Why Today’s Comic wasn’t Batman Beyond #4

When I pick up my comics I sadly don’t have time to sit there and read through them all. That’s why I turned the weekly comic reviews into daily comic reviews. However, I do leaf through them not to spoil myself (it’s happened) but to get an idea of what I’m in for and scope out an early contender for “Best Scene”.

Thus was the case with Batman Beyond #4. And what I saw on the last page made me very annoyed. Then I read the actual story, and thought about it a bit. I know DC has decided that any press is good enough for them, even if it’s bad. (They must love me, because I have an entire category dedicated to giving them bad press to point where I called it “Death of DC”.)

So what ticked me off in the initial readthrough? First, the usual open and then the review.

But I thought Robocop was on our side!

Batman Beyond #4

DC Comics (November 2010)

WARNING!: What follows are full-on spoilers for this comic in order to push my theory. A normally-formatted, spoiler-blocked review will be put up at ComiXology when I’m done writing this, which I should have done by the time you read this.

When we last left the series, Batman had met up with Dick Grayson while “Hush” met up with Catwoman and started trying to kill her. This is important to my theory later, as is Amanda Waller looking to track down the Cadmus worker who decided to grow a conscience.

Back at “Hush Beyond” (that’s the issues title) and Catwoman Beyond (just following a trend), Bruce sends one of the “Batmechs” to take down his foe, only for him to defeat it using his knowledge of how Bruce operates. Then Catwoman shows her ability to create 8 duplicates of herself. With me so far?

Meanwhile, Terry is talking to Dick to confirm that he isn’t Hush2, and Dick tells us the story of how he stopped being Nightwing. I’m not sure I care for it, and I’m not spoiling everything but we learn that Dick is too injured to be Hush2.

However, after impersonating Mad Stan, Batman is attacked by Hush2 again. I don’t know why Terry is pretending to be Mad Stan, or when the cloaking device started being used as a full-on hologram projector, but obviously it, like Max’s cameo and the ones last issue, are just there for Adam to tell us that he does indeed know about the show’s characters. Hush also name-drops Shriek and Stalker while beating down and stabbing Terry with a spear…and then this:

Imagine my anger when I saw this. Dick Grayson is the new Hush? Seriously, Beecham? Then I thought about it. And these mystery clues came to my mind.

1. If Dick Grayson was Hush, then who was attacking Catwoman 2 while Dick was talking to Batman?
2. Was Dick lying about the bullet near his spine and loss of an eye?
3. Sure he was given a reason to hate Bruce (I still hold this against Beechen) but would he really go Jason Todd on the villains of Gotham?
4. Wait, so how does Cadmus get involved?

And that’s where I started thinking of something. I always found the Justice League Unlimited episode “Epilogue” to be a very unnecessary episode. Why someone decided that Terry had his DNA changed from Warren McGuiness to Bruce Wayne in order to create a new Batman to be vindication for Amanda Waller instead of using stupid coincidence to put something strange in the origin of the new Batman is…pardon the expression…beyond me.

However, since she DID decide there is supposed to be a new Batman, what if she also thought there should be a Robin? Since the non-comics media doesn’t seem to acknowledge Tim Drake as Robin in favor of Dick Grayson–who should have moved on to being Nightwing–in the real world, why should Amanda? So what if this “Hush Grayson” is in fact a clone created at Cadmus? If you read through the first three issues, we know that there seems to be a connection to Hush and Cadmus.

I’m hoping this is the case, because Dick Grayson going psycho is worse that what they already did to him. I find myself wishing the writers had given us Dick’s fate like they did Tim’s in the Return of the Joker movie. However, at least this plot twist would vindicate Dick for this story.

Overall, I’m becoming less happy with the story. This isn’t the Batman Beyond I remember, and while I may finish this mini-series, I don’t see me getting a full series if they come out with it, and I may put this one on the list of comics I plan to sell rid off to get my comic collection under control. I’m not going to tell you to avoid it, because unless my theory is wrong it isn’t a bad comic. It’s just that it’s more about Bruce even though Terry is in the Batsuit, and that’s just not right.

Oh, and there IS a Best Scene nomination.

"Hush" sent a bonus to the dating service.