Bruce explains Failsafe to Aquaman in Batman #129 preview

In Batman #128, a gravely injured Bruce Wayne flees Gotham with Tim Drake-Robin and Clark Kent to save Superman's life... And he jumps out of their plane with instructions for Robin to take Clark to the Fortress of Solitude, then sinks into the ocean. Two weeks later, Bruce wakes up in Atlantis, and Arthur Curry informs him that Failsafe has claimed Gotham for his own.

This is the setup for Batman #129, which hits shelves November 1. Written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, Batman #129 shows how Failsafe rules over Gotham like a tyrant. And in a lettered preview from DC, he's still hunting Batman's allies.

After Batman created Zur-En-Arrh to take over if he ever lost his faculties or had his mind corrupted, Zur-En-Arrh then created Failsafe, which is designed to stop Batman if he ever kills someone. Although Bruce hasn't committed a murder, Failsafe came online because the Penguin framed him for murder and faked his own death, which was convincing enough to trigger the backup.

In the issues since, he's nearly destroyed every superhero in his path, which is how he was designed - but that makes things much harder for Batman, who has to defeat the AI if he wants to reclaim Gotham.

As seen in the pages below, Failsafe's Gotham is different from Batman's - and despite the Bat family's best attempts at resisting his rule, the robot is single-mindedly focused on wiping out Bruce's allies. In one panel, Failsafe enters what seems to be a secret location where Oracle has her fellow heroes stored in stasis tanks...

Check out the preview along with some unlettered first-look pages below, as well as covers by Jimenez, Gabriele Dell'Otto, Francesco Mattina, Simone Di Meo, Jock, and Ryan Benjamin.

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According to the solicitation text, Batman #129 may take Batman into space to get what he needs to defeat Failsafe. Meanwhile, the backup story drawn by Leonardo Romero will show the early days of Batman's relationship with Zur-En-Arrh.

Batman #129 will be available November 1.

This is a great time to check out all the new Batman comics, graphic novels, and collections from DC in 2022 (and 2023).

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Samantha Puc (she/they) is an editor at Newsarama and an avid comics fan. Their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., The Beat, The Mary Sue, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School.