Rise of the Black Beetle
The Good: The art looks a little better than last time, and last time I thought the art looked at it's best thus far in this miniseries.
The flashback this time is one of the most interesting, continues the sort of side story the flashbacks make, and actually answers a question I hadn't asked.
The cliffhanger at the end of the last issue seemed to imply something that would make things far too complex but it got resolved.
The entire scene with Black Beetle was fantastic. All the little asides from the Linear Men, and the creepiness of Black Beetle's lack of history combined with the whole deal with Waverider's corpse add up to make one dynamite scene.
The dialogue, and the way the story is told is all still very fun to read.
The Bad: The resolution of one of the major plot lines feels really sudden and makes the entire thing feel more like a huge distraction rather than being the main plot of about half this miniseries.
The way the cliffhanger last issue turns out not be what I thought it was was a bit awkward.
Once again, the cover is a huge spoiler. Professor Zoom doesn't even show up until the last 3 pages.
On that subject, his appearance here makes no sense and brings opens up a whole new, way too big, can of worms for the last issue. I mean, I'm seriously supposed to believe the team can get back on track to finding Batman, AND deal with Professor Zoom AND find out what happened to Vanishing Point, AND deal with Black Beetle, the Liner Men, and that whole deal with Waverider's corpse? NO WAY. It seems clear to me that this entire miniseries is likely just a whole lot of setup for something else. Several other 'thing else's at that. And if that's true, it would mean that the entire Serhattu plot was utterly pointless, and that this entire miniseries was just a mess of plot elements strung together in an attempt to form a coherent story.
I dont like the way Jurgens drawn Professor Zoom. Ever other appearance he has this weird sort of blur effect, basically, he literally can't stand still, he's always moving or vibrating, or something; but here he's actually drawn STANDING STILL. My admittedly limited experience but still pretty spread across several appearances tells me that just doesn't happen.
In Conclusion: 3/5
Overall it's still a very fun and interesting read. It's just that the plot is going all sorts of bonkers and I can't seem to get what it's trying to do. The last issue might clear things up but currently I'm just baffled at how this can all be tied together AND resolved in one more issue. But in the end, I enjoyed it plenty because the feel of the comic is never bogged down by the strangeness of the story. Essentially it all appears very straightforward and coherent, it's just when you try to figure out the direction, point, or connectedness of the story, it can get quite messy.