The Batman: Eternal weekly review and discussion thread

[godisawesome]

It's Batman.

It's a weekly.

It's going to have Stephanie Brown.

And it's overseen and plotted by Scott Syder, with fellow writers Tynion, Layamon, Seely, and Higgins.

So, in the interest of seeing if this series can follow in the footsteps of other great serialized fiction, here's a thread for reviews and discussions over each weekly issue.

So, issue #1:

An engaging first issue. Gordon's clearly being framed in the first shot fired by whatever force is behind the brief shots we have of the end of the series, with. batman becoming centerpiece to an industrial-torture-metal album cover.

The artwork is beautiful and the characterization spot on. Major Forbes smells as fishy as a tuna production plant, and Grady is clearly at least a pawn if not a major lackey to whatever antagonist is behind the subway crash and possibly the "new Regime" we know takes over in about six months.

Jason Bard's arrival and arrest of Gordon seem an awful lot like a foreshadowing of the new arrangement with the GCPD coming: from connections with the top brass and cooperation with an honest administration, to a shadowy alliance likely held with a low-ranking rookie cop.

Next week:

A notorious Batman adversary appears for the first time in The New 52 continuity!

Anybody else think Carmine Falcone?

 

[Gee]

Good idea to start this thread.

Forbes does have a shifty attitude and seems to hate Gordon. He's like Loeb... I think that rookie cop will either be a protagonist on team Batman or a pawn used for the upcoming totalitarian regime.

Nice to see other characters like Pyg and Maggie Sawyer. Hopefully Renee Montoya will appear. You hear me, DC?! BRING HER TO THE N52!

 

[godisawesome]

Pyg actually sounded like Pyg here, without going so far into his insanity I couldn't stand him.

And someone else pointed out that they've re-promoted Sawyer to Captain. Hopefully, that was intentional and not just a mistake.

 

[RoughNTumble]

no the trains

 

[Hush]

This book was ok. Nothing Special, i'll give it the 3 issue try.

 

[godisawesome]

Issue #3's preview already shows Stephanie Brown having an awkward moment walking into her dad's evil villain meeting, presumably giving her what will be her plotline purpose. That suggests to me that probably the thing to determine before committing to the series for the long run is whether or not you like the pacing. A lot of people have pointed out this was a very drawn out beginning to the series. I liked it, but if the pace grates your nerves, it's probably wise to wait for released volumes of TPB and listen for great individual issues.

 

[Tony Clifton]

For those of you have read Eternal and the last Detective comics with the new creative team, if you had to choose between the two to read which one would you suggest?

 

[godisawesome]

How's your budget? If you can afford a weekly series, I'd go with Eternal. If a monthly would suit you better, I'd go with Detective. Keep your ear to the ground, and buy whichever trade version you aren't getting right now.

One of my buddies is trade-waiting on Eternal. I use digital comics for everything now, so I'm sticking with a weekly purchase of Eternal; I see it as a "season" for the Batman series, and the teams have sold me on their concepts above everything else.

 

[Tony Clifton]

How's your budget? If you can afford a weekly series, I'd go with Eternal. If a monthly would suit you better, I'd go with Detective. Keep your ear to the ground, and buy whichever trade version you aren't getting right now.

One of my buddies is trade-waiting on Eternal. I use digital comics for everything now, so I'm sticking with a weekly purchase of Eternal; I see it as a "season" for the Batman series, and the teams have sold me on their concepts above everything else.

Thanks for the advice. Im pretty much going with what you are suggesting about keeping my ear to the ground. Both got some great praise with their past issues, I have detective and enjoyed it so im planning on sticking with that one. Just tempting with the hoop la over Eternal to add another title to pull list. Safe to say its getting pretty pricey.

 

[godisawesome]

Playing it safe with Eternal is probably a better move. A huge one-plot-thread series like this needs to be read in a holistic manner, so any stupid developments have to be followed up on. A monthly like Detective can hop on to another storyline if their first one fails.

Eternal works great for me because I dropped Superboy, Red Hood and the Outlaws, and Teen Titans earlier this year. It takes up a place in my list with a marginal economic hit, and I don't have to worry about Scott Lobdell touching it!

 

[godisawesome]

Issue #2

The resurgence of the Roman Empire.

Carmine "the Roman" Falcone is back and he's the man behind Gordon's fall from grace and the subway crash. He's also got a new Rose insignia that we spotted on the armed-unarmed man. And he's got the scars, and quick panel from Catwoman implies she still gave him them. And our Mayor Hady only looks worse and worse, apparently having been selected by the Roman years ago to preserve Gotham's "paradise" before the freaks came to town.

Meanwhile, a haunting Spectre investigates the wreck giving us a taste of this books more supernatural elements, which we were informed about a few months ago. However, the appearance of an apparition named Blackfyre, who either kills Dr. Phosphorous or reignites his power, is definitely a surprise. Has the Deacon returned?

Fabok's artwork, and the inking and coloring done by others, is awe inspiring.

 

[Gee]

Yeah, I kinda saw it coming that Falcone (either him or Maroni) is the old Bat villain they're bringing back in issue #2. And it looks like [BLACKOUT]Falcone being Selina's father is being retconned in the N52![/BLACKOUT] t: I also can't wait to see what's in store for Batwoman and Batgirl in this series.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I was surprised by Falcone. Nonetheless, it's nice to see an old and underutilized villain being pushed to the forefront.

 

[godisawesome]

I think they're rebuilding him along the lines of "if this guy controlled Gotham with an iron fist before Bruce came back, what type of monster is he?"

And I like how spiteful and unsympathetic his dialogue is. He clearly sees Gotham as an opportunity and garden for himself and doesn't have any empathy for the people who are going to be his victims.

"How dare Batman deny me my rightful place as king of this city! Someone needs to orchestrate mass murders and all sorts of inhumane stuff, and that's going to be me! This is my garden! Mine!"

 

[Naked Shia]

Great start. Very intriguing. Lot of stuffs to explore.

 

[godisawesome]

#3

So, Stephanie Brown returns for all of four pages and already has her daddy trying to shoot her in the head with a hand cannon. Harsh, man. Harsh. And judging from the shadowed figure hanging in the shadows of the Clue Master/Lockup/Firefly/Signal Man meeting, at least one more criminal mastermind is going to step out of the shadows. Of course, Stephanie escapes to play...spoiler.

I did like how Penguin seemed genuinely shocked at Falcone's arrival, and the tacit way this issue suggests that yes, Batman and the Penguin really do belong to the same status quo of modern Gotham, and that both are perceived as keystones to be dislodged by Falcone in his goal for a return to the "good old days."

And I've got money saying Bullock and Bard aren't going to let Flass 2.0- I mean, Major Forbes- order them around as Falcone's henchmen. And it's nice to have such a hateable power trio of Falcone, Mayor Hady, and Forbes. At least Falcone's a dangerous threat on his own. The other two are so clearly petty *****ebags that you automatically want to slug them.

 

[Gee]

Aww Steph... What mess did you get into? t:

 

[Gee]

Top-selling book for three weeks in a row!
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/04/28/bleeding-cool-bestseller-list-27th-april-2014/

Also, they're thinking of bringing Renée Montoya and Cassandra Cain into the New 52!
http://www.newsarama.com/20956-c2e2-2014-dc-comics-batman-panel-live.html

Will we see Renee Montoya, and in what capacity? Snyder said, "there are no bigger Renee Montoya fans than the people working on Eternal, but the key is to find the right way to bring her back and honor her, like we did for Stephanie Brown. Cass, too, I wrote her in Gates of Gotham and miss her. We're trying!"

Tynion said that Renee "was a part of what we were thinking of, but just as another police officer - we cut her out because we didn't want her to just be in the background of the GCPD. We want to bring her back for her own big story."

Cunninham confirmed that Montoya is a character on Gotham, the Fox TV show starting this fall.

 

[flash13]

It's so great to have Stephanie Brown back! And she's actually the same character! If only this could be how DC handled all of their character reintroductions.

 

[godisawesome]

Top-selling book for three weeks in a row!
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/04/28/bleeding-cool-bestseller-list-27th-april-2014/

Also, they're thinking of bringing Renée Montoya and Cassandra Cain into the New 52!
http://www.newsarama.com/20956-c2e2-2014-dc-comics-batman-panel-live.html

Now the top-selling thing may be the most important thing: DC is clearly investing in the weekly format for this year at least, and success in that area may very well be the key to sustaining the market and maybe reversing it at least a little bit. A weekly book that's profitable, coordinated and focused might be the secret formula for high readership-retention, and a focus on "season arcs" like the TV shows would be a groundbreaking new formula for books.

They've had interlocking family titles before, but none that were quite as focused and directed as Batman: Eternal is supposed to be. Having one guy be the main story "director" and increasing cooperation and input in the story for his colleagues should guarantee higher quality and consistency, as well as the ambition that marks the market's best sellers.

 

[Naked Shia]

I think you're right. I don't like to use that term, but eternal may be a game changer. Also, I'm not Snyder's biggest fan, but when he's working with others, I find his work to be much better.

 

[WompuM]

Hi guys. I'm WompuM. Long time poster. Haven't been around in a while.

I'm digging this book. I think a Gotham war book will work nicely in a weekly set-up as opposed to multi-book crossover, e.g., War Games. Now the focus on characters can flow naturally and not be shoe-horned in so that part 7 of 15 is for some reason all about the Birds of Prey, or something.

I'm very glad to see Falcone back, but my god I want to slap the artist who put him in an Ed Hardy t-shirt. The man deserves a tacky pin-stripe mob-suit. He's a Vito Corleone homage for christ's sake. You think the Godfather ever wore a t-shirt with a blazer? C'mon!

I like how Bats is going to be way over his head now that the GCPD has turned. I like how much focus the GCPD is getting anyway. Reminds me a great deal of Gotham Central and that's always a good thing.

I like seeing Steph. I don't like not seeing Dick. Hopefully this book will give Tim some purpose that he's sorely been missing.

I'm very curious to see who's in the shadow's at Cluemaster's place. These guys are all C-level villains, at best. I have no idea who the guy in the yellow cowl with the sun-pattern on his chest is.

Alright, well, there's my thoughts. I'm gonna go see what's happening my lounge.

 

[godisawesome]

#4

So our second "arc" of the series has arrived, this time delivered by the excellent John Layamon. Whereas the last arc was focused more on the return of Falcone and the view of the coming carnage through the eyes of the GCPD, here we find ourselves spending more time on the Gordon's and their reaction to the tragedy.

Now, we still see Falcone and Batman in this issue, but the only real development here is that our initial antagonist finally has a face-to-face meeting with Batman. Bonus points to Falcone noting how run of the mill henchman seem of lower quality these days. Silly Roman. Henchmen without symbols and sigils are the lowest on the totem pole. Stamp your little Rose symbol on them and they at least go from scene dressing to mild inconveniences.

He also mentions "unfinished business" while feeling his scars. Selina's almost certainly in for a little father-daughter "bonding time."

We also get a short update on Bard and Brown in this issue. Seeing Stephanie back under the skills of Nguyen is a treat, and the big surprise here is that apparently Mama Brown's New 52 update isn't such a nice person either. Meanwhile, Bard has to deal with a recap of "Forbes=asshat focused on Batman because crime war is cool."

The Gordons do get the lion's share of the issue. The Commish, so ubiquitous to Gotham's status quo that the possibly hostile judge has to correct himself from calling him that, finds himself in the darkest cells of general population in Blackgate, mere feet away from Emperor Penguin and the Wrath, while his cellmate Leone states the obvious death sentence this is. This part seems almost certainly a set-up for some epic prison fights in the next few issues. Somebody's going to think that now's the perfect time to ambush Gordon and try and kill him.

Poor fool.

Meanwhile, we get a determined and frustrated Babs channeling her mentor's 1990's vindictive nature and inhuman drive. Hey, don't tick off daddy's little girl. Particularly when she temporarily reconnects with her previous self's information gathering abilities to search out the first person of interest in the subway crash. While her conclusion still seems flimsy, seeing her moving faster than Bats on this case, even if somewhat irrationally, thanks to spending time in front of a computer, is a nice thing to see.

Seely's mentioned that he both covers the supernatural in his arc and that he also has a Red Hood and Batgirl team-up coming. I suspect we've got some bad cop, worse cop (graduate addition!) coming down the pipeline, and that Falcone and co are going to find out why manipulating over one hundred deaths for a power play is an unwise decision in a world where Jim Corrigan still bears the Spectre of wrath.

 

[Gee]

I'm very glad to see Falcone back, but my god I want to slap the artist who put him in an Ed Hardy t-shirt. The man deserves a tacky pin-stripe mob-suit. He's a Vito Corleone homage for christ's sake. You think the Godfather ever wore a t-shirt with a blazer? C'mon!

You'll be happy. He's in a suit in this week's issue.

He also mentions "unfinished business" while feeling his scars. Selina's almost certainly in for a little father-daughter "bonding time."

Oh for sure. It was expected seeing Selina's face/reaction back in #2.

 

[WompuM]

You'll be happy. He's in a suit in this week's issue.

Good. He's trying to take over a city's criminal element, not be at a club in New Jersey.