Originally published on Patreon
The new issue of Batman begins with a flashback to one of the more infamous stories from JLA, 'The Tower of Babel', where Batman's contingency plans to eliminate every member of the Justice League get stolen and used against them. Superman asks him what contingency there is for Batman, what could ever take him down. And this really solidifies what this arc is about (and gets further explanation later on), the thing Batman created to eliminate him if it was ever needed.
I honestly love this idea, and the fact that Failsafe was designed and built by the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, a special hidden personality within Bruce's psyche, and therefore Batman knows nothing about it is a fun conceit. Batman would absolutely have to have no idea about Failsafe, or how to take it out, for it to work. Plus, it's a fun excuse to give us more Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.
Speaking of, we get a much better look at his costume in this issue, and we see that it's not built out of rags like the previous time we saw it, but is a proper, armoured suit. It maintains all of the colours and the general look of the original suit, but gives it a modern twist. It's very cool, and is a great way of not only bringing the look up-to-date, but to make this appearance of it stand out.
A lot of the issue is given over to Batman and Tim trying to fight Failsafe inside the Batcave and Wayne Manor, and despite their every effort there seems to be nothing that they can do to slow it down, let alone stop it. We see how deadly it is back in Gotham, where several members of the Bat-Family are being loaded into ambulances from their fight with him before.
The final pages of the issue manage to up the ante even more, as the Bats bring in one of the heaviest of hitters to help stop Failsafe. It's going to be interesting to see how super powered heroes fare against this thing, as I wouldn't have put it past the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh to include the possibility of Batman calling in allies when he created Failsafe, and included take-downs for them too.
The back-up feature brings the Catwoman story to a close in a surprising way. We travel to Metropolis and meet an older man who runs a small florist. He grabs a muffin and coffee for breakfast, chatting to the staff and being friendly, before heading to his flower shop where he finds Catwoman waiting for him. Because he's the Penguin.
Yep, turns out Oswald faked his death, got some plastic surgery, and is retiring for a regular life in another city because he just wanted out of the game. He framed Batman for his murder as one last parting gift on his way out, but it turns out it's not really part of some sinister scheme; and he never wanted his children to kill each other to get his money.
It's kind of a nice send-off to the character, and if this ended up being the last time we ever saw him I'd be really okay with that. Sometimes characters start to get a bit stale, they need to reinvent themselves, or sometimes just bow out; and that's what Penguin is doing here. We'll just have to wait to see if it sticks.
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