Sunday Splash Page #76

"New Gym Teacher's Weird," in Batman Beyond Unlimited #5, by Adam Beechen (writer), Norm Breyfogle (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer)

In late 2010, Adam Beechen and Ryan Benjamin did a 6-issue Batman Beyond mini-series, focused on a mysterious new version of Hush who was going around killing Terry's enemies. Once it ended, they immediately started an ongoing series with the same creative team, only for that to be canceled after 8 issues because of the New 52 reboot. Then we got Batman Beyond Unlimited, which was really an anthology of stuff that had been released digitally first, then in physical copies later. You had Beechen and Norm Breyfogle on Batman Beyond, Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs on the future Justice League, and J.T. Krul and Howard Porter doing Superman Beyond.

Eventually they released a trade of just the Batman Beyond stuff, 10,000 Clowns, which is what I really was interested in. The idea is that one member of a Jokerz gang has figured out how to organize and gather all the different sects from across the country and bring them to Gotham, then drugged them until they're a mass of suicide bombers.

I'm unclear on why there would be people devoted to the Joker in Opal or Star City, but I guess we're rolling with it.

Beechen keeps a lot of other plots and subplots going simultaneously. Some of them are good; the two-parter where we learn Hush didn't kill Mad Stan after all, turns out to be a good reminder other problems aren't sitting still while the Jokerz gather. Some not so much; Beechen introduces a new Vigilante, who turns out to be the guy who killed Terry's father, and his last name is "Chill". Like, Joe Chill, get it? *facepalms*

Norm Breyfogle gives each group of Jokerz their own distinct look, while maintaining the greasepaint clown makeup look. It helps carry the impression of dealing with a bunch of loosely affiliated groups. Bruce Wayne looks like an older man who has tried to stay in shape, but is losing that war. The Joker King has a distinct look. Probably falls into the same trap people say a lot of George Perez' designs do (where he's the only one who can draw it well, which is a dumb complaint, like it's George Perez or Norm Breyfogle's fault other artist aren't as good as they are). There are a lot of fight scenes, and Breyfogle and Elder make those look good. It's easy to follow the progression of the action, how what happens in one panel leads into the next.