Batman Eternal is pushing on ahead, making headway in Scott Snyder’s grand plan for the battle for Gotham’s soul. Aside from the bothersome new style of Red Hood’s mask, last week’s issue took things in a good direction more in tune with the sort of Batman story we’re used to. Now, we see a couple of stories get tied off this week.
Tim Seeley picks up where he left off previously with the Batman/Killer Croc (oh, yeah and Jason Bard) team up to rescue a little girl from the otherworldly threat, umm, Ten Eyes. I gotta tell you. DC has really exhausted the registry for bad guy names, haven’t they? What horrible lot in life do you have to have endured to get a fucked up name like Ten Eyes? It’s fun but also pretty standard Batman action that ends up alluding to a couple more questions to likely be answered later on. The award for best material of the issue goes unquestionably to the high tension hostage situation at Blackgate prison where we see Jim Gordon The GAWD go full John McClane to shut down the Penguin’s rioting proxies.
The narrative has definitely changed directions as far as trying to make Bard out to be the new Commissioner Gordon. This particular story arc has not only proven that the new kid still has a lot to learn, but also reminds us that there IS no better top cop in Gotham than Jim Sr. Also, we get a very gratifying update on the status of Stephanie Brown that fans have kept us waiting for. Emanuel Simeoni’s artwork is even more satisfying than it was last week because we didn’t have to suffer through Red Hood’s fucked up mask. The standout visually, by leaps and bounds, is the reveal of the final page (which I’m absolutely not giving away here but yeah, it’s awesome).
Bottom Line: An exceptionally strong, well balanced issue to tie off some loose ends and create a couple of new ones. 8.5 out of 10