Batman Eternal #22

By Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Ray Fawkes, Kyle Higgins, Jorge Lucas & Brett Smith

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is not your night.”

This week brings us back into the storyline cast upon us in last week’s issue. Alfred has been injected with something and Batman has some important events in need of attending to before he can make it to the hospital. A certain reveal in this issue was met with a seemingly easy going “Penny-two” (I didn’t reveal anything, you have no idea what it is, but you will when you read it).

Kyle Higgins is the man on scripting for this week’s issue and he brings along the Architect to try and fight off the man dressed as a bat. He scripts a focused Batman intent on dealing with the situation on the Beacon before all else. Unlike past issues that have jumped around to the various heroes in Batman’s “family”, this week we’re focused just on Batman and how he deals with a situation without the assistance of Alfred giving him specific intel in his ear at all times. This dynamic created a nice storyline as we see him quickly, almost in a panic, try to coach Penny-two on how to use his tech to help him from a distance.

On art this week is Jorge Lucas assisted by colorist Brett Smith. Lucas goes about his art duty with great detail, creating a Batman we’ve come to recognize throughout this series, and placing him in great action scenes as well as giving him great facial expressions. He successfully pulls off the scene of Batman trying to calmly explain things to a bewildered Penny-two and follows it perfectly with the accompanying action. Brett Smith’s job on colors fits well with the expressions of Gotham. He keeps the city dark in the presence of Batman, but casts various lighting onto Penny-two, as well as matching the red lighting during a scene between Batman in his batmobile and Penny-two in the cave. A great panel showing off both of these artists has Batman pulling a “KSSSH” through a window. Lucas hurls the glass at the reader as Smith goes without fail on the colors and glare of the shattered glass.

This week’s issue focused mainly on  Batman and how much he really depends on Alfred (Penny-one) during combat and stressed situations, creating a fun dynamic and great story.