Delays are an unfortunate part of the comic book industry. We’ve all joked about Kevin Smith’s never finished Daredevil miniseries, or wondered what took so long for Battle Chasers to return, or if All-Star Batman & Robin could have turned it all around and improved from its beginnings (probably not). Unfortunately we can now add the likes of Batman ’89: Echoes to that list of tardy comic runs. With delays even worse than its predecessor, Batman ’89, Echoes‘ final issue tries to bring everything in for a solid conclusion, but it feels too little, too late, and is only compounded by the fact that the previous issue came out in December of last year.
As the chaos caused by Jonathan Crane’s fear gas in Gotham reaches a crescendo, a newly rejuvenated Batman takes stock of the chaos below. As Drake (this universe’s Robin) arrives, he learns of a new threat that has joined the likes of Jonathan Crane and Harley Quinn: Ra’s Al Ghul. Ra’s has been working with Crane to develop a fear toxin to bend people to their will, and as the two ready to meet their buyers, Batman has to stop them before the drug is out on the streets. At the same time, “Ms. Q” has overtaken Gotham airwaves in a bid for revenge against the studio head who her cut her show. Luckily for Batman, he’s not only got Drake, but also Captain Barbara Gordon and Catwoman to help out (in their own ways).
DC
Does that sound like a lot of ground for a single issue to cover? Well this might be shocking to admit, but it is! Sam Hamm’s final script covers too much ground too quickly, rushing to a finale that feels unearned and often confusing. Ra’s Al Ghul’s arrival is treated like a big event for only a few pages, and Harley Quinn’s subplot feels completely disconnected from everything else in this series (including the fact that she never even interacts with Batman at all this issue). It feels like Hamm either had too many ideas he wanted to cover in this series or just didn’t understand how to pace everything out to fit into six issues. That would be okay if this was the first Batman ’89 miniseries, but we’ve already been here once before so I’m not sure why the exact same storytelling issues are happening again.
At least the art from Joe Quinones is still solid. A lot of the fun for these miniseries has been seeing what ’90s-era celebrities Quinones uses for his fan casts. Jeff Goldblum and Madonna are Scarecrow and Harley, respectively, but I did have a little trouble trying to parse out who Ra’s Al Ghul was supposed to be (my best guess is Ricardo Montelban, which is hilarious and also pretty rad). Quinones is clearly still having a blast embracing this era of the Dark Knight, perfectly matching the look of Burton’s films while also using of some of the toys from the era as actual vehicles and tools in the universe. His character modeling is also fantastic, making the most out of the fan castings but also making sure that he and DC don’t get sued.
Quinones’ art being so good is one of the big reasons why it’s such a bummer that Echoes #6 is such a mess. As someone who loves the Burton Batman films (the first is in my Letterboxd Top Four, for god’s sake), I could not have been more excited for more stories in this world. The fact that Quinones, who had that excellent pitch a few years that went nowhere, finally got to work on it was even better. And yet, it feels like we wasted everyone’s time with this series. Why not wait for every issue to be completed, story and art, before releasing them? Why not be upfront with the delays when they occur? Like I mentioned before, delays are a known and somewhat expected part of the comic book industry. Things happen, and these are real people who create these books. But going radio silent doesn’t help the story, it doesn’t help the creators, and it doesn’t help the people who want to buy your comic. After two series of Batman ’89 miniseries that ran into the same problems, all I can say is: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
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