Chip Zdarsky

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: Urban Legends was an anthology series giving Gotham's supporting cast the space the monthly titles never had. The Red Hood serial is the reason this got attention: Zdarsky spends six chapters on Jason Todd finally processing his own death, and it is better than most of what the main titles were doing that year. The anthology format also means each story is complete, which makes it an easy book to dip into.

Batman by Chip Zdarsky, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. 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 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.

Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus Vol. 1 begins with Matt Murdock shattered after a violent mistake in Hell's Kitchen. Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto rebuild Daredevil through guilt, faith, law and Wilson Fisk's New York, while Elektra moves closer to the centre of the mythos.

The second Chip Zdarsky omnibus covers the end of his Daredevil run and Devil's Reign, the event in which Wilson Fisk uses the mayor's office to outlaw superheroes. Zdarsky's long game pays off here: Elektra takes over as Daredevil and is better at it, Matt runs a criminal fraternity from inside prison, and Devil's Reign turns a personal grudge into city-wide policy. Woman Without Fear is the best Elektra material in decades, and it is essential to the main run rather than a spin-off.

Chip Zdarsky's Spider-Man work is spread across Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Life Story, and it is built on the relationships rather than the villains. Zdarsky writes Spider-Man as a person with friends, which sounds obvious and almost nobody does. The Jameson issue in particular is one of the best single Spider-Man comics of the last decade, and the Osborn world arc lets him show what the character actually prevents.

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.