REVIEW: Batman Eternal, #52

[CBR News]

Superb layouts, clean illustrations, tense action and powerful dialogue all produce a fitting conclusion in Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV's "Batman Eternal" #52.


Full review here.

[Chickfighter]

Okay, after all my complaining last week, I admit I got about as much as I could have reasonably hoped for on the Steph front this week even if not entirely satisfying. At least they didn't play it like Steph was shamed into returning by Harper; but more like Steph realized that the city was everybody's to protect, not just Batman's. At least I'm going to interpret it that way rather than the more annoying "we're all disciples/groupies of the Batman" way. While I'm not entirely crazy about the whole "I am Battacus" theme it IS Batman's title after all and, if that was going to be the theme, at least Steph got to deliver the key line after delivering the blow to March. So I'm happy with that. Not sure I like the idea of Steph living with Harper and Cullen going forward. The Harper/Steph friendship still seems forced and without basis in the story to me. I guess in this universe Steph has become yet another parentless child. Oh, you warm fuzzy Batverse. And March came off as being less of a threat than Cluemaster. That doesn't bother me particularly, but it was a bit anticlimactic that the ultimate big bad came off that way.

[Jrdunlap]

From what I read on an interview with Scott Snyder his decision to have Steph move in with Cullen and Harper was a plot device implemented as a swift and easy means of doing away with the 3 characters. When the bat family picks back up in June a convent apartment fire will have taken place while we were away during convergence. Scott having realized that he should never have reintroduced Steph to his work, this being apparent towards the final stages of eternal, where Steph is shown as a petulant child who is undeserving of panel time alongside long standing bat-verse heroes. Scott also regretting his creation of Harper and the fact that she is the weakest area of his solid and well written character building decided she had to go too. Cullen at his wit's end finally snaps one evening, on account of the accumulated emotional abuse he has suffered at the hands of Harper and her overbearing and oddly incestual like behavior. Suffering his internal struggle his psyche spits as a defense mechanism in order to maintain his care for Harper. While his true personality lays dormant his reciently developed fight or flight survival based personality manifests during a traumatic nightmare he has reliving in which a particularly confusing moment occured where he was the receiver of one of many, most likely inappropriate, physical passes by Harper. In a dreamlike state, one in which he is unaware of his actions and thus cannot remember what has happened, in order to protect further damage to his psyche and so as to not come in conflict with his care for Harper, he utilizes Steph's, Spoiler's, tranquilizer guns we saw in the issue of Detective: End Game to make sure the sleeping pair did not wake before setting fire the their beds. I'm sure we can all agree Scot is making the right decision by finally doing away with the characters the reader has had to suffer through. It makes a lot more sense now why he chose to have Steph move in with Cullen and Harper. I couldn't think of any other reason why Scott would make the choice to force a friendship between the two most obnoxious characters unless it was used as a way to swiftly get rid of them permanently in a manner requiring little explanation, so as to save the reader further literary torture, upon our return in June.

[Chickfighter]

From what I read on an interview with Scott Snyder his decision to have Steph move in with Cullen and Harper was a plot device implemented as a swift and easy means of doing away with the 3 characters. When the bat family picks back up in June a convent apartment fire will have taken place while we were away during convergence. Scott having realized that he should never have reintroduced Steph to his work, this being apparent towards the final stages of eternal, where Steph is shown as a petulant child who is undeserving of panel time alongside long standing bat-verse heroes. Scott also regretting his creation of Harper and the fact that she is the weakest area of his solid and well written character building decided she had to go too. Cullen at his wit's end finally snaps one evening, on account of the accumulated emotional abuse he has suffered at the hands of Harper and her overbearing and oddly incestual like behavior. Suffering his internal struggle his psyche spits as a defense mechanism in order to maintain his care for Harper. While his true personality lays dormant his reciently developed fight or flight survival based personality manifests during a traumatic nightmare he has reliving in which a particularly confusing moment occured where he was the receiver of one of many, most likely inappropriate, physical passes by Harper. In a dreamlike state, one in which he is unaware of his actions and thus cannot remember what has happened, in order to protect further damage to his psyche and so as to not come in conflict with his care for Harper, he utilizes Steph's, Spoiler's, tranquilizer guns we saw in the issue of Detective: End Game to make sure the sleeping pair did not wake before setting fire the their beds. I'm sure we can all agree Scot is making the right decision by finally doing away with the characters the reader has had to suffer through. It makes a lot more sense now why he chose to have Steph move in with Cullen and Harper. I couldn't think of any other reason why Scott would make the choice to force a friendship between the two most obnoxious characters unless it was used as a way to swiftly get rid of them permanently in a manner requiring little explanation, so as to save the reader further literary torture, upon our return in June.

Steph of course has taken the precaution of making herself immune to her own tranq guns and so awakens almost immediately, rescues Harper and dumps her on Tim. Steph then goes after Cullen, delivering a vicious beatdown before turning him over to the police. Steph gets a job waitressing at the Awful Waffle in an effort to put herself through school. At school Steph meets a foreign exchange student named Cass Cain who needs help with her English class. The two become good friends and, under the tutelage of their favorite professor, Richard Dragon, begin having adventures recovering artifacts for Gotham U. Along the way they also become the watchwomen Gotham needs to prevent Batman from going along with another overwrought Snyder plot about who the city belongs to. As if a city can "belong" to anyone. And as such the pair are soon rocking their own fun adventure-based comic title, Kickass Cass and Waffle Chef Steph.

[Stormcrow]

This was an okay issue but as an ending to a story covering 52 issues it felt kinda rushed. The series seemed to just be going in circles and wasting a whole lot of space throughout the second half, they could've structured it better and leave the ending a little bit more room to breathe.

Didn't like the Babs/Jason pairing so I'm glad that's basically over. I would've liked to see Robin joining the rest in that final fight, since Batman and Robin had them still living at Wayne Manor he should be alive already here.

One thing that I'm wondering is Jim Gordon's status, wasn't he back as Commissioner during the Endgame arc? Yet here he's apparently back in the GCPD but stated that he's not the Commissioner anymore...

[greenish lantern]

From what I read on an interview with Scott Snyder his decision to have Steph move in with Cullen and Harper was a plot device implemented as a swift and easy means of doing away with the 3 characters. When the bat family picks back up in June a convent apartment fire will have taken place while we were away during convergence. Scott having realized that he should never have reintroduced Steph to his work, this being apparent towards the final stages of eternal, where Steph is shown as a petulant child who is undeserving of panel time alongside long standing bat-verse heroes. Scott also regretting his creation of Harper and the fact that she is the weakest area of his solid and well written character building decided she had to go too. Cullen at his wit's end finally snaps one evening, on account of the accumulated emotional abuse he has suffered at the hands of Harper and her overbearing and oddly incestual like behavior. Suffering his internal struggle his psyche spits as a defense mechanism in order to maintain his care for Harper. While his true personality lays dormant his reciently developed fight or flight survival based personality manifests during a traumatic nightmare he has reliving in which a particularly confusing moment occured where he was the receiver of one of many, most likely inappropriate, physical passes by Harper. In a dreamlike state, one in which he is unaware of his actions and thus cannot remember what has happened, in order to protect further damage to his psyche and so as to not come in conflict with his care for Harper, he utilizes Steph's, Spoiler's, tranquilizer guns we saw in the issue of Detective: End Game to make sure the sleeping pair did not wake before setting fire the their beds. I'm sure we can all agree Scot is making the right decision by finally doing away with the characters the reader has had to suffer through. It makes a lot more sense now why he chose to have Steph move in with Cullen and Harper. I couldn't think of any other reason why Scott would make the choice to force a friendship between the two most obnoxious characters unless it was used as a way to swiftly get rid of them permanently in a manner requiring little explanation, so as to save the reader further literary torture, upon our return in June.

Sounds legit