SPOILER ALERT: The following contains plot points from Saturday’s BATMAN BEYOND 2.0 #1. Read at your own risk!

Wow! I hope you enjoyed that first issue as much as I did! And as you can see, things have definitely changed for Terry McGinnis! Check out some early character concepts from blazin’ hot new artist Thony Silas in the slide show above!

Anyway, hello! Alex Antone here—Beyond Universe editor. Welcome to our new weekly feature lovingly titled Beyond the Scenes! (See what we did there?)

Each week, we’ll discuss the most recent digital chapter of Batman Beyond 2.0 or Justice League Beyond 2.0 (which release in alternating weeks,) talk about the creative process with the creators themselves, and maybe even provide a hint or two about what’s to come for the Beyond Universe!

And now to the burning questions at hand from the first issue of Batman Beyond 2.0:

-What’s Dick Grayson doing on the other end of the radio?
-Why are Terry and Dana no longer speaking?
-And…where’s Bruce?!

Well, here’s Kyle Higgins with all the answers!

KYLE: …

Just kidding.

But seriously, Kyle, what the heck is going on?

KYLE: That’s a great question!

The whole idea for this whole direction came from a very innocuous email (it’s funny how things develop sometimes).

I’d been kicking around ideas for my run, and putting a lot of pressure on myself to launch in a big, bold way. It was super important to me to respect everything that Adam Beechen, Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs had built over the past three years, but I also wanted find what “my” take on Terry was. I had the beginnings of a few ideas, but nothing concrete--nothing “big” enough that would create intrigue and warrant a relaunch of the series.

And that’s when Alex sent me this email:

From Batman Beyond 21- Terry: “College entrance exams are coming up.”
-- this is something I’d definitely be interested in exploring. 

I read the email on my phone, and started typing a response. Midway through the first sentence, I stopped. Everything unlocked. I knew exactly what to do. Take a look--after the first sentence, you can actually see where the direction takes shape.

My response:

You know, I'm not sure how far we can push things in terms of the timeline, buuut... An outside the box idea, we COULD open cold with our first issue, and some time has passed. Maybe Terry's in college? Maybe he and Dana aren't speaking? Maybe Terry's <REDACTED>? Hell, maybe <REDACTED> and Dick Grayson is in Terry’s earpiece now. It would create a lot of "what the <EXPLICIT> happened??" Intrigue that you and I both said we really liked from the original show. Terry and everyone else will allude to the fact that something big happened (I totally have an idea for this, too), which we can reveal over time as our story unfolds.

Now, the thing I left out of this email was my explanation for what happened in the missing time. But if I put that here, it’d just be one big REDACTED.

So, with regards to the original questions--what’s going on with Dick? What happened between Terry and Dana? Where’s Bruce?

You don’t really expect me to answer that now, do you? :)

Thanks, Kyle—you’re right. Where’s the fun in that??

Anyway, that’s it for our first Beyond the Scenes! I hope you enjoyed it and I promise the next one will be shorter! (Probably.)

For a clue on what happened to Bruce, and to find out what’s going with Superman and on in the rest of the Beyond Universe, check out this Saturday’s debut issue of Justice League Beyond 2.0 from Superior Spider-Man scribe Christos Gage and Superboy’s Iban Coello!

See you in the Beyond!

Haven’t read BATMAN BEYOND 2.0 #1 yet? Read it instantly here!