By Ashley Gibbs
Having been a fan of the television series, I wanted to also give the comic book a chance and choose Batman Beyond #8 to so. I’m usually reluctant to jump into a series in the middle, but thankfully I was able to play catch-up thanks to the good writing. While it’s clear I missed some good action in previous issues this issue was packed with its own action and left me fully entertained. Any time Batman has to face Ra’s Al Ghul and his League of Assassins you know things are going to be messy. But Terry isn’t Bruce, he’s his own (Bat)man and that doesn’t always sit well with people, and certainly not his enemies.
The issue begins with Terry in the middle of a crisis, he’s wearing a dangerous prototype suit that Bruce warns him to remove but Terry refuses, determined to take down Ra’s Al Ghul. Terry ignores Bruce's concerns to find Ra’s and stop his evil plan, leaving Barbara Gordon And Curare to fight Kuro from the League of Assassins. The story is well written with great pacing and exciting fight scenes. We also get background on why Bruce is against Terry using the suit, sending the old detective on a mission to stop his protege before it’s too late. In Ra’s eyes Terry is a pretender and not the “real Batman” and this is a deadly position for him to be in.
While the character designs stay true to those of the television show, the artwork is certainly its own. I am filled with nostalgia while reading through this book but things are certainly darker and more violent. However, there is still a great use of colors, especially with high impact fight scenes. I also really enjoyed the flashback scenes with Bruce talking about the prototype suit when he wore it, the whole sequence had a sepia tint to it showing us that it was in the past. The panels are also set against a bright red page making them stand out more, expressing how critical the information is and how deadly the suit can be if Terry keeps wearing it.
Batman Beyond #8 ended with a great cliffhanger, while it wasn’t entirely shocking if you keep up with the Batman mythos, it’s an interesting turn of events that left me wanting to know more. If you’re not already into this series, this is a good issue to draw you in. I know I’ll be keeping up to see where this story takes the characters if only to see how the Ra’s Al Ghul story arc ends. I recommend grabbing this issue if you were a fan of the cartoon series or are just a Batman fan in general, it’s fun to see Terry having to deal with a lot of the messes that Bruce created in his glory days.
Score: 5/5
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Art: Bernard Chang
Colors: Marcelo Maiolo
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: DC Comics