One of the things that has thus far been consistent in James Tynion IV‘s Batman run is that each new issue brings a new toy for the Dark Knight. Batman #86 saw a new vehicle with the Nightclimber while Batman #87 followed with another new ride for the hero, the Bat-Shot. Batman #88 mixed things up a bit by offering not a new vehicle, but a new gadget with The Echo, a device that lets Batman take over any car with Wayne Enterprises components and even make it appear to be the Batmobile, though that’s merely a hologram. This week, Batman #89 is offering another new gadget for Batman’s arsenal: the Batspawn.
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Spoilers for this week’s Batman #89 below.
In Batman #89, Batman makes his way to the Riddler’s hideout, as it were, only to find the Riddler isn’t there. Instead, Batman is able to access Riddler’s security feed and discovers that he’s making gestures behind his back while talking a mysterious figure that is a sequence of numbers. It lets Batman know that Riddler went with the man and after he’s able to gain control of Riddler’s system, there’s another bit of information available as well: Deathstroke’s location. As Deathstroke is clearly not someone they want running loose in the city, Batman asks Lucius to deploy the drone system, and Lucius corrects him; the system’s real name is the Batspawn.
That’s right, Batman now has a whole fleet of drones that can be deployed. In the issue they are sent out after Deathstroke, though readers don’t really see quite what the Batspawn drones do — the action of the issue cuts away to a confrontation between Batman and Catwoman where she begins to reveal what she knows about the situation —
but it’s implied that the Batspawn drones could do more than just give chase. Batman does say that he wants them deployed to slow Deathstroke down after all. It will be interesting to see if we get to see more of this new gadget in action, too. So far, we’ve not really seen much more of the other new additions to Batman’s arsenal.
Batman #88 is written by James Tynion IV, drawn by Guillem March, Carlo Pagulayan, and Danny Miki, colored by Tomeu Morey, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, and you can find the official description below.
“Batman must stop Deathstroke from killing the mayor of Gotham City! But to do so he has to figure out who ordered the hit in the first place. If his four main suspects aren’t ‘fessing up to the crime, then is there someone even more sinister lurking in the shadows waiting to deliver the coup de grâce? Whoever it is, one victim will fall under their attack!”
Batman #89 is available now.