The start of something.
Yesterday's review: TMNT (may 13). The Eternal series continues! Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seeley, and Andy Clarke join the dark knight on this adventure.
The Good
In this issue, strange things are happening to some of the children of Gotham City. With the recent events of Gordon being held for manslaughter and the Gang War between the Penguin and Carmine Falcone; another problem is rising in Gotham City. Showing us that Batman is losing slowly losing his grip on the city.
This wasn't a great issue, but I still enjoyed some parts. One of those parts being Andy Clarke's artwork. It was good to see him work on Batman again and how he always captures the city just right. While I would've liked Dustin Nguyen to stay on for three or so issues, it's good to see that a lot of the popular Batman artist are coming on to this series early on.
The other "good" part that I liked about this issue was there is still a sense of "mystery" going on. Even though this fifth issue's story, as a whole, didn't make much sense; I do like how the story is progressing to show Batman losing control of Gotham City. Adding this nanobot flu, or virus (whatever it is), I'm interested in seeing how it adds to the overall story of Batman failing Gotham City.
And on the note of Batman slowly failing the city, I loved the conversation between Red Robin and Batman. I like how R.R. touched on how Batman is not really dealing well with the recent events in his life that have change the New 52 Batman Continuity greatly (i.e. Dick Grayon's identity revealed, Death of the family with the Joker's return, and Damian's death). Batman's response of silence is totally awesome and while it was a bit shoehorned into this issue, I do like how the writers touched on these aspects. And how Batman is slowly becoming more isolated with each failure and starting to ignore the family, or team(s), that he has created from his vast knowledge.
The Bad
While I do love a good mystery, that's the problem with this issue. It feels that the writers are cramming on a bunch of aspects, that hopefully, by issue 60; will all make sense. HOWEVER, at this point in time; adding the nanobots flu, or virus (whatever it is), seems like it is crowding in, OR, taking over the stories that have already been introduced. Let me give you a quick run down of the main events that have happened. Gordon charged with manslaughter, Carmine Falcone vs. Penguin for the heart of Gotham City, and a mysterious figure that seems to be leading all of these coordinated attacks. While all these elements can possibly fall on the last point I made, the writers haven't made that clear yet to us readers.
Instead it seems with every added story element, some other established part of this story (like Gordon's trial) is forgotten about or talked lightly of. In my mind, if the writers are going to be playing around with all these story elements; they should still have each story feel relevant, or important, in an issue. While that can not be achieved for each and every issue, it would be nice as to see how other characters are being effected by (i.e. the nanobot flu, or virus) instead of it being just Red Robin taking center stage. Plus I don't really like Harper and her brother as characters in general. They are really broad and them joining Batman's family (eventually which it's been teased and alluded to, too many times), I just don't see the point. These two characters could be removed from this series and replaced by characters that we actually care about.
The Verdict
In the end, Batman: Eternal is awesome. However, it's hitting a lot of speed bumps lately. So I recommend reading this series if you have time, or just wait until the hardcover collection comes out. 2 out of 5. Until the next one!
Batman: Eternal reviews
- Prelude (Bat #28)
- Eternal #1
- Eternal #2
- Eternal #3
- Eternal #4
- Eternal #5 (this review)
- Eternal #6 (next review)
