Jorge Jiménez

Chip Zdarsky took over Batman in 2022 with Jorge Jiménez, and opened by attacking the one thing the character depends on: his own preparation. Failsafe is the premise at its sharpest: a contingency Batman built against himself, working exactly as designed. The Gotham War then turns Bruce and Selina into opponents over whether Gotham's criminals can be rehabilitated. Zdarsky writes Batman as a man whose intelligence is the threat, which is a genuinely different angle after King's emotional register.

Batman by James Tynion IV, collected complete as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. James Tynion IV's Batman drops Gotham into a modern pressure cooker: new villains, old fears, corporate power, masked trauma and a city that keeps changing faster than Bruce Wayne can control it. With Jorge Jiménez giving the pages sleek velocity, this omnibus captures a Batman era built around escalation, from the aftermath of major upheaval to the arrival of threats that feel designed for a newer, more unstable Gotham. Batman by James Tynion IV Omnibus Vol. 2 continues the Gotham shake-up through Joker War fallout, Ghost-Maker, Clownhunter and Fear State pressure. The run asks whether Batman can still operate the way he used to when the city, his resources and his enemies have all changed shape.

James Tynion IV took over Batman after Tom King and immediately escalated: The Joker War is a full assault on Bruce Wayne's fortune, his allies and the city itself, drawn by Jorge Jiménez. Tynion's premise is simple and brutal: strip Batman of his money and see what remains. Having the crossover chapters from Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Catwoman in the same volume matters here, because the story is deliberately told across the whole Bat-family rather than in one title.

The second half of James Tynion IV's Batman, written after The Joker War and built around a Gotham where fear itself becomes municipal policy. Fear State is Tynion's best structural work: Scarecrow weaponising civic anxiety while Simon Saint sells Gotham a surveillance state as the cure. It also introduces Ghost-Maker and gives Peacekeeper-01 a genuinely nasty arc. Volume 2 is where the run stops reacting to The Joker and starts arguing about what policing Gotham should look like.

Batman by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus Vol. 2 continues the run that stranded Bruce Wayne on a Failsafe-ruined Gotham and kept raising the stakes from there. Zdarsky writes a Batman whose contingency plans keep turning into the threat, with art by Jorge Jimenez and others.

The second Snyder and Tynion omnibus takes the Justice League run to its conclusion, through the Year of the Villain and the rise of the Batman Who Laughs. The Batman Who Laughs stops being a crossover villain here and becomes the character DC built a whole line around: a Bruce Wayne infected by the Joker who is smarter than either. Hell Arisen is where he wins, briefly and completely, and it leads directly into Dark Nights: Death Metal.

Justice League by Scott Snyder Book Two Deluxe Edition continues the run as the Legion of Doom gains ground and the League has to consider whether the rules of reality can be rewritten in their favour. Jorge Jimenez handles most of the art.

Justice League by Scott Snyder Deluxe Edition Book Three closes the run, bringing the war between Justice and Doom to its conclusion and setting up Dark Nights: Death Metal. It is the payoff to everything Snyder had been building since Metal.