Beware the Batman comics# 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Beware the Batman was the fourth major Batman animated series, after the Animated Series, The Batman, and The Brave and the Bold. This one spiced things up a bit by giving Batman a younger Alfred and Katana as his sidekicks, as well as using more obscure villains like Arnarky and Magpie. It was also the first CGI Batman cartoon, which is always something different. This was the first issue of the comic-based adaptation. Let's check it out.

'Law and (Dis)order' opens with Batman and Katana questioning one of Stagg's men as to why he's been running round-the-clock shifts for the last three shifts. The guy himself doesn't know, all he knows is some new executive gave them orders to speed something up that was meant to be done next month to be pushed out the following day. Driving in his limo as Bruce Wayne and Tatsu, she asks him why they wasted time with a flunkie and didn't ask Stagg himself. Bruce says he might not know what's going on either. Alfred alerts them that the 'Fightback Movement' has started a commotion nearby and suggests they go there to investigate.

Bruce attends Stagg's party where they discuss how they're getting extra police to protect them from the Fightback Movement rioters. Stagg introduces his new executive Robert Catesby who will be spreading new security systems all over the city at a low cost. Bruce couldn't stomach Stagg's company anymore and soon leaves the party.

At the Batcave, Alfred shows Batman and Katana a copy of the new security system Stagg and Catesby are promoting which links the security locks in people's homes directly into the police department, becoming an unbreakable lock and burglar alarm. Alfred wonders why Stagg would offer this for free, even if he stands to gain a lot. Batman determines that this man is a fake. Batman says Catesby spoke with a different fake accent every time he said anything (I would have loved to hear this on the cartoon show), plus he had a fake link and he smelled latex and spirit gum on him which proved he was wearing a false face. Batman says the Fightback Freedom riots coming into town would bring in business for the security systems they're selling, so Catesby must have already known they were hitting Gotham before they got there. Katana determines he must be the new exec that was rushing the orders for these devices. Batman says he planted a tracker on him when he shook hands with him at the party. They head off to find him.

Batman and Katana go to the Batmobile and find where Catesby would live, but the place would explode, barely giving them time to react. Twenty hours later, Bruce is recovering as Tatsu explains she carried him back to the Batmobile and drove him home after the explosion. Bruce figures out Catesby's plan to affect the timelocks at midnight that night, but it still leaves the question of who he is. They fast forward the time lock they have from Stagg's company and Anarky appears on TV in a pre-recorded message revealing the end of law of order and promising freedom. They play the final part of his message where he says there will be 'no locks, no doors, no property'. Alfred notes the locks show some activity when he says 'no locks' which means Anarky plans to deactivate all the time locks in the city when his message plays at midnight. Bruce suits up and tells Tatsu to investigate the Fightback Movement in plainclothes since they have to be tied into this somehow.

It's 11:15 now and Stagg is trying to get on the phone with Catesby when he suddenly attacked in the dark. Meanwhile Tatsu is undercover and talks to some members of the Fightbackers and finds out that Anarky has been leading them to Gotham as Catesby and told them to make their move that night. Batman tells her to suit up. He also placed a tracker on Stagg and knows he's in trouble.

Anarky is ready to drop Stagg off a building, when Katana suddenly shows up to stop him. Anarky lets Stagg go and Katana jumps to catch him. Batman shows up to fight Anarky, as the villain wonders how he got the tracker on him at the gala event. Katana determines that Anarky has fireworks also in store for the night. As they fight, the clock strikes midnight as Anarky's message starts to play throughout the city... but it's been interrupted by Batman warns people about their locked doors being opened. He tells the city to remain calm while they fix this, and if they try any robberies, he'll be watching. The rooftop explodes and Batman falls off, but is caught by one of the Fightbackers.

Katana helps Batman walk away and reports that Alfred tells them that they was hardly any looting. She asks if its out of people being good or the fear they have of Batman. Batman says it's a little of both, though innocent people don't have to fear. Only the guilty ones have reason to beware.

My Opinions:
This was a pretty good story, though again, since I haven't seen the episodes in which Tatsu became Katana yet, I don't know how their dynamic as hero and sidekick works in the show to compare it here, though I assume they did a good job. The art style does a decent enough job mimicking the style of the show, especially with Katana and Anarky.

Anarky's plan was cool, though the way Alfred and Bruce figured it out and how it tied into that date by midnight was kinda complicated I didn't feel like re-writing it in the review (it almost gave me an Adam West vibe on how Batman and Robin would solve Riddler's riddles in some convoluted manner). Anarky sure is crafty in this series with a bit of a Riddler vibe to match Batman's wits as well as his skills in a fight. I do think Batman took a risk as to plant a tracker on Anarky as Catesby at the party. He asked if she was undercover as one of the caterers at the party on his off hours. Someone as crafty as Anarky would eventually put two and two together if Batman continues to take these risks as Bruce Wayne.

I do like the little references to Superman, they mentioned Metropolis as one of the cities the Fightbackers have been to and they also mentioned Luthor as one of the millionaires they were rallying against.

Overall it was a decent comic and I did like Batman's fight against Anarky. I kinda hope we see Magpie in this soon, she's one of my favorite villains in the series and IMO should have been dumped somewhere in the New 52 among all the other villains during the Forever Evil storyline. IMO Anarky and Magpie are the best villains this new show brings to the table, I'm not really in a rush to see a comic with Humpty Dumpty and a lame watered-down version of Professor Pyg. 

 

The comic also had a short run, only six issues. Sadly, Magpie wasn't in any of them.