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Batman Eternal #17 Review

Neither will be appearing in this issue!

 

Corrigan is trapped, a monkey is zapped, and Batman’s old scrap in week 17 of DC’s weekly Batman book, Batman Eternal. Even the combined efforts of Jim Corrigan and Batwing are no match for Deacon Blackfire and The Spectre doesn’t seem to want to appear, while in Japan, Tim Drake and Harper Row try intimidating one of Batman’s old teachers, and the only time we see the titular character is in a flashback to a storyline from decades before the New 52. Really, there’s not a lot actually going on here, but let’s see if I can dig something out, anyway! read more

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Batman Eternal #15 Review

 

Arkham’s extra spooky, Tim flies to the home of kabuki, and a plastic surgeon’s in deep dookie. In this fifteenth installment of DC’s Batman weekly, our team of writers break out supernatural elements I’m not used to reading about in Batman titles, but Dustin Nguyen’s art suits well. It’s too bad a lot of it involves Batwing, a character I can’t even remember half the time exists. As usual, there’s very little actual Batman in this Batman weekly. I guess he’s too busy cracking that drug ring in ‘Tec, or hunting down Ra’s al Ghul in Batman &. But at least we have plenty of… uh, Jim Corrigan, I guess. read more

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Batman Eternal #14 Review

Penguin wants to be King of the Jungle, Falcone’s new empire crumbles, Jimbo’s feeling quite humble, and Dr. Crane takes a slight tumble. In this fourteenth installment of DC’s Batman weekly, Jason Bard seems to wrap up the whole gang war pretty handily. But will Batman’s relationship with the “new Gordon” end before it begins? And what is Joker’s Daughter up to in Arkham? And how many more pages is DC going to waste previewing other comics I’m only tangentially interested in at best? None of this and less is answered in this issue! read more

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Batman Eternal #12 Review

 

Harper’s laptop ignites, Batgirl feels a slight, the city indicts, and father and son reunite in this twelfth issue of DC’s Batman weekly. We finally return to tolerable artwork, Tim meets the newest ladies in Bruce’s life, and it seems like Jason Bard has a plan brewing to halt the gang war. There are also a few pages dedicated to previewing the new Batfamily comic, Grayson, and if you think you know Nightwing, you don’t know Dick (actual DC product description), so that eats up some of the space.
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Batman Eternal #11 Review

 

It must be Father’s Day in Gotham, because while Julia nurses her wounds, Alfred cleans rooms, and Steph watches her daddy fume, Barbara fights off a costumed goon in a country far south of Cancun. This is issue #11 of Batman Eternal and it guest stars little Red not so riding Hood and has bizarre imagery that’s eerily reminiscent of Grant Morrison’s Bat-run, of which I am not a big fan.

 

Yes, people talk like this, all right, in convenient exposition.

 

Let’s talk a little bit about Ian Bertram’s art. I can see why some people might enjoy the strangely stylized, distorted character designs that emphasize skin and cloth texture, but it doesn’t appeal to me whatsoever, and it ends up being about as cringeworthy as Riccardo Burchielli’s work in the previous issue. Obviously Bertram graduated from the Frank Quitely/Chris Burnham school of drawing, because most of the characters look like beaten leather bags that have been warped in the heat. It’s often very grotesque and off-putting, and not in a good way.
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Batman Eternal #10 Review

 

I haven’t commented on the artwork of this series yet, as varied as it is. Mostly because, for the most part, it’s been pretty good. It started off strong with Jason Fabok, who has done a few issues. Dustin Nguyen’s unique style made issue #4 more interesting. Gillieum March has sort of a David Finch-ish quality to his work, which isn’t a bad thing. Anybody else who’s worked on this weekly has done a fair job, up until this issue.

 

Until Riccardo Burchielli. read more

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Batman Eternal #9 Review

 

Falcone’s after a cat, there’s a canary and two bats, a guy who’s Kingpin fat, and we’re introduced to somebody’s brat. Welcome to issue 9 of Batman Eternal, where all Asians are obviously the same kind of Asian, a super villain wants to make some craaaaaaaaaazy money, and women fill out leather suits like Bechdel never even existed. A quick DC wikia search will tell you why this issue is super special, folks.

First, I have to plead ignorance on this, but I’m not super familiar with the villain Roadrunner. I know he was in Snyder’s Black Mirror storyline but he didn’t leave a huge impression on me. Apparently he’s got a tricked out taxi, though, which he uses to get Commissioner Forbes to a rendezvous with our suit-on-top-of-wifebeater-wearing crime boss villain dejour. I wonder if this guy just parks in random places throughout Gotham from time to time, waiting for somebody to mistake his cab for a real lone, and then just blasts off with them. It’s sort of like that cash cab, but with horrible whiplash. I wonder how many people got into that cab before Forbes finally did, and if they had to pay for the ride at the end. read more

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Batman Eternal #8 Review

 

After the brazen murder of an innocent penguin (RIP, Commander Wilhelm) and the destruction of the Iceberg Casino, Carmine “The Roman” Falcone feels the force of Batman’s rage in this issue which begins with him pummeling some gangland scum. Of course, this doesn’t help any with Comissioner Forbes at the helm of the police, and Batman acts shockingly naive while Falcone’s puppet completely craps the bed at both police work and criminal activity. FFS, if you’re going to be corrupt, you don’t just let the criminals go right away, you have to at least pretend you’re processing them or the state will get sued up the ass by victims. read more

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Batman Eternal #6 Review

Gotham gets just a little bit creepier in this installment of DC’s ongoing Batman weekly, when it looks like one of the worst characters in DC history is leading some kind of limb-chopping cult and The Spectre is on the case.

"I use an Nth Metal condom when I screw Zatanna. Or, at least I tell her that."
 

Batman is a skeptical fellow. A rational mind, even if he is, at his core, driven somewhat driven by emotion. The problem with that rationality is that it’s often in conflict with some of the more bizarre things in the DC universe. However, here we can see that even though he doesn’t necessarily understand the supernatural, he at least understands that those forces indeed exist, and has planned at least as far as using Nth Metal against forces like the Gentleman Ghost. It’s the young Luke Fox, Batwing, who seems to be even more skeptical, probably due to his lack of experience, thus making his buddy-cop team up with Jim Corrigan have a bit more flavor than just having the stern Dark Knight and a supernatural entity pair for a case. It’ll give Batwing something to do now that his book has been cancelled (I know I didn’t read it). read more

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Batman Eternal #5 Review

 

This issue sees our favorite burger joint-named fugitive from the clutches of Scott Lobdell investigating the strange sickness the children from the Professor Pyg take down were suffering from. One of the biggest selling points to me for this series was that it was going to feature my favorite Robin in a capacity that might redeem his thus far unappealing portrayal in the New 52 continuity. It’s a bit telling that it took the death of Damian and the removal of Dick as Nightwing before he came back into the picture, but I, for one, welcome back Timothy Drake. And here he gets more than just a short cameo. read more

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