Batman Eternal #3 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seely (story), Jason Fabok (art), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: When your dad spoils your fun, it’s only proper to spoil his back.

The Review: And now the moment of Batman Eternal I’ve been waiting for: the return of Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. the last pre-relaunch Batgirl. Of course, part of the charm that made her so popular (and thus her exclusion from the DCnU so reviled) was Bryan Q. Miller’s specific take on her, which was taking Buffy Summers, removing the angst, and tweaking up the playfulness. In a comic book world of increasing grimness, Stephanie was unbeatably upbeat—which made her special, damn it.

Excited as I am, I’m also a little apprehensive as to how she will fare under another writer’s pen. Right now, it’s difficult to say. What we see in this issue is not the confident, put-together Stephanie who wore the Batgirl mantle, but a Stephanie predating her more annoying Spoiler days. As such, much of her sparkling wit is replaced by your commonplace teenage sarcasm, both withering and not a little mean-spirited. Blowing off her mom’s concern about dropping in unexpectedly on her dad: “Oh, no! I’m going to spoil his puzzle night with his loser friends!”

Until now, I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated enough the fact that Steph originally became Spoiler to sabotage her supervillain father, Cluemaster. Previously, this whole affair was treated as an outlandish form of teenage rebellion, motivated as much by resentment as justice. Here, it’s not just that Steph’s dad is a supervillain; it’s not even that he’s willing to kill her to keep up his villainy; it’s that that he reveals his complete disregard for her in doing so. On having to kill his daughter to cover his tracks, he says, “Sacrifice is yet another overstatement.”

Consequently, Snyder-Tynion set Steph up for a much bigger role right from the start of her superhero career by expanding Cluemaster’s impact. At the moment, he doesn’t look any more or less competent or dangerous than he ever was, and he’s still associated with a ragtag band of similarly minor rogues. But this band is now associated with a far bigger scheme concerning Gotham, and by extension, Steph will be, too, if she still intends to spoil her father’s plans.

I should make it clear that Cluemaster isn’t the actual mastermind of the group, but since the issue keeps that person in perpetual shadow, there’s no telling if they’re allied with Falcone, against him, or perhaps orchestrating the whole situation. You know at least they stand apart from Penguin’s own gang of superpowered mobsters, who are definitely ready to war with Falcone for control of Gotham. Caught in the middle of this growing conflict is the Bat-family, trying to keep the mess under control without any aid from the city itself.

With Gordon in the clink, there’s a vacuum to be filled within Gotham Central, and although Bullock’s right that Maggie would be the perfect person to take his place, obviously it’s going to be Forbes. He’s just too much of a douche not to be hand-picked by Falcone to create the compliant, anti-Batman police force the criminals want.

It’s not a terrible plan, but Snyder-Tynion paint it with such broad strokes that it’s practically caricaturized. Consider Forbes’ reminiscences about “when cops lived like kings… I remember your Gotham City, Mr. Falcone. I’ve missed it every day for the last five years.” Seriously, who talks like that? The dialogue is not only laughably shallow, the stresses are almost cartoon-like in delivery. Falcone: “Let’s say there was to be some trouble in the criminal underworld these next few weeks. What would you say to that?”

Forbes: “I’d say the police have better things to do than worry about something like that.”

“Now that’s just what I was hoping you’d say…” If Falcone had a longer mustache, he’d probably have twirled it.

Very quickly Fabok is establishing himself as the series’ strongest asset. With his highly attractive, perfectly shaped figures and richness of detail, every page is a delight to look at, even if his storytelling is nothing special. With this being a talking-heads issue, you also get a chance to appreciate Fabok’s emotional range. Tight close-ups reveal how appreciable subtleties in the faces, giving credibility to even the most hackneyed dialogue. And it’s about time that I mention how Anderson’s muted colors and gift for lighting results in cinema-quality visuals. This is beautiful stuff.

Conclusion: High-class art for a middle-class script.

Grade: C+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – So Cluemaster has gotten himself partnered with Firefly, Lock-Up, and Signalman—the dweeby wannabes of the Batman rogues gallery.