WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Universe #2 from Brian Michael Bendis, Nick Derington, Dave Stewart and Josh Reed, on sale now.
Batman: Universe takes mainstream DC readers away from the big events and in-continuity stories, instead focusing on a self-contained adventure in its own little corner of the DC Universe. After two issues, the Dark Knight is stumped, hunting the Riddler to figure out who he's selling a mysterious Fabergé egg to, which takes him back to his detective roots in the process.
However, Riddler's constant escape plans keep throwing the Bat for a loop, and when he encounters some opponents that not even he is mentally prepared for, Bruce Wayne decides to break out his latest tech, which gives the Caped Crusader a Magneto-esque upgrade.
Batman's been dodging fiends like Deathstroke and teaming up with Green Arrow to figure out who's the buyer, something all the more urgent as radiation from the egg is affecting their IQ and endangering everyone who's close to it. This radiation even turned Ollie into a zombie-like killer until Batman cured him. Interestingly, Bruce is skeptical of the Riddler's intentions, as he doesn't even know if the criminal mastermind knows of the egg's potential as a weapon of mass destruction.
The series already revealed it was passed down by Jonah Hex to his descendant, Young Justice's Jinny Hex, and now Batman realizes it could be alien in origin. Even if its not alien, Riddler has still gotten himself into deep water, especially once Vandal Savage is revealed to be the buyer.
Eventually, Riddler lands in Gorilla City with the egg, battered and bruised. Luckily, Batman has a tracker on him and, as he infiltrates the city, knowing the telepathic gorillas he's about to face, Batman breaks out a Magneto-esque helmet that protects him from telepaths.
In his jet, Batman has armor wrapped around his body, similar to how Tony Stark's armors cover him as Iron Man. Bruce dons a new stealth suit bearing a symbol that looks less like the typical Bat-Symbol and more like a Star Wars TIE fighter. It's modern and sleek, which is the same style of the helmet that goes over his cowl. Batman reveals that he created the helmet specifically to keep telepaths from piercing his mind and learning his secrets, although he says that with so many super-intelligent psychic gorillas, it might not hold up.
This is similar to Magneto's helmet, which he built when he and Professor Xavier were working together in the early days of the Marvel Universe. His allowed him to stay free of Xavier's mental probing and would go on to become the most iconic symbol of the character since he was created in the '60s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Batman's fears, however, come true when he's captured by ape sentinels and taken to their ruler, Nnamdi, the gorilla king, who wants his head for some past altercation Bruce blames on Aquaman.
They read his mind but, thankfully, they realize he's genuine and trying to save them all. And so they take him to Riddler, who doesn't even know what's going on or the danger they're all in. The egg's there too, but when Batman tries to examine it, he's teleported to Thanagar where the Hawk army stands ready to attack, affirming he'll need a lot more tech than a telepathy-proof helmet to solve this particular mystery.
Batman: Universe #3 goes on sale Sep. 11.