Batman Beyond: Rebirth #1 Review

Welcome dear readers to Batman Beyond. I’m sure you all know Batman, but not as many of you may be familiar with Batman Beyond. For those who fall into that category, Batman Beyond was an animated series in the late 90’s/early 2000’s that served as a sequel of sorts to the incredibly popular Batman the Animated series. Set 40 years in the future, where Bruce has finally grown to old to continue on as the caped crusader and in the absence of the Batman, Gotham has become a wasteland of crime and corruption. Well… more of a wasteland of crime and corruption than it already was at any rate. Through a series of circumstances, a young street kid named Terry McGinnis crossed paths with Bruce Wayne and subsequently learned his secret. While at first Bruce tried to throw him out of his house, when he learned that Terry’s father had been killed, he empathized with him and allowed him to use his experimental high tech Batman suit to bring his father’s murderer to justice, which eventually lead to Terry taking over as the new Batman. Naturally, the show was very popular, and integration into the actual comics was a foregone conclusion. And with DC once again rebooting their line, it stood to reason that Batman Beyond would eventually be part of the mix.

We open with Terry giving some narration on the history of Gotham City (now known as Neo Gotham) as well as his own origin story which we just covered above as he stops a gang of Jokerz, a street gang that models themselves after the original Joker, from robbing a train. After Terry takes down the Jokerz, he talks with Commissioner Barbara Gordon about how it seems odd that the Jokerz are stealing money when ordinarily they just wanted to spread chaos. We also learn that Bruce is no longer around to mentor and guide Terry. This is in reference to something that happened in the previous Batman Beyond books, which I have not kept up with. More on that later.

Elsewhere, we see Dana Tan, Terry’s girlfriend from the TV show getting abducted by the Jokerz. Terry hears about this on the news and goes after them at their hideout, but gets attacked and subsequently pummeled by a Joker enhanced by Bane’s venom. Elsewhere, Dana has been tied up by one of the more prominent members of the Jokerz from the TV show, Terminal, who reveals that the Jokerz are now taking orders from the man he’s bringing back from the dead, the original Joker.

What Works:

I like the cliffhanger ending that reveals the Joker is still alive. After all, the TV movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is often regarded as a high point in the series, particularly by yours truly. What’s more, I liked Terry’s opening narration, it really showed Terry’s respect for the history of Gotham and his own place in it.

What Doesn’t: While I have always really liked the Batman Beyond costume, the addition of the huge red eyes really isn’t doing it for me. It just looks really ugly to me.

Also, I really don’t like how this comic seems dependent on readers having read the comics that came before. There was a lot of this comic I didn’t cover in the recap because I frankly had no idea what was going on. For a reboot that’s trying to hook new readers, that’s not a smart move.

Overall: 3/5

There’s clearly some cool stuff here, but I don’t feel like this is one for new readers.