BATMAN ETERNAL Megathread 25-28

[Godlike13]

Eternal #26 Preview



Really digging RM Guerra on this. Can't believe it took so long to put him on a Batman title..!

Not gonna lie, personally im not liking the art at all here. I mean those faces. Especially Batgirl.

[RobinFan4880]

Eternal #26 Preview



Really digging RM Guerra on this. Can't believe it took so long to put him on a Batman title..!

Good writing, poor art.

[JasonTodd428]

I'm not liking that art either. Those faces look wrong to me and what's up with the bottom of Batgirl's legs there?

[Claude]

I don't much care for that take on Red Hood, but otherwise I quite like the art in that preview actually.

Looks to be a nice, Batfamilyish issue - and the Bat Sidekicks actually given different personalities in the scene rather than being one three-headed representation of The Family as they can be at times. Even if they do all ride out together at the end on their adorably indentical motorcycles.

[Godlike13]

Bruce needs to stand up for himself with the Batfamily. All they seem to do is bitch and question him, and he just takes it. Its ridiculous. They don't tell him what he gets to do or don't do.

[Dzetoun]

I really wish Bruce would stand up for himself. All the Batfamily seem to do is bitch and question him, and he just takes it. Its ridiculous. They don't tell him what he gets to do or don't do.

Well, they have extraordinarily good reasons to mistrust him, even if they don't know about the biggest one yet. Maybe the editors are having him be relatively passive because they know they are already in a corner that, as, Alexander Luthor says, is going to be very hard to get out of without either severe fallout or, unfortunately more likely, a deeply unsatisfying cop out.

[Punisher007]

And he doesn't get to lie to them about important details that affect THEM!!

[Blacksun]

Barbara and jason have some good chemistry haha...

[Godlike13]

Well, they have extraordinarily good reasons to mistrust him, even if they don't know about the biggest one yet. Maybe the editors are having him be relatively passive because they know they are already in a corner that, as, Alexander Luthor says, is going to be very hard to get out of without either severe fallout or, unfortunately more likely, a deeply unsatisfying cop out.

He doesn't answer to them. He needs to put them in their place. If they don't like it, then they could leave. Not everything is his fault.

And the whole thing with Dick. What can they say? The only one that can really say anything is Al, and maybe Babs. He has Dick on a mission to protect every superhero. And if he feels Dick being "dead" protects that mission, and Dick. Really, what can they say?

[Claude]

He doesn't answer to them. He needs to put them in their place. If they don't like it, then they could leave.

Most of them have left. They turned up at the end of last issue to rescue him.

Not everything is his fault.

Bruce's lies aren't Tim's fault.

[Dzetoun]

Bruce's lies aren't Tim's fault.

That is certainly true. Bruce is in a very bad corner. And the Batman Office is right in there with him. Which is perfectly appropriate, when you think about it.

[DurararaFTW]

He doesn't answer to them. He needs to put them in their place. If they don't like it, then they could leave. Not everything is his fault.

And the whole thing with Dick. What can they say? The only one that can really say anything is Al, and maybe Babs. He has Dick on a mission to protect every superhero. And if he feels Dick being "dead" protects that mission, and Dick. Really, what can they say?

I can see Jason being angry on behalf of Kory, not being able to let them in on the fact that he's still alive. Doesn't really work if that cancelled funeral issue is non-canon tho.

[Punisher007]

When he lies to their faces about something as deeply personal as this, it damn well IS HIS FAULT!! These are his friends, surrogate children, allies, protégés, etc who have put their butts on the line for him time after time, and he's deliberately manipulating them into believing that one of their closest loved ones is dead when he knows full well that that isn't the case. He's causing them unnecessary emotional harm FOR NO GOOD REASON!! There's absolutely know reason why he couldn't say "guys Dick is still alive and I have him on a mission, but I cannot tell you where he is or what he's doing just yet" at the very least. What, does he expect them to blab to SPYRAL? That just makes him look like an idiot. And it's even worse since he's promised "no more secrets." Sorry, but he is NOT in the right here. He's back to being "batjerk."

[Claude]

When he lies to their faces about something as deeply personal as this, it damn well IS HIS FAULT!! These are his friends, surrogate children, allies, protégés, etc who have put their butts on the line for him time after time, and he's deliberately manipulating them into believing that one of their closest loved ones is dead when he knows full well that that isn't the case. He's causing them unnecessary emotional harm FOR NO GOOD REASON!! There's absolutely know reason why he couldn't say "guys Dick is still alive and I have him on a mission, but I cannot tell you where he is or what he's doing just yet" at the very least. What, does he expect them to blab to SPYRAL? That just makes him look like an idiot. And it's even worse since he's promised "no more secrets." Sorry, but he is NOT in the right here. He's back to being "batjerk."

Plus, the elephant in the room?

So what if they blabbed to Spyral? Spyral already know that Dick's alive, and they have no reason to believe that Batman thinks otherwise!

[Dzetoun]

When he lies to their faces about something as deeply personal as this, it damn well IS HIS FAULT!! These are his friends, surrogate children, allies, protégés, etc who have put their butts on the line for him time after time, and he's deliberately manipulating them into believing that one of their closest loved ones is dead when he knows full well that that isn't the case. He's causing them unnecessary emotional harm FOR NO GOOD REASON!! There's absolutely know reason why he couldn't say "guys Dick is still alive and I have him on a mission, but I cannot tell you where he is or what he's doing just yet" at the very least. What, does he expect them to blab to SPYRAL? That just makes him look like an idiot. And it's even worse since he's promised "no more secrets." Sorry, but he is NOT in the right here. He's back to being "batjerk."

Yes, he is back to "batjerk" and that is a very unfortunate development. I'm not sure it's a development that's being done deliberately, though. I think Alexander Luthor has the right of it when he says that the things that are making Bruce look terrible in both Eternal and Batman and Robin really are because the Bat Office was caught flat-footed and just has neither the time nor the inclination to deal with the situation properly. I have no doubt that Seeley and King would like to do things with the plotline, and would do a very good job if allowed to do so, and for that matter Tomasi, much as I am not a fan of his writing, probably would have liked to have done something with it. But I don't know that the Batman Office really has much commitment to the whole thing. One would think having Bruce Wayne's former ward unmasked as Nightwing would have had dramatic impact on his life and those around him, after all, and they weren't even caught flat on that one since it happened a year ago. But it is quite clear that the Bat Office is going to simply refuse to acknowledge the plot point since (and here is a place I agree with Badou) it is incredibly awkward and they just don't want to spend the pages it would take to explore the issue correctly. Even Geoff Johns evidently doesn't want to touch it, and he's the one who wrote it. So, unfortunately, I doubt that in the end any writer is going to get much support from editorial when it comes to trying to resolve all this in a satisfactory way. At one time I, and I think most other people, thought this was being set up for a big story sometime next year. And we may still see that; stranger things have certainly happened. But I really do suspect that editorial is going to want to make some kind of half-assed, half-hearted gesture that amounts to saying "We shouldn't have done this, but we did, so here's a few panels and let's just forget the whole thing." In other words, it's going to be "Jason in Ethiopia" writ large.