Batman Eternal #21 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Now, we're actually getting somewhere.

As I somewhat expected, Snyder and Tynion reveal Bard to be one of the bad guys in this issue.  Bard has risen too quickly through the GCPD's ranks for it not to be suspicious, though Snyder and Tynion still have to make clear whether this rise was narratively convenient or well orchestrated.  In fact, you have to ask the question why Batman himself hasn't articulated this concern.

Whereas Snyder and Tynion made it clear that Forbes got the job as Commissioner as part of his collusion with Falcone, they haven't explicitly shown Bard making a similar deal.  As far as we know, he's just been an excellent cop.  Throughout his run, his success rate has raised two questions.  First, how exactly has he been so successful?  How could someone so new to Gotham develop the network of contacts and sources necessary to know where crime is going to happen before it happens?  Second, how is he still alive?  Given how successful he has been, you'd figure that someone would've stopped him by now.  With the revelation that Bard's a bad guy, Snyder and Tynion imply that his mysterious patron has given him the information and protection that he's needed to be successful.  However, Snyder and Tynion need to show us that piece of the puzzle.  Otherwise, it's just too much to ask us to suspend disbelief to this extent.  It begins to feel overly convenient and, again, it makes you ask why Batman hasn't asked similar questions.

Turning from Bard, Snyder and Tynion use Falcone here to move us to the next phase of this series, where Batman begins to hunt for (presumably) the main culprit.  He reveals to Batman that someone did tip him to the fact that s/he planned to take down Gordon (and Gotham), literally sending him an engraved invitation to resume his criminal activities in the city.  He also shrugs off Batman's discovery that Falsario was killed with a knife belonging to him, making it clear that he's just a pawn on the chessboard.  The gang war in Gotham is over, and Batman has more pressingly matters at hand.  I have to say that I was surprised to see this phase of the story come to the close.  I expected the gang war to serve as the smokescreen for the real actions for most of this series, so I have to wonder how Snyder and Tynion are going to keep Batman distracted from IDing the mastermind for the next 31 issues.

However, maybe they don't intend to do so?  They certainly imply here that it's Hush.  Although it's unclear why he takes out Alfred, it's pretty clearly him on the phone with Bard.  However, Bard calls him "Mother," raising at least the possibility that it's someone else (and female) under the bandages.  But, given the lengths to which Snyder and Tynion have gone to keep the identity of the mastermind secret, it seems unlikely that it's the final word on the matter.

To sum, we're finally getting somewhere and I'm actually interested in where that "where" is.  Who would've thought it?

*** (three of five stars)