Batman: The Adventures Continue #6 - DC Comics

BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE No. 6, June 2020

Concluding their “Mentors” storyline with a distinctly fiery finale, Paul Dini and Alan Burnett’s narrative for Issue Six of “Batman: The Adventures Continue” must have caught a few of its readers somewhat off-guard when it was first published digitally in June 2020. For whilst the plot strongly tries to suggest that the titular character is haplessly walking into Slade Wilson’s well-devised trap to both kill the Dark Knight and take over the tutorage of the remaining Bat-Family members, it eventually becomes all too clear that it was the one-eyed assassin Deathstroke who was ultimately being played as the fool; “You mean you were playing possum? I thought I was saving you.”

Happily however, this revelation at the comic’s very end doesn’t stop the audience from positively willing the Caped Crusader to piece together the numerous clues beforehand, especially when the super-villain seemingly coerces Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego into blindly following him to Firefly's hideout. Warned about Batman’s destiny by their mysterious stalker, this book’s writers genuinely manage to instil a sense of trepidation concerning the well-being of Bill Finger’s co-creation into the likes of Robin and Batgirl, and resultantly there’s a palpable sense of desire created within the perusing bibliophile for the World’s Greatest Detective to deduct something is not quite right before he's cold-bloodedly murdered.

Enjoyably, the “producers of the original animated series” also perpetuate this pretence of the cowled crime-fighter apparently falling for Wilson’s lies by populating the publication’s concluding pages with plenty of thought balloons in which a supposedly ill-fated Batman finally begins to ‘smell a rat’. The Dark Knight’s assessment of Firefly requiring more explosives than those found “to bring down the dam”, as well as Garfield Lynns behaving more erratically than normal, quite wonderfully illustrates just how the hero’s increasing doubts as to the validity of Slade’s story are firmly taking root.

Responsible for adding even more menace to this comic’s proceedings are Ty Templeton’s awesome-looking pencils and Monica Kubina’s vivid colours. Indeed, the creative team’s layouts during Deathstoke’s confrontation with the Caped Crusader will arguably cause many within this periodical’s audience to actually hear the mercenary’s Hephasetus Sword sizzle as its effortlessly used to slash through concrete pillars, deflect bat-a-rangs and scythe through Batman’s back.

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