Red in Tooth and Claw: The History of Splicing in the DCAU

In honor of the Cheetah’s debut in the Justice League episode “Injustice for All,” we take a moment to analyze the DCAU’s use of human / animal hybrids, or “splicers,” in their storytelling.

Throughout history, mankind has been fascinated by the idea of the merging of the human and animal worlds, resulting in the creation of beings that are neither fully man nor beast, but a blending of the two.  Examples of these entities can be found in the world’s religions, mythologies, and folklores:  for example, the animal-headed gods of the Egyptian pantheon, the elephant-headed Ganesha from Hinduism, the stories of werewolves and werecats found in legends worldwide, and the host of centaurs, harpies, satyrs, and other creatures from Greek and Roman myth.  However, while modern science has dabbled in the blending of human and animal DNA—newborn mice injected with human brain cells (Cole), genetically modifying pigs to produce organs for transplant into humans (Stein)—a true human-animal hybrid does not exist, despite the fears of former President George W. Bush, as he detailed in the 2006 State of the Union Address (Yglesias).

However, despite the absence of such chimera in the real world, they abound in fiction, which features a whole rainbow of anthropomorphism, ranging from funny animals with human characteristics (Bugs Bunny, the cast of the 2016 animated film Zootopia) to the more realistic “Beast Folk,” who were featured in H.G. Wells’ classic 1896 science fiction novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau.  And whether these characters are used for humor, horror, or fetishization (the monster erotica and catgirl fandoms, the 2017 film The Shape of Water, etc.), human-animal hybrids remain a popular subgenre to this day, and the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) is no exception.

In fact, over a fourteen-year period, a specific storyline—both telegraphed and implied—played out over select episodes of Batman:  The Animated Series (BTAS), Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited (JLU).  Through it, we see the evolution of a new branch of science as it is founded by an eccentric deviant, grows to feed a burgeoning supervillain population, and—finally—evolves into a lifestyle choice among disenfranchised youth fifty years in the future.  This is the history of splicing in the DCAU.

Right Off the Bat

Surprisingly, the concept of splicing was there from Day One, as it figured heavily into the BTAS pilot episode, “On Leather Wings,” which—while not the first episode to air (that honor goes to Part One of “The Cat and the Claw”)—was the official, primetime premiere the following day. From the beginning, the series’ use of science fiction was vital, as it was a workaround allowing the creative team to use some of Batman’s more fantastical villains like Mister Freeze, Bane, and Clayface. This was because, during production, it was decided that they would make the world of BTAS as realistic as possible. For example, Producer Alan Burnett stated in an October 2017 Vulture article that “[w]e had these three rules [for BTAS]:  no aliens, no ghosts, and no Humanitas Awards—you know, no pro-social stories” (qtd. in Riesman) and, in addition, Producer Bruce Timm added the following in a Spring 2000 interview with Comicology:

Going back to the original [1992] Batman series, we always tried to pretend that Batman was the only superhero in the world.  It makes it more believable somehow.  You can buy the whole mythos of Gotham City and all of the weird villains if you don’t also admit that there’s a guy from Krypton flying around.  […] In the first series, whenever we did have a guest star, it was always someone like Zatanna, who we could rationalize; she’s [presented as] more of a stage magician than a real sorceress. Then by the time we did the revamp series [The New Batman Adventures, or TNBA], we really wanted to do the Demon, so that opened up a can of worms (qtd. in Lamken, “Justice” 25)

In fact, the creative team would honor these restrictions against magic, aliens, and other superheroes until midway through the series, which they had to do if they wanted to use the supernaturally-themed character Ra’s al Ghul. Fortunately, this prohibition did not include technology, allowing them to utilize artificial intelligence, robots, and genetic engineering as themes to their heart’s content.

Plot-wise, splicing actually began twenty years prior to the beginning of BTAS through the research of Dr. Emile Dorian (above left). According to the BTAS episode “Tyger Tyger,” former associate (possibly an assistant?) Dr. Kirk Langstrom (above right) revealed to Batman that Dorian was fascinated with cats, so much so that he apparently sought to replicate their attributes in other species. It was through his research that he developed the formula T-99, which is integral to the creation of animal hybrids. Initially hesitant to experiment on humans, he started with splicing feline DNA into primates, resulting in creatures that were half-cat, half-ape. However, due to public outcry, Dorian relocated to an “island off the coast” to continue his experiments in private, and Langstrom moved on, eventually finding work as a scientist at the Gotham Zoo’s bat exhibit under the oversight of Dr. March, who would eventually become his father-in-law.

Obsessed with bats in a manner similar to how Dorian was with cats, March was convinced that bats, unlike humans, possessed the traits necessary to survive “the next evolutionary cataclysm.” To that end, he theorized that humanity would need to adapt certain bat characteristics to ensure its survival. Intrigued by his theories, Langstrom, using Dorian’s work, either replicated T-99 or created a variant mutagen allowing the insertion of bat DNA into a human genome. Working together, Langstrom and March developed a formula apparently utilizing the DNA from a species of megabat (also known as fruit bats; a transformed Francine Langstrom dined on stolen fruit at the beginning of the BTAS episode “Terror in the Sky”), but March, whom Langstrom dismissed as “just a theorist,” was afraid to test out the formula. Langstrom, however, was not, and he used himself as a test subject, transforming himself into a winged monstrosity later dubbed the Man-Bat.

Above: two examples of Kevin Nowlan’s initial Man-Bat designs. Below: an example of Mike Kim’s final designs. Note the shape of the hands in each image.

Debuting in Detective Comics #400 (June 1970), Man-Bat was specifically chosen for the BTAS pilot because, according to Bruce Timm, “he wasn’t familiar to very many people outside comic book fans. Nobody had any preconceived notions about him. It wasn’t like the Joker, where you had to deal with people expecting him to be Jack Nicholson or Cesar Romero” (qtd. in Nolen-Weathington 42). Initially, Timm hired comic book artist Kevin Nowlan to design the character due to his work on a Man-Bat origin story published in Secret Origins #39 (April 1989), but he later recounted in a September 2017 interview how Timm “kept asking for him to be bigger, and I couldn’t figure out how to do that.  I gave him a thicker neck and a hump, but nothing seemed to work” (Greenfield). After several attempts, the task later went to on-staff character designer Mike Kim, who came up with the final design (Miller 234-235). In an interview released in Volume One of the 2024 anthology The Unofficial Batman: The Animated Interviews, Director Dan Riba remembered his experiences working as a character designer on “On Leather Wings”:

I did end up [story]boarding as well on a couple of shows. So, the designs I was doing was mainly with Bruce [Timm], who was handling the main monsters. We were trying to “lick” the Man-Bat the very first day, because he really needed that done. I had a couple of ideas. He wanted it to be really monstrous and not just a guy in a suit. He wanted it to be really a creature. We were hashing ideas back and forth. There was one thing that I insisted on, and I was proud of the idea, because I always hated the way that the wings came out of his wrists. it just didn’t feel like it was based on any actual anatomy. A bat’s wings are its hands. That’s what he should look like.

We figured out a way to compromise: to have his [index finger and thumb] function, and then the rest of his hand would be wings. So, I figured that out. We liked that, but Bruce and I were kind of hashing out the stuff. He had gotten Kevin Nowlan to take a pass on it and try, and they weren’t there yet. Then, Mike Kim was hired. He knocked it out of the park. It was awesome. His design for Man-Bat was perfect. It was great, but it did incorporate my wings, so I was still happy. (qtd. in Miller 233-235)

Possessed by a secondary personality that aggressively sought to assert itself, Langstrom found himself trapped in a Jekyll-and-Hyde situation, where the strengthening Man-Bat persona took control of his body to break into various Gotham pharmaceutical companies to steal the chemicals necessary to make his transformation permanent. Unfortunately for it, Batman intervened, and—following an aerial chase through the Gotham night sky—he successfully eliminated the mutagens in Langstrom’s body, freeing him from the clutches of Man-Bat. This marked the end of Kirk Langstrom’s splicing experiences—save for Dr. March’s attempts to recreate the serum temporarily infecting his daughter (and Kirk’s wife), Francine—but, in his absence, his old mentor would resurface, drawing the Dark Knight’s attention by involving his favorite femme fatale in his experiments.

Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

In the years since his acquaintance with Kirk Langstrom, Dr. Emile Dorian had presumably remained on his private island, spending his time populating it with his cat hybrids. In addition, he began using his T-99 formula on human test subjects—resulting in the creation of Garth, the Ape Man—as well as the development of a wholly original lifeform: Tygrus, the cat / man hybrid whom Dorian “designed […] from scratch.” Seeking to test his creation against “the most dangerous game,” he lured the Dark Knight to his island by kidnapping Selina Kyle under the pretense of using Catwoman herself to build the perfect mate for his “son.”

Transformed by Dorian’s serum into a literal cat woman, Selina Kyle’s “splicer” form is reminiscent of the Cheetah, but using DNA from an average house cat rather than the African feline. Of course, there is the question of her natural hair color, as the BTAS Selina Kyle is blond (better to resemble Batman Returns’ Michelle Pheiffer; b.t.) while the TNBA one is brunette, and even though Batman: Gotham Adventures #4 (September 1998) establishes that she dyed her hair blond during the BTAS days, it doesn’t explain why her fur is the same shade of yellow here, rather than a dark brown or black. Perhaps Dorian spliced her with an orange tabby rather than a black American Shorthair.

Offering to change her back should Batman defeat Tygrus in battle (a lie, as he fully expected his creation to tear him to shreds), the two had several clashes as the genetically-augmented cat man tracked the Dark Knight across the island. However, thanks to an intervention by an escaped Selina Kyle, Tygrus realized that Batman was not his enemy. Recognizing that his creator lied to him, he confronted his father, and—after understanding the depth of his contempt for him—the enraged beast destroyed his laboratory, starting a fire that would level his entire operation. Recognizing that there was nothing left for him, Tygrus surrendered Dorian’s unconscious body to Batman, gave Selina the antidote to her condition, and retreated into the jungle.

An American Werewolf in Gotham

Rounding out the “monster trilogy” (or quadrilogy, if you count “Terror in the Sky”), is “Moon of the Wolf,” featuring the Dark Knight against another hybrid, this one in the form of a werewolf. Adapted from a story featured in Batman #255 (April 1974), the episode features Dr. Achilles Milo—fresh from his appearance in “Cat Scratch Fever”—cobbling together a serum containing “steroids and timber wolf estrogen” that infects Olympic athlete Anthony Romulus with lycanthropy. Initially blackmailing Romulus to perform jobs for him in exchange for the antidote, Milo lost control of the creature, who attacked him before going after Batman.

Considered by Bruce Timm to be one of the worst DCAU episodes ever (according to an October 9, 2004 post on Anime Superhero [formerly Toon Zone]; b.t.), this episode is notable for two reasons: the fact that Milo’s creation would lead to his recruitment by Project: Cadmus by the time of the JLU episode “The Doomsday Sanction” and how he appears to have lucked into the formula without utilizing T-99 (in the aforementioned episode, he mentions to Amanda Waller how “Dr. Langstrom’s research has proven very useful,” implying that he did not have access to his contemporary’s splicing information previously). As for Romulus himself, the cure was destroyed during a confrontation with Milo, and—after a skirmish with Batman—he disappeared from Gotham City entirely, never to be seen again.

Aside from these episodes, splicing did not come up again until Batman Beyond and Justice League years later. However, it is worth noting that, in the “expanded universe” materials, another hybrid would come into play … this time as a rival to a familiar, chaotic clown girl.

Ain’t I a Stinker?

Taking advantage of Harley Quinn’s incredible popularity, DC Comics tapped DCAU veteran writer and producer Paul Dini to write a backup story to run in her regular title back in 2017. Called Harley Loves Joker, it began in Harley Quinn #17 (June 2017), and the eleven-part story arc ran through Harley Quinn #25 (October 2017) and concluded in a two-issue miniseries, beginning with Harley Quinn: Harley Loves Joker #1 (July 2018). Intended to be a story set in the “early years” of Harley and Joker’s relationship, the character designs, DCAU callbacks, and Bret Blevins art (he worked as a storyboard artist on multiple DCAU series) made it easy for me to consider it a “lost episode” of BTAS or TNBA. Anyway, this series is notable for introducing a new villain and rival for Harley in the form of the Grison.

As the story reveals, Harley met Gabriela Matias when they both attended Gotham University. Working as animal research interns at the Gotham branch of S.T.A.R. Labs, she discovered the research of former employee Dr. Kirk Langstrom, and she became fascinated with the concept of human / animal hybridization. Unfortunately, to acquire samples, she had to kill some of the animal specimens and, after Harley caught her, she was fired from S.T.A.R. Labs, expelled from the university, and returned to her native Brazil. However, she continued her studies in secret and, in doing so, connected with a familiar face.

Apparently released from prison and set up in a new facility, Dr. Emile Dorian—and his new assistant, Abel Cuvier (more on him later)—was fascinated by her desire to splice a human with DNA from a creature native to Brazil, the weasel-like grison. Working together, Gabriela Matias was transformed into the Grison, a hybrid being possessing enhanced speed and agility, sharp claws on her hands and feet, and anal scent glands that allow her to spray a foul-smelling, yellowish-green musk as a defensive mechanism similar to a skunk. Returning to Gotham City, she committed a series of high-profile robberies as part of a plan to infiltrate the Joker’s gang and murder him to cement her reputation. Unfortunately, she ran afoul of Harley and her pet hyenas and, during her escape, was apprehended by Batman.

Assuming this story fits in the timeline sometime after TNBA (the Penguin is operating the Iceberg Lounge, for example), this installment sets the precedent of rogues seeking out genetic augmentation with animal DNA to aid them in criminal acts. And, with Justice League right around the corner, Gabriela would not be the last.

Wild Kingdom

Moving chronologically through the DCAU, the next piece of the story occurred during the Justice League era, beginning in the Season One episode “Injustice for All” with the debut of Cheetah and Copperhead. Teamed together as members Lex Luthor’s Injustice Gang, both villains are obviously human / animal hybrids (although I concede that Copperhead could also be a mutant), though one is a little more obvious than the other. In Copperhead’s case, he appears largely human, save for the vertical pupils in his eyes and his serpentine, forked tongue (see above picture). Unlike some of the more radical augmentations seen previously in this essay, Copperhead is the hybrid with the least amount of alterations—most of his abilities derive from his specially-designed snake suit—and he could still pass as human if he so desired. Now, considering the increased frequency with which these animal traits are beginning to turn up in supervillains, as well as the skill needed to pull off such transformations, it stands to reason that someone is making them available to the rank-and-file (as I stated previously, Copperhead does not strike me as someone who could do this to himself). Based on the story of the Grison reprinted above, Dr. Emile Dorian and Abel Cuvier could easily fill those roles.

Unlike Copperhead, however, the Cheetah was more than capable of facilitating her own transformation into a humanoid cat. As previously stated, the creative team eschewed her previous comic book origins—two Catwoman knockoffs and one hybrid stemming from occult origins—and elected instead to make her transformation a product of science, specifically the same kind of animal / human hybridization that Langstrom, Kyle, and Romulus experienced in BTAS. In a January 2002 interview with Starlog, Bruce Timm discussed their take, saying how “[w]e definitely have the Cheetah.  My Cheetah is a really radical interpretation. She’s not just a gal in a catsuit anymore; she’s a half-woman / half-cheetah—a biological fusion—and looks different from the original comic book version” (qtd. in Jankiewicz 31). It is unknown why the creative team went this route, as the restriction against the supernatural only really applied to BTAS (they had already done Catwoman, and the Barbara Ann Minerva version has always been the most interesting). However, considering the sheer number of new characters developed for the episode, perhaps it was just an easier choice to stick with the familiar.

As for her actual metamorphosis, it was briefly touched upon in “Injustice for All” during a conversation between the Cheetah and an imprisoned Batman in Part Two. Through this subtle exposition, we get a brief look into her origins, as well as the Dark Knight’s grasp of her psychology:

CHEETAH: My research opened whole new worlds. There was so much to do.

BATMAN: But so little funding.

CHEETAH: You know about that.

BATMAN: You didn’t have enough for research subjects, so you used yourself.

CHEETAH:  And now I’m a freak.

BATMAN:  That’s not what I see. I see someone who was willing to give up everything for a cause she believed in.

CHEETAH:  How do you know so much about me?

BATMAN:  Let’s just say cats aren’t the only ones who are curious.

Now, aside from the obvious—he knows about her because he’s Batman—it’s possible that the Dark Knight has kept himself updated on people experimenting in and participating with genetic splicing, having encountered so many of them during BTAS. And while the episode does not go much further than that, we do learn a little more from the 2022 children’s book The Cheetah: An Origin Story, written by Justice League Adventures veteran Matthew K. Manning, where it is further tied into the previous lore, as the scientist—identified as Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, the modern era Cheetah—was inspired by the work of Drs. Dorian, Langstrom, and Milo (see here). In fact, it doesn’t take much to imagine Dr. Minerva, much like Gabriela Matias, also reaching out to either Dorian or Cuvier for council regarding her own experiments; I could even see one of them coaching a reluctant Minerva into testing her cheetah formula on herself. Now a hybrid feline and ostracized from the mainstream scientific community, the Cheetah had to turn to crime to acquire funding for her splicing experiments.

Following the events of this episode, Copperhead and Cheetah became recurring supporting cast members who would pop up from time to time when the story called for it. Copperhead, in particular, would evolve into one of the best comedic scene-stealers of the series (much like Harley Quinn on BTAS), but Cheetah—probably because Bruce Timm originally intended for her to die by the end of “Injustice for All” (b.t.)—appeared very little during Justice League and JLU, which is disappointing, considering how she is widely considered to be Wonder Woman’s arch-nemesis (personally, I think it’s more of a three-way tie between her, Ares, and Circe).

Beyond this villainous duo, the other most likely splicing candidate would be the Hellgrammite (above left), a sometimes Superman villain who, in the comics, transformed himself into a super-strong humanoid insect. Finally—and I’ll admit, it’s a stretch—I’ve previously theorized that, following his brutal take-down by Bane in the BTAS episode of the same name, Killer Croc could have turned to splicing in order to stay competitive in the supervillain market, considering how many up-and-coming bad guys (Solomon Grundy, Blockbuster, etc.) were outclassing him in the strength department. In fact, it could go a long way towards explaining the radical change in his physical appearance between BTAS (above center) and TNBA (above right).

Originally a fringe field of study, splicing was becoming more and more mainstream and, whenever that happens, the government takes notice. And they wanted in on it.

This Isn’t Bat Country

Fast forwarding to the Justice League Unlimited (JLU) era, splicing featured into the Cadmus arc, specifically in “The Doomsday Sanction,” where the aforementioned Dr. Achilles Milo headed up the splicing research division of Project: Cadmus. As stated above, this is most likely because of his success in transforming Anthony Romulus into a werewolf during the BTAS episode “Moon of the Wolf.” Unfortunately, this was the extent of its presence during the storyline, but that may not have always been the case.

“The Doomsday Sanction” provided our first window into the hierarchy of the Amanda Waller’s organization, a top-secret military black project with the stated intent of counteracting the threat the Justice League may someday pose to the world at large. We are also introduced to her department heads and, based upon their appearances in other episodes, we can interpret what their divisions were tasked with:

• General Wade Eiling, liaison to the U.S. military. General Eiling was the one who headed the military’s joint operation with the Justice League during the “Dark Heart” incident, and he launched the kryptonite nuclear missile to take out Doomsday (and Superman) in “The Doomsday Sanction.” Eiling also forced Captain Atom to return to active duty in “Question Authority” and “Flashpoint.”

• Professor Emil Hamilton, head of the cloning and genetic engineering divisions. Using Kryptonian DNA from both Superman (presumably provided by Lex Luthor) and Supergirl (obtained during her operation at S.T.A.R. Labs in the STAS episode “Legacy”), Hamilton was instrumental in creating Doomsday (“A Better World,” “The Doomsday Sanction”) and Galatea (“Fearful Symmetry,” “Panic in the Sky”). In addition, he created the Ultimen, who would be instrumental during their invasion of the Justice League Watchtower (“Ultimatum,” “Panic in the Sky”).

• Dr. Hugo Strange, head of the PSYOP division. A psychiatrist with experience in mental manipulation (the BTAS episode “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne”), he was presumably tasked with the creation of the initial Ultimen’s false memories (“Ultimatum”), as well as Doomsday’s lasting, burning hatred of Superman (“The Doomsday Sanction”). Unfortunately, due to the Bat-Embargo and The Batman’s desire to use the character beginning in their Season Two, Strange was replaced in later episodes by Dr. Moon.

• Tala, head of the supernatural division. She was tasked with the retrieval (“Task Force X”) and repurposing of the Annihilator armor, but it was unfortunately lost when it became possessed by the spirit of Felix Faust (“The Balance”).

• Dr. Achilles Milo, head of the splicing division. Even with Dr. Kirk Langstrom’s research, he didn’t really accomplish much of anything, save for the “super-powered warthog that tore up [his] lab” (and it was implied that it featured some of Amanda Waller’s DNA). Due to the “continuing lack of results from [his] work,” Milo lost his funding and was set to be removed from his position before he was killed by Doomsday in “The Doomsday Sanction.”

It must be said that his failure to produce results may not have been from a lack of trying. Look at the above picture of Dr. Milo. He looks tired. The bags under his eyes, the five o’clock shadow—he certainly looks like a man who’s been putting in the hours. Unfortunately, while an otherwise accomplished criminal scientist, Dr. Milo was an inferior splicing expert compared to Emile Dorian, Kirk Langstrom, and Barbara Ann Minerva. It reinforces my above statement that he probably created the werewolf formula as a fluke and, most likely, did not have the science behind the T-99 mutagen. In short, he was a man who failed upwards until he hit “The Wall.” Unfortunately, compared to the other Cadmus divisions, this meant that we did not get a “splicing episode” where Milo got center stage.

However, while splicing only played a minor role in the Cadmus arc, it appears that—based upon bits and pieces of trivia culled from the creative team over the years—that we almost had a splicing-themed episode, and it would have featured both Barbara Gordon and the Birds of Prey. Our first crumb was dropped when Producer Dwayne McDuffie discussed a rejected episode pitch in a September 14, 2004 post on his now-defunct message boards:

I pitched a “Birds of Prey” episode where, after Batgirl breaks a leg, Batman orders her off the case, and she creates Oracle in retaliation.  Huntress and Black Canary do her legwork without ever meeting her in person and crack the case.  Batman’s suspicious but can’t prove it.  The story didn’t work out, but we did get the terrific Gail Simone “Double Date” script instead.  Good trade off. (Maestro)

This would be later be built upon by Bruce Timm, who clarified the story in a May 2, 2007 post on the Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone) message boards:

Short version:  Barbara gets injured, Batman says, “Rest up, get well, no crimefighting, young lady.”  She’s not just in a wheelchair; she’s in traction.  Barbara gets restless, defies Batman’s orders and starts working on this week’s nefarious plot on her computer (some nonsense about Kirk Langstrom creating an army of Man-Bats).  She realizes she needs “mobile” help, calls Dick Grayson—cut to Dick’s apartment, where he’s making out like crazy with some gorgeous new gal, the phone rings and rings and rings, he distractedly picks up the phone (still making out), Barbara starts to talk, he doesn’t even hear her, just drops the phone back on the cradle.  Barbara gives her phone the stink-eye and growls, “Dick!”

At which point, Barbara recruits Black Canary and Huntress to be her “field agents,” and she herself assumes a temporary “Oracle”-type role, [and] the army of Man-Bats gets their butts soundly kicked, yada yada yada.  And, for the record, Gail Simone had nothing whatsoever to do with that version of the story.  All in all, “Double Date” is a much better story. (b.t.)

What this could potentially mean is that, in an earlier draft of the Cadmus arc, we would have had Dr. Kirk Langstrom, not Dr. Milo, as the head of the splicing division, and his plan would have been to mass produce his Man-Bat formula and create a Man-Bat army in service of Project: Cadmus. Batgirl would catch wind of the plot and, after becoming injured, recruit Black Canary and the Huntress as her proxies to defeat Langstrom and his colony of Man-Bats. Unfortunately, the aforementioned Bat-Embargo presumably took Langstrom, Man-Bat, and Barbara Gordon / Batgirl off the table, as they were snatched up by The Batman, and the episode had to be scrapped. This is a reason why, despite Timm’s frequent claims to the contrary, I suspect that the Bat-Embargo impacted the creative team’s JLU plans more than they let on.

Following Milo’s death in “The Doomsday Sanction,” his position was never restaffed, and it became moot after Cadmus was dissolved following the events of “Divided We Fall.” That said, I think a golden opportunity was missed by not using the Cheetah to replace Milo as the new head of the splicing division. A successful splicing expert with the government’s checkbook at hand could have made for a powerful Wonder Woman-centric episode. In addition, she could have also targeted Batman for revenge, considering how his actions almost got her killed in “Injustice for All.”

However, while the U.S. government’s attempts to master this forbidden science stalled out, splicing would continue to be practiced for many, many years in the private sector … thanks in large part to a former assistant who vowed to continue Emile Dorian’s work beyond the present day.

Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!

What a difference fifty years makes. During the time period between the end of JLU and the beginning of Batman Beyond, it appears that Abel Cuvier—formerly an assistant to Dr. Emile Dorian, but now a officially recognized as a doctor himself—has continued the work of his presumably-dead mentor, advancing the science behind human / animal hybridization to heights previously unseen. Unlike Dorian, however, Cuvier elected to use splicing on himself, combining his DNA with an unknown number of species; this could explain his youthful appearance despite being decades old, as he may have utilized DNA from animals that have biological immortality, such as Greenland sharks and certain species of jellyfish, or DNA from the naked mole rat. In the years since, he has worked independently through his organization, the Chimera Institute, or as a consultant for organizations such as Kobra, who sought to create a race of dinosaur men (see the Batman Beyond episode “Curse of the Kobra”), in an attempt to normalize this type of genetic manipulation as a lifestyle choice. Cuvier even gave these hybrids a name: splicers.

As with all good speculative fiction, the creative team looked at existing, present-day trends and extrapolated as to where they could go in the future, as Batman Beyond Producer Paul Dini recounted in a Winter 1999 interview with AnimeFantastique:

What intrigues me are things that could be happening in a few years.  We’ll look at contemporary life and that will prompt ideas, like when we were coming up with the idea for an episode called “Splicers.”  Today, a lot of kids are getting tattoos and getting pierced, and a few are going beyond that and getting implants put in their heads—you look at some people nowadays, and they’ve got real spikes implanted under their skin.  I started wondering where this was all going to wind up.

As we progress in technology and keep moving forward, people will find newer and more exciting ways to abuse their bodies.  I was thinking, what if you could do selective gene splicing on yourself?  You could combine your DNA with that of another animal, and you could get slight augmentation on a part of your body.  It’s not like people turning themselves into animals, but what if you could somehow augment your fingernails so that they [look] more like claws or do something to your eyes to make them look more like cat eyes.

I was thinking that would be a really good look for a street gang.  So, I took the bare bones of that idea, and I handed that over to [freelance writers] Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer and said, “See what you can come up with,” and they came up with a pretty good story about it.  Things like that we want to keep in the series. (Fischer 32)

(It is worth noting here that, in an August 3, 1999 interview with Comics Continuum, co-writer Evan Dorkin mentioned how, in an earlier draft of the script, there existed a “‘link’ to the old series via some backstory” [qtd. in Allstetter], and while an apocryphal source claims that Cuvier was initially supposed to be a son of one of Kirk Langstrom’s lab assistants it has never been verified. As for Dini’s decision to use him as Dorian’s assistant in Harley Loves Joker, he replied in a June 16, 2024 X [formerly Twitter] post that it was “[j]ust an Easter egg [co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti] and I tossed in to link it all together.”)

Designed to physically resemble silent film actor Conrad Veidt (and wearing an outfit patterned after Boris Karloff’s in the 1934 film, The Black Cat; “Commentary”), Cuvier sold splicing to Neo Gotham’s youth as safe, reversable, and “utterly beautiful,” but his movement hit a snag when District Attorney Sam Young vowed to outlaw the practice, citing “impartial tests” that showed splicing recipients exhibiting a “rise in aggressive behavior” (a justifiable stance, especially considering the aggression of historical splicers such as Man-Bat, Anthony Romulus, Grison, Cheetah, Copperhead, et al.). This correlation was also supported when Cuvier—rather than take the fight to the courts, which one would expect a rational person to do—immediately decided that the best course of action would be to murder the district attorney in retaliation for his attempts to stop “the splicers’ revolution.” And, when the second Batman—Terry McGinnis—attempted to intervene, he decided to stall him by splicing him with a chemical cocktail similar to the one that infected Kirk Langstrom a generation prior.

Fortunately for Terry, Bruce Wayne still had the serum for negating T-99 from the body, which he later used on Cuvier’s followers once it was purged from his own system. Deprived of his henchmen, Cuvier injected himself with several additional formulas, transforming himself into a literal Chimera.

His form now containing elements of what appears to be hawk and snake DNA (above left), he fought Batman to a standstill until Batman, seeking any way to gain an advantage, injected Cuvier with additional serums, overwhelming his system and transforming him into a Cronenberg-esque monstrosity (above right). Unfortunately for him, Cuvier appears to have perished in an explosion at their backup hideout in an abandoned taxidermy studio, but even with his apparent “death” (remember, we never saw a body), splicing continued to thrive underground, appearing sporadically throughout the series.

Left to right: Shriek’s henchperson Ollie, from “Babel” and “Where’s Terry?”; an unnamed splicer from the Jokerz’ compound in “Once Burned,” and Jokerz member Woof, from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

And that’s the story of splicing in the DCAU. It’s interesting how this narrative evolved from a handful of BTAS and Batman Beyond episodes into a decades-spanning storyline presenting its evolution from mad science to an underground movement favored by supervillains and, eventually, the disenfranchised youth of a future Gotham City. It was never meant to be a major component of the DCAU, but it’s presence did facilitate a number of unforgettable stories and characters, allowing us—however briefly—to see the world through eyes far more than human.

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Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, and DC Comics.