Batman and Robin Eternal #8

By James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Genevieve Valentine, Alvaro Martinez, Scot Eaton, Raul Fernandez, Wayne Faucher, Sandra Molina

“As near death fights against ruthless assassins go, Cass and I kinda nailed that one.”

And a new crime fighting duo is born! Assuming Harper and Cass have plans to team-up again soon, which would be cool considering their fight scene this issue was a definite highlight.

Issue #8 has arrived to the weekly tale of Batman and Robin Eternal by James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder. On scripting duty this week is Genevieve Valentine as we get a story revealing more of the mystery behind Mother and the events of Dick Grayson and Batman’s past. This issue does a lot of explaining as we get to see just how manipulative Mother can be (she’s kind of reminding me of Kilgrave from Jessica Jones on Netflix and you should totally watch it).

On the artwork side of this issue is a plethora of talent. There’s Alvaro Martinez and Scot Eaton working the pencils, Raul Fernandez and Wayne Faucher on inks, and Sandra Molina on colors. A lot of the best scenes this issue, like mentioned above, come whenever Harper and Cass are covering the panels. As Grayson is learning more about Mother’s intentions as well as what happened in the past, Harper and Cass are in the fight of their lives as an endless horde of assassins is relentless in their attack. One of the scenes kicking off the issue shows Harper putting on her Bluebird mask mid-air as she fights alongside Cass (who is in the middle of an epic backflip). Molina gives the detailed page a vibrant feel as complete chaos breaks loose (are tuxedos meant for this sort of thing?).

Another scene that comes up later on showcases a fight involving Cass as depicted on a page consisting of thirteen panels total. A lot of the panels are small, but inside each one shows some movement of the action taking place, kind of like a super violent flip-book (all of which ends in the same manner as a classic Puppet Pals sketch).

Issue #8 of Batman and Robin Eternal focuses on Grayson as well as Harper and Cass for the most part, while giving us a glimpse of what Red Hood and Red Robin are up to in the end. Genevieve Valentine keeps the suspense going while offering up a lot of scenes for artists Alvaro Martinez, Scot Eaton, Raul Fernandez, Wayne Faucher, and Sandra Molina to play around in. The fight scenes in this issue offer up plenty of action, and even some comedic scenes (Cass has a sort of Rafiki/Lion King moment involving an elbow to someone’s face). Somebody put Cass in a mask already!