With Straightman and Task Force X behind us, Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 begins new arc focusing on the al Ghuls and a changed Gotham City. More than the final story for the miniseries and even Batman: The Adventures Continue as a whole, it's almost framed like a finale for the universe all together. Of course, we know that isn't the case because the DCAU that this takes place in continues on to include the events of Justice League, Justice League: Unlimited, and eventually Batman: Beyond. Nevertheless, the series' pieces are arranged for one last confrontation.
The most immediate and obvious way this sense of finality is established is in the opening pages, as we see Tim, Detective Bullock, and even Talia all comment on how there hasn't been any crime in Gotham for months. However, it's clear that something's not quite right as we wait for the other shoe to drop. The framing is of an almost transitionary stage for both Gotham and Batman that has left the city with a vacuum Bruce directionless. I'm reminded of The Long Halloween, where there's a marked transformation from the standard crime families of the Falcones and Maronis into the freaks and supervillains like Joker that would dominate the city. The difference here being it's not yet quite clear what the future holds.
Whatever lies ahead, the al Ghuls set themselves up to be major players. As with many stories featuring the Demon's Head, Ra's al Ghul uses his daughter to reach out to Bruce for an alliance. You see, Ra's is dying (when isn't he?) and claims to want to do some good with the time he has left. Normally I would completely roll my eyes at the claim that Ra's can no longer use the Lazarus pits, because there about as many "last Ra's al Ghul" stories as there are Ra's al Ghul stories. He always finds a way to come back; it's kind of his thing. The only reason that I feel a bit differently about this one, however, is that (spoilers for a cartoon from 20 years ago) we do know that soon after this his body dies and he will be forced to transfer his mind into Talia's.
Where this premise stumbles is in establishing how everyone comes together. The way which Wayne Enterprises happens to own a resort on an island owned by the al Ghuls, which Bruce happens to be visiting when Ra's needs to speak to him feels somewhat contrived. This mystery is further drawn out with an elaborate scheme to trick Bruce into being lured out to sea by assassins where he would be captured by Ra's' submarine. This whole sequence is strange and unnecessary. He was already coming out to meet them on their yacht; why the deception to simply bring him to a slightly different sea vessel? It almost feels like an obligatory action set piece to keep readers' attention during an issue that is mostly talking, like the screaming bird that pops up near the end of Citizen Kane.
If there's one benefit of the assassin attack, it's that it serves as an opportunity for Templeton to draw some interesting visuals. As before, the art does a serviceable job recreating the style from the cartoon, though the simplistic and workmanlike approach has little opportunity to really shine. The attack, as well as a few dramatic panels of the mysterious woman fleeing her pursuers are some of the only times where we get to see more than fairly static shots of people talking.
Show Spoiler
The reveal at the end that the mysterious woman shown intermittently throughout the issue is in fact Catwoman running from the Court of Owls hints at a lot of possibilities for where the story might be going. Obviously Ra's' globe-spanning criminal operation will come into conflict with the Court's, and it will be interesting to see how those play off of one another. Additionally, Selina's inclusion in a story about Talia and Ra's with the usual "you will be my heir, detective" rhetoric could possibly indicate some sort of love triangle. It'd be a romantic conflict that surprisingly hasn't really come up much in the comics, due to the fact that Bruce's romance with Talia mostly ended in the 70s, while his romance with Catwoman really started picking up in the 80s after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
As a brief side note, DC please stop trying to push your streaming services in-universe. It's incredibly jarring and immediately takes you out of the story every time. This has actually happened in a few of the comics I've reviewed up until now, including this series as well as the Harley Quinn: The Animated Series spinoff books. I understand that you want to push HBO Max Max as much as possible, and these TV spinoff comics maybe aren't seen as so important that they can't be used as a vehicle for that sort of thing, but it doesn't paint the product in a positive light.
Recommended if…
- Ra's al Ghul's constant scheming is something you enjoy
- You want to see Bruce Wayne in a new setting
- You're curious what Gotham and Batman might be like without the crime
Overall
Batman: The Adventures Continue Season 3 #6 sets the pieces for the series' final arc with just enough intrigue to make you want to know what will happen next. Ra's and Talia are as scheming as ever as they draw you in for one last story. The logic for how everything comes together doesn't always make the most sense, but it's never so egregious so as to spoil the narrative.
Score: 7/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review.
