Batman Eternal #29 Review

In my opinion, the Arkham issues are the red headed stepchild of Batman Eternal, and I wish I could kick his teeth in…  I usually try and find something positive to discuss, even in issues that I don’t appreciate as much, and I can usually put my personal feelings aside and review strictly from a technical aspect.  Sometimes I tackle my review by sharing, not necessarily what happened in a given story, but by how it made me feel or the related thoughts it generated.  Today is not one of those occasions.  This issue is not deserving of an in depth analysis; it deserves a synopsis…at best.  The rest of this “review” is nothing but spoilers so don’t read anymore if you want to go into the issue spoiler free.

I love how smart Batman is! I love seeing him do the detective work and whenever they show that I’m always super ecstatic about how he deduces stuff from clues. In this issue: I FELT CHEATED!  Even Julia thinks it is a rather peculiar jump in logic to make and says as much.  If Batman really has any reason for making this kind of deduction it would have been nice if he would have explained it to Julia who was questioning him so that we would have been able to understand it in the process, and if he’s just guessing… well, this is just cheap!

Blackfire:  Most of his dialogue ends up being meaningless mystical rant stuff.  At one point he tells Corrigan to hush, and I suppose that was to tip him off about Hush’s involvement, but after that goofy bit from a previous issue where the tower vibrated Hussshhhhhh, which clued Batman on to Hush’s involvement, I wasn’t looking forward to getting another little cutsie way of informing us of the involvement of a villain we already knew was involved!  When the writer keeps the audience in the dark and then we discover what is going on, along with the characters, it is genuinely shocking, but this is like the third time we have had characters stumble upon shocking information that we already knew about.  It just reads as very hollow.

This is, hands down, the worst issue of Eternal in my opinion.  Believe me, I take no pleasure in saying it either!  I wish I could give glowing reviews for everything.  I want to read good stories, but if they aren’t putting out worthwhile material, I’m not going to lie about it.

Get the full review from Batman News here