Batman Beyond #37

By Dan Jurgens, Sean Chen, Sean Parsons, Chris Sotomayor, and Travis Lanham

Batman Beyond #37 starts a new arc in the series, giving us a brief introduction of a new beyond version of a Batman family member. The cover itself gives this specific spoiler away and the reader will be waiting for the entire issue for the other characters to play catch up. That being said, there are still plenty of questions and mysteries left for the reader to be excited for the next issue. Batman Beyond is a consistently good title that captures the spirit of the TV show. This series also effectively broadens the Batman Beyond mythos with characters that fit well into this world. 

Dan Jurgen makes it look easy transitioning from one story into another as we pick up from the aftermath of False Face. Along with the easy transition between stories, Jurgen also injects a lot of mystery in each of these story arcs, which is greatly appreciated by any Batman fan. The new mystery set up in this issue is interesting. Who is the new Batwoman? Matt and Bruce seem to have their theories on who it is and arguments could be made either way on who it is. The majority of this issue revolves around the characters speculating on the surprise return of Batman, who has been missing in active for the past several days. The only frustrating aspect about this issue is that it feels as if too much time is spent on the characters being in the dark that the Batman on the news is in fact a new Batwoman. After reading the end of the previous issue and looking at the cover of this comic, we know that Batwoman Beyond is going to be introduced, but we have to wait for the characters to figure it out. Despite a slow start to this story arc, we still have questions to be curious about. Who is Batwoman Beyond? How did the villain introduced in this issue come back and what are his plans? 

The art in Batman Beyond, consistently has a look to it that feels true to the original TV show. For this issue, Chen, Parsons, Sotomayor, and Lanham handle the art with tons of bright and colorful panels that make this issue fun to read. The most interesting thing that is done in this issue, is how the silhouette of Batwoman Beyond is portrayed. For each crime that Batwoman Beyond stops, we see red wings,bat symbols, and people engrossed in black and red that really make it stand out in the panel. The end of the issue also gives us an extreme change in the color palette, giving us a change in scenery to make it feel a little different from the Batwoman Beyond sections.

Batman Beyond #37 is a solid start to a new story arc in the Batman Beyond series. Though it spends a little too much time on having the characters figure out that Batwoman Beyond is behind the recent bat sightings, this new mystery will have readers interested in how this story pans out.