DC Comics and Batman #131 Spoilers and Review follows.
Risks Of Unplanned Multiverse Travel During Dawn Of DC Era! Demythifying The New Bat-Man?!
BATMAN #131
Written by CHIP ZDARSKY
Art by MIKE HAWTHORNE and ADRIANO DI BENEDETTO
Cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
Backup art by MIGUEL MENDONÇA
Variant covers by JOE QUESADA, STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU, and JASON FABOK
1:25 variant cover by DAVID NAKAYAMA
1:50 foil variant cover by STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU
1:100 B&W variant cover by JOE QUESADA
$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 1/3/23Gotham City has never been darker or deadlier. And after Failsafe, there is no Batman to save it. Can the fractured ghost that roams the streets survive? Whatever happened to the man known as…Bruce Wayne?
In addition the main cover, solicitation and creators credit page above the title has a few variant covers below.
What’s The Deal With Bat-Man vs. Batman?
This new arc, kicking off 2023 for Batman, is called the Bat-Man of Gotham.
Well, Batman was originally called Bat-Man inside Detective Comics when he first debuted in Detective Comics #27 with a May 1939 cover date, but the cover had the non hyphenated nom de guerre of Batman.
Detective Comics #28 with a June 1939 cover date had the same cover vs. interior split on the spelling of Batman.
As did Detective Comics #29 with a cover date of July 1939.
However, Detective Comics #30 with a cover date of August 1939, both cover and interior referred to Bruce Wayne’s super-hero persona as Batman with the interior logo having the Bat and Man part of the nom de guerre broken up by Batman’s head in the classic cowl.
Batman #131 Spoilers and Review.
The book opens on an alternate Earth with Batman injured, but remembering it was his rogue creation Failsafe that sent him here.
Batman is met by a skeleton smoking a bubble pipe who purports to be Jim Gordon.
It appears that in the new Dawn of DC era one needs to be acclimatized to the new Earth one is traveling to which Failsafe did not do for Batman.
As a result, Batman believes he’s dealing with multiverse poisoning to explain why Jim Gordon looks the way he looks.
This is also a world where Harvey Dent is not Two-Face, but Judge Dent who hunts who he believes are criminals.
A Harvey Dent fueled by Bane’s Venom super steroid.
A Harvey Dent partnered with Firefly?!
Well, Batman gets an assist too, but from a kid who throws daggers at and into Dent’s face.
Looks like Jim Gordan may or may not be real, but in Batman’s head as the kid ends up driving and we haven’t seen anyone beyond interact with skeletal Gordan.
We then meet this world’s Selina Kyle who is told by someone called Red Mask that Bruce Wayne is actually alive and is now her top prioity.
The book ends with Batman in an apartment with his new kid ally, skeletal Gordan and the realization that Failsafe sent him to this world as a gift to its creator.
A world without a Batman for a Gotham City that needs one.
That back-up story features Robin, Tim Drake, allied with Superman, Jon Kent, dealing with Toyman, but knowing that Batman is missing and not dead during the Dawn of DC kick-off.
The Pulse.
A fun issue that is quite entertaining as Batman is a very new environment. Decent art. 8 out of 10.
