In this review of Batman/Static: Beyond #4, as Shutdown’s rampage tears its way across Dakota, Batman and Statics troubles worsen from threats in outer space!
Batman/Static: Beyond #4 main cover by Nikolas Draper-Ivey (DC Comics)
BATMAN/STATIC: BEYOND #4
Written by EVAN NARCISSE
Art by MIGUEL MENDONCA
Main Cover: NIKOLAS DRAPER-IVEY
Variant Covers: MIGUEL MENDONCA, LUCAS MEYER
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 3/4/26
This review contains spoilers
As Batman/Static: Beyond #4 begins, Static and Shutdown battle outside of the Tomorrow Institute during their graduation. Virgil manages to hold his own but is still weakened by Shutdown’s powers sapping his electromagnetic abilities. With help from Richie, Rubberband Man and Aquamaria – they manage to get some hits in and nearly capture Shutdown, but he teleports away just before they can get close.
Meanwhile Terry has stumbled upon a group Kobra cult members about to steal WayneTech technology. Suddenly a mysterious voice guides Terry locating a spare batsuit and helps take down the remaining armed cultists. The voice belongs to Ebon, who knows about both Terry and Bruce due to his shadow powers. He senses the fight with Shutdown and teleports over the the Tomorrow Institute just as the villain flees.
Static is determined to stop Shutdown despite his powers being at their weakest. Ebon hands him a miniature Q-Juice capsule, while Richie lends him a containment suit created in case Static’s powers became too unwieldy. Using both to fuel his power, Virgil works to figure out how to zap Shutdown’s powers for good, at the cost of potentially losing all of his.
Meanwhile in Deep Space, the Collective and the Justice League debate the Earth’s inclusion in the Galactic Collection of Planets. Shayera Hol, formerly Hawkgirl, arrives to inform her son Warhawk about the power outages on Earth. As he flies off, members of the Collective discuss Earth’s discovery of Q-Juice potential, and infer that they plan to quarantine Earth and seize Q-Juice for their own purposes. Unbeknownst to them, Micron hears everything.
Back on Earth, Static, Batman and Richie are ready to face Shutdown. Just then Ebon arrives too late to warn Static that Cadmus soldiers have arrived for his arrest.
Static and the students of The Tomorrow Institute take on Shutdown(DC Comics)
Analysis
Four issue in, and I can safely say this is going to go down as a solid Static and Batman Beyond adventure. The Batman Beyond comics have often been more misses than hits in my opinion, because they get caught up in working with the lore of the cartoon with generic sci-fi tropes on the far-future. The brilliance of the animated series is that it was still a show led by character and timeless conflict. While this miniseries doesn’t exactly put those virtues to the forefront, it’s balancing the story it’s telling well enough and with enough consistent characterization of its heroes that it remains engaging each month.
That being said, Batman/Static: Beyond #4 was the most plot-heavy issue of the series. Despite Miguel Mendonca’s continued excellent artwork, there was so much exposition and sci-fi jargon being thrown around, that the characters threatened to get lost in the shuffle. Especially Batman. This is the most backfooted I’ve seen Terry be depicted outside of his own series. That’s not the biggest criticism, as part of Terry’s appeal is his underdog nature. It’s also interesting seeing him interact with more and more Milestone and Static characters. In this issue he’s led around by Ebon, and then stands in the background while Static does most of the hero work. Granted, Static is the veteran, but it was noticeable this month that Terry didn’t have much to do. It’s more of an observation than a criticism, and with there being only two issues left, it may well have been a consequence of the needs of the story.
I also worry that the Collective subplot might be arriving too late to have the intended major effect. It was set up somewhat in issue one, but Shutdown has been more than enough of a convincing threat, it feels like foreshadowing of a sequel follow-up series rather than something this story could bring attention to more than halfway through its run. It’s cool to see Warhawk and Shayera Hol, and even neat to see other classic DC alien races like the Tamaraneans involved. Evan Narcisse makes all of the DC and Milestone and DCAU lore blend effortlessly, and while I may think this extra element might be introduced later than it should’ve been, it’s still a neat idea to pursue at some point in the story’s history.
So the little niggles I had with Batman/Static: Beyond #4 were relatively tame compared to larger annoyances I find with other books I review for TBU like Batgirl. This is simply a professionally composed, competent piece of superhero action. Less compelling than the last couple of issues, but nowhere near bad.
