Well I got one thing I wished for with this issue. There is more a focus on Terry McGinnis as the titular Batman Beyond, although little to of that taking place outside his identity as Batman. Whereas last issue was largely setup and reintroduction of setting, characters, and story, Batman Beyond #2 brings us a little more into the action and the investigation that one would hope for in a Batman title. I’m still not sold on the villain, but their identity isn’t necessarily revealed either in last issue or this one so that could still go any direction.
This issue starts where the last one left off, with Terry leaving the hospital to bring the bandage and word of “Hush” back to Bruce Wayne for analysis. This leads to an interesting flashback of Bruce’s about the end of Hush during his tenure as Batman and I couldn’t help but find it comical. It seemed a little silly that a master tactician such as Hush would be dispatched in such a way, but even this is addressed in the issue and, honestly, feels almost appropriate given how crime-riddled a place Gotham is. It seemed strangely acceptable within the story and leaves the identity a little more open-ended. We’re also treated to an introduction of the Beyond version of Catwoman. As with last time, I can’t help but wish this was one of the Terry’s own Rogues or at least not a new version of a previous Batman villain, but making it Catwoman makes in the scheme of the story Adam Beechen is writing here so I have no real problem with this.
As I said before, Terry gets a little more focus time here and nothing has changed in how well Beechen is able to write Terry. I can practically here Terry’s old voice actor Will Friedle saying all of his lines and it goes a long way toward making Batman Beyond feel that much more authentic to the show it was based on. Bruce Wayne is also handled wonderfully. Though he comes across as overly harsh, even for Bruce Wayne, it’s all understandable given that he thinks one of his greatest opponents from his past may be back. I don’t blame him for being worried both for his city and his wet-behind-the-ears replacement. It actually goes a long way to making him feel more human than he did last issue. Even backgrounds characters a fun, with Calendar Man’s “Deathday” song being delightfully campy.
A continuing problem appears in the form of Ryan Benjamin’s pencils once again, however. Though he shows a wonderful sense of action with a particularly kinetic fight scene with Catwoman, his character work can still be very wonky at times. His Bruce Wayne has improved some but still doesn’t look like his TV counterpart. Terry however, has gotten worse with his face out of costume looking horrendously distorted and even Asian at times. His Batman fares better, but suffers from strange proportions as Batman’s body size and, particularly, height change frequently, making Terry look even younger than he is. Benjamin looks like he could be very capable, I just wish he could stabilize his art and maybe reference character designs from the show a little better. I did really enjoy his flashback as he really seemed to be channeling his inner Jim Lee at points, which is good given the characters being presented.
All in all, Batman Beyond still hasn’t lived up to the expectations I’ve set for it. This may seem unfair going from television to comic books, but the source material is just too good to be squandered on a mostly mediocre book. Despite this, Batman Beyond has managed to dig its claws into me and I will continue to come back to this series each month as there really is room to grow and I want to see it do just that.
Overall: 7.3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment