When Batman Beyond premiered on television in 1999, it became a surprisingly popular new DC animated series and was quickly spun off into a new comic series the same year. What made it a surprise was that the show introduced a new Batman in Terry McGinnis, and took place years after Bruce Wayne had retired. As a result, the series was able to introduce new villains, as most of Batman’s enemies were also older and were no longer active. There were a few older Batman villains who appeared in Batman Beyond, but only two of them truly stood out. Most of the best villains, however, were new and unique to Terry’s run as Batman.
From the villain who brought Bruce Wayne out of retirement, to the version of the Joker Terry had to battle – and even the real Joker himself returning – here is a look at the best villains in Batman Beyond, ranked. This only includes characters from the animated series and its spin-off movies, excluding the comic series that came after.
The real Joker was always a presence in Batman Beyond for one specific reason: Some of the persistent enemies for Terry’s Batman were the Jokerz street gang. However, things got real in the Batman Beyond spinoff movie when the Joker made his return. Once again, Mark Hammil returned to voice Joker, as Batman Beyond is part of the Batman: The Animated Series universe. Joker was an immediate threat, even showing he knew Bruce Wayne was Batman, and poisoning Ace the Bat Hound.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was a shocking movie, as it revealed in a bizarre twist how the Joker had transformed Tim Drake into a Joker variant years prior, only for Tim to kill him in retribution. It all makes the entire movie tragic, showing how Joker can always find a new way to ruin Batman’s life, even years after he died.
It should come as no surprise that Ra’s al Ghul would be another character who returned from Batman’s past to become a nemesis of Terry McGinnis. Ra’s is immortal, and thanks to the Lazarus Pit, he can remain the same age. That said, there was a problem by the time Batman Beyond rolled around, and he had issues healing thanks to excess damage taken to his body.
As a result, he needed to find a way to carry on and chose to possess the body of his daughter, Talia al Ghul, to continue his operations. What makes Ra’s so special here is that he deduced that Terry McGinnis was the new Batman, and he used Talia’s body to trick Bruce into the Lazarus Pit, so that Ra’s could take Bruce’s body for himself. Ra’s wasn’t a long-standing villain, though, because Terry seemed to do what Bruce couldn’t: he destroyed the Lazarus Pit.
Shriek was a villain named Walter Shreeve, a sound engineer who utilized his scientific expertise to design a suit capable of generating sound waves. As expected, he then used this to start a life of crime. Of course, his biggest mistake was deciding that one of his first acts of villainy would be to kill Bruce Wayne, which made him a target of the new Batman.
He only made two more appearances after this, and they helped elevate him on the list of the best Batman Beyond villains. He lost his hearing after his first battle with Batman, so his anger pushed him to punish everyone in Gotham City by taking away their hearing, which also failed; his final appearance had him fight both Batman and Bruce Wayne. What makes Shriek so great is that he didn’t want to be a bad guy, but accepted his life of crime when all his other goals failed. However, his career as a villain proved he was never meant to succeed.
Was Mad Stan one of the most dangerous or diabolical Batman Beyond villains in the history of the show? The answer to that question is no, but he was one of the most entertaining, and that has helped him become one of the most popular villains every time he appeared in the series. Stan was a nonconformist radical who just wanted to take it to the system.
In a perfect casting choice, Henry Rollins voiced Mad Stan, and he appeared in three episodes of Batman Beyond, starting with “Rats.” After that appearance as a side villain, when he returned, he was much more important and grew in popularity. Bruce Wayne even mentioned that they needed to be careful because Mad Stan got stronger the angrier he became.
Blight looks a lot like Doctor Phosphorus, but in the Batman Beyond universe, he was the one character who should have been Terry McGinnis’s greatest villain. Sadly, he was finished after Season 1 and never returned. However, Blight was the main villain for the entire first season, with an impressive five appearances, and he weighed on Terry’s mind in the following seasons, as Batman always remembered and mentioned the villain.
Blight was Derek Powers, a powerful and corrupt businessperson who was CEO of both Powers Technology and Wayne-Powers. Much like Joker, he got his powers after a freak accident that turned him into Blight and caused him to grow more and more dangerous. He was ruthless as a human, but as a supervillain, he could emit energy, and his touch could kill someone. As mentioned, he seemingly died at the end of the first season, and while Bruce Wayne felt he could still be alive, he never returned, which was a huge missed opportunity.
Mister Freeze isn’t one of Batman Beyond’s greatest villains because he was evil. Instead, he makes this list because, in his one appearance, he was the most tragic villain ever to appear on the animated series. This is the same Mister Freeze faced by Bruce Wayne’s Batman, a tragic villain who sought to find a way to cure his wife, Nora, only to be pushed into a life of crime to keep her alive. That said, this was the best version of Mr. Freeze in any Batman animated series.
Amazingly, he was redeemed in Batman Beyond. Freeze’s disembodied head was kept in storage at Wayne-Powers, where his consciousness was kept alive, even though he wished his body would finally die. However, he regained his body thanks to a scientist he fell in love with. Sadly, this was all part of Derek Powers’ plot to fix his own body, and Freeze’s body began to fail him again.
Mister Freeze took his old armor and began to seek vengeance, killing the scientist who had manipulated him and fighting the new Batman. When Freeze saved Batman from Blight, he then confessed to Terry that Batman (Bruce) was the only person in the world who cared about him. He sent Terry on his way so that he could blow up the building, sacrificing his own life to destroy what Blight had built. It was one of the saddest moments on Batman Beyond, and one of the best episodes of the animated series.
Spellbinder was an interesting villain because it took a high school psychologist and put him in action against a Batman who was a high school student. The most interesting part was that Spellbinder was a Batman Beyond villain who used his powers against high school students. As his name suggests, he can hypnotize people, and he utilizes his power to control students, using them to steal from their wealthy parents.
Spellbinder uses his powers against Batman, causing him to have visions of zombies, so he has an easier chance to defeat Terry in battle. To that end, this is Terry’s version of Scarecrow, from the character’s job to his powers. He even used his powers to almost destroy Batman when he made Barbara Gordon believe she saw the hero kill Mad Stan. He was a dangerous and effective nemesis for the new Batman.
Easily, the most important and dangerous villain on Batman Beyond was Inque. Not much is known about the villain or her origins, but that is what made the Joker such a great villain for so many years. Unlike Joker, though, Inque is a metahuman, and she can alter her form in different ways (like Clayface), which made her someone that Blight used to try to destroy Batman and Bruce Wayne. She ends up as Batman’s greatest nemesis in the series, and they fight numerous times.
Inque was the only villain to appear four times in Batman Beyond (Derek Powers appeared in more episodes, but not as Blight). She was also one of the villains who was most humanized in the series, as she was fighting for her estranged daughter. However, what really makes her the most important and the greatest Batman Beyond villain is that Inque is the one who forced Bruce Wayne out of retirement to help Terry beat her.
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