Batman by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus, Vol. 1

Batman by Chip Zdarsky #1-2

by Chip Zdarsky, Josh Adams (Illustrator), Belén Ortega (Illustrator)

A bold new era begins as Batman faces his greatest fears, darkest futures, and deadliest rivals, all while Gotham burns around him.

Eisner Award-winning writer Chip Zdarsky launches an epic, character-defining run that pushes the Dark Knight to his breaking point and beyond. From the emergence of the terrifying Failsafe protocol to a bleak alternate Gotham with no Batman, Bruce Wayne is tested in body, mind, and soul. As the Gotham War erupts between Batman and Catwoman and Red Hood walks a dangerous line, alliances fracture, and the future of the city hangs in the balance. With artwork by superstar artists Jorge Jiménez, Mike Hawthorne, and more, this omnibus collects the explosive beginning of Zdarsky’s acclaimed tenure and redefines what it means to be the Bat.

Collects Batman #125-138, Catwoman #57-58, Batman: Urban Legends #1-6, Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Battle Lines #1, Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Scorched Earth #1, and Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Red Hood #1-2.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels

960 pages, Hardcover

Published April 28, 2026

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Arda Yildiz]

Batman by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus Vol. 1 — 3/5

I came out of this omnibus pretty disappointed.

The frustrating part is that there are things in here I genuinely like. The artwork is consistently strong, Batman looks appropriately dark and intimidating, and The Knight is still a good story for the most part.

But when I look at the omnibus as a whole, The Knight is doing an absurd amount of heavy lifting.

Starting with Urban Legends: I liked the Batman and Red Hood material.

Their dynamic is easily the most interesting thing about that story, and whenever the focus is on Jason and Bruce, the book becomes noticeably better.

The problem is that the actual plot is just… there.

The villains aren't memorable, there isn't a particularly interesting twist, and the whole concept surrounding the drug and its effects feels like something I've seen in fiction countless times before.

It's not terrible, but it also never gives me a reason to remember it.

It's basically the definition of mediocre to me.

Readable, occasionally interesting, visually strong — and then you move on.

Urban Legends: 3.5/5

Then there's The Knight, which I had already read before buying this omnibus.

In hindsight, that actually made me slightly regret buying the book, because The Knight takes up such a large portion of it and I had already read the part I enjoyed the most.

I still stand by my previous opinion of it: the first 60–70% is really good.

Watching Bruce travel around the world, learning different skills and slowly becoming the person who can eventually become Batman is exactly the kind of early-Bruce material I enjoy.
It feels like there's purpose behind the journey.

Unfortunately, the final third or quarter loses me quite a bit.
It becomes less interesting and, honestly, kind of boring.
Still, compared to everything else in this omnibus, The Knight absolutely carries it.

And then we get to Failsafe.

I really didn't like Failsafe.

The opening portion in Gotham was actually decent.

The premise initially creates some tension, the artwork is great, and seeing Batman dealing with a threat specifically designed to counter him sounds like something that should work.

But the longer it goes on, the less interested I became.
The basic concept itself already feels overused to me.

“Batman created something that can stop Batman in case Batman goes too far” isn't exactly a fresh idea anymore, and I don't think this story adds enough to that premise to make it feel new.

Then the story just keeps adding things.
The Catwoman material didn't interest me.
The Toyman section felt weirdly out of place.
The alternate-Gotham / multiverse material did absolutely nothing for me.

Eventually it starts feeling less like one focused Batman story and more like a collection of ideas thrown into the same arc because someone thought they sounded cool.

There are moments I liked.

The sequence where Batman moves through different Batman realities and the artwork changes with each universe is genuinely great visually.

That's probably one of my favorite parts of the entire Failsafe storyline.

But even there, the actual idea itself isn't something especially groundbreaking anymore.

Marvel has played with that kind of multiverse storytelling countless times, so the execution has to really carry it.

Visually, it does.

Story-wise, not so much.

My biggest issue is probably everything surrounding Zur-En-Arrh and Batman's subconscious.

The story clearly wants this to feel psychologically interesting and deeper than just “evil backup Batman,” but for me it never gets there.

I don't find Zur particularly intelligent.
I don't find him compelling.
I don't find the twist especially clever.

And I definitely didn't find the conflict deep enough to justify how much importance the story gives it.

At some point, I realized I wasn't even properly reading every page anymore.

I was skimming through the final stretch because I simply wasn't having fun.

That's never a good sign.

I also wasn't a fan of many of the smaller backup stories.

I don't inherently dislike backups.

In fact, I think Detective Comics has shown how well they can work when they focus on a specific character or villain and actually add something meaningful to the larger run.

A short Harvey Dent story.
A Mr. Freeze story.
A smaller character-focused chapter that deepens the world.

That works for me.

Here, many of the extra stories just felt forced and disconnected from what I actually cared about.

So overall, this omnibus is in a weird position for me.

The artwork is consistently very good.

The Knight is a strong story for most of its run.

Urban Legends is fine.

But Failsafe, which should be one of the major selling points of the book, completely lost me.

And because The Knight is something I had already read before buying this, the omnibus ended up feeling even more disappointing.

If you love Failsafe and haven't read The Knight yet, I can absolutely see this being much more enjoyable.

For me, though, The Knight is basically carrying the entire thing.

3/5

And even that feels slightly generous.

If I rated it purely based on how much I enjoyed the omnibus as a whole, I'd probably be closer to 2.7/5.

Great art, one genuinely good major story, one aggressively mediocre story, and one major arc that I simply couldn't wait to finish.

[Alec Peterson]

Fine, but not great. This collection features far too much original story for my liking. My frustration is that while I understand a writer’s impulse to tackle “their Batman origin” inevitably the origin ends up being either too world breaking or too similar to others. In general, too much of this collection feels like reheated nachos of other Batman runs. This probably hits a lot better if this is your first real interaction with a Batman run. For me, the multiverse story and “Red Mask” were the more interesting parts, but even then the comic ends with a universe-hopping montage that feels lifted from the terrible Flash movie (which also came out in 2023, so likely intentional). Not the best Batman story but not the worst, firmly middle of the pack.

[Cristopher Monteza]

Pretty fire, haven’t read comics since binge reading the entirety of Invincible during quarantine times!