Bruce Wayne is home, but he isn’t home. He’s in Gotham City. He just isn’t in the Gotham City he knows. It’s a parallel dimension. A world where Bruce Wayne is dead, and Batman never existed. He’s in a place he knows, but it doesn’t know him. And things are going to get worse for him in Batman #132. Writer Chip Zdarsky shepherds “The Bat-Man of Gotham” storyline through its second part with the aid of penciler Mike Hawthorne, inker Adriano Di Benedetto, and colorist Tomeu Morey. The fish-out-of-water idea continues to be interesting enough in its second chapter.

It’s a dark place. The police roam the streets, enhanced by venom that gives a whole new dimension to the concept of police brutality. Bruce Wayne wants to help people out, but it will be a bit of a challenge without his wealth, his costume, or his usual arsenal. He needs to infiltrate power. The good news is that he’s had a lot of experience being rich. All he needs to get to work is a fake ID and a false identity. Sheer resourcefulness and keen perceptions should carry him the rest of the way.

Without the usual trappings of a Batman story, it’s just...Bruce Wayne. There is enough that is familiar about Zdarsky’s story that it feels like...half of a Batman story. It’s like a nightmare Bruce might have had at some point--a darker Gotham in which he’s more or less powerless. It’s a clever idea for a story that Zdarsky is doing a pretty good job of bringing across. It just doesn’t look like Batman, which is sort of a problem. The biggest challenge that Zdarsky has set up for himself is making Batman seem like Batman without the mask...and he’s not quite pulling it off in a parallel dimension. 

There’s also the fact that...without the mask, Bruce Wayne kind of looks like...Frank Castle. Honestly...one could take away all of the dialogue and captions and replace them with references to a dark Marvel Manhattan, and the issue would be like a satisfying Punisher story. The art team renders a really slick look with gorgeously powerful coloring by Morey that brings together a very impressive feel to the page. It may not feel like Batman, but it feels good. 

It’s a fun experiment. Make Wayne the center of a story in familiar territory that couldn’t be any more alien to him and see what happens. Zdarsky still hasn’t found quite the right way to deliver it that would make it a distinctly Batman-like story. A big part of the problem lies in the fact that...so much of what makes Batman distinct is actually pretty superficial. Take away the distinct look and feel of things, and it doesn’t feel like something distinctly Gotham. There IS a way to make this type of experiment work, though. There must be. Zdarsky just hasn’t found it yet.

Grade: C