Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Bernard Chang
“Escape” is the name of the game for our heroes in this issue of Batman Beyond, and it’s going to take everything out of them to get out of Brother Eye’s stronghold. After being captured by Brother’s cronies in the last issue, the fate of Max, the one time best friend of Terry McGinnis, was hanging in the balance as she had been suffering the effects of Brother Eye’s “treatment.” Will Tim be able to save Max, Barbara Gordon, or himself in the escape?
Long story short, I really liked this issue. It may not have been the best issue of the series, with its illustrious 3-issue career so far, but it was a very enjoyable one. My only issue with this month’s outing, was that I never really felt any sort of danger for our main character. The same could not be said for Max. Thankfully, Tim is able to save her and Barbara Gordon by the climax of the issue, which I was completely unsure of from the start. Sincerely, I thought Max was gone. Done for. I’m happy that is not the case. The best part of the issue comes at the very end, where a familiar and exciting player enters the fray; an “Atom-esque” character named Micron. If you remember Micron from the JLU series, one of the character’s alter-egos is that of Ray Palmer, which Tim Drake confuses this Micron with. We are left wondering who the true identity of the character is. Although I really liked this issue, I feel like it lacked a little bit of a punch that I really wanted. I’m excited to see where this series goes from here, especially if they continue to throw in familiar characters of the JLU and Batman Beyond cartoon series.
