Random Happenstance

I mentioned a bit ago, not being real up on current Batman continuity. But, I had a random issue from two years back handy; let's see if that does anything. From 2023, Batman #136 (Legacy #901), "Dusk to Dawn" Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Belen Ortega.

I was trying to remember an issue, I want to say after "War Games," where Bruce takes a couple drinks, and everyone seems to think that was the worst thing in the world he could ever do; but if you drink every time he says "I'm fine" this issue, you will get more messed up! After a multiversal trip, Bruce gets a checkup from Mr. Terrific, and physically he's doing well; but emotionally? The wedding with Selina had recently fallen through, the Penguin was supposedly dead and that activated Batman's robot "Failsafe" against him, there was a multiverse full of Jokers out there, and Batman was losing time to his backup personality Zur En Arrh, who tells Bruce that Batman can't be weak. Batman gets back out into Gotham to intimidate the Penguin's kids, who were moving into illegal gambling there; then visits the incognito Selina at her favorite bagel shop. She had just broken out of jail, and Bats wishes she had let him use his lawyers to try and free her legally; but Selina is a bit more hands-on than that, and wanted a fresh start, not unlike the Penguin, who had faked his death for just that...Batman is stunned to hear that, since the Penguin's "death" had set Failsafe on him and his family. While he wishes they didn't have secrets from each other, Selina accurately points out they were both "all secrets," which prompts Bruce to admit he had just been in another universe's Gotham, where he fell for another universe's Selina, who betrayed him. That feels like a bit much, and Selina's less mad about that, then that Bruce has secrets even from himself.

After Selina leaves him in the rain, Batman gets an alarm message: someone was at Wayne Manor, where he didn't currently live. (And Alfred's still dead? Feels like that's lasted a spell.) He races there, expecting maybe the worst, since Zur En Arrh had built a backup Batcave under his; but instead finds the kids. All of them, from Dick down to Duke. They wanted to have breakfast with him, to see how he was: Bruce keeps it together, but inwardly is almost panicked, that he can't see what's coming next, he was blind as a bat...

Also this issue: "The Plans Below" Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Jorge Corona. Some time back, when Alfred was still alive and Batman much newer, Zur En Arrh takes over for a bit, to test the Failsafe robot. They seem to agree there were lines that Batman, as a concept, couldn't cross; but Failsafe also seems to have an existential dilemma: if Batman goes too far and it stops him, then what does it do? Zur En Arrh tells the robot to await further programming, then lets Bruce/Batman take over again, after telling him to "be better" than taking hits from random thugs.

Coming into this cold, it felt familiar? Possibly because some bits reference other stories: I'm not sure I read all of Grant Morrison's Zur En Arrh stuff, but Failsafe feels like a callback to Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel." That and as usual, Batman has support just about everyone else in the multiverse can only wish for: a cadre of sidekicks and tech support, contacts with the JSA and JLA and everyone else; and yet he still goes it alone, because he's Batman. Geez, even his backup personality seems to work with others better, come on. Also, although we only see his early form this issue, and the clock is running out for McFarlane's DC license, there's a Failsafe figure coming. Reading the bio there just made me more angry at Bruce and his overplanning.