Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez taking over Batman after issue 125

[Frontier]

Alfred's death? August 2019.

Dang, feels like it was just a year ago.

[MajorHoy]

Dang, feels like it was just a year ago.

But it was during King's run on Batman, wasn't it?
A lot has happened since then, and that's been definitely more than a year ago.

[Triniking1234]

Can't believe Gotham got taken over 3 times since Alfred died.

[thwhtGuardian]

Can't believe Gotham got taken over 3 times since Alfred died.

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous at this point.

[Vordan]

After King’s very off-kilter take on BatCat it’s nice to have Zdarsky writing enjoyable interactions between the two again. Even if it is an Elseworld Selina.

Hm I wonder if this is Earth-46 as teased in the Big Bang One-shot?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

After King’s very off-kilter take on BatCat it’s nice to have Zdarsky writing enjoyable interactions between the two again. Even if it is an Elseworld Selina.

Hm I wonder if this is Earth-46 as teased in the Big Bang One-shot?

spoilers:

I doubt it as the issue states this world's Bruce was a social worker that died before Our Bruce appears. But maybe he was a different hero like the Gargoyle of Gotham teased in the Big Bang special?

end of spoilers

[Vishop]

I didn't like this issue only because I don't want this alt universe villain to be another version of Joker. He is always the big bad

[Iclifton]

Did not expect to like this issue but I really did. Not perfect but good.

[Mantis-Ray]

Can't believe Gotham got taken over 3 times since Alfred died.

There's a hilarity that they are trying to push the whole "Gotham doesn't need Batman" narrative when Gotham keeps getting assaulted by supervillain

Doesn't need Batman my ass

Also reading the issue, the question really is whether Halliday and Red Mask are the same person

[Iclifton]

I guarantee that the Red Mask is this universes version of Bruce.

Failsafe sent him to this universe to learn a lesson about going too far since he actually believed Bruce was a killer. However, thanks to his new programming, he could not outright kill Bruce.

A reoccurring theme in this run seems to be, Bruce at war with himself.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I guarantee that the Red Mask is this universes version of Bruce.

Failsafe sent him to this universe to learn a lesson about going too far since he actually believed Bruce was a killer. However, thanks to his new programming, he could not outright kill Bruce.

A reoccurring theme in this run seems to be, Bruce at war with himself.

that would be cool.

[dornwolf]

I quite like this run so far looking forward to more of it.

[Vishop]

I guarantee that the Red Mask is this universes version of Bruce.

Failsafe sent him to this universe to learn a lesson about going too far since he actually believed Bruce was a killer. However, thanks to his new programming, he could not outright kill Bruce.

A reoccurring theme in this run seems to be, Bruce at war with himself.

This theory actually sounds cool. Much better than another Dark Multiverse Batman. That stuff was bad

[Astralabius]

There's a hilarity that they are trying to push the whole "Gotham doesn't need Batman" narrative when Gotham keeps getting assaulted by supervillain

Doesn't need Batman my ass

Most of the recent takeovers only happened because someone had very personal beef with Batman though.

[thwhtGuardian]

Chip Zdarsky's Batman continues to be frustrating, his characterization of Bruce continues to be solid, I enjoy the mood and the story itself is decent...but the pacing continues to be horrid. A basic story of Batman fighting an Amazo he created and ending up losing and being sent to another world just shouldn't take this long to tell. The first half of the story took 6 issues and so far we're two issues into Bruce's trip into the alternate world and we're not very close to escaping it so I'm going to guess that the whole shebang will take 12 issues...which is just insane. At 5 bucks an issue that's 60 bucks for the story and for 60 bucks it has to be the best damn Batman comic ever and this just isn't. It's fun, but it doesn't feel like top ten best Batman stories of all time which is what I expect for that price point.

It's like cheese burgers, if I pay 5 bucks and get a quarter pounder from McDonalds then I'm not disappointed that it isn't the greatest burger of all time; for five bucks just being decent is still a good value and meets my expectations but if I pay 40 bucks for a burger and I get a quarter pounder from McDonalds I'm not going to be happy because at that price I'm expecting premium ingredients.

This isn't premium ingredients Batman, this is McDonalds Batman, and if the price was right I wouldn't have a problem with that as I still do get enjoyment from Batman meets bad guy, Batman gets beaten but then finds a hidden reserve and makes a miraculous counter attack against all odds even if it's a story I've read dozens of times. A four part story like that would be fun enough and worth 20 bucks but when you bump the price up from there the expectations change.