Batman: The Adventures Continue #1
Written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini
Art by Ty Templeton and Monica Kubrina
Lettering by Joshua Reed
Published by DC
Review by David Pepose
‘Rama Rating: 7 out of 10
The comic industry gets a little bit of Gotham City comfort food with Batman: The Adventures Continue, a digital-first trip down memory lane with The Batman Adventures veterans Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, and Ty Templeton. Yet despite their compressed narrative real estate, this creative team ambitiously expands Batman’s world across the DC Animated Universe, giving readers a little bit of the old with a little bit of the new.
Given the general instability of the world around us right now, there’s something centering about how Burnett, Dini, and Templeton return us to the B:TAS world, as the Dark Knight squaring off against Bane is only the appetizer. But from there, much of Batman: The Adventures Continue is about broadening Batman’s world and keeping readers on their toes — while a battle royale against a giant robot feels a little perfunctory, the supporting cast brings a sense of weight to the rest of the storytelling, from a partially-seen figure in the shadows to a surprising cameo from a longtime foe from another Justice Leaguer’s Rogues Gallery.
And to their credit, while they have only a limited amount of page space to work within – after all, these digital installments are only half the real estate of a standard print issue – Burnett and Dini weave in their exposition smoothly, introducing Batman, Alfred, Robin, even former love interest Veronica Vreeland. In many ways, it almost feels like the writers are throwing in even more bells and whistles than the usually streamlined Batman: The Animated Series – while that means they’ve crammed in plenty of storytelling threads to pursue elsewhere, it does occasionally mean that the action sequences get less room to breathe.
That latter point is also artist Ty Templeton’s biggest hurdle to overcome. Admittedly, he and colorist Monica Kubrina feel a little rough around the edges here – while Templeton adheres nicely to the B:TAS character designs, some of his rendering during the fight sequences looks a little bit clunky. (Particularly the sequence featuring a deadly killer robot, which not only looks a little goofy in the design phase, but he’s forced to minimize any impact from the fight itself because he has to fit so many different beats in such a small amount of page real estate.) That said, his expression-work – particularly when Batman is out of the cape and cowl — is reassuringly consistent, and goes a long way towards engaging readers. Any stumbling he has feels like a victim of the format, rather than the craftsmanship.
Comparing Batman: The Adventures Continue #1 to its animated predecessor is unfair, given the limitations in space and pacing – but for those looking for a little bit of familiarity to tether themselves during these unprecedented times could find plenty of worse ways to spend 99 cents. Surprisingly ambitious for its small size – even at times occasionally outpacing their actual capabilities — Batman: The Adventures Continue #1 is a solid continuation of a watershed moment in the history of DC’s premier Dark Knight Detective.