- Cover by Sean Murphy
- Written by Kyle Higgins
- Art by Thony Silas
- Colours by Andrew Elder
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BEWARE OF SPOILERS
For chapter three of ‘Rewired’ all hell has broken lose with the mysterious and still unseen villain breaking all the inmates out of the Arkham Institute.
Higgins has managed to create a villain who looms large over the story without even having to show them or even give them a name. We’re a little over a quarter of a way through this story and already the Mayor has been murdered and all of the inmates have been released. This is a large scale attack on Neo-Gotham which rivals anything seen in big-screen Batman movies.
It’s summed up best in some of the first dialogue that the villains speaks when he/she says:
‘Hello, Gotham. Allow me to introduce myself. Yesterday I murdered your leader. Today, I freed two dozen of your worst. Tonight, I take over your city.’
This issue begins to get to the meat of the emotional story which is bubbling under the surface of ‘Beyond’ and that’s perhaps best visualised in the above scene where Bruce makes contact with Dick. The Bat-family work best when they’re working together and right now they’re still fractured and missing perhaps their best asset.
There’s a huge amount of action in this issue which is expertly drawn and scripted. This mystery villain is pushing Terry to the edge and the cracks are beginning to show. Terry takes it upon himself to single handed round up the criminals that managed to fully escape Arkham at the detriment to his college and family laugh.
Finally in this issue we get to see Terry’s mum and little brother and it’s instantly obvious to the reader that there’s a distance there which needs to be addressed.
Commissioner Gordon gets her own little emotional roller coaster this week when the new Mayor moves in to his office and makes his feelings about her tenure in the Commissioner post very clear. This story is going to add another layer to this already complex, but not overflowing, story.
Higgins continues to juggle the cast of characters well, so far he has strayed away from spending too much time with Bruce but at some point he is going to have to confront the old Dark Knight and his broken relationship with Terry.
Artistically this book continues to maintain a solid and consistent level of art that remains visually based in the TV series, following it’s colour palette brilliantly, but all the while allowing Silas to add his own visual flair.
If you’ve not shelled out 69p/99¢ on this yet you need to do so right now!
8/10
