Who? 
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Thanks for the article suggestion. Itās nice to peer into the mindsā of the creators sometimes. I like what he wrote about her motivation to help Gotham ( her city) on her own terms and not so much about becoming a drive to become a bat. It definitely translates onto the pages. Iām really looking forward to her development.
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Can you have too many cameos? Possibly.
Was it necessary for Bruce to confront Raās, just to hear him say wasnāt me didnāt do it? Iām not sure what that added to the story. I like this story and am invested (obviously with only four issues left); but the slow drag and drip of information is getting tedious. With so many subplots and side characters iām nervous the ending will be rushed and unsatisfying. 
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Yeah, that one gave me flashbacks to Jeph Loebās Hush.
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33-36:
Here we see the climax of the Bard angle of the story, with them using Batmanās own weapons against him and taking Bruceās company away from him. Itās interesting reading this now when Tynion has actually done something somewhat similar with his run on Batman within the past few months. Itās like thereās a part of the people writing him who want to strip Batman of his wealth.
It makes sense in a way ā not only in terms of more modern political thinking (no such thing as an ethical billionaire), but giving Batman infinite resources makes his war on crime feel like itās a bit on easy mode. Itās nice seeing Batman having to keep track of how much of his tools heās using and having to go a little more low-tech.
Itās just a shame that they had to use a fairly recognizable character like Jason Bard for this ā though that may be more because of hindsight of what theyād do with the character later on in Batgirl.
37-40:
Here we start to see more of Selina as the actual Queenpin of Crime. Would have been nice to see more how she was established other than āDaddy made it so,ā but seeing her in this position of power is definitely fun. It was also fun to see the Arkham villains like Mister Freeze, Scarecrow, Bane and Poison Ivy butt heads and bicker and scheme against each other. Shame they had to mention the bleh childhood origin of Freeze, but I guess it canāt be perfect.
We also start to see what I believe @jenoutmind was talking about with Batmanās tour of meeting villains not previously used to figure out whoās behind it all. I think it works fairly well here, but I can agree that it does sort of feel like padding.
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FINAL WEEK! Any final thoughts on Eternal?
In case anyone missed it, I wanted to let the @WorldOfBatsBookClub and @RenegadeRobinsClub know that the former club is currently reading the first arc in James Tynionās Detective Comics Rebirth run. Itās one of the stories that follows up on the events of Batman Eternal and its sequel, so if youāve been enjoying the team dynamic in Eternal, youāll love what Tynion has to offer in 'Tec.
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Dang, youāre doing a better job advertising the club than I am! 
#41-44/Batman #28:
I REALLY enjoyed how Harper got her superhero origin here. Yeah, I get that sheās yet another teen sidekick in an already pretty packed Bat-Family, but sheās still very cool (and Iām very glad to see sheās back in the current books).
Art-wise this was also a pretty good round of artists, from Joe Quinonnes to Dustin Nguyen and ACO.
It was pretty interesting reading Batman #28 in relation to Eternal, because while it mostly keeps to what weāve seen, there were little things I noticed that makes me think that plans probably changed from when Snyder originally envisioned Eternal, to what we got on the shelf. For example, Harper talks about the āvirusā like it was something far more widespread and biological, not to mention something still going on; whereas in the book she helped defeat the Nanovirus literally just before.
Also, I get the feeling that there was originally going to be a harsher, more violent reason for Selina to turn to being the Queenpin, from the way that Selina talks to Batman. Even in the Eternal issues, she was far more amicable and flirty with Bruce, and of course in the Valentine run of Catwoman, she still had some warm and tender moments with Batman, even though they were on more opposite sides than ever before.
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#45-48:
Overallā¦Iām not sure Iād call these four issues āfillerā per se, but I do think it was kind of written as being the sort of ācalm before the storm.ā
First off, Batwing the Ghost Puncher was one of the most random/hilarious/kinda awesome things Iāve seen done with Luke Fox. But overall it was cool to see him have this unique relationship with Jim Corrigan. Both of them went through some STUFF in Arkham and itās cool to see they bonded over it. Would have been neat if maybe they had Luke show up in the then Gotham By Midnight or maybe JLD.
Speaking of JLD, I wonder if that tree that Milo was looking at in his delusion was meant to be the Tree of Wonder that Snyder or possibly Tynion would later establish in No Justice and Justice League Dark. Maybe it was something that they had in mind before getting those big gigs.
Alsoā¦is Julia a never-nude? I get she would get creeped out by Hush potentially watching her shower, but I dunno, I would think there would be better ways of showing that scene. Maybe have most of her obscured by the waterfall?
Gripes aside, there were some neat stuff here. Some of the fights the Family were going through was cool, especially Jason fightingā¦mecha-Bane, I guess? And while it was part of the ātour to disprove villain connectionsā thing, I thought Batmanās encounter with Raās al Ghul had some really cool moments.
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Wrapped up pretty nicely. Glad I read it. Iām sure it would have had an even better impact if I knew who Lincoln March was, hahaha. But I got the gist. (Super baddie who thinks heās Bats long lost brother, and blames Bruce for all his unhappiness. Not the worst idea; but not exactly original either). How did he kill the Owls? Did he poison them? Did he cut their throats? I couldnāt tell. The scene was a little vague.
I canāt help but smile when the bat family teams up. It raises the stakes and makes everything more exciting.
Iām not hating the idea of a Jason/Babs duo. In a weird way they both soften the other a bit, bring each one down to a more rational and less emotional level. Plus wouldnāt that just chap Dick, if and when he returns, 
Someone needs to explain to me, why Jason and Vicki get a wrap up scene; but the Pennies are just left at their respective computers without another mention. Rude!
Throughout the series there was some standout art. Iām still dazzled by the full page Penguin. Amazing. And then I think there were some real missed opportunities to show some real talent.
And the final bit with Harper, et alā¦ well maybe itās an artistic style I just havenāt learned to appreciate yet.
All in all Iām glad I stuck it out to the end; and would probably read it again if it came around.
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49-52:
Overall a great climax to the story, I thought. Jim dealing with the second or third riot in as many months was cool (love the little Rorschach moment) as was him FINALLY getting out of prison. It was really cool seeing all the Bat-Family working together, I especially loved Harper helping inspire Steph to come back as well as her obvious girl-crush on Batwoman (and who can blame her?).
Part of me kind of wishes that Cluemaster was just the main villain in this whole thing. I guess to a certain extent he was the main mastermind of the whole scheme, but it was obvious from the start he had a higher benefactor, and I suppose Cluemaster wouldnāt have been as climactic a battle at the end. Lincoln March wasnāt my favorite villain ever to be the main guy, but he works well enough, and this story does give him a bit of a conclusion to his arc, while making him available for someone else to use later.
Series overall:
Overall I really liked this series. I think you can reasonably say that thereās some bloat or parts that just kind of spin the plate for a week, but I think thatās part and parcel for any big weekly series like this. In terms of weeklies, I would say itās definitely far better than Countdown, but I donāt know if I would say if itās as good as 52.
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Itās a scene from the arcs Court of Owls/Night of the Owls, Snyderās first story in the Batman title during the New 52. We covered those books for the World of Bats earlier this year, if you want to take a look and perhaps share your thoughts after. 
Agreed, the Family aspect of the book I think is what makes this book overall shine.
I meanā¦I donāt hate it, but for me itās one of those things where Iād be wary about who would be the one who does it, yāknow?
That said, Iām going to be curious about your thoughts on The Three Jokers if/when we get the book on DCUIā¦
Yeahā¦not that you mention it, rude! It does make me wonder if maybe one of the creators had something in mind for Bard going forward but it never really came to being until Rebirth.
Agreed ā I think there were some artists that you can kind of tell were put in because they were able to make a deadline and it shows, but I think thatās kind of the cost of having a weekly book. We still got a lot of cool art, from the big guys like Jason Fabok and Dustin Nguyen, to some surprising guys like R.M. Guera and Ian Bertram.
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