So anyways, having finished my reread of Batman & Robin Eternal, I wanted to talk about it a little bit. It's definitely still a fun book, if not more fun than the first time I read it. A very focused plot, good dialogue, well-balanced ensemble, a lot of action, a lot of strong chemistry between characters, and nothing ever feels irrelevant, even if a bit long in the tooth or digressional at times. As a man who enjoys Batman's family more than solo stories about him, this was totally my jam. I got my issues with the story, though. Tynion and Snyder do a great job essentially being the showrunners of the book with the story, but everyone else on the planet seems to script the issues; Genevieve Valentine does a huge bulk, along with Ed Brisson, Tim Seeley, and Steve Orlando for the rest (along with a few others that I'm sure I missed). The art's usually solid, but not outstanding save for a few issues here and there.
So, here's my biggest problem: for series all about Robins, it's not really about any of the Robins...except for one: Dick. It's very much a Grayson story, to the point of it pretty much being essential to Grayson. It explains what happens to Poppy and the purpose of Somnus and how there's a contingency plan for Dick to become Nightwing again. It also heavily relies on Spyral as the catalyst for Mother's plan and the advancement of the plot, as well as Poppy as an antagonist. Granted, I understand Dick being so central, being as he's the first Robin. The premise of the book being that Mother is engineering child soldiers around the world and Bruce began the case originally with Dick. The questions brought up of a conspiracy running so deep as to whether or not Bruce had been grooming the Robins into his own soldiers. The classic "oh our mentor kept shit a secret and this is bad." So the thing is, you'd think that Tim and Jason and Damian would get a lot of focus? Well Tim and Jason are along for the ride, and they're great. They're integral to the plot, they play their parts and serve their roles and even spend most of their time on their own adventure. Honestly though? They aren't the focus of the book. As much of an absolute gemstone Jason Todd is in this book, the bastard doesn't matter. The story would need to be rewritten a bit, but the St Dumas storyline could be removed. You don't need it. The revelation about Icthys could easily just be opening some file and finding some brainwashing pods at the Nursery. St Dumas exists to bring Azrael back into the Bat mythos and that's about it. The idea that there's a religion that revolves around this brand new miracle technology and the advancement of technology and approaching the Singularity isn't really explored or elaborated and comes off as existential nonsense meant to buy time.
This is a Harper, Cass, and Dick book, and two of those aren't Robins and yet this is their book. That's never more evident than when the teams split up, Tim and Jason go to Santa Prisca to deal with St Dumas and Dick, Cass, and Harper go to Prague to follow up on Batman's old file. In fact, We Are Robin was going on at this time and Duke and the gang even show up and they disappear after that initial "Protect Wayne" mission near the beginning of the book and Duke (and only Duke) shows back up at the end of the book for the final hoorah. Damian also doesn't show up until the very end as a literal slap in the face to everyone to get their shit together. It's a massive bummer, because as fun and enjoyable as this book is, I wanted a Robin book. Tim and Jason don't have much of a focus as to where they play in the potential idea of where they may fall in Bruce's sculpted soldier process. Yet they're on the list of potential children. The list consists of Dick Grayson (the first Robin, when Bruce met Mother and began this whole thing), Harper Row (the "perfect Robin" that Mother puts forth and offers Bruce), Cassandra Cain (Mother's perfect soldier as offered by Orphan, crafted by the old ways), Jason Todd, and Tim Drake. The problem is that Jason and Tim don't get any focus as to how Mother may have played into their roles, or as to how Bruce's interactions with Mother may have affected his relationships with them. Instead the flashback arc one long case during his time with Dick. Damian is obviously not on the list, but that would've been interesting to see how he really factored in beyond a couple pages of "y'all need to get your shit together." When we get the idea that Mother designed a Robin, we have the original bait that it was Tim, but it turns out the phone call from "mother" was actually his actual mom. The Robin that Mother designed was Harper, but she never became a Robin so then Mother never technically designed a Robin. A fine twist to be sure, but good god does it yank on my chains for a long time.
Overall, I enjoyed B&R Eternal, but my issue is both a nitpick and something I feel is legitimate. If the focus is going to be on the Robins, then make it the Robins. Not just one Robin and then two other characters, with two Robins as supporting characters on a sidequest for a plot device that could be explained in a few panels.