What's the consensus on Batman Eternal?

[Crossfist]

Never read it and I see the omnibus just came out. Was it a good series?

[bob.schoonover]

It's okay. Like most of the various weekly series DC has done, it tends to lag a bit in the middle (probably because the creative team has a total issue count they have to hit), and the art can be incredibly inconsistent week to week. That having been said, if you like the Snyder-era Bat-family (Batwing, Harper Row, Catwoman, the introduction of post-Flashpoint Stephanie Brown), they feature quite a bit and the overall story is pretty solid. I don't regret the purchase by any means, but it's not ever going to appear on a "must read Batman stories" list from me.

[charliehustle415]

It's a okay weekly series, the thing it has going for it is that it feels like pre-52 Batman. Meaning that the entire Bat family is involved and Gotham is a character in the story. I would recommend it especially if you read Tynion's Detective Comics run and if you are going to read his Batman run when it starts in 2020

[Godlike13]

Expensive mediocrity.

[Arnoldoaad]

I liked it a lot but the pacing was obviously affected by it being a weekly series

[Restingvoice]

Went on too long, the final boss is predictable from the very first promo image, simplifies Hush, out of character Bane, and this is like... let's see... Night of The Owls, Zero Year, Death of The Family, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Medusa, I Vampire, Throne of Atlantis, Arkham War... the tenth time Gotham suffers a city-wide catastrophe since New 52 started, which is only three years in, so it's exhausting.

The good stuff is almost every character is there, Catwoman mob boss, Stephanie Brown, Julia Pennyworth, Cluemaster reintroduction... I love the new Julia.

I like some the interesting stuff that resulted from it like Gotham by Midnight and Arkham Manor

Oh and Batgirl of Burnside was introduced in the middle of this storyline, so she stands out like a 60s Robin in the seas of red and black, Dick is written out because the plan changed into him being a secret agent and Damian's dead but these are not the Eternal team's fault

It's a grand event that would've involved every Bat villain and heroes if only Dick and Damian are available... oh and I guess Cass, but strictly speaking about characters who already exist in New 52.

Oh and Joker's Daughter's there so that's a negative

I'm undecided if I like this new Jason Bard or not, he's certainly less bland than the 70s version but so I think he's interesting enough, but they never use him again after this.

Exhausting would be my choice if I have to describe the event as a whole

[SiegePerilous02]

I liked some of Tim Seeley's issues.

Aside from those, it was pretty meh.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I think the overall consensus is it's okay.

It was ambitious and re-introduced a lot of fan-favorite characters but also lost focus a lot and could be a tad repetitive.

I think it's still better regarded then Batman and Robin: Eternal is.

[millernumber1]

Never read it and I see the omnibus just came out. Was it a good series?

I really love it. I left DC in early 2012, and Eternal brought be back because it promised to bring back at least some of what I lost (Stephanie Brown). It serves as a kind of compilation of all the themes and general story motifs of the n52 Batman world (at least the Snyder-touched parts of it), gives a good idea of the voices of most of the major writers at the time, and gives a smorgasboard of artists who are pretty frequently see in the n52 as a whole. There are serious plotting problems, but on the whole the voices are really good, and it feels like spending a year with your favorite Bat-people having fun adventures.

Yeah, I think the overall consensus is it's okay.

It was ambitious and re-introduced a lot of fan-favorite characters but also lost focus a lot and could be a tad repetitive.

I think it's still better regarded then Batman and Robin: Eternal is.

Solid summary. I love both Eternals, but I think the first is significantly better as a whole than the second.

[9th.]

I loved the first one

[Westbats]

It had it's strengths and weaknesses, I believe it set the status quo for Gotham while Scott Snyder was writing Batman: Zero Year. Some portions, such as the mystical aspects didn't feel like it meshed well with the type of story they were trying to tell. I like Steph's return, and Harper's rise as Bluebird (I've got a copy of 41 and 42 in my signing collection). There were weeks where I thought the story was focusing on the wrong aspects, but I guess it worked out in the end.

I still think there was meant to be a third Batman Eternal series, based on the audience never knowing what had happened to Crystal Brown.

[millernumber1]

It had it's strengths and weaknesses, I believe it set the status quo for Gotham while Scott Snyder was writing Batman: Zero Year. Some portions, such as the mystical aspects didn't feel like it meshed well with the type of story they were trying to tell. I like Steph's return, and Harper's rise as Bluebird (I've got a copy of 41 and 42 in my signing collection). There were weeks where I thought the story was focusing on the wrong aspects, but I guess it worked out in the end.

I still think there was meant to be a third Batman Eternal series, based on the audience never knowing what had happened to Crystal Brown.

Tynion told me that Crystal was meant to become Cluemaster 2, but that didn't have space to happen. In interviews, he said that The Colony was his idea for the third Eternal, and that's why the last arc of his run was Batmen Eternal.

[redmax99]

Went on too long, the final boss is predictable from the very first promo image, simplifies Hush, out of character Bane, and this is like... let's see... Night of The Owls, Zero Year, Death of The Family, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Medusa, I Vampire, Throne of Atlantis, Arkham War... the tenth time Gotham suffers a city-wide catastrophe since New 52 started, which is only three years in, so it's exhausting.

The good stuff is almost every character is there, Catwoman mob boss, Stephanie Brown, Julia Pennyworth, Cluemaster reintroduction... I love the new Julia.

I like some the interesting stuff that resulted from it like Gotham by Midnight and Arkham Manor

Oh and Batgirl of Burnside was introduced in the middle of this storyline, so she stands out like a 60s Robin in the seas of red and black, Dick is written out because the plan changed into him being a secret agent and Damian's dead but these are not the Eternal team's fault

It's a grand event that would've involved every Bat villain and heroes if only Dick and Damian are available... oh and I guess Cass, but strictly speaking about characters who already exist in New 52.

Oh and Joker's Daughter's there so that's a negative

I'm undecided if I like this new Jason Bard or not, he's certainly less bland than the 70s version but so I think he's interesting enough, but they never use him again after this.

Exhausting would be my choice if I have to describe the event as a whole

they're using jason in batgirl right now

[Westbats]

Tynion told me that Crystal was meant to become Cluemaster 2, but that didn't have space to happen. In interviews, he said that The Colony was his idea for the third Eternal, and that's why the last arc of his run was Batmen Eternal.

Oh wow! I heard rumours about Crystal being Cluemaster, but I never heard about the Colony being an idea for Batman Eternal. That would've been cool (not that it wasn't in Detective Comics)). It makes me wonder what Tynion's got up his sleeve for his Batman run.

[Claude]

I like some the interesting stuff that resulted from it like Gotham by Midnight and Arkham Manor

Oh! [[enthusiastic nostalgia noises]]

Oh and Joker's Daughter's there so that's a negative

Oh. [[remembering-old-pain nostalgia noises]]


It's weird to think back to that time - it was so big and exciting with so many elements people wanted to see. Hush, Pyg, James Gordon Jr.... Even Tim Drake was back in the bat-books for the first time since the New 52! It was before Harper was so badly mishandled that people got bored of her and people were keen to see what was going to happen - and it was packed full of great ideas. Seeley's "King Croc" stuff, the Penguin and Catwoman as the face of "gimmick" crime that played by the rules vs Mobster Crime that got kids caught in the crossfire at the park....

But it all went a bit wrong, and by the end nobody seemed to care. They didn't know at the outset how many issues they had to fill, and it showed (IIRC it got extended, and then shortened again) - and so characters like Hush get sort of lost in the mush in the middle, but by the time Lincoln March and the Owls turn up at the end there's not enough page space to do anything with them.

Also, my personal hot take, this was the Owls' big chance to solidify themselves as a Batman mainstay - their Big Second Story. It was at exactly the right time, it was a big plot that suited them, and - at least at one point - it seemed like it was going to weave in Tynions "Court Of Owls" spin-off "Talon" series and feature Calvin Rose (remember him?). Perhaps when they thought they could use Dick, and they'd go Full Sequel on the impact of the original plotline on the Bat Family?

But they muffed it - they barely feature, and Lincoln March is slightly contemptuously disposed of. Before returning in the similarly "clearly not all they hoped" Robin War, and being similarly contemptuously disposed of by Raptor in Seeley's "Nightwing". And now the Owls and Talons are reduced to page-filling cameos, and menacing Ric Grayson.



At the time, I felt that - for all it's faults - Batman And Robin Eternal was more focussed and had the more interesting premise and character line-up. But looking back, I wonder if I'd feel more warmly disposed to the first weekly if I revisited it....




(Truth be told, every weekly since 52 seems to have been a really good idea that ended up a big missed opportunity. I don't think "Future's End" even had a proper ending, did it? Weird to think that they were The Future once.)