This month marks the 7th issue of Batman Beyond and the conclusion of Industrial Revolution arc. Will Terry survive the fight with Blight? Will Bruce lose his company? Will Gotham errupt into a labor related riot? Will Beechen finally be able to pull off a satisfactory conclusion?! All this and more after the jump.

Follow up:

First off I really like this cover. This was a last minute substitution from an earlier cover of Blight and Terry overlooking a burning Gotham. That cover was okay but I definitely think this new one is more dynamic, and more relevant to the plot.

Speaking of which, Blight ambushes Terry at the stock exchange, disabling him by putting his hands on his face, causing radiation burns. Terry manages to get away by attacking Blight's suit. In the end Terry almost loses and is killed, but Dr. French warns Blight that if he doesn't calm down and get the suit fixed, his body will breakdown and ooze away. Terry is in really bad shape, so he heads back to the manor. Meanwhile, the police bring back Dana's brother, who was a bystander to a Jokerz crime. It turns out that Dana's brother is a former Jokerz (my money is on Chucko, though it would be creepy if that happened considering I recall him hitting on her in an early episode). At the same time Max meets with someone from Undercloud. The member claims that there is no leader, but rather a loose group of hackers with similar objectives. Max agrees to join in order to investigate further and take them out, but the member says she must pass a test first.

Back at the mansion Terry does the best to patch himself up, when Bruce calls and lets him know he did in fact repurchase Wayne/Powers. He is staying at the office, unbeknownst to Blight. Figuring Blight would come for Bruce, Terry stays at the mansion to confront him. Blight's suit has been powered up for the fight, but Terry still finds a weakness. He finds the control panel and disables the suit with the magnets in his fingertips. The suit destroyed, Blight breaks down.

Blight is captured and Dr. French is sent to jail. Godfrey tries to extort Bruce with his labor demands but Bruce pulls the ultimate victory for himself: he gives in. With all the labor demands met the stock will no longer be unstable and the people trying to destroy the company will now come after Godfrey for failing. With Bruce back in charge, he changes the name back to Wayne Incorporated and sets to work to repairing the company.

Holy damn Beechen actually pulls it off! The conclusion was exciting, meaningful, true to character and actually progresses the universe. Admittedly, this would probably be even more interesting if it were a 6-parter instead of 3-parter, but within the pages Becheen was given, he manages to get off a really compelling story. For all my criticism of him, I must say that he is really good at getting insight into characters. He's really fleshing out Dana, Max and even Bruce, even though Bruce Wayne is a character that has existed for over 60 years he still manages to work something fresh out. His real weakness is writing original story lines. But for this arc he did a good job. This Beechen. I want more of this in the future.