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Batman/Static: Beyond (2025-) #5
Batman and Static’s only hope to reverse the global blackout is to find tech-disrupting outcast Shutdown! But, as the Neo-Dynamic Duo wades into a war between genetic offshoots and black-ops soldiers, Shutdown’s plans for revenge on our heroes take a surprising and sinister turn! Will the Justice League Beyond get back home intime to help their teammates save Earth from permanent darkness?
Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 2, 2026
The aura moments are staying strong this issue as our heroes desperately fight for the truth to stop ones anger from taking over. Before we get into the bulk of this issue I want to take a moment to update the space council drama. Once Warhawk and Micron found out about what was going on with Earth and overheard the other council members talking about stripping Earth of its tech and resources…they immediately rushed over and impatiently waited for the council session to break so they could inform the heavy hitters. Turns out the heavy hitters are already aware of the situation and believe the heroes on earth can deal with it, but Micron isn’t getting away without speaking his peace. Fully growing past the guards and hilariously pointing directly at the two council members he overheard earlier, accusing them of stealing their resources. They of course denied the allegations but in light of them the rest of the council dismissed them so they could talk further, leaving the council members free to move on to a new contingency…oh no.
But getting into the rest of the issue, we left off in Dakota city as our heroes became surrounded by Cadmus forces, including a commander dressed strangely like STRIPE. Our heroes immediately moved into action, throwing down smoke bombs and destroying any of their lights and generators so Ebon will have enough darkness to open a portal out of there. He was able to open it in time for batman and static to jump through to get over to neo-Gotham to try and hunt down shutdown. They popped out in the narrows where they immediately ran into a groups of splicers…I didn’t realize how intense splicing got as these dude were basically out of TMNT at this point. Fortunately they are tight with batman and immediately lead them back to their sanctuary. They have been hit harder by the blackout and even static is reminded of Dakota after the big bang. This community is doing a great job at supporting and feeding each other but even they have problems with their own mysteriously disappearing. And as fortune would favor one of their own disappeared right from the middle of the camp right as batman and static showed up. Working on an immediate suspicion, batman grappled into the air where he immediately found Cadmus guards working with stealth tech. Apparently they have been flying down and snatching splicers for their own ends to test on genetically modified people. Once static was able to get his hands on one guard, he was able to short circuit their stealth tech through the entire network, exposing all of them to be taken down by the splicer community. But all these guys have tracers so they will have to find a new place to stay. But before they leave static takes a moment to teach the electric eel splicer of the group the same trick he used to mess with the stealth frequencies and disable it. But the hunt for shutdown continues as static uses his powers to try and find any sign of him.
At the moment shutdown is infiltrating the wildly unguarded Q grid power station, as of course that is where he would go. Only a few zeta robots are actually defending it and he makes quick work of them, all while seething in his own hatred and bad childhood experiences that brought him here. Like legit apparently when he was a kid his parents were forced to use him as a test dummy for the company they worked for, deploying him with a personal zeta robot which does a fine job at helping him with his homework but provides no other personal assistance his parents should be, especially when it comes to other kids bullying him outside. Honestly as far as bad childhoods for people go it’s not the worst, it’s like once instance where his parents relied on a robot to be there instead of them but when he came home bruised they were still running to his aid and blaming the robot for it telling them. I think a lot of this is being shown to explain how shutdown has twisted his own past to justify his anger. An anger that static and batman found to have built up in Hamilton Hill High School where shutdown has definitely left some graffiti and his mark as this is where his hatred for q juice and what if could do to people started.
As batman and static continued their journey the next spot they went to was Shutdown’s family home. On the way the pair talked about what will happen once they find him, batman is wondering about how the can contain him but Static thankfully won’t even entertain the thought. He is a confused high school student and what they need to do is find out why he’s dangerous and what he cares about to truly help him. As they arrive to the household they find shutdown’s parents hard at work, they explain that he was here and they are trying to work on a way to find him. They are just as confused as shutdown is and desperately want to explain why he is so angry. This allows Terry to take the drivers seat for a minute as he reflects on his own life, how shutdown believes he lost the only people in the world who cared for him. Batman was in a position like that once where he lost someone he cared about to Derek Powers and how he almost crossed the line to kill Powers, but then he put on the suit and he was able to let out the darkness so it wouldn’t control him. And what they need to do is find and help Melvin so the darkness won’t control him either.
I’m not sure if they ended up using shutdown’s parent’s tech or they just continued to follow static’s trail, but they finally found shutdown at the q juice plant where they stopped him from blowing up the remaining containers as static stopped the energy from moving through the station. Static and batman brought Melvin’s parents along to try and calm him down, to show him that he isn’t alone and he doesn’t have to hurt a lot of people to try and make a point about no one carrying about him or what the q juice can do. But static is here as a representation of q juice. He is right in thinking it’s dangerous but did he look into what they were trying to do to help people with it at all? All of the safety that went into it? He destroyed the q grid at multiple locations, did he see anyone transformed there? Melvin was fed a load of fear and a little of the truth and he ended up changed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That fear then turned into anger and it became more real than anything else, but this is the chance to stop and to make something real. But shutdown still refuses to see past his anger, he still has a chance to be good. Shutdown lashes out, he races towards the q grid causing a ton of unseen zebras to try and stop him as he just ripped through those even more. As the issue comes to Abe end we literally see him aura farming on top of a pile of disabled zetas as he proclaims he cannot be saved…I still beg to differ Melvin.
But getting into the rest of the issue, we left off in Dakota city as our heroes became surrounded by Cadmus forces, including a commander dressed strangely like STRIPE. Our heroes immediately moved into action, throwing down smoke bombs and destroying any of their lights and generators so Ebon will have enough darkness to open a portal out of there. He was able to open it in time for batman and static to jump through to get over to neo-Gotham to try and hunt down shutdown. They popped out in the narrows where they immediately ran into a groups of splicers…I didn’t realize how intense splicing got as these dude were basically out of TMNT at this point. Fortunately they are tight with batman and immediately lead them back to their sanctuary. They have been hit harder by the blackout and even static is reminded of Dakota after the big bang. This community is doing a great job at supporting and feeding each other but even they have problems with their own mysteriously disappearing. And as fortune would favor one of their own disappeared right from the middle of the camp right as batman and static showed up. Working on an immediate suspicion, batman grappled into the air where he immediately found Cadmus guards working with stealth tech. Apparently they have been flying down and snatching splicers for their own ends to test on genetically modified people. Once static was able to get his hands on one guard, he was able to short circuit their stealth tech through the entire network, exposing all of them to be taken down by the splicer community. But all these guys have tracers so they will have to find a new place to stay. But before they leave static takes a moment to teach the electric eel splicer of the group the same trick he used to mess with the stealth frequencies and disable it. But the hunt for shutdown continues as static uses his powers to try and find any sign of him.
At the moment shutdown is infiltrating the wildly unguarded Q grid power station, as of course that is where he would go. Only a few zeta robots are actually defending it and he makes quick work of them, all while seething in his own hatred and bad childhood experiences that brought him here. Like legit apparently when he was a kid his parents were forced to use him as a test dummy for the company they worked for, deploying him with a personal zeta robot which does a fine job at helping him with his homework but provides no other personal assistance his parents should be, especially when it comes to other kids bullying him outside. Honestly as far as bad childhoods for people go it’s not the worst, it’s like once instance where his parents relied on a robot to be there instead of them but when he came home bruised they were still running to his aid and blaming the robot for it telling them. I think a lot of this is being shown to explain how shutdown has twisted his own past to justify his anger. An anger that static and batman found to have built up in Hamilton Hill High School where shutdown has definitely left some graffiti and his mark as this is where his hatred for q juice and what if could do to people started.
As batman and static continued their journey the next spot they went to was Shutdown’s family home. On the way the pair talked about what will happen once they find him, batman is wondering about how the can contain him but Static thankfully won’t even entertain the thought. He is a confused high school student and what they need to do is find out why he’s dangerous and what he cares about to truly help him. As they arrive to the household they find shutdown’s parents hard at work, they explain that he was here and they are trying to work on a way to find him. They are just as confused as shutdown is and desperately want to explain why he is so angry. This allows Terry to take the drivers seat for a minute as he reflects on his own life, how shutdown believes he lost the only people in the world who cared for him. Batman was in a position like that once where he lost someone he cared about to Derek Powers and how he almost crossed the line to kill Powers, but then he put on the suit and he was able to let out the darkness so it wouldn’t control him. And what they need to do is find and help Melvin so the darkness won’t control him either.
I’m not sure if they ended up using shutdown’s parent’s tech or they just continued to follow static’s trail, but they finally found shutdown at the q juice plant where they stopped him from blowing up the remaining containers as static stopped the energy from moving through the station. Static and batman brought Melvin’s parents along to try and calm him down, to show him that he isn’t alone and he doesn’t have to hurt a lot of people to try and make a point about no one carrying about him or what the q juice can do. But static is here as a representation of q juice. He is right in thinking it’s dangerous but did he look into what they were trying to do to help people with it at all? All of the safety that went into it? He destroyed the q grid at multiple locations, did he see anyone transformed there? Melvin was fed a load of fear and a little of the truth and he ended up changed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That fear then turned into anger and it became more real than anything else, but this is the chance to stop and to make something real. But shutdown still refuses to see past his anger, he still has a chance to be good. Shutdown lashes out, he races towards the q grid causing a ton of unseen zebras to try and stop him as he just ripped through those even more. As the issue comes to Abe end we literally see him aura farming on top of a pile of disabled zetas as he proclaims he cannot be saved…I still beg to differ Melvin.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2026
Fantastic issue of Batman/Static beyond.
The storyline is heating up.
Great character interaction between
Static and Shutdown.
The storyline is heating up.
Great character interaction between
Static and Shutdown.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews