Batman Beyond #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Dan Jurgens 
Art By: Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: September 2, 2015

Kicking It Old School

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's get back to our foray into Thirty Five Years From Now, where if you've been reading this title or even Futures End, you'll know that shit has gotten dark for our Beyond hero....... or at least the one donning the Beyond suit right now.  That's right, Terry McGinnis is dead and Tim Drake is currently rocking the bat suit........which is weird because even though I love Batman Beyond and Tim Drake is my favorite Robin..... I haven't been enjoying this series all that much.  It just feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be yet and even Tim Drake is acting like a lunkhead when we all know how smart he's supposed to be.  It just feels off, but hopefully now that Brother Eye has discovered the cloaked location of Neo Gotham and our new hero has to man the hell up and get shit done, things will begin feeling more familiar..... or at least enjoyable.  Let's jump into this action packed issue and see what's going down in the future.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

We begin this issue with shit totally hitting the fan, but it might be alright because as we saw at the end of the previous issue, Micron has survived the Brother Eye invasion and is in town to put on a hell of a show...... yes, for some reason there Micron became a rock band to me and I don't know why, but I'd appreciate it if it wasn't brought up again........ well, unless I bring it up first.  Anyway, the fight is on and while most of the people of Neo Gotham stand side by side to protect themselves and the city that they love so much, it seems that the Jokerz are all about assimilation.  It's weird, but it stays consistent with this gang trying to take out the veil that cloaked the city in a previous issue, but where as I thought they simply wanted Neo Gotham to be screwed over....... because they're just dicks....... instead it seems that this gang is tired of living a life of fear and just want it all to end while they become one with Brother Eye.  Bunch of fucking quitters is what they are.  Why not do it to just fuck everyone over even if they're casualties of said fuck over?  I know the majority of the gang are just stupid kids, but man I wish they be more like their namesake.  

Brother Eye begins sending wave after wave of his borg-ed out monsters and even though we have Micron and Batman fighting side by side with the people of Gotham...... shit does not seem to be going well.  Yeah, we get some great banter between Batman and Micron, but that's the only thing in this book that isn't doom and gloom........ now, I'm not adding that bit to say that the book is bad, I'm just saying that shit is getting real in our city and we still have the witty banter from our heroes to bring a smile to our faces while we're surrounded by all the death and destruction.  It doesn't stay that way though because Micron possibly gets killed and Batman Beyond becomes overwhelmed by the monsters when he runs out of gadgets and toys from his utility belt, not to mention the fact that he had to destroy the A.I. Alfred so that Brother Eye couldn't track his location.

In the end, Barbara Gordon saves Batman by pulling up in the Batmobile and forcing the hero to get inside so that he may live to fight another day.  The two head off to find more weapons to handle this threat and what better place than the Bat Cave itself?  While Tim goes on and on about how all is lost and what he would do with some decent future tech...... since it seems that the Batcave has been pretty cleaned out, Barbara has a more retro feel in mind.  The Batman Beyond suit is out of power and the only substitute that they have is the prototype that started the path to Batman Beyond Thirty Five Years Earlier........ Jim Gordon's Robo Bat Suit........ Which I cry fowl about simply because I personally believe that Batwing's suit is the prototype to what would one day become our future Batman.

That's it for this issue of Batman Beyond and man is it satisfying to say that this is an awesome issue.  I've been giving this book nothing but shit since it started, due to it not feeling like it knew what it wanted to be and Tim Drake being a numbskull, but here it seems to have finally found it's footing and I don't know if it only feels that way because of the epic battle involved and the tie-ins to what we're dealing with in the current Batman run or even the fact that Tim Drake brings up how stupid he's been, but whatever it is, I like it.  Like usual, I love the art in this book and think that it works even better than previous issues because it looks like Marcelo Maiolo has finally been given the situation to throw some color into this book and since he's one of the best colorists at DC Comics, it's really appreciated.  I don't know what else to tell you here.  The book is working like a Batman Beyond book should work, the story is exciting and has a lot of character, while the art is kicking ass and taking names.  Certainly the best issue of Batman Beyond yet and I hope it continues on this path.

Bits and Pieces:

For all you holdouts waiting for Batman Beyond to begin kicking it up a notch, this is your lucky day because man does this issue go above and beyond to get your attention and keep it.  All is lost it seems for Neo Gotham and maybe that's the kick in the pants that our hero needed to begin acting like the Batman Beyond that we want him to be and if that's the case, I can't wait to see what else this series does from here on out.  Go get yourself some Batman Beyond and have a blast.

8.5/10