INTERVIEW: Kyle Higgins Talks 'Batman Beyond 2.0' #37, Terry McGinnis & Bruce Wayne's Relationship! [NYCC 2014]

Bruce Wayne's Batman legacy continues in the futuristic and crime-ridden Gotham City. During the New York Comic Con 2014, MStars News spoke with writer Kyle Higgins about Terry McGinnis taking his crime-fighting skills to another level in Batman Beyond 2.0. #37, the relationships within the Batman-Family, and the upcoming story arc involving Terry's father.

Based on the popular animated series, Terry McGinnis was just a punk kid seeking revenge for his murdered father. Remembering how the death of his parents affected him, Bruce Wayne molded his young protege into picking up the Dark Knight mantle. In issue #37, Terry and his father are reunited in an alternate timeline, but Rewire intends to make a move that will shock everyone to the core.

MStars spoke with the Nightwing scribe about the latest Batman Beyond 2.0 #37, playing around with the confines of the Batman Beyond mythology., and the upcoming final issue for DC Comics' digital-first weekly title.

MStars News: Tell me how you became involved in the project.

Kyle Higgins: The editor Alex Antone reached out to me. He was a fan of my Nightwing work. He asked if I had any interest in writing Terry McGinnis. And I said, "Of course!"

I loved the show! I grew up on the show, loved the character. I jumped on the opportunity, but I was nebulous for awhile as to whether or not we were going to relaunch it, and what the direction would be. My feeling has always been that, after the Return of the Joker film, you had a lot of the answers to the questions that pushed a lot of the intrigue, the mystery of the show; wrapping them up.

I wanted to find a way to bring back some of the questions, mysteries that I found myself so fascinated by watching the show when it was on the air. The idea of jumping ahead by a year and changing things up of Terry. By significantly fracturing his relationship with Bruce, bringing back Dick Grayson into the fold, it felt like a nice starting point.

At that stage of the development, they decided to relaunch it officially as Batman Beyond 2.0. Bringing it to the next level of his career, the next era; it was a tremendous opportunity. I'm very proud of what I have been able to do with it; very grateful for it.

MS; What I have enjoyed most about the series is your outlook on the relationship between Terry and Bruce. It really goes through the mentor/protege and the father/son dynamic. Tell me more about these themes.

KH: The way I approach it, each arc has a central theme to it, a central kind of point. But as far as the entire series goes, I'm not really sure.

I've written things in the past where I've been so focused on one idea. For an ongoing series, that's really hard to maintain. To me, people use theme to talk about father and sons. That's not a theme, that's a motif. That's a concept that you explore.

The theme is a statement. What are you saying about fathers and sons? What's the moral of the story?

MS: What message do you want readers to discover from the story?

KH: I really don't know about the statement until I'm done. I have ideas along the way. I think the emotional stuff that I was attracted to, was really centered on the relationship between a kid whose coming onto his own and the mentor he's put his faith into through Bruce.

And when you learn truth about someone you looked up to, who they really are, you sometimes have to re-evaluate your faith and trust you put into them. Not all of it, but everyone makes mistakes. I just really wanted to explore that dynamic and bringing Dick Grayson in was a thing I was pretty excited about. It was one of the first things I pitched. To me, this is a guy who ran into a lot of the same things Terry gone through. Bruce can give Terry advice about crime-fighting but Dick can give advice to Terry about dealing with Bruce, and crime-fighting.

What it really boils down to, in my mind anyways, it's just about growing up, moving forward. It's just one era of Terry McGinnis' life.

MS: Tell me about Terry reuniting with his father in the alternate timeline.

KH: Stuff we're dealing with now about Terry McGinnis' father in the alternate timeline that's starting to crystalize ideas where we find Terry getting a second chance with his father. But it's not really his father. He's living a lie, living a dream in a lot of ways.

The question is whether that dream is every more fulfilling than flawed reality. As I'm describing it to you, I think the central idea is really about second chances. It's a look at who we give second chances to and why.

You look at Terry and Melanie, and how he gave her a second shot. You look at Kirk Langstrom looking for redemption. You look at Bruce and Terry in their relationship. You look at Dick and Barbara and they are trying to have this second go-at things, even as just a friendship.

I think both parties have to be willing to give things another go. There's no such thing as starting things over with a clean slate. Everyone has baggage and every relationship has drama. You just have to be willing to accept that and roll with it. I don't think you are able to do it unless you have a little more life experience.

MS: Was it ever a challenge to put your own personal spin on the story, even though the mythology was already set for you?

KH: No, not really. I know the mythology so well. I know the animated universe much better than I know the regular DC universe. That was my gateway to DC Comics as a kid. A lot of it was what I want to see or do. I started the series with a brand new villain, rather than rehashing old Batman characters. That's where Davis Dusk comes from, I think we did a pretty good job of designing him into the mold of a classic Batman or Batman Beyond villain, or character. I mean Sean Murphy nailed the design for him. It looks great! I'm really proud of that one.

MS: With the final issue coming up in November, what do you want readers to come away with?

KH: It's just an era. It's just one era of Terry's life. I think one of the exciting things about his character and that continuity is that we saw the end in Epilogue. We saw him as a thirty-something year-old dude and Bruce as ninety-year old guy. We know how things end up for him. The journey along the way, as any journey in life, has so many obstacles, ups and downs, that he's got three more years of college and maybe grad school. I want to follow Terry afterwards. I think there is a lot of cool stuff out there. And he's one of my favorite characters; that's really why.

Definitely worth picking up, check out Batman Beyond 2.0 #37 available in digital stores now.