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Batman Picks Up The Gun One More Time In Batman #129 (Spoilers)

Published Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:27:15 -0500

Last updated Thu, 03 Nov 2022 16:25:12 -0500

Batman does not carry a gun. After the death of his parents at the hands of a gunman, it has become quite a mantra. Not unless it's a grappling gun or flare gun. I mean, he has all manner of other weapons on his person, explosives, knives, sprays, gases, drones and more, but guns are a no no. The introduction of Robin in 1940, married to a story created pre-Robin but published afterwards in which Batman shoots monstrous giants saw Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth state that Batman could no longer kill or use a gun. Not now that he had a kid in tow.

While that editorial edict has remained in place, sometimes people just forget, or sometimes the use it to make a point, or show a different kind of Batman such as Thomas Wayne, or Robin such as Red Hood, who take a different approach. Sometimes it's a trick the creators use to pull on the reader, sometimes its a device to show that something has gone very, very wrong.

It was Final Crisis #6 that saw him pull a gun on Darkseid. A very special gun.

And he even fires it at his victim. And hits, a very palpable hit.

Only to be hit himself. And now, in today's Batman #129, he gets to pick up a gun…

… and use a very similar piece of New Gods technology on Failsafe.

And hits again. He is, if nothing else, a good shot.

Is this okay because it's a robot? If it's a living robot, it's only a reflection of his own hidden personality so it's more like suicide? And doing a little better than the Joker in the back-up story looking at the emergence of the Zur-En-Arrh personality, who finds these Jokerrangs or Smilerrangs not as effective as he might have liked… You know that Batman, when he emerges, may well exchange that flare gun for a real one, right?

How very David Mazzucchelli of him… and we all (now) know what comes next.

BATMAN #129 CVR A JORGE JIMENEZ
(W) Chip Zdarsky (A) Jorge Jimenez, Leonardo Romero (CA) Jorge Jimenez
Failsafe has countered every move Batman and the Justice League have attempted. Is the Dark Knight out of options on…Earth? The bestselling Failsafe arc continues! In the back-up, we travel back to the early years of the Dark Knight Detective, revisiting his most psychedelic/mind-breaking period and the dawn of his backup protection system…ZUR-EN-ARRH!
Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 11/1/2022

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