mysteriousmre's Reviews (1.22k)

It probably deserves just 2.5-3 stars because of all the world-building exposition and we really only get to know 1 of the characters this volume, but Nguyen's art is so freaking gorgeous I can't help but give it a recommendation. It's more than a little tropey, but it has potential and I was genuinely surprised by some of the developments at the end. If you're on the fence I say give this a shot. It's pretty cheap at just $10 (most trades from DC or Marvel will run you $15-20) and if you like watercolor then you're going to LOVE this series.

sidenote: the book actually caught me off guard with some of graphic violence. Not recommended for younger readers.

Don't really feel like writing a large review for this one so I'm going to keep it brief. It feels like a movie sequel and that's a good thing and a bad thing. The art team from the previous volume continues to be flat out awesome (don't you dare tell me Batman choke-holding a lion isn't awesome). The story itself though is where this volume falls flat (hence the comparison to movie sequels). Snyder's young snarky Batman is still a joy to read. The new origin for the Gordon/Batman dynamic has potential (I like that Bruce thinks Gordon is just another corrupt cop), but the way these two start to trust each other is contrived and rushed. In fact, that pretty much sums up my feelings about this book. The character relationships and symbolism feel rushed and the way characters escape death/execute plans feels super contrived and logic defying, even by the book's standards.

Random tangent: I also think that while Dr. Death *looks* cool, he's not a very interesting antagonist and I didn't miss him when his character exited the plot. Riddler is *miles* better, and while his masterplan is pretty contrived as well, Snyder's overly long monologues fit the character perfectly. This is hands down my favorite Riddler story.

So yeah, it's a like a movie sequel. If you liked the previous one then there's at least some stuff here for you to like, but the sequel bit off way more than it could handle and ended up being an inferior product.

Still a recommended read if you were hooked by the first volume and invested in Tim-21's plight, just a heads up that the pacing and focus might not be what you're expecting after the cliffhanger in the previous book. We're introduced to a new character right off the bat, and while I'm interested to see his story intersect with Tim-21's, I'm not as attached to this character as I am to Tim. It's clear that he's a very different person since the last time the two interacted, and while the book teased a bunch of stuff, we didn't get as much concrete information about what/how the character developed over time like we did with Tim in the last volume. The titular Machine Moon is really cool conceptually, but because of the watercolor medium and the location's color scheme the backgrounds at times have little to no detail. There's a locale that's essentially a memorial to all the robots who've died and I wish we got a better look at this place. I was a bit disappointed by the Hardwire as well. The twist was very predictable. That's kinda Machine Moon as a whole. Well executed, but predictable.

Lots of one-shots giving us backstories on all the main cast (hah, I see what they did there with the title). Some of them are really impactful (Tim-22's and Driller's), while others really would have been better of interspersed within the main story. That's my big complaint with this volume. It brings everything to a screeching halt, and it's so early on in this series that it makes me wonder why we didn't get these stories earlier or at least interspersed within the main plot. It would have helped me connect to the extended cast a lot sooner.

I really hate writing nothing but negative stuff, but another complaint I have is that this volume undercut why Andy would want to reconnect with Tim-21. Effie's backstory honestly paints Andy as someone so bitter and biased against machines that he shouldn't want anything to do with Tim-21 other than make a buck off his corpse. I hope we get a better view of how Andy saw 21 as an actual brother/family member and not just a makeshift friend.

Anyways, this volume has some decent character work (Driller's a killer guys. Driller's a REAL killer), but if you're on a budget and just want to keep up with the main plot you can probably save your money and skip this volume all together.

I LOVE Batman Beyond so I figured I'd give this book a shot and wow do I hate this. The book tries to tell a Batman Beyond story using characters from the mainline continuity and I think it fails miserably.

I'm not a fan of the original Hush and I dont find this version very compelling either. And while it could be argued that the appeal of Batman Beyond is more so Terry's relationships and not his rogues gallery, the relationships aren't done well here either. Terry's family and girlfriend are hardly featured in the book for us to care and Terry's relationship with Bruce treads a lot of old ground, with Bruce being too hard on Terry and always complaining about him not being "committed enough to the mission". It's a huuuuuuge regression of Bruce's character. He is far more bitter and controlling in this book than he ever was on the TV show and it gets very old, VERY quickly. It also can't keep it's own continuity straight, introducing elements like why Dick Grayson retires in a way that contradicts things the book has established as canon, such as The Return of the Joker and when the Bat-family started to fall apart.

The art is pretty all over the place too. Sometimes things look pretty passable, but other times the faces and body proportions look downright garish. The fight scenes are pretty forgettable too since they aren't staged in interesting areas and aren't well choreographed. The cover art for the individual issues is great, but that's really the only positive thing I have to say about this book. This felt like a waste of my time. Not worth the read.

5/10

I liked this book a lot more than Hush Beyond, 1) because I thought the art composition was better and the action more kinetic 2) the first story is kinda fun, has some stakes, and more effectively shows the pros/cons of Terry and Bruce crime fighting dynamic. The rest of the book sets up some interesting plot lines, but the stories are largely forgettable, and plagued by more bad art. The return of Blight was also a MASSIVE disappointment, with the character always speaking in poorly written monologues and given a drastic redesign that makes him look absolutely horrendous. I'd recommend this over Hush Beyond, but only to die hard fans of the TV show.

Besides the twist at the beginning explaining where Joker has been since Death of the Family (which was one heck of a twist if you read the individual issues as they were first being published), I was pretty unimpressed with this volume. Part of what's supposed to make Joker threatening in Endgame is that he's some ancient bogey-man called the "Pale Man", but anyone familiar with Snyder's version of the Joker (see Death of the Family and Zero Year: Secret City) will know Joker is obsessed with making himself a legend in the same way Bruce Wayne has made Batman a legend. Meaning, we're already inclined to believe Joker's bogey-man story is bogus, and the paper thin evidence we get throughout the plot doesn't do anything to make Joker's claims seem legitimate either. There's no suspense.

It's my understanding that the Joker: Endgame collection includes a bunch of scary stories involving Joker's "Pale Man" legend. So I would recommend anyone wanting to read this volume to pick that book up as well. It might give you a better reading experience reading both books than just this one alone. Neat ideas, flawed execution. At the very least, Capullo continues to rock in the art department.

In the past I've heard this book described as the "anti-Watchmen", and after reading this I see what people mean. It's set in a similar time period, and examines how superheroes would function in those real-life scenarios. The difference between Watchmen and DC: The New Frontier is that while the heroes of Watchmen are shown to be selfish and fallible, the heroes of the DC universe are shown to virtuous, always fighting for the greater good, and willing to put politics and differences aside for the sake of humanity. I think that's what makes this book resonate with people. It not only has characters that resonate with people, but by the end of the book become heroes we aspire to be like, all while being a giant love letter to DC's war and post-war era heroes. My 1 major gripe with the book is that it has SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. And it's hard to keep track of them all. Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, and J'onn J'onzz are easy to keep track of, but everyone else is very similar on the surface and I felt it difficult at times to keep track of who's who and what certain aspects of their character were. Otherwise a great and refreshing read.

2.5 out of 5

There's some fun ideas here, but Snyder doesn't have enough time to explore them or how the characters have changed/transitioned into their new roles after the death of Batman. The result is like looking at a light show while going a million miles an hour. It was fine, but probably would have been a lot more fun if you had traveled at a slower pace and took in all the lights.

I would love to see DC re-examine this concept in an Elseworlds story some time in the future.