Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Bernard Chiang
In the penultimate issue of the Brave New Worlds storyline, the citizens of Gotham are reintroduced to a familiar face as Tim Drake hops in the suit that is the very first version of his current Batsuit. The war with Brother Eye comes to a head as he sends his generals into battle against the forces of good.
When I started reading this series, I had fairly low standards all around. I knew it would be a solid book, but I didn’t think it would be as good as it has been for the past couple of issues. This issue continues on the path of awesomeness with beautiful art, well-paced storytelling, and a genuinely heartfelt interaction between Tim and Barbara when Tim first hops in the suit.
You see, I’ve always felt Tim was kind of the ‘forgotten’ Bat-family member. The ‘Red-Headed-Step-Robin’, if you will. Dick was the first, and of course, the golden child. Jason was the troubled one who really went through some crap there for a while, grabbing all of the parents’ attention in the process. Babs was the first girl, so she was treated like a queen among mere mortals. All the while, Tim was just, well, Tim. He was the smart one and the one that everyone seemed to just forget about. This issue touches on that in a very sincere and thoughtful way.
The only real issue that I had, was that this Bat-Gundam suit has much more useful, and frankly intuitive, technology than the current Beyond suit, which doesn’t make a ton of sense seeing as how this mech suit is much older. Now, we haven’t been introduced to the entire moveset of the suit that is in the current Batman title (which seems to be the suit Tim hops in), so these powers could be there or coming somewhere soon down the road. Either way, this series continues to be a high point of my weekly pull when it comes out and I really can’t wait to see how they tie this storyline up.
