Originally published on Patreon
Bruce Wayne has been displaced in the multiverse, finding himself on a strange world where Gotham is under the rule of tyrannical police fuelled by venom, under the command of a mysterious figure in a red mask.
Having found shelter with the downtrodden of Gotham, Bruce has decided that he'll do what he can to help them whilst looking for a way to get back to his own Earth. Bruce decides that he needs to infiltrate a swanky Gotham party in order to achieve his goals, and uses his experience of pretending to be a playboy billionaire to get his way inside.
Unfortunately, his disguise isn't the best, and several people recognise Bruce Wayne wearing a stick on moustache. One of these is this worlds version of Selina Kyle, who has her sights set on taking Bruce prisoner. Forced to fight his way out of the building, taking on Catwoman, a vemon powered Punchline, and Killer Croc, Bruce is left injured and broken. It's then that he decides he's going to have to employ the same tactics he uses on his own world; and decides that this universe needs Batman.
It's interesting to get further insight into this worlds version of Gotham and it's rogues. This world isn't one of the wildest that we've seen in the DC multiverse, and its closeness to the Gotham we know makes it more interesting. This isn't a world where genders have been flipped, or vampires are taking over, instead, it's only slightly removed from what we know. As such, you're looking for the tiny details that led to this strange world instead of the huge differences; things such as Bruce Wayne giving his fortune away to help the people of Gotham and becoming a social worker.
It's going to be interesting to see how much of this Zdarsky explores, though it seems like the inclusion of Alfred might be setting up for him and Bruce to have a talk that could lead to us learning a lot. I also think that we can probably expect another Batman suit coming soon too. Zdarsky has already given us a new version of the Zur-En-Arrh Batman (which was great), and with Bruce having no resources or equipment it's highly likely that the Batman persona he's going to employ on this new Earth is going to have a look an design that will make it stand out.
The back-up feature gets things moving for Tim Drake, as this time he's not just willing to sit around waiting for Bruce to find his way home like he did the last time. Calling Mr Terrific for help, Tim devises a plan to follow the multiversal signature of the weapon Failsafe used to try and rescue Bruce himself. I actually really like this decision. When this back-up first started I was worried that we might be rehashing what happened when Bruce was sent back in time, but the proactive approach stops this from becoming the same story all over again.
This proved to be an interesting part of the story, and it definitely feels like something is happening now after the previous issue. Whilst the story has been decent enough up to now this is the first time that it's felt really interesting. I'm hoping that Zdarsky decides to have some fun with this other world and goes as strange and weird as he can. It seems to be off to a good start, and the small teases we've had have been fun so far.
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