Batman #125
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBatman #125 marks the start of Chip Zdarsky's tenure on DC's flagship Batman title, widely regarded as the cleanest creative jumping-on point for the series since its 2016 Rebirth relaunch. The issue introduces Failsafe — a Batman-themed artificial intelligence that activates in the abandoned original Batcave — a character whose debut immediately became the defining hook of Zdarsky's entire opening arc. The Penguin's calculated self-murder to frame Batman for his death restructures the moral landscape of Gotham in a single issue, setting the whole run's central tension in motion. The backup story simultaneously delivers the first appearance of the Executor, a robotic estate-manager figure whose arrival in the criminal underworld launches a parallel Catwoman storyline that threads through the arc.
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Writer Chip Zdarsky — coming off his critically acclaimed Daredevil run at Marvel — was announced as lead writer on Batman in February 2022, replacing Joshua Williamson, whose seven-issue Infinite Frontier run had wrapped. DC paired Zdarsky with returning series artist Jorge Jimenez, who had been the visual anchor of James Tynion IV's preceding run, a deliberate editorial choice to provide visual continuity across the creative changeover. The issue was released on July 5, 2022 as an oversized debut, with Zdarsky describing the 'Failsafe' arc in pre-publication interviews as 'Batman's Doomsday' — a non-stop action story designed to leave Bruce Wayne in a radically different emotional and narrative position. A Catwoman backup by Zdarsky and artist Belén Ortega — carried forward from her earlier Punchline backup work in the Joker series — was included to weave the criminal underworld subplot directly into the main story's continuity from issue one.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Failsafe, a Batman-protocol robot that activates in the original Batcave below Wayne Manor, kicking off Zdarsky's debut arc of the same name.
- First appearance of the Executor, a robotic arbiter who arrives to oversee Oswald Cobblepot's estate and hires Catwoman to locate ten hidden beneficiaries of Penguin's will.
- The Penguin stages his own death — poisoned by mercury and manipulating the scene — to frame Batman for murder, the inciting crime-world upheaval of the 'Failsafe' arc.
- Robin (Tim Drake) is shot in the neck during the Penguin investigation and hospitalized, an injury that weighs heavily on Bruce's psychology going forward in the run.
- The issue contains two distinct stories: the lead 'Failsafe, Part 1' by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez (colors by Tomeu Morey, letters by Clayton Cowles), and the backup 'Two Birds, One Throne, Part 1' by Zdarsky and Belén Ortega (colors by Luis Guerrero).
- The backup is set at and around the Iceberg Lounge immediately after Penguin's death, with Catwoman caught between Finbar Sullivan's power grab and the Yakuza faction of Eiko Hasigawa.
- A brief flashback page at the opening of the issue features Alfred Pennyworth in the original Batcave — presented as a past-tense bookend — foreshadowing the Failsafe device's eventual activation.
- The main story's continuity runs concurrently with Catwoman (Vol. 5) #45 and Batgirls #8, per DC Database chronology notes, while Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 retroactively places these events after the Dark Crisis.
Cast · 16 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Batman / Catwoman #12 (2022), Batman #1 (83) (2023), Batman #1 (2023), Batman #1 (2023), Batman #73 (2023), The Penguin #0 (2023), Batman #1 (2024), The Penguin #1 (2024), DC Premiere #2 (2025)
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