Broken Frontier

Batman Beyond #1 captures the essence of the show in a way I didn’t expect.  Instead of creating a new world for this Batman, writer Adam Beechen looks like he just took the existing show and continued it.  At the same time, he brings the story to a new level by showing us things that the show couldn’t because of its demographic (and probably censorship laws).  This has always been a preferable method to the ret-cons and reboots that have been making their way around the comics universe.

This comic is very different from the original Batman Beyond comics that DC printed in conjunction with the original series, which were essentially the same stories as the show but in print instead of on TV.  On the first page of this issue, there are two bodies lying in pools of blood as Amanda Waller stands nearby saying that was “lucky.”  You can already tell what kind of tone this book will have.

This seems like a smart handling of this title, as readers of this book would most likely be fans of both the grittiness of the traditional Batman comics and the story of the original Batman Beyond show.  Beechen acknowledges the Beyond canon but also introduces traditional elements that would have a great impact on the new Batman’s life; elements that only fans of both series would appreciate.

In this first issue, Beechen brings back one of Batman’s deadliest enemies, and it blew me away.  With Batman Beyond especially, I expected the writer to focus the first arc on a well-known traditional villain, like Bane or Two-Face—memorable and high profile villains that any casual fan would know.  Instead, Beechen chooses names like Mad Hatter and Signalman for appearances.  While the Mad Hatter has been in Batman: The Animated Series, the main villain in this arc has never, as far as I know, seen air time.

Ryan Benjamin’s pencils are very dynamic.  He retains the cartoonish quality of the animated series but also brings a rough and intricate feel to the page.  For the most part, because of limits of the medium, cartoons often use uniform sizes and perspectives.  Benjamin looks like he has fun exploring the options he has with foreshortening and dramatic angles.  It makes for an exciting reading experience.

Finally, David Baron’s colors deserve a strong shout-out.  Through Baron, Neo-Gotham gains a post-apocalyptic and hectic feel to it because of its unsettling neon colors.  Baron uses different tones to set the mood of each panel quite well.  When Batman is on patrol in the city, the background is very flat and uses only one neon color.  Normally, I don’t like when the colorist tries too hard to tell the reader how to feel, but for this book, it works.