Batman/Static: Beyond (2025-) #2

by Evan Narcisse, Nikolas Draper-Ivey

All eyes are on Dakota City as Static unveils the Q Wave clean-energy grid that’s set to take the world by storm—but little does he know, the mysterious Shutdown has his sights on Dakota as well! You won’t want to miss this debut of the Beyond Universe’s newest villain and his surprising connection to Batman!

Genres: Comics

Kindle Edition

Published December 24, 2025

Reviews

[dusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still struggle with the dynamic between Batman and Static, which makes it harder for me to fully connect with the larger story being told. The villain, Shutdown, also feels somewhat cliché. I think his origin could have been an opportunity to add something more grounded and meaningful to the universe and the broader narrative they’re building.

Maybe future issues will expand on that and begin to unravel those elements in a more compelling way. I’m enjoying the run overall, just not as much as I initially hoped. I’m still interested and plan to keep reading, but there are some major hurdles in the core dynamic that I’m having trouble shaking.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

And that’s what we call…not a good outcome, lol. I do have one gripe with this issue, nothing to do with how quickly Melvin went from suped up kid to villain or where he got a suit from, but the art (particularly in the first half) it felt like there was a bit of a downgrade. At times some of the panels looked like incomplete sketches, and at other times things just looked traced. Not throwing out any accusations, just the vibe I got and wasn’t a huge fan of but this was a pretty good issue overall and I am still enjoying the story quite a bit. I especially love the conflict in what static is trying to do. It’s such a hard balance between maintaining a proper legacy while making sure no one else is hurt the same way people were in Dakota. On one hand static and the people close to him have been able to take the energy that turned them into what people called “super freaks” in their early days, and create a system that not only allows for Dakota city to prosper, but the chance for it to spread everywhere. And then on the other hand they are also allowing a fairly dangerous substance to spread, bringing with it the same problems that once affected Static and the others in Dakota city, something even Static admits could lead to a lot of people being hurt. It’s a fine line that has been chopped to pieces as we jump into this issue from the catastrophe at the end of the last issue, and Terry desperately searching for Melvin, who has been admitted to a local hospital without any identification. Terry was only able to find out about his hospital stay later, but by that point Melvin had already woke up and walked out, disturbing all of the tech around him and in immense pain. Melvin has become walking EMP, able to feel and be hurt by technology surrounding him creating only one pain response…shut it all down. It also seems like he has some kind of ability to teleport around, but I’m not 100% sure on that and he even seemed confused when he tried to walk home only to end up in the middle of the woods at a family cabin. Could be worst or best thing for him to get away from all the tech that is hurting him, but it also gave him a moment to think and readjust and realize what happened to him when he came in contact with the Q grid and vow that it never happen to anyone else.

The other kids at school that influenced Melvin aren’t any help in Terry’s search for him, none of them are close to him. But even with this Melvin issue, Static, alongside mayor Raquel Ervin (formerly known as Rocket, my girl) are moving forward with their public deployment of the Q grid. This is also with the assistance of Static’s longtime friend, engineer Richie Stone. Today was supposed to be a day to prove the world wrong about Dakota city and all of their own potential. Since the incident in Paris island they have even recreated the bridge leading to it with a hard light construct as a testament to a better tomorrow. And if you can tell by now, a lot of this is being built up for the fight that is about to take place in this issue. As someone Static seemed to be the last to find out, after Terry called him, rush someone, probably Melvin, has been attacking their Q grid sites and have already taken down the sites in Hub, Fawcett, and Opal and is moving closer towards Dakota. Honestly don’t blame static at all for telling Terry to stay home. They have enough heavy hitters in Dakota, like beacon, who can take on Melvin and whoever gave him his suit, lol. Right as Melvin gets to town and starts feeling the pain of the q grid flowing through his system, he immediately stops at the hard light bridge connecting Paris island…and takes it down. Luckily that is where the newer hero beacon comes in, hang their powers to lift the cars out of the water and to safety. But even the alien tech beacon uses is no match for the powers to shutdown all tech. Suddenly static and Richie, armed in his own iron man suit, come to save the day. As you would imagine Richie was also immediately shutdown. Luckily static knows how to aura farm and genuinely try and talk to Melvin, but when talking doesn’t seem to work Static seems more than capable of taking shutdown down himself…but of course Terry has to come in and join the party and risk his own suit getting shutdown in the process. This threw static off for just a moment to be affected by shutdowns powers, and when the two finally came together head on in a fight, their combined energy created a shockwave that went across most of the eastern coast of the US. Leaving Dakota city, metropolis, and even neo gotham all in a blackout. Would anything of been different if Terry didn’t show up? Who’s to say, but this is not a good situation.

[Marcus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very similar feelings as I had on the first issue unfortunately.

Again i like the artwork but the plot has no grip on me so far and the characterization here feels wooden for our heroes. Static is older than Terry here but instead of it being more like an extended mentor and a younger hero teaming up and learning from each other their dynamic is more like disgruntled coworkers who don’t like each other but need to work together.

There’s no warmth here so far and static comes across as judgmental towards Terry, the dynamic might change later but nothing is really making me want to see them interact with each other more which is kind of a bummer because as a result I’m not connecting to either of them. If anything you get a better feel for the antagonist, Melvin, than you do with Terry and Static here.

Unfortunately I think I may drop it here. I don’t want to be negative but I had high hopes for this one to be fun. However without an interest in the plot and the lack of connection to the characters there’s not much making me want to stay.

[Jerry Aguirre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty disappointed in the series. It’s slow. There’s no chemistry between any of the characters. I was expecting big things and I’ve been let down. 2 star because it at least explained everything but so basic.

Spoilers:

Get gets hit with q wave on accident. Guy is mad he feels pain. Apparently he can teleport if he’s mad enough. In just a day or so, he has a suit, a mask, and is going around preventing the q wave from spreading by destroying towers of it. Static and Batman? Doing nothing. They finally confront the guy and there’s a huge electrical storm now. That’s it. Super lame. The bad guy thinks he’s doing the right thing, which in his case, kinda make sense.

[Powerman61 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed issue of Batman/Static Beyond.
Great artwork and storyline. What made
me enjoy this issue the most was the Interaction
between the characters especially Melvin Kim.

[Riccardo Papaluca · Rating 5 out of 5]

what happened to Melvin at the q energy demonstration