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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, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. The issue shows how Failsafe rules over Gotham like a tyrant, while Batman formulates a plan to take back the city and defeat Failsafe once and for all.
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.
As revealed in Batman #129, Alfred was responsible for keeping Failsafe dormant during false alarms like this one, but now that Alfred is gone and no one else knew about Failsafe until it had come online, there was no way of stopping it.
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. He even has Barbara Gordon hooked up to monitors so she can report on what Bruce's allies are doing in Gotham, and whether Bruce has attempted to come back.
The rest of the Bat family is stored in what seem to be stasis tanks around Oracle, and each time Failsafe runs through what he sees as possible futures, he torments the heroes by insisting Batman won't come back for them - only for Gotham.
Eventually, Failsafe notes that Aquaman hasn't once tried to come help Gotham - so Failsafe heads to Atlantis, correctly assuming that Bruce is in hiding there. He wounds Arthur Curry, which pushes the Atlanteans to give up Bruce's location despite Aquaman's orders not to tell Failsafe anything. But by the time Failsafe gets to where Bruce was last seen, he's already gone - to space.
Failsafe and Bruce duke it out at the Justice League Watchtower, and Bruce does something rare - he uses a gun to blast through Failsafe's outer shell in the hopes of weakening it. The gun is energy-based, and it seems like it will work, but it isn't enough to take Failsafe down.
Still, Bruce manages to transport Failsafe to the Hall of Justice, which should buy him some time to get back to Gotham. Unfortunately, during their space fight, Failsafe destroys any means of escape for Batman... which leaves him in super cold weather with just his suit, and it isn't equipped for space flight on its own.
With just one issue left in the Failsafe arc, writer Zdarsky and artist Jimenez will need to resolve Superman's injuries, Batman's apparent fall to Earth, what happens to Gotham, and how the rest of the Bat family and Justice League survive their injuries and torments.
Batman #129 is available now.
This is a great time to check out all the new Batman comics, graphic novels, and collections from DC in 2022 (and 2023).
