Mr. Zero Is Now Just Plain Zero
Release Date: September 22, 2020
Mr. Zero plans on freezing the world until the majority of the population dies and then he can go back and reshape things in a way that he believes Ras Al Ghul would have wanted thus achieving the League of Assassins' goals. Well, we can't let everyone on Earth die so we have Batman, Batwoman, Damian Wayne and Goliath going into space to take on the new League of Assassins, where hopefully they'll be able to find a way to shut down the satellites blocking the sun while also beating Zeh-Ro and saving the day. Let's jump into this issue and see if our future Bat-Family is up to the task. Let's check it out.
If you're looking for action from beginning to end then look no further because this issue of Batman Beyond starts with Batman blown into space with little life support to him taking on the League of Assassins...... IN SPACE, to blowing up a space station that was built to destroy mankind. Yeah, there's a hell of a lot of fighting, screaming and running against the clock in this issue and while that's a lot of fun at times...... it doesn't really do much for a character like Mr. Zero, who while he's just being established in this arc doesn't have a lot of time to expand beyond his desires to fulfill Ra's ideals and never had the chance to evolve to become the Mr. Freeze of the Batman Beyond timeline........ Hell, they even call him by Mr. Freeze's original name, Mr. Zero! Sadly, he's little more than a screaming fanatic here that doesn't really ever cross into memorable villain territory before he's sent out into space by the end of this issue.
So yeah, Mr. Zero's development here is a bit lackluster for what he could have been or what he could have meant to future Batman Beyond stories........ but I guess there's always a chance for someone to come in and write something down the line to make him into something more, but that's not important right now. As for the heroes of our group....... Damian Wayne continues to be kind of one-dimensional here, where he's just an asshole like you'd expect, but the way he's played off here is that he's had no character development since he was thirteen years old and you'd hope that he could have grown as a character somewhere along the line. Thankfully though we do get a great development between him and his father by the end of the issue that does show a bit of growth in my mind, not to mention that the cliffhanger to this issue promises something special as we move towards the final arc of this series.
All in all, the art in this issue is awesome all the way through, I just wish we had more character moments or something a bit more personal here because while I do appreciate badass action in a book when it's the only draw, it kind of makes for a weak issue all around because yeah, I did enjoy Bruce and Damian's plan by the end of the issue because it shows a bit of growth to their relationship and I loved the cliffhanger to this issue because it just opens up the possibility of something different and special coming up as a way to close this series out, but the big battles in space, even Bruce, Barbara and Matt trying to survive the new ice age just came off a bit stale to me and it's only because the art was so good that I wasn't completely bored with what we got through the majority of the issue.
Bits and Pieces:
You'll get action out the ass in this issue, but it ends up feeling small because of how little the characters really seem to know or respect each other, and ultimately, the only likable one during this fight is the big dragon-bat Goliath who's always fun. There seems to be a missed opportunity in this amazingly drawn issue to develop Mr. Zero into an interesting villain with staying power, but while I found most of this issue lackluster, the ending to what we got here really piqued my interest and I can't wait to see where it goes.
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