It isn’t that much of a secret, but if you didn’t know, Grant Morrison’s entire run on Batman is some of my favorite comics. It’s a shame that the writing can’t match the visuals, because it makes something that could have been truly special into a massive missed opportunity. Still, just viewed as a silent story, it’s absolutely stunning, and some of the best artwork this title has seen yet. Once I realized the order of the sequence, it was a cool effect, but that only came after my initial confusion of reading the captions backwards. There’s only one sequence, late in the proceedings, that doesn’t really work, though I get what they were going for: Terry ascends a staircase, and rather than the action starting at the top left of the page, it begins at the bottom left and follows him upward. I love Cheng’s use of light and shadow, in particular, with the eerie glow of computer screens illuminating Batman’s cowl with an artificial light. Every page is beautiful to look at, be it an exhilarating set piece or a quieter, dramatic moment. Max Dunbar and Sebastian Cheng’s linework and coloring, respectively, are top-notch as well. Like all great lettering, it’s unobtrusive and supportive except when it needs to be flashy, like some bombastic sound effects in the story’s action scenes. Aditya Bidikar has some truly phenomenal lettering on display here, particularly the different fonts and styles used for a technical presence that I won’t spoil. The saving grace is that everything that isn’t the actual story is pretty good. ![]() ![]() Next April, in fact, so keep an eye out for that. It also doesn’t help that, like most of the rest of the Urban Legends stories thus far, this is just a prelude to a story that will come next year. No, it’s not because of the writers, but what they’ve written, and I don’t like it at all. They did just fine wrapping up Grayson, as thankless a job as that was, and I really enjoyed their Star Trek: Year Five work (the final issue of which is out this week as well, and a better book to showcase their talents). I don’t think it’s necessarily because I bring baggage with Lanzing and Kelly, though they aren’t my favorite writers. If there’s poetry or impact here, it’s lost on me, because this does not serve Bruce, Thomas, Martha, or even Terry well at all. I don’t know what this is supposed to change, or how it’s supposed to strengthen Bruce Wayne, because it really just cheapens his parents’ murder. Afraid of the bat, which he saw before Bruce ever did. We’re told that “in his last moments,” Thomas “saw far past the alley… he was afraid. It’s when Bruce tells Terry that Martha wasn’t proud, because she was dead before she hit the ground, and Thomas was afraid of what Bruce would become… that is not good writing. It’s all part of the “superstitious and cowardly lot” part of his M.O. See, I know that Bruce is all about striking fear into the hearts of criminals. What really drags it down is the dialogue, especially from Bruce, which I guess is meant to prop up Terry as a worthy successor to the mantle of Batman but instead makes some pretty unnecessary changes to the Wayne murders. A good story could have been wrung from this, no doubt, but it was not this story. These scenes serve as flashbacks when Terry canvasses the entirety of Neo Gotham to try and find out who murdered Bruce, with Wayne’s dying words echoing in his ears. Just from a broad perspective, the whole idea here is tired and uninteresting: an elderly Bruce Wayne is on the verge of death, thanks to an attack from an unknown assailant, and Terry McGinnis has one last conversation with his mentor. In fact, there are some story decisions that make it one of the worst Batman Beyond stories I’ve ever read. Without mincing words, I did not like this story. Really, I wish I could have started this review on a more positive note, but that’s not the case, so let’s just get into it. And the one “spotlight” story, the one that does lead to a new book that will come out next year? It’s… pretty bad. That definitely works to the issue’s benefit, but unfortunately, the stories don’t rise above “pretty good” at best. Yes, three out of the four stories printed here are meant to stand on their own, without the promise of a continuation in a new title that’s still five or six months out. Maybe this would be a great single issue that stood on its own. When I saw that they were going to be set in Gotham’s future, I was… less intrigued, but still. So, when I saw that issue seven was going to consist of one-and-done stories, I got excited. Yes, I’ve brought this up a lot, so none of this information is new. Almost everything has either been one part of a multi-part tale, or a “one-shot” that really just serves as a backdoor pilot to a forthcoming book. ![]() ![]() My main complaint about Batman: Urban Legends has been the lack of standalone stories. Well, I suppose I did ask for this, after all.
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