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The newest Batman just showed how inexperienced he was by losing Batman’s strongest weapon.
The following article contains spoilers for I Am Batman #0 by John Ridley, Travel Foreman, Norm Rapmund and Lokus, on sale now from DC Comics.
Continuing where the digital-first The Next Batman: Second Son left off, I Am Batman chronicles Jace Fox’s first steps into his role as the newest Batman. Jace’s tenure as Batman has already been troublesome, considering that he has already clashed with both Bruce Wayne and Red Hood. But this issue chronicles his first time putting on a Batsuit in the present-day, and it also shows how inexperienced he is as a superhero, causing him to lose his most powerful weapon.
I Am Batman #0 opens with a peek into Jace’s life before becoming a costumed crimefighter. After years of training under Katana in Japan, Jace returned to Gotham. Eager to atone for his past mistakes, Jace started working for his father’s company to undermine his deal with the Magistrate that is turning Gotham into an authoritarian police state while patrolling Gotham’s streets. On Jace’s first night out as a vigilante, he dons a simple black mask to hunt down a group of thugs trying to bomb a demonstration later that same night. Knowing he was about to step into the thick of it, he dons the cybernetic Batsuit used by Jim Gordon during his tenure as Batman to stop the thugs who infiltrated the demonstration. Magistrate bots and Gotham City Police Department riot police attack Jace, damaging the armor badly. Jace manages to escape with his life but had to leave the armor behind, showing just how inexperienced he is at being a superhero.
First debuting in Batman #45, the Batman armor Jace uses and loses during his appearance at the demonstration was the same armor Commissioner Gordon used when he took the mantle of Batman in “Superheavy.” Its official designation was the ‘Superheavy Batsuit,” but Gordon often called it “Rookie” when he was in the field. It was created by GCPD as part of a program to create highly-trained specialized police officers for every city shaped by Batman’s legacy. The “Rookie” Batsuit was incredibly powerful, boasting an array of weapons meant to pacify and apprehend the supervillains who run rampant in Gotham.
Debuting in Batman #313 by Len Wein and Irv Novick, Timothy “Jace” Fox is the son of longtime Batman ally Lucius Fox and brother of Batwing, Luke Fox. Jace has always been a rambunctious troublemaker determined to stand apart from his wealthy family. After he was involved in a hit-and-run, his father sent him to boarding school, which alienated him from his family for years until he returned to Gotham in The Next Batman: Second Son #2 by John Ridley, Mark Morales, Rex Lokus, Travel Foreman, and John Livesay. Once Jace came back to Gotham, he learned of his family’s history with Batman and became determined to help Gotham by becoming the newest Batman.
At this point in I Am Batman, Jace is still very new to being a costumed vigilante and is incredibly inexperienced when it comes to fighting crime, which is made even harder by the Magistrate, which is dead-set on capturing anyone who wears a mask. While Jace may be a trained fighter, he still has not reached the heights of his predecessor. This is best shown when he had to leave the “Rookie” armor behind when he was attacked by the cops and the ensuing aftermath on social media, where he was branded a “thug” and derisively grouped in with the protesters. The issue ends with Jace returning to his Batcave and asking his partner, Vol, for help with designing a new Batsuit. Losing Gordon’s old cybernetic armor might have set him back a bit, but Jace is more committed than ever, even if he still has a lot of things to learn.
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