Batman Beyond: Here's How Old Bruce Wayne Was In The Series

Batman Beyond gave a unique opportunity to see what an isolated superhero universe looked like after it progressed for decades, capping off the history of the DC Animated Universe with three seasons of the new Batman's adventures. With Batman: The Animated Series starting the universe's continuity and Batman Beyond capping it off, it's almost baffling that the centerpiece to the entire universe is something of an enigma.

A lot of fans have probably never thought about it before, but Bruce Wayne's age in the DCAU is a far greater mystery than one might suspect.

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Much of the mystery results from the series' creator Bruce Timm intentionally obfuscating the timeline of the DCAU in order to give it a timeless feel. Timm has gone on record saying the DCAU observes "peanuts time." Much like the kids in Peanuts, Batman "is always in his early to mid-thirties" Timm and many of the other creators working on the show intentionally avoided providing dates or topic references where they could to extend the series' shelf life, meaning that figuring out Bruce's age could be all but impossible.

Except, the DCAU was not quite as stringent about avoiding giving dates and times as Timm may have intended. Though precise dates for everything are impossible to know, putting Batman's famous origin in some murky area in the past, there are various dates that appear in the series, including a magazine dated 1992 and a check from The New Batman Adventures dated 1997, that give a rough timeline. These clues allowed one Tumblr user to create an elaborate timeline of the DCAU that puts all these minor events together to answer the big questions.

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The timeline puts Batman's career fighting crime as starting in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Since the first two Batman series span 5 years alone, given the 1992-dated magazine and the 1997-dated check, then it's clear despite Timm's intention for Batman to always be in his early to mid-thirties, that the continuity itself goes beyond that. By the time of Justice League, a show occurs concurrently with Static Shock, a reference to Y2K occurring "last year" puts the Caped Crusader's career as spanning at least a decade across the '90s.

Batman Beyond picks up around 2020, with Bruce Wayne finally deciding to retire as Batman, only to bring back the mantle in 2040 when Terry McGinnis is ready. This means that if Batman was initially intended to be in his early thirties at the start of his career, he would have been born around 1960. He then fought crime alongside other heroes for thirty more years and retired in his 60s, only to begin training Terry in his 80s. Flash forward even further by 10-15 years (the timeline gets a little inconsistent around Justice League Unlimited's "Epilogue") and Bruce is around 100 years old when Terry fully embraces the mantle of the Bat and begins tending to the ailing billionaire.

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The DCAU's canon is a cherished touchstone for many fans, and digging into its timeline with such detail makes it feel so much more real. While Timm's concerns about maintaining the series' shelf life are respectable, the ability to attach actual dates and ages adds something special to the universe's heroes.

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