Sunbeam "Beam" Boonma is a former detective in the GCPD and Terry McGinnis' girlfriend. She was the one of the few cops on the force dissatisfied with Wayne-Powers' takeover of the department.
History
Early Life and Career
Boonma's great-grandmother was a Vietnamese refugee who settled in Gotham. She swore she would never be forced out of another city and the family stubbornly refused to leave Gotham throughout the generations, even in the face of criminals, supervillains and natural disasters. When she grew up she became a police officer, inspired by Barbara Gordon. Despite her investigative skills she was unable to get promoted to detective and was instead assigned to the Mayor's protective detail. Mayor Pierson mysteriously disappeared on her watch.
Neo-Year
Officer Boonma attended a retirement gala for Commissioner Gordon held by Donovan Lumos, the CEO of Wayne-Powers. At the part, Lumos announced that Wayne-Powers would be privately funding the GCPD from then on. Beam was the only attendee unhappy about this, as it would turn the police into an arm of the company.
A man introducing himself as "Neal Gibson" made a move on her at the party. She quickly realised he was looking for information on the mayor and violently rebuffed him, telling him she did not take bribes or give information to criminals.[1] Unbeknownst to her, "Neal" was actually Batman, and after he was attacked and almost killed by the Sword of Gotham, Batman came to her home looking for help, as he felt there was nobody else in the city he could trust. He told her that a rogue AI had taken over the city, but before he could say anything else, she was also possessed by the Sword and attacked him.
Batman knocked her unconscious and took her to the ruined Batcave,[2] where the genius jewel thieves Gestalt had taken refuge. They were able to detect nanobots inside her body which allowed the Sword to possess her, and kept her in a coma while they worked on a way to remove the Sword from her. Three months later they finally succeeded and woke her up. Batman, who revealed his true identity as Terry McGinnis to her, was ready to give up in the face of the overwhelming odds and after the loss of his mentor, but she told him that Batman was symbol to people that kept them fighting.[3]
Donovan Lumos announced that Wayne-Powers would unveil a major advancement at the New Years Eve party. Batman deduced that the Living Gotham was planning to use Lumos' hard light technology, which had become ubiquitous around the city, to take over the minds of every civilian in Gotham and achieve ultimate efficiency. They returned to the city and Beam recruited disgruntled current and former NGCPD officers to help in the fight against the Living Gotham. Batman attacked the party and the attendees were all possessed by the Sword of Gotham, but Gestalt had armed him with hard-light technology of his own which allowed him to temporarily disrupt the Sword's control over the guests. Beam and her people evacuated the party guests. After the Living Gotham was defeated, Beam was promoted to detective and was able to prove that the mayor had been murdered. She and Terry started dating and moved in together.[4]
Neo-Gothic
Beam's career as a detective was short-lived however, as Lumos consolidated power over the GCPD and forced her out. She, Terry and Gordon came up with the "Gordon Initiative", a plan to replace the corporate-controlled police force with a collective of citizen volunteers. However, the municipal government was still in chaos following the death of the mayor and the subsequent emergency elections, and when Gordon retired to Corto Maltese, they lost their best advocate. Beam also continued to use her investigative skills to assist Terry in his work as Batman.[5]
When children began disappearing from the poorest and oldest neighbourhoods in Neo-Gotham, Lumos blamed the disappearances on old, unsafe buildings and began buying up entire city blacks. He demolished the communities that were already there and replaced them with hard light housing developments, building his "city of light" on the ruins of people's homes. Terry was on a mission into the Gotham Deep looking for the missing children and wasn't able to stop him.[6][7]
Lumos purchased all of historic Gotham to demolish and replace it, and called Beam mere minutes before the explosives were set to detonate, he found himself somehow unsatisfied and filled with ennui. He told her that he understood her not wanting the city to change, but she retorted it was erasure and injustice to the poor people whose homes he was destroyed. Lumos replied that he took no pleasure in destruction and what he was going to build would be beautiful. However, when the demolitions went off, rather than the controlled blasts he had planned, they set off a massive explosion that opened a gaping hole in the ground and triggered an earthquake. Monsters from the Gotham Deep rose up from the crevice and attacked the city.[8]
Terry flew up to the surface and the two of them tried to fight off the attack, but it was too much. They decided to activate the Gordon Initiative; which would use the Living Gotham's old nanobots to transform citizens into Batman. Terry broadcast around the city and asked people to opt in to the Initiative, revealing his real name and background as a delinquent. Dozens of citizen volunteered, creating an army of Batmen who fought off the attackers until Terry's new ally Kyle was able to stop the attack at its source.
After the fight Beam gave an interview explaining the Gordon Initiative and their plans to help people going forward. They also learned that Donovan Lumos had disappeared without a trace during the battle, abandoning all his wealth and power.[9]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Related
- 10 Appearances of Sunbeam Boonma (Futures End)
- 3 Images featuring Sunbeam Boonma (Futures End)
- Quotations by or about Sunbeam Boonma (Futures End)
- Character Gallery: Sunbeam Boonma (Futures End)
Footnotes
  This character is or was an officer of, or held a title in the Gotham City Police Department, in any of its various incarnations. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "GCPD members" and "Police Officers" categories. |