SPOILER ALERT: "Batman Eternal" Finally Reveals Mystery Villain

[CBR News]

The identity of the mastermind behind "Batman Eternal's" machinations is a genuine surprise -- which is why the revelation works so well.


Full article here.

[scary harpy]

My prayers have been answered.

Someone realized that Batman has about 500 villains but not even 5% were used; someone with some creative talent selected an underused foe and wrote a story to showcase this villain.

I could not be happier. I so sure it was going to be 1 of the top 10 bat-villains...again! This is refreshing.

[Naked Bat]

I agree with you, but I still don't think he is THE real big bad. I think he's number two. Not to mention nothing he did until this issue was especially impressive. He was shown to be a loser until this issue.

[JasonTodd428]

I agree that it would certainly be nice if someone other than a primary Bat villain would be the mastermind behind something of this scope but I really think they are barking up the wrong tree here and that this reveal is meant to mislead the readers. Cluemaster may be the number two guy but I seriously doubt that he's the mastermind here.

[InformationGeek]

Yeah. I bet Cluemaster is the number two guy and that he was hired to pull come up with a lot of the plans, while the guy in charge found all the players needed and had some of the bigger connections to make everything work.

[JBatmanFan05]

We shall see if this article is a bit presumptive.

[Punisher007]

Admittedly it WOULD be really cool interesting. For it not to be one of the "big" villains that they keep using over and over and over and over again, it's be refreshing in a way. BUT, I still think that Lincoln March is the "BIG BAD," without Cluemaster maybe being his chief lieutenant.

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

You aren't being serious are you?

Is obvious that Cluemaster is working under the orders of anyone else.

Still the whole thing feels like a lame ripoff of Hush.

[ispacehead]

We shall see if this article is a bit presumptive.

Yeah, count me in the 'don't count your chickens' crowd.

[scary harpy]

You aren't being serious are you?

I am being serious.

Let's review Batman's Rouge's Gallery:

• Harley Quinn
• Poison Ivy
• Catwoman

Easy to remember since Batman doesn't have any other distaff foes.

• Joker
• Penguin
• Riddler
• Scarecrow
• Mad Hatter
• Mister Freeze
• Ra's Al Ghul

That's all folks.

Sure, sometimes a flash in the pan appears like Bane or Hush or the Ventriloquist but they only last as long one writer uses them. Beyond that, they are rarely seen again. Why? The next writer has her/his own new foe to introduce and does not have time to dig up a moldy oldy from 17 months ago (much less 17 years ago) and write a story about that villain/ess.

When some write those stories that reintroduce old enemies in new ways, we can gain a multi-faceted, interesting opponent for our heroes. Yes, this is a risk that does not always pay off. If not, someone else can try again later. I love it when it does.

[Punisher007]

I'd hold up Beware the Batman's version of Magpie as an example of this. True she wasn't a "mastermind" villain or anything, but the show did make her fun/interesting to me for the first time in, well ever.

[ngroove]

I am being serious.

Let's review Batman's Rouge's Gallery:

• Harley Quinn
• Poison Ivy
• Catwoman

Easy to remember since Batman doesn't have any other distaff foes.

• Joker
• Penguin
• Riddler
• Scarecrow
• Mad Hatter
• Mister Freeze
• Ra's Al Ghul

That's all folks.

Sure, sometimes a flash in the pan appears like Bane or Hush or the Ventriloquist but they only last as long one writer uses them. Beyond that, they are rarely seen again. Why? The next writer has her/his own new foe to introduce and does not have time to dig up a moldy oldy from 17 months ago (much less 17 years ago) and write a story about that villain/ess.

When some write those stories that reintroduce old enemies in new ways, we can gain a multi-faceted, interesting opponent for our heroes. Yes, this is a risk that does not always pay off. If not, someone else can try again later. I love it when it does.

Sorry, but while I don't mind Cluemaster as the villain of a story, three parts max, such as he was done well in Detective Comics 647-649, I cannot really take him as THE villain of THE story of Batman Eternal caliber. He's got his moments of "I wanna be SERIOUS!", true, but blandly, he's blue-collaredly got the heart of a loser.

Like really, can we really see, for instance, over in Marvel's Spider-Man, the Shocker doing a Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus or Kingpin job?

I'm not saying "use the same old guy", as it would be obvious indeed if it all turned out to be a big Ra's Al Ghul or Joker story; but how about "Take your pick; Lincoln March / Doctor Hurt / Wrath / Anarky", someone else, could be major or not used as much, just more of a manipulator or mastermind - could be Doctor Tzin-Tzin, whose hasn't been seen since 1987-ish, for all I care, rather than someone in the level of Cluemaster, or Signalman, or Firefly.

[Nero]

If it came down to having select who I'd rater see be the mastermind between the Cluemaster and Lincoln March, I'd go with the Cluemaster.

There is no "surprising twist", if it ends up being March considering he was always a frontrunner. At least with it being the Cluemaster, it's unpredictable (which is something I feel should be imperative). But the problem with it being the Cluemaster is getting people to buy into it (which is also another thing that should be imperative when you're doing mystery villain stories). I'm seeing a lot of people reject the idea of the Cluemaster being the one and even though that is essentially the point in regards to Batman, it still poses as a problem in regards to the conclusion because there's been a lot of major league Batman villains that's been bypassed in favor of this. With all of the twists and turns they've done throughout this storyline (and with Tynion hinting at there being more), I have a hard time believing it's going to end abruptly with the Cluemaster.

If they want to go with an unexpected Batman villain with the potential to pull something like this off then Hugo Strange would easily fit the bill.

[Batman#22]

As interesting as the plot twist was, for some reason it doesn't peak my interest enough to point that it seems almost anti-climatic. Like Nero and Ngroove said, which btw I really liked what they said, Clue Master just isn't bad-ass enough to have sold on this idea. It almost seems like Scott Synder is trying to make his own version of "Kraven's Last Hunt" by making a seemingly unlikeable villain into the next big bad, which in all honesty, doesn't work that well here. He's just a poor rip-off of Riddler. I would have gladly took any other cool villain over him if had been people who had a history of making Batman's life a living hell like for example, Bane, Riddler, Dr. Hurt, Black Mask or even Hugo Strange. Still, at least this is the first time I've ever like Cluemaster sine "The Batman" tv series.

[ispacehead]

Yeah, count me in the 'don't count your chickens' crowd.

And when you're wrong, you're wrong.

Nobody, huh?

I'm a little underwhelmed but still interested to see if they can make this work for me.