Batman Beyond #9 Review and *SPOILERS*

No Jubilation For Imitation

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo, Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 28, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

While the reveal of Damian Wayne actually being the Demon's Head was pretty telegraphed, I have to say that the inclusion of Damian in this series actually gives this book a bit more weight in my mind because while it is in the proper Rebirth continuity, only thirty-five years into the future, it really felt isolated from the rest of the DCU and yes, that may be because Brother Eye went and wrecked house on the world, but even with that, we know that the Justice League Beyond is out and about from the previous series and getting more characters entering the fray is exactly what we need in this series to keep it fresh and not so doom and gloom all the time.  Yeah, we're still dealing with the doom and gloom because of the prototype suit that Terry's wearing, that seems to be altering his judgment and in the process could get him killed, but having Damian be a part of this book just gives me hope that we'll continue on this path and see more familiar faces from the ghost of Gotham's past.  Let's jump into this issue and see how Terry fares now that Damian's identity is revealed to him and now that it seems the two want to kill each other.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Terry and Damian going toe to toe as the suit tries to advice Terry on what maneuvers to take against such a superior fighter like Damian.  Yeah, Terry doesn't want to hear all that though and only seems to listen when the suit tells him that lethal measures should be taken.......... which just feels odd as hell because Terry seems to be all about it and it also makes it weird because two issues ago I went with the idea that the suit makes you more aggressive and fucks with your judgement, but last issue it really seemed stressed that it only masks the pain your in and gets you to keep fighting even if it gets you killed........... Here, I guess it's going with both options and still, Terry gets his ass kicked.

Bruce is on the way to try to stop Damian from killing Terry because obviously he doesn't have any kind of faith that Terry can win the battle and as he makes his way up the mountain...... instead of just flying the Batmobile all the way to the top, he's stopped by Ubu's son, Koru, who seems hellbent on killing the old timer, but a well placed grappling gun blast puts Koru on his ass and Bruce continues up the mountain as we see a flashback about the last time Bruce saw Damian.  Essentially, after Bruce's final act as Batman with the prototype suit, Damian came in and didn't heed Bruce's warnings about how dangerous the suit was and went off to take on the League of Assassins.  The only thing that Bruce found of his son after that was the tattered suit, left behind and the idea that Ra's finally recruited him.......... but still hoping it was because of the altering affects of the suit itself and not just Damian's personality. 

In the end, Damian and Terry's fight leads outside, where the former Robin has everything setup to take Batman Beyond down, which includes a pretty sweet speaker system that emits a frequency that shuts the A.I. down and with it, Terry's ability to access anything from the suit and we end this issue with Bruce watching as Damian is about to plunge his sword into Terry's chest.

That's it for this issue of Batman Beyond and while the story didn't progress much beyond a fight and a flashback that really didn't tell us anything about what went down between Bruce and Damian, this is still a okay read as far as Batman Beyond issues go.  That being said though, the main draw of this book to me right now is the incredible art team that makes each and every issue look great because the stories seem to move at a snail's pace and really only get us pumped for the next issue by giving us some great cliffhangers.  It's the same problem that the last Batman Beyond series had and I was hoping that we were getting away from that, but with Damian simply fighting Terry and yelling pretender over and over again, it got a bit stale and I just wanted more from the flashback and really, everything by the end......... Great art though.

Bits and Pieces:

This is a bit of a lackluster issue when everything is said and done because it barely moves the story forward and doesn't show us much in the way of backstory, which we desperately need since this is so far in the future from every other DC title.  The art is great though and the cliffhanger is strong, but this arc certainly hit the brakes on the story with this issue.

6/10