with the Sword of Gotham, Terry gets more and more exhausted, his Batsuit having run out of power. As a result, his narration focuses on the physical damage that his body takes, emphasizing how much pain he is in. It is an unusual moment based in Terry's vulnerability, a fact only made possible due to the more human-like design of the Beyond suit. While Bruce Wayne's Batsuit plays an important role in dehumanizing himself in Gotham, turning Batman into an "idea" rather than a person, the Batman Beyond suit acts as a brutal reminder of Terry McGinnis's humanity.
While the minimal aspects of the Batman Beyond suit place Terry's life in danger on occasion, they also have advantages that differentiate his brand of justice. Without the hulking form of Bruce Wayne's Batsuit, Terry is better able to approach citizens of Neo-Gotham without intimidating them. This better integrates Batman Beyond into the fabric of the city, an element that has been crucial in the Neo-Year series thus far. For Terry, having a more personable relationship to Neo-Gotham rewrites this aspect of the Batman mythos, centering his humanity, rather than obscuring it.
Part of what makes Batman so compelling as a character is that he is simply just a man in a suit. As this issue of Batman Beyond: Neo-Year shows, Batman Beyond's mythic signifier, his suit, does little to actually protect the man inside, making this dynamic a precarious one. While Terry's Batman Beyond suit makes him a more approachable hero, it also comes at the greatest cost of being human in the first place: vulnerability.
Batman Beyond: Neo-Year #4 is available now from DC Comics.