Warning: contains spoilers for Batman: Off-World #1!There are few people on Earth who have trained their bodies to the point of perfection like Batman. He has traveled all over the world and learned from the best of the best, purely so he can fight crime in every imaginable scenario. He’s learned everything he can about human pressure points, how to design and deploy unheard-of weapons and gadgets, and much more. Unfortunately, Batman just realized that all of these skills are completely worthless when he’s taken off-planet and forced to fight in outer space for the first time in his career.
Batman will find himself completely out of his depth in the upcoming Batman: Off-World #1 by Jason Aaron, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron, and Troy Peteri. This story sees a Batman still fairly early in his career, unexpectedly transported into space.
The concept of the comic is that this is the first time Batman has encountered aliens, and he’s completely caught off guard by them. Bruce spent decades training to be a martial artist on Earth. Fighting in space with different gravity causes Bruce to realize none of his skills are working right.
Batman Doesn’t Know How to Fight in Space
Bruce Had to Develop His Skills to Combat Alien Enemies
Batman is one of the most well-trained fighters on the planet, but his original skill set was built on flawed assumptions. Bruce spent years studying to protect Gotham, but then quickly expanded the scope of his mission beyond his home city, and even his home planet. In his early days as Batman, Bruce really only dealt with low-level criminals. The more monstrous members of his rogues gallery, like Clayface and Killer Croc, didn’t show up until much later. Batman eventually upgraded his methods to allow him to adjust to an entire world of the unexpected, but Batman: Off-World depicts a point in his career where he can be immediately and totally thrown off.
Suddenly being thrust into a situation where Batman isn’t used to the gravity or the enemies he’s fighting has completely removed the advantage that Bruce would normally have. Even psychological advantages like the use of fear that Batman has relied on are completely out the window when he’s faced with aliens who don’t even know what a bat is. Batman: Off-World begins with the fascinating promise of a Batman who has to essentially learn a new set of skills, rather than being the uber-competent hero he is in the modern day.
Batman Is Being Challenged to Evolve
Off-World Tells the Story of the Dark Knight Growing Beyond Gotham
Batman: Off-World promises to answer the question of what happens to the world’s most prepared man when he’s put into a situation he never even imagined. Batman thrives fighting enemies that have easily exploitable, predefined weaknesses, so when he’s suddenly forced to fight a bunch of aliens in conditions where his weapons and training don’t apply, it’s an amazing test of the core of Bruce’s willpower and skill. Batman has a reputation for being able to instantly react to any threat, and Off-World is showing fans where that started.
Batman: Off-World #1 is on sale from DC Comics November 21!
