4 issue Test #3 - Batman Eternal

Sorry this one doesn't look too good, pity they write in white in this one

What was originally going to be a Gotham Academy review had to be delayed owing to the release date being too close to the review date, so let’s dig into the first 4 issues of the series: Batman Eternal, the mini-series to celebrate Batman’s 75^th Anniversary and see how good or otherwise it is.

The cover for issue 1 looks excellent, can you spot all of the key characters in Batman's cape

Issue 1 opens at “The end…” (was the ellipsis really necessary?) Bruce is chained to the Bat-signal as Gotham burns to the ground, a mysterious voice taunts him over his failures to save his allies and his city. We cut to “Now…” (again, the ellipsis is really necessary?)

Jason Bard is entering Gotham City. In the old universe, Jason Bard was a private detective that Batman hired to do detective work during the day, and if you’re fan of that character, you’ll be pleased to hear that this is a completely different character.

Harvey Bullock greets Jason, but Jason was hoping to meet Jim Gordon himself, Harvey says that Jim’s busy at the moment.  We cut to what appears to be a museum of avionics where Jim Gordon and some children are being shot at. He is communication with Batman, who’s on his way. Professor Pyg jumps into an airplane and begins shooting drug darts from it. Batman reports that it took longer than expected to escape Pyg’s deathtrap, which was a serum eating away at his suit, but thankfully he has a spare.

Batman then crashes in through the skylight wearing some sort of mecha-suit, and smashes the plane with his bare hands (things like this are the reason I love comics) Pyg threatens to blow everything up, but Batman kicks the bombs out of harms way. The children were all drugged with a dollotron mix (something Pyg is known for) and may need to go to hospital, but they’re alive. So rather than making sure an ambulance comes for them, they decide to immediately pursue. Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen

One of Pyg’s men begins mumbling to himself and then splits from the rest of the group. Gordon goes after him, whilst Batman chases down Pyg. Gordon chases the guy into the subway station and Gordon calls for backup. Batman has Pyg tied up, and says that he’ll hurt Pyg for what he did from children. Alfred calls warning that Gordon is on the tracks in the subway and there are trains on the way. Batman says “Copy that, Penny One” I’ll mention this right now, I hate this code-name because it’s a little too obvious.

Harvey and Jason are greeted by Major J Forbes, who says that Jim never understood how the city was supposed to work (and if you haven’t already guessed, he’s going to be a corrupt cop later on) they also meet Maggie Sawyer, who I swear should be in Metropolis, but what do I know? She has received Gordon’s call for help, and asks Jason whether he wants to tag along.

Gordon has the henchman pinned up against a fuse box or something, he tells the guy to drop his weapon, but he insits he isn’t holding a gun. Jim shoots to disarm but his bullet goes straight through the gun, hitting the fuse boxes (you’d think they’d be better protected, given that they’re in Gotham City, where shootouts happen every other Friday) the fuses explode, stopping the trains to being able to switch tracks. Batman tries to cut power to stop the trains, but he can’t, the trains collide.

Jim claims he was only trying to disarm him, but Batman was patched into the security feed, the guy was not armed. Jim questions everything. The box was shut down and shouldn’t have exploded, and it doesn’t control the rails. The police arrive, and Batman’s gone, Jim explained what had happened, but Forbes is quick to point out that Jim’s shot has resulted in hundreds of deaths. He tells Bard to arrest Gordon, but Bard is reluctant. Jim talks to him, essentially to do and so the issue ends with Jim Gordon being arrested.

 

Another good cover, although it might be a tad lazy to have so much black space

Issue two opens in the office of Mayor Hardy, where we get a bit of recap from the previous issue, the Mayor says he doesn’t know what the city’s coming too and a man in the shadows says he told him that 5 years ago. Vicky Vale is reluctant to publish an article claiming that Jim Gordon was responsible for the train incident, but given that the Gazette has to break the news first, she publishes the article.

Batman is in contact with Batgirl who warns Batgirl that Gordon is claimed to be responsible for the accident, various other members of the extend bat-family see the news, including Snyder’s pet project Harper Row and her brother Cullen, the Red Hood (in Hong Kong for some reason, Luke Fox: Batwing II, Red Robin who’s in New York fighting robots he built for some reason, and Batwoman, who does not appear in Gotham in any scene after this one in any issue I've read (I’ve read up to #41)

Batman visits Gordon in Prison. Gordon’s reviewed the security footage and is despondent, and accepting of his fate. Batman insists that he was set up, but Gordon is no longer sure (you know, there's still the issue of the fuse box being unable to stop the trains from switching tracks.) On the roof of City Hall, the mysterious man continues to talk to the Mayor. He knew Gordon was a ‘bad seed’ many years ago, and that it was only a matter of time before the city fought back.

In the subway station, a man in a green suit walks around, and is stopped by an Officer named Strode, his eyes glow green and she allows him to pass. This is Jim Corrigan AKA the Spectre, who claims that there are far greater evils afoot. In Arkham Asylum, two doctors discuss how Doctor Phosphorus has been screaming for days, as he shouts that he’s hearing voices.

The voice turns out to be some weird green spirit thing, it tells Doctor Phosphorus to say the name aloud, and he does “Blackfire” he then explodes, or something. Phosphorus doesn’t show up again, I don’t think, so I assume he’s dead.

We cut to “Later…” in the Gotham MTA building where 2 guards are knocked out and Batman is observing security footage. He’s interrupted by Catwoman (who's there for some reason). He explains that he’s trying to find out who the man that Gordon was chasing was, and he’s not happy with what he discovers. They Mayor continues to talk to the mysterious shadowed man, and talking of claiming back the city. The Mayor wonders whether he did this to Gordon, the shadowed man is vague with his answer.

Batman hurries quickly, wanting Alfred to find known associates of the criminal responsible. Catwoman catches up with him, wanting answers. Batman reveals that the criminal Gordon shot was Derek Graddy, who worked for Falcone. He’s back in the city, and thus ends issue 2

 

I have very little to say about this cover, it's the Batmobile driving away from an explosion, happens a lot

Issue 3 opens with a young girl on her phone walking on the streets at night (see if you want to integrate modern technology, this is how to do it whilst being subtle, point to the writers of this over the Teen Titans, and to be honest the new direction for the Batgirl series looks like it might be suffering from the same problem) she left something at her dad's house and needs to collect it. Her mother warns her that her dad has plans for tonight, and she would not be welcomed.

Stephanie manages to get in and catches her father, Cluemaster, in a meeting with 3 other villains, one of whom is Lock-up, and the other two I still don’t recognise. She’s knocked out by a mysterious 5^th attendee

At the GCPD, Maggie is getting anxious, believing she’s next in line for the top spot as Commissioner, in the holding cells, Jason tells Jim that he’s not ready to give up on him. We cut to the Iceberg Casino, the Penguin is interrogating a woman who was letting her brother win. She pleads for his life, but the Penguin has already killed him, Batman bursts in and interrogates the Penguin about Falcone. The Penguin didn’t even know he was back in the city.

At Gotham City Hall, Major Forbes talks to Falcone and the Mayor. Batman returns to the batcave, and wonders how Derek Hall managed to make his way into Pyg’s group, and wonders how Jim believed that he was holding a gun. Alfred confirms that there was nothing in Gordon’s blood. Their work is interrupted by an alert of an explosion of one of the Penguin’s weapons caches.

We now see the mysterious shadowy figure (there seem to be a lot of those, don’t there?) talks about how these D-listers are instrumental in his scheme, but they have the problem with Stephanie. Yes, this is Stephanie Brown AKA the Spoiler. Minus the relationship with Tim Drake she had before. Her father is more than willing to kill her but before he can pull the trigger, Stephanie pulls a pin from a gas grenade on his belt, allowing her to escape

Batman takes out all the thugs at the weapons cache, he interrogates the leader who reveals that the city is falling to Falcone. Batman leaves following another explosion at a weapons cache. The Penguin calls a meeting between more D-List supervillains, he tells them to gather their men and prepare for war.

In the GCPD Maggie calls the police to action, but Forbes shuts her down, as he’s introduced as the interim Police Commissioner. Forbes will let the gang war play out as the police on a new target, and so our issue ends with Forbes claiming that their one priority is to hunt down Batman.

Couldn't find one with words. Anyway, another very good looking cover, but it doesn't prepare you for artwork in the book, which is vastly different in style to this.

Issue 4 opens with a montage of Barbara Gordon kicking ass as Batgirl, and being present at Jim Gordon’s bail hearing. Because of Gordon’s alignment with vigilantes, his request for bail is denied, and is to be held at Blackgate. Barbara rushes to his defence, but Gordon tells her he’s no longer sure what he’s guilty of, and is lead away. Batman stops her from beating a guy half to death as Batgirl.

Batgirl gets emotional and fights back, but Batman eventually blocks her, warning her that she’s nearly killed all of Pyg’s henchmen (he escaped following the train crash) Barbara’s worried that Gordon is breaking, but Batman assures her he won’t let that happen.  Stephanie uses a payphone to contact her mother, telling her everything she knows, her mother agrees to come pick her up, before contacting Cluemaster to tell him what had just happened.

Commissioner Forbes talks to Jason about how he’s settling in… When talking about work Jason recommends assembling a strike force to calm the escalating gang warfare but Forbes refuses, citing that their one priority is the Batman. Batman breaks into Falcone’s penthouse, and takes down his security. Falcone provides no useful information to Batman, particularly with regards to Derek Grady, so he leaves, unable to pin any crimes upon Falcone.

Barbara has been examining holo-footage of the subway station, she finds a guy who had been at the station for 3 hours without boarding a train, and runs facial recognition, believing he could be responsible. Batman worries that she really has no founding for her claim, but soon we here that he is suspected of having connection to the Brazilian drugs industries. Batgirl decides to head to Brazil to find out more.

Jim Gordon arrives in prison and is greated by Warden Zorbatos, a former officer that Gordon Discharged (who wears an eye-patch, in case she didn’t look evil enough already) Gordon is taken through a bunch of people he arrested, and is taunted by them, he is cellmates with a Mr Leone, who tells Gordon he’s very likely to die.

So, that was the first 4 issues, you know I’ve kept reading, but is it worth it? Let’s have a closer look.

Let me briefly mention the bad, Dustin Nguyen handles the artwork for issue 4, and it really doesn’t blend well with the rest of the issues, the artwork there looked a little more hand drawn and detailed, whilst his is more animated, whilst sometimes lacking in the details, whilst the problem isn’t particularly obvious in the first 4 issues, the early parts of series itself in the early parts suffered from an overdose of setup with very little payoff, you begin to see the seeds of that here. With the Jim Corrigan and Blackfire seeds not paying off after the setup in issue 2.

But the good, the artwork in issues 1-3 is fantastic, Jason Fabok deserves great for his work there. Snyder and James Tanyon IV handle the scripts for issues 1-3, and it’s a much better collaboration than the god-awful Batman Annual #1, John Layman does the script for #4 and it’s still a solid effort. This story will continue, bringing in more of the Bat family as it goes. It’s a pity Batwoman’s role is actually quite minimal.

I can forgive the odd hole in the story, because the overall story is set up well, with plenty of action and a good few moments for the characters as well. Gordon particularly gets a good arc in this series, as he begins to question his own sanity.

So, ratings

#1 8.5/10

#2 9/10

#3 9/10

#4 7.5/10

Recommendation: This mini-series is definitely worth picking up, as it’s weekly the pacing will vary, but it’s worth a read and bound to a be a game-changer for the Batman universe

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Images used in this review are from Batman Eternal #1-4 and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.