Comics: Batman Beyond Unlimited 8

The cover to the excellent "Batman Beyond Unlimited #8"

Bruce has seen many of his allies be injured or die in front of him. Worse yet, he’s had some come back from the dead mysteriously to wreak havoc upon him. However this time, it is different because Bruce is the one in the hospital. In fact, he knew all along what was wrong with him, and just took a bunch of pain killers to try to ease the pain. Despite Bruce’s wishes, Terry will not let him leave.

As the issue opens, Gotham is a mess. The Jokerz are completely decimating the city by using many of their members as suicide bombers to blow themselves up at buildings. Unfortunately, Terry has to stop this but may not be alone. He meets a new character named Vigilante, and is at first suspect of him but learns he has no real choice but to trust him especially after the danger Max finds himself in. As Terry returns home after the mess, he finds his family missing, and guesses they left to seek shelter. Unfortunately below him, a familiar feline friend is below.

Since Luthor’s daughter’s actions, Walker, one of the super-cops, decides to use more of the power of the suit than any other cop. Unfortunately, that does not bode well for his brain as he steals the power of the other cops’ suits. As Superman hides out in his Fortress of Solitude, he cannot help but worry about Walker and the situation ensuing. He does not want to involve himself because of the possibility of an attack by Lex’s daughter. Yet when he enters into “Eradicator” mode with his suit, you know he means business.

Meanwhile, the JLU return from Apokolips in one peace. They know the war’s not over even though the battle might be. With the world threatened and Superman thinking seriously about the possibility of death, he tells the team to go home to their families. This leads to Terry getting his regular batsuit back from Bruce and what appears to be a boom tube as well with some book. However as they all have their final moments, Kobra prepares for the final phase of their war on the JLU!

Adam Beechen brings the threat full frontal in this issue. He raises the stakes on Terry and company, and brings in a couple old favorites of mine to join the action; quite solid work. Norm Breyfogle can just about do anything it seems alongside Mr. Beechen. Breyfogle brings Beechen’s script to life with beautiful action and dynamism, and as usual, nails each character.

JT Krul continues to build up more threats for Superman to face while at the same time crafting a new Luthor for him to face. This one isn’t giving up that easily, and is ready in the shadows waiting. Howard Porter does some great work here with attention to detail, and showing a real diversity in his artistic abilities. He draws a bunch of different things, and it’s fun to watch an artist do this. My only complaint was that in one panel, Superman’s skin looks like it’s falling off. Beyond that, it’s great.

Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen take a break from the action, and bring us some quiet moments. The story with Terry getting to spend some time with Bruce is written extremely well, and may be one (if) of their best issues yet. The art from this duo is also quite impressive. They are able to capture the JLU but also nail Wayne Manor too which is just astounding.
With these three teams in place, I wait with great anticipation until October.

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Tommy Zimmer is an upcoming writer of short stories, comic books, journalism/media reviews, screenplays, and anything related to writing. On zimmert101.wordpress.com, you can view his latest work, and see what exciting things he is currently doing!!