Batman Beyond #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

Suit Up

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Pete Woods, Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: January 25, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

So much for Terry clowin' around.  That's right, even though we went through this whole scheme of dressing up as a Joker and creating a backstory so that our hero could infiltrate the Jokerz, it seems that it was all for not because within one issue of this, Terry's found out and we ended the last issue with him being strung upside down in front of a building, while the Jokerz below shot acid at him.  Luckily, we do have some other irons in the fire, with Matt McGinnis sneaking his way through Jokerz Town with a prototype Bat suit for his brother and we also found out that Bruce Wayne is alive........ and kind of well and that Terminal is making everyone believe that he's the Joker and that he's bringing him back to life so that he can keep the former Batman in a coma so that he can continue siphoning funds from the Wayne bank accounts........ I don't know what money means to anyone in a post Brother Eye invaded world or why the bank accounts are still active, but hey, I'll go with it as we jump into this issue and hopefully see Terry discovering that his mentor is alive and him getting back to being Batman, suit and all.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with our hero and Dana Tan being strung up and being shot at by acid balls, but all it really takes for Terry to realize that this isn't the scene that he really wants to be in is Matt running around in the distance.  Once he sees his little brother, he quickly cuts himself and Dana free and begins kicking ass on his way to get to Matt.......... just makes me wonder why the hell he waited as long as he did....... but we'll go with it.

Once Terry makes his way to Matt and we see the prototype Bat suit that he brought, we become on lookers at a really awkward moment, where Dana finally learns that Terry is Batman...... and that he's been lying to her all these years.  Yeah, it doesn't matter that he's saved lives or that he's a member of the Justice League, it's all about how he lied to her........ which, I can kind of forgive because he was also believed to be dead for a long ass time, so maybe Dana should lighten up a bit.  It's cool though when Terry finally suits back up and we get to see the Batman suit in all it's prototype glory.  We've got a new-ish look, new powers and the most important thing....... enough power behind his punch and a shit ton of goodies in his utility belt to beat his way out of this Jokerz nightmare.  

In the end, Terminal flies away with Bruce Wayne so that he can keep his cash flow going and even though our hero fails to stop him, it's still cool because we move a step ahead in getting Bruce Wayne back in the picture when Terry discovers that who everyone thought was the Joker was actually his mentor.

That's it for this issue of Batman Beyond and man was this a fast read, but even with that this issue had me hyped because it got us back on track with what we want to see from this series and that's seeing Terry in costume and finally kicking some ass.  Yeah, I don't know why he's able to do it now when he wasn't able to before, but I'll take what I can get because I've spent too long seeing Batman Beyond getting the shit kicked out of him and it's nice to finally see a little tit for tat.  The art in this book looked great and I really dug the new look of the Batman Beyond suit even though I'm not positive if this new look will be sticking around for long.  It's still cool to see though and this issue has given me hope that Batman Beyond will become the fun romp that I've wanted it to be all along.

Bits and Pieces:

Even with this issue being a fast read, it still gives you everything you want from a Batman Beyond book and it looked great the whole way through.  We're finally getting this book back on track with the developments of this issue and I finally find myself really looking forward to whatever happens next.

8/10