Dick Grayson heads to the Drake household and ends up in the fight of his life. Also, Bluebird and Cassandra Cain team up for a battle.
If really cool fights are what you're into, then this is the book for you. On one side, Grayson takes on Poppy Ashemoore, who is now apparently an assassin for Mother. On the other side, Cassandra Cain and Bluebird take on Orphan, the skilled assassin. Both fight scenes are the main focus of the issue and are a ton of fun. It's solid, hand-to-hand combat showing off what the sons and daughters of Gotham are all about: butt kicking.
On top of that, I'm really digging on Orphan, who really is the Egyptian Batman, considering both of his parents were killed right in front of him, mimicking Bruce Wayne's life. He has a bit more League of Assassins/Ra's Al Ghul feel to him, mainly in the way he speak, but he's a super-cool new character for this series.
Aside from the fight, this does build on how powerful and far-reaching Mother is. She has her claws everywhere and one thing this issue and series does extremely well is constantly bringing up the question "who can you trust?"
One the down side of things, there's no real hook for the issue. It pretty much is two big fights and a disagreement between Dick Grayson and Tim Drake. It's an underwhelming issue that just isn't as good as the previous installments. By no means was this a bad issue though. It simply just doesn't offer the reader enough. This is something that happened during BATMAN ETERNAL as well. It's tough to do a weekly book and have every issue be amazing.
There were three different pencilers (as well as inkers) on this and at one point, it becomes a roadblock in the issue. During the final pages, when Tim is talking to Dick. Steve Pugh takes over art duties. In his own right, Pugh is a sensational artist (see ANIMAL MAN) but here, it doesn't click with the rest of the issue, although Gabe Eltaeb's colors do give the art some consistency with the rest of the issue. Frankly, Tim Drake looks about 10 years old. He looks very much like Damian Wayne and that face doesn't fit what Scot Eaton set up a few pages earlier.
BATMAN & ROBIN ETERNAL has hit a small bump in the road. This issue wasn't bad but wasn't on par with previous issues. It offers a great fight scene but there's not too much build towards anything else. With a mystery this big, you come to expect things during each issue and while this was a fun book to read, it didn't deliver much in the way of hooking the reader in.