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Batman Eternal #22
Written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Kyle Higgins
Illustrated by Jorge LucasBeacon Tower was designed to save Gotham City, but the Architect has plans to make it the most dangerous weapon the city has ever seen!
News, notes, and debuts
This issue doesn’t introduce many characters, but instead clarifies a lot of what happened last issue, and sets the table for the second 20 or so issues to explore.
The issue focuses the story down into two intermingling locales – Wayne Manor and the Beacon Tower. In Wayne Manor, Julia is trying to contact Bruce to tell him that Alfred has been hospitalized. At some point, she remembers what Alfred whispered to her, which was the code (10:48 on the grandfather clock) to open the door to the Batcave.
Meanwhile, construction on the Beacon Tower has slowed, and while describing why it has, the Architect (the villain, not the guy who designed the plans for the tower) attacks, and starts a process of shaking the beams into a vibrational pattern, designed to bring down the tower.
At this point, Julia and Bruce start communicating via the Batcave, and Julia helps him get most of the people to safety. Sadly, the architect who designed the building, Andrew Trondsen, doesn’t truly escape, as after Batman sends him down a zipline, he is killed by Hush.
This is the first issue scripted by Kyle Higgins, and by introducing the Architect as a major player, you can already see his influence on the book. Jorge Lucas joins the ranks of “Eternal” artists, and almost instantly becomes my least favorite of the bunch. His work just doesn’t fit this issue, as his characters all look a little bloated, and the facial expressions have two modes: over-exerted panic mode and la-di-da nothingness. Check out Trondsen’s face after his life was just saved and he’s about to zipline across Gotham:
That is not the look of a man who is shitting his pants with fear. On the other hand, look at Julia’s expression of surprise/anger:
Those eyes are almost Looney Tunes-ish. Outside of the facial expressions, his inability to distinguish, costume-wise, between the Architect and his goons means that Batman’s entrance is muddled due to not knowing exactly where he is. Lucas is being compared to some of DC’s best, which isn’t exactly fair, but if he is going to be continuing on this book, he’s going to need to step up his game, big time.
Three Eternal Questions
1. Does every Wayne building have a Bat-escape pod built into every floor?
So, while trying to evacuate the building, after telling her that it is a Wanye building, Julia points Bats to an office on the floor he is on that has an escape pod hidden in the wall.
Now, this is either incredible luck, or we are supposed to infer that every Wayne building as special Bat-escape pods built in. While that is sort of a cool idea, the practicality of this is insane. This either means that Bruce has people on his payroll that he can trust enough with his secret identity who can build/install these devices, or that Lucius Fox is tasked with personally delivering/setting up hundreds of escape pods a year, or that they are put in without the Bat-logo, and Bruce comes by with a stencil and a can of spray paint and personally monograms each pod.
Or, this is just lazy writing. One or the other.
2. Is Hush finally the big bad?
Hush has been revealed to be a major player in this series, but we’ve had a number of villains come and go who seemed to be the focal point of the story. Everyone assumed Falcone to be the string-puller, but it seems now like Hush is the one who is truly in charge.
Continued below
Or is he – could this be another diversion, drawing our eyes, magician like, towards a misdirection so we miss who we were looking for in the first place? In “Eternal” #1, we hear narration from the big bad of the series, who has trapped Bruce, unmasked, with the Bat-signal carved on his chest. The narration sounds, tone/language wise, like it could be Hush, but who knows for sure?
3. Is Julia being built up to be Alfred’s partner/replacement?
Alfred is commonly referred to as Penny-One on the Bat-earpiece (not the most clever nickname for someone named Pennyworth), and we see Batman refer to Julia as Penny-Two at one point in the story. Obviously she’s his daughter, so the designation makes sense, but could this be hinting at things to come in the Bat-books?
Alfred has been an integral part of the Bat-books for a long time now, and no one, especially me, wants that to change. But by bringing Julia into the fold as the Robin to his Batman could be a really fun angle. Especially as, right now, there is no Oracle-type character acting as the information hub for the hero community, perhaps that is a role Julia could fill. Of course, she is also a trained fighter, and probably wouldn’t give that up, but still, it is an interesting idea.
Did I miss anything important? If so, let me know in the comments!
