Sons of Batman
One set that is relatively unique in that it is 100% straight out of a comic, the Sons of Batman are made to go together with the rest of the Frank Miller range
Offensive
SoB 1, being the cheapest of the lot, has the lowest offensive potential, and he is based around using his Batlings for ranged attacks. It's not great, but it's something, and with Brutal he can fish for knockdowns to assist other things
SoB 2 is the gun piece of the 3, being higher funding but also having a decent amount of ammo to keep himself shooting. Having a template shotgun (read- the better kind) with 1 ammo he can help to punish bunched up hordes, and his other gun is ok but not great. If he can stay on an ammo and shoot the shotgun its better, but he is also not that likely to get more than 1 shot with it anyway.
SoB 3 is an expensive combat piece, with Reinforced Gloves and Counterattack for pure punching, while also being a decent strength of 4+ which lets him damage easier. His one major downside is that he is attack 3, and as such very easy to block, and at 39 rep that is not great at all.
Defensive
All 3 Sons have some nice defensive traits, although they aren't hugely defensible. Hardened helps them from being outright killed in many situations (Carbines for example) but at defence 2 and endurance 5 on SoB 1 and 2 they aren't really that likely to not just be knocked out instead if not just killed anyway (although they are cheap enough that this doesn't really matter). SoB 3 however, is defence 4 and endurance 6, which means he is easily the most survivable of the lot (still having Hardened) and is twice as difficult to hit. This is a big difference, and a big reason for his higher defence is the previously mentioned Counterattack, and if he can protect objectives loaded up for a counterattack he can do work, but at the same time its also very unreliable and for his cost quite expensive (as he needs to first be hit, then block hits, then gets to make normal attacks). SoB 2 also has Street Guy as standard, but this isn't great at all because it basically just means he is defence 3 when crouching for free, when most other henchmen in faction are defence 3 standard and either have Street Guy or can purchase it for quite cheap, so he doesn't bring anything fantastic in that regard.
Overall
SoB 1 and 2 have nothing special here, being cheap and having traits that are useful for attacking or defending. SoB 3 however has a few different traits in Follow Me! and Bluff that give him an optional toolkit to help out a crew. Follow Me! is great because it speeds up the crew a bit more and can help them get up the board quicker, while Bluff is of little use because it simply makes opponents easier to block. Although this is helpful, he is still only willpower 5, and can't realistically do everything he is built to in any given turn, honestly being not that great at any job for his very high price point. All 3 of the Sons of Batman are alright, but none of them bring anything fantastic to the table that you can't get elsewhere, and outside of Frank Miller Batman and Green Arrow the cops bring far more of a unified theme to the crew.
Offensive
SoB 1, being the cheapest of the lot, has the lowest offensive potential, and he is based around using his Batlings for ranged attacks. It's not great, but it's something, and with Brutal he can fish for knockdowns to assist other things
SoB 2 is the gun piece of the 3, being higher funding but also having a decent amount of ammo to keep himself shooting. Having a template shotgun (read- the better kind) with 1 ammo he can help to punish bunched up hordes, and his other gun is ok but not great. If he can stay on an ammo and shoot the shotgun its better, but he is also not that likely to get more than 1 shot with it anyway.
SoB 3 is an expensive combat piece, with Reinforced Gloves and Counterattack for pure punching, while also being a decent strength of 4+ which lets him damage easier. His one major downside is that he is attack 3, and as such very easy to block, and at 39 rep that is not great at all.
Defensive
All 3 Sons have some nice defensive traits, although they aren't hugely defensible. Hardened helps them from being outright killed in many situations (Carbines for example) but at defence 2 and endurance 5 on SoB 1 and 2 they aren't really that likely to not just be knocked out instead if not just killed anyway (although they are cheap enough that this doesn't really matter). SoB 3 however, is defence 4 and endurance 6, which means he is easily the most survivable of the lot (still having Hardened) and is twice as difficult to hit. This is a big difference, and a big reason for his higher defence is the previously mentioned Counterattack, and if he can protect objectives loaded up for a counterattack he can do work, but at the same time its also very unreliable and for his cost quite expensive (as he needs to first be hit, then block hits, then gets to make normal attacks). SoB 2 also has Street Guy as standard, but this isn't great at all because it basically just means he is defence 3 when crouching for free, when most other henchmen in faction are defence 3 standard and either have Street Guy or can purchase it for quite cheap, so he doesn't bring anything fantastic in that regard.
Overall
SoB 1 and 2 have nothing special here, being cheap and having traits that are useful for attacking or defending. SoB 3 however has a few different traits in Follow Me! and Bluff that give him an optional toolkit to help out a crew. Follow Me! is great because it speeds up the crew a bit more and can help them get up the board quicker, while Bluff is of little use because it simply makes opponents easier to block. Although this is helpful, he is still only willpower 5, and can't realistically do everything he is built to in any given turn, honestly being not that great at any job for his very high price point. All 3 of the Sons of Batman are alright, but none of them bring anything fantastic to the table that you can't get elsewhere, and outside of Frank Miller Batman and Green Arrow the cops bring far more of a unified theme to the crew.
GCPD
A few models that have long been considered mainstays of the BatB roster, the beat cops are somewhat overshadowed nowadays by newer options, but there are still a couple of real gems in there.
Offensive
There's not much to be said here.
Policewoman, Policeman and Agent Ron all have weapons that are handy and single stun, which are potentially ok if a little unreliable. Policeman and Ron both have heavy to compensate for weaker strength, and as cheap henchmen this can't be considered bad, but the platforms it's on aren't great, and you're better off taking something with an extendable baton for melee.
Agent O'Connell has a taser, which I have given much praise of in my other BatB henchman review, and will still value here. He's a great little offensive piece and can put some damage into henchmen
Agent Ron and the Detective carry guns with them, although they are slightly different. Both are short ranged, blood/stun firearms with light, but Agent Ron has an extra shot each turn over the Detective, giving him a slight leg up in that regard (but the Detective wins in almost every other way)
Defensive
Most of these cops are somewhat fragile, but they all have the huge benefit of being defence 3 over 2. Endurance 4 on Policeman/woman and Ron means they go down when they get hit, but the Policewoman has one huge thing that makes her punch above her weight much more than she has any right to- Defensive. Rerolling block dice means she is for her points one of the best objective sitters in the entire game, and it lets her hang around contesting/arresting/scoring against henchmen for a great amount. She'll still drop to any actual beater, but her survivability is great for her 14 rep cost.
Agent O'Connell is pretty great defensively as well as offensively, as he has endurance 6 over the lower levels of the other cops. This puts him at 1 higher than most other BatB henchman options, especially in the sub-40 rep options, although in the grand scheme of things the bump from 5 to 6 endurance isn't overly huge due to a prevalence of double damage models. Still great, just not gigantic.
Agent Ron also has Street Guy to help him against guns, which is in theory nice, but really isn't a massive ability in his case, and it's available as the cheapest option for BatB equipment so anyone can take it pretty easily. In comparison to QRT2, who also has Street Guy but also has other gun protection traits (and so he should for the point difference), Agent Ron really isn't that great vs guns, because he still goes down to a couple of good shots very easily.
Overall
As they should, all of these cops have Arrest, which is value in itself.
Gotham Policeman has Lantern, but that trait is so situational it doesn't justify taking him in any list over the much better Policewoman, who for 2 rep less brings so much more to the table, or over Arkham Guard 1 for a little bit more, who again is so much better. He kind of always sat in that spot of "not great, but there's not much else in that price bracket" so he got slotted in after the Policewoman, but now that there are somewhat comparable options he is pushed to the bench.
Policewoman has nothing special in this regard, but she is just such insane value that in Eternal formats she is highly likely to always be seen in a BatB crew.
Agent Ron has nothing else to note, and like the Policeman (who he is really just a more expensive version of) he is largely irrelevant nowadays unfortunately.
Agent O'Connell has Veteran, which is great on him because it allows him to react on the fly to what is happening in any given turn. He has seemingly been replaced in standard by Sierra the SWAT, although in Eternal it is still a very serious choice between the 2, as Sierra has a Bulletproof Vest over O'Connell but lacks the ever needed Arrest, which makes for a big question.
The Detective is the biggest star in this section, as he has a couple of traits that allow him to do a lot of work in a BatB crew from very early on. First of these is Detective, which is somewhat of a thematic trait across the whole BatB crew and helps prevent passes, but Hidden is the real clincher, as it lets him get right on objectives very early in the game (Bat-Signal is a long standing tradition) and attempt to get an early lead for the crew (or at the very least force the opponent to dedicate resources to him)
Alfred
Ending my henchman talk for now with the trusty butler of the Bat, none other than Alfred Pennyworth. A now quite old limited edition model, Alfred is somewhat harder to find, even for an Eternal model, but unlike some other limited models (the Batmen in particular) Alfred isn't an especially powerful model. True to his character, he is an understated (and often overlooked) support piece who can still provide a lot to the crew
Offensive
Alfred isn't a model you want in combat. He's attack 2 with nothing else special. Keep him away
Defensive
Defence 3 and endurance 5 isn't much to write home about, but it is enough to keep him respectable. He will die to an effort, but you should not have him in a position where that's easy to do. He needs to be protected, but can help out a lot.
Overall
As already mentioned, Alfred is a support piece. Right from the start, he has Business Agent so your crew has $350 funding extra to play around with, which should usually go into having a better ranged presence alongside 2 Whistles to get the most out of it, but can really be used in a lot of ways. Informer helps out the often low model count BatB by giving them an extra pass, letting them play with activation order a bit more, and Medic is pretty self explanatory. Alfred helps keep key pieces alive longer than they should be, which in turn helps the crew immensely. All in all not the most oppressively good piece, but he is useful for his cost.
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