I used to have time to read my comics in a coffee shop. Now I have to read them in the bathroom. Then I write reviews of them. I wash my hands in between.
BATMAN ETERNAL #1
I REALLY think I'm going to like this book.
Gee, a Batman book written (in part) by Tim Seeley. How very
much out of character for you.
Ok, so yes, it has two of my favorite things. But it also
kicks off with Professor Pyg as the villain. Now, I am not shy in expressing my
disregard for all things Grant Morrison. This guy is right up near the top. I
suppose he's a fine villain, very old school but with a modern sensibility.
Which is Morrison's stock in trade. But I just never was able to connect with
the guy. And now he's got robotic pigs with guns and metal spider legs so there
may never be a reconciliation with us. So that's one strike against the book.
Then the MAJOR set piece of the story just happens to be a
huge subway train crash in the tunnels under Gotham. That's fine. There's some
mystery around it. Jim Gordon seems to think he started it (even though his
reasoning it out let's him off the hook). And it results in his arrest. But,
see, I'm in Chicago. And we had our own train accident here not too long ago.
It was major news. A subway train derailed and went up an escalator before it
stopped.
No. Nobody died.
No. It was only one subway car.
No. It wasn’t caused by a bullet, shot by the police
commissioner through a gun that wasn’t there, held by a perp that was actually
unarmed, into an electrical panel that doesn’t control switches and tracks
anyway, but yet caused the whole horrific crash. It was caused by the driver
falling asleep at the wheel.
But surely you see the correlation.
What the hell am I talking about?
This is, I believe, a weekly series. Or bi-monthly?
Something. I don’t know. So while there’s a tasty framing sequence with Bruce
Wayne bloodied and beaten, unmasked and chained to the destroyed batsignal,
being taunted by the unseen villain responsible as ‘his allies lay slaughtered
and his city burns around him’, it’s still too early to tell where this book is
going. And that’s the both exciting and frustrating part. It’s got some nice
pedigree in its creators and I truly hope it can sustain its more frequent than
monthly schedule without falling behind. And ultimately I hope it delivers a
strong narrative that keeps me interested, keeps the Grant Morrison throwbacks
to a minimum, and puts our heroes through the wringer at every possible
opportunity. So far so good. I’m intrigued. Give me more, DC and don’t screw it
up.
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