Batman Beyond #41 Review

My Mind, My Choice

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Sean Chen, Sean Parsons, Chris Sotomayor, Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 26, 2020

It's the future and surprisingly, it isn't so bright that we all have to wear shades.  Hell, it hasn't even been a little bit sunny because in Neo Gotham we've had nothing but darkness as Terry McGinnis has been wandering the streets with amnesia, where his only friend is a former lover of Derek Powers, Blight and now that that big bad is back and looking for a new body, who better than a Batman who doesn't know who he is?  Beyond that though, we're also dealing with a new Batwoman in Neo Gotham, who we discovered in the previous issue, much to Matt and Bruce's chagrin, was Dick Grayson's daughter, Elainna.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Terry can wise up and get out of the clutches of Blight and if Elainna will continue being Batwoman now that her secret's out of the bag.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

For this issue, we do spend a lot of time recapping what's gone down before so that the big reveal of Elainna Grayson being the new Batwoman can really sink into everyone's heads........ Mostly Matt McGinnis and Bruce Wayne's since they swore up and down that it had to be Barbara Gordon or Melanie Walker, but I guess our former Batman isn't quite the world's greatest detective anymore and what we're left with is the idea that Dick Grayson is pretty upset that his daughter has become a superhero against his wishes, even though he spent her whole life kind of romanticizing his time as one and making it forbidden to the point, where all she would want to do is someday step into the role.  

If having recap for the reveal of Batwoman isn't enough recap for your recap loving asses, we do the same thing over in the Blight front because for anyone jumping into Batman Beyond #41, they have to understand the very forced nature of Blight coming back and needed a new body and that Terry McGinnis has had amnesia and just happened to befriend the one person who would be able to transfer Blight's mind into a new body, who also hates the McGinnis family.  Once you're all caught up on this terrible storytelling......... Well, the book actually becomes somewhat enjoyable because there are no more secrets to hold over anyone's heads so we can get right to some action and see where this story will go for its finale, which I really appreciated because I didn't know how much more I could take this book telling what I've already read before.  

All in all, the art in this issue is really enjoyable, but like usual the story just spins its wheels to get to the cliffhanger because it just didn't have enough going on to fill out its page space........ which means a shit ton of recap as usual.  Once we get beyond that though, I did enjoy where it looks like we'll be going in the next issue, but that's only the last couple of pages so that's not saying much.  I guess, the opening scene with Dick Grayson explaining what Elainna has done with her life and how she would be able to be trained enough to become a vigilante was alright as well, but it too had so much recap that it started getting lost within the dialog for me, but overall I do look forward to this series after this arc is over because it looks like we'll be getting back to some kind of normalcy, where hopefully stories can flow more naturally.

Bits and Pieces:

The art in this issue is as enjoyable as it always is, but the storytelling is sadly the same as it always is too, where the majority of the issue is based all on recap as we move our story an inch forward.  Yeah, things come to an interesting head by the end, but that's after wading through so much of what you've already read in this arc.

5.3/10