Batman

Harper's laptop ignites, Batgirl feels a slight, the city indicts, and father and son reunite in this twelfth issue of DC's Batman weekly. We finally return to tolerable artwork, Tim meets the newest ladies in Bruce's life, and it seems like Jason Bard has a plan brewing to halt the gang war. There are also a few pages dedicated to previewing the new Batfamily comic, Grayson, and if you think you know Nightwing, you don't know Dick (actual DC product description), so that eats up some of the space.
 

This is how Funimation prevents simulcast leaks now.

It must be Father's Day in Gotham, because while Julia nurses her wounds, Alfred cleans rooms, and Steph watches her daddy fume, Barbara fights off a costumed goon in a country far south of Cancun. This is issue #11 of Batman Eternal and it guest stars little Red not so riding Hood and has bizarre imagery that's eerily reminiscent of Grant Morrison's Bat-run, of which I am not a big fan.

Yes, people talk like this, all right, in convenient exposition.

I haven't commented on the artwork of this series yet, as varied as it is. Mostly because, for the most part, it's been pretty good. It started off strong with Jason Fabok, who has done a few issues. Dustin Nguyen's unique style made issue #4 more interesting. Gillieum March has sort of a David Finch-ish quality to his work, which isn't a bad thing. Anybody else who's worked on this weekly has done a fair job, up until this issue.

Until Riccardo Burchielli.

Falcone's after a cat, there's a canary and two bats, a guy who's Kingpin fat, and we're introduced to somebody's brat. Welcome to issue 9 of Batman Eternal, where all Asians are obviously the same kind of Asian, a super villain wants to make some craaaaaaaaaazy money, and women fill out leather suits like Bechdel never even existed. A quick DC wikia search will tell you why this issue is super special, folks.

After the brazen murder of an innocent penguin (RIP, Commander Wilhelm) and the destruction of the Iceberg Casino, Carmine "The Roman" Falcone feels the force of Batman's rage in this issue which begins with him pummeling some gangland scum. Of course, this doesn't help any with Comissioner Forbes at the helm of the police, and Batman acts shockingly naive while Falcone's puppet completely craps the bed at both police work and criminal activity. FFS, if you're going to be corrupt, you don't just let the criminals go right away, you have to at least pretend you're processing them or the state will get sued up the ass by victims.

This issue sees the feathers really hit the fan in the Gotham City gang war, especially for poor Ozzie, who seems to lose everything in a matter of pages. But this Noah's ark of an installment also includes a cat, a pig, a tiger shark, an orca, and for a short flash, a bat. Old MacDonald would be all hot and bothered by this issue, friends. This is Batman Eternal #7, and an empire crumbles into the deeps of Gotham harbor here.
 

"It was either you or Captain Stingaree. I couldn't afford him."

Gotham gets just a little bit creepier in this installment of DC's ongoing Batman weekly, when it looks like one of the worst characters in DC history is leading some kind of limb-chopping cult and The Spectre is on the case.

"I use an Nth Metal condom when I screw Zatanna. Or, at least I tell her that."
 

This issue sees our favorite burger joint-named fugitive from the clutches of Scott Lobdell investigating the strange sickness the children from the Professor Pyg take down were suffering from. One of the biggest selling points to me for this series was that it was going to feature my favorite Robin in a capacity that might redeem his thus far unappealing portrayal in the New 52 continuity. It's a bit telling that it took the death of Damian and the removal of Dick as Nightwing before he came back into the picture, but I, for one, welcome back Timothy Drake. And here he gets more than just a short cameo.

My review's a week late, but hopefully not a dollar short.

Well, there's not a whole lot of capital to spend on this issue, anyway. It's a transition issue. There's not a lot of new revelations, twists, or plot development. As you might imagine from reading the first three issues, it takes a pretty natural course with what was already laid down: Jim Gordon is thrown to the wolves by the authorities, Barbara goes nuts over the betrayal, Stephanie Brown is in a lot of trouble, Forbes demands the police go after Batman, and Batman unsuccessfully tries to intimidate Falcone.

So, yeah. A week late with this. As you might've noticed, I had a week's worth of rage building up inside of me for that previous entry. Forgiveness, please.

I can't imagine why I didn't jump right on the review for this issue. It opens by highlighting a long-time supporting character for the Batman franchise that hasn't been seen or heard from in a very long time. The anticipation for this character's return was staggering, and I waited with baited breath to see them in the pages of this weekly series.

I'm talking, of course, about Lock-Up.