Batman and Robin Eternal #4 Preview / Discussion

[jules]

t looks like they're just ignoring the whole "Tim Drake is a fake name" subplot.

Or possibly Tim's parents got the same false name in witness protection, and he was just separated from them to keep him from getting into more trouble.

I'll be interested to see what the intervention of Mother does to his background, and how much of an influence it actually had on what happened to him and his family. I can't imagine that this is the first time Mother's tried to activate the people on the list.

And if Tim is under the influence, then are any of them immune? Even Cass, who seemed to be testing them? Is Cass walking away because she's determined that Tim and maybe others are in Mother's control? And if Cass or others are immune, how and why did they slip her clutches? One of Steph's main roles to play may be that she's not on the list, but has been brought into the loop about what's going on.

And I'm hoping that Jason's unexplained absence will get itself explained at some point.

Tim is also Mother's control. I guess, anyways. Tim was way more interesting to read in Grayson this week. Brought nothing special to the table, here. But was Tim the one who told the Robins about Batgirl? I thought Alfred was The Nest (and Tim said something about The Nest in Grayson as well, I guess it's a WAR thing)?

Maybe Alfred had Tim's help in setting up. Or they both independently decided it'd be a good name for their respective Robin bases of operations.

And yes, Tim was excellent in Grayson. Can we get a solo series for him written by Tim Seeley?

However, I wonder where that Grayson appearance fits in the timeline. We now know that Batman and Robin Eternal (or the early issues of it) is set after Batgirl #45, which is set after Grayson #12. And Grayson #13 opens with Dick's return to Spyral, and has Poppy present, so must also be before Eternal starts. So it's fine that Dick is using Tim's help in Grayson, since Tim hasn't been activated by Mother yet. But it could get interesting for him in the very near future, since two of the people he trusted to help him regain control of his Spyral tech are on the list with him and could presumably use it against him if made to.

Though that's probably more likely to happen in this title than Grayson.

I think Dick actually realized that he might not be able to trust Tim. Tim wasn't really there when Dick needed him. And Dick knows about the whole "designer humans" actually being each person on that list. And with Tim being on that list... Also, makes sense that Dick would go to Tim's parents to ask questions, you know, since they're actually alive. #5 might turn out to be pretty damn awesome.

I cheered when I saw the name on that mailbox. An excellent call by Dick. As long as, you know, he gets some answers from them next week, rather than falling under Mother's influence the moment he walks into the house.

[Avi]

So my biggest fear is coming true
Overpopulated way to many characters in one issue

Again I personally don't like these kids running around (everyone can't JSUT put on an R to do this) hopefully the cast dwindles down to R-IKO and duke so they can be adopted properly

Yes, it's very over populated hopefully it will change once they are out of Gotham or when Robin WAR starts. Focusing on R-IKO and Duke would be a great way to keep the characters at a countable number.

Hopefully the first major event comes around next Issue with Dick at the Drake House and with Harper and Cass out of the cave.

[Nite-Wing]

Cass is probably setting Harper up for something
Stephanie is just going to do nothing about it
Jason is just going to do nothing about it
Yeah that happened

Not a bad issue but it is already starting to seem clunky
Loved the Robin gang cameo
nice way to tie Alfred into the story since they were protecting Bruce without him actually dealing with the stuff Tim is running

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

This issue was terrible. Characterizations all over the place, useless cameo from the WAR kids and Batgirl, stilted dialogue, mediocre art and nonsensical scenes with Harper (again).

So far only Seeley has managed to deliver a decent story while Orlando and Tynion have been terrible all around. Not really a bright outlook for this series.

[DurararaFTW]

Well they got Cass' eye colour right, that's something. The We Are Robin gang is fine but I hope Batgirl doesn't stick around, since she's in a mood where she's just gonna take issue with anything Dick has to say.

[dropkickjake]

This was... okay. Which I've now said 4 weeks in a row. I'm ready for this to pick up.

The art was certainly better this week than the past 2. I'm enjoying the Robin War seeds being laid about. Dick's "However dangerous you think this is, its worse," was probably my only real highlight of the issues. I think its the older brother aspect of his personality that makes him want people to stop wearing masks and fighting crime. Its not "You have to earn this!" this so much as "I'm out here because I was trained for a long time. I can't let you hurt yourself."

[K. Jones]

This was a curious one.

The fight was awfully busy. It's one thing to have a busy fight with one lead versus an crowd of enemies, but a lead protecting another lead, voicechatting with more, while a whole crowd of more leads enters the picture, hard to do. The Drake beat has my interest piqued, though. The Harper/Cass/Steph stuff felt pretty awkward. I am curious about the bat-girls poking around the Bat-cave and maybe finding some of Bruce's secrets out, but this wasn't the best chapter in that story.

Some chapters will be better than others.

[Godlike13]

Not bad. Art got weird, and nothing real big happened, but the ending has interested. I was a tad bit underwhelmed by the fist meeting of Dick and the We Are Robin crew. I don't know, i just thought them meeting the first Robin would be more of a moment.

[DurararaFTW]

Not bad. Art got weird, and nothing real big happened, but the ending has interested. I was a tad bit underwhelmed by the fist meeting of Dick and the We Are Robin crew. I don't know, i just thought them meeting the first Robin would be more of a moment.

Well, in the future where Luke's Robin he tells Bruce he should've been his first sidekick all along so we knew he wasn't gonna be impressed by Dick.

[kaimaciel]

Well, in the future where Luke's Robin he tells Bruce he should've been his first sidekick all along so we knew he wasn't gonna be impressed by Dick.

Wow! That's is unbelievably cocky on his behalf. Not even Damian would have said that.

[Kurtzberg]

Tim is also Mother's control. I guess, anyways. Tim was way more interesting to read in Grayson this week. Brought nothing special to the table, here. But was Tim the one who told the Robins about Batgirl? I thought Alfred was The Nest (and Tim said something about The Nest in Grayson as well, I guess it's a WAR thing)?

The Nest was also the name for Tim's little bunker hideout, so since he references spending the past few days cooped up there, it's probably just an issue with unfortunately using the same name for two different things.

[Claude]

Well, in the future where Luke's Robin he tells Bruce he should've been his first sidekick all along so we knew he wasn't gonna be impressed by Dick.

Was that the Future's End issue? I don't remember in any great detail, but wouldn't that just be a reference to the fact that Duke met Batman and helped him out during Zero Year? Oddly, in the new continuity, Bruce did meet Duke before he met Dick.


And this was... OK. I liked it, but didn't love it. It's more consistent than Batman Eternal, but that comes at the cost of the really great barnstorming issues as much as it saves us from the wierdly misjudged ones. It's still "promising" rather than "delivering", which is odd for a title in it's fourth issue, but there's something to be said for getting all the ducks in a row.

And I'm going against the grain a little, I know, but I didn't like the art as much this week as in the last couple. Felt a little less defined than it wanted to be, with some pretty vague expressions.

[Godlike13]

Well, in the future where Luke's Robin he tells Bruce he should've been his first sidekick all along so we knew he wasn't gonna be impressed by Dick.

LoL, thats funny. So apparently what, Batgirl is more influential to these Robins then any of the actual Robins. Why are these kids calling themselves Robin's again, and how is this book a celebration of Robin? I can be off here, and exaggerating a bit, but so far they have only illustrated that Robin is kind of meaningless. The Robin movement apparently doesn't give a shit about the pioneer of Robin, and the actual current Robin can't even be bothered to be in it. Though boy is Robin: SOB good. Ive been so blown away by what Gleason has been doing on that book.

[Claude]

It looks like they're just ignoring the whole "Tim Drake is a fake name" subplot.

Wouldn't you?


It's not inherently a bad idea. But putting it out there and doing nothing with it? Yeah, it's begging to be ignored.

[AJpyro]

It was decent. Was annoyed by Batgirl and the War group seemed too cocky.

It feels like they forgot about Jason, Tim, and Steph and they just bantered when they could've been doing some investigations. I mean I get that they were supposed to be watching Cass and Harper (I think) but when she got out, Jason or someone should've gotten off their bums and went after her.

But that ending leaves me interested. Maybe this event could help Tim?