Batman and Robin Eternal 6

[espanolbot]

After a brief interlude with Bruce working at the children's home he seems to have settled in, we cut to Jason and Dick at the St Dumas church from the prior issue. Dick reveals that Cass and the Orphan slept and trained in the church's basement, and that she'd potentially been in Gotham for years without Batman or the rest of the Bat Family noticing. He does question whether Bruce did know about her being there though, considering how he and Dick had come to that very church several years back when a ten or 12 year old Cass threatened to chop the Scarecrow's head off.

We then flashback to Bruce and Dick's time as Batman and Robin, where after a failed attempt to capture the Scarecrow, Bruce goes to a charity event and bumps into another member of Gotham's upper class. And as is standard for the majority of Batman media, any rich Gothamite who isn't a Kane, Wayne or Zatara is an awful, AWFUL person.

After casually dismissing Dick as not being a Real Son to Bruce, Bruce's acquaintance Maxwell tells him he should marry so he could get a proper biological heir like he did.



Bruce makes it scarce so he can immediately start investigating Mother, her human trafficking ring, and who that poor woman is that Maxwell bought to be his mindwiped sex slave/wife. However, an alert from Maxwell's house's alarm system notifies Bruce that the Orphan is there, but by the time Batman gets there both Maxwell and "Alicia" are dead, both killed because Maxwell evidently didn't get that boasting about owning a "made to order" person wasn't hugely illegal.

Bruce puts his usual amount of focus into investigating Mother, now that she's been brought to his attention, seemingly dropping everything so that he can go and shut her down pronto. He informs Dick that they're heading to Prague (the place Scarecrow also fled to) to follow up on his lead on the trafficker...

Back in the present, Dick decides on a course of action.



---

Thoughts? Well they do seem to be setting Mother up to be a suitably horrifying villain for this series. Admittedly they have had human traffickers before (Human Resources was a one-shot villain organisation in Cass' series and in Robin: Year One the Mad Hatter kidnapped a bunch of teenage girls to sell as a harem to a dictator, for two examples).

The blaise attitude towards just how horrible a thing they'd done seems very much in keeping with the protrayal of the rich in the TV show Gotham though, which in the first season balanced attempts to deal with legit social problems like the exploitation of the homeless and inadequate health care in the US penal system... with stuff like rich people using kidnapped people as organ banks via a Frankensteinian mad scientist. Show has a definite... lack of focus. Like in the first season it seemed to want to have some profound stuff in there, but it got buried in random nonsense.

Anyway, curious to see what Mother's deal is. Like whether she's got psychic powers or have some kind of Dollshouse dealie going on in regards to how she conditions people... But if somehow a New 52 version of Sleez is involved, I'm out the door.

Comments

[funbox]

One thing I'd like clarified: Bruce was turned into a child of Mother after or during his training to become Batman, yeah? You'd think Alfred would have known otherwise. Also, What were thoughts on Bruce not seeing anything when he first got hit by the fear toxin? Was that a sign he'd already been under Mother's control? Also, the fact that Tim is shown to be an agent of Mother sort of points towards either extreme and fast paced conditioning method (which seems unlikely) or Kilgraves esque psychic persuasion powers.

[lucean]

Wait, where did they establish Bruce was a child of Mother? I completely missed that.

[funbox]

Last page of the first issue, he's shown shooting the parents of a kid in Cairo saying "Yes Mother, Everything went according to plan."

[yvonmukluk]

That could have been anyone in a Bat costume. It was probably part of conditioning to make an Anti-Batman.

[icon_uk]

Dick, Jason and Tim are somewhat concerned that they might have been made to order by Mother (and from what we saw in earlier issues at least one of those three is, at least, under her control), but I can't see how Bruce could be, nor do I think the series has put that forward as an idea.

[funbox]

As I stated before, Bruce was shown to be working for Mother as he gunned down the parents of a child in Cairo at the end of the first issue.

[beeyo]

Bruce hasn't been established as a child of Mother. The first issue showed him acting as an enforcer, of sorts, for Mother, but that's gotta be some kind of swerve.

Tim isn't an agent of Mother either (so far). The issue that ended with him on the phone saying "Mother"...he was talking to his actual mother. Dick had gone to his parents house. Tim was not happy.

[funbox]

Really? Tim is gonna call his mom "Mother"? I mean, okay, though that just seems weird even for the currently written Tim. By child of Mother, I guess I was just referring to anyone under control. Bruce fits the stricter definition as his parents were killed. Also, she better have psychic powers, cause no way she makes Bruce shoot parents dead with a GUN.

[beeyo]

Yeah, pretty sure the "Mother" thing was strictly so they could have a cliffhanger on whether Tim was under control or not. I hadn't thought about it before, but it does seem weird for Tim to speak that way. That's Damian's thing.

And honestly I don't buy the fact that Bruce shot anyone, mind control or not. If I had to guess, he went under cover to get close to Mother and set up a fake crime scene to trick her. Or something. I doubt Bruce could live with himself.

[icon_uk]

Might be a codeword. If she gets a call from someone claiming to be Tim and they use the word "Mom" then she knows it's a fake, or else it IS Tim and he's under duress.

"Mother" is a little stilted, but not a word that would arouse suspicion, so he uses that for "real" conversations to reassure her that it's him and he's okay.

This IS the New 52 Tim, who seems a bit paranoid.

[icon_uk]

I have to say that it never occured to me that Tim might be talking to his ACTUAL mother! Neat fake out!

[lucean]

One thing that is really impressing/exciting me in this series is that they seem to be really focusing on establishing Dick as Bruce's true son. One of the things that really bothered me in introducing Damian as Bruce's biological son was that in the aftermath it seemed like that a lot of writers, especially Tomasi, decided that overrode any other connections in the Bat-Clan. The fact that he was Bruce's blood made that more that bond more important Bruce's relationship with Dick, almost unintentionally implying that adoptive bonds aren't as important or strong as blood bonds. So to have them again return to Dick and focus on his relationship with Bruce and what it was is just really joyous for me. Especially when they seem to be introducing a really awesome, creepy villain in it.

[chalicother]

This I agree wtih. I found it weird when Synder (I think) said that he couldn't write Damian , because as a father he couldn't imagine putting his son in that kind of harm....which made no sense to me because Dick and Jason have both stated and showed in the pre-boot and reboot that Bruce is their father. Hell, pre-52 , Dick was established as being Bruce's son longer than Damian.

[lucean]

To be fair, I think Snyder commented he couldn't write Damian because his own son was near the same as Damian. But I do agree that there has been underlying message in several writers work or interviews where they seem to imply that Damian is a more 'real' son to Bruce than Dick or Jason. Which is a really, really questionable message to send, especially considering that the Bat-Clan has been a really prominent story about adoptive family bonds and how real they can be.

That is one of the reasons I am so glad about this series, as they seem to really underline that Dick is a true son of Batman with that comment about Bruce getting a 'real' child making it clear that Dick is a real child of his even if they don't share blood.

[coldfury]

I have no idea what they're trying to do with Jason Todd. Like, I don't get how Bruce can stand the idea of a 'Punisher' Robin running around.

But I absolutely love, love love love, the idea that Dick starts to drift into Bruce-territory and Jason calls him on it, and Dick *listens*.

If we're going to have Dick, Jason, Tim, & Damien all bouncing around, that's the sort of sibling interplay we need in their relationships. That was a great moment.

[chalicother]

Yeah, I like Jason with the family, and I try to accept the Red Hood and Outlaws explanation. Then again taking away Jason's guns , does take away one of the things that makes him different from the other robins based on abilities.

[icon_uk]

In fairness, Tim called out Dick for acting like Bruce last week, when Dick notes that the somewhat intrusive investigation he made into Tim's parents (Whose history doesn't remotely tie into the (admittedly dreaful) origin that DC has only just created for Tim, but that's life in the New 52 I suppose) was what Bruce would have done and Tim agrees but is angry because that was why he'd hope Dick wouldn't do it.

[chrisdv]

Wanna know what I've really enjoyed in this series?

Seeing Dick, Jason & Tim acting like brothers for once, rather than the usual bickering we've gotten since the New 52 began.

Which, granted, is still better than Jason trying to kill the other two because he thinks Bruce likes them more, like we had before Flashpoint.

[icon_uk]

I'd like the brotherly relationships if I were able to reconcile repeat-multiple-and-unrepentant-murderer Jason being allowed to roam free by anyone else in the Batfamily.

[funbox]

Am I the only one who gets flashes of Batman and Sons from The Black Cat? Because I did the first issue and Jason lines up perfectly with Black Cat's Jason.

[icon_uk]

Always loved Crime and Punishment!

[espanolbot]

^^^ This.

It was especially jarring towards the start of Jason's Outlaws series where, after killing dozens of people with Roy and Starfire, it had him going to get some information and breakfast from Tim (where they insult Alfred's pancakes).

It's weird. I THINK that they want Jason to be their Wolverine, in him being the gruff murderer who everyone just accepts is around despite him not fitting in thematically with the rest of the team.

[chalicother]

I can see that. I mean they had the literal Wolverine scene of "You can't kill people , your better than me, but I kill people" in Batman eternal with Batgirl.

[matrix_dragon]

Hey, what's Steph up to in all this? You can't reintroduce Cass without her heterosexual(?) life partner being involved somehow.

[icon_uk]

Steph is with Cass a lot so far.

[zechs80]

Why hello there David Cain. I'm assuming that's Cain/Orphan eavesdropping on Maxwell and Bruce.

[espanolbot]

I'm getting the feeling that, considering the St Dumas connection, the Orphan might actually be the New 52 version of Azrael...

[zechs80]

Jean Paul is one of my suspects on who Orphan was when my #1 showed up in Midnighter last week instead and #2 that chin and hair style screams young David Cain to me though. I think the kid who was at the end of #1 might be him though.

Now I'm curious who the lady in the middle of Mother and Orphan is. Cause she's rocking some fine 70s style there.