The Future has Ended! The Bat has been recovered! The Demon has been overcome! This is more than Batman, this is Batman Beyond!
Title: Batman Beyond #16 (The Long Payback pt. 3)
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Pencils: Phil Hester
Inks: Ande Parks
Colors: Michael Spicer
Letters: Travis Lanham
Cover: Bernard Chang and Marcelo Maiolo
Publisher: DC Comics
What You Need to Know:
Someone is stalking Terry Mcginnis, and it’s not the Stalker, the man who hired Stalker hasn’t revealed himself yet, but seems to know who Terry is, and the Stalker knows now too. Last issue the Stalker attacked Batman at his girlfriend Dana’s apartment. Shredding Terry’s wings and dropping him and Dana from the top of a building!
What You’ll Find Out:
We open right where last issue left off, with Terry and Dana plummeting from 50 stories up. Suddenly, the Batsuit wings start to repair themselves, we’re back in business (the future rules!) As he flies Dana to safety he wonders why Stalker turned on him, last time we saw him he was on the right team. Stalker reveals that his village is starving, and the mysterious benefactor is going to feed them if he helps.
After dropping Dana off someplace safe, Terry turns his attention back to Stalker. Stalker tells Batman he’s gotten better, but he’s got some new trick too, suddenly he wraps a cable from his staff around Batman’s feet, and hops into a ship that’s speeding by, towing Terry along!
As they fly Stalker swings the ship and blasts Terry with the jet exhaust from the engines. Previously this would’ve killed Terry instantly, but with the upgrades, Bruce made to the Batsuit he can survive for a bit. Batman blasts one of the engines with an explosive Batarang, they’re going down! Can he survive?
Find out what happens next! Pick up this issue today! The end is a bit of a cliffhanger! There is a new vigilante in town with a subplot for you to discover for yourself!
What Just Happened?
Plot:
I’m liking this arc by the great Dan Jurgens, this story was kind of light though, and this issue seemed kind of toothless in some ways, it was still good. I’m almost never a fan of the 26-page fight form of comic stories, and this is a prime example, I’m sure it’ll make for a nice section in the trade, but it didn’t feel like much of an ending. The book was kind of just over at one point.
I will say I enjoy Stalker and his motivation, although the cybernetically enhanced most dangerous game hunter was pretty well covered in Chuck Dixon’s Robin series. (I think his name was Jaeger? It’s been a while.) But it seems like we’re all suckers for the tortured antihero backstory, he’s gotta be bad to do good and so on.
Art:
I’m enjoying the art team now more than I was before, not that I don’t enjoy Bernard Chang, but Kyle Hester when combined with inker Ande Parks make a great team, I like the way they portray Gotham as well.
Rating: 7/10
Final Thought:
Not a terrible issue, just not my favorite, might just be mid-arc slump. Worth a read if you’re already committed to the arc, but not can’t miss material.
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