Batman Eternal #9 Review

This is the second week in a row that’s left me wondering if I’m starting to develop a crush on this book. I’ve written in previous issues about how Batman Eternal came across as a love letter to the working pieces that keep Gotham running (and the ones that conspire to tear it down). This week’s issue is an indication that I was obviously thinking smaller than Scott Snyder and his team had in mind.

This week, Batman leaves town for a few, setting his sights for Hong Kong to shake down the crime element in search of a key to beating Carmine Falcone. This leads to a team-up with Jiro, Batman’s Japanese counterpart. This is awesome because it breaks up the eventual monotony of the Penguin/Falcone war without veering too far away from the main narrative. Also, it shows the series as not just having a reverence for Gotham, but for the Bat-universe as a whole (including the globe trotting Batman Inc). Meanwhile, in Gotham, Catwoman is on a tear through the criminal underworld, making sure Falcone doesn’t get comfortable in the Bat’s absence. I appreciate the gender politics with this particular depiction of Selina improving a bit from the last time we saw her. I was starting to get the impression that a 14 year old boy with a Maxim subscription was making all the decisions on her poses and innuendo. John Layman spares no expense to give a very kinetic book that has action and fun to spare. Still, the bad guy Batman squares off with in Hong Kong wasn’t very exciting. He was basica…