The events of the Death Metal series have redefined the DC universe, and the heroes have to find themselves in a new reality, often distant from ours, seemingly a dozen or so years ahead. Are we dealing with the Batman Beyond 2.0 version here? ?
Peace through tyranny
I don’t think the volume under review is even a spiritual successor to Batman Beyond , as we have a story about Bruce Wayne as Batman here . Another issue is the fact that this is a collection about the future of Gotham, which is just the beginning of a certain comic book event, which can be called a clog hole. In principle, we will not see anything new, except for the organization of Peacekeepers, who will certainly not be as spectacular as the Court of Owls. What captivated me was that the Gotham-wide surveillance organization, like the Ministry of Love in 1984 , is able to work out Batman using his tactics, and also aims to fight all kinds of “masks” – both good and bad . Therefore, we can observe old friends in brand new onesh rolac h. We will find out why Superman is an easy target in Gotham despite his super strength, how Doctor Pyg pursues his new experiments using genetics, whether Catwoman is actually a vulnerable heroine and how the duo of Harley Quinn and Johnatan Crane solve crimes puzzles for the almighty Magistrate while hunting down the leader of the masked people – Roman Sionis aka Black Mask.
Narrative style
However, the narrative, both textual and graphic, is interesting here. I can’t help but feel like I’m seeing imitators of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, especially in the work of Dan Mora and Mariko Tamaki. Focusing on the faces makes the story read on two levels, and the emotions on the faces of the characters allow you to empathize with them. the threat caused by the ubiquitous violence against which leotard wearers feel helpless. Virtually every story is more turned up than ordinary adventures in Gotham, because a gloomy atmosphere is pouring out of the frames, enhanced by great, futuristic colors. In addition, the story about Harley Quinn tries to imitate the manga in the “American” style, which is quite unusual for the pranks of this clown, although the story itself is not impressive.
I just don’t understand why the stories about Nightwing, Katana, Batgirl and many other leotards were cut from the original. It’s a pity, because they are important figures of this universe and many would like to know their fate.
More volumes to come
I mentioned Future State. Batman is the beginning of a comic book event. In fact, Egmont served us two more volumes that focus on Superman and the Justice League. Then there will most likely be another crisis, a big event, and again the DC Universe will rise from the ashes. Let’s not get it wrong: I have nothing against such concepts, as long as they bring something new, such as Flashpoint or the Metal series. Here, the announcement of the next major event does not inspire too much optimism when waiting, and the reader simply gets a slightly futuristic Gotham, in which the plot is ad nauseam similar to that in the original series from years ago. Added to this is the fact that in one volume there are stories not so much about Batman, but about the whole of Gotham – an interesting idea, but the title should sound different. In addition, there was an error in the description of the publication and there was no information that among the various stories we will find two notebooks with the Arkham Knights.
To sum up, this is not the best story with Gotham in the background, nor is it the best edition from Egmont , but we will find something for ourselves here, and Gack’s faithful fans should read it.
