Maxine "Max" Gibson

Maxine "Max" Gibson is a supporting character in the Kids' WB animated series "Batman Beyond", in which she is a best friend of the title character, Batman (Terry McGinnis). She was voiced by American actress Cree Summer.

Character profile

Max is an attractive African American girl with short dyed pink hair, who attends Hamilton Hill High School with Terry. Her parents are separated and she has one older sister, who often works late hours. Max is exceptionally intelligent and talented with computers and computer programming, even among her peers. She becomes a fan of Batman after his "return" to Gotham City.

Notable episodes

In the episode "Hidden Agenda", she reveals that she is writing a computer program to analyze all the data available on Batman and deduce his secret identity. She informs her friend Terry McGinnis that she believes that Batman is a new person in the old suit, and somehow connected to their school. This concerns Terry, who is in fact the new Batman. When the school is vandalized by a gang of Jokerz, she reconfigures her program to search for Jokerz instead.

Unknown to her, the vandalism of the school was targeted at her personally. The leader of the Jokerz, Terminal, is actually an honor student, and Max's standing is higher than his, outperforming him academically and, at the current rate, she will be valedictorian instead of him. Terry (as Batman) discovers that she is a specific target, and mistakenly believes that it is because of her computer program. He convinces her to stop running the program, but when she goes to delete it, she learns that it has completed its analysis.

Much to her surprise, Terry's name comes up on the list of potential Jokerz. She becomes convinced that Terry is Terminal and sends him a message, threatening to expose his secret if he doesn't meet her. Further confusing the issue, Terry does not get the message until late, and Terminal (who was following her) shows up at the meeting place with his Jokerz. Terry arrives as Batman and rescues her, revealing Terminal's true identity in the process.

Max admits to Terry that she had thought he was one of the Jokerz, but has now figured out the truth. She goes to delete her program, but Terry advises her that it's already been wiped. She immediately proves herself an asset by providing an alibi for why Terry did not call his girlfriend Dana Tan the previous night when he was saving Max. She tells him that he cannot call her Robin -- he instead jokingly calls her Alfred. (Naturally she fails to understand the reference, given Alfred's lack of exposure in Batman's exploits to the public.)

Max attempts to join Terry on patrol as his partner, even though both he and his mentor Bruce Wayne, the original Batman, do not approve. Trying to prove her worth to Terry, she becomes addicted to Spellbinder's illegal VR technology, but fights off its influence and knocks Spellbinder out before he could injure Terry. Although Terry remains unwilling to allow her to physically assist him, he accepts her as his partner after she helps him defeating Curaré and disarming Mutro Botha's nuclear weapon.

Terry initially hides Bruce's identity from Max, but Max already has enough information to deduce that Terry's employer is actually the original Batman. When Terry goes missing in Gotham's maze of subway tunnels, Bruce and Max look for him together and manage to come to an understanding regarding their respective importance to Terry. Bruce however, steadfastly refuses to allow her to become more involved than was absolutely necessary, due to his not wanting her to take the risks that Robin and Batgirl had. Max and Bruce also find themselves at odds due to their attitudes about Terry's work and personal lives. Eventually, Bruce grudgingly accepts Max and she befriends him in return.