Batman: Eternal #29 Review

Written by: Ray Fawkes
Art by: Simon Coleby
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 22, 2014

Green Light

Baternal has been hit-or-miss for me, but I guess that's the way of a weekly book of this sort.  With so many stories, creative teams and characters, you are bound to lock onto a couple and favor them over the others.  One of my favorites has been Ray Fawkes and the teamup of Jim Corrigan and Batwing.  Ray Fawkes has been the go to guy for the mystical story of Eternal and Jim Corrigan and Batwing are just awesome.  This issue has all three, but unfortunately, it's not one of the stronger issues of the series.  Let me explain why.



This issue takes place below Arkham Asylum for the most part and that means two of my least favorite characters, Decon Blackfire and Joker's Daughter.  The unholy Decon is busy trying to rip apart Jim Corrigan to see what's inside, while the Joker's Daughter is just busy being herself...which means horrible.  I have not been a fan of Blackfire in this book, not because of anything but the fact that I just don't care about him.  He comes off as more of a joke than anything else.  I have railed against Joker's Daughter since her awful Villain's Month issue and throw the two of them together and you'll be hard pressed to get me to keep reading, let alone enjoy what I'm supposed to be paying attention to.  Luckily we get Batwing to inject some awesome into the story.

I do love Batwing though and Ray Fawkes has done a great job with him in this book...until now.  His opening scene is a bit of a fight, but I'm really not sure what's going on.  He continues fighting and eventually gets a hold of Batman,  He is introduced to Penny Two and uploads a Riddler code to the Bat Computer.  The code is deciphered as a backdrop to the rest of the action.  That action involves Batman going GTA on some helicopters because he will not fire on defenseless women and children (wait that was Arnold in Running Man, but it's about the same here), Joker's Daughter hitting a guy with a crowbar (-5 for originality), Hush destroying Bat weapons and safe houses and Batwing trying to stop Hell itself.

After the riddle is solved we are left wondering who is really behind all this chaos (my guess is Egghead...wouldn't that be awesome?) as a green light comes out of Jim Corrigan's prone body and destroys Arkham Asylum just in time (or a little late if you ask me) for Arkham Manor.

I am very lenient on Setup issues if what they set up is cool and this one does just that.  However, the issue itself is overly confusing and just not that interesting.  The ending does promise the Spectre's grand entrance and  I'm all for it.  That alone has me excited for the next issue.

I was not a fan of Simon Coleby's art in this issue.  I loved his work on the recent Vertigo book, The Royals: Masters of War, so I'm not sure what happened here.  Everything looked a bit rushed and the character work was very average.

Bits and Pieces:

Batman: Eternal #29 was not a good issue.  The focus below Gotham usually has me psyched, but this issue just bored me.  Ray Fawkes does set up the beginnings of Arkham Manor which is nice if not ill timed, but the art and everything with Joker's Daughter let me down.  I did like the cliffhanger ending and the promise it entails, but this is an issue that you could actually skip and not miss a whole lot.  I almost wish I had.

5.5/10