Review: Batman & Robin Eternal #1
By Skip Harvey
Well, I already care more about this book than I did about Batman Eternal at any point.
Batman & Robin Eternal looks to be a a good – perhaps necessary – way to tie together a bloated Batman universe. DC’s extended Bat-family and numerous Bat-themed books create a daunting behemoth of often disjointed story arcs. There are about 60 Robins, half a dozen Robin wannabes, multiple Batgirls/pseudo-Batgirls and a Jim Gordon Batman, all while Bruce Wayne is still Batman in Justice League which may or may not be in canon.
This book has the potential to be the spine that ties together all of these splintered elements into a cohesive portrait of the current life in Gotham City. The writers highlight the entire Bat-family in a way that showcases their individual skills and personalities as they try their best to hold the city together in the absence of Bruce Wayne, and that’s something sorely missed with all the Bat-narratives on shelves.
The plot introduces us to a new mysterious villain (of course) named Mother whose motives and origins are tied to a dark secret Bruce Wayne never wanted Robin to know. Mother has returned and Batman isn’t around to stop her, according to Bruce’s taped confession Dick Grayson received from a re-introduced Cassandra Cain. What is Mother? What did Bruce Wayne do? The ending reveals a dark and rather shocking twist that I will leave for you to discover on your own, but let’s just say it may change the Batman universe forever.
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All in all, I’m not going to go out of my way to say this book is going to be good or even keep our attention week in and week out, but right now it has a helluva lot of potential. Let’s hope we get to see it realized.
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