Batman Beyond #7: “City of Yesterday” Prologue
Written by: Dan Jurgens
Art by: Stephen Thompson
Colors by: Marcelo Maiolo
Cat’s TidBits: Coming from the end of Brother Eye, Tim Drake as Batman Beyond experiences a bump on the road as he doesn’t know what to do now, but that doesn’t stop Matt McGinnis to create new mysteries as we come to explore our new Gotham City.
It’s a trial and error run for Tim Drake as he starts to put the pieces together of his Batman suit, but that doesn’t take long since Barbara is there to help him. Now that we don’t have Brother Eye to give us that action-packed frames that we’ve been getting for the past six issues, I’m a little bored, needless to say. Given, that there was basically no dialogue in the previous issues, but this is too slow-paced for me. I understand that we’re discovering our new Gotham and it’s going to be slow for a while, but we need something quick.
Slightly annoying to me that Tim Drake is learning how to be Batman, but honestly I don’t know what to think of it. Matt McGinnis is the only thing about this issue that made us wonder where they’re going to take the storyline to now. So Green Lantern’s severed arm makes an appearance (ha) and Matt finds out that it came from Metropolis, which is “Often called the city of Tomorrow, is home to the Justice League.” The story is good. I’m not complaining about that, but I want something more. If this were a movie, this would be the slow part of the movie and I’m okay with that. But this isn’t a movie. SO, yes. I need more.
There was one fight scene that included the Jokerz, the only purpose that scene fulfilled was to show us how the Batman suit worked and its toys that it came along with it. Like I mention in the beginning, it’s a slow transition. The relationship between Barbara and Tim is even awkward, but that’s going to change pretty quickly since he’s going to be living there. I don’t know about you, but you need to like your roommate or else that’s going to be disastrous.
The Good: I have nothing. Well, the art was pretty good. Stephen Thompson did a great job capturing the washed-up Gotham city.
The Bad: I believe you guys got the gist of what I felt was bad in this issue. The pacing of the story is slow, filler fight scenes, and Batman is working on his kinks.
Recommended If:
- You like Tim Drake as Batman Beyond
- You like post-apocalyptic worlds
- Matt McGinnis’ rebel phase pleases you
Overall:
I would still recommend this book to anyone, because I’m in it for the long haul. As much as the writing is taking a while for us readers, this story has potential. The last couple of issues were extremely action-packed, but lacked dialogue. Now there is dialogue, but the pacing is slow. It’ll find it’s balance I’m sure, but for now. We shall wait and see. Matt, what are you trying to look for?
Score: 5/10
