The Good

There are some great, stand-out moments within this issue. After what happened in issue #10, Alfred has a lot to deal with back at the Wayne manor. In #11, he spends a lot of time trying to reconnect with his daughter, Julia, as well as trying to be a father to her once again. It's moments like this that slow the pace of the book down and let the reader really get into the heads of these characters. They're more than just their roles. They have outside lives, and I love that those ideas are explored within this issue.

The other fantastic thing about this issue is the brief moments we see of Stephanie Brown, who is looking more and more like Spoiler, every issue. She discovers her father's (Cluemaster) secret origin and even remembers, as a child, when Batman invaded her house and grilled her dad. It's the coolest story in this issue, seeing Cluemaster as a game show host and watching him become this weird villain. Stephanie's narration moves along this scene extremely well, and it's some fantastic writing from Tim Seeley.

The Bad

Ian Bertram has a very specific style, which is a tad reminiscent of Frank Quitely's work on BATMAN AND ROBIN. While Bertram's background work is fantastic, his character work can be extremely rough. Eyes are huge on these character's faces. And the faces, in general, feel off. Bertram's work would look great on an indy book, but when readers are used to more of a house style, Bertram's just looks off. The way he drew Red Hood was also rough. He's smiling. There's a actual mouth on the mask. It looks so weird and out of place.

The Batgirl story here, which is the main story of this issue, is ok but not much more. There's definitely some cool visual moments with some characters, who will not be spoiled here, but the main story is a bit lackluster and uninteresting.

The Verdict

BATMAN ETERNAL #11 contains three stories, two of which are good, and one of which is a bit bland. On top of that, the art can be pretty rough in places and doesn't mesh well with the overall issue or its characters, even though, without a doubt, this artist has a great amount of talent. Once again, it's a decent issue from this series, but it doesn't really "wow" the audience. The biggest drag on this particular issue is the art though. If you're enjoying the series, keep reading it as it does well as a weekly series. However, chances of it being one of your favorites is very slim.

Well, is not just me that feels this weekly is getting weaker then.

Do you mean Chris Burnham on Batman Inc? Or Quitely on Batman & Robin? Don't think Quitely ever did Inc, did he?

Jason is often drawn with a mouth on his mask

@dondave: and it bothers me every time they do

I've been clamoring for more Ian Bertram art since he and Tomasi's short story in Detective Comics #27.

@cobra88king8 Ehh, I prefer it.

Man the art is all over the place in this series, and none of it is particularly good. I think I may be dropping it soon, $12 a month is a lot for something that seems really meandering.

The art was fine. It had an indy style but it was still pleasant looking and enjoyable (unlike last week). The writing was solid. All around not an Average comic but an Above Average Comic.

Two issues of non-house style art hardly qualifies as "all over the place". The story is weaving the equivalent of 4 years worth of comics together. Some plots are going to feel a bit off to the side until they are woven into the greater narrative down the line.

I guess he did covers.

You people are crazy, the art was great

Can this guy stop doing reviews for this book, he always says the same exact things

I wasn't referring to the last two issues, I was referring to the whole series. The only one I've liked is Guillem March's work, everything else has been just "meh" to me. Plus it seems like each artist is competing to see how big they can make Catwoman's boobs/butt.

In all honesty I'm only getting the book for Stephanie Brown. I wish she would have more involvement as that was my entire reason for getting this series in the first place.

I think if you're going to bring out a weekly series you have to deliver. It's clear Batman Eternal exists as a way to get the consumer to buy a lot of issues quickly, and yet DC has not used this format as a way of innovation. Instead it reads as superficial and filler driven instead of plot driven.

I really enjoyed Ian Bertram's art on this issue.That dream sequence and that graveyard scene were beautifully drawn IMHO.

This week's issue was definitely the worst one in the eternal series so far. That art style bugged me.

Their eyes weren't even anime-big... they were insect big. Every character almost looked like a fly.

Batman title, dropped.

I think that some of you complaining about the story not moving fast enough, or being exciting every single issue, need to realize that a weekly book reads a lot different than a monthly.

They are going to have put out over 1000 pages of story in a year. To expect huge plot developments and tons of action every 20 pages might be asking a bit much. Having a slow issue here and there doesn't mean that the whole story is bad.

It's kinda like not liking a whole book because there's one or two bad panels in it...

<end of lecture>

I can see the artist from this issue doing street art and all that kind of stuff, but he really didn't have a place in this issue. This looked like poor fan art for about 90% of the issue.

And the soap opera story? What? Who cares? Man, that made this issue really suck.

Edit: It's like they teased a Batgirl/ Red Hood team up in the last issue and then reduced it down to a crappy little cameo. Hopefully that's fixed in the next issue

That said, this has been the only issue that I didn't like.

You know this is a separate title, right?

This is some of the worst art I have ever seen in comics. What the heck were they thinking?

@the_average_bear: This is a separate title from the last 10 Batman Eternal issues?

Good issue, not great. Just give us the gang war for now Snyder.

Although I wasn't a huge fan of the art, I kinda liked the issue. Something about it was fun (ironically, the art probably.) The thing that always bothers me is the change in art when we get weeklies. I'd be cool with just Fabok and Nguyen doing the issues, but when it jumps around between so many different artists, it kinda ruins it for me.

I really like the art on this issue. It definitely made me think of Chris Burnham. What's he doing these days? It seems like he disappeared after Batman, Inc. ended.

The art pulled me out of the story. I miss Fabok.

The art was terrible in this issue but the story wasn't that much better either. This was so disappointing because I was really looking forward to the Babs story here and really nothing about this issue was fantastic or interesting. Very disappointing.

Indie art-hating plebs.

I know I'm gonna get hate from all the hipstery pro indie guys ( I love indie comics) But I mean just because you're indie doesn't mean people are filled with oatmeal in your eyes

I'm still reading and will for at least a few more issues, but it's becoming more and more apparent that the main story of this book would have been better served as a 12 issue monthly or even a 26 issue bi-weekly series.

I finally got around to looking at the art for this issue and... wow. That's absolutely horrid. What a butchery of the characters, I can't believe DC actually hired that artist for one of their main books (a Bat book, no less).

I thought the art was absolutely amazing. It's weird how fans have seemingly had a negative reaction to DC using more offbeat artists (like Riccardo Burchielli last issue). I don't get it. You actually want the homogeneous god awful boring DC style on this book? I can't understand that at all. Artists like Jason Fabok and Guillem March put me to sleep- aside from the fact that Fabok can't convey motion and March can only draw like three facial expressions.

If anything, I will concede that the considerable resemblance to Chris Burnham's art kinda highlights how derivative Seeley is of Grant Morrison- I mean, El Guacho in this and Spyral in Grayson? But a semi-competent Morrison knockoff beats a completely clueless writer like Layman any day as far as I'm concerned. At least Seeley has the slightest hint of subtlety as a storyteller, while Layman is all exposition. If we get more of this in upcoming issues, I may actually start enjoying this book.

@americanslime: Offbeat artists are fine (and I don't really get the Burnham comparison, I actually really like his art), but to me a Bat book has no business being drawn in this way.

@drellassassin: Eh, personally I don't think there are or should be any such rules. Batman has a lot of fans with a lot of different tastes. I like something that messes with my expectations and makes me actually think about what I'm looking at, but deliberately rather than as a result of incompetence (like a lot of the other books have). However much you dislike how he draws people, Bertram does clearly have a good grasp of anatomy, composition and storytelling, as well as (god forbid) a sense of humor. That's more than a lot of DC artists can say, frankly.

The Burnham comparison is mainly because he proportions people a lot like Burnham. Kinda stout, over-sized pupils. Which by extension makes him look vaguely like Frank Quitely, but a few steps removed. Other people have made it here, so I'm fairly sure it's not just in my head.

In what issue of RHATO did starfire get a breast reduction surgery? seriously though the plot and art were atrocious in this issue

Pretty much the only Batman Eternal issue worth picking up. The writing feels uninspired though.

The art -_-

Story was weak, everyone looked derped. 1/5

Boring story, horrible art.

Just because the Art is "Indie" doesn't make it any less terrible for this issue.

The art works in certain comics, this art didn't work for this comic.

I thought the art was great. Some of the dialogue in the beginning was really cheesy though. May have been intentional, I guess. It was neat to see that the artist was able to drawn things that were fun and also things that were grim, and do both well.