diomjk's Batman Beyond Unlimited #1 - 10,000 Clowns (Prelude); Konstriction, Chapter 1: A Snake In The Grass review

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    Back Beyond the Bat

    Aww yeah, Batman Beyond is back. While my memory of the show is hazy at best, I still have fond memories about certain aspects of it, and when I read that a new series was coming out, Including a Beyond universe Justice League, I got pretty excited. Sure, it's written by Adam Beechen, who doesn't have the best track record (wikipedia says he's the one who ruined Cassandra Cain and did a few parts of Countdown, so yeah not exactly making me brim with confidence right now) but still I had hopes since he's done alot of writing for DC's TV shows and I have to say after reading this, not bad. Not bad at all. I'll have to divide this review into two halves for each story, so let's start by looking at the main focus, Terry McGinnis as Batman.

    Since my memories of where the show left us in terms of story and character development are foggy at best, I basically went into it with very little to give me context, but this issue gets you up to speed pretty quickly. Basically a band of youths have brought it on themselves to imitate the now legendary super criminal, the Joker, and have become a powerful gang in multiple cities, including popular DC cities like gotham. Terry McGinnis is this eras batman, and works with the now retired Bruce Wayne to protect the city of Gotham. The dynamic between the two Batmen is kind of cool, with Bruce serving as the more experienced brains of the group, who uses Terry as the muscle to get things done, but this presents a problem with the relationship since from my understanding Terry is Wayne's biological son, and at this point there's not much of a relationship between them other than a working one, something that needs to be worked on pretty quickly. Part of the reason the partnership doesn't feel right probably lies on the fact that McGinnis doesn't really get much of a chance to stand out as his own character. All we get from this issue is he fits sort of in the spider-man archetype of heroes, someone who cracks jokes as he does battle with criminals,who also has had to sacrifice much of his personal life to meet his responsibilities. We never get to see him do more as Batman other than fight and follow Bruce's orders, which is a shame because at this point I would have thought he could stand on his own a bit by now, and he gets very little screen time out of costume to develop him, so we're left with very little to grab onto, which should not happen with the main character of your book. We do however get a good look at Bruce, who is basically the same miserable bastard we know and love, though a bit crankier as the years have gone on, as well as Barbara Gordon in her the police commissioner, who was probably the strongest character of the book, and was pretty damn enjoyable in her appearances, especially in a moment in the Justice league portion of the book. The relationship between her and Bruce were strong as well, and we get some references to earlier events such as her time when she was left as a paraplegic, which gives me hope for the next issue since Adam has proved with this that he can handle character interaction and past continuity. We get to see McGinnis relationship with his (now ex) girlfriend, which was well written, and get introduced to a supporting character in Max, who seems to be filling the role of "Oracle" in this universe, and she was pretty adequately introduced. The story was well paced, and hinted at a bigger event coming in future issues, as well as a twist at the end to keep the story interesting. The art was fine in most parts, but I do have to complain about some of Batman's expressions, which were at some times just plain silly, especially since he's supposed to be wearing a high-tech mask over his face. Overall, though, this issue was still pretty well done, and it doesn't really have any problems that at this point can't be solved in future issues.

    Justice League Beyond was also an enjoyable story. Mostly it served as a way to introduce each character and their powers individually as they took care of a gang war, and it was done pretty well. We get a bit of a feel for most of these characters, though nothing to make them stand out as anything really interesting, but still it's not done bad. This section actually gives more insight into Terry than the Batman part, since we see him accept that he has a duty but still has some focus on his personal life, not to mention that while the relationship between him and Bruce doesn't feel much like the father and son nature we should be seeing, it still feels more like a partnership than in BB, though Bruce is still clearly in charge. We see familiar aspects of the DCU, such as Apokalips, the Green Lantern Corps, the Thangarians, Atlanteans etc., as well as some references to past events that serve to better the story instead of drowning it in continuity, which is nice to see. One thing I really like about the JLB story is that it sets up the futuristic environment much more than BB did, really selling the fact that this isn't the world we once lived in, something that really helps the environment. The art is much more styled like a cartoon I find, which works, but again some of the faces Batman makes are kinda ridiculous.

    Looking at the book as a whole, I really enjoyed it. There's some glaring flaws, but they don't take away from the story enough for me to get angry at it. I think the main problem is that both sections are mainly set-up for the next book instead of putting their all into the first chapter of the story, so I'm hoping things pick up a bit in issue two. Still a worthwhile buy, and fans of the show are bound to be pleased. I'm very much looking forward to where it goes.

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