Batman #125: Failsafe, Part One

[superboyprime]

"When DC approached me to write Batman, I immediately thought about things that could really challenge the character mentally, physically, and in terms of his relationships. Failsafe is his Doomsday." - Chip Zdarsky

Comments

[numeronone]

If there isn't one called Adele I may scream.

[john_drake1964]

"Here's Adelie, next to Magellan and Humbolt, then there's Rex, Imperia, Azure, Gentoo, Snare, Rocky and little Popper."

[dan_ingram]

...can we just have a few regular Batman stories?

No attempts as seismic shocks or what have you?

Just a thought

[john_drake1964]

Looking at the Big Two's output...

I think that ship has sailed, hit a rocky outcropping, and is taking on water.

It's all crises and big shockers and death and resurrection and crises and heroes vs heroes and status quo will never be the same and crises....

[sadoeuphemist]

?? What is the 'seismic shock' in this one? That the Penguin dies/fakes his own death? Batman's paranoia and obsessive preparation is now coming back to bite him in the ass? That he's going to have to fight a robot now? All seems fairly regular to me.

[dan_ingram]

Yet anothe Bat secret, Penguin's 'death' and what happens in the next issue

[sadoeuphemist]

If you have to say "yet another Bat secret", doesn't that imply that it's a regular thing now.

But seriously, at some point this just becomes part of his characterization, he is the obsessive paranoiac who keeps secrets that blow up in his face on occasion until he relearns to trust the people he works with, it's a boom and bust cycle with him, that's just who Batman is.

Also if you're going to say that a b-list villain 'dying' in a comic book story is enough to be a seismic shock, then I guess I don't know what a 'regular Batman story' is.

[dan_ingram]

A regular Batman story would be something that doesn't end in yet another upheaval.

Batman investigates a murder, fights and defeats a villain in a single issue, etc.

[beeyo]

I don't really have a problem with it. Chapters should be written in a way that makes us want to get to next one. The problem is when everything becomes a catalyst to some giant event. I think the last single issue Batman that didn't tie onto some new threat was...Iunno, Snyder's last issue?

I have faith in Zdarsky though.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

B-list?

C'mon, Penguin is iconic. He's gotta be at least an A-, at worst

[palgrave_goldenrod]

Nah, Penguin ain't B-list. I'd gamble that if you asked 100 random people to name five Batman villains off the top of their head, the Penguin would come up at least 95-99 times. He's constantly showing up in movies, TV shows and cartoons. He's A-list.

[donnblake]

So my guess is, Batman built a robot to stop him if he ever crossed the line, then erased his own memory of having built said robot, so that crossed-the-line Batman couldn't just deactivate it or whatever.

[beyondthefringe]

Can Batman design a robot so tough even Batman can't stop it?
Just wait until he realizes that he unconsciously designed it with a failsafe that even his subconscious didn't realize he was doing?
Batman gonna out-Batman Batman.
Though according to the last page of the newest issue, that may already be happening.

[blues32]

Brilliant and, in my opinion, spot on. It goes with the "itch in my brain" thing. I would guess that the only way to stop this robot is to bring Oswald back. Lazarus Pit, most likely. Not only would it revive him from death, his mercury poison would be gone. And I suspect he knows this.

[agharta75]

I thought he had Alfred to do that.

[donnblake]

Is the robot's Final Ultimate Attack just going to be playing a tape recording of Alfred's disapproving "Tsk," ? Too early to tell.

[blues32]

Alfred is still dead, I believe.

[mastermahan]

Sure, Oswald was born wealthy, but you can forgive him for forgetting that. He's looking so Danny DeVito he probably thinks he was raised by sewer penguins.

[donnblake]

Wealthy sewer penguins!

[john_drake1964]

Little known fact, the Cobblepot family fortune wasn't built from steel and old Mayor Theodore's, but in fact an army of tosher penguins.

But much like other jobs in history deemed too disreputable for open discussion among the well to do, it was caged as "civic engineering and management."

[zachbeacon]

Tragically they lost everything when Club Penguin closed.

[panthyr]

"Nom de plume"? Selina's a writer now?

[lucean]

Hmm, this might be reading between the lines, but the story might be setting up Bruce reclaiming the Wayne fortune at the end. Although it does seem to want to explore a bit more who Bruce Wayne is without that fortune behind him, so that is a positive as well.