Bruce Wayne, thanks to a combination of head injuries and self-sacrifice, is no longer Batman. He doesn’t remember the pain of his parents’ death and lacks Batman’s utter drive to eradicate crime from the planet. Fortunately, Batman has trained a lot of replacements over the years, and the pointy ears tend to attract fellow crime fighters.

Good thing, too, as the Robins at the center of this book are facing a threat that makes “designer human beings,” people so thoroughly programmed and designed that they seem like normal, every-day people… until their “mother” triggers their programming.

Which in turn raises a question: Batman’s been really lucky, all these years, hasn’t he? He’s always found the perfect little crimefighter to get into those green booties and punch the criminally insane, whether it’s a kid who’s lost his parents to crime or an urchin trying to steal his tires. Heck, one time, he found his new Robin in his next door neighbor. But is it luck? Or are the Robins about to meet their Mother?

See the full-size version here.

To see where Scarecrow is going, and just who this fear-gas huffing guy might be, check out Batman And Robin Eternal #5, on stands next week, and arriving weekly over its 26 issues.