Batman Beyond Unlimited #1

I liked the couple of animated episodes I say, so I picked this one up when it came out.


Title: Batman Beyond Unlimited
Issue: 1
Date: April 2012
Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Adam Beechen, Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen
Artist: Norm Breyfogle, Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs
Colorist: Randy Mayor, Andrew Elder
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Cover: Dustin Nguyen
Editor: Sarah Gaydos, Jim Chadwick, Kristy Quinn, Ben Abernathy

For those not familiar with the Batman Beyond animated show, this takes place in a near-future setting where Bruce Wayne has retired and now acts as a mentor to teenager Terry McGinnis, the new Batman.

 

Two stories here. First up is a Batman Beyond solo story involving gangs of Joker followers gathering in Gotham for some unknown purpose. The Batman makes short work of two different groups of them, but something more sinister is afoot, and it involves someone dangerously close to McGinnis’ ex-girlfriend.

 

The girlfriend drama was irritating, mostly because Dana is totally in the right when she says that Terry isn’t giving her the attention she deserves. He is, after all, off being the Batman all the time. Terry, meanwhile comes off as something of a whiney jerk in his attempts to convince her to renew the relationship while basically not even attempting to say he’ll to better.  Dude, maybe you should have thought about the effect on your social life before, you know, taking up the Cowl? Just a thought.

 

The fight scenes also could have been better. They had a nice look, visually, but the “Jokerz” were just so incompetent that it was hard to take any of it seriously. And Bruce Wayne was actually pretty unhelpful as far as the whole mentoring thing goes. McGinnis is supposed to be an inexperienced kid, but he’s also supposed to be taking his real-time advice from one of the greatest tacticians who ever lived. This should make a difference at some point.

 

I did like Barbara Gordon as Gotham Police Commissioner. Clever idea, and well executed.

 

The second story was a Justice League Beyond story (it took me til about halfway through before I figured out what the “B” in “JLB” stood for). The roster is Warhawk (a “half-breed” Thanagarian; no they did not tell us what his other half is), a Green Lantern named Kai-Ro, the Batman (McGinnis again), an older Superman, Aquagirl (on monitor duty; figures!), Micron (future version of the Atom), and Big Barda (drawn a bit more sexy than in other books I’ve seen, although this may be in line with her look in the current continuity).

 

They go up against… wait for it… more Jokerz! And some animal-mutant-types called Splices. This is seriously swatting a mosquito with a sledgehammer. I was feeling sorry for the villains by the time it was over.

 

Once the mopping up of the bad guys is done, various plot developments follow, setting the seeds for a number of future stories.

 

Hopefully with an improved quality of opposition.

 

Rating: 4/10