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Batman is back with a vengeance and Bruce Wayne’s new public initiatives have Gotham on the verge of finally becoming a great city! Does that bright future include the Riddler, who’s seemingly gone legit? Or the new, unnerving hero, Commander Star? And can Gotham survive the shocking murder of one of its greatest citizens?The Dying City starts here with a case that only Batman can solve, but the answers may unravel his world and all of Gotham!

32 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2024

9 people are currently reading
35 people want to read

About the author

Chip Zdarsky

874 books862 followers
Chip Zdarsky is a Canadian comic book artist and journalist. He was born Steve Murray but is known by his fan base as Chip Zdarsky, and occasionally Todd Diamond. He writes and illustrates an advice column called Extremely Bad Advice for the Canadian national newspaper National Post's The Ampersand, their pop culture section's online edition. He is also the creator of Prison Funnies and Monster Cops.

Source: Wikipedia.

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5 stars
68 (32%)
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87 (41%)
3 stars
49 (23%)
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
7,055 reviews83 followers
October 11, 2024
Interesting beginning for that new plotline. I like it!
Profile Image for Garth.
1,163 reviews
November 12, 2024
2024 - Year of The Bat (366 Days of Batman)

Day 317: Good start to the final (?) arc with this team. Nice twist ending. But if I see another HN after Zdarsky leaves, I will blow a gasket.
Profile Image for yohana.
46 reviews2 followers
January 13, 2026
[ tendo que colocar a versão em inglês pois ainda não cadastraram a edição da Panini 😭]
Profile Image for Cybernex007.
2,164 reviews9 followers
November 14, 2024
Alright, so I am jumping into Batman at this dc all in starting point and wow there is a lot of baggage I feel guilty for not knowing about, but for the most part I feel like I can hit the ground running with the info presented here.

The city is actually moving into a better place, Wayne enterprises revitalized old Gotham. Affordable housing, social services, the works. Jim and Batman shared a cup of coffee on a roof while discussing it. Jim apparently has his own private detective agency now. And Gotham isn’t the only thing getting better…Nygma has his own company called nygmatech, and is at the forefront of cryptographic technology. Apparently he was released from blackgate after it was revealed he was experimented on. Was that part of a storyline I didn’t read before this or is that new info? But not everyone is on board with the new Nygma, especially Mayor Nakano. This is my first time meeting the mayor, but he definitely has baggage. Seems like he used to be part of the court of owls and they are still hounding him for assistance. He’s a bit fed up with it but he’s done what they have asked. Pushed their permits through and even installed Vandal Savage as the police commissioner. What the hell?? How does that happen!?

Nonetheless Bruce Wayne may be publicly supportive of Nygma but Batman is still keeping tabs on him. Which means scouring through all his code to check for Trojans, and giving a personal check of his new offices. Batman gave a once over of the server room and found that Nygma patented Mr Freeze tech as a cooling system, which is really cool. But the thing that still strikes Batman even with everything surface level looking legit is the look of malice that remains in Nygma’s eyes.

But not everything is so cheery in everyone else’s lives. The mayor’s wife is fed up with everything and is deciding to leave him. And Bruce has started to have protestors outside of his work…calling him a commie? Rowan is the woman who took over from Lucius once he stepped down, she explains that less supportive media are framing the cleanup as a handout for migrants, and that Wayne Enterprises is raking in tax breaks. Which means the tax payers are paying for it….you’ve got to be kidding me. But honestly this kind of storyline and media makes perfect sense and is so realistic for our day and age. Rowan tries to convince Bruce that they need to bolster their tech departments if they want to survive. Really she is trying to indirectly convince Bruce to acquire Nygmatech as she is working behind the scenes with Edward. And as Bruce is not playing ball, it seems they have a plan B.

Bruce abruptly left the convo with Rowan and made up an excuse as he saw a diamond heist on the news. But when he arrived to take on the fleeing goons there was another “hero” there to “help.” A hero by the name of commander star was already there and slashed through the getaway van. If Batman wasn’t there it would have trucked its way through a crowd of people. And then to “help” commander star decided to shoot the kneecaps off a goon running away. I’m honestly surprised Batman didn’t break the guys hand right there, but there were interrupted by “commissioner” Savage before he could. Of course savage has immediately taken to star, even if the Mayor is pissed and thinks that letting another armed vigilante run through the streets is a terrible idea. But for seemingly once Savage agrees, and decides to turn the police force against Batman. It seems that commander star is here to stay, Bruce should be very used to this situation.

This issue ends with Bruce meeting up with Leslie to fix his wounds. But his outlook on the future is not too good. Something is new and different and he hasn’t gotten a grasp on it yet. This flag guy wrapped himself up in an American flag and decided he was helping, this could lead to a lot of “excused” horrible behavior, and right when this city was becoming good. Bruce decides to walk home that night. He relents that his greatest fear is that Gotham won’t let him help and fix it and that things are working against him. At the end of this issue we see the mayor gets home only to look shocked and is immediately murdered. Bruce gets home and finds Rowan. Apparently a claim has been filed against his shares of the company, and she asks if he has a brother!? And Nygma ends rhetorical issue by giving a riddle:

“I am the end, I am mystery. When I arrive, you are history. What am I?”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Kastie Pavlik.
Author 6 books45 followers
December 20, 2024
Hn....Rounding up. I'm mixed here because I enjoyed most of the read and disliked a few parts. You can feel the hope or change in the early pages. It's like Gotham and her people can breathe and they want to breathe easy but, historically, this is the moment everything goes to shit. And so...the issue progresses and...things go to shit. A few notes:

Love seeing playboy Bruce back in the action. I'm so glad he got his money back (the one good thing that came from the Zur story).

Love the artist's nudge to Adam West's Batman during Batman's conversation with Nygma. 🤨🦇

Hn. 🤦‍♀️ WHY? For the love of God, just stop! Zdarsky has ruined the sound effect across the board, comics and manga.

I like the sleek, futuristic look to Nygma's building. The lighting made me stop and think about how many villains use purple and green. 🤔

The mayor is colder than Victor. Damn. Really feel for his wife. Didn't really care much about the end.



Commander Star? 🤢🤮 Didn't we get enough crappy new characters under Tynion? (Don't get me wrong, I like him - as long as he's not writing Batman.) Savage is on deck too quickly. Obviously there's a connection.

Commander Star. 🤦‍♀️ We already have Peacemaker. (Annoying.) And the online geek articles are likening this guy to Captain America? Captain America?? The guy who punched Hitler in the face on his first issue *during* WWII?? Especially given what I said I wouldn't open in my spoiler? 🙅‍♀️ No. Not like Capt A. Not by a looooong shot. More like antithesis in similar, over the top, dress.

Commander Star. The reason I dropped a star. The issue was rolling along smoothly until this. Now I'll stop.

Nice to be back in Wayne Industries again. I was curious to see if she had the same trust level as Lucius. I think it's safe to say, No.

I can't say this is enough to keep me from dropping Batman in the future. I think that if you read this, and read this, and read this, you see the same thing over and over, and while this does feel fresher, it's got the usual old tropes at the core. Gotham will be in crisis again. The villains will be villains. And, while the philanthropic initiatives worked in Blüdhaven, they'll likely fail in Gotham because Gotham just can't stand to be a hopeful place.
Profile Image for RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez.
Author 8 books32 followers
October 11, 2024
Tras unos cuantos arcos argumentales que "añadían" a esa reexploración del mito de Batman y el personaje de Bruce Wayne eventos Multiversales, una "Guerra por Gotham" contra Catwoman y parte de la Batfamilia, el "Año Uno" del Joker y, claro está, lo ligado a Absolute Power. Que daban mil revoluciones a la acción y emoción trepidante, pero que divagaban totalmente la propuesta de Chip Zdarsky. Ahora Zdarsky parece querer tomarse las cosas con más "calma". Asumiendo grandes cambios en Gotham City como es por fin el uso del patrimonio Wayne en grandes mejoras urbanísticas. La aparición de una nueva empresa tecnológica a cargo de... Edward Nygma. Y el momento más peliagudo de la alcaldía actual, teniendo que lidiar con la decisión de otorgar el comisionado a Vandal Savage y la irrupción de un nuevo justiciero enmascarado. Muy buenas líneas temáticas que pueden volver a reconducir esta cabecera en ese nuevo status para Bruce Wayne (aunque Zdarsky no puede evitar volver a proponer otro juego "retcon" como los que tanto prodigó en su etapa con Daredevil) y temo que volvamos a tener esta cabecera en un punto de odiar más que aclamar. También este nuevo "justiciero" puede que se presente de una forma menos propositiva por parte de Jorge Jiménez, quien parece aún "resacoso" de su trabajo reciente con Mark Millar. Más concretamente el retorno de NÉMESIS.


628 reviews1 follower
October 16, 2024
This was a good start for setting up the future of what's to come later on down the line. I think this is the best Bruce's voice has been from Zdarsky, and his moments in the book were compelling. Past that, a lot of different plot threads were being set up/pulled on all at once. Will this wrap up well, or feel like there is too much going on? Only time will tell.

I'm not sure how I feel about the page turner/hook at the end. It'd be nice to see something new and not built on referential material pulled from a previous Batman run.
Profile Image for Nathan.
117 reviews
October 6, 2024
The main Batman book had lost its way in recent issues, and then got mired in the Absolute Power tie-in storyline. This is back to it's best. Indeed a great jumping on point if you're new to the book. If you're a regular reader, guess we just have to let go what's gone before and go with it. In that mindset, this is excellent and very promising for the new storyline. Love the artwork.
Profile Image for Lukáš Kudela.
92 reviews2 followers
January 21, 2025
Could it be that Zdarsky’s Batman is finally getting good? 🤔
The first issue of the new story arc starts off really strong and leaves me eagerly anticipating the next one. I especially love the final pages, which drop hints about the presence of several villains. Will the main bad guy be one of them? All of them together? Or perhaps someone entirely new? We’ll see! I am hooked!
Profile Image for Nicolo.
3,508 reviews207 followers
June 21, 2025
The irony is not lost that on the launch of the All-In initiative, the Batman ongoing series offered the first chapter of Zdarsky's final arc on the title.

Based on this single issue, I thought that Zdarsky still had more than enough left in the tank for several arcs. But, if Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb wanted your book for their Hush sequel, you're going to have to make way.
369 reviews8 followers
November 28, 2024
"All-in" on the price tag I see. Now we have series with 22 pages of content sold $4.99.

Quick question: is Bruce Wayne rich again? I cannot remember what happened with his fortune, company etc.
Profile Image for Steven Shinder.
Author 5 books20 followers
June 20, 2025
Feels pretty absurd that a homeless person would turn down a shelter and call Bruce a "commie."
Profile Image for Rafael Alexandre.
37 reviews
January 16, 2026
3,8 por aí
hq bem simples mas parece ser uma boa run pra se ler, o plot do joe chil bem bacana tb
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews

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