Batman: The Adventures Continue — Season One

The most surprising thing about “The Adventures Continue” is that it’s taken DC so long to do something like this.  By “this” I mean, give us a continuation of “Batman:  The Animated Series” in comics form.  In the years since the series last episode, its reputation has only grown as one of the best takes on the Bat-mythos around.  While DC has produced spinoff comics for the series, this is the first time they’ve got writers from the original series, Paul Dini and Alan Brennert, to give us a proper continuation of it.  Which, along with artist Ty Templeton, is exactly what they’ve done here along with its weaknesses and strengths.

By weaknesses, I mean that the plotting for most of these stories is on the simple side.  Most of the time you’ll be able to see where the story is going from the start, such is the case with the three-part arc “Mentors” where Deathstroke shows up in Gotham looking for Firefly.  Could he be up to no good besides that?  Hmmmmmmm…  There’s also the fact that while Templeton does a good job of capturing the “Animated” look of Bruce Timm, it feels like that’s all he’s doing right here.  This results in art that’s wholly appropriate to the series, but also feels too safe at the same time.

Even with the simplicity of the storytelling, Dini and Brennert, manage to inject some good twists into their stories and give us a version of Batman that still feels like one for the ages.  This is best seen in the volume’s longest arc, which involves the writers’ take on a character that’s very familiar to longtime “Batman” fans.  It’s also one that involves the Joker who’s every bit as charismatic, menacing, and insightful as you’d expect from Dini’s involvement.  Finally, it’s nice to see some continuity between these stories as some of them play effortlessly off the events that precede them.  The setup for “Season Two” is part of this and it offers a good reason to come back and see the further continuation of these “Adventures.”