Batman Eternal #16

By Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seeley, Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs, John Kalisz

And the stones are set in place…

Batman Eternal has taken a turn from crime bosses to the supernatural, but such a twist has not faded the great story being told. Batman once again takes a “backseat” to this issue as he looks upon a somewhat frantic Bard taking the police force under his control. The Batwing and Mr. Corrigan events from last issue are what bring the biggest piece to this issue, giving us a broader picture to the events forthcoming as seen in issue #0.

Scripting this week is done by Ray Fawkes with consulting from John Layman and Tim Seeley and a lot of the issue is spent with crazy characters lecturing the sane. Some of Batman’s lines during his brief appearance seem unnatural as someone else takes the voice of Batwing to reassure the Dark Knight everyone is going well over at Arkham- His lines reminiscent of a father telling his son he’s going to put his drawing on the refrigerator. The story for the most part is presented in the strong manner this series has been putting out every week. Red Robin and Harper’s scene also gives some more push to their side adventure as Harper proves she can be an asset to the bickering Red Robin during a trap scenario.

Pencils this week are done by Dustin Nguyen with inks by Derek Fridolfs, and colors by John Kalisz. A lot of Batwing’s and Mr. Corrigan’s scenes are met with dark panels and shadows that Kalisz pulls off really well. Nguyen depicts Bard’s scene in a bit less detail to the rest of the issue, giving a lot of the attention to Batwing and Corrigan’s scenes. The scenes showing spirits emanating from bodies is handled well by Nguyen. Kalisz’s colors come back into play here as the light-blue spirits pull themselves from the body of an Arkham staffer member and look as if it’s melting.

With the crime in Gotham being swapped for spirits this issue presents to us a big player within the Batman Eternal story-line, as Harper’s involvement grows even deeper, and Bard continues on his mission for justice.