For the first time in close to a decade I have purchased a Western Comic book on its release day.

Now, I have plenty of Western comics, I usually pick them up if I find them on a garage sale or something, and I always get stuff on Free Comic book day, but it's been a very long time I've actually gone and purchased an issue full price. It's not to say that I hate Western comics, but the fact is Marvel and DC, as well as many other independent have for many years irritated me with their trends in storytelling. For a while I put up with it, and slammed my head against the desk when they revived yet another 'dead' character, added yet another alternate reality/time twist or utterly changed a character's personality for no damn good reason, and tended to be quite expensive. Then I discovered manga. It's not to say that manga is better than American comics, as there is tons and tons of junk out there (sigh, why do I keep reading Tsubasa?) but in the end I just found I enjoy manga more and find it to be a better value.

So why did out of the blue I decide to buy a Superman/Batman comic? Two words: Batman Beyond. Anyone who's read my blog for a while knows I am a gigantic BB fan. A few months ago DC swallowed their words and announced that they were essentially going to make BB canon, maybe not totally canon, but actually acknowledge it is a part of their greater universe and make a comic outside of the series they did, which were basically like unaired episodes. Because of this I was willing to take a chance on DC again. Did they re-earn my confidence?

Follow up:

Cover: 10/10

I originally learned about this issue and the Batman Beyond miniseries after discovering it on Deviant Art, and I must say the cover is beautiful, damn near perfect. It's beautifully colored, the composition is awesome with the old picture of Bruce Wayne Batman and much younger Superman on the screen above Terry and Older Superman really ties together beautifully. And the best part is they make Terry look right. My biggest complaint for a long time is that no one makes Terry look correct outside of the show style, but the team behind both the cover art and interior art do it beautifully: they make him look young and lanky, boyish but thinly muscled and despite his frame still intimidating as the Batman.

Interior Art: 9/10

The atmosphere has that dark, sinister edge the show lacked outside of the opening credits, and 99% of the characters look perfect, except for Ace. Ace is a little badly drawn on two panels, so I can't give them a perfect score.

Character Consistency: 9/10

DC tends to allow their characters to have stupid, inconsistent changes in character and personality, so I was a bit worried this one happen in this series. Terry isn't Emo, he's a smartass who has a hard time controlling his temper and his mouth, which is part of the reason he needs the guidance from Bruce. They were able to transition him to their new every-comic-has-to-be-dark-and-edgy world and still keep Terry, Terry. In fact Superman tells him he hopes Terry will be able to stay more human than what Bruce had become. His banter is there with Bruce. So why only a 9? Because Terry always called Bruce 'Bruce' and not 'Wayne', even when angry he always referred to him by his first name, and only called him 'Mr. Wayne' when telling his mom or teachers he has to 'work'. And some of his banter verges on just complaining. Yes, I am going to be that nitpicky.

Story Consistency: 10/10

I'm pretty confident now they are making Batman Beyond canon, because several events from the ongoing Final Crisis/Blackest Night storyline and War of the Supermen storyline are mentioned and alluded to in B/S#4, meaning that this version of Batman Beyond takes place in the current DC universe, but they are able to nicely stir in the events from the show. In fact the plot of this comics comes from the events of the Justice League episodes. It's very nicely done and not a stretch at all.

Story: 7/10

Ah the story, probably the most important part of the comic, so how does this one rate up? Well, it's okay, since in the end, it just involves Lex Luthor, yet again, trying to get power and destroy Superman. Now you may be upset that I just spoiled it, but the fact is it's *always* Lex Luthor behind the events in Superman, which is one of the reasons why I never liked the series. Don't get me wrong, I like Superman, I like Clark Kent, I think he is a great character but the fact is his villains *suck* and his stories are ridiculously repetitive. It's either Lex Luthor, some god-like Alien entity trying to take over earth, or a combo of the two. That's Superman in a nutshell. I would *much* rather they went some other route. The ending was very good, and for a one-shot it nicely tied everything together without gaping what-happens-next holes.

Total: 9/10

For the first stab at something Batman Beyond related in a decade, they did a really, really good job. It's consistent with both the show's canon and DC's larger universe. The story is a little lack-luster, but the art makes up for it. While this doesn't totally restore my confidence in DC, I at least now forgive them for that stupid Bruce-Wayne-is-Dead storyline from last year. However, I'm still not pleased about Damian Wayne, so we'll see what next with the Batman Beyond mini-series starting in a couple of weeks.