A review by trike
Batman Beyond 2.0, Vol. 1: Rewired by Kyle Higgins, Thony Silas

3.0

This was my first experience with Batman Beyond besides seeing a couple clips of the cartoon. This is definitely *not* the place to jump onboard, though, as it continues an existing story, and at some point the new Batman, Terry, had a falling-out with the original Batman, Bruce, so now Dick is his mentor. I don’t know if in this continuity Dick was ever Batman or only Nightwing. DC continuity is so completely screwed up that I have no idea what is even relevant any more.

The stories here are fine, but I’m missing some context. I’ve always liked the design of the future Bat-suit, even if the face part doesn’t make sense. It molds to his face and around his moth somehow? Nanotechnology or something, I guess. Nice to see Commissioner Gordon on the case, except of course it’s Barbara, Batgirl herself, which adds another layer, and I quite enjoyed seeing the return of Man-Bat. For him, at least, we do get a complete backstory, since this seems to be his first appearance in the future, and that complete backstory does a lot of heavy lifting for both plot and the theme of second chances.

The art is good despite switching artists for different installments. I guess I should read the older books to see what happened. Maybe I’ll do that. Maybe.