Batman is facing a threat that spans the multiverse and after Batman #140, he’s also facing his greatest deterrent if he ever went off his rocker. Those two threats combine and it’s an epic story that reaches part three this week with Batman #141. Already beaten to near death by Failsafe, this super robot has Batman cornered with nowhere to run.
Batman #141 opens in the past when Failsafe was still being made. In the scene, we learn Batman of Zur-En-Arrh also had a hand in making Failsafe the greatest threat to Batman and anyone who stands in its way. This reveal helps connect Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez’s first story with the slowly building one creating a nice circular moment. Given the first story arc set the precedent that Failsafe is near impossible to defeat, we know Batman is in for a world of pain.
And there’s plenty of pain in this issue, which mostly focuses on Batman ever so slightly avoiding death left and right. It’s an action-packed issue, to say the least, with Batman’s captions helping convey just how close he is to defeat. Jimenez makes every Failsafe punch that lands feel like it could be the death blow. It’s not often Batman seems out of his element and barely capable of surviving, but it’s a constant in this issue.
Batman is in big trouble this issue.
Credit: DC Comics
This issue also helps set up Joker: Year One,“which is kicking off the next issue. It’s rather economical how Zdarsky weaves in key details to set up Joker’s untold origin with a tantalizing cliffhanger that ties that story to this one. Considering how everything seems to have built on every issue of the run, Zdrasky seems to be making sure everything matters and it’s all building towards something.
The one gripe with this story is how we’ve already seen Batman fight Failsafe for an entire story arc, so on some scale, this feels like a rematch. Since it was only a few months ago they fought — and Batman pretty much lost — some of the excitement of the fight is missing. It doesn’t help that Failsafe isn’t necessarily more dangerous, just back and fighting again.
The backup continues to build on the main story, which is a great strength of this series since nothing is unimportant or thrown away. In it, Dustin Nguyen draws a dream-like scene with Batman of Zur-En-Arrh communicating with his multiversal brethren. This builds on what we know about Failsafe and how he had been augmented by Batman of Zur-En-Arrh but also establishes where all these other Zur-En-Arrh’s are. Given how the main story ends it’s clear some themes is going on involving prisons.
It’s Batman vs. Failsafe in a rematch that has a slight twist in Batman #141. You can’t beat Jimenez’s incredible action and highly detailed art while Zdarsky continues to excite as everything matters and is building toward a definitive Joker story.
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