Delays are an unfortunate part of the comic book industry. We all wondered if Kevin Smith was joking about never finishing the Daredevil miniseries, what took so long for the Battle Chaser to come back, or if All-Star Batman and Robin could have completely changed it and improved from the beginning (probably not). Unfortunately, you can now add echoes to Batman ’89: Echoes of Tardy Comic Runs. The final issue of Echoes, even worse than its predecessor Batman ’89, tries to bring everything in for a solid conclusion, but that feels too little, too late, only worsened by the fact that the previous issue was announced last December.
As the chaos caused by Jonathan Crane’s Gotham terror gas reaches the Crescendo, a newly rejuvenated Batman is carrying the chaos below. When Drake (Robin of this universe) arrives, he learns of new threats that have joined Jonathan Crane and Harley Quinn. Ra’s teams up with Crane to develop fear toxins to succumb people to their will, and as the two are ready to meet buyers, Batman has to stop them before drugs come out on the streets. At the same time, “Ms. Q” overtook Gotham’s airwaves in revenge against the studio head that cut the show. Luckily for Batman, he not only got Drake, but Captain Barbara Gordon and Catwoman also helped out.
DC
Does that sound like a lot of evidence for a single issue to cover? Well, this might be shocking to admit, but that’s true! Samham’s final script rushes to the finale, which covers the ground too quickly and feels grown and often confused. The arrival of Al Ghul in Ra has been treated like a big event for a few pages, with Harley Quinn’s subplot feeling completely disconnected from everything else in this series (including the fact that she doesn’t even interact with Batman on this issue). It feels like Hamm has too many ideas to cover in this series or doesn’t understand how to pace it all to six issues. It would be fine if this was the first Batman ’89 miniseries, but we’ve already been here once, so I don’t know if the exact same storytelling issues are happening again.
At least Joe Kinnons’ art is still solid. A lot of the fun for these miniseries have seen what celebrities in the 90s use in his fancast. Jeff Goldblum and Madonna are scarecrows and Harleys respectively, but trying to analyze who Ra’s Al Ghul is (my best guess is Ricardo Monteruban. Quinones clearly still has a blast embracing this era of the Dark Knight, using some of the era’s toys as real vehicles and tools in the universe, while perfectly matching the look of Burton’s film. His character modeling is also great, making the most of his fan casting, but also keeping him and DC from being sued.
Quinones’ art is very good, one of the reasons why echoing #6 is such a disappointing. As a Burton Batman film lover (for God, initially in the top four of my letterboxes), I couldn’t be more excited about more stories in this world. The fact that Quinon, who had that great pitch for years that he didn’t go anywhere, has finally started working on it. Still, it feels like everyone’s time wasted on this series. Before releasing them, why not wait for all the issues with the story and art to be completed? Why not make the delay positive when they occur? As mentioned before, delays are a known and somewhat anticipated part of the comic book industry. Things happen and these are the real people who create these books. But going to Radio Silent doesn’t help the story. It won’t help creators. Also, it doesn’t help anyone who wants to buy your comics. After two series in the Batman ’89 miniseries that I encountered the same problem, all I can say is to trick me once and shame you. Mislead me twice and ashamed me.
‘Batman ’89: Echoes’ #6 struggles to reach a satisfactory conclusion
Batman ’89: Echo #6
Despite the great art, Batman ’89 Echoes #6 has struggled to reach a satisfactory conclusion for fans of both the miniseries and the original Burton films.
Amazing art from Quinon
It’s fun to see 90’s celebrities as Batman characters
Very rushed and confused finale
It slows down the momentum of damaged stories for a long time
Broken plot points tease another installment that may not happen
