Batman Beyond Unlimited #16 & 17 - At least they finally let Breyfogle do a cover, which if nothing else, saves me from having to use another awful Porter cover. Pity he's not drawing any of the stories. Anyway, let's do this up, one story at a time."Undercloud: Supersonic" and "Undercloud: Metal and Men", by Adam Beechen (writer), Adam Archer (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer). While Terry tangles with Shriek, Max is stuck helping Rebel One while she tries to devise a way of contacting Terry. She figures out a way, but it's a little late, as Alloy is up and running and wrecking Gotham. Terry's not having much luck stopping it, and it gets worse when Alloy stops obeying Rebel One's commands. Surprise, the baddie didn't understand the responsometers as well as she thought. A little electricity lets the Metal Men reassert autonomy and try and minimize the damage they caused. Things are looking up, but Rebel One isn't giving up and she's ready to try something desperate to she her plans succeed.
I think they needed to label the Metal Men for Elder, because he had some trouble getting the colors right. You know, Lead being red, Platinum being yellow, stuff like that. I don't blame him, if there isn't any dialogue, he's trying to color roughly similar sort of blobs, so how can he tell? Archer's art is pretty good, actually. He does some great work with Maxine's facial expressions across both chapters. There's one pair of panels where Rebel (now sans mask) is ranting while facing one way, then facing another in the next panel, but Archer drew it so that her hair in the second panel is a continuation of the first so that I didn't realize they were meant to be two separate panels originally. That's kind of cool. Archer's work gets a little sketchy, light on the details at times, especially in the fight with Shriek, but there's definite skill.
Two interesting things in the story. One, Grayson mentions that Barbara Gordon has mechanical legs. So is that a Killing Joke reference, or something else? Either way, it's not an addition I think was needed. I'd prefer the idea that Barbara quit costumed crime-fighting because she wanted to, or because she thought it was too limited, not because she was gravely injured. Which might be the case, since she was retired in the original Killing Joke. Two, Grayson is sleeping with the new Catwoman (the one who's also the daughter of Multiplex). We might need to talk more about that later, but one thing that bothers me is she gets colored white. I don't seem to have the Batman Beyond mini-series Beechen and Ryan Benjamin did in 2010 any longer, but I recall her being dark-skinned in that story. Like I said, I don't have it handy to confirm that one way or the other.
"In Gods We Trust", chapters 2 & 3, by Derek Fridolfs (writer/inker), Ben Caldwell (penciler), Randy Mayor (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer). Kai Ro (the kid GL) is having trouble adjusting to this new school, especially since he doesn't have his ring (or remember he should have it). He did meet a sweet, feisty girl named Mary, though. It's no fun getting in trouble alone. And since the Justice League went down like chumps - again - there aren't gonna be much help. In fact, they're going to be telepathically assassinated with Kai. Right up until Mary remembers her special word and transforms into - Captain Marvel?! The Brain Trust is sent packing, and the children are saved, as we find out Mary, Billy, the Wizard, CM, and Teth Adam are all sharing a body. That seems horribly awkward.
Well, bringing in Captain Marvel and his crew is a good thing. I think Fridolfs might be trying too hard to put the cheesy in "Big Red Cheese", but at least he's not snapping necks or asking people he saved to pay him 20 bucks. I don't mind going too far away from that. Pity Fridolfs had to nerf the JL in the process. I mean, McGinnis has held his own against the Brain trust previously, but here, they got taken out - twice! - in a couple of pages. Barda has suddenly developed a glass jaw, when she ought to be slugging it out with that big muscled lump.
"United Front" and "Point of No Return", by JT Krul (writer), Howard Porter (penciler), Livesay (Inker), Carrie Strachan (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer). J'onn brought in Barda, Kai, and Starfire, and they all set to fighting while Superman keeps trying to convince people to stop fighting. The evil general guy tries to use an untested ultimate weapon, but Supes convinces the scientist to shut it down, then makes a big speech about how both sides need to stop fighting and focus on peace. And there are some people on both sides who are down with this, so the costumed types leave. I don't think it's a great solution, but it's probably one of the better ones I can see. Supes ultimately got them to stop killing each other long enough to at least try and talk peace. The rest is up to them. The cynic in me expects those who want to fight to drown out the moderates, but hopefully the Trillians and Mangals are smarter than we are.
Also, Starfire is apparently lonely and violent now, wandering through space looking for fights. She also has become a jaded cynic. Yay, she abrely resembles any version of the character I give a damn about! Wait, what do I care? This is the last issue of this I'm buying, and I've been down on the Superman stuff since they started throwing it in there. It's a wonder I even wasted my time on it, but what the hell, right?
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