“ | Did you really expect me to believe you'd ever give me power? That I'd ever have an ounce of control as long as you were alive? You taught me by example, dad: The only way to get power is to seize it. | „ |
~ Paxton Powers betraying his father Derek. |
Paxton Powers is a major antagonist in Batman Beyond. He is the son of Derek Powers who temporarily replaces him as the CEO of Wayne-Powers.
He was voiced by Cary Elwes, who also played Donald Curtis in the English dub of Porco Rosso, William Boone in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Dr. Jonas Miller in Twister, Casanova in Kiss the Girls, Sir Edgar in Ella Enchanted, Ted Bundy in The Riverman, Lawrence Gordon in the Saw franchise, Aquaman in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Larry Kline in Stranger Things, Denlinger in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning and Pistol Pete Whipple in Knuckles. Parker Stevenson replaced Elwes as the voice of Paxton in his Season 3 appearance.
Biography[]
Background[]
Derek Powers did not get along well with his son, for whom Derek displayed a cold attitude towards. Among other things, Derek never went fishing with his son. However, Powers did teach his son how to run a business using objectionable means and tactics. Eventually, during his son's adult years, Derek Powers anticipated that Paxton would betray him and sent Paxton to South America (the fictional country of Verdeza) to handle company affairs in isolation. It was there that Paxton began running the division of Wayne-Powers at the cost of damaging the environment through mass pollution. He had also developed a taste for pre-Colombian art and had arranged the thefts of several antiques, thus amassing a large collection of stolen treasures. Among these items was the fabled Crown of Tikal that had been stolen from a museum in Mexico City.
Ascension[]
Do to his radiation powers becoming more unstable to control, Derek Powers called Paxton back to Gotham City in order to make him acting Chairman of the Board of Trustees. This decision had surprised Paxton, especially when he learned about his father's condition. But, Derek only wanted for Paxton to act out his new position in the company in title only as Derek would be supervising Paxton's actions from the shadows. Believing that his father would never allow him to gain any true power over the company, Paxton immediately began plotting to remove Derek altogether. Paxton had some of his men stage a mock protest during a televised board meeting, wherein Derek revealed himself as Blight to the public. As Blight went into hiding, Paxton schemed with Batman to use a device to weaken Blight and bring him in to cure him. However, in truth Paxton planned to kill his father in order to become the new CEO in the aftermath.
Batman and Paxton tracked down Blight's hideout, an abandoned nuclear submarine. Batman refused to kill Blight, since he only ever wanted Blight to be sent to jail for his crimes, which caused Paxton to turn on Batman and attempted to kill him as well. A fight ensued in which Blight was able to break free and began emitting higher blasts of radiation which caused the submarine to break down and fall into the harbor. With Blight having been labelled missing, Paxton finally took over his father's position at Wayne-Powers. As he was settling in his new office, Paxton was told by Batman that he would be eventually brought to justice. Before leaving, Batman left Paxton with an ominous warning: because his father's body was never found chances were that Blight would someday return to exact his revenge.
Armory[]
Among several other unsavory tactics, Paxton fired the head behind Wayne-Powers light weapons manufacturing division, Jim Tate, since he wanted to shut down the weapons manufacturing division, not out of principle against violence, but rather to save money. Unfortunately, as a result of Paxton's actions, Jim Tate, who was struggling financially, went on to become the thief known as Armory, who stole technology from Wayne-Powers in order to construct weapons for terrorists and extremist groups.
Sneak Peek[]
Paxton was at one time caught by tabloid journalist Ian Peek partying at a swimming pool instead of working, thus furthering his already lousy public image.
Batman Beyond #8 (comic book)[]
Paxton's investments were in trouble because of a vigilante known as Vendetta. Vendetta sabotaged a shipment that carried cases of a binary power cell battery which contained two inert gases that when combined create an energy source but the casting around the battery is flimsy and the gases will be harmful to the consumers if broken. Bruce told Paxton he was allowing potentially dangerous batteries to be sold to Peace Ex Machina Inc which would lead to liability issues for Wayne Powers. Paxton pretended to agree with this, however he still wanted to continue the commissions to transport the batteries.
Paxton later discovers that Ms. Winston is Vendetta and that Ms. Winston wanted to destroy him to honor Derek Powers. Winston attacked Paxton as Vendetta after Paxton had his bodyguard Dominic shoot her for interfering. Terry escapes with Paxton as Vendetta breaks a battery and the inert gases combine with flammable gases in the warehouses which causes a huge explosion. Paxton's insurance provider was unable to step in to repair the damages, however Ms. Winston revealed to Paxton that she was responsible for the transfer of ownership order for his insurance provider to make Paxton pay for the damages out of his own pocket and there will be some changes now that she is back.
King's Ransom[]
As the new chairman of Wayne-Powers, Paxton issued several policies that prohibited negotiations with terrorists and kidnappers.
Paxton hired the Royal Flush Gang (who were experiencing financial problems and lost their member Ten, who left the group) to steal art for him, namely the Jaguar of the Verdeza from the Gotham City Museum of Art. However, due to their in-fighting, the robbery was broken up by Batman and the statue was lightly damaged, its left ear being chipped off. Despite Jack being arrested the remaining gang members, King, Queen and Ace escape with the Jaguar of Verdeza. As King presents the statue for his reward, Paxton notices the statue was damaged and refused to pay and accept the artifact. Enraged, King tried to slice Paxton with his sword, but was stopped by Paxton's assistant and bodyguard, Sable Thorp. As an act of mocking ridicule Paxton throws a meager sum of money at King and takes the Jaguar with him anyway.
In order to make up the lost money, as well as stop his wife from haranguing him about his failures as leader of the gang (and perhaps a bit of revenge), King kidnaps Paxton while he was relaxing by his pool and held him for ransom for a sum of 20 million credits (future money). Unfortunately, the plan failed on two occasions: Firstly, King held his sword to Paxton's neck to force him to pay off his own ransom, but Paxton revealed that he could not do so since all his assets were tied in investments, while his lavish lifestyle was the result of company perks. Secondly, and ironically, due to Paxton's own policy of no bargaining with kidnappers (as well as Bruce Wayne's disdain towards Paxton), their attempt to make Bruce Wayne pay the ransom was also denied success. Outraged by this complete failure, King prepares to kill Paxton until he saved himself by revealing his collection of stolen artwork; one item was the Crown of Tikal, which was worth twice the original ransom. Paxton offered to let Sable deliver it to them, but Queen didn't trust her or any of Paxton's allies, so they decided to let Wayne make the delivery.
Despite being allowed to live, the fact that Wayne wouldn't hesitate to expose Paxton to the police for art theft infuriated him. However, he was able to turn this around by bargaining with his captors to kill Wayne, thus Paxton would become the sole owner of Wayne-Powers, a position which would allow him to reward the Royal Flush Gang even further. Despite Queen's dislike of becoming hired assassins, King agreed to finish Wayne himself. Wayne meets the gang at a park to hand over the crown as part of an ambush for Batman, but this goes wrong as Ace (the android) found and incapacitated him. After Wayne gives them the crown, Paxton unties himself revealing his new alliance with the gang, but Wayne was able to defend himself by calling Ace (the dog). Batman then regains his senses and attack Ace (the android) from behind, causing Paxton to fall into some trees and got hung on a branch by the ankle. Ace is destroyed and Queen is caught, but King escapes with the crown. Paxton then demands to be cut loose from the tree, which Batman does so with a batarang, allowing Paxton to fall hard into the mud. He accuses Batman of intentionally hurting him, which Batman admits to.
Back at the Royal Flush Gang's hideout, King reveals that he had been having an affair with Sable Thorp. Together they planned to steal Paxton's collection and then run off with it. Paxton could not reveal that it had been stolen since that would compromise him. Their plan is however ruined with the sudden appearance of both Queen, who is out to kill King for betraying the family, and Batman, who ultimately stops King and Thorp. On King and Queen's confessions, Paxton was ultimately arrested for the attempted murder of Bruce Wayne and sent to jail by Commissioner Barbara Gordon. Paxton denies his involvement, stating that Wayne was like a father to him, but Barbara retorts this by stating "Except he doesn't glow in the dark", referring to Paxton's actual father and role model. Paxton continues to shout threats to buy out the whole police department as he is dragged away.
With Paxton in jail, the Powers family lost all control of Wayne-Powers's corporate assets and shareholders along with everything they owned. Paxton's forced resignation led to Bruce Wayne taking back control of Wayne-Powers, and as a result, the company was renamed back to Wayne Enterprises.
One time, Derek Powers was able to arrange for Paxton to be released from prison and got Paxton a penthouse in the Gentrified Industrial Area. Batman confronted Paxton since he figured Paxton was the one responsible for financially sabotaging Wayne Enterprises and that Paxton was employing Glen Godfrey who orchestrated the termination of the renewed union contract for Wayne-Powers' employees. Batman followed Paxton to a warehouse and Paxton informed Batman that his benefactor wanted to meet him there. Bruce deduced it was a set up and told Terry to get himself and Paxton out of there. The warehouse exploded, however Batman was able to escape with Paxton and he was placed in protective custody while Blight was being dealt with.
Trivia[]
- Paxton bears many similarities to another Batman Beyond character, Deanna Clay.
- Both were the offspring of one of Batman's most deadly enemies. Paxton was the son of Blight, while Deanna was the daughter of Inque.
- Both were called upon by their respective parents to help them. Blight needed Paxton to replace him as chairman of the Board of Directors, while Inque had Deanna steal for her mutagens that would save her life from bodily deterioration.
- Both Paxton and Deanna had betrayed their parents and attempted to murder them in order to gain their wealth. Both Paxton and Deanna succeed in taking their parents' money, but Batman warned them that their parents were likely alive and plotting their revenge since their bodies had went missing: Blight was never found and Inque's remains had disappeared from CSI holding.
- Their parents happened to know each other: Derek Powers once hired Inque to perform corporate sabotage for him. They got along very well, with Derek praising Inque's skill and Inque admired Derek's charisma and planning.