Batman's New Villain Just Erased His Legacy in One Attack
In DC Comics' new Batman: Detective miniseries, the Dark Knight's entire crusade is being undone by new foes seeking to darkly balance the scales.
Warning! Spoilers for Batman: The Detective #1 ahead!
In DC Comics' new series Batman: The Detective, the Dark Knight has left Gotham behind, investigating a new and personal threat in Europe. New adversaries are targeting Batman, though they're not going after him directly. Instead, they're going after his legacy and crusade, looking to undo all of the good he's done. Apparently, this couldn't come at a worse time, as this version of Bruce Wayne has been struggling to see the overall efficacy of his lifelong mission as Batman.
In Batman: The Detective #1 from writer Tom Taylor with art by Andy Kubert, a Wayne Airlines flight is intentionally sabotaged, killing 146 people as a dark message for Batman. However, the Dark Knight does not yet know who's responsible for the attack, prompting him to travel to the scene of the crime in Europe, though his decision to leave Gotham is an easy one. This version of Batman apparently has no one and nothing keeping him there. As such, Batman travels overseas to the UK to get to the bottom of the attack on the plane, which was brought down by two assailants wearing white versions of the Dark Knight's own cowl, telling the plane's sole survivor (The Knight) that it was all about "equilibrium."
After scanning the crime scene with the new Squire and fighting off Gentlemen Ghost using special gloves courtesy of John Constantine, Batman goes to the hospital to gain more information from the Knight. However, more agents wearing white capes and cowls arrive, seeking to finish the job they started on the plane. After fighting them off and capturing one, Batman goes back to the hospital, confirming what he has already begun to suspect. The passengers on the flight were not coincidental, and they were all part of an intentional attack on Batman himself, hurting him in the worst way possible.
Tragically, every passenger on the Wayne Airlines flight was someone that Batman had directly saved at some point in the past, and his new adversaries clearly have a vendetta against him in a big way, right down to the way they're dressed. The synopsis for this series reveals that Batman's new foe will be going by the name Equilibrium, and that makes a whole lot of dark sense. They're wearing white to cancel out Batman's black, and they're killing all those he's saved, seemingly intent to render the Dark Knights' entire crusade as useless, thereby cancelling it out.
Batman clearly has a new drive and focus after this first issue, though it's unclear who Equilibrium actually is, why they're doing this, and how powerful they truly are. Clearly, they have quite a few connections and resources to orchestrate more than a hundred specific people to board the same plane at the same time, which means that Batman better be prepared for anything. However, Equilibrium has now lost the advantage of surprise. The Dark Knight knows they're out there, and he'll no doubt be coming for them with a vengeance in future issues from DC Comics, as there's no way Batman is just going to let all of the good his done be wiped out, even if he's struggling to see the impact he's caused.