Considering Chip Zdarsky has been doing wonders with his current run on Daredevil, it is only a matter of time before he was going to tackle Batman, who is the closest DC analogue to the Man Without Fear. For the first time, a writer is writing both DC and Marvel’s brooding vigilantes concurrently, which is quite the challenge as both characters require their creators to be on their A-game. However, Zdarsky’s debut of the mainline Batman book isn’t his first Bat-outing, having previously written for Batman: Urban Legends and collaborated with artist Carmine Di Giandomenico on a new version of the character’s origin story: The Knight. Taking over after Joshua Williamson’s reign on the title, what does Zdarsky bring to the Caped Crusader?
From the first issue, it reads like a typical Batman story in a similar vein to Frank Miller, in which Bruce Wayne is haunted by dreams of a dark future while Gotham City billionaires are being gruesomely murdered at the hands of the Penguin. Whilst this conflict with the Penguin comes to a close, it does set up what becomes the main storyline, in which deep within the Batcave, the robotic Failsafe is activated and is designed to destroy Batman and his world.
Whilst Zdarsky’s Daredevil is built upon the ideas that Frank Miller was doing his seminal run in the ’80s, Zdarsky could have applied a similar sensibility to his Batman. In this, he is presented as this brooding figure who strikes fear into criminals whilst his ongoing narration opens up this internal torment and believes Gotham City is dying, almost to the point that it’s beyond saving. He even sees the Bat family as soldiers, some of them have fallen in the line of duty. However, instead of an intimate crime story that relies on Batman’s detective skills, Zdarsky escalates the story into an action-packed narrative that involves his extended family and the Justice League and taking the fight outside the streets of Gotham.
Taking cues from past storylines such as Mark Waid and Howard Porter’s JLA: Tower of Babel and Grant Morrison’s seven-year Batman run, the ideas that are presented here aren’t new, such as a villain who thinks like Batman in that he is three steps ahead of everyone, whilst Batman himself goes through his Zur-En-Arrh phase again. As for Failsafe himself, which Zdarsky refers as Batman’s own Doomsday, he may a cool exoskeleton design with its own pointy ears, but there isn’t much characterization you can have with an evil robot.
That being said, Zdarsky is able to weave these familiar ideas into a variety of set-pieces that blend action and characters well, whether it is Bruce and Tim Drake being a proper Dynamic Duo, or Superman stepping into the chaos to save his friend. As previously stated, if you want a small-scale detective story, you are not going to find it here, but if you are looking for an over-the-top action-packed superhero story where artist Jorge Jimenéz gets to flex his muscles, Failsafe delivers. Along with Tomey Morey’s subdued coloring, Jimenéz’s art has a grittier aesthetic that plays well with the streets of Gotham but is then nicely contrasted with bombastic action sequences where various costumed heroes are thrown into the mix, whilst we see how Batman can get out of sticky situations, such as surviving through space.
While the main storyline is the big attraction of this volume, the backup issues are just as worthy, such as Zdarsky’s collaboration with Belén Ortega on “Two Birds, One Throne”, in which Catwoman finds herself in the middle of a power play between crime families following the Penguin’s fallout. Whilst this is perhaps the closest Zdarsky will get to writing a crime narrative in Batman’s world, as well as making Catwoman a fun protagonist, he saves the best for last with “I Am a Gun” with artist Leonardo Romero. Despite being a surreal tale that has a completely different aesthetic to the main storyline, it serves as a nice companion piece in how Bruce Wayne develops the Zur-En-Arrh persona, which almost leads to him killing the Joker. Along with Romero’s art which pays homage to Dick Sprang’s smiley Caped Crusader and David Mazzuchelli’s gritty vigilante, Zdarsky embraces the various stages of Batman’s history whilst delving into the character’s psyche, which is always a great subject for creators to explore.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
