Batman Eternal #37

By Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Ray Fawkes, Kyle Higgins, Andrea Mutti, Giulia Brusco

“What have we still got in the cave?” -Batman

“A few more cases of weapons, a portable generator, three extra uniforms, one of which has nifty purple gloves, and that bloody damn dinosaur.” – Penny-Two

Oh, the purple gloves. Do you miss those yet?

This week’s Batman Eternal #37 starts off showing us a bit of Selina Kyle’s new life as a crime boss, as well as bringing us back to what Batwing has been up to since his haunting experiences below Gotham City. It also seems an alliance has been made…an awfully dangerous one too.

Scripting this week’s issue is Tim Seeley, and once again he delivers some great scenes as well as great lines. A great example of that, other than the quote at the top, takes place in downtown Gotham in a café near the police headquarters.

“How’d it get to this, Mags?”

“What, you mean me choosing to spend my free time with you, Lieutenant Bullock?

“Ha, yeah, I guess it would take having our city turned into a prison state and our department turned into an Evil Empire for that, wouldn’t it, Sawyer?”

To make this scene even better another cop walks into the diner, and well, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

On the artwork side of this week’s issue is artist Andrea Mutti and colorist Giulia Brusco. Some of the greatest detail work comes out of the scenes featuring the “awfully dangerous” alliance mentioned above. A great panel showing a few of the members of this alliance shows off their artwork well as Joker’s Daughter lies on a dirty mattress at the Tartarus Restaurant, a few feet away from her is Clayface along with Scarecrow, all of them basking in the dark room. In the background of the panel Mr. Freeze sits by the only light in the panel, an open doorway, as he leans up against the wall. In this scene Mutti creates a great shot of most of the members of this alliance, and shows them in a state not commonly seen – they’re acting somewhat normal?! Brusco’s colors are great too as even in the dark each character stands out in their calming positions – kind of gives the “calm before the storm” type of image…these guys mean trouble!

This week showed some of Batman’s progression, but was more suited to seeing what his enemies are up to. Oh, and Batwing is in trouble. Who you gonna call?