Everyone knew he wasn’t good enough to be Batman, and now Tim’s mistake has put humanity at risk. But when all seems lost, an old friend takes him back where it all started. Will a gift from the past give Tim what he needs to save the future?

Batman Beyond has taken DC’s weekly series Futures End, and stretched it out, throwing us into that familiar, but different future. Much like Tim Drake, we’re figuring out what’s different, what’s new, and what happened!? This issue has a lot of that in what’s a pretty action-packed story that has the future Batman battling brother Eye, and then catapulting that battle into a new battlefield that I wouldn’t have expected for another few issues at least.

Writer Dan Jurgens has amped up the battle, making it really feel like a final last stand. This is a series whose future might be a bit tedious, and the story feels like anything can happen because of that. This is a good thing as it had me excited to see what’s next and I really felt like anyone could die, be turned, or, well, who knows! It felt like a more adult action cartoon throughout.

Jurgens also digs into Drake’s past and mines the self-doubt and shoes he has to fill. Not just the previous’ future Batman’s but also Bruce Wayne too. It personalizes the story a bit more, and fills it into the legacy of the character nicely.

All that action is brought to us by Bernard Chang who mixes the war-torn environment into a future scape, and a future city with a seamless flow where everything goes together though it really shouldn’t. Brother Eye’s forces too are a mix of familiar robot constructs and twisted nightmares.

The comic felt like one big fight, not something I generally enjoy, until the end, which features a twist that ties in what’s currently going on in the various current Batman series directly into this. It’s not something I thought about, and it shows there’s a greater plan out there for what’s going on. That ending had me more excited to see what’s coming in the next issue.

Story: Dan Jurgens Art: Bernard Chang
Story: 7.25 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.35 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review