Batman Eternal #17 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, we get some more information about Deacon Blackfire in this issue, but it's still not clear how he goes from a revival preacher with a tendency to drug his parishioners to do his dirty work to essentially a demon looking to be reborn.  Snyder and Tynion almost imply that Batman watched as Blackfire's awakened parishioners killed him, though it seems unlikely that he died that way (since it seems unlikely that Bruce would allow it to happen).  As such, we don't know how he died or how his soul remained sufficiently powerful to put into effect his resurrection plan.   Also, it's still unclear what his plan is (and, as I mentioned last issue, how it relates to the larger "Batman Eternal" story).  The good news is that we do get somewhere on the Red Robin story, with the creator of the nanobots denying that he sent them to Gotham and Tim stating that he doesn't believe him.  I'm a little more confused than I was last issue, but it's still an OK outing, since I didn't have to bash my head into the way over the Commissioner Gordon plot.

*** (three of five stars)