It's really annoying how many writers are just trying to retcon classic stories and characters these days. While the writers often try to expand on these classic stories or give them more depth, the opposite often occurs and they end up tarnishing them.

That's the case here. Zur-En-Arrh was a cool concept when Morrison introduced it, but now it's just a corrupt Batman. The Jokers motivations have been retconned to all be about bringing out Zur-En-Arrh. Killing Joke? Death in the Family? All because of Zur-En-Arrh now instead of the Jokers affinity for chaos and obsession with Batman.

Zdarsky is taking from the Batman mythos instead of adding to it. I don't know why DC is allowing these horrible changes to their most popular franchise. Avoid this Batman run. Everyone is out of character and it's just butchering classic stories. more

What the hell was that? Another issue where the evil at robot goes amuck Batman and Joker still at odds like a million times before but without a smart plot well devised. The writer has clearly shown Joker knows who Batman is but the result is so what? Actions have no consequences and characters spin their wheels doing nothing.

The bat robot is still at large after what a year? So far Bats is his and Gotham’s worst enemy. Zdarsky’s not a Joker origin story story just shows Bats creates problems, not solves them. Bat robot another Bruce created villain. I don’t think proving Bat critics, the ones who say if Bruce gave away his money all problems would be solved, are right is a good look or clever writing.

Art was nice, but man I can’t wait for the DC reboot in October. Terrible stories.

Or I could be wrong more

Zdarsky's entire run has essentially been Batman creating menaces to save the world from a "Batman gone bad" who wind up as worse menaces than Batman could ever be. Failsafe throws Gotham into turmoil twice already in this run, and yet Bruce is not held accountable, or Batman arrested, when the dust clears. Where is J. Jonah Jameson when we need him, alerting the world to the danger that is Batman? more

I rate this “oh, who cares.” We get the killer bat robot. Joker is playing psychological games with Batman as if the Joker being trained by the same as Batman was just some giant mindf#ck., some great plot that Zdarsky thought of that puts all others to shame. It doesn’t.

We also have the one-eyed mayor. I honestly forgot he existed. But killer batbot is actually proving the mayor right. Batman is a menace. Once again the story is about how Batman is the problem, not the solution. Not a good look.

The art was nice.

But this whole run has been deconstructing Batman to the point that is really counts as destruction. All the characters are flat, merely pawns to plot.

Just terrible.

Or I could be wrong. more

I finally figured out what bugs me about this story. It doesn’t matter.Batman Year one mattered because it was a new Batman after Infinite Crisis. This is just a story where the Joker kills a lot. We know where it is going to end. Crazy Joker who kills a lot.

We also get another story where Jim Gordon doesn’t kill Joker. Again lather, rinse, repeat.

Also not a fan of the art style. But that’s me. I won’t argue if you like it.

Not a great story. More of a cynical cash grab that went nowhere.

Or I could be wrong. more

I rate this “whatever.” Despite trying to show how he Joker got so badass, it just shows me the Joker is badass because the writers tell and not show. He can take unlimited punishment and despite the fact everyone in Gotham has a gun and wants to kill him, no one shoots him.

There is no, for lack of a better word, logic behind this Joker. Chris Nolan made him an agent of chaos. He had a goal, show everyone will break. Steve Englehart had the Joker say in medieval times even kings envied jesters for their ability to say what they wanted without fear. This Joker was the free man.

Now the Joker seems to exist to let writers show how depraved they can write. Forget Batman letting the Joker live, why has no Gotham cop given him a Bin Laden special. Who would care? Hey I am. A hippy lawyer, I protest the shooting of a mass murderer responsible for the deaths of thousands and has escaped every time he has been locked up. Who would listen.

It’s been years since anyone had done anything interesting with the Joker. Give him a rest until someone actually comes up with a good idea, a genuine good idea. I don’t see that happening.

Or I could be wrong. more

I guess I reject the premise of the story - that theJoker’s origin is important. I totally agree with Christopher Nolan, in that the Joker’s origin doesn’t matter. He just is. He comes from nowhere with an agenda that only makes sense to him.

Trying to explain his origin just ruins the mystery. It is like trying to explain the origins of the immortals in Highlander. They did it twice and it was a bad idea both times.

By explaining the Joker’s origin, he becomes normal, just another gimmick character. So this whole Joker Year One story just doesn’t work for me. Just a bad idea come to life.

Or I could be wrong. more

The finale to “Failsafe 2.0,” errr I mean “Mindbomb” is essentially one extended chase sequence, with Batman desperately seeking a way to shut down the rogue AI now controlled by Zur-En-Arrh before it can fulfill its objective - the complete and utter replacement of Bruce Wayne as Batman. Stop me if this sounds like Zdarsk’y first “Failsafe” arc. The story is just barely saved the awesome work of Jorge Jiménez’s art and Zdarsky’s backup story which introduces the only new plot element to this arc. However, that appears to be taking a backseat starting with the “Joker: Year One” arc where we’ll finally get to see more of the Joker’s origin story . more

My main problem with issue is that Batman is written as dumb. He had to fight the Bat Terminator bot he created. And apparently the best way Bruce thinks to do that is to punch metal that can be used to fight Superman with flesh, or flesh and a metal hand.

Bruce does not create any equipment or develop a strategy to outwit his latest backup plan that goes out of control and is a bigger danger than the villains Bats fights. No, it’s just try to punch out a killer robot. That’s just lazy writing done by a hack.

Not a good issue.

Or I could be wrong. more

Batman fights himself. The final version Zurich do dah version of Frank Miller’s Batman, so points for on the nose symbolism. I guess we’re supposed to see that the writer is symbolically putting an end to Miller’s Batman, but it is so heavy handed, he doesn’t stick the landing. Miller Batman can always come back. DC seems to think this stale concept of Batman is the only way to write him.

My problem is the issue really does nothing. We don’t see the Bat family. ThenJoker fight is part Bane breaks back symbolism, which is actually a good idea. If Bats won’t kill Joker, he can make him a quadriplegic dependent on a respiration machine. Joker lives, but can’t escape or talk to corrupt his latest shrink.

Ultimately we’ve been down this road before. How about DC pick another path. The art was nice.

Or I could be wrong. more

In Batman, writers now write revised stories by revising the stories of past writers. This is getting very boring, I don't know if it's the author himself or the editors, but they need to stop this repetition. And again Joker, isn't that enough? We need something new in Batman and in Detective Comics!

There is no bright idea or anything new in this story. It's been going bad since Failsafe and repeating past stories. God!.. Batman jumped from space to earth without any extra protective gear and fell to his knees safe. A human hero did this in DC Comics. Does DC want to make our non-superhuman hero Batman, a superhero? Batman is one of the rare human characters in DC Comics who does not have superpowers, and let's leave it that way. Stop it now and try something new. more

The art is good and the plot isn’t so egregious that I get eye strain from rolling them. But I did not follow the Gotham War because I didn’t have the time or money. Well, I had the time, and to be fair Tupperware money. What I didn’t have was the patience for a story built on a false premise.

So I am totally unfamiliar with the current status quo. Apparently Bruce has alienated his family so much that they let him live alone on a fake identity. He has a small apartment and turns off the lights and talks to the toaster. He is hunting for the Joker and eventually finds him. They tussle and we see Zur An Rah. Bruce’s psyche battles against itself, again.

This recent arc seems like a distillation of 40 years of Miller Batman, and man I am tired of it. The Batman family apparently abandons Bruce. There is no intervention, Clark and et all don’t help. Bruce’s magic hand plays no role in anything.

DC keeps writing stories that should have massive consequences for Batman and D C at large, but everything slips back to “normal” again and the cycle repeats. It’s boring and thanks to trades and internet sites with the full history of Batman available, it becomes obvious.

DC has decided to skip the hard work of writing original stories in some sort of “dark” homage to the cult of Frank Miller. I am tired of it.

But I could be wrong. Batman is their cash cow. His books are their top sellers. Telling them to write to my tastes would be financial suicide in a diminishing comics market. Grr. You kids stay off my lawn. more

I'm at a loss for words as to how terrible this book and this event is. It's almost impressive.

This issue is an aberration of batman and his family. The 1.5 is for the art as it is good as always. The story gets a 0.

Now onto the review. Chip is a failure, no other way to put it. I don't know how it happened but this feels like the end half of Tom Kings batman run (at least he got to 50 issues before he totally destroyed it... Chip got to like what... 15?). He has destroyed Batman for the rest of his run. I feel sorry for the person after him who has to clean up.

But Researcher how is it that bad? I hear you ask. Well lets go over some utterly damaging things done in this issue.
1) Batman reprogramming Jason. Hey you know how Zatanna reprogrammed a r*pist after being pressured by the league to do so and Batman so strongly objected to altering human free will it altered her relationship with him and permanently removed her as a love interest to him? I remember that, but apparently Chip didnt. Apparently his batman is super ok with using brainwashing devices. Also if he had this, why use it on Jason, and you know... not another criminal like... oh I dont know his rouge gallery? This is ridiculous.

2) Batboxes and Nightwing. Nightwing is a total sell out at this point. He should be removed from the Batfamily. Selling out to criminals the first chance he gets cause he thinks Batman is taking it too far... So apparently trying to stop a criminal ring that has the backing of corrupted superheroes is 'taking it too far' for Nightwing. He is the problem. He is one of the corrupted. I dont know if I will be able to look at him the same way after this. He is a coward . Also why would Batman keep the fact Jason is programed in the batbox? That is some hack writing.

3) Damian: So he regresses to a small childs mentality who cries out to his daddy when he loses a fight (that he should have never have lost. We know Tim Drake has no skill based on is previous books so he should have beaten him to within an inch of his life, not lose for the sake of the plot). Chip is not only ruining Batman, but as I am pointing out, all the rest of the batfamily. This is disgraceful.

4) A WTF plot contrivance ending. So this entire event is actually just Randal Savage doing his thing with his daughter and Catwoman was too stupid to see she was a Pawn? The only way I could believe this is because Tini is writing Catwoman he her Catwoman reads as smart as paste with insane plot armour. Chip just doesnt want Catwoman to be wrong so all this insanity can be blamed on someone else.

Take a look at my point and try and disagree. You might disagree with how I flavoured the facts but the events did occur as I said.

Chip has disgraced Batman and his run. I loved it when he first came on and someone in the comic shop I was in said that it might be a monkeys paw wish. They were right. I am regretful I ever liked this run or trusted Chip. Dude appears to be a hack that had a couple of good stories in him. I have lost all trust in his ability to write batman till he proves otherwise. more

Halala... action, surprises, emotion, it's all there... but it doesn't fit. Because...by trying to deconstruct Batman (again), there's not much left of DC's great, ultra-capable hero. He's in pieces (again). You'd think it was a contest. Or it's in the brief. Who can best scuttle Batman's psyche (again)? Chip Zdarksy sure can, but why? There was a time when Batman was there to serve the story. Now, he's the story! all the time. At once the narrator, the villain, the victim, the reason, the cause, the consequence, the center of it all. There's no more hero serving his city in the shadows, no more genius. There's an ogre with shaky sanity (again and again) who is the alpha and omega of all storytelling. If you look closely, there's no story. Or so little, it's sad.

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No, just no. Batman is pure evil using mind control techniques to control Jason despite the fact that when JLA did that to Catwoman via Zatanna he quite rightly opposed it. The family can’t stop him and the subplot is now immortals gather to turn Gotham immortal or some such nonesense. Any plot that can’t be made into a Batman movie is bad. You want sci-fi or magic with Batman, see him in the Justice League.

Meanwhile Catwoman is surprised that Bruce opposes her kinder, gentler crime wave. This arc of stories is well drawn but clearly shows DC doesn’t know what to do with Batman and family. Just keep making nuts and have family in turmoil for good reason.

That’s been the problem with Batman. Writers write themselves into a corner, Jason is back but is a murerder edgy! BUt they have to ignore the consequences of their actions. Bruce loses fortune in way that makes no sense. How does it affect his life? It doesn’t. Alfred dead? So what? Lose a hand? Couldn’t tell by his stories. Fill the books with sidekicks, but have nothing for them to do.

It’s been almost 40 years since Frank Miller made Bats psycho, and it is sooo tired. Do better DC.

Or I could be wrong. I’m not.
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This issue,this whole arc, is stupid for several reasons. First it is just a repeat ofBatman loses everything and rises from the ashes stronger. Rinse lather repeat.

Second, the whole premise makes no sense. Crooks willing to be partipants in mass murder decide to become thieves and will be expected to be peaceful because why?

Third, the Bat family going along with crime? To quote Lana Kane , “Nnooppe.”

Fourth - Zur-an-that was and remains an uninteresting idea. Instead of allowing for character examination, it just acts a a macguffin for tedious stories.

When this is over, Bruce will have his fortune back, again. The family will say we’re a family again, let’s not fight again.

Bruce will say I will be nice again. I am guessing Cat and Bat will be dead as a couple, just like zMJ and Peter. Editors hate it, public loves it.

This really is just a terrible rehash of terrible ideas that have been run into the ground.

Or I could be wrong. more

I'm tired of Hal being a 40 years old child

this was a downright bad problem. Sorry, I don't want to be a hater, but there's a big problem here, jeremy addams writes Hal as a really stupid guy. this problem is basically Hal doing awkward things to win back a person who already has a partner and another life. I didn't like his behavior at all, except for the first scene, and it's basically the base of the number

This issue is supposed to set up the new status quo, but it was more tell than show. We are told that all the sidekicks asked Bruce how he was feeling, but we never see them talk to Bruce, or their reaction to his absence or return.

We do see that. Bruce has a magic hand that does everything his real hand did, so no angst there.we see a little Bruce at war with himself, but it is all old hat. We also see Bruce and Selina talk, but for the life of me I can’t say what that scene is supposed to be about or how it serves the story.

The art was there, neither bad or great. Your mileage may vary. All I can say is that this issue exists. It really doesn’t set anything in motion, except for maybe more Bruce is scared of losing his found family. But this family has all the makings of props, not characters with their own sparks of divine fire.

Not a good issue. Or I could be wrong. more

This issue reiterated points already made. The Omni verse needs a Batman. After defeating the enemy du jour, this earth’s Selina kicks one-handed Bruce through the portal and he meets all the other Bats in all the other earths. Even get shark repellant from Adam West Bats and later uses it against a laughing fish shark. Silly, but I give points for style.

In one of the trips, Bruce gets an artificial hand and eventually gets back to “our” Earth. Does he now have an artificial hand? Will we see it in other books? Don’t know but doubt it. So what does it matter? When Peter David gave Aquaman. Hook hand, that stuck until an entire reboot of the universe.

I guess I am disappointed. The theme of even without Batman monsters would exist was literally said out loud. No points for being subtle. Meantime, story opportunities were thrown away. We don’t see other characters react to no Bruce. We don’t see Bruce react to losing his family. No reaction to losing his hand. Is he afraid he won’t be as handy? Will he be more (h) armless (see what I did there). Supposedly earthshattering events didn’t matter to the characters, so why should it matter to me?

Didn’t like the arc, but I could be wrong. more

So absolutely boring and uninteresting.

The art is extremely lackluster.

If this is the best that DC has to offer then they should start saying their prayers.

Did Batman just lose a hand? In a story where Batman is fighting a foe we don’t know, one whose motives are unknown other than to be evil so Bats has someone to fight, Ghostmaker cuts off Bats’ hand.

So what the hell, dude. My reaction wasn’t how will he handle a life-altering injury. It was “no way this will stick, so who cares.” But that is just me. Your mileage may vary. But this whole arc just strikes me as none of this matters. We certainly haven’t seen such great world-building that we understand such things as motive, character or theme. We also don’t get any insight into Bruce. What does he think about this world? Does he ponder what this Selina means. Does he think this is my life if I failed? Does he miss his family, and desperately want to get back to them. Nope, he just goes through rote hero stuff with no context or insight. Pure plot.

Also, who cares about Ghostduster. Why not have a villain with real history cut off his hand instead of Tynion’s rip-off of a BTAS character. Not a good story. Plus, on the day Sony dropped its latest Spider-verse animated trailer, our next issue caption shows Bat-verse next issue. Be original DC. This is not good.

Or I could be wrong.

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This whole arc has been a real mixed bag. Some issues were good, others were not. This was a not. We finally meet the Mad Hatter and I get that the writer was going for creepy mad man, but the result was huh, this plan makes no sense.

That’s the problem with much of Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery. It madness all the way down, but to be an effective story telling device there has to be method and motive to the madness, otherwise it is just a gimmick. Hatter just collects serums and then invites people to his trap. Why? BTAS was great in giving villains motives for their madness. This issue not so much.

The trap is sprung and the Batgirls fight life-sized puppets of the Bat family. They are easily defeated but Steph is exposed To Manbat serum and converts. This is one of the serums Hatter collects. I guess his eBay-fu is strong. Cass goes after Steph and uses the power of friendship to calm her down. Babs shoots cure and it’s happiness all around. I get the point of this, to show Iove and trust and family, but I found it obvious and on the nose. A better example of this is Tombstone. Doc Holliday says he joins Wyatt Earp because Wyatt is his friend. The other guy says”I have lots of friends.” Doc says “I don’t.”

That is the whole explanation of one character’s motive. It is to the point and taken care of in four sentences. It says a lot in very few words, and is not obvious. Since the whole point of the book is the friendship between Cass and Steph, and to a certain point Babs, do more show and not tell. Subtext is not your enemy.

So overall, a mixed bag. Also, I hate it when one villain’s gimmick become public domain. Just a personal peeve.

Or I could be wrong. more

Zdarsky continues to pass off fan-fiction level wring as professional work.

This art is absolultey unacceptable quality for the flagship "Batman" title.

There is nothing wrong with this issue but I'm just not feeling it. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because this story arc feels like an Elseworlds tale. The Selina scenes are good, as are the Alfred scenes. But Harvey "HULK" Dent is not working for me. He Hulks out much more than Bane ever did on venom. Same for this version of Riddler. Targeting kids left me shaking my head.

I want Bruce back in "our" Gotham. Get him out of this weird universe that feels like it's going nowhere. more

Whatever. Reads like an Elseworld’s story, and if they return Alfred to the book using this off-world Alfred, I will be disappointed.

I still hold to the idea that Fitzmartin never had any intention of honoring the concept and legacy of Tim Drake but instead seems to have taken this as her cue to write whatever fantasy ideas she has of him. This isn't about "trying to live up to the images of other people." When given a character like this, it's about making them the best version of who you can while still honoring the roots set down. You may not follow every single branch that stemmed from their initial creation, but there still remains that steady trunk of who they are as a character, and she seems intent on cutting that down as well.

The most glaring problem with this issue, as many others have already pointed out, is the idea that Tim wanted to be Batman. That he felt himself being set up for taking over the mantle, that his role as Robin was to one day step into Batman's role. He has stated on so many occasions that this is not something he has ever wanted, even if at times, he has donned the cowl. But Tim's whole point, one could argue, was to be the Robin who wanted to be Robin. It wasn't about being a cool sidekick and then taking on the name of Batman when it was time. Tim saw who Batman was without a Robin, what the loss of Jason was doing to Bruce, and he understood the real role of Robin. He approached Bruce with that very notion. It was not Bruce being unable to be Batman without a Robin, but what Batman was becoming without one. Bruce was still more than capable of acting as Batman, but the legacy of Batman, what he represented was in jeopardy, and Tim understood this. At least, this has been my understanding of their dynamic. And this is also why Tim has held a certain fear of becoming Batman. Because he knows himself and he understands what being Batman might do to him, who he might become, and that is not something he wants for himself. He's always had a level of calculated "fearlessness" when pushed, and it's partly why the role of Batman has registered as something he does not want for himself.

Which makes this whole notion of Tim not understanding himself in this series something of a joke. Yes, he has insecurities, but he also has some very clear ideas of himself and, most importantly, things he does not want, including the role of Batman and why. This tells us Tim has had some sense of himself, that he hasn't been completely lost. So, I find this idea that Tim has no clue who he is and that he's only finding himself with the marina and Bernard really reductive. Sure, he might not have it all together and still find himself plagued by uncertainty, but to act like he has had no sense of who he is as a person is rather insulting. The real issue with him may actually be in coming to terms with some of this, and a big part of that has been (despite kind of being answered already in a previous series) what becomes of him after Robin. Not knowing yourself and coming to terms with what you want and how that fits into the world can be two very separate things. But that probably requires a level of subtlety and understanding Fitzmartin seems incapable of managing.

That has probably been the biggest plague of this series. Fitzmartin's ideas remain all over the place. Take Moriarty. First, he wants Tim to be his ideal nemesis, then he talks about Tim joining him, which implies that rather than Tim taking him on as his main villain, they're working together to create this farce of an idea of them being better than Batman and Joker. Work with me or die. The level of villainy marriage proposals here was absolutely absurd in its execution. Again, nothing was really added to this story and this potential relationship between villain and hero. Rather, Fitzmartin continues to rely on tropes that she doesn't bother to dress up at all, and so they continue to fall flat in their execution. She hasn't given us any background to build upon as to why Moriarty is so set on having his Joker moment. What's his motivation here? Is it simply to be the next Joker? He's clearly not doing a great job of that. Is he supposed to be the next A-tier villain of the Batman world? Because he reads like a D-list one at best. Is the idea then that we haven't seen him at his worst, given the notion Tim threw out there about how he didn't do anything more than play with alchemic creations?

Am I excited to see him again? No.

Moriarty suffers from the same thing the marina itself suffers, that Bernard suffers, that Darcy suffers. Absolutely no build-up, no backstory, nothing at all to make a reader understand why we should care about any of this. He, along with all the others, made convenient plot devices for a plot that wasn't fully fleshed out. The whole final battle is just a repeat of the one Tim had with the fake Robins. There was nothing new there. Into the marina water you go, Moriarty. I still don't know how he got tangled in all that rope. He clearly falls on top of and slightly in front of it, untangled, in one panel, and then Tim kicks the anchor off, and suddenly the rope is twisted all around him. Not how kicking an anchor would go aside from the one hand shown pushed into a loop based upon his previous positioning. Maybe I missed something there, but I've looked at those panels multiple times and none of it makes sense. I suspect it's the writing not making clear what was going on. It looks like there was a missing scene here or a failure to understand how that mechanic might work and what would be needed to execute it properly. Again, it seems more of a moment where Fitzmartin probably thought it would be cool and didn't care about the reality of writing it.

I was also bothered by the idea that Moriarty put out there that the role of Robin has been keeping Tim down. It again reminds me of a lot of the other backhanded comments made throughout this series as far as Tim's past goes and this idea of having to put down his previous life in order to prop up his new one. Tim has loved being Robin. I do agree about him finding his next role like Dick and Jason have done, but to imply that Robin is somehow detrimental to him felt like a cheap shot, especially given the history of why he chose to take on that role. He's accomplished a lot as Robin, which led to other things for him, all of which it seems Fitzmartin is ignoring here. Maybe a smaller complaint in this issue, and only one I have, but that moment grated on me a bit.

She also contradicts her own idea of Tim in this issue, where she tells us on one page he's felt like nothing has been in control in his life, and then follows it a little later by saying he wants to be less structured and less careful about things. He talks about the deaths he couldn't prevent, which is juxtaposed by the one he could with Bernard at the last second. Again, this idea of using his past to support the "idealness" of his current life. It fell flat. The way everything here is written to show that what he has now is the best for him while ignoring all the good he's had in his life with the Batfam just registers as a really sad and hollow attempt to make us care about this current situation when in reality the absolute failure of the writing and story itself to convey that is what's truly at fault. But instead of addressing those issues, we're constantly being told over and over that this life is Tim's best life without any of the story actually supporting it. But part of who Tim is as a character is his ability to calculate and weigh the situation and the outcomes. It's what makes him a great detective (which again he clearly has not been in this story so far when you have a villain basically hand-feeding him the answers to the problems - which also makes this idea of Tim being "unable" to say no to the puzzle really hilarious). This reminded me once more of how Fitzmartin seems to be telling us her intent to change his character to who she thinks he should be rather than working with who he is and all that makes him great.

Bernard also remains incredibly flat as a character despite a little more page time here. The way Tim used "my Bernard" on that first page felt really weird and strangely possessive to me when we still have no idea why he cares so much about this guy. He's never acted like this before with him, and now suddenly, here we are with this "my" thing and then he's still not even sure they're actually boyfriends until they declare it in the last scene. It felt forced and out of place. And by the time I got to that last scene, instead of finding it cute, I found myself rolling my eyes at it all. I still don't understand how Bernard got chosen as the main love interest here given his actual history in Tim's life, but Fitzmartin has given me nothing to want to overlook that part and embrace the Bernard we have right now.

And the same thing goes for the marina (and these people just lost their supposed landlord - which no one seems to question since it doesn't seem like anyone knew James was our big baddie here - so what's going to happen now with that when you've got this supposed gentrification plot waiting to happen?) and all the people in it. And then you have Detective Williams just showing up to a major fight and having no backup at the start, just him and Darcy (and yes, I know Fitzmartin has painted EVERY other cop here aside from Detective Willams as the worst of the worst but still, protocols and civilian protection have to amount to something I would think). You don't even see these supposed other cops, only a bunch of civilians cheering Tim on, which again keeps painting this picture of how it's Tim's ideal life and setting, and it's just him against this outside world, asking us to ignore everything good that had happened to Tim before he knew Bernard and the marina. I honestly don't find a single thing about this setup intriguing anymore.
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A really solid issue. Character drove action, and for the first time in a long time we actually see the relationship between Steph and her father defined. Cluemaster has Steph tied up and goes back to his game show origins.

For those s who don’t know, Cluemaster was an obscure 1960s villain who hosted a game show and became a criminal. Largely forgotten until Chuck Dixon revived him in the 1990s, his compulsion to leave clues was cured and he became a “straight” criminal. End of history lesson.

Anyway, Arthur tries to get Steph to admit her best qualities came from him and that Batman sucks. Cass shows up and Steph gets shot, but that Lazarus juice found last issue saves Steph. We also learn the stuff was a prototype stolen by Mad Hatter and tested on Arthur. He is arrested and Cass and Steph reaffirm their friendship.

We also get, or at least I, get the sense that Mad Hatter and Lazarus juice is on the menu for the future.

This was a tight, well-plotted issue that was driven by character and characters’ history. It built on what came last issue. So well done, all said and done.

What I didn’t like? The colors. Still too neon for my tastes.

But I could be wrong. Still a strong issue.

And I’m not wrong. more

This story line just isn’t for me. I don’t buy the premise, so no matter how well it’s done, I remain unmoved. We see Bruce learn a bit about this world, but we don’t see him be smart and do actual deep dive research. He acts on minimal information and tries to contact a guy who is known for resisting this world’s police state. He meets “Selina” and they tussle.

He fights more cops. In the other story, we see Tim doing actual work to get Bruce back. It involves Toyman tech. Bruce also sees this world’s Alfred and we learn this world’s Bruce gave away his money and the world wasn’t saved.

I get what the writer is doing - answering critics who say “if Bruce gave away his money, Gotham would be saved.” No it wouldn’t., zdarsky replies. Chris Sims has answered that observation well in the past. One, it’s boring to watch a man cut checks for 22 pages. Two, the world is setup to support Batman. Third, fixing problems over a period of years is nice but the Joker is poisoning the reservoir right now.

I mean I get the point of this arc, Bruce with no allies, money, equipment or even information. So won’t it be great when he kicks ass and takes names. Batman refined to his most essential core, without all the detritus of years of stuff weighing him down. I get that, but the problem with that story is that we’ve it in the past and it really requires very smart writing to carry out. Plotting is hard, and frankly, most comic writers aren’t up to the challenge.

This story isn’t for me, but your mileage may vary. Also I don’t like Selina’s dress. It looks like a 13 year old boy’s idea of “classy and sexy.”

Or I could be wrong. more