"Batman Beyond" #1 - 6 Mini-Series Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

BATMAN BEYOND #1 - 6 (Mini-Series)

http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/beyond/guides/comic/t-bbtpb01.jpg (http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/beyond/guides/comic/)

Written by: Hilary J. Bader
Art by: Rick Burchett, Joe Staton, Terry Beatty and Lee Loughridge
Cover by: Bruce Timm.

Terry McGinnis was just an ordinary teenager...until his father was mysteriously murdered. Suspecting foul play at his father's company Wayne/Powers Corporation, Terry meets Bruce Wayne and learns a secret identity hidden for decades. Now too old to battle injustice, Wayne refuses to help. So Terry does what any brash young kid would do: steal the Batsuit and take matters into his own hands! Vowing to avenge his father's death, Terry dons the high-tech suit: tricked out with jetpacks, a supersensitive microphone and even camouflage capabilities in search of his father's assassin. Get in on the action from the beginning of a new partnership between an ex-crimefighter and his apprentice. Check out these stunning tales from Batman Beyond #1 - 6 (mini-series).

Comments?

[James Harvey]

The latest installment of Newsarama's It Came From The Quarter Bin (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=110510) features a review of the first issue of this mini-series. Click here (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=110510) to check it out. I thought this would make for a good opportunity to discuss this animated comic mini-series.

And yes, it does feature the wrong cover art, instead showcasing the cover art to the first issue of the ongoing Batman Beyond (talkback (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=125848)) comic series.

[DisneyBoy]

I picked these issues up individually to get an insight into the blasphemous world of Batman Beyond, which was particularly repugnant to me back in the day. The art was interesting, especially in issue one. Bold colors and nice lines from Burchett. But Bruce down and out? It didn't motivate me to continue reading the series. It bummed me out, given that Bruce was young and active in Gotham Adventures...

The mini-series basically introduces us to key players in Terry's world, but doesn't really sell the show very well. The first two issues are (mandatory I suppose) retellings of the pilot and the issues that follow flounder a bit. Inque's tale isn't much to look at (Staton artwork ain't always the prettiest) and since it closes out the miniseries, you'd expect it to have something conclusive about it.

Approaching this series with some kind of arc in mind, the way the first three issues of The Batman Adventures featured Joker getting help from Catwoman and Penguin, might have made it stronger. As it stands, I'd pick up the first four issues and forget the last two. The mummy story is rather lame, but seeing Blight is a treat and bringing the immortal Jason Blood into the fray was wise and clever. He made one more appearance in the monthly series, which is odd given that the character wasn't even referenced on the show. Since this talkback is about the collected volume, I'd give it two out of five stars because the package doesn't really sell itself or the show very well. It's a read, but one you can live without.

Come to think of it, there were very few issues of the monthly that followed that were worth picking up. Those that were include the first issue, which features the two Batmen not only in costume but at odds, the second issue which spotlights Inque in a far more satisfying way, the thirteenth which ties into TNBA classic "Over the Edge", the fourteenth which brings back Etrigan, issues twenty-one and twenty-two which feature the JLU of the future, and issue twenty-three, the best of the bunch, which deals not only with Ten's family disfunction but Terry's as well. I'd also recommend the Return of the Joker adaptation, which has some of Rousseau's best art, and oddly features the edited version's flashback sequence AND the deleted scene with the dummy at Arkham. At a glance, then, the best of the series looks like this. Pick them out when at your local comic shop:


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