Villains run amok, Alfred has more hard luck, Julia is chucked, and the city is proper f— you get the picture, many little pictures in sequential order in this week’s forty-seventh issue of its weekly Batman ruckus. And while I’m still clutching the pages screaming into them, "JUST SHOW LINCOLN MARCH ALREADY, WE KNOW HE’S BEHIND THIS!", this issue does seem to at least waste my time entertainingly, with the Bat crew taking on the well-stocked baddies while Batman makes his way back to the city (though if I were him, I’d call a few members of the Justice League for extra help).
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Batman Eternal #45 Review
Batman vs Nico Robin?
Mr. Bygone’s a host, Batwing judo chops ghosts, and Harper abandons her post in this spooky, ooky, and pretty freaking goofy forty fifth in the increasingly meandering (but still worthwhile overall) weekly Batman title. Jim Corrigan interrogates Professor Milo with his fist, but of course Milo was transferring his credits from chemistry to necromancy, and he can’t do that mid-semester. Harper tries to talk some sense into her new suburban blond friend. And Batman discovers that The Demon’s Head has been diversifying his portfolio. But come on, writers. We know who’s behind this at this point, and it ain’t the Middle Eastern immortal with the Fu Manchu.
Batman Eternal #44 Review
"I’m trying to get on a plane heah, ya chowdahead!"
Professor Milo’s out of school, Batman fights ghouls, and Steph acts the fool in the underwhelming forty-fourth installment in DC’s usually good weekly Batman tome. Ah, the supernatural part of this storyline. I thought you’d been put to bed with the destruction of Arkham and Jim Corrigan’s exorcism of Maxie Zeus. If only it was. But unfortunately, we return to all the ghost crap because Batman recalls that Milo (now a professor appearing in the Gotham Academy book) was involved in that whole haunted Arkham situation with Deacon Blackfire, and Milo’s coincidentally making his way to a plane out of town. I guess his students don’t have to complete all their homework.
Batman Eternal #43 Review
Steph’s in the lair of the Cat, where the two of them chat, they’re joined by the Bat, and Harper thinks Steph’s a brat, all in this forty-third installment of DC’s weekly Batman serial. Cullen is recovering and back home, which is also where our fair haired ninja girl is staying now. Selina has a little theory about her loyalty to her father and Harper thinks she’s just being stubborn (look who’s talking, girl). And aside from some of the weird noses, David Lafuente’s art combined with the coloring makes for some great visuals, and a good issue becomes even better because of it.
My Joker Theory
Aquaman he ain’t. (Because people care about this character.)
(From Batman #38 – Snyder/Capullo)
Last week, writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo’s Batman (vol 2) #38 came out, and much controversy is being made of a revelation made in the final pages concerning everybody’s favorite killer clown, Joker. Apparently, the Joker is, it seems, immortal! Jim Gordon shot him several times in the previous issue, killing shots that he nevertheless shook off. But what really freaked Batman out was when he confronted D-list villain Crazy Quilt, who revealed that the Harlequinn of Hate had a special chemical in his spine similar to a substance in certain jellyfish that induces cell regeneration.
Batman Eternal #42 Review
Pictured: A thing that does not happen until the next issue.
Bluebird attacks, Hatter’s back on the rack, Batman gives a smack, and Steph fades to black in this forty-second (don’t panic) issue of DC’s weekly Batman hootenanny. We discover that Mrs. Brown has awful taste in decor, vigilante action is harder than it looks, Batman’s had enough of his rogues piling on, and Tim’s pity party isn’t bullet proof. Bluebird’s action debut is a comedy of errors… or is it action of errors? Whatever it was, it was still very awesome. Who can keep track of all those pouches? Not me.
Batman Eternal #41 Review
Hey, Tim… Tim… uh, you got a little something on your face…
A bird of blue debuts, nanomachines imbue, the Bat-Family looks screwed, and Steph gets out-kung-fu’d in this forty-first entry in DC’s ongoing weekly Batman parade. We finally see what that final push that makes Harper Batman’s newest partner is. We get the inclusion of yet another Batman rogue (who I should have seen coming), the comradarie and contentions both between Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Jason Todd, and Harper’s fateful decision. What we don’t see, however, is Batman! Eh, it’s all right, we’ve seen a lot of him lately.
Batman Eternal #40 Review
Batman plays in the snow, Selina’s car blows (up), there’s something Warren knows, and Corrigan makes Maxie glow in this fortieth issue of DC’s weekly Batman series. Even though the direction the story has taken is a major improvement, I still can’t help feeling the writers are dragging their feet here and there to fill in 52 weeks of content. They really could have combined most of what happened from this issue and the last one into one issue that was just a couple of pages longer, if at that. But this could just me being impatient while waiting for the big reveal of who’s behind it all (Lincoln March).
Batman Eternal #39 Review
Subtle.
Riddler drops some hints, Batman might need a splint, and we see the death of print in this thirty-eighth canto in DC’s weekly Batman epic. The past few issues have been a really bumpy ride, with some unaddressed avenues in the storyline and some truly disgustingly terrible art. We saw how bastardized Bane could get, spent more time with that loser Jason Bard then I’d care to, and were thrown into the temple of Selina Kyle, who doesn’t jump rooftops anymore, preferring to stand around being boring, barking orders to gangland cronies. So, will this issue bring us back to the nanomachine virus, Jim Gordon’s situation, and the rise of Harper Row as Bluebird? Well… uh… no. But we do get the glaringly obvious references that should help us decipher the dastardly figure behind all this chaos! Because I totally hadn’t figured it out a long time ago, right? Well, at least we get The Riddler. The art’s not bad, either. Most of the time.
Batman Eternal #38 Review
There’s a fight in a pit, Bane gets bit, and the artwork is awful shit in this thirty-eighth issue of DC’s weekly Batman (dis)appointment. Batman takes on several of his rogues gallery at the Willowwood Home for Future Villains, Croc gets vengeance for a previous slight, we see that Jim Gordon and The Lion still exist, and I die a little inside reading this once great series now completely in the shitter because of the meandering plot and horrendous artwork.
Fire the fucking terrible artist, DC. Fire this artist, out of a cannon, into the sun. Who the hell is this scribbler? This lopsided, off-model crap looks like the characters look the off-brand bootleg toys of the Batman series. That have been halfway melted under a heat lamp. This is some of the worst art I’ve seen in comics since Jon Bogdanove’s Superman comics in the 90s. It hurts my eyes to look at this. It’s so bad, I don’t even feel bad about hurting feelings saying this. There is no justification for art this bad. Oh, it’s the holidays, so let’s just have terrible art because nobody’s reading this month’s issues until the trades? Well… actually, that’s pretty clever, if that’s what they’re doing. But the art still sucks. At least the next issue looks like it might be a little better, artwise, with a new artist.