Batman: The Adventures Continue #4 - DC Comics

BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE No. 4, May 2020

Firmly placing Robin at the centre of this comic book’s plot, Alan Burnett and Paul Dini’s narrative for Issue Four of “Batman: The Adventures Continue” must have thrilled long-time fans of the Boy Wonder by pairing Tim Drake up with Deathstroke in a stupendous confrontation with the “pyrotechnics expert turned super-stalker” Firefly. True, Garfield Lynns himself doesn’t actually make an appearance, except in flashback, until near the end of this digital first publication, but the presence of the “pyro-merc for hire” is palpably felt throughout this tale courtesy of the criminal launching a host of Asian giant hornets upon Slade Wilson and his new “back-up” at Gotham City’s Entomology Pavilion.

This shift in attention away from Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego really does read very well indeed, as it depicts just how quick thinking “the third character to assume the role of Batman's vigilante partner” can be when the situation requires it, as well as how skilled the young martial artist has become under the Dark Knight’s tutorage. Managing to sneak up upon ‘The Terminator’ to the point where “had you been an assassin, you would have had me dead to rights” is no easy feat, yet impressively Robin manages to later trump this achievement by being the one to save the pair from Firefly’s insect-infested ambush by using his brains, his cape and a handy fire extinguisher; “The foam makes them too heavy to fly.”

Delightfully however, this second instalment to “Mentors” doesn’t keep Batman in the shadows for the entirety of the comic, and delightfully pits the Caped Crusader against his old adversary the Mad Hatter, in an incredibly dynamic, though all-too brief, battle over some stolen new circuity for Jervis Tetch’s mind control devices. This action sequence is also noteworthy for progressing the title’s long-running theme of the Bat-Family being watched by a mysterious observer, and even goes as far as to show the costumed crime-fighter desperately trying to intercept the ‘spy’ after he catches sight of “the tiniest flicker of light” from a nearby rooftop.

Bringing all of these sense-shattering shenanigans to vivid life is Ty Templeton’s marvellous artwork and Monica Kubina’s colours. The layouts of Deathstroke’s forced entry into the enormously elaborate ‘bug museum’ and subsequent exploration of its vast displays are particularly well-drawn, with the Pavilion’s giant sculptures of both scorpions and praying mantis’ casting some highly atmospheric shadows across the corridors and cast.

Writers: Alan Burnett & Paul Dini, Artist: Ty Templeton, and Colorist: Monica Kubina