Batman Eternal 14
Jul. 13th, 2014 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
espanolbot posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_daily Last issue recap: James Jr. reveals to his dad that he's actually alive, and goes out of his way to antagonise him by implying that the reason why Blackgate Prison is such a corrupt, horrible place is that Jim let it get that way as a means of punishing those imprisoned there. Jim, of course, denies this but James implies that, to him anyway, it just backs up his theory that his dad actually has a trace of the sadism that courses through his veins. James believes that Jim deliberately shot at the unarmed guy because he wanted to, not because he was tricked... something that worries Jim, as at this point he's starting to wonder if that might actually have been the case. James tells his dad that he's bribed a certain amount of guards, and arranged it so that IF Jim wants he has an opportunity to escape. This leaves Jim shaken, which considering his supposedly dead son has reappeared, accused him of being a psychopathic mass-murderer isn't that surprising.
Elsewhere, the Good Cops and Vicki are setting their plan into motion. Working with Batman, Bard and Bullock got to Forbes with a possible lead on Batman, which Vicki then takes to her editor who agrees to let her run with the story as a means of beating the Daily Planet's coverage of the Jim Gordon trial. Afterwards, Joey the Intern tells Vicki about how there's been a lot of internet traffic about some guy called "Cluemaster" lately, about how he might be up to something, but Vicki blows him off, saying that he's just a second-rate Riddler rip-off who never succeeded in actually being a threat in his life. This leads into the stuff posted last week, with Cluemaster proving just how small a threat he is by killing one of Steph's friends JUST to draw her out of hiding. 'Cause he's a DICK.
Meanwhile, Bard's Scheme goes into effect. He raids a building full of people that he told Forbes were people working to support Batman now that Batman Inc. has shut down, only for it to turn out to be a building full of armed drug dealers working for Falcone. When one of the policemen taking part in the raid point out that all the guys are wearing the symbol of the Roman, Bard points out that he has evidence that these guys are actually working for Batman, which they must be, 'cause the Roman's not been in Gotham for years, right?
Back at GCPD HQ, Forbes is horrified that Bard has arrested a whole bunch of the Romans' men and is just about to tell him to let them go... only for it to appear that Vicki Vale is present to hear Forbes say that he doesn't give a rat's ass that the men where found possessing huge amounts of both illegal guns and drugs. Vicki then effectively blackmails Forbes into actually doing his damn job by allowing Bard to process the crooks, or she reveal to her readers what exactly Forbes has been up to since he came to power, ie releasing known criminals onto the street on regular intervals. Forbes goes along with it, though he knows that he's screwed.
In a brief aside we have Harper managing to find one of Tim's mini-Batcaves after hacking the Bat Family's cloud network and tracing the signal back to this place. She hides behind a console while Tim provides some exposition to the computer/audience about the things he found out about the nanobot disease that has attacked people in the poorer part of the city, including Harper's brother. It turns out that it was created by an ex-KGB weapons designer called Sergei, who also trained Bruce who to make his own gear back in one of the Year Zero side-stories. Tim also asks the computer to locate Harper Row while he goes to Japan to follow up a lead, as he's fed up with her "getting in the way", which causes Harper to smirk, considering only like ten foot away from him at the time.
Cutting back to Forbes, he's busy yelling at Forbes for letting his men get arrested, and when the policemen protests that he can't do anything due to the press' interest, Falcone flat out says that he doesn't care, he just wants his men back on the street. He put Forbes in power, he says, he can easily replace him with someone else if he doesn't start following the orders that he's give... And the enter conversation is caught on tape as Bard and Vicki are listening in, having bugged Forbes' phone. Vicki goes to print this news in the Gazette, bringing up to date with what's happening, huzzah!
Now with the actual issue.
He begin with the Scarecrow running through the basement of Arkham Asylum, talking into a transmitter of some sort to try and send a warning to the outside world. It seems that someone came up from beneath the asylum, and that it's reached the point of no return, to the point that even he himself is terrified at what's going on... At which point someone phases through a wall and grabs him, giggling while it does so.
Meanwhile, we cut to Jason Bard, who has taken the recording of Falcone outright admitting that Forbes works for him from the last issue to the Mayor.
Cutting to Carmine, we have him desperately trying to undermine Bard's efforts by telling his men to just bribe Bard's men into working for him instead. He hears muffled yells coming from his men, so he goes out to yell at them, finding that they're already dead. Yeah, it seemed that earlier Oswald received an anonymous phonecall telling him exactly where the Roman was hiding, and decided to go there personally to prove a point to the older gangster.
Huzzah!
Back in Blackgate, it appears that Jim might have had a moment of weakness and tried to take the opportunity James presented to escape, but he tells Batman, who was hiding in the shadows, that he was only planning to lock the door. They talk for a while, Jim bringing up how eventually everyone gets older, and either make mistakes or just get replaced with younger people. It happened in the Gotham underworld where Falcone's mentor the Lion was overthrown by his pupil, and with the Roman getting driven out by the Penguin. Maybe, says Jim, his age finally caught up with him, and resulted in his making a mistake that resulted in 100 innocent people dying, with even more injured (one of the prison guards told him that his son lost the use of his legs in the disaster, for example).
Batman refuses to believe this even as a possibility, saying that although he doesn't know how yet, Jim was, MUST HAVE BEEN framed. He goes on to say that Jim has to be careful, as Blackgate is going to quickly become the most dangerous place in the city, what with the Roman and the Penguin both getting locked up in there soon. Jim is pleased to hear that Bard was able to do this, but sadly points out that this fits with what he was just saying about the "natural order" and wanders back to his cell.
In Tim's plane, he's catching up on the news over the arrests as he's flying to Japan, and seems disappointed that he's missing it. His plane's sensors detect some extra weight in the cargo hold though... revealing that Harper Row has stowed away on board, muttering that she didn't pack any food for the journey. This makes Tims' irrational hatred of Harper reach a breaking point, leading to their confrontation next week...
Finally, we catch up with Bard. He's telling his mum about the arrest, when Batman shows up. Batman tells Jason that he was impressed with how the operation went down, and that he'd be glad to call Bard and ally but... he read the police files on the way over, and found out that someone tipped off the Penguin to the Roman's location before the cops showed up. He says that Jim was never a perfect man, but he never questioned his moral compass, which Batman fears might be a touch askew with our young detective.
The issue ends with Scarecrow being threatened with an axe by Joker's Daughter, while he yells about how she has a party planned for the Spectre and Batwing when they finally show up (seriously, it's been weeks since they started intesting the weird stuff surrounding the asylum).
Next issue, the pay off to the Arkham craziness now that the gang war has ended.
Overview: good issue, great art. The possible introduction of Bard being a touch more morally grey than expected was an interesting touch, looking forward to where they go from here. Though I am a touch confused as to how JD is here and in Suicide Squad at the same time. And presumably whatever goes down in Arkham is what causes them to relocate the inmates to Bruce's house in the upcoming series they revealled recently.
Elsewhere, the Good Cops and Vicki are setting their plan into motion. Working with Batman, Bard and Bullock got to Forbes with a possible lead on Batman, which Vicki then takes to her editor who agrees to let her run with the story as a means of beating the Daily Planet's coverage of the Jim Gordon trial. Afterwards, Joey the Intern tells Vicki about how there's been a lot of internet traffic about some guy called "Cluemaster" lately, about how he might be up to something, but Vicki blows him off, saying that he's just a second-rate Riddler rip-off who never succeeded in actually being a threat in his life. This leads into the stuff posted last week, with Cluemaster proving just how small a threat he is by killing one of Steph's friends JUST to draw her out of hiding. 'Cause he's a DICK.
Meanwhile, Bard's Scheme goes into effect. He raids a building full of people that he told Forbes were people working to support Batman now that Batman Inc. has shut down, only for it to turn out to be a building full of armed drug dealers working for Falcone. When one of the policemen taking part in the raid point out that all the guys are wearing the symbol of the Roman, Bard points out that he has evidence that these guys are actually working for Batman, which they must be, 'cause the Roman's not been in Gotham for years, right?
Back at GCPD HQ, Forbes is horrified that Bard has arrested a whole bunch of the Romans' men and is just about to tell him to let them go... only for it to appear that Vicki Vale is present to hear Forbes say that he doesn't give a rat's ass that the men where found possessing huge amounts of both illegal guns and drugs. Vicki then effectively blackmails Forbes into actually doing his damn job by allowing Bard to process the crooks, or she reveal to her readers what exactly Forbes has been up to since he came to power, ie releasing known criminals onto the street on regular intervals. Forbes goes along with it, though he knows that he's screwed.
In a brief aside we have Harper managing to find one of Tim's mini-Batcaves after hacking the Bat Family's cloud network and tracing the signal back to this place. She hides behind a console while Tim provides some exposition to the computer/audience about the things he found out about the nanobot disease that has attacked people in the poorer part of the city, including Harper's brother. It turns out that it was created by an ex-KGB weapons designer called Sergei, who also trained Bruce who to make his own gear back in one of the Year Zero side-stories. Tim also asks the computer to locate Harper Row while he goes to Japan to follow up a lead, as he's fed up with her "getting in the way", which causes Harper to smirk, considering only like ten foot away from him at the time.
Cutting back to Forbes, he's busy yelling at Forbes for letting his men get arrested, and when the policemen protests that he can't do anything due to the press' interest, Falcone flat out says that he doesn't care, he just wants his men back on the street. He put Forbes in power, he says, he can easily replace him with someone else if he doesn't start following the orders that he's give... And the enter conversation is caught on tape as Bard and Vicki are listening in, having bugged Forbes' phone. Vicki goes to print this news in the Gazette, bringing up to date with what's happening, huzzah!
Now with the actual issue.
He begin with the Scarecrow running through the basement of Arkham Asylum, talking into a transmitter of some sort to try and send a warning to the outside world. It seems that someone came up from beneath the asylum, and that it's reached the point of no return, to the point that even he himself is terrified at what's going on... At which point someone phases through a wall and grabs him, giggling while it does so.
Meanwhile, we cut to Jason Bard, who has taken the recording of Falcone outright admitting that Forbes works for him from the last issue to the Mayor.
Cutting to Carmine, we have him desperately trying to undermine Bard's efforts by telling his men to just bribe Bard's men into working for him instead. He hears muffled yells coming from his men, so he goes out to yell at them, finding that they're already dead. Yeah, it seemed that earlier Oswald received an anonymous phonecall telling him exactly where the Roman was hiding, and decided to go there personally to prove a point to the older gangster.
Huzzah!
Back in Blackgate, it appears that Jim might have had a moment of weakness and tried to take the opportunity James presented to escape, but he tells Batman, who was hiding in the shadows, that he was only planning to lock the door. They talk for a while, Jim bringing up how eventually everyone gets older, and either make mistakes or just get replaced with younger people. It happened in the Gotham underworld where Falcone's mentor the Lion was overthrown by his pupil, and with the Roman getting driven out by the Penguin. Maybe, says Jim, his age finally caught up with him, and resulted in his making a mistake that resulted in 100 innocent people dying, with even more injured (one of the prison guards told him that his son lost the use of his legs in the disaster, for example).
Batman refuses to believe this even as a possibility, saying that although he doesn't know how yet, Jim was, MUST HAVE BEEN framed. He goes on to say that Jim has to be careful, as Blackgate is going to quickly become the most dangerous place in the city, what with the Roman and the Penguin both getting locked up in there soon. Jim is pleased to hear that Bard was able to do this, but sadly points out that this fits with what he was just saying about the "natural order" and wanders back to his cell.
In Tim's plane, he's catching up on the news over the arrests as he's flying to Japan, and seems disappointed that he's missing it. His plane's sensors detect some extra weight in the cargo hold though... revealing that Harper Row has stowed away on board, muttering that she didn't pack any food for the journey. This makes Tims' irrational hatred of Harper reach a breaking point, leading to their confrontation next week...
Finally, we catch up with Bard. He's telling his mum about the arrest, when Batman shows up. Batman tells Jason that he was impressed with how the operation went down, and that he'd be glad to call Bard and ally but... he read the police files on the way over, and found out that someone tipped off the Penguin to the Roman's location before the cops showed up. He says that Jim was never a perfect man, but he never questioned his moral compass, which Batman fears might be a touch askew with our young detective.
The issue ends with Scarecrow being threatened with an axe by Joker's Daughter, while he yells about how she has a party planned for the Spectre and Batwing when they finally show up (seriously, it's been weeks since they started intesting the weird stuff surrounding the asylum).
Next issue, the pay off to the Arkham craziness now that the gang war has ended.
Overview: good issue, great art. The possible introduction of Bard being a touch more morally grey than expected was an interesting touch, looking forward to where they go from here. Though I am a touch confused as to how JD is here and in Suicide Squad at the same time. And presumably whatever goes down in Arkham is what causes them to relocate the inmates to Bruce's house in the upcoming series they revealled recently.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 05:31 pm (UTC)They used to indicate heavily in the stories that the main reason why Gordon was able to survive Gotham was because he understood that you could never give an inch to the temptations, otherwise the city would devour you. Thus I am now really interested to see what happens with Bard.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 08:16 pm (UTC)I know this was touched upon in the comic itself during Jim's trial, but it bears repeating here: just because he is a good man does not mean he should be excused for a mistake this big. Doing so undermines everything a by-the-books cop like Jim Gordon stands for. Jim knows this. The jury apparently knew it too. It's a shame Batman doesn't seem to, especially given his reaction to what Bard did here. In the eyes of the law, the only real difference between what Bard did and what Jim did was that Bard did it intentionally. That is pretty much the difference between murder and manslaughter. Jim Gordon needs to be held accountable for his actions and, like it or not, he was on some level responsible for about 100 innocent people dying. Even if he's found innocent of manslaughter thanks to Batman, he still shouldn't be allowed to be a cop anymore after something like this.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 09:27 pm (UTC)The problem is that Jim made the correct decision, if he thought the guy was armed. If say, Spellbinder or whomever framed Jim made him think that the guy had a gun, then Jim's use of force was entirely justified.
Especially when, in all likelihood, the villain manipulated events for the outcome that followed.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 11:05 pm (UTC)The first is that there doesn't appear to be any way to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was tricked in the first place, short of a confession from the person who framed him, which they would have no reason to give even if Batman caught them. They've already stated in the comics that there didn't appear to be any chemicals in Jim's tox screening, so he wasn't drugged, and if it was a visual illusion ala Mysterio-style smoke-and-mirrors, the camera's should have picked it up. That really only leaves hypnosis or magic, neither of which could be reasonably proved after the fact without a confession.
Second, and this is the big one, even if Jim thought the guy was armed, it can be argued that he still behaved in a reckless manner. The reason that he hit the power box in the first place is because he was shooting at the gun. When taking down an armed suspect, especially when one believes their life is threatened, police officers are trained to aim for body shots in order to both minimize collateral damage and take out the suspect as soon as possible. Instead, Jim took the riskiest shot he could have taken in an attempt to disarm the suspect, which directly lead to the aforementioned deaths. Because of this, one could argue that even if he was acting in self-defense, his conscious decision to disregard police training caused needless collateral damage and death, thus making him guilty of criminally negligent manslaughter.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 11:49 pm (UTC)2) You're right, but...comics.
I apologize for being dismissive of what are pretty valid points, but honestly this series is pure crap and everything will likely be resolved in a fashion that would embarrass Silver Age writers.
I mean they lock up Gordon, and then the new guy just releases any criminals Batman catches without a second thought. The Gordon subplot just feels like they're just filling space.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-14 01:39 am (UTC)Ok, I might have gotten a bit too meta there, but my point is: don't worry about it, I'm not taking it personally at all. After all, on a meta level, your counter-points are pretty valid as well :p.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-14 01:51 am (UTC)Agreed, but at the same time writers are supposed to make an effort, make it easy to suspend disbelief. And they should especially do that with Batman, as him being a detective is a big part of his character.
Yet in this series we see the police commissioner releasing dangerous criminals, and in this issue Bard is apparently stupid enough to tip off a criminal using his own personal cell phone.
With this series, you don't even have to try to pick it apart. The flaws come with freakin' warning signs!
...sorry about the rant, btw. This stuff just annoys me.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-14 03:35 am (UTC)I agree with you about a writer's job being to suspend disbelief, and in the end that's what I feel makes the basis of a good story. If the storyteller can get you to suspend disbelief enough to ignore the inevitable flaws in their writing, at least while you're reading/watching/listening to it, it's a good story (as long as it doesn't bore you in the process :p). Of course, it gets complicated when you consider that everyone has different 'suspension of disbelief' thresholds, which ends up making that rule more subjective than objective, but I don't think this is the right moment to have a detailed discussion on that sort of thing. All I'll say right now is that I do think being able to critically analyze such flaws, whether subtle or glaringly obvious, is a good skill to have and practice. After all, if you're going to say someone did something poorly, being able to say exactly what they did wrong makes a far more compelling argument than simply 'you suck and you should feel bad'.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-15 12:58 pm (UTC)Edit: Didn't realize others had already clarified that the accident was staged; ignore my comment.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-13 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-14 01:08 am (UTC)Also
Date: 2014-07-13 11:51 pm (UTC)How did he make detective exactly?
Isn't it obvious?
Date: 2014-07-14 03:39 am (UTC)EDIT: Wait, I was thinking about Forbes again. My bad.
Re: Also
Date: 2014-07-14 06:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-14 07:29 pm (UTC)is it weird that i am kinda pleased with the Queer Quotient on here? there is Harper's Brother and the Viki's intern.
also... i kinda don't feel bad about the death of Carmine's cronies...
but, even though she seems a bit... bitter... Viki is kinda growing on me... it's like the Gotham Lois and Jimmy. harder and gayer... ummm that came out wrong...
no subject
Date: 2014-07-14 09:06 pm (UTC)