Batman '89 #6 is a bumpy end to a rough series. The promise of Batman '89, when it was first announced, was to bring Burton's vision of a third Batman film to life, albeit in comics format.
Hamm's story uses the same elements from the Burtonverse but lacks the style and whimsy of Burton's aesthetic. Now into the final act, there's very little of Burton's vision left, and the end result is a plodding, tedious, and sometimes dull finale.
The issue picks up from the cliffhanger at the end of issue #4. Commissioner Gordon is dead, Catwoman and Drake have teamed up to find Bruce, and Batman is locked in a standoff against Two-Face under the GCPD headquarters. This setup sounds like the makings of a great Batman adventure, but the devil's in the execution. The pacing is practically glacial due to unnecessarily long dialog and narration. What little action there is lacks energy and is over briefly. And the final battle between Two-Face and Batman ends with a convenient twist that dispels any sense of satisfaction.
It may sound like I'm intentionally hard on this comic, and perhaps I am, but this was a golden opportunity to grab big nostalgia points from the first Batman films, which turned out to be blockbusters. The end result is so far removed from anything Burton put on screen that you could almost argue this comic doesn't deserve the title Batman '89.
It's not all bad. Quinones does a fine job capturing the look and feel of the real-life characters playing their DC counterparts. Quinones never quite nailed Gotham's rich, gothic vibe (also a key element in Burton's vision), but the characters look great.
If Quinones had managed to capture the Gotham City aesthetic and if Hamm's story was much less Ham-fisted (*ahem*) and tedious, this would have been a much better series.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Batman '89 #6 brings the comic interpretation of Burton's scuttled third film with a finale with great-looking characters but little more to crow about. The Gotham City aesthetic is wholly absent, the story moves at a snail's pace with overlong dialog and narration, and the ending lacks gravitas.
That's what I want Batman Returns to be, but based on Sam Hamm's ideas. That's the first step of following Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology, directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher.
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