BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE SEASON 3 #1 Review

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #1 is published by DC Comics and written by Alan Burnett & Paul Dini. Artwork is by Jordan Gibson, colours by Monica Kubina and letters by Josh Reed. Main cover art (left) is by Kevin Nowlan.

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #1 is available from today in stores and on digital platforms where all good comics books are sold.

Synopsis

Alan Burnett and Paul Dini return once more to the world of Batman: The Animated Series! Someone is targeting the Muscle now that he’s locked up in Blackgate Penitentiary. With his deep ties to the criminal underbelly of Gotham, the worst villains are calling for his head before he turns them over to the police! Batman will need to protect him, but can even the Dark Knight figure out where the next attack will come from?

Review

It’s back! The continuation of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series continuity returns this week for its third season. But whilst this first issue is relatively stand alone in nature, what a return it is for this classic version of The Dark Knight.

Original series writers Alan Burnett and Paul Dini are back to pen the story which centres on assassin-for-hire, Muscle. Locked up in Stonegate, he’s the one person in Gotham who can tie a series of A-list villains and mobsters to their past crimes. So, of course, that means the group are out to whack Muscle before he can spill the beans.

This isn’t simply a job of protect the witness for Batman. Whilst he has his own feelings on the mission, there’s a tale of morality which lies underneath and stretches across many of the characters in play. Burnett and Dini has crafted a typically nuanced story that we’ve come to expect from this world. As is the norm in Gotham, there are many shades of grey with many of the major players simply seeking to secure their own futures.

Much like we’ve come to expect from previous seasons, Burnett and Dini have dutifully recreated the aesthetic of the TV series through their writing. There’s a beguiling mystery in tracking Muscle’s actions but also in trying to understand who within the Stonegate staff is working against him. There are twists and turns littered throughout the story and a very interesting conclusion which could open the door for more storytelling in the future.

Artist Jordan Gibson and colourist Monica Kubina also do a wonderful job of recreating the look of the series. All of the design work from Bruce Time and his team remains in tact, effortlessly translated to the page and immediately bringing back childhood memories of Saturday mornings in front of the TV. As with previous seasons, The Adventures Continue picks up the work of the re-designed The New Batman Adventures era of the cartoon.

It’s sleeker than the designs of the 1992 original, but renders beautifully on the page. Almost like taking still images from the cartoon itself. The shadowy locales of Gotham allow for plenty of murky corners for Batman to hide in. But it also means that pops of colour, the red of the night sky for instance, look incredible.

Verdict

Batman: The Adventures Continue returns with a strong first issue in season 3, widening the world of BTAS with an intriguing mystery and energetic visuals.

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