Hey folks we're back with another look at the ongoing weekly series Batman and Robin Eternal. For a complete recap click HERE for issues #1 through #5 and HERE for the last instalment, issues #6 through #10. Now onto this post...
So in issue #11 we learn about The Sculptor who, when we left off, Grayson and Blue Bird had just met inside David Cain's house. Turns out The Sculptor sculpts children for Mother and after the ballet incident Mother is on her way back into hiding. The Sculptor wants to help our heroes so she tells them they need to do a mind meld (Sculptor is a telepath). Grayson warns that given his hypnos implants his brain and hers may be fried so Blue Bird decides to do it instead. Sculptor shows her images of David training his daughter Cassandra in unorthodox fashion, such as telling her not to speak since words are all lies and killing many men in front of her so she gets numb to the feeling. We also learn that David was one of Mother's "children" and that he was training Cassandra behind her back since he wanted to demonstrate his way was more effective however Mother disagreed and told him never to go against her again. He plans to show her however "when the time is right" (now perhaps?). She then shows her Batman meeting with Mother to find the new Robin but during this time Grayson gets concerned so he breaks the connection. When Grayson finds out what Sculptor was showing her however he demands that they mind meld so he can see regardless of what may happen,
In the mind meld Sculptor shows Grayson how it all started. David and her were Mother's first children... Her Adam and Eve and that she has since discovered a chemical that can do the work that years of training and telepathic suggestion has done thanks in part to Scarecrow's fear toxin. She also shows Dick that Batman was trying to replace him and in fact was ready to kill for Mother, the link then broke and Grayson and Blue Bird were off to stop Mother since Sculptor have her all the information that was needed to find her before she becomes myth again.
Next up we have Cassandra returning to the Nursery, the place where she and many other children were made to serve Mother's purpose. She of course runs into her Dad who is carrying out Mother's final order, kill all the previous Children. David blames Cassandra for the genocide since months prior she escaped and gave Batman the information he needed and he returned her a copy to give to Grayson in case anything happened to him, which obviously it did. It's then that Grayson and Blue Bird arrive to help out with the fight. It's then that Mother appears and informs them that there is a nuke in the Nursery about to go off and kill them all.
We then get a flashback to that original case Batman and Robin (Grayson) worked on versus Scarecrow. We learn Scarecrow wanted out of his deal with Mother and wanted Batman to lock him up in Arkham as protection. Batman declines, wanting to use Scarecrow for his own gains to catch Mother and only then will he stick him in Arkham. Flashback to today and Grayson is left dueling David Cain (Orphan) while Cassandra and Blue Bird make a run for the control room in hopes to shut down the nuke and hopefully stop the robots that Orphan set to destroy them all, before sending them just after the 2 females in hopes of stopping them. At the control room they learn there's a jet that can get them out in time however it can only be started with David's eye. Luckily Grayson was able to subdue him and stop the robots at the same time. So they jet off with an explosion in the background and head to Spyral HQ in England to get some answers.
Finally we check in on Tim Drake and Jason Todd. Drake shows up at the gates of the Church of St. Dumas dragging Todd proclaiming him to be his tribute to St. Dumas and his allegiance to the group. He gets taken to see the leader while Todd is placed in a cell. Todd eventually escapes his cell and as it turns out it was all a ploy to place an electromagnetic charge in the building to stop the church and more importantly Azrael. While Drake was with the leader and Azrael in the royal chambers Todd was able to get his hands on Project Ichthys, the project being developed for Mother, we also find out Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) was a product of Mother's. Too bad for Drake and Todd the leader was still able to subdue Drake and turn the project on which cause Todd to remember his past... Specifically his dealings with Joker that became his last as Robin. We also learn that Scarecrow told Mother, as Batman commanded, that he needed a new Robin that she should make a deal with him. So as it turns out the whole Batman wanting the perfect ward created was simply a ploy to get closer to Mother.
That about wraps up issues #11 to #15. It's getting to a nice conclusion as we rush in to the final 11 issues. No more is the book plagued by slow pacing however the art continues to be a mess in some parts, at least the flashbacks are the areas that different artists jump on the book but some of them are just sub par for a big book like this. One thing I will say is despite me commenting previously that they show us all our characters in quick succession so we don't forget about them from issues 10 to 14 we only get one mention of Todd and Drake and it's an off the cuff mention by Mother stating she'd like for them to be in the Nursery getting nuked as well. We definitely need them to be shown more to properly follow along though perhaps the book's overview had their story ahead of the others and hopefully now they've caught up with each other. We'll see you in 5 weeks when we check in on issues #16 through #20 in the penultimate article!
No comments:
Post a Comment