In this review of Batman/Static: Beyond #6, with the Collective heading to an Earth that’s under an increasing power outage nation-wide, can Batman and Static possibly live to see another sunrise?

Batman/Static: Beyond #6 main cover by Nikolas Draper-Ivey (DC Comics)

BATMAN/STATIC: BEYOND #6
Written by EVAN NARCISSE
Art by MIGUEL MENDONCA
Cover by NIKOLAS DRAPER-IVEY
Variant covers by CARMINE DI GIANDOMENICO and FICO OSSIO
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 5/6/26

This review contains spoilers

In the Cooperative Council War Room, the decision is made to beset Earth with intergalactic Khund mercenaries to distract the planet, while the source of the national power outage – Melvin Kim a.k.a. Shutdown – is captured.

Back in Neo-Gotham, Batman and Static fight to prevent Shutdown from letting loose a wider spread of Q-Juice, which would either transform or kill many more people than the original Big Bang. Static traps Shutdown inside an orb of machinery, which Batman douses with knockout gas to slow his trajectory towards the tanks containing the gas. They manage to snap a wristband onto Melvin, cancelling out his powers, when he’s suddenly teleported off world.

In Hyperspace, the Justice League Unlimited witness the encroaching armada surrounding Earth. Realizing that what Micron overheard back at the meeting with the Collective was correct, Superman, Icon and Big Barda launch a counterattack on the mercenary ships. The mercs take these defensive measures in stride, preparing Melvin to attack on their behalf.

On Earth, Static traces Melvin’s energy signature out into space, noting that its unlike anything’s he’s seen before. With the help of Ebon’s transportation portals, the two heroes make it onto the Khund’s ship undetected. Battling through the ships security defenses, they find Melvin and try to portal back on Earth, but receive no answer from Ebon. He’s suddenly attacked by Derek Powers, a.k.a. Blight, who has been working to kidnap students from the Tomorrow Institute. With the help of Beacon, Powers is defeated just as the JLU arrive in time to help Batman, Static and Melvin escape the ship.

The heroes encourage Melvin to use his abilities to reverse the blackout. Although he’s nearly overwhelmed, Melvin manages to accomplish this with the aid of Static. That in effect depowers the Khunds’ ships, ending the attack on Earth.

One week later the Cooperative works to address the actions undertaken by Tamaran and Kwai, leaving Earth in a holding state for the time being. Melvin transfers to the Tomorrow Institute, escorted by Static and a touring Terry McGinnis. We’re shown that Melvin will go on to aid the heroes as Shutdown in using his powers for the people, rather than against them.

Analysis

Recently there’s been online discussion on DC’s lack of black-led superhero titles, prompting much debate. Currently, the Green Lantern team books have been leading the charge in starring John Stewart and Jo Mullein, but this is contrasting with a series of miniseries spotlighting characters such as Black Lightning and Mr. Terrific that have come and gone as quickly as they’ve appeared. With the recent push for DC The New History: The Dakota Incident to launch a new Static ongoing series, Elseworld titles like Batman/Static Beyond take on more weight than they would before the first issue dropped. This was always going to be a quick six-part story that wouldn’t lead to much else, and the writing by Evan Narcisse shows. Throughout the story we’ve gotten a ton of callbacks, lore and easter eggs from fans of Milestone, Static Shock and Batman Beyond, with this final issue going the extra mile in bringing in Blight for a couple of pages. That’s my one and only nitpick, as his appearance really does reek of a kitchen-sink tactic with this book. Before, everything felt natural and organic in telling its story. Blight’s appearance gives the game away that this might be the last time we see these characters for years to come, so better have him show up now than never again.

My larger point is this: in an era where comics like this are unfortunately fleeting, Batman/Static Beyond has done well with the assignment in delivering fun action, an engaging story, and proper development and exploration for the title characters month after month. When you read a comic and understand its intent, that can go a long way to appreciating what it succeeds in doing. Speaking from a Batman Beyond fan’s POV, I feel that the classic adventures of Terry McGinnis has been sidestepped when revisiting the world of Neo-Gotham for too long. Batman of the future is either Tim Drake, or Bruce is dead (in an issue I always felt was hella lame) or the series is invoked but rarely explored. Narcisse, with artists Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Miguel Mendonca have put together a fun little spotlight on both the future of DC and Milestone and made it a fun place to hang around for a short time. I don’t know how much more the character of Shutdown could be explored, but his presence did great things for Virgil and Terry’s development. As such, they made for a great team. Previously, we know Batman and Static from the “Future Shock” episode of Static Shock, where teenage Virgil came to the future and Terry gave him a hard time. Of course, we did see the “proper” (for its timeline) adult Static work with Terry in Justice League Unlimited’s “The Once and Future Thing Part 2: Time Warped”, but I don’t think they had any scenes together with just the two of them.

Here, Virgil is older, he’s more experienced, but he’s as anxious and unsure of himself as he was when he was fifteen, just with differing perspectives. And Terry works to live up to the expectations of a veteran hero. It’s a great way to tell a familiar story but have it different enough that it doesn’t feel repetitive. As such, this is a duo I could see starring in an ongoing team-up book, based on this miniseries. At the same time, it would most likely serve to fill in more blanks to DC and Milestone’s futures. We see the future status quos of Gear, Rocket, Ebon, Rubberbandman and Icon, which is all very cool and worked in well, but by this final issue I’m wondering if they overshadowed our two main players.

All that being said, this was a straightforward, by-the-numbers finale that still very much worked. Mendonca’s art does much of the heavy lifting, but Narcisse’s stellar pacing gave scenes like battling Shutdown and tracing his whereabouts real heft. Lesser comics would’ve blitzed through them in a single page. There was such verve and deft skill handled throughout this series, it shows what you can do with both characters and creators of color when you give them the chance to create and make memorable stories happen. Will this mini stand the test of time? Only time can tell that, but for this reviewer, I’ll happily look back on it with fondness.

Batman/Static: Beyond #6

Final Thoughts

this was a straightforward, by-the-numbers finale that still very much worked. Mendonca's art does much of the heavy lifting, but Narcisse's stellar pacing gave scenes like battling Shutdown and tracing his whereabouts real heft. Lesser comics would've blitzed through them in a single page.

4

Final Score

In this review of Harley Quinn #61, the mystery behind Harley’s current “identity crisis” is revealed, Batquinn goes all in on the grim and gritty Gotham guardian gimmick, and has Althea Klang suddenly become the voice of reason?

Harley Quinn #61 main cover by Brandt & Stein (DC Comics)

HARLEY QUINN #61
Written by ELLIOTT KALAN
Art by CARLOS OLIVARES
Main Cover: BRANDT&STEIN
Variant Covers: DAVID NAKAYAMA, GUILLEM MARCH, BAILIE ROSENLUND, MARCIAL TOLEDANO VARGAS
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 4/22/26

This review contains spoilers 

Harley Quinn #61 begins with Colonel Blimp ruminating over his recent humiliating loss to Harley Quinn as his blimp hovers over the local landfill. The would-be supervillain’s interest is piqued by a news report about Harley Quinn parading around Throatcutter Hill in a knock off Bat costume. Cut to Harley’s landlord’s apartment where Batquinn and Harleen have a sit down while scarfing down Mrs. Grimaldi’s lasagna.

Mrs. G takes the entire situation in stride as she deduces that Batquinn is a manifestation of Harley’s darker, violent side while Harleen is revealed to be Harley’s “Quinntellect” given human form after the disastrous swearing in ceremony for (Mayor-elect) Poison Ivy triggered a surplus of Alpha energy in Harley’s system and split them apart (you have to read DC K.O. for more details). Mrs. G asks what happened to Harley’s fun side, to which Batquinn stalks off, exclaiming that humor has no place anymore.

Mrs. G ask Harleen how she will merge with Batquinn to get Harley back, but Harleen isn’t interested. Cut to Batquinn’s droning inner monologue as she finds the perfect brooding perch (coincidentally on Althea Klang’s penthouse deck. An ambivalent Althea approaches Batquinn but quickly realizes this is not the Harley she fell for. This assessment is confirmed when Colonel Blimp comes calling and unloads his semi-auto rifle in their general direction (and Batquinn doesn’t bother trying to protect Althea).

Things are not going well for Harley at the moment… (DC Comics)

Colonel Blimp switches up weapons more than once during the fray, but he is unable to get a bead on Batquinn who takes him down in a decidedly more brutal fashion than Harley ever would.

Harley Quinn #61 ends in the aftermath of the fracas, with a confused but determined Batquinn pondering her sleeping arrangements, while Colonel Blimp gets some medical help and Althea retains the Monochromatic Man to hunt down Batquinn for her own good.

Analysis 

Harley Quinn #61 pulls a surprise misdirect that not only suits Harley as a character, but also draws from recent DC events, in this case the King Omega event. It makes sense (as much as anything in this book does) that the shift in status quo for both Harley and Ivy could get emotionally messy, giving her Quinntellect bodily autonomy.  Writer Elliot Kalan goes all in on Batquinn’s grim and gritty monologuing, with some of the inner thoughts becoming unintentionally humorous (probably much to Batquinn’s dismay).

Harley needs to pull herself together (literally) either because there is a risk to the split aspects staying apart or some other issue. Harleen gets a cliff’s notes backstory in Harley Quinn #61, but more insight would be helpful. Batquinn’s inner monologue is rife with dark avenger tropes, but amid that swirl of grim and gritty, she is trying her level best to maintain the facade. Is there still an aspect of Harley shaping her efforts from within her splintered psyche?

Whether Mrs. Grimaldi is correct and that the fun side of Harley might be out in Throatcutter Hill is intriguing (and possibly integral) since most of Harley’s friends and lovers prefer that aspect to the others (or more likely the amalgam of all three). Mrs. Grimaldi works as a reader proxy to ask questions about the spilt, and she gets some good lines too.

Althea Klang looks like the lesser of two evils (although she has a history of recruiting violent villains to expedite business matters).  Batquinn even silently notes that Althea isn’t teasing her about the Bat costume. However, despite good manners, Batquinn is singularly obsessed with vengeance, mostly for herself, rather than as a protector of the innocent. It’s almost like Batquinn is fractured within her own fractured psyche.

Artist Carlos Olivares never disappoints, providing more hilarious, action packed and dynamic artwork whether sitting around a kitchen table, stalking the city or partaking in a rooftop battle. Colonel Blimp is relentless (and a terrible shot), but his scenes are funny, energetic and tragic. Olivares provides emotional depth in facial expressions and body language that evokes the inner turmoil of each of the five prominent characters in Harley Quinn #61.

Final Thoughts 

Harley Quinn #61 explores the ramifications of wish fulfillment and offers up the series’ typical absurdist humor while not shying away from the darker aspects of this predicament. The eye-catching artwork continues to impress.

Harley Quinn #61

Final Thoughts

Harley Quinn #61 explores the ramifications of wish fulfillment and offers up the series' typical absurdist humor while not shying away from the darker aspects of this predicament. The eye-catching artwork continues to impress.

4.6

Final Score

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