Batman of Zur En Arrh: The Dark Knight’s Alternate Personality Explained

In a surprise move, recent issues of DC’s Batmanhave brought back Bruce Wayne’s alternate personality known as the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Originally a creation of the Silver Age as an extraterrestrial version of the Dark Knight, Zur-En-Arrh was reworked as a new concept in the modern era, existing as a psychosocial defense for the Caped Crusader. Now, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh has returned to protect Bruce Wayne from himself. Here’s everything you need to know about this alternate Batman (and his strikingly colorful costume).

The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh first appeared in 1958’s Batman #113 by writer France Herron and artist Dick Sprang. During this era of DC Comics, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh was an alien named Tiano who had studied the Batman of Earth, deciding to become the Dark Knight of his own planet which was named Zur-En-Arrh. Eventually, the original Batman and Tiano would join forces to save the planet (though the alien Batman wasn’t heard from ever again). However, the modern comics era saw legendary Batman writer Grant Morrison retconning the Zur-En-Arrh concept in 2006, this time making it an aggressive alternate personality developed by Bruce Wayne to protect him from psychic attacks. In this version, “Zur-En-Arrh” was the trigger response, a mishearing from Bruce of his father’s last words in Crime Alley: “The sad thing is they’d probably throw someone like ‘Zorro in Arkham‘”. As defined by Bruce himself, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh manifests as “Batman without Bruce in the equation“. Wearing an orange and yellow suit with a purple cape and cowl, Zur-En-Arrh is far more confident and brutal in his tactics.

Now, current issues of Batman from Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez have seen Zur-En-Arrh’s return. Previously, the Dark Knight had been making Bat-Family quite concerned with his darkness after the death of the Penguin who staged events to make it look as though Batman murdered the classic villain. As such, a dark and lethal AI robot known as Failsafe was inadvertently activated with the directive to terminate Batman (Bruce’s true contingency for himself if he ever went too far). However, Batman only had vague memories of the robot with no idea how to stop it. This resulted in the emergence of the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh in Batman #127, believing himself to be the better Batman (due to the absence of Bruce), confirming he was the one who built Failsafe.

Remarkably, it’s revealed that Zur-En-Arrh removed his own memories of building Failsafe, ensuring that the killer robot would be the perfect contingency to stop any version of a Batman gone rogue. Regardless, the more aggressive Dark Knight is relentless in his attempt to destroy Failsafe all the same, pushing Tim Drake’s Robin to fight to the death if necessary. However, Bruce Wayne manages to get through to Zue-En-Arrh in order to see Tim as his son (rather than an expendable soldier).

With Zur-En-Arrh still being the dominant personality by the end of the issue, it does seem as though this Darker Knight will continue to hold the reins in the issues to come (even with Superman showing up to save the day). Although the return of the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is quite surprising in these recent issues, it’s certainly a welcome addition that allows Bruce Wayne to recognize his value as a balancing force that can counteract Batman’s darker impulses. Without Bruce, there is only Zur-En-Arrh. Batman #127 is on sale now.