Beware the Batman

• Title: Beware the Batman #3
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Scott Beatty
• Artist: Luciano Vecchio

Katana‘s training continues as Batman gives his protege a crash course in underwater dirty fighting tactics and turns his attention to crime boss Tobias Whale and the sunken cargo ship of weapons the Dark Knight left at the bottom of Gotham Harbor.

Unwilling to let Whale’s salvage operation be successful, Batman and Katana set out to stop the criminal from reclaiming, and flooding the streets of Gotham, with his firearms. Batman even goes so far as to rely on Lt. Gordon (who seems a little more chummy with the vigilante in the comics than the TV-show that spawned them), even if he does so by giving the police detective an exploding Bat-phone.

Although Whale isn’t the most interesting of villains, the underwater setting works well and the legitmate threat of weapons hitting Gotham’s streets is incentive enough for our heroes to act. Katana is still in training, but it’s obvious from Batman’s relationship with Gordon the comic is taking place at least a few months down the line from the last episodes to air (although if the episodes hadn’t been prematurely pulled the gap might not be so noticeable). Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

• Title: Beware the Batman #2
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Matthew K. Manning
• Artist: Dario Brizuela

Expecting an eminent threat from Professor Pyg, Batman, Alfred, and Katana split up to protect likely targets. Capturing the super-villains minions, the heroes are unaware that his true target is a vacationing CEO and his family.

I’ve never been a big fan of Professor Pyg, but the various misdirection employed by writer Matthew K. Manning works well here and the villain’s motives certainly fit his profile. I was also very impressed with the art by Dario Brizuela (who also did the awesome Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #1) who takes some liberties with the cartoon’s all-black costume by adding some much needed grey, and gives us some cool sepia-colored origins panels for each of our three heroes.

Brizuela’s panels make this one worth grabbing (even if it is a story about the ridiculous environmental terrorist Professor Pyg). I hope to see more of his work both here and on Scooby-Doo! Team-Up. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

• Title: Beware the Batman #1
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Ivan Cohen
• Artist: Luciano Vecchio

Hitting comic shops the same time that Cartoon Network announced they have shelved the cartoon its based on for the rest of the year, the first issue of Beware of the Batman should please fans of the show and give younger audiences a new Batman comic to read.

The writing by Ivan Cohen is better than many of the episodes of the half-hour cartoon as Batman uncovers the latest scheme of Simon Stagg who takes advantage of his new high-tech locking mechanism that actually leaves most of the city open thanks in part to the meddling of Anarky and an Occupy Wall Street-ish group. And there’s also an explosive plot timed for the Fifth of November.

Artist Vecchio does a fair job in trying to adapt the show’s sleek CGI-animated look to the printed page. The comic’s continuity is a little perplexing as Katana seems to be Batman’s fully-fledged partner (something hard won on the series over several weeks) but is still in possession of the Soultaker Sword. Small continuity issues like that aside, the first issue does a good job is selling the all ages Bat-book. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]