The DC3 decided to take on the Herculean task of covering DC’s weekly books! Our coverage will rotate between creator interviews, issue reviews and annotations, and long-form pieces on featured characters. This, friends, is the DC3kly!
Written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV
Illustrated by R.M. GueraWith riots breaking out all over Gotham City, can Batman stop the march toward martial law?
News, notes, and debuts:
This issue is debut free – aside from randos in the background, everyone is a pretty well established character. What is noteworthy about this issue, however, is that it appears that just about everyone is strapping in for the next phase of their lives: Gordon is strapping down in prison, while Babs has to meet that reality head on as well. Tim and Jason are grappling with the idea of Alfred not being around to look out for them, as Julia is coming to terms with her father’s relationship with Bruce. Bruce himself has to strap in for a knock down, drag out war with Hush – everyone is battening down the hatches.
The plot doesn’t move forward a whole lot – we see Tim Drake training Harper Row, aka Taser Girl, who seems more and more destined to become his full-time partner, when he’s interrupted by Jason Todd, alerting him to Alfred’s condition. The scene of the two of them in his hospital room is one of the least New 52 scenes I can imagine – it is full of subtext and heart, and gives you the idea that the Bat-family is actually a family (a sentiment echoed later in the issue as well). I know there was just a big “Death of the Family” arc not long ago, but this really does feel like a reunion of sorts, especially when Barbara joins up with the gang to take care of Bruce after Hush tried to ‘splode him.
Three Eternal Questions:
1. We know Harper is transitioning to Bluebird – is Red Robin transitioning to Nightwing?
Tim Drake, the Teen Titan, seems very much the character we’ve come to expect in the New 52. But in the pages of “Eternal,” he has been growing to resemble, more and more, the original Robin, Dick Grayson. Thought dead by everyone not named Batman, Grayson took seriously his role as elder-Robin statesmen, was a lady killer, and seemed to hold the Bat-family together when Bruce got all Bruce-y. That seems to be the role that Tim – and to a much lesser extent, Jason – is picking up in Dick’s absence. Could he take it a little further and take up the Nightwing mantle as well, as a tribute to his fallen brother?
2. Is Vicki Vale onto Bard?
The Bard/Vale relationship has been an unusual one thus far, and one that has been neglected, more or less, for 15 issues. So, to see it here is a little jarring, but we continue to see Bard play people for what he wants by giving them a semblance of what they want – Batman wants Gotham cleaned up, Bard does it so that he gets Batman’s trust, Vale wants to rule Gotham’s papers, he gives her stories to run so that will be huge sellers, but also spread his agenda.
That said, she seems a little bit skeptical here, but Vale is such an underdeveloped character that it is hard to tell.
3. Would they really pull the plug on Alfred?
Batman has survived Robins dying, his back being broken, sending him back in time, even some truly horrid costume redesigns – but I don’t know how/if he could handle Alfred dying. Which, of course, leads me to think that is exactly what DC should do. In a way, that is even more devastating than his parents being killed, because this would, unquestionably, be his fault – and Alfred has been a father figure to Bruce thrice, if not even longer, as long as his actual father was. Alfred raised him, and his loss would completely change who Bruce is.
Continued below
Side note: doesn’t Alfred look quite heavy here? Is that supposed to be the result of a ventilator puffing him up, or is he just reverting back to his original fat self?
Did I miss anything? If so, let me know in the comments. See you next week!
