Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Two #7 – Alan Burnett/Paul Dini, Writers; Rich Burchett, Artist; Monica Kubina, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: This cartoon tie-in has been one of the most pleasant surprises coming out of DC in recent years, but this final chapter doesn’t really live up to the previous ones. That’s really the fault of over-ambition more than anything—it’s set up a pretty complex plot and only has twenty pages to resolve it. When we last left off, Barbara Gordon had been kidnapped by sinister Mayoral candidate Emerson Mayfield after working undercover at his campaign. It’s revealed that Mayfield is working with the Mad Hatter and March Harriett and has been brainwashing half of Gotham—including the doctors at Arkham Asylum, who have been releasing inmates. Barbara quickly gets brainwashed herself, being used as a pawn by Mayfield to implicate Hamilton Hill Jr, and spends most of the issue on TV talking about her sob story. In a particularly dark twist, Mayfield plans to even force her to kill herself to tie up loose ends.
Two-thirds into the issue, it feels like the creative team realized they only had a few pages left to tie this up. A whole host of Arkham villains show up to back Mayfield’s plan with election night looming, and it becomes clear just how evil he is. This issue is at its best when it has a lighter touch, such as the cutaways to Harley and Ivy commenting on the election. Batman and Mayfield only encounter each other briefly in this issue, with Mayfield eventually getting what he deserves and order being restored in Gotham. This plot feels like it could have used another issue to really come across effectively, but it’s only a minor blot on the series overall. This remains one of the best versions of Batman we’ve gotten in modern history, a fitting tribute to the animated series. Let’s hope it is coming back for a season three so we can continue to explore the world the writers created.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
