Whatever Happened To The Robin In Red?
Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Philip Tan, Jay Leisten, Elmer Santos, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: May 4, 2016
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
I don't know how it happened, but we've been at this series for a year now and even though it didn't seem like much progression had happened, it really appears that the world is beginning to work itself out of its Brother Eye funk. Which is great because not having a real world to work with is one of the reasons that Earth 2: Society isn't working and we don't need Batman Beyond to have to deal with the stink of that book. In the previous issue, we saw Batman and the Justice League Beyond take down Dr. Cuvier and put a stop to all the refugees of this world running amok all over Neo Gotham....... and all it really took was Superman saying "knock it off". Let's jump into this issue and see what Tim Drake is up to and how he's adjusting to being Batman in an actual world......... and let's see if he gets his ass kicked again. Guy's got the worst win/loss record going on right now. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins in such a weird way, in that it shows us everything that we want a Batman Beyond title to be, then becoming what it's been throughout this run. What I'm talking about is we see curmudgeony old Bruce flipping out at Terry McGinnis for going over some of his files on the Bat Computer a few months after Terry became Batman. This part is so cool because in this timeline, Tim is considered Bruce's greatest failure because he simply disappeared and Batman failed in finding out what happened to him. It's a really cool scene that separates this timeline from what we've seen in the animated series.......... you know, without the whole Brother Eye thing and it kind of feels to me that everyone considered Tim the greatest Robin. That could just be me though, playing off that whole 90's fanboy deep inside of me, but I'm sticking with it. The only part that I don't like about this flashback is that they make it seem that Tim disappeared while he was a Titan, but what we've seen from Futures End is that he had already faked his death, created a new life for himself before Futures End bitched slapped him into the future with the Batman Beyond suit. So yeah, after Barbara's walk down memory lane, where she talked to Terry about the Robin who disappeared and now thinking about the irony of Tim taking over for Terry in the future, we get to the meat of our story.
It seems that Rewire is back out and about and doing bad guy stuff, like stealing a battery from STAR Labs to keep himself all charged up in case he has a run in with Batman........... which he then immediately does and as much fun as I was having with the flashback of Terry McGinnis' early days as Batman, this issue at this point just becomes a big battle scenario. While I'm a little put off of any battles taking place in this series, mostly because it always leads to Tim Drake getting his ass kicked........ which it kind of does again here. This isn't too bad in that it changes a couple of things that we thought we knew from this series. Remember when Rewire took out that tailor, who dealt in black market technology a couple of issues ago, when Matt McGinnis was searching for the Justice League? Well, apparently even though it really looked like it at the time, Rewire wasn't the one behind the tailor's death........ even though he stuck around the murder scene for awhile, where Batman originally found and fought him. Yeah, Rewire's claiming he's innocent, but can we really trust a super villain? Probably because he seems really adamant about it.
In the end, Batman ends up getting his ass whooped again because out of nowhere his suit stops obeying his commands and we leave Batman with him falling into a river and then sinking as his suit has gone rogue against him...... which even takes Rewire by surprise when he meets up with his mysterious partner, who just seems concerned with keeping Rewire alive for some reason.
That's it for this issue of Batman Beyond and even though this series hasn't been what I really wanted it to be, I have to say that this issue worked wonders in making me think that we're not in lost cause territory yet. Yeah, it might be that I know that Terry McGinnis is coming back after Rebirth and the fact that we got a really awesome flashback scene depicting old ass Bruce and Terry like we remember them being from the animated series, but at this point I'll take it and run with it because the idea of Terry being Batman again, plus witnessing his early days on the job was just entertaining as hell...... Especially the way that it played into this story. It still is a little aggravating to see Tim Drake get his ass kicked every time that he gets into a fight, but at least it seems that we'll get a cool mystery out of it in upcoming issues. Now, while I've loved Bernard Chang and Marcelo Maiolo's take on the art style to this book, I have to say that Philip Tan, Jay Leisten and Elmer Santos are fantastic and I want every Batman Beyond book from here on out to look like this because it was just awesome and actually makes this book seem bigger than it is........ if that makes any sense.
Bits and Pieces:
Batman Beyond came out of nowhere with this issue and surprised the hell out of me because I had thought that this series was a lost cause, but as it begins to work its way towards Rebirth, I can see this series picking up and I'm happy as hell with most of this issue, even if Tim Drake gets his ass kicked again. The new art team on this issue is fantastic and I hope this style continues for this run of Batman Beyond........ and beyond!
7/10
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