Batman Beyond #43 Review

Batman Is Back!

Written By: Dan Jurgens

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

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 26, 2020

Thirty-Five years from now, Batman has been through the wringer as his identity has been stolen, his mind wiped and Blight seemingly coming back from the supposed dead to take revenge on everyone in the Bat Family, not to mention the Bat Family having to contend with Elainna Grayson taking on the mantle of Batwoman, defying her father in the process.  Now that that's all beyond us though, it's time to get back to normal and see what Terry McGinnis is going to do now that he's back in costume and back on the beat.  Let's jump into this issue and see what Neo Gotham has to offer us.  Let's check it out.

For this issue of Batman Beyond we see the aftermath of Blight's attack move our future non-Caped Crusader away from the destroyed Batcave and right into the heart of Neo Gotham, where we find out that Bruce Wayne set up what Matt and Terry call the Bat-Suite....... almost like the Bat Bunker that Dick and Damian had during their time as the Dynamic Duo, but in a more advanced, Watchtower feel since the new headquarters is located at a holographically hidden point of Wayne Tower.  Yeah, we have a new status quo for our Batman Beyond and it feels really cool, not to mention seeing Terry taking the mantle of Batman back and the attitude he has for the job takes this book to a very interesting place because for all that Terry's lost over the past bunch of issues, it seems that his methods have changed to a little less cautious and a little more forceful, which might make him and Bruce Wayne butt heads going forward.

With that, we also get the continuation of what Elainna Grayson is going to do with the Batwoman persona and who is going to mentor her as she goes forward, not to mention that the League of Assassins have plans on continuing on with Ra's Al Ghul's initial ideas for the League, which will leave Damian Wayne (the current Demon's Head) in a place that he might just need the Bat Family's help in not only taking the league back but also to save his life.  

All in all, I really enjoyed the art in this issue and the story has taken this series to a place that gets me excited for the first time in a long time for what's to come next from the world of Batman Beyond.  There's a whole lot to like here and while it is a slow start to what we will be dealing with next with the League of Assassins, we touch on all the big points surrounding this series enough to leave me happy here and excited for what's to come next.  There finally seems to be some character growth in not only Terry McGinnis, but with a lot of the characters for what they've experienced lately and the new status quo for where our heroes will be working from is very cool overall.  Hopefully this series will take this momentum and run with it because this feels like a return to form or at least a turn in the right direction.

Bits and Pieces:

Now that Terry is back in the Batsuit and we can leave all the False Face and Blight stuff behind us, this series feels fresh for the first time in a long time and all the changes that we see here, in not only location but in our main character's attitude feel like something that I can get excited about.  Not to mention, that the art is strong as hell in this issue.  If this series can keep up with this type of story-telling, this might actually become a series that I won't want to miss.

8/10