Batman and Robin Eternal #12

By Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ed Brisson, Javier Pina, Goran Sudzuka, John Rauch

“Show me, Sculptor! Show me what Batman did! I need to know what his involvement with Mother was.”

Dick Grayson can be so demanding sometimes. I mean, she just told you last issue you’re probably not going to want to see what Batman did…then again he’s having the reaction probably ever Robin would right? Damian may be a bit calmer of course…or probably not…yeah most definitely not.

Doing the scripting this week on the story by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV is Ed Brisson as we dive into the past and take a look at one of Batman’s biggest secrets! No, this isn’t like an episode and Arrow and therefore about an uninteresting love story, it’s about a super dark secret, one Batman claims he’d never commit…and Grayson can’t believe it either! Brisson gives us plenty of insight into Batman’s talks with Mother, but something he also does well this issue is go into detail about just how powerful Mother really is. As Sculptor explains to Grayson, her influence is everywhere.”But I need you to know what you’re up against. All of Mother’s children are out there. They’re lawyers, doctors, scientists, politicians, heads of industry. Her sleeper agents…she can all them into action at any point and cripple society. They’re weapon to be used by mother.”

On the artwork side of this issue we have Javier Pina and Goran Sudzuka on art and John Rauch on colors. A great scene from this issue comes when Grayson is in the dreamlike state due to Sculptor’s abilities. In the dream, which is actually what happened in the past (keeping up?) Grayson finds out some information he probably wish he hadn’t, which results in him going into nightmare mode and having a giant Batman/ManBat hybrid looming over him as he cowers in fear. Pina and Sudzuka (or whichever covered this page) do a great job at creating the terrifying look of the bat and covering it in dark grey and black, giving it a truly menacing appearance. Rauch gives the background of the scene a bright red and orange look, giving a great contrast to the scene and playing off the color of the Bat’s scary Gene Simmons tongue. You wanted to know what happened, Grayson…Batman was into KISS?!

Issue #12 of Batman and Robin Eternal gives us Grayson’s take on what Bluebird saw happened in the past last issue. Though this issue offers a lot of the drama it misses out on some of the humor we’ve been able to see in other issues – most of that humor comes from Tim Drake and Jason Todd, which were both absent this issue. Bluebird is mostly absent during the issue, but appears again at the end giving us a bit of a lighthearted spin on the otherwise grim tale of the past as told by Brisson. The artwork this issue delivered some great scenes as both Pina and Sudzuka worked well to create an issue with fluent work, all made the better by the colors of Rauch.