Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #2: Here There be Monsters

Gotham Deep keeps getting deeper. And darker, too–the perfect place to find a monster. That’s exactly what happens in Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #2 as Batman faces a massive Killer Croc.

Batman spends most of this issue fighting Killer Croc in the sewers beneath Gotham Deep. It’s not an easy fight, and Batman is back on his heels for most of it. Kyle distracts Croc with an explosion against his head, but that doesn’t keep him at bay long. When Croc returns, Kyle employs magic to save both him and Batman. In the course of the fight, Batman finds evidence that Wayne Enterprises trapped Croc down there. Bruce apparently trapped him to serve as a guard for something even deeper than the sewers in a place called “the Tomb.” With no other option before them, he and Kyle continue down into it.

Kelly and Lanzing further emphasize Gotham’s duality in Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #2. The issue opens by discussing New Gotham’s future in terms of building a city of light by burying the shadows and sins of its past. The text on those pages (it’s somewhat unclear if it’s actual dialogue or narration–presumably from Lumos’s point of view) appears first on a page of Lumos’s City of Light and then on two pages of Batman’s losing fight with Killer Croc. The opening pages make an argument that burying the bad to build the good is a viable option. Neo Gotham is a world of bright neon lights, more vibrant attire, and high concepts. Cheng’s coloring continues to showcase a bright world that justifies everything Lumos is selling.

Kyle’s involvement in the fight is a nice continuation of his presence in the first issue and is a nice bit of personal growth. His decision at the end to volunteer to go down into the Tomb feels like more of a reach, though.

The fight sequence makes an interesting case against Lumos’s idea that good can be successfully built on top of bad. Deep Gotham is multiple layers of bad built atop bad, and, despite Lumos’s attempt to bury it all, some part of that reached all the way up to bring the children down from above.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic #2 delivers no shortage of action, all of it involving Killer Croc. Dunbar’s take on the villain is creative.  He is almost a mini dinosaur with a massive tail. Dunbar gives it such a scale that Batman has no hope of winning this fight. There is also one panel in particular that stands out. Batman is standing in front of a cracked wall and Croc’s clenched teeth are visible in the wide opening. This fight is nothing short of an encounter with a monster.

Kyle is particularly emotive. At times Dunbar draws him as almost cute. But he also delivers a determined, somewhat angry-looking Kyle that is effective when he saves Batman.

Cheng’s coloring is a key component in this issue–indeed, the whole series. It’s the color scheme even more than Dunbar’s art that differentiates Neo Gotham from Gotham Deep. These are truly separate worlds. But the even more standout sequence from a coloring point of view are the opening pages where the first two pages of Batman and Croc’s fight are awash in red, contrasting the first page that showcases the bright light of Neo Gotham.

Otsmane-Elhaou goes all out here. He uses different fonts and sizes to add emphasis and intensity throughout the issue. Sound effects are huge during the fight with Croc, reinforcing his size. And Croc’s dialogue bubbles are so big that on multiple occasions they become part of the background, intermingling with debris, slipping between teeth, and adding relative depth between the characters.