The Good

Every once in a while I need to stop what I'm doing and thank the powers that be for the fact that we're getting this continuation of the Batman Beyond characters. It was an amazing animated series and deserves to have a place in the comics market.

Starting out as a digital first series, actually two separate ones (BATMAN BEYOND 2.0 by Kyle Higgins and JUSTICE LEAGUE BEYOND 2.0), the printed form combines 'issues' from the two in a fitting manner.

BATMAN BEYOND 2.0 was first released on August 3. (You can check out my review for the first chapter HERE, spoiler: it was a five out of five). What Kyle Higgins is doing is taking the characters one year after the previous series. This allows for some new developments (hopefully you didn't get spoiled by that big twist at the end) and more mysteries. Simply put, Higgins gets Batman Beyond. You can immediately tell he understands the vibe of the universe and you can feel his enthusiasm bubbling beneath the surface of the comic.

Christos Gage handles the JUSTICE LEAGUE BEYOND portion. We do have Terry McGinnis here since he is part of the team and there is another connection between the two involving a conversation Superman has. There is a new problem the team has to deal with and we'll have to wait to see what happens.

The Bad

The BATMAN BEYOND portion hits the ground running. We're off to a great start and those reading this in print might have a hard time waiting and may want to go to the digital first editions. Since we only get one chapter of JUSTICE LEAGUE BEYOND, it's not as powerful of a beginning. The characters are all present but it's not quite enough to spark the excitement that BB does. Terry's appearance with the team makes sense in the context and history of the previous series but it felt a little off compared to what's going on in Higgins portion.

The Verdict

There's no need to stick to the present in the DC Universe. Kyle Higgins and Christos Gage are carrying on the tradition of the Batman Beyond characters in their latest stories first appearing digitally. Taking place one year after the previous series, we're seeing where the characters are now and there are some new developments happening. Both series capture the essence of the characters. Whether you like the idea of the digital first comics or still prefer to strictly remain with printed comics, DC is making sure you get to keep up with the latest adventures in the (possible) future of the DC Universe (or at least the Animated Universe). Don't miss out on the fun.

Will this make any sense if I don't know a single thing about Batman Beyond?

I picked this up because it's a whole lotta comic for $3.99. I never got into the previous volume of the Beyond stuff mostly because I'm not a fan of Beechen or Krul. But I do dig both Higgins and Gage, so I decide to give this a shot.

sure will but you can find out the essentials of the character on the wiki

the series is on netflix. great show. aged very well.

so glad this series is going and its cool theyre pushing a little further in terry's career. I LOVE THIS SERIES

didn't you guys review this already and gave it 5 stars? O_O

It was amazing

Christos Gage tweeted earlier today:

For those asking, BATMAN BEYOND UNIVERSE #1 does contain Chapter 2 of Justice League Beyond, which hits the internet on Saturday.

@madeinbangladesh: Comicvine reviewed and gave 5 stars to the first issue of Batman Beyond 2.0 which came out digitally first at the beginning of the month. This book combines the first two issues of Batman Beyond 2.0 and Justice League Beyond 2.0. The 4 was likely given due to the Justice League portion of the book not having as much kick as the particularly well done Batman Beyond portion by Kyle Higgins.

Wow this was great! Both stories left me wanting more. The art really captured the feel of the Beyond universe. If I had one complaint it would be the Batman portion kept referring back to events taking place during Joker Night. It didn't hinder the story but I picked up a #1 thinking it would be a completely fresh start. Now I just wanna go pick up the "10,000 Clowns trade".

I wish I could just get Batman Beyond, I hate the Justice League so have 0 interest in that.

If you have any kind of tablet or whatever, the Batman Beyond chapters are available digitally. I'm not super interested in the Beyond iteration of the Justice League either, so that's what I've been doing.

@kennyshat: Yeah I've been getting them digitally would be nice tho to get them in print... got some of the other Batman Beyonds and was wondering wtf when I opened it and there was Superman.

@mcg: Fair enough. With the old series, they split them out in the trades (Batman Beyond was a seperate trade from Justice League Beyond), so that'll probably be your best bet.