The Caped Crusaders continue their quest to conquer the Cybernauts and collect their crime czar with the help of Steed and Mrs. Peel in Batman 66 Meets Steed and Mrs. Peel #2.
Subsequent Cybernaut spoilers…
When we last saw the Caped Crusaders, Steed and Mrs. Peel they were in the Gotham City Jail attempting to save Catwoman from three Cybernauts that were in her jail cell trying to kill her. Robin can’t open the jail cell and bullets won’t damage the metal robot assassins. Batman uses his Bat-Laser to cut through the lock while Steed fights the Cybernauts off with his umbrella. Batman finally opens the cell door and releases Catwoman. They try to lock the robots in the jail cell but they break through. Batman uses Bat-Anti-Oil to stop one but only has enough for a single serving. They manage to maneuver the other two into hitting and damaging each other.
The redheaded ringleader who is in a remote location watching the action orders the Cybernauts back to her lair. They break through the jail walls and their trail is blocked by Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and his cloud of impenetrable smoke which lets them escape.
Back at police headquarters it is clear that Catwoman doesn’t have any idea as to who hired her to steal the White Star Diamond. An emergency call comes through to Commissioner Gordon’s office and they find that Michaela Gough, who was present at the original White Star Diamond robbery attempt with Bruce Wayne, has been kidnapped from her hotel room by two Cybernauts.
The group theorizes that Michaela Gough was the target of the bad guys all along. Peel remembers that Ms. Gough’s company, United Automatron, is the company that created the Cybernauts. They were competing for a big contract for exclusive rights to a new circuit element from Japan. Several big company executives were put in harms way. The creator of the Cybernauts, Professor Armstrong, wanted the contract very badly. The victims were each given pens to track their whereabouts (plot point alert – Steed has a pen in his jacket pocket from last issue). In their previous encounter, Steed and Mrs. Peel had put the pens on the Cybernauts so they would attach each other. In the confusion Armstrong also got in harms way. They feel it is strange that Armstrong wanted the contract so badly as he had great technology to sell in his robots, but they believe he must have thought of them as his children and couldn’t sell them. They guess that Miss Gough knows who is causing all the theft and murder and so was kidnapped.
They decide to go to the Batcave, so Batman hits Steed and Mrs. Peel with knock out gas. They awaken in the Batcave and analyze the Cybernaut they have in their possession. They find that their brains are computers made of diamonds and realize that they were trying to steal the White Star Diamond so they could make more robots.
Outside a gang of Cybernauts descend on the Batcave, as they have found our hero’s hideout.
Writer Ian Edginton gives us another good story. The action continues to move forward at a fine pace, though the answer to the mystery is pretty obvious. It is pretty clear who the ringleader of the Cybernauts is, or at least who Edginton wants you to think it is.
As in the last issue the weak spot of this month’s installment is the art by Matthew Dow Smith. This month the colors are by Wendy Broome and Carrie Strachan. While the plot isn’t made confusing by the art this month, it isn’t helped either. The faces of the characters are especially clumsy and the colors are murky and uninteresting. There is a kind of Ralph Bakshi quality to the work here, almost like they drew over photos of the actual actors from the old Batman and Avengers TV shows. It just doesn’t work here however.
I’m not going to give this issue as bad of a rating as last month’s because the execution of the story is at least broadly competent this time. However, I wouldn’t recommend this mini like I did with the Man from U.N.C.L.E. or main Batman ’66 title.
[wp-review id=”35203″]
