It’s an all-new story based in the groundbreaking animated world of Batman: The Animated Series. The opening chapter of Batman: The Adventures Continue has S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham City attacked by a giant robot that steals an entire room from the laboratory. Who’s controlling the robot? How will Batman stop the mechanized menace? And what does it all have to do with Lex Luthor’s sudden appearance in Gotham?

Batman: The Adventures Continue #1 is an interesting digital comic and one that might be hampered by expectations. Batman: The Animated Series was an amazing animated series. It’s possibly one of the best cartoons to ever grace the television screen. The success was a mix of so many factors from the stories themselves, to the voice acting, to the animation style. It looked unlike anything at the time with a maturity that was far beyond what else was being shown. A comic, even digital, is already at a disadvantage. It doesn’t have the flow of the animation or the voice acting both being key as to the show’s success.

And for me, the comic is a bit of a disappointment most likely due to that nostalgia.

The story is an interesting one with the chapter opening a story that feels a bit more like Fleischer’s Superman than it does Batman: The Animated Series. There are hints of the more adult leanings of the original animation with dancing around Bruce’s relationships in a scene with Lex Luthor but the antagonist of an alien robot screams more Superman than Batman. It just feels off as if this was an unused script for the Superman animated series that followed Batman’s footsteps.

The style of the comic does well to continue the aesthetic of the animated series with slick design and a mix of retro and modern. But, without the use of some of the animated techniques from the show, the visuals fall short. The lack of shadows for instance, used intelligently in the past, isn’t as prominent and instead things are more in the “open” in the city. It feels a bit more like The New Adventures of Batman than the original Batman: The Animated Series. Both are visually fantastic but there are differences between the two.

At 99 cents, it’s hard to go wrong with Batman: The Adventures Continue #1 but I can’t help but think that excitement and personal expectations created a hurdle the first issue couldn’t meet. It’s not bad but doesn’t capture the magic of the original series it’s based on.

Story: Alan Burnett, Paul Dini Art: Ty Templeton
Inks: Ty Templeton Colors: Monica Kubina Cover: Dave Johnson
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: comiXology

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