Batman: Eternal #10 Review

Written by: John Layman
Art by: Riccardo Burchielli
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 11, 2014

The Pyg says...

While it's not my favorite book by any means, I have enjoyed John Layman's issues of Batman: Eternal.  The story has come together as a more cohesive whole and turned into something I've really enjoyed.  It hasn't hurt at all that Guillem March's art the past few weeks has been stellar.  Unfortunately, we don't get March this week.  To make matters worse, Riccardo Burchielli's art is damn near horrible.  I can usually look past that if the story is good enough.  This week, it's not.



Selina and Falcone have a history.  It's just a bit ridiculous.  When Falcone was hitting rock bottom, Selina was there to see it...and steal a cat statue?  Oh yea, she also slashed his face.  A huge crime boss is losing everything around him and she slashes his face and steals a statue.  Yea, that won't come back to bite her. Of course, it does.  After a bit of  "I'm Gotham's savior" talk, he backhands her the likes the world hasn't seen since Ike Turner was rollin' on the river.  I blame Burchielli for giving Falcone super slap powers.  It's funny but utter nonsense.

Meanwhile at Wayne Manor, Bruce and Alfred are nursing Julia Pennyworth back to health.  She's none to happy to be there and I really don't know her enough to care either way.  I'm sure there are big plans for her in the series (Please don't make her Robin), so I'll try to keep an open mind.  Usually, when a younger relative shows up on the scene, it means trouble for the older one.  Watch your back, Alfred!

Still at Wayne Manor, We get to see one of my favorite characters, Jason Todd.  At least Bruce calls him Jason.  The way he's drawn, you could have fooled me.  Bruce asks him to tail Batgirl and Jason only agrees because the"job" is in South America and he likes South America.

We also get some quick scenes with Bard showing more and more that he's on Batman's side and Stephanie Brown showing she likes to spoil things.  However,  the star of the issue is Professor Pyg.

Pyg is the best.  He's hilariously insane and thinks that "Falcone" is very close to being "Falcon".  In fact, he's planning on making him closer.  However, before he can start the operation, Batman spoils the party.  If there was one time I wish Batman called in sick, it was now.  The book ends with a great cliffhanger, showing who is really pulling the strings from the shadows in Gotham.  Literally, this guy is standing in the shadows.

Like I said at the beginning, this wasn't the best story we've gotten from Layman.  The cliffhanger was interesting and Pyg was awesome, but the story kind of stalled.  I know the pacing of a weekly book kind of lends itself to this sometimes, but it;s still what it is.

I could tell you what I think Riccardo Burchielli's art was, but children might be reading.  What?  No children read these reviews?  Okay, it was shit.  I hated it and it threw me out of the story over and over again.  I love great art, I can tolerate bad art, I hated Burchielli's art.

Bits and Pieces:

Batman: Eternal #10 was not a good issue.  The story was mostly filler and the art was horrible.  I hope next week gets us back on track.

4.8/10