"Batman Eternal" #1 Comic Book Review

Batman Eternal offers a large cast of costumed heroes and villains alike, promising a large-scale story sure to entertain over its year-long run. Photo from DC Comics at http://www.dccomics.com/comics/batman-eternal-2014/batman-eternal-1

   Batman Eternal, the newly debuted series featuring the Dark Knight himself also provides a heightened focus on the other characters of Gotham, like Commissioner James Gordon and members of the GCPD. For months, DC has been building up the vastness of this Batman Eternal, boasting an all-star roster of writers and artists collaborating to create a 60-issue epic story arc. Batman Eternal #1 launches the series, which will continue for a little over a year, with a great start.

The first issue opens with a flash forward scene of Gotham City burning, while an unseen speaker torments Bruce Wayne, who is tied up to the Bat-signal like a Crucifix. Jason Fabok draws readers in with his beautiful pencil, with vivid colors from Brad Anderson, and successfully sets up the grand scope of the series. The story, by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, is simple, direct, and sets up some interesting conflicts that not only leave the reader wanting to come back for issue #2, but also eager to see how these seeds will continue to grow throughout the year-long tale.

The writing gets off to a clunky start, when GCPD recruit from Detroit, Jason Bard, has a verbose conversation with his mother over the phone, laying down some exposition by relaying to her a conversation he had with Commissioner Gordon, who hired him. The scene was a minor blip in an otherwise entertaining and fast-paced story with a promise of depth.

This seems to be a tale heavily focused on the relationship between Batman and Commissioner Gordon, and the writers are giving Gordon some backbone into his dialogue—he was not afraid to bark orders at Batman or give him some sass for not arriving on time.

While their voices were spot on, each did some questionable actions in favor of either spectacle or plot. Batman’s grand entrance, which was action-packed and visually stimulating, did seem to endanger the lives of the children, Commissioner Gordon, and the villain he was taking down, which calls into question how close he is willing to take his no-kill rule. In a chase sequence, Commissioner Gordon attempted to shoot the gun out of a thug’s hand, an action that ended up getting him into a lot of trouble with its grave consequences. It seemed rather foolish and out of character for this to be his best solution when handling an armed assailant.

Big Question

Is it worth it? Most comic book shoppers only have to dish out 3 or 4 bucks a month for a series, so a title that costs $3 every week is going to be hard on some people’s wallets. Some quick math reveals that the story would cost about $180 to buy all 60 issues. After reading Batman Eternal #1, I feel satisfied for the $3 spent, and my interest is piqued to continue buying more issues of this series.

Not having to wait so long for the story to continue might just be worth the added expenses.

Availability

Champaign’s comic book store G-Mart Comics, located at 44 E Main St, still has copies available by the time of this writing. If they become unavailable, customers can request for the store to order a copy.