What does it take for you to lose your trust in some one? What if that person is ungrateful? What if that person is selfish? Or what If that person hides a dark secret from you and the rest of your so called “family”? Whatever it was the relationship between batman and red robin is certainly in distress.
Batman: Eternal #5 is scripted by James Tynion IV and art by Andy Clarke for the most part the book follows Red Robin and the Gotham Gazette. Red Robin is researching a group of kids in the Narrows while the Gotham Gazette investigates the impending gang war.
The Good
There are many good things about this issue, but what I enjoyed the most was seeing the different parts of Gotham and how they are being affected by the changes in Gotham. Seeing Red Robin was a real treat because he hasn’t been around the Bat-family very often in the New 52 so I was excited to see him I opened the book. Also the addition of the Gotham Gazette was a real treat adding diversity to the book and not just focusing on good and bad guys, but how the everyday people of Gotham are affected by the destruction of the evil people that lurk in Gotham. The pencils were done by Andy Clarke and his art is tremendous it’s not as stylized as Dustin Nguyen but it’s also closer Jason Fabok art style which I think makes a great inclusion to the book.
The Bad
Like I said before there is a lot of good things about this issue, but not a lot of great things and there are many problems I have in this issue, first off being this issue feels completely out of place. It follows up nothing that the last issue left off on. The characterization of Red Robin really through me off. It felt like he was way older than his age and it looked like he was at in his twenties. Another thing that really bothers me is that the art from the last issue is completely different, too drastic of a jump. The series started out with a teaser in the monthly Batman comic that was drawn by Dustin Nguyen, so I was expecting the series was supposed to have that type of style. When I got the first issue and saw Jason Fabok I was disappointed, but I went with it. In the last issue, I was very happy with the Dustin Nguyen art. When I picked up the newest issue, I was expecting Nguyen but got Clarke, which was not a bad thing. I just wish they had a more cohesive art style for the book. It doesn’t make any sense to have two artists who are similar and one who is drastically different.
Overall
This is a good issue that brings insight to the Bat-family and other aspects. It introduces us to new characters and another event that could lead to great disaster. This issue is good not great, but it stills has me interested waiting to see what comes next.
Batman: Eternal #5:
Reviewed by Jonathan Closner
