REVIEW: Batman Beyond #17: Robin Beyond Coming Soon?

Like most Bat-fans my age I was a huge fan of theÂ Batman Beyond animated series. Â It gave us something new mixed with the old. We still had Bruce Wayne calling the shots in the Batcave, but we had a new person wearing the cowl. Â Terry McGinnis was a fresh take on the Dark Knight that was not so dark and grim. I was not a fan of the move to replace Terry as Batman with a time displaced Tim Drake, but luckilyÂ DC came to their senses and we have the real Batman Beyond back protecting a very familiar Gotham City.

Batman BeyondÂ #17, part 4 of The Long Payback opens with Terry about to be unmasked on television by a mercenary calling himself Stalker who was hired to “soften him up”“ for the big bad, Payback. While the cover by Bernard Chang and Marcelo Maiolo is a beautiful piece of work, it is a bit misleading. Â The cover features Terry fully unmasked on television while Bruce Wayne and Terry“s little brother Matt look on in shock with a big caption that says “unmasked”“. That never actually happens, but it does come close to happening.

The current comic series has been great so far and a lot of the credit goes to Dan Jurgens whose scripts manage to make the book feel like the next episode of the show. We even get elements of the show brought up like Terry“s past relationship with 10 of the Royal Flush Gang when she shows up to help Batman. She does not realize she is helping Terry, but rather thinks he would hear about it and see she is trying to walk on the side of the angels.

The best part of the book for me was a scene between Bruce and Matt. The two of them are watching Terry“s fight with Stalker on television and they both know that it isn“t not going well for him. Â Matt has a little speech about how Terry needs help out there and the display case holding the Robin costume is very prominent behind him. In the same scene we have a beautiful piece of foreshadowing by penciler Phil Hestor and inker Ande Parks where Matt then asks where that help will come from while he is a small silhouette in front of the again VERY prominent Robin costume. Â All I can say is”¦ it“s about time! I have wanted to see Matt become Terry“s Robin since the animated series and it looks like it may finally be coming to pass.

The book has the same feel visually as the animated series and a lot of that is due to the color palette of Michael Spicer who gives us a Gotham City that looks and feels familiar. The dark colors and shadows are part of Gotham“s character and personality.

The Gotham City of the future looks to be in good hands and I can“t wait to get my hands on the next issue.

Story: 4
Art: 3.5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Written by; Dan Jurgens
Art by: Phil Hester
Cover Art by Bernard Chang
Published by; DC Comics