Special: Checking In On Batman And Robin Eternal (#21 - #26)

Hope you're all caught up with Batman And Robin Eternal, if you're not click HERE to go to my last post which covers issues #15 to #20 with links to the previous 3 articles as well! But for now let's move forward to our stunning conclusion

Issue #21 picks up with how Bruce handled dealing with a newly orphaned Harper and her younger brother, they also flashback to a scene shortly after Bruce and Dick thought they defeated Mother. Bruce decides to head back to Europe to tie up some loose ends but really he's going to meet Mother's first "child" who knew her backstory. We find out Mother's parents were brutally murdered in front of her by the military. She was also stabbed multiple times while pretending to be dead, once the soldiers left she arose from the pile of bodies and killed every single one before coming across a girl her age who took her in, unfortunately the girl's parents were less than thrilled and hit her causing Mother to lash out and "free" her. Once Bruce leaves Mother appears to kill the woman. Back in Gotham, Batman tries to scare Harper's father into taking care of his children, but deep down he knows it won't work and he deletes all traces of the case.

We then head back to Spyral HQ where the Robin's are trying to devise a plan to stop Mother but it's not going well. They figure since Batman couldn't defeat her what chance do they have? Damian pipes up with a speech about how Batman didn't want them to be as good as him or to be him but to be the best versions of themselves they can be. He wanted them to choose their own path and be better than him. After that they get to work to do whatever they can to even attempt an attack on Mother. Mother is meanwhile in the arctic circle when Orphan shows up with Harper and Cassandra. Mother thanks him before disposing of him rather violently. She then shows her army or Orphans that have no feelings, a flaw the previous one had... She then starts the satellite to turn everyone under 20 into her soldiers.

We open up on Cullen listening to his voicemails from Harper when Spoiler steps in saying she's going out to help with the riots. Tim Drake then enters out of nowhere and explains that he needs Spoiler to guard Scarecrow in Arkham, they're sure Mother will go for him. Cullen insists he goes as well so Tim brings him through a magic door which leads them to Midnighter's house where Batgirl, Batwoman and Catwoman all signed on to help as well as Katana and Black Canary. They are sent to attempt to stabilize the riots throughout the world while Dick goes after Mother. Scarecrow tries getting in Spoiler's head but she's grown a lot as a character and shows that she's not worried about her fear controlling her, at that point Red Hood comes in to take Crane (through a magic door) to his old facility to get him to make a toxin to counteract Mother's formula after some banter back and forth, Scarecrow eventually agrees to do it to avoid Mother finding him.

All over the world the bat family are being overcome with the kids attacking. Midnighter decides to leave Cullen in charge at home base so he can watch over Scarecrow freeing Spoiler to go help hold the line. Meanwhile Mother starts sending in her army of Orphans as well so if they were having difficulties with the kids, things just got a lot harder. At Mother's base Dick shows up just in time for a plane to come crashing down, From the wreckage comes Azrael, who tells Dick he's come to take his own life and Mother's. Dick thinks Mother needs to be brought forward and be brought to justice so they start fighting. Elsewhere in the base Mother is speaking to Harper about how Batman tried to hold her back by keeping her in her old life but now she's giving her a chance to start again and the first step is killing Cassandra!

Scarecrow finally finishes his toxin but Cullen tells Midnighter that the Bat Family is losing to the Orphans so they can't release the toxin. Midnighter decides to use his doors to get all of the Orphans to him in Crane's facility where he can handle it leaving the bat family to set off the toxin and save the infected kids from more violent outbursts. Word of the failure leaks back to Mother who immediately requests the second set of cities be infected but she's interrupted when Dick appears, whil fighting with Azrael, Dick convinced him that by killing Mother he continues to live the way she would want him too so Azrael decides to help Dick.

Dick tries to convince Harper not to kill Cassandra but to everyone's surprise Cassandra tells Harper to do it, that's when Harper bens down and tells her she was never going to hurt her, rather she was stalling to learn the electrical grid so she can shut it down so she does, unfortunately Mother is ready to go on back up generators when Azrael knocks out knocks out her antenna stopping her attack. She calls forth her Orphans but at the same time Cullen summons the rest of the bat family to Dick's location and a fight breaks out. Knowing she's lost Mother sets her base to self-destruct as they are hanging over an active volcano. The Bat family has the magic doors to get out but Mother will be left to parrish and she won't ever see time for her crimes, just then David Cain, the original Orphan appears and stabs Mother. Dick tries convincing him to give Mother to him so he can take her to the authorities but David throws himself and Mother into the volcano but first he apologizes to Cassandra and tells her to live her life. A while later Harper confronts Batman about the choice not to tell her about what role he played in her past. She tells him she's going to school and doesn't know if she'll return to being Bluebird but she's happy she has his support if she does. He also runs into Cassandra who is doning a cape and hood as well, though she now goes by Orphan. The series ends with Batman and his 4 Robin's going to stop a criminal, all their strengths playing off each other.

Special: Check In On Batman And Robin Eternal (#16 - #20)

Hey everyone we've arrived at our penultimate post on DC's weekly series, Batman And Robin Eternal. We'll be back with the finale at some point in April but for now if you need to catch up you can find write-ups on issues 1 - 5 HERE, 6 - 10 HERE and 11 - 15 HERE.

Issue #16 kicks off with a flashback to the battle a young Dick Grayson and Batman face with Scarecrow. Dick as Robin saves the day and Batman leaves him to finish taking Scarecrow in so he can conclude his business with Mother. We then get reacquainted with Tim and Jason who were captured by the Master of St. Dumas, the master explains how he was able to perfect the super soldier mix by avoiding all the unnecessary steps Mother/Crane's toxin required, worst of all Jason is currently undergoing that treatment. Azrael breaks free and is able to disconnect the master giving Tim enough time to pull Jason from the memory of his death at the hands of The Joker.

We then get to Dick and Helena in current day at Spyral HQ where they are trying to get some answers out of Orphan. Helena wants to know how deep Mother's agents are in Spyral and Dick wants the answers about Batman's past with Mother. It's then we flashback to Batman and Mother in the past, Batman seemingly killing the parents of one child who has been chosen as Mother's next project. When she arrives she mentions this child isn't going to be the next Robin, it was just a test, then they realise the parents aren't actually dead so Orphan and Batman go at it, Before Batman blows the place up. Unfortunately Mother and Orphan are still capable of fighting and despite Batman seemingly defeating Orphan, Mother uses the child as bait as she threatens to kill him if Batman does not stop the fight. Batman is then over powered by Orphan and left with Mother's orders to have him killed. Back to present day Harper breaks into Spyral HQ to have a talk with Orphan herself, turns out that Orphan has plenty of info for Harper about what her "friend" Cassandra was sent to Gotham to do. The issue ends with Jason and Tim arriving at HQ with the much needed info for Dick.

Picking up in the past, Orphan and Batman continue fighting and Batman does eventually win, he's speaking with Mother about who was targeted to be the next Robin and she shows him a video feed of 2 small time criminals, we then cut back to present time where Orphan informs Harper that it was Cassandra that was sent to kill her parents so she can become the new Robin, she of course only killed her Mother since that's when she went off the grid but the sting of knowing her new friend killed her mother and worst of all Batman knew about it and didn't do anything about it stung. Back in the past the Egyptian police storm the building and the kid rats Batman out as the one who killed everyone so he's forced to flee without Mother. Back at HQ the Robin's discover the virus is going to be used in schools to get kids to bend to Mother's will, and of course Spyral HQ is a school so it hits there first. Tim and Cassandra are safe in a soundproof room but with Harper wandering off, her status is not so certain.

As it turns out the room was not very soundproof at all so Cassandra and Tim started attacking Dick and Helena. Luckily Doctor Netz was in the same roof and discovered Scarecrow's fear gas formula in Tim's info which reverses Mother's voice, unfortunately it also comes with the downside of the fear images, although diluted. Jason finds Harper who accidentally broke Orphan and his associate out while trying to kill them and soon he meets up with Cassandra and Dick who went to find them. Harper also shows up and Cassandra slaps a crane gas on her, only as it turns out Cassandra is also what Harper fears most! Tim, Helena and Doctor Netz are running to shut down Mother's voice, but first they have to figure out how before Mother uses Spyral's satellite to broaden the scope of her attack.

Finally Jason tries to separate Cassandra and Harper from each other but it doesn't go well. Meanwhile Dick goes toe to toe with Poppy, Orphan's associate while that very same Orphan goes after Helena's team. Tim and Dr. Netz continue ahead and Helena tangles with Orphan. Luckily Tim is able to shut down Mother's transmission before too much harm comes but Poppy and Orphan are able to overload Helena and Dick's hypnos so they are knocked out cold, they grab Harper and Cassandra and run when they awake Helena explains that they have the satellite codes since half were in her hypnos and the other half were in Dick's. The reason for this was the satellite was built so that they can wipe the world's mind of Dick being Nightwing so he can go back to his old life when the time was right. Speaking of right timing issue #20 ends with Damian Wayne showing up at the remains of Spyral HQ to help out.

Special: Checking In On Batman And Robin Eternal (#11 - #15)

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!

Special: Checking In On Batman And Robin Eternal (#6 - #10)

And we're back! This isn't exactly what I expected when I took on this project since issue #13 came out last week but I wanted to stick to my Christmas themed specials in December and in January I usually do end of year lists but I still have time for those so stay tuned! We'll try to stay on track from here on out so in 2 weeks you'll have your next "Checking In".

So last time (link HERE) we found out that the mysterious Mother runs a human trafficking ring and has ties to Batman. We also know that she can control anyone with the help of nanobots. Dick Grayson and Tim Drake also aren't on speaking terms since Grayson thought Drake and his parents were being controlled. We also met a new character, kinda named Cassandra Cain who unfortunately can only say "Mother" she's hanging out with Harper Roe. Grayson doesn't want them being harmed so he's keeping them tucked away, a notion Harper is none too pleased with.

Issue #6 opens with Grayson and Jason Todd discussing the events of last issue. Roe and Cain are still holed up in an apartment Grayson has kept in Gotham under an alias. Drake is still not speaking to Grayson and Todd is being told about one of the first cases Batman worked with the first Robin (Grayson) which involved Mother. Batman and Robin went to Prague and Grayson recounts that's when Batman cut him out so he decides he must go there and re-investigate from where Batman cut him out.

In Prague, Grayson decides to send Roe and Cain to the theatre to watch Sleeping Beauty performed and keep an eye out on the lone name left on Cain's list of people Mother infected, all the others have disappeared or died. Meanwhile Grayson will continue to monitor Orphan's signal to try to find their whereabouts since so far he's the only link to Mother but when the signal sends Grayson to the Ballet he quickly realises it's a trap and sure enough Mother is there to greet him.

Meanwhile in Gomorrah Drake and Todd are chasing down leads of their own that Drake discovered by following the data Cain provided. They're chasing down some black market kingpins but when they find him in a church he appears to have been affected by some sort of fear gas which leads us to question Scarecrow's involvement since he was the bat villain Batman and Grayson were chasing all those years ago. Back in Prague Mother tells Grayson he can follow her and learn everything or go help Roe and Cain who are in the middle of a fight for their lives against the entire ballet. Mother further states that if Grayson does not go with her he will never see her again, but Grayson still elects to help his friends and after the battle Cain runs off after having a horrible flashback of a throat slash, not clear if it happened to her or if she did it just yet. Grayson and Roe head back to the Prague batcave to hope to shake loose some clues as to where Mother is heading next.

Todd and Drake next find themselves in Santa Prisca investigating The Order of St. Dumas.Turns out The Angel of Death that the black market kingpin mentioned right before dying has killed 10 black market men, all had business with The Order of St. Dumas so they're hoping by heading to their HQ they will get answers, or at least a run it with the Orphan, instead they run into Bane. After a small tussle between Bane and Todd. Drake proposes an alliance since both want to find and stop this Angel of Death. Upon entering the Order's building they hear a voice speaking to them claiming to be The Angel of Death before finally revealing himself to be Azrael.

Azrael and his holy warriors go toe-to-toe with Drake, Todd and Bane and Azrael seems to have them beat even when Drake runs a patch through to his cave and discovers Azrael's real name and the connection between the Church and Mother. Drake gets his mind scrambled by Azrael and Todd is left to rescue his younger Robin. Meanwhile Roe finds all she needed on a muddied up paper trail so her and Grayson, impressed by Roe, now realising why Batman kept her around. They go to investigate a Stephen Cain who appears to be behind all this (Cassandra's father?) but upon arriving in his house they are greeted by a lady who calls herself The Sculptor, she's been waiting for them to arrive.

The review is much of the same, mostly set-up still although I'm glad they are touching on all the story lines in each book, even just a bit to keep your mind fresh as to what each of our characters are doing. The fight with Azrael was pretty boring as far as action sequences go but the ballet brawl was well worth it. They also appear to have creative teams shuffling through every two issues or so which is good to keep the tempo of the series going positively. The art has never been awful and in the last post I spoke negatively about the Steve Orlando scripted issue but really this book hasn't been bad, it just hasn't progressed as quickly as I would like. But there is that old adage that you can't rush greatness, not that I think this book will get there but with Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV mapping out the book the storyline has to be worthwhile at least.

Special: Checking In On Batman And Robin Eternal (#1 - #5)

Okay folks so I apologize for this special being stupidly late but I didn't have as much free time as I expected to on Sunday, let alone yesterday, but I'm here now wrapping out what I hope will be the first of many posts of this ilk where I check in on a comic book series after 5 issues or so, what better place to start than with Batman and Robin Eternal, DC's follow-up weekly series to last year's hit Batman Eternal.

In case you didn't know Bruce Wayne is without memories so he has no idea he's Batman, instead the police department have put Batmen out on the street, mostly robots but some have police inside, like Commissioner Gordon moonlighting as Batman in the main Batman title. Dick Grayson on the other hand has been out spying on the spy organization Spyral by infiltrating them as an agent but reporting back to Bruce, who is no longer there obviously. For his next mission Spyral has sent him back to Gotham where he meets up with his old pals Tim "Red Robin" Drake, Jason "Red Hood" Todd and Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon. He also meets Harper "Bluebird" Roe for the first time as well as her new friend and roommate Stephanie "Spoiler" Brown.

The plot flashes back to one of the first cases that Dick and Batman ever worked on together, it was a giant human trafficking ring run by a mysterious woman named Mother, Batman has ties to her somehow, but Grayson doesn't know how. All he has to go on is a recording he found of Bruce advising that if he's watching this video he's no longer around to help and they need to clean up "his biggest mistake".

Grayson's unsure who he can trust since he finds out Mother can control anyone at anytime thanks to some nanobots. His immediate thought is that Tim and/or his parents could be suspect, seeing that he was the only one who wasn't orphaned... Did I forgot to mention that orphans are Mother's favourite? Anyway when Tim finds out about this he's none too happy, he and the rest of the Bat-family feel betrayed by Dick, rightfully so.

Will the gang be able to get to the bottom of this and overcome their differences? Will Bruce get any shred of memory back so that he too can help out? And who's the mysterious woman Mother? Also can the mysterious woman in black going around seemingly testing the Bat-Family be trusted? After all she can only say "mother" and that's about it. For what it's worth Harper seems to trust her new friend.

As far as the review goes, as with most weekly series the book is pretty slow moving. Which is disappointing given my excitement but again not all that surprised. The art is constantly in flux but Manapul did issue #5 which was awesome, though Steve Orlando's dialogue isn't the strongest in that issue or the preceding one. Overall it's still good, still has me pumped but enough set up already let's get into the dirty details and the action!