Batman #131 begins a new chapter in the saga of “who is Failsafe, and why is he saying these terrible things about me?”. (Failsafe, for those like me who are unfamiliar with the name, is “an android created by the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh to neutralize the caped crusader in case he ever went rogue.”)
Chip Zdarksy writes Part One of The Bat-Man of Gotham, as Batman regains consciousness in Crime Alley. He’s been beaten and robbed. He believes he is on an alternate Earth, and wonders at the pipe smoking human skeleton who has dropped by to speak with him.
Mike Hawthorne’s (Wonder Woman, etc) moody lithe figures fill the panels and pages, deeply troubled and darkly shadowed. Together with inker Adriano Di Benedetto, they weave a tapestry of high grit and detail. Faces with sidelighting (awesome colours by Tomeu Morey) in orange and red, but plenty of crosshatching and feathering of unshaven chins and grimly downturned mouths. Clayton Cowles on letters.
It’s mouthwatering and gobsmackingly gorgeous to look at, and tensely coiled in drama. The panels twist and tilt with the weight of the violent fistfights, figures toppling through walls and garbage cans. Wonderfully packed to the gunnels with crime and punishment!
The backup story provides eight pages of Toy Box drama, with Robin, Tim Drake and friends trying to track down Batman. It’s interrelated with the main story, but an offshoot, a sideline with its own tropes, tricks, and triggers. Written by Chip Zdarsky, with art by Miguel Mendonca, Roman Stevens on brilliant colours, and Clayton Cowles on letters. Good fight scenes and lots of inter-hero friction.
DC Comics, Batman #131, $4.99 for 31 pages of content. Teen
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