Justice League Unlimited, Season 2

Amanda Waller:
Honey, Bruce didn't overwrite your DNA with his - I did.

Terry McGinnis:
[astonished] How? Why?

Amanda Waller:
Because the world always needs a Batman. Not that I always thought so, mind you. Before you were born, Bruce and I were enemies. His Justice League was easily the most powerful force on Earth. As you know, I was in charge of Project Cadmus. Over the years I came to respect Batman, even trust him.

Terry McGinnis:
I guess the law of averages means somebody'd have to.

Amanda Waller:
Did you know I was the government liaison with the Justice League for a while? I met some extraordinary people in that job, but none of them were the equal of Batman.

Terry McGinnis:
[bitterly] Right, who could be?

Amanda Waller:
Not my point. I saw him save the day dozens of times with nothing but his wits, body and will. But I saw something else as the years passed - he was getting older. Slower. Soon he'd have to retire, or more likely, someone would finally manage to kill him. The thought of a world without Batman was unacceptable. So, I decided to make a new one. I used my old Cadmus connections to gather the technology necessary for Project: Batman Beyond. Bruce's DNA was easy enough to obtain. He left it all over town. [Terry gives her a look] Not REMOTELY what I meant! [Cut to a shot of Batman being bandaged by a paramedic] Then I found a young Neo-Gotham couple, with psychological profiles nearly identical to those of Bruce's parents. Your father thought he was getting a flu shot; actually it was a nanotech solution programmed to rewrite his reproductive material into an exact copy of Bruce Wayne's. A little over a year later, your mother gave birth to you, a child sharing half her genetic material... and half Bruce's. But when you're making a Batman, genetics is only part of the story - the rest is tragedy.

[Cut to outside a movie theater playing The Grey Ghost Strikes; a young Terry leaves with his parents while Waller narrates]

Amanda Waller:
Stop me if you've heard it before: you're eight years old, your parents have just taken you to a rousing adventure film, a grand time is had by all.

[Cut to theater parking lot; the Phantasm waits in the darkness]

Amanda Waller:
But unknown to you, a mysterious figure hides in the shadows. My plan was simple - the killer would leap out at you and kill your family. The trauma would put you on the path to becoming Batman. One problem: my assassin wouldn't pull the trigger.

[Phantasm backs off and leaves unnoticed; cut to Phantasm with Waller]

Amanda Waller:
I argued with her, but deep down, I knew she was right. People say Batman's obsessive, that he'd do anything to achieve his goals - but he'd never resort to murder. So if I was to honor all he stood for... neither could I.

Terry McGinnis:
And yet my dad wound up murdered, anyway. Don't you get it? No matter what you did or didn't do, I was gonna end up being Bruce's carbon copy. It was fate.

Amanda Waller:
You know, the Lord's been a great comfort to me all these years. Try not to look so surprised. Yeah, I've got a lot to answer for when I meet Him, but I'd like to believe for all the harm I've caused, I've also done some good. Maybe the angels need a sharp sword too. Like the good book says, He moves in mysterious ways. His plan is a mystery, but here's what isn't. He gave us free will, we choose our own fate, for good or ill. I've known Bruce Wayne for over fifty years, and I've been keeping an eye on you your whole life. You're not Bruce's clone, you're his son. There are similarities, mind you, but more than a few differences too. You don't quite have his magnificent brain, for instance. You do have his heart, though. And for all that fierce exterior, I've never met anyone who cared as deeply about his fellow man as Bruce Wayne - except maybe you. You wanna have a better life than the old man's? Take care of the people who love you. Or don't. It's your choice.