Review: BATMAN BEYOND #35
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artists: Rick Leonardi, Ande Parks
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Travis Lanham
Reviewed By: Tony Farina
Summary
False Face has Terry’s suit. Bruce is aware, but what can he do? False Face finally captures Splitt. At that point we meet Adam and Caden. Twins who were born into the same body. Adam, the dark twin, made Caden kind of cranky as child and once he popped out/split from his brother (hence the baddie name Splitt). Life was better. Except, well, they were both speedsters and the speed is killing them. They are only 6 years old but they have adult bodies. They need to break into Powers Technology to get a cure. False Face has a trick up his bat sleeve. Bruce relies on an old foe to help out.
Meanwhile, Terry has lost his memories and has some issues with Gotham PD.
Positives
The art in this book feels scattered, but it feels that way on purpose. They want us to look at one particular thing and so, They leave some parts incomplete. They go with graphic detail on Bruce’s face, but Matt has just a few lines. The twins are constantly blurry, which is clever. The colors are bright and the action seems to move around the page. Drawing speedsters must be hard and coloring them even harder. How do you color a blur? Sotomayor does a wonderful job here especially when the special guest shows up at the end.
That end. Wow. Good times. That is a set up for a future story arc for sure.
Negatives
Right off the bat in Batman Beyond, False Face as Batman is in battle with the twin baddies and he drops some gas on them to immobilize them. That sounds pretty awesome right? The art is amazing. However, False Face explains what he is doing as he does it. The art, as mentioned, is amazing. Comics are visual and we don’t need you to explain it. Gas. Bad guys pass out. False Face has Terry’s suit on. He is prepared. He does not pass out. We can see it.
This happens later when Ten shows up. It is a bit too reminiscent of the old Super Friend’s show. Just go and save the day already, you don’t need to tell us what you are going to do before you go do it.
Verdict
False Face, like Clay Face is a villain that I can take or leave. Being someone else is a power that can be totally amazing or redundant. I am not sure how to feel about it here. It feels a bit redundant here. Still, what a great last page. There is so much to unpack there and what hope for the future of the series.
