I’m sure I’ll think of examples later¹, but reading Chip Zdarsky’s Batman Vol. 4: Dark Prisons, I feel certain there’s a genre of collections like this — extra-long and leading into and out of the event crossover of the day. Those are great; the real continuity-tied, “I know this is happening between these issues” kind of book that signaled, way back when, collections arriving as viable of a way to follow the DC Universe as their floppy counterparts.

My general enjoyment aside, Dark Prisons' rise and fall demonstrates the vagaries of shared-universe living. “Dark Prisons” proper, largely drawn by Jorge Jimenez, is a big inflection point for Zdarksky’s Batman run, one that for me went a long way toward redeeming Zdarsky’s run and also resetting some of Batman’s status quo in delightfully surprising manner. The Absolute Power tie-in issues, however, drawn less effectively by Mike Hawthorne, are just action filler, with far less plot than pages. And so it is; like many writers, when doing his own thing Zdarsky shines, and when pulled into others' stories, not so much.

Still, the first part gives us plenty to chew on, and Zdarsky’s delightfully weird “Dark Prisons” epilogue can’t be missed. If this volume doubles down further on regurgitating old stories for new, there is plenty of joy seeing the past recombined in new ways.

[Review contains spoilers]

With the seeming conclusion of Zdarsky’s Zur-En-Arrh, some themes or at least intentions finally emerge. I hadn’t liked Zdarsky’s returning Batman to his 1990s-2000s “I don’t need anyone” portrayals (even if under Zur’s control); here, Zdarsky suggests that attitude, both now and in the earlier decades, was Zur-influenced, and that now that Zur is fully eradicated, Batman ought never be influenced to act that way ever, ever again.

I don’t think this needed to be relitigated and re-solved; in part it feels Zdarsky’s having his say in a conversation that ended some time ago. But still, Zdarsky’s invented conspiracy is delightful, from the Joker’s increased violence over the years (including against Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd) as a way to draw the Zur personality out, to the Joker’s discovery of the Failsafe robot between the pages of Scott Snyder’s Batman: Death of the Family and Batman: Endgame and then his influencing the Penguin’s “death” in Zdarsky’s Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe to kick this whole thing off — with a nod along the way to Grant Morrison’s Batman: RIP and Tom King’s Batman: City of Bane. It has never felt like there’s quite enough of Zdarsky’s own work here, but I assuredly respect tying together some 30 years of stories under a new lens.

Even in nice Batman vs. mean Batman, Dark Prisons feels a bit Knightsend-esque. But I felt Zdarsky’s Zur conclusion triumphed over his (no slouch) Batman: Failsafe in that this one was more political (the rise of Commissioner Savage), wide-ranging (the big Joker/Punchline and Harley Quinn set pieces), and had a Bat-family team-up climax that’s probably one for the ages. And that’s all before Zdarsky’s absurd, beautiful, where-else-could-you-find-this epilogue, 30 pages of Bruce nursing his own dying clone, which results not only in the reinstatement of the Wayne fortune, gone since James Tynion’s Batman: Joker War, but also Bruce being gifted his own clone’s severed hand to replace his own(!), lost in Zdarsky’s Batman Vol. 2: The Bat-Man of Gotham.

All of that suggests good things going into the Absolute Power tie-in issues — Zdarsky’s Failsafe being a major player in the event, plus Batman and Catwoman on a heist vs. Bizarro and the Suicide Squad. But from the first 10-pager, in which Batman tries and fails to save Cyborg from Amanda Waller and that’s it, there’s a sense the air’s gone out. Zdarsky spends three dialogue-heavy pages on a disguised Batman tricking a general to take him to a secret base that Catwoman discovers otherwise; I’m not sure Zdarsky’s Bizarro speaks logically even for Bizarro; and Hawthorne’s art generally lacks detail, between the rictus faces and strangely grinning Darkseid in cameo. It all lacks the dynamism of what preceded it.

Omitted is the main story from Batman #150, which hopefully we’ll see in Zdarsky’s fifth and final volume, but included are two Absolute Power-themed backup stories, Harley Quinn by Tini Howard and Birds of Prey by Kelly Thompson. I’m pleased to see each property’s series writer penning their story (though unsure why both of these ended up in Batman comics). Howard’s Harley is the better of the two, basically Harley giving the Riddler a thumping (out of step with Zdarsky’s main) and with noir-ish art by Marianna Ignazzi (eager for her All In Catwoman). The Birds of Prey has beautiful photorealistic art by Mattia De Iulis and serves as a sequel to Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Megadeath, but it’s mostly recapping that book and Absolute Power in a way unconsequential. DC ought include it at the head of the Birds of Prey Vol. 3 collection.

My sense is Chip Zdarsky’s Batman hasn’t resonated so much among the fandom, though Batman Vol. 4: Dark Prisons makes a good argument for itself and the run overall. There’s just one volume left — gosh, before “H2SH”! — and I’m interested to see if Zdarsky can stick the landing.

[Includes original and variant covers]